An Open Doors worker from the Middle East updated The Brother Andrew lecture audience at Morling College late last year on persecution in her region.

Born, raised and living in Lebanon, the Open Doors worker strongly believes in the importance of helping Christians stay in the Middle East. During her years of service, she has interviewed brothers and sisters from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and Iran. In 2023, she was deployed to Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake to help tell the story of the suffering church in Aleppo, which played a crucial role in assisting affected Syrian Christians.

Recently, on June 22, there has been a huge church explosion in the capital of Syria. It was sent to [Mar] Elias’ [Orthodox] church, June 22. And then what people don’t know, because it wasn’t in the news, is that there were actually two churches next to each other. One had a funeral that had more than 300 people, and the other one was having a regular church service. And actually, there were two suicide bombers who went in. With God’s providence, only one managed to detonate himself inside the church. The second one got scared, and he ran away. Thank God for that. And even though one is already too much, but there were 25 people who lost their lives in that church bombing. 

And that was the reason why the number was only 25 is because, two brothers, Peter and Jerius, threw themselves on the bomber as he went into the church. And then they managed to push him to the back of the church, where he blew himself up. I’ve spoken to Elias, their brother, who lost his two brothers. He also lost his sister, and then his eldest daughter also lost her eye.

And even though he was surrounded by misery, Elias never lost faith. If anything, what happened deep in his faith? And he’s injured himself, so he has screws all over his leg. And when I met him, instead of me encouraging him, he actually encouraged me. And he said persecution was always there over centuries. He spoke to me eloquently about the Ottoman Empire. He’s such an educated person. He works for the government as a notary. And he said, “It will always be there, but I’m not afraid. We’ve come face to face with death and I’m ready to die for Christ any minute.”

And they know they are minorities in Syria, and they know that they will never be majorities, but that’s fine, he said, “Because we are the salt of the world and you don’t need a lot of salt to make a meal tasty. You just need a little.” That was extremely encouraging to hear.

And here, there have been times I don’t have answers to questions that believers and brothers and sisters would share with me. But what I can do is I can pray with those in Yemen, one of the top three countries in the world watch list ranking, which is the index for persecution in the world, such a difficult context that we serve in mostly remotely and online, thank God for technology. 

I met Salah actually in Lebanon, my country. So we had flown him in to listen to his testimony, and Salah had a recurring dream growing up. He always dreamt of playing music, singing, and distributing candies. And then it wasn’t until really he came to faith through a heaven book in his father’s library that he came to believe in Jesus Christ.

Imagine he was living with his father for years. He never knew that his father was actually Christian himself. That’s how scared they are, even within one family. And then Salah went on to have his own ministry, which made him subject to a lot of persecution. He’s been arrested. He’s been at checkpoints. He’s been arrested, in prison, tortured, and released.

They captured his brother, tortured his brother, maybe just to twist his arm. Then he was even offered a job again, another form of pressure, but he never gave up. 

Until now, Salah, not only he’s pursuing his ministry, but he would stand at the door of mosques on Fridays to distribute Bibles. So actually, that’s how he explained his dream of distributing candies, right? But instead, he would distribute the word of God. He’s still on the wanted list. He’s not able to go back home because he’s on the wanted list. 

Another believer I met fairly recently, again in Lebanon, is M—-. M—- is Yemeni. Both of them actually come very good family in Yemen, a wealthy family, educated, tribal society. And as a Muslim, he always had this void in his heart to look for answers. And he never found those in the Quran, in the life of the prophet.

Actually, he found discrepancies in how the prophet lived his life and what the Qur’an said. And thanks to our online programmes, again, thank God for technology, we were able to reach M—- and he came to faith and he believed. And this [meant a] change in behaviour, because once you become a Christian, you become kind and you are invited to be a kind person. People notice the change in his behaviour. So this is actually when persecution starts. Imagine in those countries, being good is not well seen. You have to be a bad Muslim. 

They prefer that over being a good person. So he was kicked out of his family. He slept on the streets for nights and nights. And M—- actually first came out of his isolation when he met another believer in a baptism. And it was fascinating for him that there are other Christians who went through the same thing like him. So when he met him face to face, he started his own ministry. And then persecution intensified for him till today.

Shortly before I came to Australia, I had a video call with him with another colleague of mine who knows him. And we were sitting on that video call talking to him face to face on Signal. It’s a secret app that we use. And then he was expecting a knock on the door to be arrested because as we speak, there’s a wave of arrests and raids on underground church in Yemen. 

And he was fine. He said, “I’m ready. I’m ready to be arrested. I’m ready to suffer for the church for Jesus Christ.” And I was like, “Aren’t you afraid?” I asked him, he said, “No.” They have courage. It’s not always the case to have this courage. Fear is real for many persecuted believers. Women are among those who are persecuted as well. 

We all remember a couple of years ago after the famous movement of Mahsa Amini when she took offher veil in the streets of Iran, that actually intensified persecution on women, Iranian women. And I had the privilege of meeting two wonderful Iranian women in a neighbouring country, not in Iran. I cannot go there. Mina is a mother of two. One of them has disability. So even before coming to faith as a Muslim, she was abused by her husband and I was very violent with her. And he even blamed her for having a disabled child as if it was her mistake to have a disabled child. And then as a depressed woman, she was looking also for answers and she managed to find her way to a church through a friend and she came to faith. And again, once you have this peace in your heart as a Christian, you have different behaviours and her husband knew and he started hitting her even more harshly. 

Persecution is smart, I always say, but we try to outsmart them. So what Mina did, actually, she tricked her husband and she told him that, “I’m going to take my boy and go to Karbala.” Karbala is a city in Iraq where most Muslims go on a pilgrimage, but instead she actually fled Iran and went to neighbouring country where we have a ministry as local partners of open doors. And thank God she’s now in a safe house and she’s going to church able to practise her faith.

Another wonderful woman I met earlier this year, we’re going to call her Sumeya. 

Also, she has two boys and she is living now in a neighbouring country. Sumeya, when she came to faith, she was severely persecuted and hit by her husband. He would take his belt and hit her like as much as he would fancy. But guess what? She never felt the pain. She told me I could see Jesus standing next to me, shielding me from all the belts of her husband. So she knew that Jesus is taking on all these hits for her, but she was afraid for her boys as well. So that’s why she fled. And now she has an online ministry to serve other women inside Iran. But she’s still afraid because her husband and his brothers and his family are still looking for her till now. They even have people outside Iran looking for her. So when whenever we tell their story, we try not to reveal their names, reveal their identity.

So we try as much as possible to protect our brothers and believers in the ministry. I urge you to keep praying for them, pray for Saleh, for Majid, for Elias and his family, as they are still mourning the loss of their family members and pray for the women in Iran. Thank you. 

Image: The attack on Mar Elias Church. Image Credit: Ali Haj Suleiman / UNOCHA

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