Amnesty for SangMin Lee

It was Tuesday, December 31, the last day of the year 2019, when Sangmin Lee called me with excitement to report news of his amnesty. Early in 2014 Lee was sentenced to 18 months in prison for refusing, on the basis of his faith, to complete his mandatory military service. Although Lee was freed on  Keep Reading…

Juana García — Cuba

Juana García, a pioneer leader of the Brethren in Christ Church in Cuba, passed away on January 20, 2017 at age 93. In the 1950s García worked alongside Howard and Pearl Wolgemuth, who served as Brethren in Christ missionaries in Cuba beginning in 1953. In 1960, when Wolgemuths were advised to leave Cuba following the Cuban Revolution, García and  Keep Reading…

Matt Anslow — Australia

“Christians are taking on this role of witnessing publicly—even paying the cost of being arrested—in order to witness to compassion for refugees.”

Richard Rancap — Philippines

“This is something that we embrace. That we are not to fight with one another, but to live in peace with another.”

Adi Walujo — Indonesia

“Maybe people think persecution is always negative, but for us we learned how to depend on God while our church was closed.”

SangMin Lee reflects on time in prison

Sang-Min Lee, the South Korean Mennonite conscientious objector so many of you were praying for, visited the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism and Goshen College on December 8, as part of a longer visit in the United States. In April of 2014, SangMin was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for his faith-based refusal  Keep Reading…

When Christianity is a minority religion

Like Paul and Suja Phinehas, featured in a recent story on the main Bearing Witness site, Naomi Tamura’s Christian faith makes her a religious minority. At Mennonite World Conference Assembly 16 in Harrisburg, PA, this past July, Tamura shared with us both the struggle and the opportunity that accompanies Christian faith in Japan. Both the  Keep Reading…