In a March 26 letter, the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches urged U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to vote on providing aid to Ukraine without delay.

Citing the 1,000-year history of Christianity in Ukraine, pastors representing the Evangelical Council zeroed in on the bourgeoning of evangelical Christianity since gaining independence from Russia in 1991 to build their case.

“Thousands of new churches were planted, dozens of seminaries and Bible schools were established, and thousands of missionaries went to numerous countries. Almost every city and town has Christian Summer Camps where the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed,” the letter read.

But despite efforts to “break away from the godless, misogynistic Soviet past with its totalitarianism and tyranny of communism. The evil spirits of darkness push the Kremlin leaders to forcefully claim Ukraine again, capture us into their empire, destroying Ukrainian spiritual treasures,” it continued.

Writers of the letter mentioned church buildings being taken away, ministers being arrested and tortured, the Russian bombings of an East Ukraine church, Feb. 28—which killed the pastor—and an apartment building, March 2—which killed 12, including five children and an evangelical pastor’s daughter and infant grandson.

“We have lots of stories like that … Someone gets killed daily … Children get hurt every single day … And the enemy keeps turning our beautiful cities and towns into ruins,” the letter said.

‘The Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act’

The letter implored Speaker Johnson to come to the aid of evangelical churches in Ukraine because “as Evangelicals, we are being accused of working for the interests of the American Government. Every Evangelical Christian becomes a target for the russian [sic] FSB [counterintelligence agency which succeeded the KGB] on the occupied territories, using the russian [sic] Orthodox Church as their asset.”

Appealing to Johnson’s shared evangelical faith—Southern Baptist—the letter closed by asking for “prayers and action on behalf of 8,000 Evangelical churches in Ukraine.

“Approval of military help depends on you today; otherwise, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ will die. Yes, the Lord is our hope, but we expect you to act … vote without delay and approve a military and economic help package.”

The letter was signed by Anatoliy Kozachok, acting chairman of the Ukraine Council of Evangelical and Protestant Churches and senior bishop of Ukranian Pentecostal Church and 15 additional denominational leaders and pastors, including Valerli Antoniuk, president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

A group of Southern Baptist leaders also sent a letter to Johnson April 8, shortly after the appeal from the Ukraine Council of Evangelical Protestant Churches, urging support for Ukraine.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Some Baptist leaders have written to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson—a fellow Southern Baptist—urging him to support Ukraine in Russia’s war against its Eastern European neighbor.

“As you consider efforts to support Ukraine, we humbly ask that you consider the plight of Christians,” wrote the leaders, who either have ties to the SBC’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary or to Ukrainian Baptists.

“The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war.”

The letter, sent Monday (April 8), was signed by Daniel Darling, director of the seminary’s Land Center for Cultural Engagement; Richard Land, the namesake of the center and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Yaroslav Pyzh, president of Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary; and Valerii Antoniu, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine.

Johnson is a former trustee of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, serving when Land—a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom—was its president.

In February, the Senate passed a $95 billion package for funding Ukraine, Israel and other allies, with $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine. But Johnson, whose tenure as House speaker may rely on his handling of the bill, has yet to schedule a House vote on the funding measure.

Conservatives in the House who oppose funding for Ukraine on “America First” grounds, led by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have threatened to trigger a vote to remove Johnson from office.

“Speaker Johnson has a really difficult job right now, maybe the most difficult a speaker has ever had,” Darling said in an interview with Religion News Service. “I think he does in his heart want to support Ukraine.”

But Darling noted Johnson, whose office did not immediately respond to the letter, is trying to balance the differing views of House members.

‘For such a time as this’

The Baptist leaders told the speaker in their letter: “We believe that God has put you in this position ‘for such a time as this.’”

Darling said he hopes the letter will serve as an encouragement to Johnson while also ensuring that he and others are aware of religious liberties being violated in areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014.

“Evangelicals and Baptists are being mistreated in the Russian-occupied territories significantly,” he said. “We’ve lost probably 300 churches. Pastors are really struggling over there, wherever Russians have taken over.”

Hannah Daniel, the ERLC’s director of public policy, said Southern Baptists long have opposed authoritarian regimes’ prohibitions of religious freedom.

“The resolve of our lawmakers to stand with Ukraine has wavered, despite the brutal persecution of Christians, particularly Baptists, the kidnapping of children, and the destruction of churches because of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” she said.

“Congress must look past any hesitation or obstinance and overcome division to swiftly pass such a package.”

Globally, religious freedom experts are concerned about the war’s effects on Ukraine’s faith communities.

“The Russian military has indiscriminately bombed churches, monasteries, kingdom halls, mosques, synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious sites,” said Nury Turkel, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a quasi-governmental watchdog group, at a hearing in March.

“And the Russian soldiers have abducted and tortured religious figures because of their leadership role.”

Darling said he and the other signatories realize “the details have to be worked out” but they chose to write to Johnson because of their desire to see continuing congressional and U.S. support of Ukraine, even as Baptist entities have spent millions in donations to support refugees now living outside the war-torn country.

“He has said he’s committed to doing it so I think he will,” Darling added. “But we wanted to encourage him as well and not just be another person just throwing stones at him but to say, ‘Hey, we’re supporting you. We care about you.’”

Elected officials who differ on most issues broadly agree about the importance of global freedom of religion and belief, two former ambassadors-at-large for international religious freedom asserted.

Sam Brownback and Rabbi David Saperstein discussed bipartisan strategies to advance international religious freedom during an April 8 livestreamed forum originating from Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.

“I believe the religious freedom movement is the most important human rights movement right now on the planet,” said Brownback, who appeared in person at the event sponsored by Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law Sudreau Global Justice Institute and the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.

“The human rights project has been in decline for 15 years. We’ve been losing ground for 15 years. But here is a movement that’s getting more and more of the religious community engaged. … We talk about a common human right—my right to believe as my soul dictates. We believe in religious freedom for everybody everywhere all the time.”

Hindu nationalism in India, conflict between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, genocide in Myanmar and China’s use of technology to oppress religious dissent illustrate the need for freedom-loving people to “push back against oppressive systems,” he said.

Saperstein, who joined the forum via Zoom, similarly underscored the urgency of protecting freedom of conscience and religious freedom.

He noted significant differences in the United States over competing claims of religious liberty and civil rights domestically—including differences he and Brownback have over religious exemptions regarding LGBTQ rights and abortion.

However, he pointed to remarkable consensus and “strange bedfellow bipartisan coalitions” that have emerged to address international religious freedom—largely because the examples of religious oppression globally are so egregious.

“We are talking about people who are victimized by genocide, who have seen themselves torn from their own lands and ethnically cleansed—who are arrested, convicted, sentenced to death, tortured or serving long prison terms simply because they worship God in a way different from how the controlling powers in any given country see it,” said Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

“The egregiousness of the manifestations of religious persecution, oppression and discrimination that exist across the globe prick the conscience of every person who cares about human rights—who cares about human dignity—whatever their political persuasion.

“So, I think the nature of that repression and the character of that persecution is the single greatest driving force to mobilize people from different partisan backgrounds, different ideological backgrounds and different religious backgrounds to stand together.”

Looking particularly at genocide—the most egregious example of a human rights violation— Brownback noted its religious nature. Historically and currently, religious minorities most often are the targets of genocide, he asserted.

“If you want to protect against genocides, and if you want to say that ‘never again’ means anything, you’ve got to protect religious minorities,” he said.

Shared commitment, different strategies

Tactically, bipartisan cooperation on international religious freedom is possible because it intentionally excludes domestic issues that would “turn it into a punch fest” and divide politicians along partisan lines, Brownback observed.

“It you want to build a tall organization and a broad alliance, you’ve got to keep a narrow focus,” he said.

Saperstein emphasized he views freedom of conscience—of which religious freedom is a key component—as foundational, but he also sees it as inextricably tied to other human rights.

“I don’t think that you can fight for religious freedom narrowly if you exclude fighting for other human rights as well,” he said. “If you don’t have freedom of speech, you can’t have freedom of the pulpit.

“If you don’t have freedom of the press, you can’t have the right to print your holy books, to print your textbooks, to run your radio stations and your television stations and your newspapers and your magazines.

“If you don’t have the fundamental right of association, you do not have the ability to get together in community for celebrations and to worship the way that you want.”

Saperstein agreed other concerns should be tested by whether they advance or divert attention from the cause of enhancing freedom of religion, but he rejected the idea of an exclusive focus.

“For me, it is a broader agenda of religious freedom within human rights that is the secret to success in these efforts. It will help broaden the coalition that is fighting for religious freedom,” he said.

Brownback said he supports a broad human rights agenda, but a decade and a half of trying to advance the broad agenda resulted in “losing ground.”

So, he suggested a more concentrated effort focusing on religious freedom as the “cornerstone” around which other human rights protections can be built.

“If you get this one set right, you can build the others,” he said.

Furthermore, he noted, 80 percent of the global population claims some religious faith, creating the potential for a shared commitment to protecting religious freedom.

Saperstein agreed freedom of conscience—practiced by most as freedom of religion—provides the “bedrock” for other human rights, even though it often has been neglected.

Historically, he noted, passage of the International Religious Freedom Act grew out of a recognition most government human rights initiatives, courts, international organizations and academics gave “short shrift” to religious freedom.

When questioned why religious freedom merited special attention, Saperstein said, “From my liberal standpoint, I said, ‘It’s an affirmative action program.’”

Looking at international trends toward authoritarianism and autocracy, Saperstein again affirmed the importance of affirming religious freedom within a broad context.

“I don’t believe you win the battle for religious freedom without winning the battle against autocracy and for democracy and for human rights across the globe,” he said.

Unanswered questions continue to surround the violent death of a Baptist minister in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state.

Masked gunmen shot and killed Nammye Hkun Jaw Li, who was at one time a leader in the Kachin Baptist Convention and was active in the Pat Jasan community-based anti-drug campaign.

Since the military regime seized control three years ago, Myanmar has become “the world’s largest opium producer” and “a hub for transnational organized crime,” the United Nations Security Council heard in an April 4 briefing.

Varied accounts of minister’s death

Most sources—but not all—agree the shooting occurred March 18 in a village of Mogaung township, and Nammye Hkun Jaw Li, age 47, died of gunshot wounds. He is survived by his wife and three children.

In the most widely circulated account of the killing, Radio Free Asia reported three gunmen stormed the minister’s computer shop, shooting him twice in the abdomen and once in the head.

The March 19 Radio Free Asia account of the attack—subsequently picked up by other news outlets—reported Nammye Hkun Jaw Li was “active in anti-military protests” and said sources close to his family called the killing a targeted attack.

Other news sources offer a slightly different account of the killing.

The Chindwin News Agency identified Nammye Hkun Jaw Li as “a former Christian pastor” who was “known for his activism among members of the Kachin Baptist Convention.” Chindwin reported he was “gunned down in his home,” adding he was murdered “in cold blood in broad daylight.”

Democratic Voice of Burma English News reported Nammye Hkun Jaw Li was shot five times by an unknown group of masked gunmen who entered a computer shop within his home in Lan Kkwa village of Namti in Moguang Township.

Eleven Media Group in southern Myanmar offered a different report, identifying Nammye Hkun Jaw Li as a 40-year-old “former pastor of the Kachin Baptist Convention” who was shot by “three unidentified assailants on a motorcycle.” Unlike all other accounts of the shooting, Eleven Media Group reported the attack occurred shortly before 2 p.m. on March 11.

‘Crisis in Myanmar’

A spokesperson for 21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on international religious freedom, called the killing of Nammye Hkun Jaw Li “a tragedy.”

“Whether he was murdered because of his faith, his leadership in the community or both, Pastor Jaw Li is one of hundreds of thousands who have died or been displaced due to increased violence from the civil war in Myanmar,” the 21Wilberforce spokesperson said.

“The situation in the country continues to deteriorate. We are praying for Pastor Jaw Li’s family and the country. We stand in solidarity with the international community calling for attention to the crisis in Myanmar.”

While details about Nammye Hkun Jaw Li’s death remain murky, nobody questions violence has plagued Myanmar since the February 2021 military coup, and much of it has been directed toward ethnic and religious minorities.

In multiple instances, the Burmese military—known as the Tatmadaw—and its affiliates have targeted churches, ministers and Christian-majority communities.

In September 2021, the Burmese military shot and killed Baptist Pastor Cung Biak Hum. At the time, the pastor was attempting to help a church member extinguish a fire after the man’s home was set ablaze during military attacks.

In 2022, the Baptist World Alliance general council adopted a resolution condemning the military coup in Myanmar that has led to “a campaign of terror and violence.”

“Since the coup, the military has terrorized communities in Kachin, Karen, Kayah State, Chin State and Sagaing Region by burning villages, destroying churches, and detaining pastors and religious leaders,” the resolution stated.

Last year at this time, a Burmese court in Myitkyina sentenced Pastor Hkalam Samson, former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, to six years in prison on charges of unlawful association, defaming the state and terrorism. Samson was a critic of human rights abuses by the ruling military regime.

In remarks to the United Nations Human Rights Council last September, High Commissioner Volker Turk condemned atrocities committed by the ruling military regime in Myanmar as “inhumanity in its vilest form.”

Noting more than 4,100 deaths at that time caused by the military and its affiliates, Turk said the military regime should be brought before the International Criminal Court.

In an April 4 U.N. Security Council briefing, several speakers addressed the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and called for an end to the military regime’s “ongoing atrocities and human rights abuses.”

“We are horrified to hear continuing reports of village burnings, torture and beheadings, and other brutal acts committed amid the conflict,” U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council.

Wood noted Burmese military airstrikes on civilians “increased five-fold” in the past five months.

“This is in addition to the airstrikes, shelling and arson by the regime that have destroyed homes, schools, health care facilities and places of worship since the military illegally took power three years ago,” Wood said.

On the same day as the Security Council briefing, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on U.N. member states to refrain from the export, sale or transfer of jet fuel to the Burmese military.

Serving people in need sometimes requires a change in plans. Texans on Mission’s long-time ministry partner in Haiti shifted gears in recent days to respond to immediate hunger needs.

“Hunger has not been our focus” in Haiti, said Ernie Rice of Stockdale. “But right now, it is just a desperate situation. … Haiti is full of hungry people.”

 “There is incredible need right now in Haiti,” said Mickey Lenamon, CEO/executive director of Texans on Mission, historically known as Texas Baptist Men. “We have long-standing partners there who are meeting needs in the name of Christ, and we’re coming alongside them to multiply ministry.”

Rice’s work in Haiti began through TBM’s response to a 2010 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people. Since then his nonprofit—Good for Haiti—has focused on working with a church in the mountains by supporting general and technical education, along with strengthening the Christian presence in an area once dominated by voodoo practices.

‘Gangs are in total control’ of Haiti’s capital

Recent unraveling of the political situation in Haiti has brought on the need for immediate hunger relief, he said. Gangs have seized control of transportation and communications infrastructure in the Caribbean country.

“The gangs are in total control” in the capital, Port-au-Prince, Rice said.

The Guardian newspaper reported April 1: “A month after a coalition of criminal groups called ‘Viv Ansanm’ (Live Together) plunged Haiti’s capital into chaos with an audacious offensive against the state, the fighting continues—and in recent days has begun shifting to places long considered oases of calm.”

Rice’s work is in one of the oases of calm, at least for now.

“We’re just sending funds now before banks shut down,” he said. “We dumped everything we had” into Haiti in recent days, Rice said of an initial fund transfer sent to the church.

As a result, the pastor distributed food and supplies to church members after its Easter worship service.

Texans on Mission has sent more funds to support the immediate need, he said.

The situation is so volatile, the ministry does not send additional funds into Haiti until it confirms the pastor has earlier funds “in hand.”

Referring to photos of the first food distribution, Rice said in an email to Lenamon: “It is hard for me to see the faces of my friends drawn with hunger and stress. Their thinness only magnifies the need in my mind and makes me very grateful” for Texans on Mission’s help.

The violence and chaos in Haiti has been centered in Port-au-Prince and other populated areas.

“My mission is way out in the countryside, up on a mountain,” Rice said. “These are good, hard-working, stoic, hospitable, loving people. There is a remnant there that is pursuing God with all of their might.”

Continued holistic ministry approach

Good for Haiti built the technical school for woodworking and sewing in 2019. Local residents were trained to teach the classes and continue the work.

“When I got there, the voodoo presence was still strong,” Rice said. “But as Christ has been preached, it has really pushed back the voodoo.”

That change has caused an economic boom because the area is “now considered a safe place to build,” he added.

Hunger is the immediate need, but the ministry continues to stress a holistic approach.

About one-third of the population is unemployed. So, the church’s primary and technical schools are key to the community’s more general wellbeing.

“The students and the staff get a meal every day,” and the ministry also pays the teachers, Rice said. “Helping the teachers make a living is another way to feed people and to strengthen the community” because the paid teachers are able to help provide for others.

Through the church, people are being fed immediately and educated to provide for the families and community in the years ahead, he noted.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (BP)—Baptists sheltered in the remnants of Gaza Baptist Church are so worn out they “no longer have the energy to suffer,” a leader there told the Christian Mission to Gaza.

“We are very tired,” the mission quoted Shady Al-Najjar, a Gaza church leader, in its March 27 newsletter. “Our days are useless, our children are collapsing in fear, without education, and life has become very difficult.

“We no longer have the energy to express or explain what is happening in our country,” Al-Najjar said. “We are surprised by the silence of the world, but we are optimistic about God’s mercy and love.”

Israel Defense Forces have decreased their attacks on Gaza, where IDF leaders have “dismantled” but not destroyed 20 of Hamas’ original 24 battalions, IDF officials told the Washington Post.

Rather, despite the United Nations Security Council’s call for an immediate cease-fire, Israel is eyeing Rafah, where Hamas’ four remaining battalions are housed. Israel’s military believes, according to the Washington Post, thousands of Hamas fighters and sought-after commanders are stationed in tunnels alongside perhaps 100 remaining hostages.

Also in Rafah are 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians, whose lives would be most vulnerable in any Israeli attack there. The United States and others have worked to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees living in tents along the Egyptian border.

Christian Mission to Gaza continues to serve

CM2G, led by former Gaza Baptist Church Pastor Hanna Massad, has continued to deliver food and hot meals to Baptists and other Christians still in Gaza five months into the war. Christians numbered only 1,000 in Gaza before the war begin in October, a scant minority in the city of mostly Sunni Muslims.

“We continue to hold the people of Gaza in our prayers, asking for God’s peace, mercy, and comfort to prevail in their lives,” Massad wrote in the newsletter. “We remain committed to serving them in whatever way we can and continue to provide hot meals.”

Famine is imminent, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system said in its monthly report through March 15. At least 70 percent of the people in Gaza City and North Gaza—210,000 people—are facing catastrophic hunger, with the 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip facing high levels of food insecurity.

Continued war, including an assault on Rafah, would leave half of Gaza’s population suffering catastrophic hunger, the IPC’s most severe classification.

“There are many, many words that I cannot express about our psychological and spiritual situation,” Al-Najjar told the mission. “Food is at ridiculous prices, even if it is available in the market, and a lot of food has run out from the market.”

Gaza Baptist Church, the only Baptist congregation in Gaza City, has been heavily damaged in the war, as has St. Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church. Nearly 20 Christians died when the IDP attacked the Greek Orthodox church in October. The three congregations are the only Christian churches in the city.

The International Court of Justice and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are among those calling on Israel to stop blocking the land delivery of food and other humanitarian aid to Gaza, with food air drops inefficient and costly.

The death toll to date includes more than 32,000 Palestinians, with nearly 75,000 injured, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said March 28. But the death toll is suspected to be much higher than numbers publicized, The Washington Institute, a think tank on U.S. Middle Eastern policy, reported March 26. The Health Ministry, the institute said, no longer has a reliable mechanism to tabulate a death toll since hospitals have shut down.

More than 1,139 Israeli residents and others died in Hama’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel that launched the current war.

THOMAZEAU, Haiti (BP)—Nearly a dozen gunmen attacked the LiveBeyond ministry compound about 20 miles outside Port-au-Prince March 21. 

But ministry security repelled them, CEO and cofounder David Vanderpool told Baptist Press.

“Our security personnel repelled the attack, so nobody was injured. But it’s just constant gunfire, constant danger,” said Vanderpool, a physician who cofounded LiveBeyond in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. 

“It was just eight or 10 guys that came and started shooting at the gate, trying to get in, that we were able to repel them. So, it didn’t become an issue.”

As they are able, children continue to attend classes at the LiveBeyond ministry base 20 miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city held hostage to gang violence. 

Gunmen likely were looking for food and supplies to steal and sell, and people to kidnap for ransom, Vanderpool said.

Escalating gang violence

Numerous gangs comprising tens of thousands have mobilized under the leadership of Jimmy ‘Barbeque’ Cherizier since the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Gangs have taken control of the city, it is widely reported.

Gang are heavily supplied with military style weapons. According to a February report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, they increasingly are bureaucratic and self-funded—gaining perhaps $25 million a year in ransoms, forcing individual businesses to pay more than $20,000 a week to remain operational, and earning as much as $8,000 a day at checkpoints. 

There’s evidence gangs are killing individuals to steal and traffic body organs, the report said, as corpses missing organs are left lying in the streets.

“It’s one of the most dangerous places in the world right now,” Vanderpool said. “It just really demands some kind of intervention. There has got to be some international intervention.”

The United Nations is best positioned to intervene, Vanderpool said, as it is within the group’s charter to provide security in unstable nations. 

The thousand police officers offered by Kenya would be woefully inadequate to fight the gang population of about 100,000, many of whom are former police officers themselves, Vanderpool said.

“People need to understand that Americans do not need to go to Haiti for any reason,” Vanderpool said, citing a U.S. State Department “do not travel” alert in place since 2018. 

“No American should be in Haiti. There’s nobody there that can help them if they get into trouble. They need to understand that.”

Many Americans, including several Haitian Southern Baptist pastors from Florida, were trapped in Haiti when the violence escalated Feb. 29. As recently as March 18, two U.S. staff members of the Louisiana Reach Haiti’s Children’s Village were trapped in Port-au-Prince, having traveled there to visit family members before the most recent escalation in violence.

‘Poorest of the poor’ suffer most

Vanderpool’s LiveBeyond ministry is operated by a staff of 120 Haitian employees, he told Baptist Press. He was in Huntsville, Ala., on a fundraising tour when he spoke with Baptist Press March 21, but lived in Haiti 13 years after the ministry purchased a 63-acre plot of land there in 2011.

LiveBeyond operates a hospital, school and church to serve Haiti’s poorest residents.

Vanderpool was last at the LiveBeyond compound eight months ago but communicates daily with the team there as the ministry’s CEO. Most recently, he had been in Israel establishing a LiveBeyond compound in an economically disadvantaged area there.

The “poorest of the poor” are left behind in Haiti, Vanderpool said, unable to leave. They are among the population LiveBeyond serves.

“They’re the ones that are suffering the most right now,” he said. “They’re getting out every way they can. The United States has opened up visa processes for Haitians, and so it’s easier for them to get to the United States. But many are boarding boats that are rickety, and they capsize in the ocean, and people are lost that way.

“It’s a very, very dire situation.”

Despite the violence, LiveBeyond’s entire ministry compound remains open, Vanderpool said, although some children who typically walk six miles to get to class aren’t able to attend every day. 

The hospital is busier than ever, he said, serving 20,000 patients a month at a facility designed to treat 6,000 monthly. At any given time, 1,500 pregnant women receive weekly prenatal care. Worship continues at the church on the base.

As he met with churches requesting financial support for LiveBeyond, many were skeptical of whether their financial resources should be allocated to the work, Vanderpool said.

“We make the case that it’s the poor and it’s the people whom we serve who are the most vulnerable,” Vanderpool said. “And they’re the ones that are suffering the most.”

Vanderpool encouraged Christians to pray for Haiti.

“We really are wanting people to pray, because the people of Haiti are under a tremendous amount of pressure,” he said. “A thousand civilians died in January.”

More than two years after Russia’s intensified assault on Ukraine began, Ukrainian Baptists appealed to “brothers and sisters in Christ in the United States” for prayer and support.

The board of the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists sent a letter dated March 9 to leaders of Baptist groups based in the United States, including the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist World Alliance. The letter requests a show of solidarity as “a testament to the bond that unites us in Christ.”

“In these times of unprecedented challenge, as Russia has launched and continues to wage a bloody war against Ukraine, we, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, reach out to our brothers and sisters in the United States with a plea for support and prayer,” the letter stated.

Assaults on Baptist and evangelical churches in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine reveal a “strategy of cultural and spiritual genocide,” the letter asserted.

The letter—distributed by Igor Bandura, vice president of the Baptist Union in Ukraine—specifically noted the deaths of the daughter and grandson of a Baptist pastor in Odesa resulting from a March 2 Russian drone attack that claimed 12 lives.

It also mentioned a Feb. 28 guided bomb airstrike on Kupiansk which hit an evangelical church and killed Pastor Yuriy Klimko.

“Known not only for his pastoral work, but also as a volunteer in the city of Kupiansk, Pastor Klimko led a church that served as both a spiritual haven and a volunteer hub,” the letter stated. “The attack on the church was no accident; it is highly probable that the Russians were deliberately targeting the building.”

The letter disputes Russia’s claims that it is seeking to protect Christian civilians in Ukraine from harm.

“Their drones and rockets continue to take the lives of peaceful Christians,” it states.

Infringement of religious liberty

The letter from Ukrainian Baptists particularly noted the “deliberate and systematic infringement” of religious liberty in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

“In March 2023, the Russian occupiers demolished the church building of Evangelical Christian Baptists in Izium, Kharkiv region,” it stated.

The letter also noted Russian military forcibly closed two Baptist churches in Berdyansk, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, and a Baptist church in Chkalove, in the Melitopol district.

“This pattern of religious persecution and eradication of Baptist communities underscores a broader strategy of cultural and spiritual genocide,” it stated.

The letter noted as early as 2018, groups financed by the Russian Federation accused Ukrainian Baptists of being an “extremist religious organization” conducting “destructive” activities.

Appeal for solidarity

“In this hour of need, we turn to you for solidarity,” the letter to U.S.-based Baptists stated. “We ask you to join us in prayer for comfort for grieving families and for peace in our land. We believe in the strength and compassion of the Evangelical Christian community in the United States.”

The letter specifically asked leaders of the SBC, the National Baptist Convention, the American Baptist Churches USA and member bodies of the BWA to “raise awareness within your congregations and across denominations.”

“Your prayers and voices are powerful,” the letter concluded. “May our shared commitment to Christ’s teachings of love and peace guide us through this dark period. May God bless you for your kindness and solidarity.

“We hold fast to the hope that, together in prayer and action, we can navigate these dark times towards a future filled with light and peace.”

‘Stand with those who are mistreated’

One of the recipients of the letter—BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown—affirmed its recognition of Christian unity and its call for prayer.

“The Bible is clear—there is not a suffering church and a nonsuffering church, but we are one church in Jesus Christ. Let our hearts break anew for the families of our brothers and sisters who have needlessly died in an unjust invasion,” Brown said.

“The Baptist World Alliance joins with the Baptist Union of Ukraine in encouraging every Baptist to renew their prayers, raise their voice on behalf of those facing persecution, and live as ambassadors of just peace.

“In places where the weapons of war are working to dismantle the sounds of worship, may Baptists model generosity and courage and stand with those who are mistreated as if we ourselves are suffering.”

SBC President Bart Barber also received the letter. He reponded: “Southern Baptists condemn these acts of war by the Russian Federation against the sovereign nation of Ukraine. We call upon Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine and end this war of aggression. We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as with those Russian brothers and sisters who have courageously opposed this war.

“Southern Baptists have provided comfort to affected Ukrainians from the beginning of this war through the International Mission Board and SendRelief. Even as we watch others falter, we will be faithful friends to Ukrainian Baptists.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The last two paragraphs were added after the article originally were posted.

WASHINGTON (BP)–China is the most religiously oppressive government globally, Pew Research Center said in its latest study of 193 countries, citing the banning of religious publications, broadcasting and worship among 20 categories of persecution.

China’s government restricted religion locally and/or nationally in 20 key categories, Pew found in its report. Overall, government religious restrictions peaked in 2021 as global hostilities decreased, Pew said.

The March report comes as the U.S. Congress votes on a bill to ban TikTok as a national security threat unless the China-based owner of the platform, ByteDance, divests of its control. Congress is concerned about U.S. users’ personal data being confiscated by the Communist government that widely uses public surveillance to monitor and police the public.

TikTok concerns

The U.S. House approved on March 13 the bill to ban TikTok, sending it to the Senate. 

Religious persecution and propaganda are not explicit topics of the bill. But, the legislation purports China could weaponize its access to U.S. users’ personal data to create content that influences perspectives on various issues, including the 2024 political elections.

“Communist China is America’s largest geopolitical foe and is using technology to actively undermine America’s economy and security,” the New York Times quoted House Speaker Mike Johnson—a Republican Southern Baptist from Louisiana—saying after the House vote. 

“Today’s bipartisan vote demonstrates Congress’ opposition to Communist China’s attempts to spy on and manipulate Americans, and signals our resolve to deter our enemies,” Johnson said.

A December 2023 report from the Network Contagion Research Institute—an independent research group at Rutgers University—asserted TikTok probably ranks certain topics based on the company’s perceived preferences of the Chinese government, NBC News reported.

The group, composed of psychologists, engineers and analysts, reached its conclusions after analyzing the volume of posts with politically sensitive hashtags on TikTok compared to Instagram, NBC said.

TikTok disputed the study’s findings and continues to dispute claims set forth by those promoting the congressional legislation.

Nearly 60 percent (58) of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 used TikTok daily in 2023, Pew Research said in a study released in January, usage surpassed only by teens’ daily use of YouTube among other social media apps.

China’s bans and limits on religion

China formally bans religious groups, has denounced religious groups as cults or sects, is physically hostile toward minority or non-approved religious groups, and has attempted to ban entire religious groups from the country, Pew found.

China limits public preaching, proselytizing, conversions, religious literature and broadcasting, Pew said. The country places restrictions on how foreign missionaries can operate in the country, a change from 2020 when such work was fully forbidden there, Pew said.

Pew did not cite specific religions or restrictive measures, but rather rated countries based on the countries’ response to any or all religions.

Religious persecution watchdog groups have documented China’s persecution of Christians for years, including raids on house churches, confiscation of church property and the beating and arrest of religious leaders and worshipers.

When considering whether government used force toward religious groups that “resulted in individuals being killed, physically abused, imprisoned, detained or displaced from their homes, or having their personal or religious properties damaged or destroyed,” only China and Myanmar were discovered to have committed all offenses listed.

Following closely were Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Rwanda, Syria and Uzbekistan, but Pew did not specify the particular abuses.

Religious restrictions elsewhere

Among the 25 largest countries studied, China, Russia, Iran, Egypt and Indonesia had the highest levels of government restrictions on religion, Pew said, with China ranking the highest on Pew’s 10-point Government Relations Index.

Among the largest countries studied, Pew recorded the lowest levels of government restrictions in Japan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and the Philippines. 

Pew ranked the U.S. as having “moderate” levels of governmental persecution, but offered no specifics.

In its latest installment of the study, in its 14th year, Pew gathered factual information from 19 sources it described as widely available and frequently cited. Primary sources included U.S. government agencies, independent nongovernmental organizations, and a variety of European and United Nations bodies. 

Pew said it did not base its findings on the groups’ commentary or opinions.

The report is available here.

KYIV, Ukraine (BP)—Russian soldiers captured Azat, a Ukrainian Baptist pastor, on one of his many trips to deliver humanitarian aid to Mariupol as Russia ravaged the city in the early months of the war.

What Russian soldiers did to him over the next six weeks because of his Christian faith left him temporarily bedridden—one wound baring his leg bone, internal organs damaged, teeth knocked out, eardrums burst, he said in a video recounting the torture.

“I had a bag on my head and my hands were handcuffed to my legs. Electric wires were connected to my genitals. They beat me with batons, an iron pipe, a wooden stick,” Azat said. “They mocked me and asked me how I became a traitor to the faith of my fathers and grandfathers by becoming Baptist. I am a Baptist and for Russians, Baptists are American spies. They call us ‘foreign agents.’”

Electrocuting him, soldiers demanded to know whom he served, perhaps speculating he served a foreign government.

“I told them, ‘I serve God.’ And then they tortured me more, asking which God do I serve. To this, I responded, ‘The Holy Trinity: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ Well, at this they laughed and beat me so badly that they thought that I was dead.”

Ukraine Freedom Project records persecution

Steven Moore, a U.S. citizen in Kyiv who has launched the Ukraine Freedom Project to tell the stories of persecuted Christians, said Russia’s perception of Azat’s Christianity is typical.

 “The Russians view Protestants and evangelicals as agents of America,” Moore told Baptist Press. “As Russia occupies, they (surmise): ‘Oh, this is a Baptist church. The pastor must be an agent of America, like our priests are an agent of the Kremlin.” So, they arrest them, they torture them, and they shut down their church, and sometimes they kill believers for their faith.”

Azat tells his story on the website Moore’s ministry founded, RussiatorturesChristians.org. Azat is among four Baptists who share their personal stories of persecution on the site, along with the stories of other Christians tortured and persecuted there.

“What I do, I find the people that have escaped the occupation, because information is difficult to get out of the occupied areas,” Moore said. “If you’re a Christian who speaks out against the persecution and torture of your co-believers in the occupied areas, the Russians will threaten your family and friends who are still there.”

Russia killed at least 26 faith leaders in the first year of the war, now in its third year, Moore said, citing numbers broadly stated as fact. Dmytro Vovk, an expert on religious freedom with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, cited the number at a March 2023 virtual hearing hosted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

USCIRF referenced the hearing March 1 in urging the Biden Administration “to utilize all tools available to sanction and hold accountable Russian authorities, including de facto authorities” for targeting and abusing prisoners of conscience held for their religious faith and practice.

“In Russian-occupied Ukraine, Russian forces have relentlessly suppressed Ukrainian religious communities,” the commission said, “by banning religious groups, shutting down houses of worship, and abducting, detaining, imprisoning, and torturing religious leaders and actors.”

Moore wants Christians in the United States to know the plight of Ukrainian Christians at Russia’s hands.

“If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be tens or hundreds of thousands of dead Christians,” Moore asserted. “The Baptists are the most represented Protestant denomination in Ukraine, and so, they’re bearing the brunt of a lot of these horrors. The horrors that are happening here to Christians are from the Russians.”

Call to prayer and advocacy

He urged U.S. Christians to continue praying for Ukraine and to advocate for continued U.S. military aid.

“People of faith need to stand up,” he said. “We need their prayers and we need their political support in making sure the Ukrainians can get the weapons they need to save their people in occupied Ukraine and keep more Ukrainians from suffering the same fate.”

Moore, who has worked as a political aide in the United States, said God opened the door for him to launch a ministry to help Ukrainian Christians in the early days of the war. His Ukraine Freedom Project also offers humanitarian aid, providing socks for soldiers, generators for residents, and first-aid kits, among other supplies.

“My friends from Ukraine started calling me and saying, ‘They’re bombing Kyiv, I don’t know what to do.” Moore, who has spent two years in Iraq as a civilian during wartimes, said he knew how to navigate such offenses. A friend and Ukrainian veteran of Russia’s 2014 invasion of the Donbas region contacted Moore, and the two devised a plan.

“I had the time, I had the resources, I had the skills and so many people were calling me (for) help,” said Moore, who had considered a skiing trip in the days before the war. “I figured if I had gone skiing, it was not a decision that would have aged well. God opened up all these doors. And just, boom, boom, boom, doors started opening.”

Moore intends to continue telling the stories of the persecuted Christians who are able to escape Russia’s grasp, he said.

“We have a passion for highlighting the systematic torture and arrest and murder and persecution of evangelical Christians,” he said. “The Christian population has been totally driven underground.”

A Russian strike on Odesa, Ukraine, killed 12 people, including the daughter and grandson of a Baptist pastor.

Serhiy Haidarzh was putting his 3-year-old daughter Liza to bed in her room, and his wife Anna was lying down with their 4-month-old son Timothy in the nursery when a Russian drone hit, destroying their apartment building.

Serhiy and Liza survived. Anna—daughter of Odesa Baptist Pastor Nikolai Sidak—and Timothy did not.

“Anna and the baby were buried under tons of concrete rubbles. Later, doctors said they died immediately while sleeping. Their bodies were found at about 4 p.m. the next day,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine.

Bandura described Nikolai Sidak as the “well-known and respected pastor of an independent Baptist church in Odessa.”

In addition to the 12 fatalities, another 20 people were injured, some critically.

Of the 12 people killed in the Russian strike, five were children. Timothy Haidarzh was the youngest. The others ranged in age from 8 months to 9 years old.

UGANDA—Texas Baptist Men: Texans on Mission may have discovered a secret ingredient to community transformation across northern Uganda.

Just add water.

This year, Texans and Ugandans on Mission—the name TBM and its 24 Ugandan personnel use—will drill a minimum of 65 wells in Uganda. They teach sanitation, hygiene and pump maintenance in every village where they drill a water well, as well as introducing local residents to micro-finance.

But the real key is the spiritual transformation that occurs in individual lives. Work in each village begins by starting Bible studies. And if there isn’t another church within 3 or 4 kilometers, often the villagers ask to start their own congregation.

“I expect to see 500 baptisms this year,” said Mitch Chapman, director of Water Impact with TBM: Texans on Mission and the bivocational pastor of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Elmo.

TBM: Texans on Mission envisions expanding its Water Impact ministry into other parts of Africa. Plans already are in place for work in South Sudan within the next two years, with a goal of eventually moving into Kenya, Tanzania and possibly Chad.

Post-retirement calling

When Chapman retired after working 26 years in the oil industry, he didn’t envision becoming involved in water ministry on the other side of the globe.

“I fully intended to spend my time pastoring my church and building racecar chassis,” he said.

Instead, TBM tapped his drilling expertise and put him to work. Since taking the job as Water Impact director two years ago, he is on his second passport, already having filled one with visas. His church grants him the freedom to be away about 18 Sundays each year.

Chapman and TBM leaders wanted to develop a model for water ministry that could make the most significant impact on communities without fostering dependency. As they studied other Christian organizations that used water ministry as a tool for sustainable community development, they became impressed with Fort Worth-based 4Africa and its strategic approach.

TBM leaders learned 4Africa wanted to move away from operating well-drilling rigs in East Africa in order to focus more on the educational components of discipleship and community development.

So, TBM secured the drilling rigs from 4Africa last summer and took on its strategy—moving across northern Uganda district by district from east to west.

“We are in and out of each community in five years or less,” Chapman explained, noting the emphasis is on making disciples and promoting sustainable community development.

Community impact

In each location, Texans and Ugandans on Mission help identify a “person of peace” in the community who starts a Bible study. A typical Bible study involves reading a passage of Scripture three times—an approach geared toward oral learners—and discussing what it means.

Bible studies also include singing, praying and sharing testimonies of how God is at work in the lives of those who are committing themselves to him.

At the same time, villagers learn hygiene and sanitation, begin building latrines and handwashing stations, and create a local organization to govern the care, use and maintenance of the well.

“There’s three to six months of community engagement before we ever drill a water well,” Chapman said.

Each step of the way, community members are expected to contribute to the effort. For example, after the Texans and Ugandans on Mission crew drills a bore hole and installs casing, villagers make bricks and gather stones to use in construction of the hand pump station.

Sam Ojok, the in-country director of Texans and Ugandans on Mission, is excited to witness the dramatic changes that take place when remote rural communities gain access to a clean water source.

“I love to see immediate impact,” he said. “Once people have clean water and practice sanitation, typhoid is no longer a big problem after just one month.”

Ojok witnessed the effects of water-borne diseases—typhoid, dysentery and cholera, among others—early in life.

“I have seen family members suffer,” he said, as his voice trailed off.

The impact not only is immediately apparent, but also long-lasting. In the Yumbe District of northwest Uganda, where 4Africa piloted the approach Texans and Ugandans on Mission adopted, 98 percent of the wells were still working at the five-year mark.

Most significantly, the region saw a 10 percent decrease in infant mortality and an 80 percent drop in deaths among children from birth to age 5.

Rural health

“We focus on the rural areas. Where the government stops, we start,” Ojok said. “We penetrate deep into places without easy access.”

Texans and Ugandans on Mission measures access to clean, safe water both in terms of distance and time. The aim is to provide a water source either within one mile or a 30-minute round-trip walk of each village.

To ensure each community learns how to become self-sufficient, villagers are taught how to create small community credit unions to promote savings and to provide micro-finance loans for income-producing activities.

On a recent visit to the Omoro District, several villagers told how the loans enabled them to develop small businesses—raising goats, harvesting and selling grain and even operating a small community grocery store—to send their children to school.

At the same time, children and teenagers are growing stronger physically and spiritually through Youth Running Clubs sponsored by Texans and Ugandans on Mission. They participate in exercises, games and Bible lessons on Saturdays.

“Some of these children have experienced trauma. Through the Youth Running Clubs, we see their self-esteem grow,” Ojok said. “They improve in physical, spiritual and psychological wellness.”

The spiritual aspect drives Texans and Ugandans on Mission. Since they began working in northern Uganda last summer, 138 people have been baptized, and another 19 are scheduled to be baptized in the coming weeks.

“When we arrive in a community, water is an access point—a starting point for sharing the gospel and training church leaders,” Ojok said.

Currently, 340 Bible study groups meet in rural areas of Uganda’s Omoro District.

“People are meeting somewhere every day—sharing the word of God and learning from each other,” Ojok said.

“I have not seen another program as impactful as Texans and Ugandans on Mission.”

Managing Editor Ken Camp traveled to Uganda with Texas Baptist Men: Texans on Mission to report on the Water Impact ministry there.