The Chairman’s Report for May 21, 2021

In this issue of the newsletter
New: Biden recognizes Armenian genocide without using the word “Christian”
New: Nigerian orphanage – Muslim terrorist murderers at the gate
Update: School building construction slows because of design change demands
New: We supply oxygen concentrator that saved lives in Iraq

1.5 million Christians murdered in what is called the “Metz Yeghern”

Joe Biden can’t tell the whole truth: I work constantly to advocate on Capitol Hill for persecuted Christians. One of the most important aspects of that work is getting politicians to admit that Christians have been and continue to be persecuted, particularly by Muslims.

I was overjoyed when I learned that President Joe Biden was going to issue an official statement recognizing the Armenian Genocide. He had made that promise during his campaign.

Then I read President Bidens’s statement.

In his statement that did not even mention the word “Christian,” Biden just said the American people honor “all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.” He also did not mention that the murderers were Muslims.

Without ever saying that the Armenians who were murdered and chased out of Turkey were Christians, President Biden managed also to forgive the killers by saying: “Over the decades Armenian immigrants have enriched the United States in countless ways, but they have never forgotten their tragic history… We honor their story. We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated.”

I have the photos from 1915 of the Christian women who were raped and then crucified. The photo shows a line of crosses with the naked bodies of the young women hanging on hem. I was going to place the photo here on the front page of the newsletter, but it is so disturbing that I decided not to. I was afraid that some seeing it would become physically ill.

President Biden can, however, use the word “Muslim” to declare that they are victims of genocide in China. There is no mass murder of Muslims in China. The treatment of Muslims there is harsh, but nothing like what happened to Armenian Christians. Yes, the Communist Chinese Party runs mandatory “re-education” centers in Xinjiang to secularize Muslims. They are forced to recognize the Communist Party as supreme and to renounce jihad.

Christians are also persecuted in China and forced to accept the official state version of Christianity.

Pastors and elders of underground churches have been sent to prison for many years. Under President Xi, church buildings have been demolished – and not just small ones. One church with over 1,000 seats was bulldozed down.

The Christians in China are never mentioned by President Biden. America’s only concern is China’s crackdown on Muslims. WHY? Because it is a strategic issue. The goal of the Biden State Department, and Trump’s before it, has been to turn Muslim nations against China. In reality neither Biden nor Trump cared about the Muslims, they just wanted trouble for China.

Nigeria Orphanage

Murderers at the gate: On April 27th I received an email with some very gruesome photographs that were taken just two kilometers from the property gate of our orphanage in Nigeria. The photos were of two young Christian men murdered by Sunni Muslim Fulani herdsmen. Two kilometers is just about one and one quarter mile.

The news could not be kept from the children at the orphanage who suffer great fear, since many of them lost parents to attacks exactly like this one.

I have been with these children and I have seen the wounds that some of them received during the attacks that killed their loved ones.

Can you imagine what went through their minds when they learned of an attack so close by?

Just two days before, seven more Christians were murdered in Benue State. Those murders occurred at an IDP camp I have been in.

IDP camp where I had delivered aid in 2018 hit hard: Fulani herdsmen attacked the Abagena Internally Displaced Persons’ camp in Makurdi, killing seven and wounding nine, just two days before the killings near the orphanage.

I had delivered aid to that very place, Abagena IDP camp, while in Nigeria in 2018. That time we delivered sanitary items including feminine supplies and adult diapers to those most in need.

This time, the governor of Benue State was outraged and came to the camp, which is a suburb of Makurdi, the capital of Benue State. He drove to the site of the murders to deliver a statement demanding that the Sunni Muslim president of Nigeria take some action to stop the Fulani Herdsmen.

Governor Samuel Ortom said during his stop at the site that 70 people in Benue state had been killed by Fulani Herdsmen in the previous two weeks.

It is doubtful that President Buhari will take any action against the Fulani, since he himself is a Sunni Muslim and a member of the same tribe as the attackers who murdered the Christian IDP’s. President Buhari has issued no statement on the murders. He has done nothing.

The Muslim president of Nigeria is supported by President Biden and of course by the evil prince who runs the mafia state known as Saudi Arabia.

Christians continue to be persecuted all over the world. Right now, Nigeria is by far the worst, although Sunni Muslim groups such as the Boko Haram that are associated with the Islamic State are becoming more prominent in Africa. Traditional Christian areas are shrinking as Muslims slowly invade, using terror as a tactic to drive the people off their lands.

School building for IDP camp: I have been notified that the plans for the classroom building must be changed. Our building plans for an IDP camp school were “too permanent.” The plans must be altered so the building can be dismantled when the camp is no longer needed.

This is a joke! “No longer needed.” The number of Christian IDP’s (Internally Displaced Persons) is rising daily. More and more Christians are being driven off their lands by Sunni Muslim Fulani Herdsmen.

The school building we are funding will be in use for probably decades. The design changes can be made easily and without much cost. But the building will not be as strong, which is a disappointment to me.

The demanded changes will not dissuade us from finishing the project. Regardless of the building being permanent or not, it is needed. Children cannot learn under a tree during the rainy season. The tree simply will not work for 120 students.

Photographs will be taken at various stages of construction and will be included in future newsletters.

I do my best to report exactly how funds are being spent, down to the dollar amount. We are filling the needs of our displaced brothers and sisters in Christ who have lost their homes and sometimes their loved ones. The projects are not big, but help specific groups of Christians in need. I make photos available whenever possible, so that supporters can actually see what their donations have done.

As a reminder – We cannot accept funds from any government agency because we would have to agree “not to discriminate” and to distribute aid according to population. In Nigeria half the population is Muslim, so half of our efforts would have go to assist Muslims. Our purpose is to assist the Christian victims of Muslims. As a result, we cannot accept government funds.

July mission to Nigeria: Our flight from Paris to Abuja, Nigeria has been cancelled. The airline will no longer operate a flight on the day of the week we were departing. Because of a variety of issues, I had to move the date of departure by two weeks. When something like this happens, it adds hours and hours of work for me, our staff and others.

The Nigerian visas my wife and I have were issued using a letter of invitation from the governor of Benue State. Meetings with state officials had been scheduled. The queen of the TIV Tribe had made arrangements for us and security was in place for transport between cities. All of that must now be changed.

Despite the fact we were required to change the plans for our school building at the IDP camp in Benue, construction should be completed by the time we arrive in Nigeria. I really look forward to seeing the children of the camp in their new school.

Saving a life

Covid-19 no joke in the Middle East: I have lost friends in the Middle East who died from complications of Covid-19. Iraq has been hit badly. The medical system never recovered from the first Gulf War. The “shock and awe” campaign waged by President George H.W. Bush destroyed the infrastructure of the nation run by dictator Saddam Hussein.

Between the first and second Gulf Wars, sanctions against Iraq that were similar to those against Iran crippled the country economically. There was not much to defend when we invaded Iraq again in 2003. There were several brutal uprisings against our occupation and 4,491 American servicemen lost their lives as well as tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Then came the Islamic State takeover of most of northern Iraq. The Islamic State targeted the hospitals and kidnapped doctors and nurses.

Since 2003 the medical system in Iraq has had to be rebuilt repeatedly. The system was not prepared for a pandemic and the death rates are high. Christians are put on the bottom of the waiting list.

Oxygen Concentrator for Jordan: Jordan suffered from both Iraq wars, and also from the Islamic State uprising in Iraq and Syria, because of the influx of refugees. As of this year there are 750,000 Iraqi and Syrian refugees in Jordan. There are also 2,000,000 registered Palestinian refugees and their descendants from Israel. Over 25% of Jordan’s 10,000,000 residents are classified as refugees.

Jordan outside of Amman is impoverished. The nation has no natural resources such as oil to sell. Jordan imports energy products as well as some food.

Because of the number of refugees who are not paying taxes, the health care system is strained, and as in most majority Muslim nations Christians are often told there is no room in the hospital.

A member of the staff of our ministry partner in Jordan contracted Covid-19 recently and was told he had to go onto oxygen immediately. He was told there was no room at the hospital. The ministry could not locate any available oxygen cylinders available to buy.

We found a French retailer in Amman, Jordan that had one 10 liter per minute oxygen concentrator available and we bought it. With oxygen available the staff member recovered, and the machine has since been used by another victim of Covid-19.

Jordan and Iraq are for the most part now using Chinese vaccines that are not that effective. Slowly the situation is normalizing, and I hope to hold our Christmas programs with large groups this year in the Middle East.

Please be in prayer for our partners and all Christians in the Middle East.

William J. Murray, President