barnabasfund.org barnabasaid MAY/JUNE 2020 BARNABAS FUND - AID AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH - BRINGING HOPE TO SUFFERING CHRISTIANS EAST AFRICA AND ASIA UK PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW COVID-19 GLOBAL CRISIS “Perfect storm” of locust plague Barnabas Fund praised for best How the pandemic crisis is and coronavirus pandemic practice by British government affecting the persecuted Church SAVING GOD’S PEOPLE IN CRISIS What helps make Barnabas Fund distinctive from other The Barnabas Fund Distinctive Christian organisations that deal with persecution? We work by: ● Acting on behalf of the persecuted ● facilitate global intercession for Church, to be their voice - making their the persecuted Church by providing ● Directing our aid only to Christians, needs known to Christians around comprehensive prayer material although its benefits may not be the world and the injustice of their safeguard and protect our volunteers, exclusive to them (“As we have persecution known to governments and ● staff, partners and beneficiaries opportunity, let us do good to all international bodies people, especially to those who belong ● keep our overheads low to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10, emphasis added) We seek to: meet both practical and spiritual needs We believe: ● Channelling money from Christians ● we are called to address both religious and through Christians to Christians (we do encourage, strengthen and enable the ● ● secular ideologies that deny full religious not send people, we only send money) existing local Church and Christian liberty to Christian minorities - while communities - so they can maintain ● Channelling money through existing continuing to show God’s love to all people structures in the countries where their presence and witness rather funds are sent (e.g. local churches or than setting up our own structures or ● in the clear Biblical teaching that Christian organisations) sending out missionaries Christians should treat all people of all faiths with love and compassion, even tackle persecution at its root by making ● Using the money to fund projects ● those who seek to persecute them which have been developed by local known the aspects of other religions and Christians in their own communities, ideologies that result in injustice and ● in the power of prayer to change countries or regions oppression of Christians and others people’s lives and situations, either through grace to endure or through inform and enable Christians in the West ● Considering any request, however small ● deliverance from suffering to respond to the growing challenge of ● Acting as equal partners with the other religions and ideologies to Church, persecuted Church, whose leaders often “Whatever you did for one of the least society and mission in their own countries of these brothers and sisters of mine, help shape our overall direction you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) How to find us You may contact Barnabas Fund at the following addresses International Headquarters Germany Northern Ireland and South Africa The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, German supporters may send gifts for Republic of Ireland Office 301, 3rd Floor, Eikestad Mall, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Barnabas Fund via Hilfe für Brüder who Office 113, Russell Business Centre, 43 Andringa Street, Stellenbosch 7599 Telephone 01672 564938 will provide you with a tax-deductible 40-42 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 6AA Telephone +27 21 808 1668 Fax 01672 565030 receipt. Please mention that the donation Please send post to our UK office address. Email [email protected] From outside UK: is for “SPC 20 Barnabas Fund”. If you Telephone 07875 539003 UK Telephone +44 1672 564938 would like your donation to go to a Email [email protected] 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Fax +44 1672 565030 specific project of Barnabas Fund, please Singapore Telephone 024 7623 1923 Email [email protected] inform the Barnabas Fund office in Cheques in Singapore dollars payable to Fax 024 7683 4718 Pewsey, UK. “Olive Aid Trust” may be sent to: Olives Aid From outside the UK: Australia Account holder: Hilfe für Brüder Sdn Bhd, P.O. Box 03124, Subang Jaya, Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 PO Box 3527, Loganholme, QLD 4129 International e.V. 47507 Selangor, MALAYSIA Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Telephone (07) 3806 1076 Account number: 415 600 Singaporean supporters may send gifts for Email [email protected] or 1300 365 799 Bank: Evang Kreditgenossenschaft Barnabas Fund online via Olive Aid Trust: For a list of all trustees, please contact Barnabas Email [email protected] Stuttgart Beneficiary: OLIVE AID TRUST Fund UK at the Coventry address above. IBAN: DE89520604100000415600 Bank Name: United Overseas Bank USA BIC: GENODEF1EK1 (Malaysia) Berhad 80 Abbeyville Road, Lancaster PA 17603 New Zealand Swift Code: UOVBMYKL Telephone (703) 288-1681 PO Box 276018, Manukau City, Location: KUALA LUMPUR or toll-free 1-866-936-2525 Auckland 2241 Account Number: 140-901-654-0 Email [email protected] Barnabas Fund Australia is a Telephone (09) 280 4385 charitable institution but gifts are not To donate by credit card please visit the website or 0800 008 805 tax deductible ABN 70 005 572 485 www.barnabasfund.org/au or phone the Queensland office Email [email protected] on 1300 365 799 or (07) 3806 1076 barnabasaid the magazine To guard the safety of Christians in Front Cover: Christians from hostile environments, names may have north-east India of Barnabas Fund been changed or omitted. Thank you for your understanding. Published by Barnabas Aid Every effort has been made to trace 1934 Old Gallows Road Suite 350 copyright holders and obtain permission Vienna, VA 22182, USA for stories and images used in this Email [email protected] publication. Barnabas Fund apologises for any errors or omissions and will © Barnabas Aid 2020 be grateful for any further information For permission to reproduce articles regarding copyright. from this magazine, please contact Unless otherwise stated, Scripture the International Headquarters quotations are taken from the address above. New International Version®. Editorial Contents Coronavirus. Pandemic. Death has been 4 Lockdown. Social distancing. The plight of Christians in the swallowed up in victory midst of the Covid-19 crisis (1 Corinthians 15:54) Barnabas Coronavirus 9 Emergency Network ovid-19, spread so quickly round our little planet by the ease of modern The Barnabas’ emergency travel, will bring thousands or millions to their grave sooner than would committee is monitoring the evolving have happened without the new virus. We live in frightening times. Alarm coronavirus crisis worldwide C and despondency now grip whole nations. Extreme and painful measures, never before known, are laid on us by our governments, in a desperate effort to combat the invisible enemy. Barnabas’ Covid-19 But let us remember Easter morning and the empty tomb. For Christians, death is 10 aid response merely the gateway to glory, to a place where there will be no more death or mourning How your gifts are helping poor and or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4). persecuted Christians affected by the Death lost its sting when Jesus died to take away our sins. As the apostle Paul tells Covid-19 emergency us, it has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). The Lord’s trustworthiness Rob Congdon, an American missionary doctor in Kenya, has described the strong spirituality that is sustaining many East African Christians in the midst of the coronavirus: “There is a remarkable, steadfast faith in God’s goodness, even in the midst of the shaking. People who’ve learned to trust God in the uncertainty of tropical disease, civil war, and hunger, develop an unshakeable awareness of the Lord’s trustworthiness.” For many Kenyan Christians have lived with poverty as the norm, and all too often drought and famine. Then there is the violence of Al-Shabaab terrorists, seeking out 10 Christians to kill them. This year has already seen swarms of locusts devouring crops, and a second generation, far more numerous than the first, is due to hatch from their eggs in late April or early May. Between one generation of locusts and the next, coronavirus Coronavirus: arrived in Kenya. Kenyan Christians have learned to trust God for survival every day. 12 coping with fear They already had a spiritual strength and resilience, a practical trust in their heavenly Remaining faithful and courageous Father, which prepared them for the surprise new uncertainty and danger of Covid-19. in the face of fear It is the same for poor or persecuted Christians in many other countries as well: the coronavirus adds yet one more challenge to their suffering. (Read more about this on pages 4-8.) Coronavirus: Those of us who are used to security and plenty must learn that same concrete faith. 13 coping with dying We now live in an age when everyone suffers, Christian and non-Christian, rich and A supportive guide for families in poor, prince and pauper, for the virus does not discriminate. We are faced with definite these testing times restriction of lifestyle, likely sickness and possible death. What can we do but turn to our God and trust Him? Project Joseph: Save God’s Divine Providence – the missing doctrine 14 people from starvation Long ago the “tube” trains of the London Underground’s District Line used to carry Locust plague and coronavirus the letters DV inside each carriage, meaning “God willing” (Deo volente in Latin). It place millions at risk of famine in was an acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God. We may make our travel plans or East Africa and Pakistan other plans, but it is God who is in control. Divine Providence is the missing doctrine of the Western Church today. What is Divine Providence? It is the belief that we are in God’s hands.