Greetings!
This update will take five to seven minutes to read. I pray you to read it all, even the PS at the end.
It's been some time since I wrote to you about a hostage situation, and that's not because there has not been any, but because the churches throughout the Middle East were able and wanted to solve their own problems without coming to us for more help. Their numbers have grown, and the Believers with employment are eager to give their lives and income. They have met need after need, sharing their "supply" to meet their own suffering pastors and workers' needs and feed their own orphans and widows. Frankly, what they now give is often equal to what we are providing for them. The day will come when they may no longer need our help -- but it has not come yet.
Background:
About a month ago, we had a team of men captured in a particular, Central Asian country while they were in route delivering more than 500 Bibles to the widespread house churches. The Bibles were confiscated, and the team members were all captured. However, by their quick thinking, they arranged that half would claim responsibility so that the others could be released. By the time we learned of the situation, their churches and Family (Believers) had already paid the legal fees of the half deemed to be not responsible and secured their release at a price of over $12,000.
We began our normal negotiation process at that time, hoping to get the fees and fines reduced for the rest of the team before they would be "put in the system" and transported up the chain and into the national database where no negotiations would be possible. (Keep in mind that smuggling Bibles is a capital crime in this country. Once processed into their legal system and judged, these men will be hanged from a crane or street light as an example to others. In addition, they will be condemned as traitors to their country and the religion of Islam. Their families also, even those who may be unbelievers, will endure prison and confiscation of their property.)
For several weeks we have, for the first time in twenty years, been unsuccessful at highly reducing the fees. Finally, we have been able to halt their torture, and the captors have agreed that they will release the Bibles as well, once the infraction fees of our men are paid. That is a miracle as the Bibles alone have a value of over $3,000.
They have given their all, and we must maintain our policy that (despite others), we do not leave any man behind, and we take care of the widows and orphans of the fallen. We have NEVER left a man abandoned to the enemies of the Cross, and we never will. We need your help to be sure that we don't this time either.
I am asking you to help us save their lives and secure their freedom. The cost to redeem not one man but all is $15,600.
Now for some great news and another need:
We have no national church planters in Israel, but that doesn't mean we don't have a ministry to the Hebrew people. Throughout the Middle East, there are pockets of Jews that remained when their brethren returned to Israel (Mordecai and Esther are two well-known examples). The captives in Iraq were deported there by Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BC. They were from the nation of Judah, which comprised the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. However, about a century earlier, the ten northern tribes had been captured by Sennacherib. You will recall that he failed in his attempt to conquer Hezekiah's Jerusalem. Before contending with them, he had conquered the northern tribes of Israel, including forty-six walled cities (of Israel and Canaanite heritage), and boasted of taking 200,150 captives back to Assyria. He dispersed them into the far reaches of his kingdom, which is current day Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. His dispersal was perpetuated by not sending the entire "tribal" population to one place but dividing, mixing, and dispersing them in small numbers throughout his region. This was done to eradicate their cultural heritages and languages. In a few decades, he reasoned, they would be assimilated into the Assyrian culture. So complete was his conquest that after this event, the northern ten tribes of Israel became, and are to this day, referred to as "the ten lost tribes of Israel." Thus, many Jews remain in these countries to this day, who retained their culture and religion. We have been able to evangelize and plant churches among them carefully. (His conquests are discussed in II Kings, Isaiah, and Micah, among other places.)
Most of these peoples, by mixed marriage, have over the centuries lost their "Judaism" and often do not know that they are partially - genetically Hebrew. For example, the Kurds, who fought with us against ISIS, are of Hebrew/Assyrian descent. Also, the Samaritans were a mixture of Hebrew, Canaanite, and Assyrian ancestry, which is one reason why the Jewish leadership of Christ's day forbade communication with them. Still, we are reaching those of Jewish ancestry throughout the Levant and Central Asia. In most cases, these people are aware of their heritage and still practice their Jewish rituals as much as they are allowed. In addition, many of our national preachers and house churches are Jewish converts to the Messiah, Jesus.
That is the good news. No wonder God is blessing us and you for your support of this ministry. Our Jewish pastors are going out in search of the lost sheep, and you/we are helping them increase the size of our Master's flock.
Now, would you like some even better news?
In our/their efforts to reach the lost, whether Jewish or Muslim, they launched an effort to plant more house churches in their own land and successfully produced several that we were unaware of. (They did this with the help of our support and the Bibles you helped us provide for them. – And they are asking for more!)
But it gets even better.
Have you been frustrated over our leaders leaving friends and citizens behind in Afghanistan? Then read on.
Several months ago, I became burdened that we were not yet reaching Afghanistan (before it was constantly in the news). After all, if almost every empire in history tried and failed to conquer them, maybe the Army of Christ, empowered by His Spirit, could do so. So we passed that burden along to them, and they responded saying they had already penetrated the country with the Gospel and planted several house churches. Incredible! But there is a problem …
Among the new churches, four families have been outspoken about their new faith. All our people witness but do so very carefully. However, like the maniac of Gadara, these four families have boldly proclaimed Him openly. We fear desperately for their lives, and the churches have asked us to get them out of the country before they are killed, and their sons and daughters given to Islamic soldiers as slaves and child brides.
These are our brothers in Christ. We cannot allow this to happen. We cannot abandon them. What message would that send to the new Believers who risk their lives to follow Christ?
I cannot tell you how we will do this, but I can assure you that we can make it happen, and they can be taken to another land, where thousands of their tribal people live, both with and without Jewish heritage. They will be free, legal, and able to help the house churches in their new homeland and still be in proximity to help promote the Gospel in their current land. Not only can we do this, but we can do it very cheaply, compared to what others are currently paying (up to $100,00 per person). There are about thirty members in these four families. To save and relocate all of them, we don't need $3,000,000. We only need a total of $25,100. Can you help them?
To recap:
I am asking your prayers and assistance for:
$15,600 - to save the lives of our captured men and regain our Bibles. ($12,000 was already given by our church members there. This is the balance of that need.)
$25,100 - to relocate and save the lives of these four outspoken Christian families.
$40,700 - is the total need we are praying for.
Thank you so much for being so patient in reading all this. May God bless and lead you as you pray and determine if this is something you should help with.
Jon Nelms
PS The letter above was written yesterday. After I finished writing, I received the news of the two men who were being killed as I wrote. They were not among those four families I spoke about above but were fellow Believers. I decided to hold this letter for today so that we could publish their immediate situation. As of late last night, I received word that we are currently in the process of relocating all the families in the house churches. However, the need to remove these four specific families is greater than ever, considering what has just happened.
While I ask above for $40,700, I have no idea what other needs may be required in relocating all the families. So, I leave it to the Holy Spirit to guide you on what you should (or should not) do. You have watched the news and know what is going on there.
When the army of Syria was chased away by the wrath of God, four lepers realized the enemy camp was empty and realized they had left their provisions behind (much like our exit from Afghanistan). They wondered what they should do, and finally, one said to the others, "why sit we here until we die?" They took their fill of the spoil then proclaimed to the city that the enemy was gone. Thus, they saved the people of Jerusalem from starvation.
Today we have brethren who are scared, grieving, and hopeless. So, why sit we here until they die? Instead, let's share the bounty God has given us, to save the lives of our brethren.
