Faith and Fear (slegs in Engels)

Imagine a country that has had only one president since its independence 30 years ago … a country that sends Christians to military camps or locks them up for sharing the Gospel. But you don’t have to imagine this country. It’s a real place: Eritrea. And it’s where Paulos* is from. “The government doesn’t accept our faith at all,” Paulos explains. “They are always looking for an opportunity [to attack Christians]. Christian gatherings are often disrupted, and men and women are sometimes put in prisons. A little while ago, the authorities arrested over a hundred students when they were having fellowship.” And in Eritrea, prison is the last place you want to be.

Survival is not guaranteed

Many times, Christians are forced to work for the military. When Eritrea sends prisoners to these military bases, they are typically put to work rather than kept idle in their cells. Reports indicate that these detainees, including those imprisoned for their religious beliefs, are often subjected to forced labour under harsh conditions. This labour can include agricultural work, construction projects and other physically demanding tasks.

Others are sent to prisons. Eritrea’s prison network is infamously inhumane. Some prisons are underground, and prisoners rarely see daylight. Others are simply collections of shipping containers with no heating or cooling, and prisoners are held in brutal heat. Survival is not guaranteed.

Paulos considers himself fortunate for having escaped this fate. “I grew up in a family that was Eritrean Orthodox, although we lived in a region dominated by Muslims,” he says. As he grew up, he started attending discipleship training courses and realised something was missing in his relationship with God: faith. He began to truly follow Jesus for the first time and was drawn to a more evangelical expression of his faith.

In Eritrea, such a decision can carry consequences from the Orthodox community. Fortunately, Paulos’ family was open to his newfound faith. “My family was alright with this, but some shunned me for breaking with the more traditional faith of the Orthodox Church I was a member of,” he says. “Fortunately, nobody beat me, but my family and I were put under a lot of pressure by the elders of the village. I was also never arrested by the government.”

But that doesn’t mean Paulos’ life has been risk-free. He’s a church elder and a leader in the children’s and youth ministries at his church. He also leads a small group. All of this means he knows that it’s possible he could be arrested at any point. “When your pastors are arrested, all the responsibility falls on you,” he says. “Often, I had to run from the police. God has protected me. There were times when we were surrounded but weren’t caught.”

Is he ever scared? “Yes, of course,” he says. “We live in fear of who will be arrested next. Will it be another brother in Christ? Will it be me? But we must continue to walk with God. We build upon what others have done before us. Despite the constant anxiety and fear, we make plans and change those plans often. Maybe we meet with fewer people, maybe we change the meeting place or the meeting time.”

According to Paulos, the pressure on Eritrean believers is mounting. “There are many children without a mother,” he explains. “She is in jail for Jesus and has been robbed from her [family]. There are also many wives without husbands. Their husbands are in jail for Jesus. Meanwhile, the wives are mocked: ‘How can you say your religion is the right one? Where is your husband? Why isn’t he taking care of his family?’ The Christians are often isolated by their communities.” The suffering is specific to the person – but the effect is the same: The Church is wounded.

God at work

Sometimes Paulos wonder how much more he can take – but he remains confident in his calling. “I have no plans to leave the country,” he says. “I have a ‘Gospel responsibility’ here. But the more pressure, the more suffering, the more social and financial problems … sometimes I think about leaving the country. But then I remind myself: who will preach the Gospel? I’m determined to stay here and serve the Lord in Eritrea.”

It’s also not all bad news. Even as Christians are arrested, churches are shut down and believers suffer in prison, God is at work. “What I see is that while the persecution is intensifying, the number of believers increases,” Paulos says. “This is how the Gospel works. The Gospel bears fruit in times of persecution and oppression. Many people thirst for God, thirst for salvation, thirst for the right way. Often, when believers share the Gospel with their friends and family, God uses those words to win their hearts and souls.”

Eritrea is an incredibly difficult place to follow Jesus. But that doesn’t mean the Church is dead. Believers like Paulos show that the “light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Paulos asks us to pray with him and the other Christians in Eritrea:

“Please pray that the Lord will empower the Church, so that we will be strong internally,” he says. “God needs to arm us with His grace, so we can complete His mission. Pray that we can raise up new ministers. Secondly, pray that persecution will cease, so that we can have a time of much-needed rest. Pray earnestly for us, so that we can have the freedom to preach the Gospel in peace. Finally, I urge all Christians to pray for our fathers of faith, who are suffering in prison for years. Pray that God will give them strength and abundant grace.”

*Name changed for security reasons.