Former Pastor of Pentecostal Church Released From Prison in Iran

Former Pastor of Pentecostal Church Released From Prison in Iran along with Two Other Believers
By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service answritermike@gmail.com 
TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS, March 13, 2015) – Mohabat News (www.mohabatnews.com) reports that a former pastor of Shahr-Ara Pentecostal Church of Tehran and two Christian converts have been released on bail.
According to the Mohabat News report, plain-clothed security authorities had arrested them last Christmas.
During their time in jail, they were subjected to intense interrogation and were held in solitary confinement.
The news agency says Assyrian pastor, Victor Bet-Tamarz and two Christian converts were arrested as they were celebrating Christmas, on December 26, 2014 in a residential house in northwestern Tehran. All three were eventually released on bail from Evin prison.
Mohabat News says of the three detainees, Amin Afshar Naderi was first released on February 10, 2015 after posting a heavy bail of 100 million Tomans (Approx. $40,000 USD). Mr. Naderi spent 36 days in jail, of which he spent 30 days in solitary confinement. After his release, intelligence officers summoned him once to an unofficial building for additional interrogation. Mr. Naderi is 26 years old and is an employee of the private sector.
The other Christian convert arrested with Pastor Victor is Kavian Fallah Mohammadi. He was released one week after Mr. Naderi on a bail equal to Mr. Naderi's. Iranian authorities explained that the reason for this one-week delay between these releases is that Mr. Mohammadi is a resident of a northern province and the submission of a title deed to the Revolutionary Court from those provinces takes some time. During this one week only  was he transferred out of solitary confinement and into the general ward of Evin prison.
Mohabat News says Pastor Victor Ben-Tamarz was released several days later on March 1, 2015, after enduring 65 days in prison. His release was also made possible by posting an expensive property title deed. All these individuals are only free until the day of their trial. Despite Pastor Victor's old age, he spent most of his jail time in solitary confinement and suffered from numerous health problems. He is still suffering from health problems caused during his incarceration in Evin prison.
Mohabat News explained that all three Christian men are now waiting to be summoned to court for their trial and are banned from all Christian activities until that time.
Pastor Victor Bet-Tamarz is the former pastor of the Shahr-Ara Pentecostal Church in Tehran. He served God at that church for more than three decades. In addition to his ministry among Assyrians, he was active among Farsi-speaking Iranians as well. He held Farsi services at his church until security authorities shut them down and dismissed him as the pastor of the church on March 31, 2009. The Assyrian member of Iranian Parliament (Majles), played a key role in the cancellation of Farsi services and dismissal of Pastor Victor.
Pastor Victor, his wife, their son, as well as 12 Christian converts had gathered on December 26, 2014 to celebrate Christmas, when plain-clothed security authorities raided their meeting. The authorities disrupted the celebration and put them all in custody.
All of the detainees, except three, were released after a written interrogation and signing a disclaimer on the spot. The three who weren't released, namely Pastor Victor and two Christian converts, Amin Afshar Naderi and Kavian Fallah Mohammadi, were transferred to Evin prison immediately.
Mohabat News says that reports indicate after their transfer to Evin prison, their heads were shaved in the same way as convicted criminals, and they were taken to solitary cells. They were subjected to several interrogation sessions and held under custody for a long period of time before being officially charged.
Even their families did not have a clear understanding of their situation for a lengthy time.
Mohabat News went on to explain that after Pastor Victor Bet-Tamarz's case was publicized, the British Foreign Office, in a statement, expressed its concern over the continuation of the imprisonment of Pastor Bet-Tamarz and the two Christian converts. The statement expressed the deep concern of the British government over the continuing oppression and harassment of Iranian religious minorities, including Christians, by the Iranian government. It also mentioned that the British government and international community expect the Iranian regime to adhere to international conventions with regards to freedom of religion and freedom of speech, of which it is a signatory.
Evin Prison (Persian: زندان اوین‎ Zendān Evin) is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Due to the number of intellectuals that the prison housed, it was nicknamed "Evin University".
Photo: Evin House of Detention (via Wikipedia).
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Boko Haram kills 68, including children, in northeast Nigeria: Witnesses include two vigilantes

Boko Haram kills 68, including children, in northeast Nigeria: Witnesses include two vigilantes
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and ASSIST News Service
NJABA, NIGERIA (ANS – March 5, 2015) -- Boko Haram gunmen killed 68 people, including many children, in a massacre in the northeast Nigeria village of Njaba, two witnesses and two vigilantes told Agence France-Presse (AFP), today Thursday, March 5, 2015.
Heavily armed militants stormed the village in Borno state on Tuesday “from all directions,” said Falmata Bisika, 62, who escaped to the state capital Maiduguri where she spoke to reporters.
“The terrorists were armed to the teeth,” she said, recounting the insurgents’ rampage through Njaba, which saw them fire on fleeing residents, including “teenagers and the elderly.”
“It is very unlikely [that] I will ever go back,” she said. “Four of my grandchildren have been killed.”
Mimuni Haruna, 42, said he hid in a silo at the back of his house during the prolonged attack before running to Maiduguri, roughly 31 miles north of Njaba.
“I participated in the counting of dead bodies,” Haruna said. “Sixty-eight people were killed. Most of the houses in our village have been destroyed.”
Vigilante leader Ali Mulai said the attack began at about 5:00 am (0400 GMT).
“The victims included boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 19 and other older residents who were either shot dead or slaughtered,” he said.
According to AFP, another vigilante whose is from Njaba confirmed the attack and said his father was among those killed.
Requesting anonymity, he said he believed the assault was launched from Gwoza, where Boko Haram is believed to be amassing fighters. Gwoza is also the Borno town where Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau first proclaimed the existence of a caliphate inside Nigeria.
Boko Haram
Boko Haram (“Western education is forbidden,”) officially called Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad, is an Islamist terrorist movement based in northeast Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon. The group is led by Abubakar Shekau and estimates of membership vary between a few hundred and 10,000. The group has been linked to al-Qaeda and in 2014 swore allegiance to Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and adopted its emblem and terminologies.
Boko Haram is said to have killed more than 5,000 civilians between July 2009 and June 2014, including at least 2,000 in the first half of 2014, in attacks occurring mainly in northeast, north-central and central Nigeria, and shows no signs of slowing down with their slaughter.
According to Wikipedia, “Corruption in the security services and human rights abuses committed by them have hampered efforts to counter the unrest. Since 2009 Boko Haram have abducted more than 500 men, women and children, including the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from Chibokin in April 2014.”
It added, “650,000 people had fled the conflict zone by August 2014, an increase of 200,000 since May; by the end of the year 1.5 million had fled.”
Note from Dan Wooding. I was born in northern Nigeria in December of 1940, the son of British missionary parents (both from Liverpool), and I am heartbroken with this ongoing cycle of appalling violence in the land of my birth. Please continue to pray for the people of Nigeria as they try to cope with this violent terror group.
Photo caption: 1) Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has declared an “Islamic State” in northern Nigeria (Getty Images). 2) Boko Haram fighters.
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Unconfirmed Reports of the Release of All Assyrians Held By Islamic State

Unconfirmed Reports of the Release of All Assyrians Held By Islamic State
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and the ASSIST News Service
HASAKA, SYRIA (ANS – March 6, 2015) -- Sources in Hasaka are reporting that Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has released all the Assyrians it had captured when it attacked Assyrian villages on the Khabur River on February 23.
But a spokesperson for the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), said that they could not verify these reports.
“If the hostages have been released, they are still in Islamic State held territory and have not yet reached Hasaka, the most likely destination,” he said.
The terror group captured between 262 and 373 Assyrians in its initial attacks on some 35 Assyrian villages in Syria.
Islamic State released 19 of the 21 Assyrians captured from the village of Tel Goran on March 1, and the remaining two on March 3.
In an interview with AINA (www.aina.org), one of the Assyrians released by Islamic State said they were told they could not return to their villages, and if they did, they would be killed.
On February 23, Islamic State attacked the Assyrian villages of Tel Goran, Tel Hurmiz, Tel Tamar, Tel Baloaa Tel Shamiran, Tel Riman, Tel Nasra, Tel Khareta, Tel Jazira, Tel Fweidat, Qaber Shamiyeh and Abu Tena.
Nine Assyrian fighters died defending their villages in the initial attacks and there are reports that Islamic State has executed at least 12 Assyrian fighters who were captured, two of them women.
The majority of the Assyrians were captured from Tel Shamiran, Tel Hurmiz, Tel Goran and Tel Jazira.
Photo caption: Joseph and Sargon Sarkis -- two of the Assyrians captured by Islamic State.
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Christian Families Flee ISIS Kidnappings in Syria

Christian Families Flee ISIS Kidnappings in Syria

March 06, 2015

Many of those arriving in Lebanon from Syria cannot afford even dilapidated housing.

When the Islamic State (ISIS) last week kidnapped at least 220 Christians from northeastern Syria, a mother with a newborn and two other young children in Hassakah had no way of making contact with her husband in a nearby village.
“I don´t know where my husband is,” the young mother said, sobbing. “I knew there was no hope for him. I left without taking anything with me except my children.”
With her husband at work and out of touch, the well-known terror tactics of ISIS forced her into a hurried decision.
“We heard what ISIS did in the neighboring village, and we did not want to stay,” she told the leader of a ministry in Lebanon providing aid to her and her 8-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son and 11-day-old infant girl. “I was scared for my children.”
She and 11 other Assyrian, evangelical families managed to escape to the ministry center in Beirut, Lebanon, as ISIS militants kidnapped other Assyrian Christians from their village. The director of the center said their pastor in Syria had told them to go to Lebanon and to look up his ministry. Some of the fleeing families went north to Turkey before making it to Lebanon; others crossed Syria, which has been embroiled in nearly four years of civil war by Sunni Muslim rebels vying to topple Alawite President Bashar al-Assad.
Some of the families made it to Lebanon by bus; others got rides on field tractors or took taxis. The mother of three (name withheld for security reasons) said she could not find anyone to transport her. Carrying her newborn girl, she and her other two children began walking.
“The sound of the bombs was coming closer,” she said. “I can still hear women and children screaming and shouting. I don´t know how we were able to escape all this.”
Across areas of Syria where ISIS enforces the cruelties of its caliphate and other zones where it freely operates without necessarily holding ground, the woman and her three young children walked and hitch-hiked 350 miles to Beirut. She said seven or eight cars or pickup trucks stopped to pick them up, the last one leaving them just outside the Lebanon border. They walked across.
“I am here now in Lebanon with nothing,” she said. “We did not eat anything for days. My children and I are starving.”
The ministry seeks food, lodging and medical care for the 12 families that have arrived from the region. ISIS began taking Christian hostages on Feb. 23 in villages around Tal Tamer, about 25 miles from Hassakah. ISIS advanced and kidnapped Christians around Hassakah.

Syrian refugee children in Lebanon need mattresses, sheets, medications, English classes, baby formula and diapers, among other things.

On Sunday (March 1) the Islamic terrorists reportedly released 19 Christians, who arrived in Hassakah by bus after a sharia (Islamic law) court ruled they could be freed after they paid a “tax” on non-Muslims. The reason for the release of the 17 men and two women was unknown, but Assyrian rights advocates speculated their ages may have played a role as most of those freed were over 50.
On Tuesday (March 3) ISIS released four more Assyrian Christians kidnapped in Hassakah Province, including a 6-year-old girl, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). The girl´s father and pregnant mother had been among those released two days prior. AINA reports that Assyrian leaders are trying to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages.
The number of Assyrian Christians kidnapped in cities, towns and villages along the Khabur River in Hassakah Province was between 262 and 373, according to AINA, which reported nine Assyrian fighters died defending their villages and that ISIS had executed at least 12 others who were captured, including two women.
All of the 3,000 Christians in the region have fled with the exception of some militia members fighting alongside Kurdish forces against ISIS. Prior to the onset of the civil war in 2011, the Christian population there was 40,000 to 45,000.
Those kidnapped may have been transported to nearby Mt. Abdul Aziz, according to Assyrian Church of the East Archimandrite Emanuel Youkhana. He told media that ISIS attacked the predominantly Christian Khabur Valley after its military lost the town of Kobani, to the west near the border with Turkey. He added that ISIS had support from nearby Sunni Arab villages, but that Sunni Arabs near the predominantly Christian village of Qaber Shamiat helped 15 Christian men and women escape.
ISIS, an off-shoot of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has killed at least 1,969 people, including 1,238 civilians, since it declared a caliphate last June, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. With hundreds of people missing, the organization said the actual number of civilians killed is likely much higher.
As ISIS military incursions have carved out a proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, the militants have repeatedly targeted religious minorities and moderate Muslims for beheadings, rapes and other cruelties. ISIS slaughtered up to 500 people from the ethnoreligious Yazidi community in Iraq in August 2014 and raped and sold many of their young girls in bazaars. It has carried out similar attacks on religious minorities in Syria.
ISIS requires Muslims to swear allegiance to the self-declared caliphate, and under its Islamic theology those who refuse are considered “apostates,” or deserters of Islam, and are therefore subject to execution, noted Graeme Wood in this month´s edition of The Atlantic.
Of the estimated 3.7 million Syrian refugees trying to escape the civil war and the vacuum it has created for ISIS to expand, nearly 1.2 million have fled to Lebanon, according to the United Nations.
“Pray for these families,” the ministry director said. “Pray for those who were left behind. Pray for those who are still fleeing.”

To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online using the form below, or call 434-977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 400REF. Thank you!

Corner Refuge

Corner Refuge   Having fled civil war in Syria to Lebanon, a young Syrian girl and baby make the best of a moment in a run-down apartment in Beirut – though few refugee families can afford even that. Among the thousands of Syrian refugees an indigenous ministry assists in Lebanon, even those who can find work have an average salary that is 40 percent less than the minimum wage, according to the International Labor Organization. Some families need help paying rising rents and medical bills. “Our ministry team in Beirut has been very active in the lives of Syrian refugees, having opportunities to meet, pray for, and assist thousands of disadvantaged people with their practical needs,” the ministry leader said. “We’ve heard a lot of heartbreaking stories – many have witnessed family members being killed, and most have lost touch with loved ones.” Most of the families lack daily essentials like carpets, heaters, food staples and blankets, he said, and his team also needs Bibles, discipleship materials, spiritual books to distribute, as well as funds to support 15 workers.

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19 Assyrians Released By Islamic State, But Hundreds Remain Captured

19 Assyrians Released By Islamic State, But Hundreds Remain Captured
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST and the ASSIST News Service
HASAKA, SYRIA (ANS – March 1, 2015) -- 19 Assyrians that were captured from the Syrian village of Tel Goran, have been released by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and have arrived safely at St. Mary's Church in Hasaka, Syria.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org), negotiations for their release had been ongoing for three days and were mediated by local Arab tribal leaders.
“Of the 19 that were released, 17 were women and 2 were men, said a spokesperson for AINA. “But not all who were captured from Tel Goran were released. One of the hostages, an elderly woman, said that ISIS did not release her son and two other men who were guarding the village.
“ISIS also refused to release a six-year-old girl. According to reports from the released hostages, Islamic State (ISIS) said it plans to use the girl as a bargaining chip. The girl's mother was released but would not leave her daughter behind and stayed with her.”
The spokesman told the ASSIST News Service, “The hostages looked tired and disheveled but were otherwise unharmed.”
According to AINA, the number of Assyrians captured by Islamic State is between 262 and 373. With the release of this group of 19, the number still being held by this terror group remains in the hundreds.
According to Assyrian leaders, negotiations for the release of the remainder of the hostages are ongoing.
The hostages were taken when Islamic State fighters attacked the Assyrian villages of Tel Goran, Tel Hurmiz, Tel Tamar, Tel Baloaa Tel Shamiran, Tel Riman, Tel Nasra, Tel Khareta, Tel Jazira, Tel Fweidat, Qaber Shamiyeh and Abu Tena.
“Nine Assyrian fighters died defending their villages in the initial attacks and there are reports that ISIS has executed at least 12 Assyrian fighters who were captured, two of them women,” said the AINA spokesperson.
The majority of the Assyrians were captured from Tel Shamiran, Tel Hurmiz, Tel Goran and Tel Jazira in Syria. Nearly 3000 Assyrians have fled from the 35 Assyrian villages on the Khabur river to Hasaka and Qamishli.
"There is a critical need for shelter for the refugees,” added the spokesperson for AINA.
On hearing of the original attack, Assyrians held protests in three world cities recently to call attention to the ISIS attacks on Assyrians in Khabur, Syria, which have resulted in the capture of up to 373 Assyrians by ISIS and the destruction of churches in the 35 Assyrian villages in the Khabur river in the Hasaka province of Syria. At least 9 Assyrian fighters died in the initial attacks and 12 who were captured by ISIS are feared to have been executed.
Protests were held in Beirut, Stockholm, and San Francisco and a candle light vigil was scheduled for Phoenix this Sunday, and other protests are planned for this week.
Photo captions: 1) Two of the hostages chat with the local priest at the church. 2) An elderly woman hostage who has been freed. 3) St. Bishu Church in the Assyrian Village of Tel Shamiran, Syria, now occupied by Islamic State
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Small Business Capital in Indonesia Yields Saved Souls

Small Business Capital in Indonesia Yields Saved Souls

February 26, 2015

A chainsaw rental business thrives on demand to clear away trees.

In impoverished areas among Indonesia´s varied peoples, Christians are learning to run small businesses to support themselves and their ministries – and to open avenues to Muslims and Hindus that otherwise would be closed.
An indigenous ministry in Indonesia has granted workers funds to start businesses that were key to the recent planting of two churches in Bali, where 83 percent of the people are Hindu. Along with dozens of other churches the ministry previously established with the aid of small businesses, the micro-enterprises recently helped plant a church in the western province of Sumatra, where Muslims make up 87 percent of the population, as well as four churches on the 73-percent Muslim island of Borneo, the leader of the ministry said.
The small businesses, from beauty salons to chainsaw rentals, have been integral to these church plants, he said.
“As people in the church begin to have their own micro-businesses, they have income, and that funds the establishment of a healthy church in that area,” he said. “Recently church planting servants have testified that more than 1,000 people have been reached with the evangelical faith through methods of micro-business in Indonesia, and more than 20 people who have received Christ Jesus were baptized.”
Among the enterprises that have begun with start-up assistance from Christian Aid Mission are laundry, frozen treat, used clothes, farming, sewing machine, soccer center, café and chicken egg businesses. These services have created inroads to resistant communities.
“Because we are in a Hindu area, Christians are not welcome into a village or area unless there is some product or service that can be helpful to the community,” the ministry leader said. “If the Christian has a helpful business or service, he is welcomed into the community and has opportunities to build relationships with people. The discussions that naturally happen as a result are very effective evangelism.”
Hinduism is one of six recognized religions in Indonesia. Though Hinduism is practiced by only 1.7 percent of the total population, that amounts to more than 4 million people. Indonesia is home to the world´s largest Islamic population, 204.8 million, which is 12.7 percent of the world´s Muslims.
In one enterprise in Bali, a pastor fit cooler boxes of frozen treats onto a motorbike, which drew children and their mothers to invite him to their doorstep.
“Over time, this has created relationships and great opportunities for evangelism in this Hindu culture,” the director said. “Without the tool of the iced treat business, the opportunity to build relationships and share the gospel would not be there.”

Residents of the island of Bali meet for worship.

Once established, the pastor enabled several church members to run their own frozen treat businesses.
“They all now have successful iced treat businesses, which have expanded the evangelistic outreach to this community, but also have funded a healthy local church,” he said.
Benefiting the community is one of the fundamental purposes of business, according to numerous Christian philosophers and theologians, who affirm it as a public service rather than just a means of seeking personal gain. As the late British politician and industrialist Sir Fred Catherwood wrote, “Our creed is that we are here to serve not ourselves but others. We should, therefore, be much more conscious than others of our standards of service.”
The indigenous ministry leader noted that small businesses in Indonesia provide income for local missionaries, pastors and church members; these workers find that Christian values, such as industry, honesty and integrity contribute to business success.
In familiar settings without tension and conflict, the ministry leader said, conversations about Christ take place within business relationships on deep levels. While not all of the business workers travel, they follow in a tradition established in the early days of Christianity, when the gospel spread in large measure through Christian merchants, slaves and other workers taking advantage of the Roman Empire´s excellent roads, according to historian Justo L. Gonzalez.
In Central Java Province on the island of Java, another ministry has helped start small businesses that have revived the spirits of pastors discouraged over their lack of livelihood. In these impoverished areas, the ministry’s director said, village pastors receive no financial support from their congregations.
“Before we introduced this micro-enterprise system, the typical pastor spent his time going to ministry conferences sponsored by foreigners in hopes that someone there would offer him money for a project, or an offering to help him feed his family for another week or so until the next ministry conference,” said the director of Kezia Ministries. “In their communities, pastors were viewed as individuals who lived very poorly and did nothing but go from conference to conference. The result was a negative impact on the work of the ministry, in that no pastor focused on his true mission of the Great Commission.”
Micro-enterprise assistance from Christian Aid Mission has enabled many pastors in these areas to sustain their families and ministries, as well as help the local economies.
“Not only does the small business offer the pastor a way to provide for the needs of his family and ministry, but it can also provide jobs for church members and a bridge to reach those who do not know about Jesus,” he said.
In Wonogiri County, a pastor runs several small businesses, including one producing Indonesian crackers. The enterprise provides jobs to Muslims and possibilities for the pastor to explain the Christian hope he carries within. Kezia Ministries provided low-interest business loans to the pastor so that he could expand the business.
“We not only mentor pastors as business owners so they can be self-sustaining, but also provide needed discipleship training for the pastors so that they can be fully equipped for the work of the ministry in every way,” he said.
The ministry thus provides strategic guidance to pastors, from start-up to management and expansion phases, along with discipleship training.
“These pastors are trained in how to use their micro-enterprise as a ministry vehicle to spread the good news of Jesus Christ while sustaining their families and their ministries,” he said. “Thank you for allowing pastors to be free to do the true work of the ministry. Please pray that the Lord will grant a harvest of souls through microenterprise ministry in Indonesia.”

To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online using the form below, or call 434-977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 800TENT. Thank you!