Patriotism

I love this country. The more I've traveled around the world, the more history I read, the older I get...the more I know our country is unique, special and blessed.

Freedom is something we have and we have no idea what it's like NOT to have. In order to fully understand what it's like to not have freedom one must travel. Other countries' laws are different from ours. Their understanding of what is expected of their government, the services to their people is very unlike ours. Have those rights and freedoms, not just taken away but, not appreciated or endowed to individuals should be a wake-up call to U.S. citizens traveling abroad.

Two years ago the kids studied U.S. History. My favorite book we read was Johnny Tremain. It's packed away in the basement, otherwise I would open it and write my favorite quote from it. Samuel Adams is explaining to (I think) Johnny why the fight against the British is so important, so vital to not only the Americans but the whole world. It is a fight for freedom that will echo around the world and serve as a role model for the way governments should serve their people. So this fight, the revolutionary war is not a selfish endeavour and should not be abandoned when all hope is perceived lost.

Several years ago I was attending a youth group meeting at South Pasadena Calvary Presbyterian Church. I don't remember who was the leader. He took us up to the darkened balcony of the church. Maybe ten of us were huddled in the pews listening to the youth leader talk about Jesus when suddenly masked men stormed into our meeting and "arrested" us. We were told we were participating in an illegal public gathering and that we would be questioned to find out who was the leader of our group.

Of course that was all role playing. We were imagining what life was like behind the Iron Curtain (you remember the Iron Curtain, don't you?). That night has stuck with me for years, okay a lot of years! In the U.S. we never fear that invasion. In Burma, Uzbekistan, or Sudan they do.

A couple months ago I emailed a letter to my Senator and State Representative asking them to consider their position on the war and encouraged them to support the President's position. I received a letter back from Barack Obama and never feared a knock at my door questioning my loyalty or my ability to question Obama's service as my senator. There was a freedom to speak my mind and not fear reprecussions.

I love our country. I get irritated when I read, listen, or see some who disagree with my opinion but I honor that they can freely speak! Regardless of how much they rant and rave with their messed up opinions (or I do the same) the fact is they can and there is nothing to fear.

Exercise your freedom. Take advantage of it. Don't silence your voice. It was given to you 231 years ago today.

Corrections

I tend to believe letters/blogs. I don't have the resources/time to investigate the validity. So when I passed on the letter regarding the martyrs in Turkey I took it to be accurate. Now I find out this is not so. But this blog entry isn't about me it's about correcting a few factual errors. The murders did occur but the gross descriptions were not accurate. Here is a correction. And keep praying for the families, the church, believers throughout other Muslim lands and especially for those involved directly in these murders - for the young men who now must relive the horror of their acts for the rest of their lives. Please pray that they would know Jesus' forgiveness, to receive it deep in their souls.

From: G_____ Z_____, pastor of Diyarbakir Church
30 April 2007 Diyarbakir, Turkey

Dear brothers and sisters,

I greet you in the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord abundantly bless you, your families, your churches, and your work.

We know and appreciate very much your heart for us.

Brothers and sisters, in the last ten days we have experienced very painful moments, which words cannot begin to express. Our painful experience has shown us that our lives are as the Lord describes: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” For this reason we have understood one more time how holy and close to the Lord we should live our lives.

We have also understood that our society is easily given to emotion and that in such painful moments some people, whether intentionally or not, report certain events inaccurately and we have not prevented this or have not been able to do so.

When the Malatya massacre happened, we, the brothers from Diyarbakir, besides those already on the scene at the time of the crime, were the first to get there. When we got to Malatya, our brother Ugur was still alive, but his condition was critical. Around 5:30 PM Ugur entrusted his spirit to the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, that painful moment has slowly come into perspective for us so that now we have begun to see some things as we should. For example, it appears that those who murdered or arranged for the murder of these brothers are getting what they hoped for. By means of our reactions we may unwittingly help them. If we do not bring the facts into the light, these people will end up getting what they desired.

Brothers Tilmann, Necati, and Ugur were murdered in a bloodthirsty way. This is a fact. But there are also some inaccurate claims about this massacre and one of these is the extent of the torture. According to rumors, brother Tilmann was stabbed with a knife 156 times. Brother Ugur had countless knife wounds, it has been said. These rumors, however, are unfounded. At the morgue we wanted to put brother Tilmann’s body, which was in a plastic bag, into the coffin, but the officials and police did not like this. “It is sinful to do it this way, we should wrap the corpse in a shroud,” they said. I accepted this idea and did what was right in their eyes. I asked them for a shroud (white cloth) and the officials moved Tilmann’s body out of the plastic bag, which they placed to the side. I took advantage of this opportunity to examine brother Tilmann’s body as far down as his stomach. I did not see any knife wounds. Only Tilmann’s throat had been slit 8-10 centimeters and there was the stitched autopsy incision down the middle of Tilmann’s chest. Unfortunately there are very different rumors circulating about brothers Tilmann and Necati. It has been said that their noses, lips, and ears were cut. These rumors do not reflect the truth.

I telephoned our brother D_____ M_____ in Adana because I knew he had seen brother Tilmann’s body. I asked him about the knife wounds on brother Tilmann’s body. D_____ said to me, “Brother, I came across three or four knife blows in the chest area. I didn’t see his back. On his face I can’t say there were knife wounds, but scratches, maybe from hitting his face when he fell down.”

I knew that A_____ P_____ from Ankara had seen bodies. I asked him which bodies he had seen and he said, “I saw the chest area of both Tilmann and Necati. I saw purple [from bruising] on Necati’s lips and chin, but I did not see knife wounds. I looked at brother Tilmann’s chest, but I did not see knife wounds.”

These are the statments of those [who] saw the bodies of these two brothers.

It is true that our brothers were knifed and tortured. But it was not to the extent of statements such as “too many wounds to count, beyond description.”

Apparently, D_____ M_____ looked more carefully than brother A_____ and I did. D_____ saw three or four knife wounds in the chest.

No one saw brother Ugur’s body because on the night of the same day the murder happened, around midnight, his family took his body for burial.

I believe that brother Ugur had knife wounds similar to those of our other two brothers.

It has been said that Ugur was stabbed all over his body, including his genitals. I do not believe this. You may ask why I don’t believe this.

I think someone stabbed this much would die on the spot. Ugur would not have been able to remain alive until 5:30 PM if he had been stabbed so much. That nothing abnormal happened to Ugur can be understood [from the fact that] exaggerated statements have been about our other two brothers, too.

Therefore, we reach the following conclusion: yes, these brothers were tortured, but not to the extent that has been explained.

We are sons and daughters of the truth. Unfortunately unfounded news reports and media exaggerations have now gone out all over the world. Our brothers and sisters and people sensitive [to such news] have been misinformed. We do not intend to offend anyone. But wh[atev]er the true facts are, let us report them without exaggeration. Let people everywhere think about the plain facts.
Who started these exaggerated facts [about the Malatya massacre]? We purpose two possibilities:

1. Those who perpetrated the crime planned this [the spreading of exaggerated facts] from the beginning and the murderers were simply tools for these people [who had planned to blow the murder into exaggerated proportions]. The goal of those who planned this murder and the exaggerated claims was both to frighten the Christians living in Turkey, causing them to shrink back and be timid, and to humiliate Turkey as a country that invites and causes such bloodthirty massacre, thereby damaging Turkey’s chances of entering the European Union and making matters worse in the country. Furthermore, [the planners of this massacre] wanted to give the government and our people the impression that Christians distort and exaggerate everything.
2. In every situation we see that the media either totally disregards something we say or totally exploits it. We investigated the bloody clothing that was submitted to the public as the underclothing of our brothers. None of this clothing belonged to our brothers. That clothing had been taken off the bodies of people shot to death weeks earlier. But what did the media do? They took this clothing and presented it as freshly removed from the bodies of our brothers. Is there anyone who does not yet know about the exaggerations and sometimes boldfaced lies of the media?

Therefore, brothers and sisters, if we do not explain the true facts to you our hearts will not find peace. I have written this report because I have read exaggerated or unfounded facts in news both home and abroad. The true facts are those in this report. Before sending these facts to you, as you will see below, I have requested statements from our brothers A_____ P_____ and D_____ M_____. I have had these statements translated from English in order to pass them on to you.

May the Lord bless you abundantly.

G_____ Z_____, pastor of Diyarbakir Church

Martyrs in Turkey

If I hear one more "theologian" explain that all religions are good, and lead to the same God, I'm going to scream. If I hear one more time from Rosie O'Donnell and others believe that fundamental Christians in our country are just like radical Muslims, I'm going to explode.

Christianity is NOT like any other faith out there. Study it, study others. You will see blatant discrepancies. Especially when other faiths call on their believers to slit throats, burn alive, chop off heads, beat, kick, rape, steal from individuals who've left their faith to become Christians. And the same to Christians, who come into a culture already being Christian.

Please read this. It's long but worthy of your next ten minutes. Then pray - for the families, for the village, for the Muslims who are guilty of these murders.

Dear friends,

This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26).

On Wednesday morning, April 18, 2007, 46-year-old German missionary and father of three Tilman Geske prepared to go to his office, kissing his wife goodbye taking a moment to hug his son and give him the priceless memory, “Goodbye, son. I love you."

Tilman rented an office space from Zirve Publishing where he was preparing notes for the new Turkish Study Bible. Zirve was also the location of the Malatya Evangelist Church office. A ministry of the church, Zirve prints and distributes Christian literature to Malatya and nearby cities in Eastern Turkey. In another area of town, 35-year-old Pastor Necati Aydin, father of two, said goodbye to his wife, leaving for the office as well. They had a morning Bible Study and prayer meeting that some other believers in town would also be attending. Ugur Yuksel likewise made his way to the Bible study.

None of these three men knew that what awaited them at the Bible study was the ultimate testing and application of their faith, which would conclude with their entrance into glory to receive their crown of righteousness from Christ and honour from all the saints awaiting them in the Lord's presence.

On the other side of town, ten young men all under 20 years old put into place final arrangements for their ultimate act of faith, living out their love for Allah and hatred of infidels who they felt undermined Islam.

On Resurrection Sunday, five of these men had been to a by-invitation-only evangelistic service that Pastor Necati and his men had arranged at a hotel conference room in the city. The men were known to the believers as "seekers." No one knows what happened in the hearts of those men as they listened to the gospel. Were they touched by the Holy Spirit? Were they convicted of sin? Did they hear the gospel in their heart of hearts? Today we only have the beginning of their story.

These young men, one of whom is the son of a mayor in the Province of Malatya, are part of a tarikat, or a group of "faithful believers" in Islam. Tarikat membership is highly respected here; it's like a fraternity membership. In fact, it is said that no one can get into public office without membership in a tarikat. These young men all lived in the same dorm, all preparing for university entrance exams.

The young men got guns, bread knives, ropes and towels ready for their final act of service to Allah. They knew there would be a lot of blood. They arrived in time for the Bible Study, around 10 o'clock.

They arrived, and apparently the Bible Study began. Reportedly, after Necati read a chapter from the Bible the assault began. The boys tied Ugur, Necati, and Tilman's hands and feet to chairs and as they videoed their work on their cellphones, they tortured our brothers for almost three hours.

---NOTICE: The following paragraph contains GRAPHIC DETAILS of the torture---

Tilman was stabbed 156 times, Necati 99 times and Ugur's stabs were too numerous to count. They were disembowelled, and their intestines sliced up in front of their eyes. They were emasculated and watched as those body parts were destroyed. Fingers were chopped off, their noses and mouths and anuses were sliced open. Possibly the worst part was watching as their brothers were likewise tortured. Finally, their throats were sliced from ear to ear, heads practically decapitated.

--- END GRAPHIC ---

Neighbours in workplaces near the print house said later they had heard yelling, but assumed the owners were having a domestic argument so they did not respond.

Meanwhile, another believer, Gokhan, and his wife had a leisurely morning. He slept in till 10, ate a long breakfast and finally around 12:30 he and his wife arrived at the office. The door was locked from the inside, and his key would not work. He phoned and though it had connection on his end he did not hear the phone ringing inside. He called cell phones of his brothers and finally Ugur answered his phone. "We are not at the office. Go to the hotel meeting. We are there. We will come there," he said cryptically. As Ugur spoke Gokhan heard in the telephone's background weeping and a strange snarling sound.

He phoned the police, and the nearest officer arrived in about five minutes. He pounded on the door, "Police, open up!" Initially the officer thought it was a domestic disturbance. At that point they heard another snarl and a gurgling moan. The police understood that sound as human suffering, prepared the clip in his gun and tried over and over again to burst through the door. One of the frightened assailants unlocked the door for the policeman, who entered to find a grisly scene.

Tilman and Necati had been slaughtered, practically decapitated, with their necks slit from ear to ear. Ugur's throat was likewise slit and he was barely alive.

Three assailants in front of the policeman dropped their weapons.

Meanwhile Gokhan heard a sound of yelling in the street. Someone had fallen from their third story office. Running down, he found a man on the ground, whom he later recognized, named Emre Gunaydin. He had massive head trauma and, strangely, was snarling. He had tried to climb down the drainpipe to escape, and losing his balance had plummeted to the ground. It seems that he was the main leader of the attackers. Another assailant was found hiding on a lower balcony.

To untangle the web we need to back up six years. In April 2001, the National Security Council of Turkey (Milli Guvenlik Kurulu) began to consider evangelical Christians as a threat to national security, on equal footing as Al Quaida and PKK terrorism. Statements made in the press by political leaders, columnists and commentators have fueled a hatred against missionaries who they claim bribe young people to change their religion.

After that decision in 2001, attacks and threats on churches, pastors and Christians began. Bombings, physical attacks, verbal and written abuse are only some of the ways Christians are being targeted. Most significant is the use of media propaganda.

From December 2005, after having a long meeting regarding the Christian threat, the wife of Former Prime Minister Ecevit, historian Ilber Ortayli, Professor Hasan Unsal, Politician Ahmet Tan and writer/propogandist Aytunc Altindal, each in their own profession began a campaign to bring the public's attention to the looming threat of Christians who sought to "buy their children's souls". Hidden cameras in churches have taken church service footage and used it sensationally to promote fear and antagonism toward Christianity.

In an official televised response from Ankara, the Interior Minister of Turkey smirked as he spoke of the attacks on our brothers. Amid public outrage and protests against the event and in favour of freedom of religion and freedom of thought, media and official comments ring with the same message, "We hope you have learned your lesson. We do not want Christians here."

It appears that this was an organized attack initiated by an unknown adult tarikat leader. As in the Hrant Dink murder in January 2007, and a Catholic priest Andrea Santoro in February 2006, minors are being used to commit religious murders because public sympathy for youth is strong and they face lower penalties than an adult convicted of the same crime. Even the parents of these children are in favour of the acts. The mother of the 16 year old boy who killed the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro looked at the cameras as her son was going to prison and said, "he will serve time for Allah."

The young men involved in the killing are currently in custody. Today news reported that they would be tried as terrorists, so their age would not affect the strict penalty. Assailant Emre Gunaydin is still in intensive care. The investigation centers around him and his contacts and they say will fall apart if he does not recover.

The Church in Turkey responded in a way that honoured God as hundreds of believers and dozens of pastors flew in as fast as they could to stand by the small church of Malatya and encourage the believers, take care of legal issues, and represent Christians to the media.

When Susanne Tilman expressed her wish to bury her husband in Malatya, the Governor tried to stop it, and when he realized he could not stop it, a rumor was spread that "it is a sin to dig a grave for a Christian." In the end, in an undertaking that should be remembered in Christian history forever, the men from the church in Adana (near Tarsus), grabbed shovels and dug a grave for their slain brother in an un-tended hundred year old Armenian graveyard.

Ugur was buried by his family in an Alevi Muslim ceremony in his hometown of Elazig, his believing fiance watching from the shadows as his family and friends refused to accept in death the faith Ugur had so long professed and died for.

Necati's funeral took place in his hometown of Izmir, the city where he came to faith. The darkness does not understand the light. Though the churches expressed their forgiveness for the event, Christians were not to be trusted. Before they would load the coffin onto the plane from Malatya, it went through two separate xray exams to make sure it was not loaded with explosives. This is not a usual procedure for Muslim coffins.

Necati's funeral was a beautiful event. Like a glimpse of heaven, thousands of Turkish Christians and missionaries came to show their love for Christ, and their honor for this man chosen to die for Christ. Necati's wife Shemsa told the world, "His death was full of meaning, because he died for Christ and he lived for Christ. Necati was a gift from God. I feel honoured that he was in my life, I feel crowned with honour. I want to be worthy of that honour."

Boldly the believers took their stand at Necati's funeral, facing the risks of being seen publicly and likewise becoming targets. As expected, the anti-terror police attended and videotaped everyone attending the funeral for their future use. The service took place outside at Buca Baptist church, and he was buried in a small Christian graveyard in the outskirts of Izmir.

Two assistant Governors of Izmir were there solemnly watching the event from the front row. Dozens of news agencies were there documenting the events with live news and photographs. Who knows the impact the funeral had on those watching? This is the beginning of their story as well. Pray for them.

In an act that hit front pages in the largest newspapers in Turkey, Susanne Tilman in a television interview expressed her forgiveness. She did not want revenge, she told reporters. "Oh God, forgive them for they know not what they do," she said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the words of Christ on Calvary (Luke 23:34).

In a country where blood-for-blood revenge is as normal as breathing, many many reports have come to the attention of the church of how this comment of Susanne Tilman has changed lives. One columnist wrote of her comment, "She said in one sentence what 1000 missionaries in 1000 years could never do."

The missionaries in Malatya will most likely move out, as their families and children have become publicly identified as targets to the hostile city. The remaining 10 believers are in hiding. What will happen to this church, this light in the darkness? Most likely it will go underground. Pray for wisdom, that Turkish brothers from other cities will go to lead the leaderless church. Should we not be concerned for that great city of Malatya, a city that does not know what it is doing? (Jonah 4:11)

When our Pastor Fikret Bocek went with a brother to give a statement to the Security Directorate on Monday they were ushered into the Anti-Terror Department. On the wall was a huge chart covering the whole wall listing all the terrorist cells in Izmir, categorized. In one prominent column were listed all the evangelical churches in Izmir. The darkness does not understand the light. "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also."(Acts 17:6)

Please pray for the Church in Turkey. "Don't pray against persecution, pray for perseverence," urges Pastor Fikret Bocek.

The Church is better having lost our brothers; the fruit in our lives, the renewed faith, the burning desire to spread the gospel to quench more darkness in Malatya: all these are not to be regretted. Pray that we stand strong against external opposition and especially pray that we stand strong against internal struggles with sin, our true debilitating weakness.

This we know. Christ Jesus was there when our brothers were giving their lives for Him. He was there, like He was when Stephen was being stoned in the sight of Saul of Tarsus.

Someday the video of the deaths of our brothers may reveal more to us about the strength that we know Christ gave them to endure their last cross, about the peace the Spirit of God endowed them with to suffer for their beloved Saviour. But we know He did not leave their side. We know their minds were full of Scripture strengthening them to endure, as darkness tried to subdue the unsubduable Light of the Gospel. We know, in whatever way they were able, with a look or a word, they encouraged one another to stand strong. We know they knew they would soon be with Christ.

We don't know the details. We don't know the kind of justice that will or will not be served on this earth.

But we pray--and urge you to pray--that someday at least one of those five boys will come to faith because of the testimony in death of Tilman Geske, who gave his life as a missionary to his beloved Turks, and the testimonies in death of Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel, the first martyrs for Christ out of the Turkish Church.

Reported by Darlene N. Bocek (24 April 2007)

Please please please pass this on to as many praying Christians as you can, in as many countries as you can.

Please always keep the heading as: "From the Protestant Church of Smyrna" with this contact information: izmirprotestan@gmail.com, http://www.izmirprotestan.org (in Turkish).

This is Holy Week

When my husband serves communion he reminds the congregation that what we are doing is something that has been done for centuries and by countless cultures. It is what binds us to our brothers and sisters in Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Kenya and Paraguay. Our services may be in Swahili, Uzbek, Portuguese or French but we are all remembering and partaking of God through His Son Jesus Christ. Regardless of our language, how we dress, what we eat, how we live, if we are believers in Christ, we are family. And as family we are called to pray for one another. Holy Week is aan appropriate time (anytime is really) to remember our family who is suffering because they call Jesus their LORD. www.compassdirect.org relays stories of the church around the world. Here is one such story that must cause us to pause and pray.

NIGERIA: MUSLIM EXTREMISTS SET CHURCH ON FIRE
Fifteen more churches marked for burning following murder of Christian teacher.

Rev. Rukun Gaius
GOMBE, Nigeria, March 29 (Compass Direct News) – Two days after the killing of a Christian teacher in this town in northern Nigeria, Muslim extremists set fire to a church building of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) in the Chanchanya section.

The Rev. Rukun Gaius, 50, chairman of the Gombe district of the ECWA, told Compass that a large number of Muslim extremists went to the church on Friday night (March 23) and set it on fire, gutting the sanctuary.

“The Muslims came to the church premises at about 11 p.m. to set the church on fire,” Rev. Gaius said. “People around the area and some of our members who saw the church burning rushed there put it out, but by then much damage had already been done to the building.”

The 500 members of the church must now “worship and conduct their church programs in the open,” Rev. Gaius said.

Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin, a teacher at Government Secondary School of Gandu in Gombe, was clubbed to death by Muslim students and outside extremists on March 21 after a student accused her of desecrating the Quran by touching a copy.

Rev. Gaius, who is also vice chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Gombe state chapter, said security reports to CAN show that Muslim extremists have marked out 15 more churches to be burned down.

“We have received security reports that 15 more churches have been earmarked to be burned, and that’s why you met us holding the emergency meeting at the Bishop’s Court [residence of the Anglican bishop of Gombe diocese],” he said.

The Gombe district of the ECWA has about 15,000 members and 57 local congregations.

The burning of the sanctuary of the ECWA church in Chanchanya, Rev. Gaius said, is not the first in the state. Arson and other attacks on Christians have characterized their lives for years, he said.

“Last year during protests against cartoons by a Danish newspaper, some of our churches were burned and Christians were attacked,” he said. “The ECWA church at Kagarawal was burned, another ECWA church at Nafada was also burned, this church has about 300 members; and Bishara Baptist Church in Gombe was also burned.”

In 2005, Rev. Gaius said, an ECWA church in Kagarawal was also set on fire.

“And in 2003,” he said, “a Christian student by the name of Yakubu Lanu was brutally killed at Government Science Secondary School in Gombe town, when Muslims said they were protesting the plan to build a chapel by Christian students of the school.”

Muslims protested the plan to build a chapel at the school even though there was a mosque for Muslim students, he said.

“Our religious rights are being violated daily,” Gaius said, and the government “has not made effort to protect us.” Rather, the Islamic government of the state encourages discrimination and crimes against Christians, he said.

The problems confronting Christians, he said, are related to the state having adopted sharia (Islamic law), which “encourages persecution of Christians.”

“There are no CRS [Christian Religious Studies] teachers in government schools, and yet there are Islamic Religious Studies teachers in all government schools in this state,” he said. “This is so even when there are Christian students in such government schools.”

The Islamic government discriminates against Christians even though the state population is half Christian, he said.

“You may find that where there are 10 Muslim commissioners appointed by the government, only about four may be appointed from the Christian community,” Rev. Gaius said. “And this is happening in a state with a population of about 2 million persons, with both Muslims and Christians constituting the population equally.”

Acquiring property to build sanctuaries is another pressing problem facing Christians in Gombe.

“Getting land here for churches is a difficult thing,” he said. “As a result, lack of worship places have made Christians to be trekking long distance to attend worship services in the few available churches.”

Rev. Gaius said the government has adopted policies that deliberately frustrate Christian churches from acquiring properties.

“We have applied to buy land from the government, since land law places ownership of land on the government, but no such land has been sold to the churches, nor have approvals been given to us to even develop properties we have purchased from individuals,” Gaius said.

As members of ECWA churches are either workers or farmers, church programs have to be designed so that congregants attend in the evenings; this, in turn, requires that worship centers be close to their homes, he said.

“In Chanchanya, where our church has just been burned by Muslim fanatics, over the years we sought to buy another land to enable us to build a second church, but the government has not given us approval to build the church,” Rev. Gaius said. “In this same area, there are six mosques built for the Muslims.”

Moreover, he said, the land where the ECWA was to build the church has been taken over by the government and allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Lack of land for the churches has affected all churches in Gombe state and is endemic in the towns of Gombe and Kwami,” he said.

Muslim converts to the Christian faith face intense persecution from family members and the larger Muslim community of the state, he added.

“We have 15 Muslim converts into the Christian faith. They were to be killed by other Muslims, and so we had to take them in,” he said. “They are currently in other safer towns in the country.”