A small hut, no more than ten feet square, is home to seven Christian men who have fled persecution in their homeland of Eritrea. Here they live, worship and pray together. Theyre part of a refugee camp for 10,000 Eritreans who have fled across the border into neighboring Ethiopia.

These young men, all Eritrean Christians, share this small hut in a refugee camp near the Eritrean-Ethiopian border. All testify to how the Eritrean authorities are persecuting Christians, especially those from Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

There they wait

Some hope to join the handful who are repatriated to countries sympathetic to their plight, such as the USA or Canada. Many wait for a chance to return home to Eritrea, hoping and praying there will be a change in the increasingly repressive government of President Isaias Afewerki, who is directing a Marxist-style crackdown on Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. The following are first-hand accounts of Hagos and some of his friends, who share the small hut in the refugee camp, told first hand to Voice of the Martyr's (VOM's) partner, Release International (RI), and reproduced here so you can "Remember Eritrea" in your prayers and actions.

Hagos

The mud hut—home of the Eritrean Christians.

I accepted Jesus Christ in 2001, before the church closed in Eritrea. I was in Sawa [Eritrea's national military training centre]. In this place it's difficult to live like Christians—very difficult. If you discuss or communicate, the military leaders [think] … you are like terrorists.

My family did not accept my religion, because they are [Ethiopian] Orthodox. They opposed strongly, especially my father and my mother. My mother knows every Christian in the military is arrested, even for five or six years. She said to me: "Please, you are my helper. Look after me. If you are arrested in prison, no-one will help me." My mother asked me to stop following Jesus Christ.

But he did not. Hagos was arrested for being part of a Christian cell group.

In Eritrea now there is no open church, but there are cell groups. I was in a cell group. The military security came around the house [where we were meeting] and caught us. We were more than 80 Christians.

He escaped from prison and crossed the border into Ethiopia, reaching the safety of the refugee camp.

I am very happy [to be in the refugee camp], and I praise my Lord Jesus Christ. There is more freedom in this place to worship God. There is no freedom in Eritrea to worship and to pray.

Benjamin

My name is Benjamin. I had gone to Sawa to fulfill my National Service in 1996. I stayed there for eight years. When I was there I suffered so many times because of my faith. [As Christians] we don't have rights to speak or to protect ourselves. We don't have any control. Then they [the military authorities] took us. They forced us to deny our faith. If we refused, they beat us and punished us. I had to dig the ground, in the heat of the day. They beat us with a stick sometimes. They also used their hands. But I know Christ myself. I believe in Christ. Christ is my Saviour. I didn't stop my faith. "I am not stopping my faith," I say to them.

Studying God's Word.

Tesfoam

My name is Tesfoam. I was in prison for two years and three months. The prison was under the ground. To be put in a prison underground is very hard. The underground prison only has one door, and no windows. One hundred people are inside. Food is provided twice a day. There are some Christian brothers in the underground prison, but we don't have freedom to talk and to have meetings together. It's not allowed to have more than two or three people together and discuss together. That is prohibited. Here [in the refugee camp] I can meet with my Christian brothers freely. I always pray for my brothers in Christ who are suffering in the underground prison, and in other places. All our brothers here are praying about the situation in Eritrea.

Pastor Daniel

Pastor Daniel leads a congregation in the refugee camp. More than half the people now in the church have come to faith during their time in the refugee camp. Pastor Daniel was interviewed by Rob Frost, RI's president. In this extract from the interview Rob Frost finds out how this congregation of persecuted Christians has grown dramatically.

Pastor Daniel (PD): When the church started, we had 15 believers. Now 250 believers are here.

Rob Frost (RF): That's amazing church growth. I mean, 15 to 250—how do you explain that? How has it grown so fast?

PD: All of the believers, every day and night, pray. All of the believers go into the camp and talk about Jesus. They say, "Come to the church." After that they come.

RF: So it's little wonder the church is growing if for three nights a week you've got people praying from nine p.m. to four a.m. Oh, that some of the churches in North America were doing that! I was expecting when I came to this camp that everyone would be very depressed, very fed up, wanting to go home. It's been a wonderful time being here for me because there's great joy in the worship and the people really love Jesus.

Crackdown

The Marxist-style government of President Isaias Afewerki is systematically closing down Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, imprisoning and torturing leaders and believers, and harassing the families of individual Christians. Many Eritrean Christian leaders believe the government aims to eradicate the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

While the government has long been suspicious of Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, fearing that their allegiance to Christ may conflict with the demands of the State, the campaign against churches has intensified in recent years.

In 2002 the Eritrean government ordered the closure of all Christian churches except those belonging to the Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Evangelical Lutheran denominations, and ended all other religious practices except Islam.

Since then, members of banned churches have found it impossible to meet even at social gatherings without risking arrest. For example, in May 2005 police raided a large wedding ceremony in the capital Asmara, arresting 250 guests, including the bride and groom. While 70 guests from the government-approved churches were released immediately, most were detained for several months, and some 121 men were relocated to do compulsory military service. It is estimated that up to 1,800 Christians are currently among the thousands of Eritreans held indefinitely without charge, in detention centres where beatings and torture occur routinely. In one of the worst cases of persecution to date, over 200 Evangelical believers were detained in Asmara in October 2005, with the government temporarily closing the entire Kale Hiwot (Word of Life) development program offices.

The government has also targeted businesses owned by Christians, and during the 2005 Christmas season raided and closed a number of shops, factories and studios, arresting owners and staff.

According to BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher, expelled in September 2004 after 18 months as an international reporter in Asmara, the Eritrean government seems to be "afraid that people who consider their highest allegiance to be [to] God, at some point may not be patriotic and follow the State's instructions."

As a sign of deteriorating religious freedoms, Eritrea became the first country to have sanctions applied under the USA religious freedom law, when the USA State Department in September 2005 notified Congress that the State Secretary had banned commercial export of defence articles to Eritrea. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) describes the Eritrean government as "one of the most repressive on the African continent," whose actions have prompted a growing number of refugees to flee the country.

Eritrea is becoming increasingly militarized and authoritarian. As a result of the government's obsessive attempts to control every aspect of society and to forcibly repress even the mildest form of dissent, the overwhelming majority of people who have fled Eritrea have an extremely well founded fear of being persecuted should they return there.

Church leaders imprisoned

As part of the crackdown, the government has detained without charge a number of Evangelical and Pentecostal church leaders. These include Haile Naizgi and Dr. Kifle Gebremeski of Eritrea's largest Pentecostal denomination, the Full Gospel Church; Pastor Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rehma Evangelical Church; and many others. The government has also imprisoned popular Christian Gospel singer Helen Berhane, who is reported to have been incarcerated in a metal shipping container at Mai-Serwa military camp as a punishment for refusing to renounce her faith.

RI staff were recently able to visit Pastor Hagos's wife and three young daughters, bringing them encouragement and support. They have not seen or heard of Pastor Hagos since his arrest on May 27, 2004.

Hagos' wife Fantu asks supporters to pray "that my husband is released, for me and my husband to be united, so we can be together as a family with our three children … . I need my husband and our three young children need their father. I would urge everyone to pray that the Lord will give us opportunity to be a family again … . I would also ask for your help in whatever way that you can, to get him released from his imprisonment."

Originally published in the Voice of the Martyr's, May 2006.

Used with permission of author. Copyright © 2006 Christianity.ca.