Eritrea (MNN) — Sometimes it just takes a letter, fax, or email to make a difference! Thirteen Eritrean Christians have been released from prison just six days after The Voice of the Martyrs USA (VOM) launched a letter-writing campaign.
The VOM campaign was to raise awareness for two Eritrean pastors wrongfully imprisoned for 7,000 days. Sadly, the two pastors have not been released yet.
However, Todd Nettleton at VOM says they are still celebrating the 13 other believers who are now free.
“This is seven women and six men – all of them imprisoned for at least 10 years. So these were not sort of short-term people that got arrested a week ago; these were long-term Christian prisoners, all of whom were released six days after that campaign happened.”
Eritrean prisoners are sometimes held in shipping containers such as this one. (Photo by Victória Kubiaki/Unsplash)
Over 15,000 people responded to VOM’s campaign committing to pray, and many sent emails and faxes to the Eritrean embassy.
“We do know at one point, apparently, it was enough that emails were bouncing back. So either the Eritrean embassy turned off their email server or their box was full, but we had reports from listeners that, ‘Hey, I tried to email and it just kept bouncing back.’ So we know there was traffic, we know there were people who raised the voice on behalf of these Eritrean Christians, and praise the Lord, we saw a result of that actually very quickly.”
Furthermore, Nettleton says, “I spoke with our field leader for Eritrea and he said, ‘You know, the Eritrean government, the Eritrean embassy, they’re never going to say these 13 were released because of these emails [and] faxes that came in.’
“He said, ‘The fact that the two things happened so close together, it’s hard not to think that it did have an impact.’”
There’s no need to stop now. Another 300-plus Christians are still imprisoned in Eritrea for their faith. Below is the contact information for the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, DC, USA:
Embassy of Eritrea
Address: 1708 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009
Tel: 202-319-1991
Fax: 202-319-1304
Email: [email protected]
You can also look up the Eritrean Embassy in your own country if you live outside the US.
Header photo of Eritrean flag. (Photo courtesy of Jorono/Pixabay)
