Mali’s capital, Bamako, has been without fuel imports since September. Surrounding cities and communities are suffering too, as insurgents use a favorite strategy. 

“They are avoiding direct confrontation by attacking many cities. By imposing a blockade, it is another way to put high pressure on the government or security forces,” says Illia Djadi with Open Doors International. He serves as the senior analyst for freedom of religion and belief in sub-Saharan Africa.

The central Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are some of the poorest in the world, Djadi explains. Though their governments are willing to fight, they have little capacity to oppose well-equipped insurgents. They are also the only countries where both an al-Qaeda-linked group and an Islamic State-affiliated group are active.

“That’s why this region —central Sahel — has become now the new epicenter of international jihad, or international terrorism,” Djadi says. “The Islamists are putting a lot of pressure on the countries and the population living there. It is a very fragile context. That’s why the pressure on the Christian minority is also high.”

Whether tied to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, these insurgents share the same ideology and goal: to establish a caliphate and impose Sharia law. As they gain control, they are scattering the local church. 

“Their primary target is Christians. When they first attacked Mali in 2012, they attacked and destroyed churches. They killed Christians, and many of them fled northern Mali to elsewhere, to become internally displaced, or refugees in neighboring countries,” says Djadi.

Flag of Mali (Stock photo courtesy of Aboodi Vesakaran via Pexels)

They will tell Christians, “This is the deal: convert to Islam, or be killed.” Many believers who have the choice will escape to another region, often arriving empty-handed and having witnessed terrible violence. Christians who can’t escape either lose their lives or live under heavy restrictions and taxation.

Ask God to strengthen believers in Mali with resilience and faithfulness to the end. Pray for global support for Mali’s leaders, that they may be able to fulfill their responsibility to protect their citizens.

“This is a forgotten crisis, but it’s a major crisis which has displaced millions in the Sahel and elsewhere,” says Djadi.

“Let’s continue to pray, but let’s continue also to provide support, because they are in need of support. At Open Doors, we are working closely with partner churches locally: how to provide the basics for the Christians living there, how to provide trauma care, and how to provide food for them to feel like they are not alone in these difficult circumstances.”

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Alfred Dena via Pexels.

Samuel* with Redemptive Stories says, “People you speak to on an everyday basis are far more opposed to that form of Islam because of what they saw and experienced during the time of ISIS.”

Iraq’s second-largest city fell to Islamic State control on June 10, 2014, as government forces retreated. Then, terrorists gave Mosul’s 1,200 Christian families a choice: renounce Christ and convert to Islam, pay a tax, or die.

“That (warning) doesn’t mean that all Christians could make it out. But many were able to make it into Iraqi Kurdistan,” Samuel says.

Huddled in refugee camps, believers followed devastating reports of their city under ISIS control. In 2017, Iranian-backed militia helped Iraq’s government wrestle Mosul back from ISIS control, but the ensuing battle left the city in pieces.

“International governments, as well as the UN, have done a wonderful job of trying to rebuild Mosul,” Samuel says.

“There is a sense of hope not just in terms of Christianity returning but also in the economic flourishing that’s taking place.”

Mosul remains primarily devoid of its once-thriving Christian community. “However, within the past few years, there has been some movement back, particularly into the villages on the outskirts of Mosul,” Samuel says.

“Christians are returning, mostly due to work and work opportunities.”

So far, only about 50 families have resettled in Mosul. Pray for more Iraqi Christians to return to share the Gospel with Muslim neighbors.

Pray specifically for “More encouragement, more boldness, so that God might do something big because people are asking questions,” Samuel says.

“They’ve seen the failures of Islam through ISIS, and they are beginning to ask more of those existential questions.”

Pray also for the provision of critical services like education. “There aren’t as many schools [available], so be praying that God would raise up opportunities for (local) churches to engage with education ministries so that more Christians may be able to return,” Samuel requests.

*Pseudonym

Header image depicts an ISIS militant with the ISIS flag. (Wikipedia)

The violence has had severe economic repercussions. Tourism is a big part of Burkina Faso’s economy, but fewer people are visiting now. The terrorist groups want to establish caliphates run by their own interpretations of Islamic law.

Schools closed

Alassane is the Administrator of Christian World Outreach (CWO) in Burkina Faso. He says, “We have about two million people displaced to different places. All of them are trying to save their lives. Many are running down to the Capitol. And we have about 4,600 schools that have been closed. Most of the victims are children and women.”

At least 700,000 children can’t go to school right now. That puts them at more risk, Alassane says.  “Even before that, we had a lot of forced marriage situations that were going on. So with the school being closed, girls are being taken by force to be married to other groups of people.”

“They also want to take the boys and force them to be fighters in the different groups.”

CWO operates a training center where young women can learn skills to support themselves. This includes sewing, cosmetology, and culinary arts. Pray for this project, called the Village of Opportunity. Extremist groups in the area have told it to close since they do not want women receiving any education.

They also operate a mobile medical clinic that brings healing and the news of Jesus to people. Recently, 14 people became Christians after receiving medical care.

Pray for peace in Burkina Faso.

(Header photo courtesy of EKokou, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

ISWAP, the Islamic State affiliate responsible for attacks in Nigeria, appears well on its way to building a caliphate. “I think that’s absolutely the agenda,” Greg Kelley of World Mission says.

“They’re essentially eliminating Christianity in northern Nigeria.”

Government negligence is paving the way for a terrorist stronghold. “Last week, 140 people were killed in four villages in the northern part [of the country]. The government did absolutely nothing about it,” Kelley says.

“Homes were burnt to the ground; 140 people were butchered, and the government’s not talking about it. They want to sweep it under the rug.”

According to Joseph V. Micallef, United States military author and historian,  Nigeria presents a prime opportunity:

If a new Islamic State “territorial caliphate” emerges, it is likely to do so in Africa. With Washington now focused on geopolitical, economic, and military competition with China and Russia, and with little American or European appetite for continuing the “whack a mole” global fight against jihadists, the likelihood of a new ISIS-like state in sub-Saharan Africa is a very real possibility.

Hope remains

World Mission partners with local believers to reach northern Nigeria for Christ.

Displacement camps in northern Nigeria present Gospel opportunities.
(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

“They (local believers) speak the language they love Jesus, and most importantly, they have a passion for unreached people groups,” Kelley says.

“We send in solar-powered audio Bibles that have the languages of the people there: Fulani, Hausa, Canary — different unreached people groups that are less than one-percent Christian. That is the exclusive work of World Mission because the Gospel has not been there.”

Displacement camps in northern Nigeria present Gospel opportunities. “What you see is thousands of people who lost everything. They’re traumatized and looking for help; their hearts are open to the Gospel,” Kelley says.

“People are coming to know Jesus amid this chaos and carnage inside Nigeria.”

Find your place in the story with World Mission.

Header image courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA.

Syrian refugees tell Heart for Lebanon’s Tom Atema that militants come to their camps in disguise, offering food, housing, protection, and more.

“They’ve told me, ‘This fellow came into my tent, and said, ‘I’ll give you everything that Heart for Lebanon is giving you, but [I’ll] also give you $500 a month cash’,’” Atema says.

The offer is appealing to refugees who see no future in Lebanon. “If you’re a Syrian refugee, you’re living at or below the extreme poverty line,” Atema says.

“You have no legal documents to know that you exist. On top of that, you’re not allowed to work.”

Some desperate families accept, only to find out “they had moved to an ISIS camp,” Atema says.

“The children would not receive an academic education; they receive a military education, where they learn how to hate and shoot guns.”

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

Heart for Lebanon facilitates change from the bottom up. By introducing biblical, value-based education, they’re raising a generation of godly leaders. Learn more here.

“Lebanon does not need a new system as much as they need a Savior. I’m asking God to give us ten more years,” Atema says.

“We have this golden opportunity, this ‘Esther moment’ to reach these children. In ten years, we can have enough students in places of influence where they can start to change the country for the better,” he continues.

“Reaching the children is extremely important [because] it’s the only hope we have, with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to ‘fix’ Lebanon.”

Give kids a future through Heart for Lebanon.

Most importantly, pray. Use the prompts listed alongside this article to guide your intercession. “We’re praying that God will give us another 500 prayer partners this year,” Atema says.

“We need wisdom. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to go before us.”

Header image depicts Heart for Lebanon’s Hope on Wheels club. Hope on Wheels Clubs are empowerment programs that invest in at-risk children, helping them realize they have value and building their self-esteem. One of those programs is hairdressing, and it inspires young girls to dream for their futures! (Photo, caption courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

Todd Nettleton, host of Voice of the Martyrs Radio, says, “There are also believed to have been some people who were [taken captive] in the attacks. What we don’t know for sure is exactly who perpetrated the attack. There are two groups active in that part of Nigeria. One is Boko Haram, which is one we’re all at least somewhat familiar with. The other is the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP. That one people are less familiar with. And right now, it’s not 100% clear exactly who the attackers were.”

Violence towards Nigerian Christians

Both of these groups hold heavy animosity towards Christians in Nigeria and beyond. Nettleton explains. “Both of these groups want to establish a caliphate – an Islamic area that would be governed by Sharia law. It would be, in their mind, heaven on earth because everyone would be a Muslim. Everyone would follow Islamic law the way they interpret it.”

Christians don’t follow the Muslim law, so these militants see them as getting in the way of a perfect utopia. Nettleton says that’s why they so often resort to violence against Christians specifically.

Pray that these militants will realize their violent actions will not bring about any kind of ideal society. Pray also that God would comfort the families of this attack’s victims. Finally, pray that God would grant peace and hope to Christians across Nigeria.

Header photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA. 

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International via Facebook)

Emily Klooster, executive director for Tent Schools International, says kids left uneducated are especially vulnerable to radicalization. The organizations and people partnered with Tent Schools do not reside in areas with previous ISIS control, but most work with kids whose lives were upended by ISIS’s reign.

“These kids often feel very discouraged, as we could understand, thinking about the conditions they’ve been left in and everything they’ve lost. They feel hopeless. They really have lost everything. Many of them arrive, having lost even their immediate families, in addition to having lost their homes, communities, schools, friends. So, ISIS can indeed, and does use brainwashing techniques to kind of play off of these kids’ sense of trauma, loss, anger,” Klooster says.

Need for Stability and Education

These children, teenagers, and families have fled ISIS activity. Klooster says it is crucial to welcome the forcibly displaced into new communities. Refugees need to be able to put down roots and contribute to a local society again.

“There’s a void there that ISIS often seeks to fill. And yes, our partners do witness kids who’ve experienced this level of trauma, and our partners are coming in with these schools, into these very urgent situations where without these schools and without the mentorship from these teachers, the kids are left with that void,” Klooster explains.

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International via Facebook)

A partner of Tent Schools in Lebanon is filling this void with his shipping container school. Pastor Joseph opened the school in a refugee camp, which was founded eight years ago as a temporary shelter on farmland.

Now, this shipping container school is helping Syrian refugee kids have a chance at life. For these kids, Pastor Joseph offers warmth and kindness. He is reintroducing kids to joy through jokes and his hearty laugh.

“The kids are responding absolutely to him in kind with big smiles and laughter. So, he’s developed these really quality, even light-hearted relationships with them,” Klooster says.

When parents see this, they trust Pastor Joseph and accept his help, especially after they see the positive impact this man is having on their children and teenagers. And through Pastor Joseph’s selfless, Christ-like dedication to them, these kids and their families might heal and find hope.

How to Practically Help

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International via Facebook)

Despite the reopening of border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, Syrian refugees tell Pastor Joseph they are too afraid to return to their county. They are still traumatized by what they witnessed during the civil war. If they did return, they are returning to nothing.

“There’s no work. Their homes were destroyed,” Klooster says.

Being stuck in a foreign land means hundreds of thousands of refugee children are in Lebanon and need an education.

“With enough funds, we could even begin another shipping container school that can impact an increasing number of Syrian children. So, for every shipping container school that is funded through Tent Schools International, he can serve 50 more Syrian children,” Klooster says.

Click here to support education for Syrian refugee kids through Tent Schools International.

Header photo courtesy of Tent Schools International via Facebook.

“ISIS has been defeated inside Syria, and the West seems to think the war in Syria is winding down,” observes Tom Atema, President of Heart for Lebanon.

However, eradicating the Islamic State’s ideology is proving easier said than done. As noted in the aforementioned report, the wives and children of IS fighters still embrace terrorist ideals. According to Atema, those messages exist in Lebanon’s refugee camps, too.

“It’s not openly talked about but it’s openly pursued by radical groups to get more people to join that way of thinking, and many do.”

The IS caliphate: gone but not dead

Last month, U.S. President Trump and Syrian officials declared an end to the Islamic State caliphate, leading many to believe the war in Syria was near conclusion. Atema agrees to an extent. Yes, he says, the Syrian war is “back to [the way it was] before ISIS raised its ugly head.”

However, fighting between dozens of armed factions within Syria is ongoing, and the civil war is nowhere near resolution. Additionally, “you have this problem that we’re talking about now – ideology.

“Ideology cannot be won and fought over unless you work with the young people and start changing their minds.”

(Photo courtesy of Kids Alive International)

Islamic State fighters recognize the importance of shaping young minds. A woman living in Syria’s al-Hol refugee camp underscored this fact during a conversation with NPR:

This is the next generation of the caliphate. If you talk to them, they have the true creed implanted in their minds. The true creed will remain.

“The war – the ideology war – is not over, and it never will be,” Atema continues. “It will always have its followers and its groups. But, once again, I think it’s an opportunity – a gift of opportunity from God – for those of us who are faith followers of Jesus Christ.”

IS terrorists inflict unimagined horrors on society wherever they appear – all in the name of Islam. The radicals’ dedication and commitment repulse most, but captivate some.

“They (Islamic State) believe very strongly that one of the problems in the world is… that the Muslim culture has ‘drifted’ from the core values and they’ve got to get back to the ‘pure’ religion of Islam,” Atema explains, trying to summarize the message which enraptures so many.

“When you have nothing going on in your life – life is void and you have nothing to do but wander around and think – your mind might go in that direction if there’s not an alternative.”

This underscores the importance of Heart for Lebanon’s presence and message.

A new message

Heart for Lebanon’s primary focus is helping under-resourced families and children in Lebanon. When Syria’s civil war began eight years ago and refugees started flooding across the border, the ministry expanded its efforts to reach this new population.

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

Today, Heart for Lebanon actively leads people from despair to hope through family care and education, relational engagement, and reconciliation through spiritual discipleship.

“I don’t want to say they’re easily convinced about Jesus Christ, but they’re more open to a discussion than ever before.”

Learn about Heart for Lebanon’s ministry to Syrian refugees here. More importantly, please surround the organization in prayer. Ask the Lord to provide leaders with wisdom and discernment.

“We have the capacity [and] the staff. We just need the resources and wisdom on how to execute that in a proper manner,” Atema says.

“With our new ministry center [opening] in September, we can take our school from 100 students to 250 students…. Instead of 900 refugee families… we can take that number up to 4,000 families.”

Header image courtesy Prayercast.

ISIS Loses Land, Not Caliphate

True, ISIS controlling less land is a good thing. It means the group will not have control of the land’s resources or the people. However, Open Doors USA’s Dr. David Curry says liberating the land does not mean the fight against ISIS is over.

“They have a virtual caliphate now. They don’t need territory. They don’t need a capital. They have nodes in the network that are still active. They have massive wealth that has expanded their ability to train, to fund, and to attack. Most importantly their philosophy is still alive and well,” Curry explains.

ISIS had thousands of extremists in Iraq. Once ISIS was uprooted there, the extremists drifted back into their previous societies. The ideology which helped build ISIS physically has not been extinguished. Until the philosophy of ISIS is addressed, the war against ISIS cannot be measured purely by land control.

Other signs also indicate that ISIS will remain a long-term problem. The New York Times reports that ISIS attacks in the West have decreased for the first time since 2014, but not the number of attempted attacks. The explanation for this—law enforcement is intersecting more plans for attacks before they are accomplished.

Battling an Ideology

In the Middle East, Curry says if ISIS ideology remains embedded in the local societies, terror attacks against churches in the region can be expected, though. This is one of many reasons why Open Doors is helping Christians stay in the Middle East. The organization has projects, like centers which provide trauma care and support, to help strengthen churches in the communities impacted by terror.

U.S. Marines during training in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Hajin, Syria, August 4, 2018.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Corey Hook) (Photo/caption courtesy of Marines via Flickr)

“Christians…can stay and be salt and light in these communities, but also the community at large because so many times we forget the Muslim world does not understand [the] Christian faith. They don’t know the theology behind it. Many of them haven’t been educated on it. What they know is what they’ve heard from extremists talking points,” Curry shares.

“When Christians can be salt and light in the middle of these communities, helping their neighbors, loving their neighbors in Jesus’ name, it makes a big difference and peoples’ eyes are opened.”

By strengthening local churches, Open Doors is also attempting to help prevent the making of refugees as well as to break down ISIS theology in communities. Curry says the Middle East needs the love of Jesus on a neighbor to neighbor level. The region needs spiritual healing. Christians can help offer these things if their global brothers and sisters help support them.

Be Prayerful, Be Active

Please, would you help? Pray for the protection and health of the Syrian and Iraqi Churches. These churches have lost leaders, they have been ripped apart over the last four years. Pray for their healing too.

Ask God to strengthen these churches as well. Pray God would give the revelation in this region that Jesus is the answer, even in times of hopelessness. Finally, pray for these Christians in the Middle East and for Christ to disrupt ISIS’ extreme ideology.

Find ways to come alongside Middle Eastern Christians here!

(Header photo courtesy Dan via Flickr)

One of Istanbul, Turkey’s Bosphorus Bridges.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday, calling the attacker a “soldier of the caliphate”.

Attacks from Muslim extremists in Turkey have stayed consistent throughout 2016, and this somber starting note to 2017 doesn’t bode well for future stability in the East-meets-West nation.

“Turkey has seen an uptick in attacks just on anything Western,” says Emily Fuentes with Open Doors USA, “whether it’s a nightclub or Christian groups or whatever it might be, because it basically stands for everything ISIS is against.”

While Open Doors monitors Christian persecution in particular, Fuentes says there are notable overlaps between what ISIS sees as Western and what they see as Christian.

“One of the trends we note is that oftentimes ISIS or other extremist groups lump Christianity in with anything Western. They hate anything Western, and Christianity is viewed as that. So Christians are often specifically targeted in a lot of Middle Eastern countries because of their Western affiliation.”

(Map courtesy of International Needs)

Fuentes notes, “We are monitoring Turkey as a country for Christian persecution and are noting that Christians are continuing to see an increase in persecution and specific targeting for their faith.”

Because of this trend of building attacks and persecution in Turkey, Christians have to be especially alert “because they almost have a double target on their back, you know, seen as Western and then as anti-Muslim. They stand out if they’re not wearing Muslim dress or going to Mosque when others are. There are churches, there are Christian parts of town in Turkey, in Istanbul and some of the other cities. So Christians have to be mindful that it’s almost twice as likely that they could be attacked versus a Western Muslim or something like that.”

At the start of 2017, this attack in Turkey is a reminder to all of us that we need to “pray without ceasing,” as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 calls us to.

“I think it’s important to pray for all citizens, and especially for Christians as they’re facing twice the persecution, just for wisdom and protection [from] these extremist groups, that they wouldn’t live in fear but would have God’s wisdom guide them.”

After you’ve prayed — for Turkey as a whole, for the families who’ve lost loved ones this week, and for Christians suffering persecution around the world — you can take action. Open Doors is coming out with their 2017 World Watch List on Wednesday, January 11th, and with it comes some great action points.

“We’re going to be launching our World Watch List which ranks the top 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution,” says Fuentes. “We’ll have new information on countries like Turkey so people can reach out to their congressmen, to their senators, even the president. We’ll have a petition available when we launch this World Watch List as well with opportunities to speak to our leaders about protecting Christians and then others who are being targeted by ISIS.”

Mark your calendars for January 11th, and then click here to check out the 2016 World Watch List!