Their Church Was Destroyed. Now They’re Being Hunted.
Dear Friend of the Persecuted Church,
A small church – in a remote area swarming with militant Buddhist extremists – was destroyed. Now the attackers are setting their sights on the Christians.
These Christians are hiding in our shelter as I write.
The believers – who converted from Buddhism – built their little church early this year.
One evening, religious leaders and political party thugs descended on the church. Wielding guns, machetes, and rods sharpened at the ends, they demolished a wall, broke the doors and windows, and sliced the tin roof.
Then the extremists threatened to kill the Christian men if they did not deny Christ.
To keep their faith and save their lives, the Christian men hid in the jungle for six weeks.
Christian Freedom International located them and trekked into the jungle with food and supplies . . . and most importantly, prayers and encouragement.
“No one or other organization came to help us though we asked help from many Christian leaders,” they said. “Without those help, we could die from being starved.”
But this was not the end of their ordeal. What happened next is worse.
As the attackers hunted down the men to kill them, the Christian women and children were brutally beaten, and their homes ransacked. Thank God they were able to escape and find refuge in one of Christian Freedom International’s shelters.
These Christians asked their village leader for help. His response? Return to Buddhism.
Through it all, Christian Freedom International has stood with them. They hid in our shelter. Their wives and children – beaten and bruised by thugs – were fed and gently ministered to by CFI’s co-workers. Their testimonies were meticulously taken – and we included them for you to grasp what it means for them to “live for Christ”.
Read their testimonies in their own words. We redacted parts for their security. Share it with other Christians. Their stories provoke us to be like them as they follow Christ.
One Christian told us: “If I revert [deny Christ], all our sufferings will end, all the problems will be solved, my family and I can live in the village peacefully with our neighbors; yes, it is true. But I won’t revert because there is no eternal life in Buddhism, instead there is recycle of birth. There is idol worshiping in Buddhism.”
A Christian lady said, “We want to go back to our home to live a free and happy life in Christ. But we won’t revert to Buddhism – even if that means we can’t go back to the village or we will be tortured, killed – because we are saved eternally in Jesus Christ.”
These Christians are still under our care. They may be tracked down, beaten, abused, or killed at any time for believing in Jesus; their houses and land stolen. Our co-workers may be identified and targeted.
Pray for them. Pray that they endure victoriously in Christ.
And thank you! Your support is incredibly important for helping persecuted Christians.
The shelter that protects these Christian men, women, and children costs just $485/month for rent and supplies. Your donations help to provide aid, supplies, and equips our co-workers to reach and minister to persecuted Christians.
Your gifts to Christian Freedom International equip us to reach the persecuted Church, to give spiritual comfort, to fortify their faith, and to provide food, medicines, material support, and shelters to sustain their lives.
Thank you for your support!
God bless you!
Wendy Wright
President
P.S. Your gifts equip Christian Freedom International to shelter, deliver food and aid, and care for persecuted Christians like these faithful believers.
Read their testimonies – and stand with them as they stand for Jesus Christ.
In Their Words: Testimonies of Brutalized Christians
Church Leader:
Many were coming to Christ and my house was beyond its capacity for them to sit and worship the Lord Christ. We had been praying to the Lord to provide us a house to worship Him and study the Bible.
In early 2021 we built a Church House. Local leaders and villagers came to the opening ceremony. No one was against building the church.
But after a while, rumors began to spread. Religious leaders refused to visit the village because the church made it “unholy”.
Within months, activists with a religious/political party threatened to demolish our church. One night, activists came to the village at 10 p.m. armed with modern weapons and traditional tools.
They broke the door and tore down a wall of our Church House with the help of some people in our community.
They yelled and scolded us with abusive words while breaking our Church House.
They shouted at us to revert to our old religion.
Being terrorized we ran away into the jungle. We arrived at [village] in the early morning and got shelter in Pastor [**]’s home.
Christians tell of attacks on men, women, and children to force them to deny Jesus
Pastor talked to the village leaders and religious/political party. They told us that we could live in the village and practice our faith and repair the Church building. We returned to the village and started our daily life.
But a week later at 10 p.m., they attacked the Church House again!
They broke the walls, doors, windows, roof – demolishing almost eighty percent of the building. After destroying the Church House, they surrounded my home.
They kept saying, “Christianity is not the religion of our community. Revert if you want to live in this village.” If we did not revert to our old religion immediately, us men would be killed brutally, and our families could not live in the village.
They guarded our houses to keep us from running away.
In the middle of the night, we [men] were able to escape.
Being scared and terrorized we ran deep into the rain forest. While hiding in the jungle for six weeks, most days we didn’t have anything to eat. Our children and wives didn’t have any income to buy food. We all were starving. We were not able to work as we were hiding in the jungle. It is very hard to describe that painful story of our hardships.
Then brother [Christian Freedom International co-worker] called to meet us. He and a group of Christians visited us, and we went back to our village. [CFI co-worker] distributed rice with daily essentials and cash among our families.
No one or other organization came to help us though we asked help from many Christian leaders. We thanked CFI for those much-needed help.
Without those help we could die being starved. We are grateful to Christian Freedom International.
[CFI co-worker] asked us to go into our destroyed Church. When we entered into the demolished Church House our hearts were crying. [CFI co-worker] led a prayer meeting inside the broken Church House.
We prayed and cried to the Lord to protect us, help us to rebuild the Church House. [CFI co-worker] and Pastor [**] wanted to meet the leaders of the village, but none of them responded to their call. Before leaving [CFI co-worker] encouraged us to stand firm in Christ.
The two days after [CFI co-worker] and his group left our village, the village leaders, and religious community started threatening us.
Every day they scolded us to force us to revert. We declined their proposal.
We passed every day in fear.
They gave us again the ultimatum to revert otherwise they would kill us. We ran away to save our lives. We got shelter in CFI’s safe house for persecuted Christians.
But our wives and children were left in the village. The leaders kept threatening to force them to tell where we were. They seized all cellphones of our families. Our children were not able to submit their school assignments for seizing the cellphones.
Our children and wives were not allowed out of the house to stop them from going to the Police Station for help. They were putting pressure on our families to get us to return to the village. But if we would return to the village, they would kill us.
In these circumstances, we couldn’t find any solution. We asked sister [CFI co-worker], ‘What we can do now?” She called someone and it was arranged for the Police and Army to help our families.
In the middle of the night our wives and children ran away to an Army Camp. The commander welcomed them and sheltered them. We went to the Police Station and asked help. The Army and Police called the village leader to allow us to live in the village and to practice our personal faith.
We all returned to the village and the Army stayed two days for our security.
The Army told us that we could rebuild our Church House and asked the village leader to make sure there is peaceful living in the village.
He committed to take every step to make sure the peaceful living of the villagers. On the agreement between Army, Police and the village leaders we went back to our homes.
But the party leaders got angry. Why we went to the Army and Police?
They told us, “Although the village leaders agreed to allow you to live in the village, you have to meet with us. There is dirt on your bodies, which need to be cleaned. You all have to revert, no other way for you to live here.”
Attackers destroyed a new church built by Christian converts
The people in the community said that we would be beaten brutally, forced to revert and charged a fine by the party leaders. The village leader informed us that he could not save us. Then we ran away from the village again to save our lives. We arrived very early in the morning and got shelter in CFI’s safe house.
The party leaders went to each of our houses, broke the doors and brutally beat our family members to find out where we were. They came armed and religious leaders were with them. They beat our wives, children. They verbally abused our young daughters. They threatened our families to revert.
Our families were wounded and screaming for pains. They went to the Army camp again. There they were provided medication for wounds. They came to us in CFI’s safe house on the following day.
I have learnt from the Bible that Jesus Christ died on Cross for my sin. He is the only Savior Lord. If anyone believes in Him, they will get eternal peace and life.
I can’t but believe in Jesus Christ and worship Him. I will never go back or revert to Buddhism. Even if I die for my faith in Jesus Christ, I will die but not return to Buddhism. I encouraged my son to work in His Kingdom. He got trained in theology at Seminary. I asked him to dedicate his life for preaching the Gospel among our community. My son’s life is threatened for sharing Gospel among our community.
Christian Freedom International bringing aid to Christians in hiding
Christian Freedom International:
You are on the run and your wife, daughter were beaten brutally. You were not able to go back to your home. All the belongings of your house were destroyed. Just for becoming a Christian. If you listen to the party leaders and religious community, and revert, you can live in the village happily and peacefully. None of them will disturb you, humiliate you, torture your family, destroy your belongings if you go back to your forefather’s religion. Then why don’t you revert to Buddhism?
Church Leader:
If I revert, all our sufferings will end, all the problems will be solved, my family and I can live in the village peacefully with our neighbors; yes, it is true.
But I won’t revert because there is no eternal life in Buddhism, instead there is recycle of birth. There is idol worshiping in Buddhism, which doesn’t make any sense to me, even there are some unethical, immoral traditions in Buddhism.
Christian Man “A”:
I have taken care of my wife with deep love and I have been raising my children with deep affection since they were born. I love my wife very much. I never beat my wife for a single time in our entire married life. After we ran away from the village, I heard that my wife and daughter were beaten brutally. I got shocked, hurt. My heart started bleeding hearing of the torture of my wife and daughter.
I cannot explain or show people how much I am shocked, hurt to learn about the torture over my wife and children. I got very angry and wanted to become an avenger. I said to myself; “If I get them now who tortured my wife and daughter, I will break their arm, which was used to torture my wife and daughter.”
But after some time I was thinking that Lord Jesus Christ was tortured, died on the Cross for my sin. The Lord Jesus told us that he who would accept Him, would have to carry the Cross, would be perished, tortured by the people.
Then I calm down. I comforted myself by telling, “My wife could tell the people that my husband never beat me but the leaders did for my faith in Jesus. My daughter could tell the people that our father never beat us but the Buddhist leaders did for our faith in Jesus. One day this will witness for the Lord.”
I prayed to the Lord to overcome these struggles, hardships, pains and to get victory of those people in His name. Then we can worship Him freely without fear.
Amen.
Christian Woman “B”:
My husband left the house to save his life when the party and Buddhist leaders threatened us to revert to Buddhism otherwise they would kill him. But I stayed in the home with my three children thinking that Buddhists wouldn’t hurt us as we are women and children.
The Buddhist Fundamental group led by party leaders came to the village at night, they broke the door of our house and entered while we were sleeping. I got up and saw they were beating my older daughter and abusing verbally.
They were armed and masked their faces. One of them shouted at me, “Where is your husband?” I replied, “He is not in the house and I don’t know where he is now.”
He started beating me with a stick and yelling, “Why have you become Christian? Christianity is not our religion; it is the religion of other nation.
Our forefathers were Buddhist. We asked your husband to revert into Buddhism, but he didn’t listen to us. Instead of listening to our command he ran away. Now you and your children face the punishments.”
They were beating faster than they were speaking. I requested them to not beat my children as they too young to tolerate. My daughter was asking for help, but I couldn’t help her. They vandalized everything in the house, my cookeries and other tools that we need in our everyday life were broken, destroyed by them. Even our dresses were torn by them.
They were armed with guns and sticks. They beat us so brutally that we were wounded. While we were crying from pain, they were mocking, laughing at us.
My upper left arm and right hip were injured.
I can’t move normally now and I am in heavy pain from my wounded hip and arm. They were looking for valuable items to loot. They took away our cellphones.
The things that they couldn’t take away they destroyed. They cut off the curtains, bed sheets, pillow, clothes everything that we had. They beat brutally my two young daughters, abused verbally, scolded, touched their bodies.
Christians pray before the second attack.
They did all of these bad things to us for being Christians. Before leaving the house, they told us to leave our house forever with nothing but only the dresses we wore. They said that our houses and land properties would be theirs.
Then we left the village and arrived early morning at the police station and asked help from the police officer. Our children were crying and screaming from pain. The police officer asked help from the army to protect us.
In the army camp we were medicated for our wounds. We were being sheltered in the army camp.
We are afraid of going back to the village. If my husband goes to the village, he will be killed by the leaders.
We want to go back to our home to live a free and happy life in Christ. But we won’t revert to Buddhism – even if that means we can’t go back to the village or we will be tortured, killed – because we are saved eternally in Jesus Christ.
Christian Girl “C”:
I was born in 2006. I am first child and daughter of my parents. On Sep 07, 10pm my mom and siblings were sleeping but I was playing on my cellphone. Suddenly two men broke the door of our house and entered. After them another.
After entering into our room by the breaking the door, they asked to give my cellphone. I told them that I didn’t have any cellphone but my mom and sister have. Then they took away two cellphones. I hid my one because if I would give my one then how I would contact for help. That’s why I falsified them.
They asked, “Where is your father?” I answered, “I don’t know where is my father”. They shouted again, “Tell us where is your father?” I replied, “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me where he was going. How can I tell you where he is?”
Then they started abusing me verbally and beating me with a stick. They also asked my mom and sister where was my father. We all replied together, “We don’t know where he is? If we knew where he is we can tell you.” Then they started beating my mom, sister and me together with hard sticks.
Christians fled violent attackers and hid in the jungle. Christian Freedom International found them and is providing food, shelter, and encouragement.
When we cry out, they beat us faster and very harder along with their abusive mouth. While they were beating us brutally asked us, “Why have you become Christians? Why have you left our forefather’s religion Buddhism? Revert to Buddhism.”
They beat us after each word they sounded. They used very thick stick made of cane. Although they were three inside our room, but they were many around our home. We were hearing them; one was telling other one to act like Army so that we could understand that they were Army not party leaders. They were talking not in our language as if we would guess them as Army.
I was crying but they didn’t stop beating us. We all were crying and scared of them, but they didn’t show any compassion to us. Even they were so verbally abusive while beating us, I can’t sound those ill words for you. I will be ashamed of sounding those words.
Then they threatened us to leave our house because this house would be theirs. If my father would come back to this house he would be killed. Then they left.
They then broke the door of my aunt’s house. She was very sick. She has been suffering from fever, cold and weakness. Her husband was not in the house. They beat my aunt brutally. We were hearing her screaming.
We all went to the jungle and waited for the early morning. We arrived at the police station early in the morning.
Christian Freedom International:
Will you keep believing in Jesus Christ after all these terrible things happened to you?
Christian Girl “C”:
Yes, definitely. Even if my blood bleeds or I die, I will still worship Jesus Christ. I won’t get back to Buddhism.
Christian Girl “D”:
I was born in 2004. I was sleeping. But I got up from the bed as soon as they entered the room by breaking the door. They asked me, “Where is your father? I answered them, “I don’t know where he is.”
My mom got up from the bed then. She was also asked where was my father. We answered, “We don’t know where he is.” Then they started beating us brutally and speaking ill of us. They were using so much abusive words that we were hurting more deeply.
They were asking why we had become Christians. But they didn’t wait for our answer but beating.
They destroyed everything we had in the room.
They broke my reading table. They forced us to leave the house. My mom was injured very badly. We went to the police station in the early morning and asked help. The police sent us to the army camp and we got treatments there.
Christian Woman “E”:
I 30 years old. The party leaders beat me with a thick and strong stick made of cane and iron. They beat brutally above my knee and hip. I was wounded very badly. They vandalized all furniture in the room.
They took away my cellphone and valuable items. They were asking me where was my husband and my son. Both my ID and my husband’s ID were kept together in one place. They took away my husband’s ID but not mine.
