What's a good way to get involved in helping the persecuted church?

[cyphercat]

I have a real burden for what's going on with what are supposed to be our brothers and sisters overseas.
I think that a lot of good can be done through aiding the persecuted church. I know that there are many ministries such as Voice of the Martyrs and Open Doors which can obviously benefit from simple donations.
But I have a lot of free time, and want to put some of it towards this cause.

I think helping raise awareness would be good. I've thought about doing the old fashioned door to door style method. A long time ago I tried this by asking people if they were Christians and giving them information about VoM. I didn't carry it on though. It might be a good idea though.
I've also thought about setting up a booth like charities and other organisations do in places like Wal Mart and drawing interest that way.
I think everyone is aware of what's going on, even the mainstream news reports killings of Christians but maybe people just need someone to reach out to them.

I've also thought about going to different churches in the area to see if they have existing programs dedicated to things like Voice of the Martyrs and investing effort in them.

Whatever the case, just wanted to put this out there for a little feedback. I'm definitely willing and in prayer often. I thought maybe someone already carrying on this fight could offer some advice. Thanks!

 

[maintenance man]

Did you see Open Doors Connector training? Connector - Open Doors USA

That looks like a good place to start.

Beyond that, you might consider establishing an online presence to call attention to the persecuted church.

 

[thecolorsblend]

Ages ago, I found a website which delivered Bibles to Christians in troubled countries. Dirt cheap, no-frills Bibles that could be easily smuggled into a foreign country and distributed in secret among the Christian community. The website got nuked ages ago but I wager there are other websites that do similar things.

Alternatively, you could go on a missionary trip. I will be honest and say that I find most foreign missions to be an utter waste of time. Nobody can show me in a straight line what's gained by doing "missionary" work in already heavily Christian places like Mexico or Russia or something. To be blunt, that does not impress me; it never has and it never will.

I cannot in good conscience recommend that anybody risk their lives if the missionary life isn't their calling. However, I've met missionaries who have worked in secret in places like Sudan and that general region and doing missionary work out there is no joke.

But at the same time, the place is predominantly Islamic and they need to hear the gospel.

So don't risk your life if you're not being called to it. Find ways to distribute Bibles, financially support missionaries you believe in and all that. But if you need to get personally involved, at least choose a place with a Christian population of 25% or less.

 

[dzheremi]

Get in touch with churches and dioceses of the diaspora and ask them. Some of them (like the Southern US Diocese of the Coptic Orthodox Church) will have programs that serve the community 'back home' in various ways, in addition to U.S.-centered programs. Even if they don't, it is highly likely that they are in better contact with the Christian communities in the Middle East and Africa than you can be as an individual or a foreign missionary.

I would personally avoid placing too much confidence in groups like Voice of the Martyrs insofar as concerns places with already-established Christian churches, because they can sometimes betray a heavy bias against the ancient churches of the areas that they report on, and paint it as though because the people of _____ (whatever country) generally aren't interested in being converted away from their older native forms of Christianity to more modern forms of Christianity by a bunch of foreigners from the USA, that means the society is hostile to Christianity overall. Case in point, a while back a poster here on CF who often posts reports from that organization posted about the situation in Eritrea, where there is legitimate persecution going on against all Christian churches -- Orthodox (which dates back to the beginning of Christianity in the Axumite Empire, c. 330 AD), Catholic (which came with the Portuguese in the 16th century), and Protestant (first arrived in the area in the 19th century).

The report was written as to present the situation on the ground as basically "the Eritrean state and the Eritrean Orthodox Church conspire to oppress the beleaguered Protestant minority", and when I pointed out that, in fact, the same Eritrean state that was persecuting the Protestants was also the one that had uncanonically and unacceptably deposed the sole legitimate patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, HH Abune Antonios, nearly 20 years earlier in order to install their own state-compliant fake Patriarch (they've more recently convicted HH Abune Antonios of some vague 'heresy', again using their puppet synod), and that this deposition is in fact not recognized by any of the Oriental Orthodox churches with which the Eritrean Orthodox Church is actually in communion, I was told that this was just "my opinion". So I produced a video taken during one of only maybe 3 times HH Abune Antonios has appeared publicly since his deposition (and by 'publicly', I just mean outside, since he has been kept under armed guard by the government in various undisclosed locations), where HH talked about what the government had done and how they had mistreated him, the poster in question actually suggested that this was just some video of some guy, and who can say what it really means. (As though it's impossible for the patriarch to be...himself? I still don't really understand what kind of objection this is supposed to be.)

Needless to say, that was incredibly infuriating. Anyway, point is that this is another reason to go through members of the community here in the west, rather than to westerners themselves, even if those same westerners make it a point to report on what is going on in these countries. It's certainly not the case that every western-affiliated charity is dishonest or anything like that (I still think that groups like VOM can be quite good at raising awareness; I just wouldn't stop there, nor take their depiction as gospel, so to speak), but it's easier to get a more complete picture of what is actually going on if you go to people who actually know because it is their same community (i.e., they are still in contact with friends and family back home, maybe travel back to their homeland as often as possible, natively speak relevant languages, innately understand the cultures, etc.), rather than those who manifest their own biases knowingly or unknowingly and hence result in ineffective and often adversarial 'help' when the people donating to these groups presumably really do want to help the people in a given society.

 

[Inhocsigno]

Greetings Cyphercat, agree with maintenance man's suggestion of Open Doors Connector Training, I know of several who have used this resource.
Also this has been written on before, but one excellent route to help persecuted churches is to do ministries in Europe that focus on converting the Syrian, Iranian, Turkish, Kurdish and north African populations to the church. Which has been incredibly effective at bringing assistance to persecuted churches in the Middle East. It's difficult for us in the West to provide direct help to the persecuted churches due to cultural differences and suspicion of Westerners in the countries. But it's different matter for immigrants from those countries who return home as they know the language and culture, have family ties and can directly establish and protect churches there. This has turned out to be our best resource for protecting persecuted churches and bringing our faith back to the Middle East, even to dominance in some places. It's why my church back in the US has shifted its focus almost entirely to bringing ministers to Europe (especially if we have European background which makes it easier to secure a visa and involve ourselves with the local churches), it's a once in a generation chance to bring the Gospel back to the Middle East and protect the persecuted Christians and churches there. By converting the Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish refugees and migrants--which we can do directly in Europe and not in the Middle East-- we are then indirectly able to build a vast army of new ministers who themselves can directly go to the Middle Eastern regions, protecting our brethren churches there and winning new converts in the Middle East itself. This of course can only be done in Europe, so it's something to consider for anyone who wants to protect the churches and our brothers and sisters in the Middle East.

 

[Tolworth John]

think helping raise awareness would be good.

If you are serious about using your time to raise awareness of the persecuted Christians then become an area representative for an organisation for the perscuted Christians.

Talk to the organisations, talk to your church minister about having space on the church noticeboard and on its website. Ask about having a monthly slot in the Sunday service to talk about perscuted Christians and arrange a monthly prayer meeting at the church as well as one at your home.