The key to evangelism in the New World is the same as it was in the first century—creating environments where people who don’t know God can spend time with people who do. But most of the time, that doesn’t happen.

Instead, we think we’re supposed to evangelize, then disciple. That’s not what happened in the Bible. In Acts, we see 3,000 people converted at Pentecost. We say, “Wow! Look at this, they get baptized and go crazy!” But they were all pre-discipled. Here in the 21st century, we’ve gotten it backwards. When you start to evangelize to people outside of Christianity, you can’t start with the “final step” of the process. So many people want to see effective evangelism in a non-Christian environment by starting with the end rather than the beginning.

ON CREATING A COMPELLING COMMUNITY

The Church should be astonishing our culture and creating a community that is so warm, inviting and nurturing of people’s gifts, talents, creativity and imagination, that it magnetizes people to want to step in. This happens by building experiences that explain biblical truths in a way that people who don’t know God, or have just come to know Him, will understand.

At our church in Los Angeles, which is 82 percent single and tends to reach people in this emerging, postmodern culture, our strategy for reaching out to unbelievers is discipling people before they come to faith. We create a community that is so compelling that people without Christ want to be there with us. For example, we take a trip to Ensenada, Mexico, where we serve the poor. Do you have to know God to serve the poor? No. So we take everyone down for three days. They may begin the trip hating Christ but wanting to serve the poor. But they come back overwhelmed by the fact that we as believers would help the needy.

ON WORSHIPPING NONBELIEVERS

One of the wonderful things that happens when you create this kind of community is that unbelievers will come just because they want to stand in the middle of this kind of experience.

My friend, Wesley, who was a Chinese atheist, came to our church, and it took him three years to come to a faith in Jesus Christ. He read everything in the Bible. He came to worship, even raising his hands. He was a worshipping nonbeliever.

At one point, Wesley told me he was leaving the church because I wouldn’t baptize him. I told him that we really think people need to believe in Jesus and be His follower before we baptize them. He told me he was going to another church and that he had realized he was “enough of a Christian for most churches.”

I asked him, “Do you feel loved at our church?” He said he did. So I asked him to stay with the people that loved and accepted him until he was ready to make a real commitment. He stayed, and a year later, became a follower of Christ. But he would never have come to that decision if we had expected him to first become a Christian before we discipled him.

ON OVERFED CHRISTIANS AND UNDERFED NONBELIEVERS

My conviction is that we over-teach Christians and under-teach non-Christians. I am so sick of Christians saying, “I want to be fed.” To that, I say, “You’re fat! Go exercise your faith!” We’re intellectually arrogant, and we think we’re walking with God if we know the Bible well.

I think the problem with many “teaching” churches is that they focus on teaching only the Christians. If we were more effective in teaching the unbelievers, wouldn’t that also benefit the Christians? Perhaps the believers would finally learn how to communicate with an unbeliever. The tragedy in the Church is that we tend to bow to the Christians and let the unbelievers die and go to hell.

ON DEVELOPING AMAZING EVANGELISTS

Pastors don’t need to focus on making their people evangelistic. Instead, focus on getting your people to follow Jesus. When they fall in love with Him, they will become amazing evangelists. I think that many churches are stuck trying to be good citizens rather than followers of Christ. What we need is revolution, and until we stop trying to be “good citizens,” we’ll never redeem first-century Christianity.

On a practical level, pastors need to start calling people to the abundance of life that Jesus invites us to and to recognize that the Christians who were crucified by the Roman Empire were usually not considered “good citizens.” If you’re not doing anything to make people uncomfortable with your life, you may not be doing anything at all.

Erwin Raphael McManus serves as lead pastor and cultural architect of Mosaic in Los Angeles. As a national and international consultant, his expertise focuses on culture, change, leadership and creativity. He partners with Bethel Theological Seminary as distinguished professor and futurist and is a contributing editor to Leadership Journal. McManus’ first book, An Unstoppable Force, was a 2002 ECPA Gold Medallion Award finalist. He is also the author of Seizing Your Divine Moment, and his third book, Where the Echoes Stop, releases this summer. He and his wife Kim, have two children, Aaron and Mariah, and a daughter in the Lord, Paty.

“Facing the Giants” film with its “Christian message” is the subject of criticism for the Alabama school district

MEDIA ADVISORY, Jan. 18 /Christian Newswire/ — Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law sent a letter today to the Tuscaloosa Public Schools applauding Superintendent Dr. Joyce Levey and Principal Amanda H. Cassity for showing the movie, Facing the Giants at Paul W. Bryant High School (PWBHS). The Foundation also urged school officials to ignore the absurd demand by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) to ban the movie from all district schools. In a letter dated January 15, 2008, AUSCS claimed that showing Christian movies in a public school violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The Foundation’s letter, on the other hand, explained that the Establishment Clause prohibits only a “law respecting an establishment of religion” and said AUSCS’s “thinly-veiled threats rely on shrill demands and general confusion about this area of the law in an attempt to cow the Tuscaloosa school district into quiet capitulation.” The letter continued:

“The simple fact is that showing a movie at PWBHS, even one with ‘an explicitly Christian message,’ as AUSCS breathlessly puts it, does not violate the First Amendment’s proscription that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.’ No amount of selective case excerpts or citations can change that.”

The letter notes that court cases interpreting the Establishment Clause are hardly so clear-cut as AUSCS would make it out to be, and that AUSCS is trying “to leverage that confusion to achieve its radical, secularist agenda–at PWBHS and around the country.”

Judge Moore said,

“Facing the Giants is a positive, uplifting, family-friendly movie that shows the value of faith in a sovereign God through the powerful story of an underdog football team that beats the odds and the ‘giants’ they face on the field. If instead of a clean Christian movie PWBHS students had been shown an R-rated movie depicting violence, sex, and/or profanity, it is likely that groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State would be defending the school and crying ‘censorship’ if such a movie were banned. Their hypocrisy and anti-Christian sentiment knows no bounds.”

The Foundation for Moral Law’s letter warned the school district that to “specifically target Christian movies for censorship, as AUSCS calls for, would demonstrate a policy of hostility toward religion.” The letter urges the Tuscaloosa schools not to give in to AUSCS’s demands.

Click here to read the entire letter from the Foundation for Moral Law.

The Foundation for Moral Law, a national non-profit legal organization, is located in Montgomery, Alabama, and is dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation relating to moral issues and religious liberty, as well as education consisting of forums for pastors, judges, and the general public.

Contact: Rich Hobson, Foundation for Moral Law, 334-262-1245

For more information about the Foundation for Moral Law, please visit www.morallaw.org.

A Government That Murders 2.5 Million of Its Own Citizens Can’t Be Trusted

(January 17, 2008) The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that the National Congress Party (NCP), the ruling party of Sudan is strategizing to obstruct implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) it signed with the Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM) by offering to change the country’s political structure and introducing a sysem of confederation in Sudan. Mr. Mustafa Osman Ismail, a leading member of NCP offered the option of confederation on Sunday January 13, 2007. It is aimed at derailing the CPA and the likely upcoming secession of South Sudan (SPLM). The SPLM represents the interests of mainly Animist and Christian South Sudanese in a country where the majority of people are Muslim and the government of Sudan (GOS) is intent on maintaining an Islamic state.

Officials at the Mission of The Government of South Sudan to the United States have told ICC that they are attempting to get an official statement regarding the proposal and the official position of SPLM. An official of South Sudan who wanted to remain anonymous told ICC: “The NCP is proposing confederation because it is cornered from many sides”(due to international pressure regarding the genocide in Darfur, and the aggression towards the Nubians and Southern Christians. Asked by ICC if the SPLM would accept the offer of Confederation, the official said that “the SPLM had asked for confederation a long time ago, but the CPA provides the South with more rights, since the South has won the right to secede from rest of Sudan. The official further noted that “This [the proposal to introduce confederation] is contrary to CPA”. The official stated that “SPLM is not against introduction of Confederation in parts of Sudan other than South Sudan.”
ICC’s regional manager for Africa, Darara Gubo, stated that

“A government that murders 2.4 million of its own people can’t be trusted to genuinely introduce Confederation and alleviate the suffering of its marginalized peoples.” He further noted that “The regime is known for reneging on its agreements with groups representing the interest of marginalized peoples of Sudan. This time, the regime is trying to find ways by which it can evade the democratization of Sudan as provided under CPA” The “people of Darfur, Nubia, Blue Nile, South Sudan and other marginalized peoples of Sudan should continue calling for implementation of the CPA”. “It is time for the international community to step up its pressure on government of Sudan to stop the suffering and murder of Sudan’s marginalized peoples.”

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest”(Matthew 9:37-38 NKJV).

Jesus was aware of the multitude of needs of the countless amount of people that He encountered. He was also aware that there were few laborers who would take time to minister to these people. This problem still persists in the church today. There are more people who need to hear the gospel, than there are those sharing it. There are more young Christians who need guidance with reading and understanding the Bible, than there are those willing to meet with them. God desires to see His Kingdom expanded. Jesus’ death provided a way for mankind to enter the Kingdom, and His life modeled how to expand it. Jesus spent a large part of his time raising up a new generation of laborers, namely the disciples. He showed them how to grow close to the Father and how to minister to people. At the end of His life, He commanded His disciples to go and do what he had done for them.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very’”
(Matthew 28:19-20)
Everyone who has been called by God’s grace to understand and accept salvation through Jesus Christ must take the next step in learning how to follow Him. If we are to go into all the nations and make disciples, we must be dedicated disciples ourselves. The world should be able look at our lives and see what it looks like to follow Jesus.
Every Christian, who wants to embrace the responsibility of making disciples, should be personally committed to the following: the Word, prayer, witnessing, and fellowship. Each of these areas will help you grow in your relationship with the Lord, and prepare you to reach out to others. I have listed some methods that have worked for me, and that I use in discipleship relationships.

The Word
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV).

1. Set aside time each day to read the Word.
2. Develop a method for reading through the Bible.
-Visit Readhisword.com to set up a personal Bible reading plan.
3. Write down one thing God has taught you from spending time with Him that day

4. Write down a verse a week to memorize on a 3×5 card.

God will use the time you spend in His word to prepare you to labor in the Kingdom. As you find methods that work for you, try meeting with a spiritually younger person to help him or her become consistent in reading the Bible (this is part of making disciples).

Prayer
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2 NIV).

1. Make a prayer card for people you are praying for.
2. Keep track of answered prayers, and praise God for each one of them.
3. Write down promises God gives you in His Word; claim them in your prayers.

Act
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14 NIV)

1. Go out and intentionally share the gospel!
2. Pray before you speak.
3. Memorize verses that communicate the gospel message.
- Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, John 5:24

Fellowship
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV).

1. Spend time with other Christians
2. Think about your Christian friends, and how you can challenge and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. Are you asking them what they are learning from their time in the Word? How are praying for them? What are their struggles with sin, and how can you help them fight temptation?
3. Pray together.
4. Read and study the Word together.

As you commit to becoming firmly established in these four areas and help others to do the same, disciples will be made. As disciples are made, more of the world will be reached. As more the world is reached, the kingdom of God is expanded. As Kingdom of God expands, more glory is given to God. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples “ (John 15:8 NIV).

When we are actively involved in God’s work in the world, our worship will consist not only of what He has done in the past, but for what He doing each and every day. We will worship Him for the truths He reveals to us in scripture. We will worship Him for the promises He fulfills and the prayers He answers. We will worship Him for him for the opportunities he gives us to share the gospel. We will worship Him as we pray with men and women to receive Him. We will worship Him as we experience the joy that comes from raising up spiritual children, We will worship Him for the Christian friends he puts in our lives who love us and are not afraid to tell us the truth. For all of this and so much more, we will give him praise. This is the first step in worship igniting action.

Carey Purdom
The Navigators
Cleestans2@aol.com

Carey Purdom is on staff, along with her husband Lt. Matt Purdum, with the Navigator’s ministry at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, TN. She regularly leads bible studies and disciples women one on one. She and her husband will be attending seminary together at Wake Forest in the Spring.

I was listening to the radio one day when a Christian ex-cop from LA was talking. He was communicating what faith and belief REALLY are by way of an example from his SWAT team experience. He held up a bulletproof vest, sharing with his audience how the vest was made and how it was able to protect one’s life by its ability to stop the fired bullet(s) from entering one’s body. He shared how his team entered a drug dealer’s house one day and how he had been shot at close range. The vest saved his life. He then asked the audience if they believed in the bulletproof vest’s ability to protect a person’s life. They all said “yes,” especially since he was a living example of the vest’s ability to do so. The ex-cop said, “good,” then he picked someone from the audience to join him on the stage. He asked the lucky guy to put on the bulletproof vest, which he obediently did. The ex-cop pulled out his gun and pointed it at the now shocked wearer of the vest. He asked the man, “Do you believe in its protection now?” The guy answered, “No! Good Gracious! Don’t shoot!”

Susie Walther is a teacher and leader of The Well, an interdenominational women’s Bible study group ministry. She currently resides in Land O’Lakes, FL with her husband and two daughters.
You can e-mail Susie at saw62@verizon.net

Saddleback Church, one of the largest churches in the US, has launched a new global vision to multiply impact on the local and international levels.
Within the next three years the megachurch in the Lake Forest, Calif. aims to launch nine new off-site campuses in addition to its San Clemente campus, which meets every weekend at a local high school, and step up its global P.E.A.C.E. plan. By 2010, Saddleback hopes to see 10,000 more lives changed and baptised.

“One of the most important words in the Christian life [is] ‘go,’” said Rick Warren, founding and senior pastor of Saddleback, during his “Multiplying Our Impact” sermon series last month. “The Christian life is a journey and over and over again God says you are to go. We are not a passive faith; you are a ‘going’ faith.”

Thousands of Saddleback congregants and staff have been on the move to open a campus in Corona and Irvine late this year and early 2008. Two pastors have already been picked out of the Saddleback staff to lead the sites, which will have their own live worship music and video feed from the main Lake Forest campus. The campuses will host smaller congregations of 400 to 600 people.

Matt McGill, pastor of regional campuses for Saddleback, calls the expansion “decentralised congregations” rather than the popular term “multi-site” which more churches are venturing into.

“We clearly are looking at this strategy as one church meeting in decentralised locations to be most effective in reaching those communities for Christ,” said McGill.

“Our shift to a regional approach is not about making worship more convenient for our members or emptying seats from our Lake Forest campus,” he noted. “We’re making this shift to empower our people for evangelism and to reach new communities in the name of Jesus.”

The expansion, called the 10×10 vision, also includes 10,000 small groups in homes, work, school and on the Internet and 1 million personal invitations given out by church members.

Answering critics of the multi-site approach, which has become the next big thing for effective outreach, McGill said there will always be critics of any new methodology but methodologies must always change in order to be as effective as possible in the generation we live, he commented. But the message in the church, meanwhile, never changes.

“What we have seen is that many churches that see the lostness that surrounds them are willing to embrace new modern methodologies to communicate the unchanging message of the hope of Jesus,” said McGill.

BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– China said Thursday, November 8, that participants in next years’ Olympic Games would be allowed to carry Bibles “for personal use” only and denied reports of a total ban on religious items during the mega-sports event.

Catholic and other news media reports this month that Bibles would be banned at the Olympics touched off an outcry that prompted US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, to telephone the Chinese ambassador for an explanation, and American Christian athletes to protest the “deep violation.”

“We have taken note of the reports and checked with the relevant authorities. The facts prove that the reports are sheer rumors,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in remarks published by China’s official Xinhua news agency. “The Chinese government has never ever issued such a rule, nor any such statement,” Liu added. “China’s religious affairs authorities and the Beijing Olympic organizing committee have not - and could not - issue a rule banning the Bible in the Olympic village.”

He said China was “suspicious of the ultimate motivations of those who spread such rumors. They should be responsible, and not do things that are not beneficial for themselves and undermine mutual understanding between China and the world.”

However the “personal use” rule, underscored concerns among Christian groups that distribution of Bibles and other Christian literature would be banned. A blacklist published by the Ministry of Public Security of the Chinese government also makes clear that “People who illegally distribute religious publications and video/audio materials,” will be barred from the Olympic Games,” advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) told BosNewsLife.

NEW ‘BLACKLIST’

Others on the extensive blacklist include “Members of illegal religious organizations both in China and abroad” as well as “Members who have been caught by the Chinese authorities for engaging in illegal religious activities,” and “People who have given illegal sermons,” and apparent reference to the booming house church movement.

Those who “have illegally established both in China and abroad religious organizations, institutions, schools, sermon sites and other religious entities,” are also barred from the Olympic, according to the blacklist distributed by CAA and obtained by BosNewsLife. Adherents of Falun Gong, “other cult organizations” and members of harmful “Qigong organizations” are also among those targeted.

Christian rights activists have told BosNewsLife they also remain concerned about another ongoing crackdown on evangelical Christians and missionaries in the country ahead of the Olympic Games.

In one of the latest incidents, evangelist Liu Huiwen was sentenced to eighteen months in prison at a court hearing on October 23 for writing and distributing Christian tracts among his local community in western China, said Barnabas Fund, a major advocacy group. Local authorities involved in the case were apparently Muslims and Barnabas Fund claimed this “resulted in a charge of insulting Islam and the prison sentence, which is far longer than the sentences normally imposed on Chinese Christians.”

MISSIONARIES EXPELLED

In addition over 100 foreign missionaries have reportedly been expelled as part of what critics say is an effort to “tighten control on Christian house churches prior to the 2008 Olympics,”
US and other officials have said.

Salem Voice Ministries, an evangelical mission organization, said that five American missionaries were killed during the crackdown in recent weeks, but that report has so far not been confirmed.

Chinese officials have denied any wrongdoing, saying Christians are allowed to worship in the official state sanctioned churches.

Christians have linked the reported crackdown to concerns within China’s ruling Communist Party, which is atheist, that groups will use the Games to spread Christianity in the country. (With BosNewsLife Research and BosNewsLife News Center).

As an educator, you stand in a more influential role than ever before as our society increasingly turns to schools for more than the education of our children, but also for the stability and community often missing in today’s families. It is a reality that makes your role more demanding and stressful, but also fills it with opportunities to make an even greater impact on your students, their families, and your coworkers.

How do you balance the pressures and demands of your professional career with the needs of your own family, your desire to be involved in the lives of your students, and the calling you have from God to make an impact for Him in the world?

That is what Educators On Mission is all about. The North American Mission Board’s workplace emphasis is designed to help educators like you balance home, work, and faith and bring it all together to make a meaningful impact for God in this life.

Together with you and our partners, Educators On Mission will be working to achieve and deliver these areas of service and resource:

• Develop resources and identify experienced individuals who can come alongside and bring the encouragement and equipping you need to see your job as not simply a career, but a calling from God that has the potential to see lives transformed for Him.

• Provide guidance and advice about your legal rights as an educator and help you be aware of areas in which caution should be exercised.

• Work with you and our partners to develop a national affinity network of Southern Baptist educators and administrators in the public education arena who can share with one another creative ways to lead an on-mission lifestyle in the workplace.

• Help Christian educators and administrators have a greater impact on the lives they touch and find alternatives to the National Education Association through our partnerships with groups like Christian Educators Association International.

To join the Educators On Mission team go to www.namb.net. for information. They will immediately place you on their e-mail newsletter list and keep you informed about upcoming events and resources to help you in your journey to be the best educator you can be and impact your mission field for Christ. You will also be part of a larger community of workplace professionals who want to answer God’s call to tell His story wherever He has placed them.

Join Educators On Mission Now!

On January 22nd, 1973 the United States Supreme Court, in a decision known as Roe v. Wade, ruled that state laws banning abortion were unconstitutional. The court ruled that a woman’s privacy was more important than the interest of any state in protecting unborn children.

This decision was neither voted on by the populace nor mandated by the legislative or executive branches of the government. In one swift moment, the Supreme Court struck down abortion laws in over 40 states and declared the unborn child was not a “person” and had no constitutional rights.

Estimates are that in excess of 45 million unborn children have been aborted since 1973.

This situation is a chance for Christians to step in with the only thing that can heal; the love of Jesus. This is not a time to raise banners of hate or take threatening stances against those confused and lost. Loving the lost never means you condone their behavior; however loving them is the only right and calling you have toward those that “know not what they do.” To act in any other way is an audacious way pushing God out of His rightful place.

There are women hurting and babies being lost, and it is time that the love poured into you during your worship overflow onto those searching for love and direction. There are ways to make and impact and love other just as your Father loves you.

What Can I Do about Abortion?

1. Pray. Pray. Pray.
2. Educate yourself on the facts and educate others as well.
3. Ask your pastor to preach on this topic with love at the center.
4. Organize others of like concern and get involved.
5. Learn the voting records on abortion of your state then write your senators/representatives, asking them to initiate or support legislation on life issues.
6. Volunteer or start a pregnancy care center.
Needs are:

• Volunteer counselors (18 hours of training)
• Advocates for the mothers
• Advisors with expertise in related fields
• Professionals: physicians, attorneys
• Services: maintenance helpers, printers, advertisers, public relations
• Office space, equipment, supplies
• Maternity clothes, new and good used
• Newborn baby clothes and supplies
• Baby furniture
• Prenatal vitamins
• Childbirth coaches
• Financial assistance: groceries, housing
• Job training for clients
• Resources such as books, films, and brochures
• Information on finishing high school education/GED
• Opportunities for further training

7. Ask churches to provide:

• Facilities for meetings, banquets, support groups
• A yearly banquet for staff and volunteers
• Parenting classes
• Child care for counselors’ children or single parents’ children
• A welcome and caring atmosphere
• Bible studies
• “Adoption” of an unwed mother, give her a baby shower
• Forgiveness
• Support groups for single parent(s), parents of the unwed, or unwed post-abortive women

8. Get testimonies of people who were adopted and people who have adopted.
9. Provide public, school, and church libraries with the best books available on related subjects.
10. Expose school administrators to sex education material teaching chastity (”True Love Waits”).
11. Ask for equal time to present your viewpoint if Planned Parenthood is in your local school system.
12. Run for a position on the school board.
13. Provide every pastor with related books for his library
14. Pray again….

Saudis Refuse To Grant Exit Visa After Discovering He’s Christian

(August 1, 2007) The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has learned that an Egyptian Christian working in Saudi Arabia as a surgeon has been repeatedly blocked from going home for over two years.

The Saudi government has intentionally run him in circles, promising he can leave, then refusing to let him go.

Dr. Mamdooh Fahmy, a surgeon at Albyaan Menfhoh Medical Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was removed from his position at the center six months ago, and has not been allowed to obtain another work permit because of his faith. A group of his Muslim colleagues targeted him as soon as he began his work at the medical center in 2004, repeatedly harassing him to become a Muslim also. He became tired of avoiding the conversation, and eventually told them that he was a Christian and would not change his religion. At this, they accused him of being a missionary. In a letter to ICC, Dr. Fahmy told us what happens in Saudi Arabia when you publicly acknowledge the Christian faith, “On April 12, 2005, I had a surprise visit from three Saudi officials at work. Two were in civilian attire and one was a police officer. They informed me that
they were from the morals policing organization [Muttawa]. They proceeded to insult me publicly before the staff and patients of the medical center. They confiscated my wallet, cell phone and keys. They handcuffed me, shacked [sic] my legs and dragged me to a waiting car, then proceeded to my residence.

“While the police officer and I remained in the vehicle, the two civilians raided my house, confiscating all written and published materials (books, notes, etc). I was then taken to the police station on where I was formally accused of being a Christian missionary and of consuming alcoholic beverages at work. I was placed in solitary confinement for five days. After my confinement they began the interrogation process. Each time I was questioned, I was cursed and insulted. The interrogator referred to me as ‘Infidel.’”

Immediately after his release from interrogation, Dr. Fahmy attempted to obtain his passport back from his employment sponsor. The sponsor told him that he no longer had his passport, and it was now in police custody.

This was only the start of a long exercise in futility in Dr. Fahmy’s attempts to return to Egypt. In the latest episode, one very telling of Saudi intransigence, Dr. Fahmy was told that all he needed to do to leave the country was to file certain departure applications after Egyptian officials raised his situation with the Saudi government. Dr. Fahmy filed as advised, but not only was the application rejected, but Saudi officials laughed in his face for attempting to leave.

Please contact the Saudi embassy in your country and let them know that you have heard of Dr. Fahmy’s case and that it is shameful for the Saudis to be treating him in this way. Let them know they ought to allow him to return to Egypt.

Royal Embassy of Saudi
Arabia, US
601 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: (202) 342-3800
info@saudiembassy.net

Royal Embassy of Saudi
Arabia, Canada
99 Bank Street Suite 901,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
K1P 6B9
Telephone: (613) 237-4100
Fax: (613) 237-0567

Royal Embassy of Saudi
Arabia, UK
30 Charles Street, W1J 5DZ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7917 3000
ukemb@mofa.gov.sa

Article from:
ICC (International Christian Concern)
www.persecution.org

ICC Contact:
Jeff King, President
1-800-ICC (422)-5441
icc@persecution.org