[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_single_image image=”125253″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]07/08/2021 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – When most people think of persecution, they think of a pastor being threatened, beaten, or even killed for his faith. While this is the visible end product of persecution, there are roots that feed this visible and violent expression of hatred.
The core of persecution goes so much deeper than the surface-level violence.
Persecution spreads throughout a community, infecting everything it touches. It’s a toxic system that oppresses and imprisons and enslaves Christian communities. The bars of this prison are job discrimination, poor education, and lack of access to capital.
These elements never go away and create a vicious cycle of oppression that is repeated for centuries.
Consequently, persecution is also a prison for the minds of persecuted believers that’s an almost impossible cycle to break.
Job discrimination often leaves only the most menial of jobs available for a persecuted family. They are often labor intensive with very little pay. The education that Christians receive in persecuted communities is terrible. Therefore, children as young as 8-10 years old are pulled from school to work full time.
Even without an education and job discrimination, the persecuted believer would still have hope of breaking free of the prison if they only had access to capital to start businesses. But that too is denied.
Without these elements, their fate is decided and they are without hope of ever breaking free of the prison built to keep them contained.
The persecuted live generation after generation in an endless cycle of poverty and oppression.
So we bandage the broken bodies, we restore the churches that are destroyed, we rescue the families of the martyrs, but it is wash, rinse, and repeat. Generation after generation.
Sadly, the persecuted Church’s most overlooked and vulnerable victims are often the children.
Our dream for years has been to help them out of their prisons and equip them with the tools needed to break the system.
In 2016, we started Hope House to minister to the youngest of the persecuted. We provide classes after regular school hours to supply them with an advanced education. We teach them marketable skills like English, math, and reading and writing in their native language.
The next level of the dream is to begin working with high school and college-age children with a multi-tier approach to touch all levels of the community.
That’s when we dreamed up the concept of Generation Transformation. We’re going to pour investment into one Christian community. We will supply college scholarships, vocational training, and small business grants for entrepreneurial young Christians.
Participants will be able to access private high schools, college, and vocational training. Ultimately, we will be working toward distance learning under US Christian schools.
Pick a community, pour in resources, break the prison.
We call this Generation Transformation. We announced it at the end of 2020 and we are now beginning this groundbreaking work.
In 2021, ICC will be awarding 10 to 20 college scholarships, 40 to 60 vocational training scholarships, and 20 to 40 small business grants, all within one community of persecuted brothers and sisters.
We look to the Lord’s promise to a suffering people in the book of Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Our deepest desire is to be the hands and feet to help inspire hope within these communities and provide them with a brighter future. Our prayer is to see a persecuted community of believers transformed and we invite you to join along with us.
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