Helen Williams with World Missionary Press recently attended Every Home For Christ’s One Africa Conference, where she connected with national directors from several countries that WMP works to provide Scripture booklets to.

In northern Nigeria, where there is open persecution, ministry work is pivoting to cities to avoid Muslim resistance in villages. But the Nigerian director said people in these villages remain unreached and without access to the Bible.

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)

“He said, ‘In the cities, they’re able to openly distribute material and minister and have outreach,’” Williams says. “But his heart was for the villages, because they don’t have the Word anyway, and the resistance is so strong that it’s dangerous.”

The ministry in Nigeria is finding new ways to operate, which can involve finding hosts near villages or conducting gospel conversations under a tree.

“There’s a lot of trying to protect the believers, and yet encourage them and continue to do the work,” Williams says.

In the Goma area of the Democratic Republic of Congo, people are losing their homes and fleeing the country, but despite these challenges, the work continues.

The director in the DRC said, “This is a challenge for us, but we know that the Lord wants us to continue the work.”

Williams says, again, the work continues; it is just finding new ways to share the gospel with people.

Williams says the DRC director was very open about how the conflict is affecting them. “He said, ‘This is a challenge for us, but we know that the Lord wants us to continue the work.’”

In other countries, including Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, where it is dangerous to distribute Scripture, the work continues as well.

“These are areas that they’ve not been able to come to us in the open as of late. They’ve been getting their material from Ethiopia, but they came up to us and said, ‘Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you,'” Williams says. 

Despite scary resistance, particularly in Eritrea, Scripture is still making its way into the hands of people and changing lives.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters who are experiencing persecution in Africa. Pray for wisdom and protection as they minister to their persecutors and others who do not yet know Christ.

Header Photo Provided by World Missionary Press

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs, USA (VOM USA) says that the last five years have marked a rise in persecution of Christians.

“It’s certainly true in China. It’s true in the Middle East, it’s true in North Africa. And some of that is a good news story, because part of the reason for that is there’s more Christians in these places. There’s more Christians in the Middle East. So yes, there are more Christians who are facing persecution. The church is growing in China. So yes, there are more Christians who are potentially arrested or beaten or put in prison. There’s a good news side to that story; the church is growing, so there’s more persecution. But there’s a bad news side too, because that means there’s more of our brothers and sisters who are suffering.”

Persecution in Unseen Areas

According to the 2024 World Watch List from Open Doors, more than 380 million Christians face very high persecution for their faith. With fast internet and phone connections, the Church can often share stories within minutes of persecution. However, there are harder-to-reach areas where information is scarce. Nettleton notes that many of these difficult-to-reach places include areas of Africa like Eritrea, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso or places in the Middle East like Afghanistan.

(Photo courtesy of VOM USA)

“There were, I believe, five pastors who in 2024 marked 20 years in prison in Eritrea,” Nettleton states. “Some of those pastors I met. It’s great to talk about the joy of the Lord, and it’s great to talk about how the church is growing, but that’s 20 years that those guys have been in prison, and they’ve been away from their families. I know that the Lord is with them. I trust that He is caring for them and encouraging them, but that’s such a hard thing. So I never want to get depressed, but I also never want to forget that this is very real suffering that our brothers and sisters are encountering and dealing with.”

Yet, despite the intense persecution and years left languishing, many persecuted Christians truly exemplify James 1:2 by counting all their troubles as joy for the spread of the Gospel.

“One of the counterintuitive things about interviewing and talking to persecuted Christians is our picture of them is these sad, depressed, downtrodden people who have just suffered so much they can barely put one foot in front of the other,” Nettleton says. “Then when you sit down with them, they are filled with joy and excitement about what God is doing. Yes, it’s coming at a cost, but boy, look at what God is doing. They are not depressed.”

An Impetus for Sharing Truth

The bigger picture of what is happening fuels these brothers and sisters. Ultimately, the enemy they face is not men, but Satan and the forces of darkness. Pastors in the Middle East have told Nettleton that they don’t hate Muslims who persecute them. They know sin holds people hostage. Those in darkness need to be rescued. And whatever happens to the Christian, God will ultimately win the battle.

For many in the West, persecution is not a personal trial, but there are still ways to be faithful. The number one thing persecuted Christians ask for is prayer.

(Photo courtesy of VOM USA)

Nettleton challenges Christians. “Number one, commit to pray. Number two, educate yourself so that you can pray more effectively. And then number three is whatever God asks you to do. Do it because as you’re praying and as you’re learning, God’s going to put his thumb on something and say, ‘Okay, I want you to x’… We have to choose to be obedient when God asks us to do that.”

VOM USA offers many different ways for the Church to support persecuted Christians. Their app makes specific prayers simple. VOM USA also shares many resources and ways to get involved on their website. Commit to praying for the persecuted Church today.

Header photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs, USA

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs USA says there are between 300 and 350 Christians currently jailed in Eritrea, a small country on the Horn of Africa. 

“None of them – not a single one of them – has had a trial. Not a single one of them has had a lawyer. In fact, not a single one of them has actually even been charged with a crime,” he says.

All three pastors were part of the Eritrean Orthodox Church. 

“And that is very significant,” Nettleton says, “because when the Eritrean government closed the Evangelical churches in 2002, one of the churches that they left open that was still legal was the Orthodox church.”

Flag of Eritrea, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Issues arose when the pastors abandoned their denomination’s standard use of an ancient language that only priests understood. They wanted to preach and teach the Word in the language of the general population. 

“That seems to be what got them sideways with the government,” Nettleton says. 

Nettleton recently interviewed the daughter of one of the pastors. Her name is Hana, and she was six years old when her father was arrested. That same year, she was detained by the police for attending a Sunday School gathering. 

“Not only does she have the understanding of persecution from her father going to prison. She has her own story,” Nettleton says. 

When asked how she manages to love her enemies, Nettleton says she responded: 

“Nobody ever asked me about my enemies until I came to America. In Eritrea, we don’t think of the government as our enemy. We just think that when you follow Jesus, you will have persecution.” 

It’s notable that these believers don’t focus on who is persecuting them, Nettleton says. Instead, they cling to the call of Christ. Hana has journal entries from her father that express his willingness to pay any price for the sake of following Jesus. Hear more of her story here. 

Please pray for the pastors to be released, along with the other believers imprisoned in Eritrea. Pray for their families to be strengthened in the meantime and for the church to grow in the face of persecution. Pray also that members of the Eritrean government would come to Christ.

Featured photo courtesy of pKral via Pixabay

Then, only two years later, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia against a paramilitary group in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. That war ended in 2022, but in December of last year Eritrean troops were still present in Tigray. In the past two weeks, unrest has flared up again in Tigray, displacing nearly 29,000 people.

Even as concerns for the region’s long-term stability rise, an Eritrean Bible translation team is at work own people: the Kunama of Eritrea.

“They (the Kunama) have for decades experienced hardship through civil war in their country,” says Meg Hunt with Wycliffe USA. “Many of them have migrated to neighboring countries — and then actually several of them have come to North America as part of their refugee experience.” 

Population displacement due to Tigray conflict, 12 January 2021 (Photo courtesy of USAID via Wikimedia Commons)

Kunama translation teams live Ethiopia and North America. Together, they feel the effects of the regional tensions. 

“For the team that is translating the Old Testament (in Ethiopia), they are being targeted by the local government, so it’s been hard for them to continue to feel safe in that environment,” Hunt says.

“Although they have resettled into different cities (in Ethiopia), in more rural areas refugees experience fear of being relocated to refugee camps back in Northern Ethiopia where there is still unrest.”

For the North America team, who is working on the New Testament, their pressures are less dangerous but still real.

“It’s actually pretty incredible that it’s entirely volunteer-based in North America. The challenges for them are really that they’re balancing a lot. They’ve got a lot of things of care for their own families, their day jobs. But again, they’re so committed to translating God’s Word,” Hunt says. 

“One of the things that is really unique about the translation is that because they are a diaspora team, working together across multiple time zones and continents, keeping in step with one another is an opportunity and a challenge that they have.”

Meet this dedicated Bible translation team here. Several books of the Bible have already gone through community testing — one of the final steps before they go to print or audio publishing. The books are Ruth, Jonah, Haggai, Matthew and Galatians.

You can be part of this Bible translation project spanning the globe through your prayers and your partnership. Learn more and sign up for prayer updates here.

“Pray for the safety of these Kunama team members, especially those in Ethiopia. Pray for the just energy and stamina to continue this work,” Hunt says. 

Header photo of internally displaced persons in Tigray, April 2021 courtesy of Rastakwere via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Some of these prisoners are housed in shipping containers, vulnerable to harsh temperatures. These detention camps lack adequate food and sanitation, leaving prisoners open to threats like COVID-19, according to a report from Amnesty International.

Why the hostility?

Dr. Brehane Esemelash runs a ministry for Eritrean Christians out of London. He tells The Voice of the Martyrs Canada that Eritrean leaders want to be worshipped, not simply obeyed.

“Because as evangelicals, we see all Christians, the global, worldwide Church. All Christians are our brothers and sisters. That makes the Eritrean leaders insecure. They want to isolate their own people from the outside influence,” Esemelash says.

“They want you to believe what they say over their TVs and radios. In Eritrea, there is only one TV station and one radio station.”

Eritrean authorities went after the local Orthodox church as well, but Dr. Esmelash said their leadership structure made it easier to control. “The hierarchy goes strictly from up, down. So if they control the leadership, they will control the whole communication.”

Eritrean Christians

Eritrean Christians persevere in the face of oppression. Dr. Esmelash spent time in an Eritrean prison, and he knows others who have as well. He even knows people who have been martyred for their faith in Jesus.

If these people had a second chance, they would still make the same decision. Dr. Esmelash says, “Because they wanted to die for the person who died for them. Jesus gave His life for our sake. It’s the same as Christians in the New Testament, like Stephen when he was stoned to death.”

Ask God to protect and strengthen Eritrean Christians.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Silvia De Giovanni/Pixabay.

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:  EmbassyEritrea@embassyeritrea.org

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)

This week, Eritrea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the British Charge d’Affaires a.i. to Asmara, Eritrea’s capital for a dressing down over “unwarranted remarks of [the] British Ambassador to Ethiopia during his recent visit to Mekelle apparently endorsing TPLF’s irredentist claims.”

In 2021, Eritrean soldiers roamed northern Ethiopia during a months-long civil war in the Tigray region. In November 2020, they were accused of massacring hundreds of people near an ancient Christian church in the city of Axum. Amnesty International reports soldiers opening fire in the streets and going from house to house executing people. 

At that time, the Associated Press reported bodies filling the streets and soldiers forbidding people from burying them. Read more here. 

Refugee camp attacks

Eric Foley of the Voice of the Martyrs Korea says Eritrean troops also attacked two refugee camps in the Tigray region, activity which remains ongoing. “[They are] taking advantage of the chaos to go in and reclaim citizens who escaped that terrible regime that’s been called the North Korea of Africa. And now they’ve been returned to prisons in Eritrea.”

Foley says VOM Korea is working with their partners to learn more about these attacks. “On the level of the individual we’re trying to find out who’s escaped to Addis Ababa. How can we help them? And who has been returned to Eritrea? These are difficult things to find. In some cases, it’s going to take us years.”

The Church in the Tigray region

However, God’s kingdom continues to advance in the Tigray region, even during times of horrific violence. Foley says, “We’re receiving reports from our partners about visits to hospitals to deal with really serious injuries on the part of children and the elderly. But at the same time, we’re getting reports about churches performing baptisms. We are even hearing about Christian weddings happening during this time.”

Eritrea (VOM) — In 2004, I had the privilege of meeting persecuted Christians in Eritrea on behalf of The Voice of the Martyrs. In the few days I was there, I fell in love with the country — the cool evening air in Asmara, the beautiful Red Sea beaches in Massawa and the warmhearted, welcoming people.

Two years before my visit, Eritrea’s one-party government, led by President Isais Afwerki, had ordered leaders of nearly all Protestant churches to close their doors. Overnight, public worship services were restricted to Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches only.

Asmara, Eritrea (Photo courtesy of Mulugeta Wolde/Unsplash)

But while the government was able to lock the churches’ doors, it could not change their purpose or stop their work. Pastors and members of non-approved churches quickly transitioned from open, public services in church buildings to house groups and secret meetings.

Then, Eritrean authorities began arresting Christians and sending them to prison. Many were sent to military camps in the desert, while others were locked in metal shipping containers or held in dark underground cells. Biblical disciples were branded as unpatriotic traitors for putting obedience to God ahead of obedience to the government or to Afwerki’s People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).

One pastor I met in Eritrea said the first question Christian prisoners were asked was, “Will you deny Christ?” Another pastor showed me how he was bound in prison, lying on his stomach with his hands and feet tied together behind his back.

In meeting after meeting, I heard inspiring stories of how God had encouraged and empowered Eritreans who were arrested because of their Christian faith. “Persecution is not sweet,” one pastor said, “but it is useful.”

Eritrean prisoners are sometimes held in shipping containers such as this one. (Photo by Victória Kubiaki on Unsplash)

Affirming and expanding on that thought, another pastor said, “Nothing comes to us without the will of God. Through persecution — I don’t know why, but the church grows.”

Just months after my visit to Eritrea, several of the pastors I had met were arrested. This Saturday, July 22, will mark the 7,000th night in prison for two of those pastors, Kiflu Gebremeskel and Haile Nayzgi.

Like every other imprisoned Christian in Eritrea (currently estimated at nearly 400 people), they have been denied legal counsel and a trial. In fact, they’ve never even been formally charged with a crime.

Seven thousand days in prison.

Please take a moment to think about that number. One thousand weeks away from their families. Children that were very young when their fathers were arrested are now college graduates and even parents themselves. How many family milestones have these two Christians missed over the past 7,000 days? As a father and a grandfather, I weep at the thought of all the significant moments they have sacrificed for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.

I want to ask you to do something today on behalf of these men and all Christians imprisoned in Eritrea.

(Photo courtesy of VOM USA)

If you are a Christian, please pray for them. God has sustained persecuted Christians through many trials and long imprisonments; I’ve heard amazing stories of how he has worked in prison cells in China, Iran and Sudan. Please pray that God is writing similar stories — even today — in the lives of Pastor Kiflu and Pastor Haile. Ask God to sustain, protect and provide for their wives, children and grandchildren, and pray that he will graciously reunite these families soon.

Whether you are a Christian or not, I ask all people of goodwill to contact the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, D.C. (or your home country), and respectfully urge the release of Kiflu, Pastor Haile and so many others who are locked in Eritrean prisons simply because of their religious beliefs.

Here is the contact information for the Eritrean Embassy in Washington, D.C.:
Phone: 202-319-1991
Fax: 1-202-319-1304
Email: embassyeritrea@embassyeritrea.org

Thinking about the suffering my Eritrean friends have endured over the past 7,000 days is heartbreaking. Please join me in speaking out on their behalf. As we raise our voices together, let us pray and hope that this will be the day of their release.

May it be so.

Header photo courtesy of Prayercast.

Eritrea quit the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa in 2007 over soured relations with Ethiopia. However, things changed five years ago, when the two nations signed a peace deal.

Eritrea rejoining the bloc now is another move towards peace and stability in East Africa. Yet, there’s concern that this allows Eritrea to brush over severe human rights abuses.

(Photo courtesy of David Mark/Pixabay)

Dr. Berhane Ashmelash, director of Release Eritrea, spoke with Greg Musselman at The Voice of the Martyrs Canada about imprisoned Christians and other religious minorities in Eritrea today.

Ashmelash says the Eritrean government denies imprisoning Christians as religious persecution when asked by international entities. But really, world leaders aren’t often asking.

“The Eritrean president knows how to play the international community and sometimes they forget about the prisoners. There are tens of thousands of Eritrean prisoners. We want more pressure but we don’t get that, so that’s really frustrating and very sad.”

Evangelical Christians are especially targeted by the Eritrean government.

“They found it difficult to control the Evangelicals because we don’t have this central authority,” says Ashmelash. “So even when they thought to shut [down] the Church, they thought, ‘If we arrest the top leaders, the Church will disintegrate.’ But it didn’t because our leaders are not like popes. The top authority for Evangelicals is the Scripture, so the Church continues to grow.”

You can raise awareness for jailed Christians in Eritrea by sharing this story!

And pray. Ask God to comfort Eritrean Christians who are still imprisoned for their faith. Pray for wise and just leaders in Eritrea.

Header photo courtesy of Kyle Glenn/Unsplash.

The war has devasted the Tigray region, killing hundreds of thousands. Millions of people lost their homes, and a blockade has largely cut the region off from communication and aid.

Roughly 5.2 million people need aid in the region. The United Nations says the Ethiopian government has used starvation as a weapon of war.

Eritrea

Notably, Eritrea was not involved in the peace talks. Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says, “Eritrea and soldiers have been invited into Tigray on the side of the Ethiopian government. There have been allegations of atrocities committed by Eritrean soldiers. And yet the peace deal doesn’t address if they are going home.”

The Eritrean government harshly persecutes Christians, arresting and imprisoning them without trial. Some believers have endured decades in underground cells or metal shipping containers.

We reported previously about Eritrean soldiers attacking refugee camps in the Tigray region. Nettleton says, “Eritrean Christians who have fled Eritrea have crossed into Ethiopia and were living in those camps. So that has been a big concern of ours as Eritrea has become involved in this.”

“We want to know the status of Eritreans that have been in those camps.”

Pray the peace deal will hold. Ask God to strengthen Christians in the Tigray region. Nettleton says, “Tigray has been very isolated, very cut off.  The Ethiopian government has cut off the internet, and they’ve cut off electricity. They have not allowed reporters or humanitarian aid groups into the area. I don’t think we even know how desperate the needs are.”

The header photo shows an Ethiopian woman shortly after she helped bury the bodies of many civilians killed in 2021. (Photo courtesy of Yan Boechat/VOA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)