International Christian Concern | August 2014

Your Bridge to the Persecuted Church

THE SOFT WAR AGAINST AFRICA’S CHRISTIANS

A Deafening Silence Boko abducts 240 girls (90% Christian). How did the Press miss this?

“We’re Going To Kill You If You Don’t Deny Your Faith”

Bits On BokoWhat they won’t tell you about Boko Haram

A Christian I Will RemainThe perseverance of Meriam Ibrahim

PERSECUTION

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INTERNATIONAL CHRIS TIAN CONCERN

In this issue:

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5 7 15

3 The Soft War An undeclared war on Africa’s Christians

5 A Deafening Silence 240 predominantly Christian school girls abducted in April remain in captivity

7 We’re Going to Kill You A young Nigerian girl testifies how she watched Boko Haram murder her father & brother

9 Bits on Boko (Haram) What “they” won’t tell you about Boko.

13 A Christian I Will Remain Cameron Thomas, regional manager, reveals the heroism of Meriam Ibraham

17 Your Dollars @ Work See how your donations are transforming the lives of suffering women and communities

Jeff King, President International Christian Concern

A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT

“War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.”

Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929)

There is a devastating war going on in Africa and the Middle East. This war looks like a series of catastrophes but unlike the quote above, it does not look like it’s going to end in victory unless the Lord or Western governments intervene.

Since the war is fought by several seemingly disconnected militias (armies) with strange names, most see only trees and not a mighty forest.

The armies are all heavily armed, well funded, vicious militias (armys) that have the same ideology (fundamen-talist Islam), methods (extreme violence), end goal (es-tablish Islamic States based on Sharia law) and funding source (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, as well as crimi-nal activities in their own geographic sphere).

They receive funding via the actual governments in the Gulf region but also receive huge revenue from the Zakat (tithes) of regular Muslims that flow through Islamic charities which are then funneled to these violent groups via money brokers and bank transfers.

The West is slowly waking up to the problem but is war weary (rightfully so) and apathetic.

There is no real answer presently other than the Lord! That’s always a good position to be in, isn’t it?

Regardless of whether the West intervenes, our concern is for helping the victims and spreading the gospel into these tough areas. Into His suffering Church.

This suffering Church is His body and He feels the pain of the attacks and calls for us to use our treasure, time, and talents, to bring Him relief.

So please join with us as we bandage and build His persecuted Church.

As always, your donations will be used efficiently, ef-fectively, and ethically.

I Promise!

Jeff King

President, International Christian Concern / Persecution.org

3 You can help today! www.persecution.org

What countries do you think of as the worst persecutors of Chris-tians? North Korea? Pakistan? Egypt? Iraq?

Christians Across Africa Under AttackIt’s hard to imagine, but in just the past year, several places in Africa have become the deadliest killing grounds for Christians. Nigeria is now considered to be the “deadliest place to be called a Christian” on the planet. In 2014 alone, more than 1,500 people, the vast majority being Christians, have been killed by the Is-lamic terrorist group Boko Haram.

Church bombings, military assaults on predominately Christian villages, and mass kidnappings are now part of a daily struggle for survival for Christians living in Nigeria’s north.

In East Africa, Islamic militants from Somalia’s deadly al Shabab are committing murder and mayhem. On June 15, Al Shabab Islamist militants massacred more than 48 in-nocent civilians in Mpeketoni, a Christian stronghold in Kenya’s Muslim dominated Swahili Coast.

Eyewitnesses reported that the Islamists were executing victims based on religion. “They came to our house at around 8 p.m. and asked us in Swahili whether we were Muslims,” one victim told the media. “My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head and chest.”

In Central Africa Republic (CAR), an Islamic rebel force called Seleka, led a successful coup against the Christian majority gov-ernment of CAR. That coup and following chaos has ignited

near genocidal violence. On May 28, a Roman Catholic Church called Notre Dame de Fatima, was attacked by Seleka militants killing many of the Christians in attendance during the attack.

“We were in the church when we heard the shooting outside,” a survivor told the media. “There were screams and after 30 min-utes of gunfire there were bodies everywhere.”

CommonalityAfrica is being ripped apart by an explosion of violence. If you pull back and analyze the conflicts to discern any major patterns or lessons, you will find three.

Line of DemarcationThe first lesson is that there is a geographic boundary to the violence. If one were to chart where Boko Haram, Seleka and al-Shabaab are perpetrating these acts of anti-Chris-tian violence, one would draw a line across Africa dividing Africa’s Christian and animist south and its Muslim north.

They are attacking, terrorizing, and persecuting Christian com-munities who are in the way of establishing Islamic States and the onflict line is moving south. Boko Haram’s Flag

THE SOFT WARAN UNDECLARED WAR ON CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA

There is a clear boundary to the violence as armed Islamists head south

Islam Is the SourceThe next lesson is that violence is perpetrated by Islamic ex-tremist groups, all of whom are motivated by the similar goal of eradicating Christians and establishing Islamic States.

Boko, Seleka, and al-Shabaab, are different faces of the same entity; radical Islam looking to take over nations, funded by the Saudis and Gulf States. In Northern Nigeria, Somalia and CAR, Christians are unwelcome in the planned Islamic States and they are being eradicated.

For example, Boko Haram demanded in 2012 that Christians living in northern Nigeria leave the North so they could es-tablish a “purely Islamic society” where they will implement Sharia law. Since then, Boko Haram militants have led military scale raids on Christian villages, killing thousands and displac-ing hundreds of thousands.

The Hidden HandThe third lesson is that there is an entity behind these attacks. Whenever you see terrorist groups operating on any kind of

scale, you should “follow the money” to discover the source. Wars and soft wars are incredibly expensive and usually funded by state actors to enlarge territories, create buffer zones, or to destabilize enemy states.

In this case, these conflicts are about enlarging territory, the territory of Islam! They are largely funded by the Saudi’s and Gulf States as well as massive funding from Islamic charities and in Boko’s case, money and arms flow from Islamist allies within the Nigerian government.

Boko Haram, Seleka, and al-Shabaab, are merely different divisions of an Islamic terror apparatus that exists to bring territory under the control of Islam. The Islamic word for this is Jihad and it has been ebbing and flowing for many centuries. Although relatively dormant for centuries, the oil revenue flowing to the Gulf has revived Islam’s Jihad on a massive scale and Africa’s Christians are paying the price.

You can help today! 800-ICC-5441 4

The Human Cost of the Soft War. . . .the Lives of Christians

5 You can help today! www.persecution.org

“A Deafening Silence”

It was late at night when they came. The girls were tucked away in their dormitories, studying hard for final exami-nations they’d been kept from taking when earlier that month, President Jonathan had forcibly closed schools in

their district for “security concerns.” Boko Haram (BH) was notorious for its vitriolic hatred against Western oriented ed-ucation. They’d attacked several school buildings, murdered educators and, earlier this year, set a boys’ dormitory on fire—with 59 young men inside. No one made it out alive.

On April 14th, they came to the girls’ secondary school as they always do: well-armed and prepared to commit atroci-ties against “the infidels.” They raided the girls’ school, shooting security staff dead, pillaging the library, and burn-ing compound buildings to the ground, all while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” or, “Praise Allah.”

When the gunfire ceased, men in military camos swept the halls of the terrified girls’ dormitories, instructing the girls to leave their studies and to gather in the courtyard. Believing they had been saved by the Nigerian military, they left text-books open on desks, lamps lit and study guides half-com-pleted. For months now, that’s how the dormitories have re-mained: vacant, abandoned in a moment’s notice, devoid of the conversation, debate, and even laughter that once filled their now silent halls. That lingering silence in the school,

churches, and thousands of abandoned and attacked homes, speaks most deafeningly to the persecution of the nation’s Christians.

For years, BH has utilized violence, abduction, and murder to push Nigeria’s Christians and others out of the increas-ingly radicalized Islamic north.

This recent attack shows that BH is widening its tactics of terror. Shifting from its historical norm of violence against Christian men, Boko Haram has now adopted a policy of inclusiveness: anyone standing in the way of the establish-ment of a separate Islamic State ruled by Sharia law, is now a justifiable target.

As the girls flooded the courtyard, they were instructed by the armed men to line-up and make themselves presentable. One-by-one girls were asked to board the military-grade trucks parked at the courtyard’s entrance. With more than 270 hand-selected girls loaded into the backs of their trucks, the men left the compound, ferrying the girls off to a living nightmare.

For weeks the wails of mothers weeping for their lost daugh-ters drifted through the streets of Chibok, vacated by the vil-lage’s men and boys now scouring the Sambisa forest for

240 PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GIRLS ABDUCTED IN APRIL REMAIN IN CAPTIVITY

You can help today! 800-ICC-5441 6

“the Nigerian girls,” as they’ve come to be known.

Almost overnight, an international outcry flooded the halls of government and twitter feeds alike. The now infamous hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls, even made its way from so-cial media to the White House, scrawled in permanent mark-er on a slip of paper held up to the cameras by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Human rights groups and faith-based organizations world-wide demanded action from the world’s governments and in-ternational bodies within days of the abduction. And within weeks, many of the world’s most significant leaders, includ-ing those representing the G7, publicly condemned the attacks and pledged their nations’ support in find-ing and return-ing those ab-ducted.

But barred from the con-versation, ex-plicitly left out of the speeches and kept from the fact sheets provided Con-gress is the fact that this abduc-tion, while a gross human rights viola-tion, was an act of Christian persecution. A list detailing the identities and religious preference of some of those abducted that was leaked to the media by a local pastor in May revealed that 90% of the more than 180 then-identified schoolgirls are professed Christians.

Shortly after the leak, Boko haram released a video of some of those abducted dressed in hijabs (traditional dress for Islamic women) reciting Qur’anic passages as Boko Ha-ram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, declared, “and now they have been converted.” Not only have these girls been stolen from their families, robbed of an education and subjected to months of harsh treatment at the hands of their militants cap-

tors, they have been forced to take the name of Allah.

Boko Haram is not simply waging a war against “Western education,” as so many continue to state, nor is it waging a “war on women.” Boko Haram is waging a war against the Nigerian church, claiming members of the body of Christ for Islam, torturing the families of the Church’s daughters and selling the next generation of Christians into forced mar-riages and a lifetime of rape.

In abducting these girls, calling for a global war against Christians, and forcefully converting the defenseless to Islam, Boko Haram intends to make clear that Christians who refuse to bow will be next.

At the time of this article, more than 240 predominantly

Christian schoolgirls remained captive. ICC continues

to advocate for their safe return, pressure the U.S. and

international bodies to take greater action, and pray for

those abducted, their families, and their communities.

You can learn everything you need to know about the

case of the Nigerian girls by visiting ICC online at www.

persecution.org.

“A Deafening Silence”

240 PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GIRLS ABDUCTED IN APRIL REMAIN IN CAPTIVITY

Above: Nigerian papers covering the story

7 You can help today! www.persecution.org

“We’re Going To Kill You If You Don’t Deny Your Faith”A Young Nigerian Girl Testifies How She Watched Boko Haram Murder Her Father & Brother

On May 13, 2014, a shy, teenaged girl sat, flanked by human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe and Hudson Institute Director, Nina Shea, facing a packed conference room.

After clearing her throat, she began to tell a story that would make its way to Capitol Hill and the heart of an intensifying debate: what to do about the brutal Boko Haram (BH) militants ravaging Nigeria’s North in their effort to establish a separate Islamic state. The following is a narration of the heartbreaking story of Deborah Peter.

It was as normal a day can be had in Borno State, a poverty-ridden Islamist stronghold of Nigeriia, largely unknown to the outside world.

Debbie Peters, 12 years old, and her brother were home from school, waiting for their father, a local pastor, to join them for the evening. He was working late at the construction site.

Shots began to ring in the distance; a common occurrence in Nigeria’s battle-torn Northeast. For years, Islamic extremists have waged war against the Nigerian Army and growing vigilante militias to establish a separate Islamic state ruled by Sharia law.

Debbie’s brother jumped on the phone to warn their father, “They’re fighting, again.” It was a warning he chose not to heed. He’d worked a hard day and just wanted to cool off at home, with his kids.

Debbie was relieved when he strolled through the door, like he did every night: hot, tired, and ready to jump in the shower. The night was normal again, the shots had ceased, the air was still, and the soft sound of water splashing onto the dry ground drifted from across the room.

A rap on the door disturbed the peace. Debbie’s brother, wary of his sister’s safety, opened the door to three men dressed in camouflage and adorned in lethality. It was clear: BH had finally come knocking on the Peters’ door. “Where’s your dad?” They demanded from Debbie’s brother.

“He’s in the bathroom taking a shower, ” he replied, hoping his father’s nakedness would deter the men, that they would come back later, or, better yet, move on. But the men waited. The next three minutes passed slowly as Debbie and her brother waited tensely for their father to emerge from the bathroom to appease the armed militants standing in his doorway.

Irritated by the wait, the men stormed the bathroom, cut off the running water, and dragged Pastor Peters to the living room, standing him exposed before his children.

“You should deny your faith,” they advised him.

Debbie protested without thought or hesitation, “You can’t deny your faith!”

“We’re going to kill you if you don’t deny your faith,” the men responded coldly.

All eyes were on Debbie’s dad as his words slowly, methodically penetrated the breathless room,

“I would rather die than go to hellfire. God say’s ‘Anyone who denies me, I will deny in Heaven.’”

Without hesitation, the men raised their guns, placing one, two, three shots in his chest. His body crumpled, his blood pooling across the floor.

“Why did you kill him?” her brother screamed.

“Be quiet or we will kill you too!” retorted the underling of the three men, before turning to his comrades to say, “We should kill him too.”

The lieutenant protested, “He’s too young.” BH held a policy that stipulated the young, the elderly, the disabled, and women could not justifiably be killed in the pursuit of their cause.

But the sergeant sided with his servant, “He has a point, if we don’t kill him, he will grow up to become a pastor like his father.”

And with that, the men raised their guns once more, this time aiming at her brother. Two deafening blasts signaled the end of Debbie’s brother as his body fell, in slow motion, until it lay next to their father’s body.

Terrified and her world shattered, they dragged Debbie by her hair to lay her between what remained of her family. Then, just as the men had come, they left: silently, methodically, fearlessly. Protected by a culture of impunity and a state of lawlessness, they walked untouched from a house where in their wake two men lay dead and a young girl lay emotionally lifeless.

Debbie Peters’ story is not unlike many others’ from Nigeria’s northeastern states. The victims of BH’s increasingly deadly campaign of terror, Christians, moderate Muslims, government officials, military, law enforcement, educators and their students, have been systematically targeted by the Islamic insurgency for years.

Since its inception in 1999, BH, which translates roughly to “Western education is a sin,” largely became the sinister terrorist organization it is today, following the extra-judicial execution of its founder, Mohammed Yousif.

Under its new leader, Abubakar Shekau, a fundamentalist Islamic scholar, Boko Haram maintained Yousif’s policy of nonviolence toward the young, the elderly, the disabled, and women. . .until now.

Debbie Peters’ story is relevant not only for its tragic account of Boko Haram’s seemingly limitless capability for violence, but for its signaling a tactical shift in Boko Haram’s methods.

In abducting more than 240 girls from Chibok and Warabe

villages for the purpose of forcefully converting them to Islam before selling them as child brides into sexual and domestic

servitudes, BH has effectively said, “anyone and everyone is a justifiable target of our jihad.”

As Debbie’s story so clearly illustrates, action is needed to combat Boko Haram.

It has been desperately needed for years but at long last, their murders and crimes against humanity have penetrated the global consciousness.

Interest in righting so many past wrongs is peaking. International outcry is mounting as governments the world over match their concerned citizens’ #BringBackOurGirls tweets with formal condemnations and damning resolutions.

Coalitions are forming to pool resources to provide the Nigerian state with intelligence and training for their largely

incapacitated security and military personnel.

Unfortunately, BH is aided, abetted, and guarded by Islamists on the inside of Nigeria’s government and military. They operate with impunity, no matter how eggregious their actions.

What the future holds for Nigeria and if it can even hold together as a state are questions that remain to be answered.

You can help today! 800-ICC-5441 8

Boko Haram’s main area of influence

All eyes were on Debbie’s dad as his words slowly, methodically penetrated the breathless room,

“I would rather die than go to hellfire. God says ‘Anyone who denies me, I will deny in Heaven.’”

THE LAST WORDS OF DEBORAH PETERS’,

PASTOR FATHER

9 You can help today! www.persecution.org

Boko Haram, a radical Islamic insurgency bent on establishing a separate Islamic State in Nigeria’s increasingly lawless north, has perpetrated a campaign of terror so bloody the group is now being called the second most deadly terrorist network in history.

In recent years, Boko Haram has widened its definition of what it considers justifiable targets in waging war against those that stand as an impediment to its goal: an Islamic caliphate ruled by Sharia law.

With more advanced training, greater weapons caches and military-grade vehicles at its dispense, Boko Haram has been able to step-up its game.

This year alone, the group’s trend toward increased leathality anddestruction has resulted in more than 2,000 deaths.In 2014, Nigeria was designated the most violent country in the world toward Christians, even more so than Syria, Iraq, and Pakistan.

The vast majority of Boko Haram violence eminates out

from its stronghold in Nigeria’s northeast State of Borno.

www.channel4.com/news/boko-haram-nigeria-schoolgirls-kidnapping-killed-graphic

ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project): Conflict Events and Reported Fatalities 2013-2014

Bits on BokoDeadliest Terror Group in the World?“Boko Haram is the deadliest terror group in the world.” Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, Former Chief of Counter Terrorism Bureau, State Department”

You can help today! 800-ICC-5441 10

70%Christian’s #1 Enemy

70% of the world’s annual “crop” of Christian martyrs are killed by Boko

90%Christian Focused

Did you know that 90% of the 240

abducted “Chibok girls” were Christian?

13,000They’re Lethal & The Press Suppresses Their Focus On Christians

The tally of Boko’s victims has probably crossed the 13,000 mark and the majority are Christian. The press regularly suppresses Boko’s focus on Christians. As an example, look at this ridiculous headline (above left). This was after Boko killed 500 Christian villagers in one night by machete. The military had surrounded the village, cut it off from other Christian villages, and then let Boko in. The sources that the BBC and Times rely on in the North are largely Muslim and skew the news.

Recent Attacks on Christians Here is a chart showing 2014 attacks on Christians from Boko Haram from “religionofpeace.com.

The Press regularly down-plays Boko’s focus on annihalting Christians from the North.

Sadly, so many Christian targets in the North have been eliminated that they are broadening their target list.

Funding & Logisitics

Boko is funded by the Saudi’s and the Gulf States (individuals and Govts.) as well as by criminal activity.

They have received training and men-toring from other Islamist groups and reportedly Al Qaeda gave them $3MM in seed money around the time of 9/11.

This amazing graphic comes from World Policy.org from their winter 2012 issue.

9/11 Commission/Stanford /US Navy Center for Contemporary Conflict

Bits on Boko

NETWORK

Inside Job? How does an irregular army operate within a country with relative impunity for over a decade? How has Boko ransacked so many army depots with such ease?

Ask any Nigerian and they will tell you. It’s the fox guarding the henhouse. Boko is aided and abetted from sources within the government and military. Look at these recent headlineswhere ten Nigerian generals were recently convicted and court-martialed for arming Boko.

You are probably familiar with the Nigerian emails scams that reportedly come to you from a wealthy foreign widow who has $20 million of her husband’s money locked away in some country and she needs your help to get it out and for helping her, she will share it with you.

Some counter-terror sources are saying that some of this is coming from and funding Boko!

I Have $20 Million. . . May I Share it with You?

13 You can help today! www.persecution.org

A Christian I Will Remain!

Every day, as regional managers, we get to work with people who desperately need help but are willing to give up their lives rather then give up Jesus. And an amazing testament to that willingness to pay the ultimate price for the gospel is Meriam Ibrahim. A mother of two, and wife to an American citizen, Meriam chose Christ, thinking it would cost her ev-erything.

To me, she is the face of persecution for Africa’s Christians. She is not a victim of Boko Haram but rather a victim of Sudan’s radical Islamist government. Their fanaticism led them to imprison a pregnant mother and her two-year-old son. They then forced her to give birth in prison shackled to a gurney. She could have been set free at any time by turning away from Jesus, but at her sentencing, when asked if she would turn to Islam, she told the judge, “I am a Christian, and a Christian I will remain.”

Based on actual events in her case, I’ve chosen to narrate Meriam’s story to capture the boldness of her faith amidst the plight of Christians in Sudan.

She lay shackled to the floor, birthing her second child, lost in pain in a windowless Sudanese prison cell. Overcome with labor pain, she stretched out her arm, searching for the absent hand of her vacant husband who was barred from wit-nessing the birth of their child who was destined to grow-up an orphan because she had been forced to choose between Christ, and her children. Four months ago, the dream life she had enjoyed descended into nightmare. She was a doctor, blessed with a husband, toddler son, and pregnant with a baby daughter, when Sudan’s Public Order Police knocked on their family’s door.

In a whirlwind of shock and confusion, Meriam and her then-18-month old son, Martin, were arrested, herded into a vehicle and sped toward the horizon. Through caged win-dows, they peered back as their home, their father/husband, and their lives faded into the clouds of kicked-up dust, swirl-ing lazily, as if tired by the heat of the Sudanese sun.

Following the arrest, it was hard to console Martin, her two- year-old son. For weeks, he had been forced to play with other children likewise sickened by the diseased prison air as his mother watched on in shackles. It was even harder to hide her tears from him, bottling them up until after dark, when she could finally set them free to slide across the shad-ows cast on her face by the window’s moonlit bars. Those bars that not only kept her in, but the eyes of the world out.

The heat of the day in the crowded group cell flooded Meriam with memories of growing up in the deserts of west Sudan. As a child, she spent hours carving lines in the bleached sand with her hands, feet and soul, lost in the creativity of her

Cameron Thomas, Regional Manager

Meriam, Daniel, and older son Martin

youth, waiting for her father’s stern voice to draw her back to the burdens of reality. But then, his voice ceased to ring across the expanse, and when she was six, like her husband had not so many days ago, her father had faded into the dis-tance.

On the fourth of March, he was back. The guards had come to escort Meriam and Martin back behind the caged win-dows to watch Khartoum pass by in a washed-out blur. It’d been nearly a month since she’d been in broad daylight, and brightness pained her eyes as she squinted to make out the sights and sounds of what was a very long time ago called, “the Paris of Africa.” The fresh air felt good to breathe deep into her lungs as she sat in wait of her judge and prosecution. One and the same, really, she would come to find.

In her first appearance before a court following her arrest, Meriam was presented with charges of adultery and apos-tasy. In a dazed silence, Meriam listened on as her accusers weaved for the court a tale of the childhood she had explored so many times in the long days of her detention. Addressing “his Excellency,” the prosecution told of Meriam’s righ-teous upbringing as the faithful daughter of a Muslim father wholeheartedly devoted to Allah until her criminal conver-sion to Christianity and adulterous marriage to Daniel Wani, by which she had conceived two children.

Her legal defense team pleaded her innocence at her hearing but Meriam’s attention drifted through the window’s sun-lit bars onto the fields of her farm where she, Daniel and Martin danced freely in a dream world to the rhythm of a gavel pounding. When the gavel stopped, she opened her eyes to a different world. Without a single testimony in her defense, the trial had ended and it was time to return to the prison’s darkness.

The process became routine. The bright pain of the ride to the courthouse, the twisted account of her childhood deliv-ered by lawyers she had never met and the stillness of the gavel after injustice had been served. The outcomes of these daytrips, piled one on top of the other, placed such a weight on Meriam she began to find it hard to breathe, to think, to hope. But it was Him alone that could make this burden light, Him alone who could make this yoke easy.

And so, on the day of her sentencing, she watched and lis-tened to a cleric begging for her to return to the religion of her birth, to once again practice Islam, she called on the Lord for strength. And, lifting the burden, He filled her lungs with the breath of Heaven so that she could speak for every Christian oppressed for their faith in Sudan.

Shifting her eyes to meet those of her judger, Meriam took up her cross and claimed the name of Christ, saying, “I am a

Christian, and a Christian I will remain.”The courtroom shook with fury, incensed that a then-preg-nant mother would deny the religion of her father, forsake the counsel of the clerics and embrace the fate of the noose for the God of the Bible. Meriam sat, a beads of sweat and tears mixed on her cheeks just like the emotions that produced them. It was hard to process the implications of her words in the moment. The joy of affirming her faith in Christ, and the horror of knowing she may pay the ultimate price for it, overwhelmed her. It was all she could do to sit still against the commotion of the flustered courtroom, and to stare at the table weighed down with the proof of her innocence.

The pain of the labor subsided with the sight of her newborn daughter, Maya. With her baby in her arms, her heart broke as she remembered that only 12 days ago, in a courtroom, she had chosen to die rather than deny Christ. The thought of this precious girl being raised motherless weighed on her, confusing the overwhelming love she felt staring down at her beautiful daughter. Christ must overcome she thought .

For months she’d been receiving reports from her husband and lawyers that the world was calling for her release. It was hard to believe that beyond the walls of her every day was a world watching, waiting anxiously for her to walk through those gates, from darkness into the light, from chains to free-dom. But in Christ, all things are possible and that in all things, He works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

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Meriam with baby Maya, born in prison

15 You can help today! www.persecution.org

ICC’s early reporting on Meriam and getting Amnesty Intl. and two Congressmen to put out statements on the case caused the case to “blow up” and go international. This level of international condemnation ultimately created enough pressure on Sudan to want to release her. Here’s a list of all our work on Meriam’s behalf.

02/17/2014 Meriam arrested 03/04/2014 Meriam charged with adultery and apostasy 04/20/2014 ICC receives first report of Meriam’s case 04/28/2014 ICC First Reports on Meriam’s Arrest, Detention and Charges

05/05/2014 ICC Issues Call To Action: Requests phone calls to Sudanese Embassies around the world

05/05/2014 1st ICC Press Release: ICC Calls on Sudanese Gov. to “Release Christian Mother on Death Row”

05/08/2014 ICC Alerts Amnesty International to Meriam’s Case 05/11/2014 Meriam is convicted of adultery and apostasy and given 3 days to turn to Islam to avoid a death sentence 05/11/2014 2nd ICC Press Release: Pregnant Mother Convicted of Apostasy by Sudanese Court as U.S. Celebrates Mother’s Day

05/13/2014 Amnesty International verifies ICC’s facts on Meriam’s case. Amnesty issues urgent call to action to followers

05/13/2014 ICC confirms case with and requests Rep. Trent Franks & Rep. Frank Wolf issue PR’s 05/13/2014 Congressman Franks issues first PR by member of Congress. PR is picked up and retweeted to 1.43 million followers by New York Times 5/14/2014 Congressman Frank Wolf issues PR on Meriam’s case 5/15/2014 Islamic cleric pressures Meriam at sentencing hearing to renounce Christianity & accept Islam. She responds “I am a Christian, and I will remain a Christian.” Judge calls her stubborn and sentences her to death by hanging. 05/15/2014 ICC Issues Article: Hanging a Mother for Her Faith: Why the Government of Sudan Plans to Execute A Christian Mother For Her Faith, and What You Can Do to Help Save Her

05/15/2014 ICC Issues 3rd Press Release: Representatives Franks & Wolf Speak Out Regarding Conviction

05/15/2014 State Department issues statement: “deeply disturbed” by court ruling against Meriam 05/15/2014 White House NSC issues statement “strongly condemning” sentence on Meriam 5/16/2014 ICC briefs Senator

Roy Blunt’s office on Meriam’s Case. Sen. Blunt & Sen. Ayotte send first letter to Sec. Kerry regarding Meriam 05/20/2014 ICC Issues Case Resource Page: Everything You Need to Know Regarding Meriam Yahia Ibrahim’s Case

05/21/2014 Senator Blunt & Senator Ayotte issue first PR in Senate on Meriam’s Case 05/22/2014 ICC Issues Petition:Petition Calling for the Immediate and Unconditional Release of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim

5/27/2014 Meriam gives birth to baby daughter Maya while shackled. Martin, Meriam’s 20-month-old son and baby Maya remain imprisoned with Meriam. Meriam & family are moved to a new room with a bed and air conditioning after public pressure. 05/27/2014 ICC Issues 4th Press Release: Christian Mother On Death Row for Her Faith Forced to Give Birth in Sudanese Prison

05/29/2014 ICC contacts 320 congressional staff to encourage co-sponsorship of H. Res 601 condemning Meriam Ibrahim’s death sentence. Resolution receives 61 co-sponsors 05/30/2014 Rep. Trent Franks issues follow up PR, publicly questions Secretary of Homeland Security, at hearing on what DHS is doing to assist Meriam and her family

06/12/2014 ICC coordinates and hosts major demonstration in front of White House on behalf of Meriam. ICC solicits attendance/co-sponsorship from major NGO’s,

ICC’S MERIAM TIMELINE:

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Above: ICC’s Facebook post on Meriam’s release viewed by 730,000+ viewers.

Senators, Members of Congress, major media outlets. Senator Ted Cruz and Rep. Trent Franks attend. Media coverage includes Fox News, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, CBN, Christian Post, Charisma, Religion News Service, World Magazine 06/12/2014 Sec. of State John Kerry issues personal statement condemning “Sudanese conviction and continued imprisonment of Meriam Ishag” 06/13/2014 ICC hosts follow-up demonstration at Sudanese Embassy in Washington D.C. Police escort ICC into embassy to deliver ICC petition, Sudanese ambassador instructs staff not to accept petition

06/19/2014 Member Letter

with 38 signers promoted by ICC is sent to Sec. Kerry urging him to prioritize Meriam’s case06/23/2014 Sudanese court overturns Meriam’s conviction. She is released with Martin & Maya 06/24/2014 Daniel, Meriam, Martin, and Maya are arrested at the airport in Khartoum by the NISS (National Intelligence & Security Services), also dubbed the “Agents of Fear” by Amnesty International

6/28/14 Meriam and family released again from police custody, take refuge in U.S. Embassy. At time of writing, Meriam and family are safe in U.S. Embassy, but blocked by Sudanese government from leaving the country.

Below: ICC coordinated and hosted a protest on behalf of Meriam at the White House. Sen. Cruz and Rep Franks speaking.

17 You can help today! www.persecution.org

“I’ve been searching for the truth for three years…I’ve found a Bible and read it every day…in my heart I feel that it is true…but I want to be sure it is the right way.”

This is the message our broadcast partner just received from Nadia, a girl in North Africa. She had never met a Christian, but found our pro-gram and now is in regular communication with a Christian who answers her questions and is disci-pling her.

Broadcasts reach into areas where missionaries can’t reach. Searchers can quietly and safely ex-plore Jesus and then be discipled by real believers.

Saving Families In Egypt Suffering Wives

In May, ICC’s Advocacy Department formed a strategic coalition with Christian Soli-darity Worldwide, Jubilee Campaign, and

Advocates International in support of an important amendment on Burma.

The amendment will put considerable pressure on the Burmese military, historically one of the world’s worst persecutors of Christians, to respect human rights and religious freedom.

With help from our coalition, the amendment passed a few days later.

I Searched 3 Years for the Truth Broadcast

Gospel messages go out via radio and internet and then searchers call in to discuss questions and issues with live believers!

Your Dollars@ Work!!

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Advocacy for Sri Lankan Christians Advocacy

Violence against Christians in Sri Lanka has skyrocketed as you read in our recent newsletter.

Because of that, in May, ICC flew in a persecution ex-pert from Sri Lanka to testify to US legislators regard-ing their plight.

ICC’s advocacy efforts focused on putting an end to waves of attacks on Christian churches in Sri Lanka. After 25 meetings, ten members of Congress agreed to start pushing the Sri Lanka government to protect places of worship, and one key Senator said he would begin addressing it weekly with Sri Lanka.

Praise God!!

Saving Famiiles In Egypt Suffering Wives

A brutal murder of a 26- year-old Christian barber outside the city of Delga, Egypt left Mariam, a young mom, on her own to care

for her young son.

ICC learned of the situation and working together with local church leaders provided Mariam with the funding and resources she needs to open a shoe store in her city.

Your

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