The Chairman’s Report for September

In this issue of the newsletter
New: First Transition Program Graduation – Opening career doors
New: A year of success: From an empty older house to a graduate program
New: Strong letter to Secretary of State on slaughter of Christians in Syria
New: Christmas programs for persecuted Christians in the planning stage

First Transition Program Graduation

The first graduation for the transition house in Jos was held on July 5th!

Eleven of our young adults who aged out of the Jos orphanage in the summer of 2024 graduated from our extended program at a separate facility.

The youth graduating from the transition center have been prepared to participate as Christian men and women in the Nigerian society.

A history of why and how of the transition house

The Sunni Muslim Fulani began a series of major attacks in 2023 on Christian villages south of Jos in the Mangu region that killed hundreds of Christians. The attacks are ongoing.

Our orphanage in Jos could not accommodate more orphans. There were no empty beds or place for new beds. But we did have fifteen orphans who were aging out of the orphanage.

Where would the fifteen orphans who were aging out of the orphanage go? How would they support themselves?

A ministry in Benue State agreed to take some of the aging out orphans. Some were able to go to relatives. Lesson learned, we began planning to make room for additional aged out orphans by establishing a transition house. I first wrote about the need for a transition house in late 2023.

A transition home was planned to be separated from the orphanage and have the goal of preparing aged out orphans for better job opportunities and assist them in finding living space.

The transition house was to be more than a place to live for one year. It was to become a spiritual and educational center as well. Over a period of year, the goal would be to prepare our aged-out orphans for better job opportunities.

We simply could not turn out 18-year-olds into the streets in a nation with a youth unemployment rate of nearly 50%.

(NOTE: In 2023 the Nigeria government changed the definition of employed and the youth unemployment was restated as 6.5%. Before 2023 youths were unemployed if they worked less than 20 hours in a week. Now youths are unemployed if they work less than one hour during the previous seven-day period. ONE HOUR.)

In reality about 50% of Nigerian youth are unemployed or underemployed, getting by on odd jobs they can find from time to time.

With all the time, effort and prayer to bring these orphans as far as we had, we did not want to turn them out in the street.

The groundwork for a transition house began in earnest in early 2024. The property was located in March, but it needed extensive work to turn it into what was needed. The L shaped property was divided in such a way to allow for separate quarters for the young men and women.

Selections made – The first eleven

A few aged-out orphans had relatives in villages to go to, but most did not. Eleven aged out orphans were selected for the transition program, five young men and six young women.

The teenagers selected cleaned up the property themselves, including doing many of the required repairs.

Good, quality, do it yourself furnishings! About the only items we needed to purchase were mattresses and some small items like chairs. The bed frames, desks and other larger items were made in the orphanage wood shop! The bed in the photo below is an example of the quality workmanship at the orphanage wood shop.

Only one larger project needed to be addressed and that was the drilling of the bore hole for an adequate water supply for eleven young adults. That was done before the end of June 2024.

Advertisements were placed in churches for caregivers and security officers for the transition house. Interviews were conducted with applicants, and background checks completed.

The requirements for a live-in couple and monitors to watch over the transition house were set very high.

The program was in full operation by the end of June 2024 with all eleven teenagers who had aged out of the orphanage in their new home.

All about Jesus

All the young adults at the transition house travel to the orphanage twice a week to participate in the chapel services. They are also a part of our evangelistic outreach.

The orphanage services on Sunday have become so popular that they are an outreach to those living nearby who do not have a church home.

Some of the young ladies had learned cake making while at the orphanage. They began baking decorative cakes at the transition house as a source of independent income.

Arrangements were made with a Christian college for the young adults at the transition house to study online college classes to prepare them for better work opportunities.

The Results: Eleven well educated young men and women prepared for above average jobs. All of the eleven have had a full year of online courses from a Christian college.

All eleven are prepared for better jobs.

All eleven became prepared to move out on their own and that opens up the facility for new graduates from the orphanage.

The Transition House is working as planned and is an important part of what we are doing for children displaced by violence.

I have joy for these eleven, but I am sorry that we cannot help even more homeless children. We have 160 beds at the orphanage and almost every week the Sunni Muslim Fulani herdsmen mount attacks on Christian famers, thus creating hundreds more orphans.

Death toll of Christians rises in Syria
Sunni Muslim government is responsible

Letter of condemnation to Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Nearly two dozen leaders of faith-based organizations, including myself, signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemning the religious violence in Syria both condoned and practiced by the new Sunni Muslim controlled government.

The letter contained verified facts: “Since March 2025, Alawite communities and Christians living in their midst in Idlib have faced brutal attacks resulting in nearly 2,000 deaths, displacement of hundreds of thousands, and destruction of homes and businesses. Atrocities, carried out by armed forces and irregular militias loyal to President Al-Sharaa, included executions of entire families and the ongoing abduction and abuse of women and girls (72 documented cases), with almost no accountability despite public documentation of perpetrators identities.”

In another paragraph we detailed attacks: “Christians throughout Syria fear they will be the next target of mass atrocities. Since Mr. Al-Sharaa came to power, churches and individuals have faced widespread threats, attacks, and extortion. The shocking bombing of Mar Elias Church in June 2025 in Damascus killed or injured a third of its congregation. In areas under the Transitional Government’s sole control, Christians are defenseless against threats from Syrian armed forces and Islamist militias, which the government is unwilling or unable to control.”

Our letter made it clear that the new Syrian government was moving toward becoming a new Islamic State: “Alongside targeted attacks, the Syrian Transitional Government has adopted increasingly hardline Islamist policies, including strict dress codes, closure of alcohol-serving establishments, halting wedding celebrations, and imposing Islamic religious mandates in education.”

We also pointed out to Secretary Rubio the discrimination in the new Syrian Constitution: “The interim Syrian ‘Arab’ constitution was created without meaningful input from minorities or moderate Sunnis. Sharia is the primary source of law, only Muslims can be President, and equal protection is denied to Syria’s “non-heavenly,” non-Abrahamic communities, including Druze, Yazidis, and possibly Alawites and others, depending on the government’s interpretation of what groups are “heavenly” religions. Syria’s military forces are composed of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) militants, plus Islamist foreign fighters from Al Nusra, etc. All have long histories of attacking and violating the human rights of Syrian religious and ethnic minorities and women.”

(The Syrian leader’s definition of “heavenly religions” is undoubtedly Islamic branches that endorse Sharia law and the slaughter of non-Muslims.)

In our letter to Secretary of State Rubio we urged the U.S. government to take: “decisive action to protect Syria’s vulnerable communities by renewing public U.S. commitments to religious freedom and equal rights.”
The State Department under Presidents Obama and Biden did little more than mouth support for religious freedom. No decisive actions were ever taken. Under George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden millions of Sunni Muslims were allowed into the United States while persecuted Christians and Druze were ignored.

Once in President Trump’s first term he imposed punishment on the Nigerian government for allowing the persecution of Christians.

The Religious Freedom Coalition is currently bombarding the While House with post cards signed by Christians from every state asking him to once again take action to protect the Christians of Nigeria.

Please pray for the Christians of the Middle East, particularly those facing the worse persecution in Syria.

Gifts for Christmas programs will be doubled

For over a decade the Religious Freedom Coalition has provided persecuted and downtrodden Christian children and their families in majority Muslim areas with a Christmas celebration centered on Jesus that included material aid.

For Christmas we have delivered various gifts including food, hygiene supplies, blankets, heater fuel along with the joy of celebrating a relationship with Jesus.

Matching Gift Fund: A group of resolute supporters of the Religious Freedom Coalition have set up a Matching Gift Fund. Gifts sent in support of Christmas and other mission programs will be matched with an equal gift from the Matching Gift Fund.

Any gift to missions whether it is $5 or $500 will be matched. The part you play will help change lives of Christian families for the better.