Persecution and Hope

A letter from Barry and Shelly Dawson serving as Regional Liaisons for Southeast Asia, based in Thailand

November 2015

Before Chakra left his mountain village and traveled more than 2,000 kilometers to another Southeast Asian country, where the promise of a new job and the hope of a better future awaited him, he had been loved by his family and respected by his tribal neighbors.  He and his young wife had been married only three years and already had an infant son and another child who would be born before the next harvest.

Scratching out a living by farming a small patch of land was a backbreaking grind that caused him no small amount of worry.

Protesting extra-judicial killings and injustices in Southeast Asia

So when Chakra heard about the possibility of working in a factory where he could earn more money in two years than he could in ten years of farming the nearby slopes, he decided that he must go for the sake of his family and their future.

So why now, after his return to his home village, was he on the cold ground in a fetal position, feeling excruciating pain in his muscle-weary back as his father and older brother beat him mercilessly with hard bamboo poles?  What had he done? Why were his attackers—the people he loved—treating him with such raw hostility and brutal punishment?  Answer: Because he had told them that while he was working in the factory in a foreign country he had come to believe in his heart that Jesus was the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Chakra had told his family that now he is a Christian.

Jesus declared: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely on my account   (Matthew 5:10-11).

Using the Savior’s paradoxical calculus of persecution = blessing, we can state unequivocally that each week throughout Southeast Asia there are numerous Christians who are receiving the backhanded blessing that results from suffering physical abuse, emotional trauma, social isolation, and economic hardship because they dare to claim that they are followers of Jesus Christ.  As we travel throughout our nine-country region of responsibility, we continue to be humbled and inspired by the heartbreaking stories of courageous Christians who endure multi-layered suffering for the joys of loving and serving Christ the Lord.

I am persecuted without cause; help me! They have almost made an end of me on earth; but I have not forsaken your precepts  (Psalm 119:86b-87).

Sunti seemed to be having a recurring nightmare, even when the sun was shining brightly and his eyes were fully open. Across the five decades of his life, he had seen the plundering of his ancestors’ lands as multinational corporations rapaciously extracted the precious natural resources hidden below the earth’s surface. As a respected leader in his indigenous people group and an elder in his church, he had stood in solidarity with their pastor who courageously spoke out against the government’s dual strategy of protecting the multinational corporate interests while intimidating the local ethnic minorities by stationing military troops next to their community school, and then later closing the school. When paramilitary forces killed key community leaders more than 500 of Sunti’s  neighbors fled to a church-sponsored evacuation site in a nearby town. Astonishingly, the Christian advocates who provided sanctuary for those hundreds of internally displaced people were themselves arrested on trumped-up charges, including coercion, kidnapping, and human trafficking! In Southeast Asia those who advocate for the powerless and dare to speak truth to power are frequently labeled as subversives and targeted as enemies.

How long must your servant endure? (Psalm 119:84a).

A forum on “Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Land and Dignity of Life”

Before they were married, Ligaya’s future husband once asked her, “Are you willing to be separated from me when we are married, perhaps for months or years at a time?” It seemed like such a strange question to ask the woman you were going to marry.  Yet now, many years later, they were enduring a second painful separation

while her husband, a Christian pastor, was imprisoned for two months. He had tried to follow the strict government rules designed to contain and control all minority faiths within the country, but surveillance was ubiquitous and informants could be bought for the equivalent of a few dollars.  Even though the charges against him could not be substantiated, still specious allegations were enough to secure his detention for months.

[Disclosure: For reasons of safety and security, the names, locations, and some details in these stories have been changed, conflated, or constructed into composite identities and situations in order to illustrate the real and present dangers facing Christian believers in Southeast Asia.  This intentional masking of identities and commingling of facts makes the dangers no less real and the persecutions no less inhumane.]

Realism and Hope in Southeast Asia:  During the past year Christians in Southeast Asia have suffered persecution when their churches were burned by arsonists and their loved ones were killed by grenades tossed into a midweek church prayer meeting. Yet, in the midst of such personal suffering and daunting challenges for the Christian community, there are reasons for hope. First and foremost is the unflinching resolve of courageous Christians who cling to their faith in Jesus Christ as they endure persecution. Such bold witnesses inspire other believers and sometimes serve as egregious examples of human rights violations that are increasingly reported by international watchdog organizations. Second, faith-based associations, United Nations agencies, and regional organizations are increasingly working together to protect the freedom of religion and belief for all citizens in Southeast Asia. In fact, one month ago Bangkok hosted an inaugural conference that produced a declaration that affirmed, in keeping with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that “freedom of religion or belief is an inalienable, non-derogable right, encompassing the right to hold or not to hold any faith or belief, to change belief, and to be free from coercion….”  It was a small, yet significant, step on a long journey for religious freedom in Southeast Asia.

Let us pray for all Christians who suffer for their faith in numerous countries in Southeast Asia.

An Invitation to Share in Our Ministry: As we continue to build deeper mission connections throughout our nine-country region of Southeast Asia, we invite you to join our team of partners who support us with prayers, financial contributions, and encouraging correspondence. Your support is vital to our mission work, and your designated gifts will provide direct funding to support our mission work. Recently we have been notified of the 2015 funding level of the sending and support for our mission position.  Unfortunately, even at this late date in the year, our ministry has not been fully funded for 2015. Will you please pray about this situation?  If possible, will you consider increasing your gift for this year?  Would you consider advocating for our ministry with neighboring congregations or other individuals to see if they would partner in support of God’s mission in Southeast Asia? We would deeply appreciate your help in these significant ways.

Thank you for your prayers, your contributions and your correspondence.

In Christ’s Joy,
Barry and Shelly

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 235