July 2017 Persecution Magazine (2 of 4)

WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG
JULY 2017
PERSECU ION
UNDER THE
GUN IN IRAQ
Islamic State militants used photos of Jesus
for target practice while occupying the
largest Christian town in Iraq: Qeraqosh.
PERSECU ION.org
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

Volunteers
The Power of Prayer and the
Persecuted Church
ANYANWU CHARLES
VOLUNTEER PRAYER TEAM
Raise Your
Voice
JR MOUNT
VOLUNTEER AWARENESS TEAM
As part of ICC’s Prayer Team, volunteers
around the world gather with
fellow Christians in their communities to
pray on behalf of the persecuted Church.
Men and women, young and old, are uniting
together on behalf the same cause – to
call out to God on behalf of His children.
One of these faithful prayer partners is
Anyanwu Charles.
Each week, Anyanwu meets with his
team of prayer partners. They spend up to
four hours praying for the persecuted. The
passion that Anyanwu has for supporting
the persecuted has motivated him to “seek
for their freedom.” Not only does praying
for the persecuted help those who are in
need, it also comes as a blessing to those
who are gathering in prayer. Anyanwu
testified to the blessings that service can
bring, saying that, “[God] is the rewarder
of every good work.”
When speaking with partners around the
world, ICC receives wide-ranging requests,
from food aid to shelter to educational assistance.
But the one consistant request is for
continued prayer.
Anyanwu understands this and chooses
to support the persecuted through prayer
“because they are in need of prayer more than
any other thing.”
ICC offers several resources online at
persecution.org for volunteers to use as
they intercede for those suffering for their
faith.
The first is a prayer calendar that is
issued each month and offers a prayer
request for each new day. Second is
ICC’s weekly prayer emails. These prayer
emails gather major news stories related
to persecution from the week and detail
how supporters can be praying for those
specific issues.
The lives of persecuted Christians are
constantly being changed by the unrelenting
prayers of their brothers and sisters
around the world. If you are interested in
joining ICC’s prayer team, please visit persecution.org
for more information.
“He is the
rewarder of every
good work.”
As digital communication has grown more
and more prevalent in today’s society,
social media has become an essential tool for
sharing news. ICC must take advantage of
this platform to share the stories of persecuted
Christians around the world.
As part of ICC’s Awareness Team, volunteer
JR Mount capitalizes on social media. This
unparalleled media platform has given Mount
the opportunity to “reach the largest number
of potential views at one time” in order to
reach an expanding audience. Mount says that
spreading awareness through simple acts like
sharing a post from ICC’s Facebook or Twitter
accounts have the potential to “wake a sleeping
church” and “soften a hardened heart.”
This quick and effective means of spreading
awareness is unique in that it has the capability
to become viral, thus reaching many who
would otherwise never hear the testimonies of
the persecuted. Mount encouraged others to
get involved, saying, “You never know who
may read it and be moved by the faith of the
persecuted.” This, in turn, can lead to opportunities
to share the Gospel when non-believers
“see the faith and love the persecuted still display
through the pain of persecution.”
2 PERSECU ION.org
JULY 2017
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

Looking for a Way to Make a Difference in the World? Join Our Team of Volunteers!
Many who desire to make difference on behalf of the persecuted Church are not sure how to get started. Volunteers all over the world are making a
difference within their own communities as members of ICC’s five volunteer teams: Advocacy, Awareness, Office, Prayer, and Special Projects. By
standing up for the persecuted in countless ways, ICC’s volunteers have played a crucial role in connecting the global Church by bridging the gap
between the persecuted and the Western Church. It only takes one person to make a difference – are you willing to answer the call?
United States Capitol building.
United for Peace
As an organization that alleviates persecution around the world, it
is vital for ICC to work with and through international bodies of government.
ICC regularly issues petitions on behalf of the persecuted.
Earlier this year, ICC issued a petition calling for the release of
three Christians imprisoned in Sudan. Volunteers around the world
advocated on behalf of these imprisoned men by reaching out to
their friends, families, communities, and churches, both online and
in person, to gather signatures for the petition. All three of the men
have since been released.
A young girl poses with her hands set to pray.
North Korea Prayer Calendar
This ministry would not be possible without the faithful prayers of
supporters around the world. ICC’s volunteer prayer team helps to meet
this need on a daily basis by praying, both individually and corporately,
for the persecuted Church. In May of this year, volunteers participated in
a 31-day prayer campaign for Christians suffering in North Korea. Each
day, volunteers offered prayers regarding a different aspect of persecution
in this closed nation. The result was hundreds of Christians around the
world praying in unison for their brothers and sisters in Christ who have
been denied religious freedom.
Volunteer Teams
1 Advocacy Fight for justice for the persecuted through petitions, embassy calls
and more.
2 Awareness Raise your voice for the persecuted Church by speaking in churches,
writing, and social media.
3 Office Lighten the load of our staff by helping with administrative tasks.
4 Prayer Intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ, both individually and
as a church.
5 Special Projects Volunteer on your own schedule through one-time projects.
PERSECU ION.org
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Interested in Serving?
Online Apply to be a volunteer on our
website at www.persecution.org under ‘How
You Can Help.’
Phone Want more information? Feel free
to call us at (800) 422-5441.
3

The Fall of
Qeraqosh
By William Stark
“You see this street here. It used to take at least an hour to
drive down this street in the evening. All the shops and restaurants
along the road would have been full with people. Now,
there is no one.”
Dr. Rabee, a Christian from Qeraqosh, Iraq, as he took ICC’s
regional manager around the remains of Qeraqosh.
Looking down the empty street, all I could see
were empty shops, some shuttered, others burned,
but all with weeds growing through cracks in the
pavement. As I surveyed what was left of one of
Qeraqosh’s busiest streets, I was struck by the
incongruous quiet that blanketed the town —
everything felt frozen in time.
How did one of Iraq’s largest Christian towns,
once home to more than 50,000 and considered a
Christian refuge, become a ghost town?
ISIS is the obvious answer. But the simplicity of that answer
doesn’t explain why the loss of Qeraqosh has so greatly impacted the
Christians who were forced to flee. To answer that question, we need
to know the details of how Qeraqosh fell.
“I remember the first time ISIS attacked,” Fadi, a Christian resident
of Qeraqosh, told me as we sat in his apartment in Erbil. “The first
time they attacked, we were able to push them back with the help of
the Peshmerga [military forces].”
On June 10, 2014, ISIS captured Mosul and began its push across
the Nineveh Plains, putting Christian towns like Qeraqosh, Karemlesh,
and Bartella in the crosshairs. On June 26, trucks flying ISIS flags were
spotted outside of Qeraqosh, causing many Christians to flee east to the
safety of Erbil.
“The Peshmerga had already built defenses around Qeraqosh,”
Salam Edress, a Christian fighter with the Peshmerga, told me. “The
Peshmerga used bulldozers to create an embankment on the east side of
Qeraqosh and had driven trucks with guns to the embankment as well.”
“We fought with ISIS and were able to drive them away,” Salam
explained. After driving off ISIS, many Christians returned to Qeraqosh,
confident that they were protected, at least for a while.
On August 5 though, everything started to change. “We received
phone calls from Christians in Sinjar telling us that ISIS defeated the
Peshmerga and that they were killing men and taking women and
girls,” Fadi explained.
At the time, the Christians of Qeraqosh didn’t realize that the men
being killed and the women and girls being taken were Yazidis, a religious
minority on which ISIS especially focused their hate.
Assuming that ISIS was killing and taking Christians, the residents
of Qeraqosh panicked. To make matters worse, it was rumored that
ISIS was preparing to attack Qeraqosh for a second time.
“Everyone was afraid that ISIS would attack again and started to
talk about fleeing Qeraqosh,” Fadi remembered. “During mass on
August 6, the church leaders told us that we were safe in Qeraqosh
4 PERSECU ION.org
JULY 2017
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

“The sound woke me up, so I went
outside to see what was happening. To
my surprise, I saw that the Peshmerga
trucks were leaving the town. When I
went to the defense embankment, I saw
the place had been abandoned.”
– SALAM EDRESS, CHRISTIAN RESIDENT OF QERAQOSH
and that we should stay.”
To bolster the church leaders’ claim that they would be safe in
Qeraqosh, it appeared that the Peshmerga were ready to engage with
ISIS again. “I remember going to the Peshmerga soldiers who were
at the defenses and offering to help if ISIS attacked again,” Salam
recalled. “The Peshmerga officers told me they did not need help and
told me to go back to the town.”
Convinced by the church leaders that they should stay in Qeraqosh,
many of the town’s Christian residents settled in for what would be a
tense and life-changing night on August 6.
“Late in the night I started hearing the sounds of trucks in the
streets,” Salam said. “The sound woke me up, so I went outside to see
what was happening. To my surprise, I saw that the Peshmerga trucks
were leaving the town. When I went to the defense embankment, I saw
the place had been abandoned.”
Soon, it was discovered that the church leaders, who hours before
PERSECU ION.org
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
had convinced their followers to stay, were also gone. Feeling exposed
and fearing that ISIS could appear at any moment, most of Qeraqosh
fled with nothing more than what they could stuff into over-packed cars
or carry on their backs.
As the mass of Christians fled, the road to Erbil became jammed.
A journey that typically took two hours became an 11-hour, panicfilled
ordeal. The next morning, August 7, two trucks flying ISIS flags
entered an almost totally abandoned Qeraqosh and began what would
become a two-year occupation.
For the Christians from Qeraqosh, these events have been burned
into their collective conscious. For them, they were abandoned by
both the Peshmerga and their church leaders as ISIS was allowed
to take their homes and livelihoods. For most Christians from
Qeraqosh, this loss of trust in the people who were meant to lead
and protect them will continue to be one of the longest lasting and
most damaging effects of ISIS on their community.
5

You Can Help Today!
PERSECU ION.org
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
SEND DONATIONS TO:
ICC
PO BOX 8056
SILVER SPRING, MD 20907
OR ONLINE AT
WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG
OR BY PHONE
800-ICC-5441
GIVING TO ICC VIA
YOUR WILL
Provide now for a future gift to ICC
by including a bequest provision in
your will or revocable trust. If you
would like more information on giving
to ICC in this way, please give
us a call at 1-800-ICC-5441.
© Copyright 2017 ICC, Washington, D.C., USA.
All rights reserved. Permission to reproduce all
or part of this publication is granted provided
attribution is given to ICC as the source.
International Christian Concern (ICC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (all donations tax-deductible).
ICC makes every effort to honor donor wishes in regards to gifts. Occasionally, situations
arise where a project is no longer viable. ICC will then redirect those donated funds to the
fund most similar to the donor’s original wishes. ICC uses 7.5 percent of each restricted
donation to carry out the mission of its segregated funds.
facebook.com/persecuted
@persecutionnews