Introduction: Angie's Story

I would count “dogged perseverance” as one of my strengths. My husband, George, may mark that down in the weakness category and call it “stubbornness.” It was that dogged perseverance that sent me down the aisle with tassel bouncing to receive my B.S. in mathematics in the spring of 2005 at the age of 48.

Math department chair, Dr. Skully, had raised one eye-brow with his skeptical response to my query about becoming a math teacher three years earlier, “Only 40% of the applicants complete the degree and you have already admitted that mathematics is not your strongest subject.” He hadn’t mentioned the gray hairs on my head but I saw him sneaking a decidedly dismissive glance at them. It was the raised eye-brow that kicked in my stubbornness and I graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Although the first year of teaching was overwhelming I found why teachers are hooked into a career that has low financial rewards, long hours and unbearable responsibility. The teacher/student bond is a heart response that cannot be experienced anywhere else. And there are those special students who make worth all the late-night hours of lesson planning and paper grading, the frustrations of classroom management and the embarrassing moments of white-board blunders.

Faven was one of those students. My second year of teaching Faven entered our school. She and her two brothers had been orphaned in Eritrea, Africa and recently adopted by a Minnesotan family. Every Eritrean name has a meaning as I was to find out later. Faven means light. Even though Faven had been in the United States less than two years and was still struggling with English skills, she was my top trigonometry student.

Faven's brow would furrow with concentration as she worked to gain mastery over a concept, and then…that smile and the light-bulb-going-off look for which teachers live. She loved to learn and she earned a 4.0 GPA that year she was in my high school. She was the all-school student of the month in April, 2007. I got to know Faven better as she was part of a small group of students who came up to my Northern Minnesota farm for what our school calls May-term. It is a five-day event that offers the students an out-of-classroom educational experience. Faven had such a grace about her, looking out to the needs of others before herself.

The next fall Faven was assigned to my advisory group. I was looking forward the new year and was disappointed when Faven didn’t show up for the first week of school. I sought out her adoptive sisters, also students at my school, and asked where she was. “She decided to go to Park Center High School” was their parent-coached lie. I would ask the girls occasionally how Faven was doing in her new school and would get various non-committal answers. In October I found out why with the following email:

Dear Ms. Johnson, this is Faven your student from last year in trig. class.
First of all i would like to say,how are u doing? well I am emailing you to tell you that i am facing a big problem and ask you if you can do something to help me.
i was adapted with my two brothers almost two years ago.this summer my mom brought as back to Africa to see our relative and go back to the US and start our school, but when we came she told my grandparent that she was going to damp us (leave us in Eritrea).Then after begging her many times they told the governmenrt and the court decided that she has to take us beck or give us our documents.She didnit stop there but she appealed to the high court and they are about to give the same decision.So please i realy need your help,i am just sitting here with out education and not much to eat.you can talk to Mr.Carlstrom he knows about me and email me back as soon as possible,Please.
Thank You.

Within a week after receiving that email, God gave me a love response to Faven that launched my dogged perseverance onto a path that could not, by the strength of Jesus, be deterred.

There are good works that we as Christians do daily. God has prepared these beforehand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). And then there is at least one GOOD WORK that God has prepared each one of us uniquely for to accomplish. Maybe I didn’t recognize at first that this was the BIG ONE, but as I look back I can see that God used all of my strengths and especially my weaknesses to do the work He planned.

Eritrea loses Dutch aid

The Netherlands has decided to end aid to Eritrea due to the political situation in the African country.

Development minister Bert Koenders on Friday informed the Dutch house of representatives of the decision to end aid to Albania, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Macedonia, and Sri Lanka.

In his letter to the house, the development minister emphasized the importance of a political dimension to the aid relationship.

This enables the discussion of corruption, the position of women, refugees and abortion.

The aid provided to South Asian island of Sri Lanka and Eritrea will be ended due to the political situation, Dutch authorities said.

Source : BBC

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Eritrean orphans were adopted by Americans, brought to the USA and then returned to Asmara, Eritrea and abandoned there. The purpose of this blog is to reveal the plight of Christian orphans in Eritrea. Please search the blog for more information about Eritrean orphans abandoned and adoption of African orphans.

Eritrea leader urged to release reporter

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Mar 29, 2009 (UPI) -- Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson says he met twice with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in an effort to free jailed journalist Dawit Isaak.

Eliasson said that in 2007 he talked twice to Afwerki about Isaak, who has been jailed without charges in Eritrea for seven years, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported Sunday.

The diplomatic efforts produced no success, with the Eritrean president allegedly dismissing Sweden's concerns out of hand, Eliasson said, adding, "(Afwerki) would rather talk about how unjust Eritrea had been treated by the wider world, including Sweden, after the end of the war against Ethiopia."

Swedish ambassador Fredrik Schiller reportedly has made more than a dozen trips to Asmara on Isaak's behalf. But Leif Obrink, the chairman of Dawit Isaak's support association, told Dagens Nyheter that diplomatic pressure isn't working.

"An increasing number of people have begun to realize that quiet diplomacy has reached an impasse and are demanding a tougher approach from the government," he said.

Isaak was arrested in 2001 when Eritrea closed the country's independent newspapers but has never been charged with a crime, advocates say.

 www.upi.com

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

VOM Reports Christians Jailed in Eritrea

Voice of the Martyrs' Prisoner Alert reports that at least 1,918 Eritrean citizens are imprisoned in Eritrea because of their religious beliefs. 95% of the known religious prisoners are Christians.

The article states: "jailed Protestants are routinely subjected to physical beatings and severe psychological pressure to deny their religious beliefs. Police and military authorities continue to demand the prisoners return to one of the three 'official' Christian denominations recognized by the government. But even the legally recognized denominations-the nation’s historic Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches-have come under government disfavor in the past year, incurring threats and even jailing by security police officials.

Read more about why it is dangerous to be a Christian in Eritrea at http://www.prisoneralert.com/pprofiles/vp_prisoner_159_profile.html

The Eritrean orphans that were adopted by Americans and then abandoned in Africa were Christians. Read more in prior blog postings.

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Call for prayer for Eritrea

Call for prayer for Eritrea Tuesday, 24th February 2009. 4:02pm By: Judy West. The campaigning group Release International has launched a petition and is calling a day of prayer on behalf of persecuted Christians in Eritrea. The Day of Prayer is May 24 2009 – Eritrea’s National Day.

“Imagine living as a Christian in Eritrea,” says Release CEO Andy Dipper. “Your church has been closed and its assets confiscated. Every church programme has been halted. You and others are forced to meet in secret. Your pastor has been arrested, imprisoned and has disappeared. His family has fled the country.

“This is the reality for many Christians in Eritrea. Please join our campaign to support them in prayer – and bring pressure to bear so Eritrea’s National Day becomes a day for change.”

Since 2002 the Marxist-style regime in this African nation has detained more than 2,000 Christians without trial and forced dozens of churches and Christian ministries to close. Many believers have been tortured to try to force them to renounce their faith. Some of their stories are told in the latest edition of Release magazine, available from www.releaseinternational.org

The group says that secret police routinely spy on Christians, and many leading pastors and Christian workers have been arrested. In most cases they have disappeared without trace inside Eritrea’s prison system. Relatives are often kept in the dark as to whether their loved ones are dead or alive.

The authorities have incarcerated Christians in metal shipping containers in the desert, without light or sanitation. These become like ovens by day and freezers by night. Other forms or torture are common.

Christians undergoing military service are forbidden from meeting together, from worshipping or reading a Bible. Those who refuse to renounce their faith are detained indefinitely.

Three Christians held for their faith in military jails have died in the past six months – the latest on January 16. He was 42-year-old Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom, who had been held in solitary confinement. He died from torture and diabetes. Mehari was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera. v Since 2002 Eritrea has recognised only three churches: the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran-affiliated Evangelical Church of Eritrea. The authorities have closed down all other churches.

article from:www.religiousintelligence.com

Voice of the Martyrs lists 4 Eritrean Prisoners

PrizonerAlert.com a ministry of Voice of the Martyrs invites you to become an advocate for those imprisoned for their beliefs. They list four Eritrean prisoners and ask that you to write letters to them.

"You involvement can result in better treatment for a prisoner. The authorities in many nations are very sensitive about their image abroad. When they realize that outsiders are monitoring a prisoner’s situation, conditions may be improved.

"For this we have a scriptural mandate. Read and pray through the following verses, which will help you understand the role you are undertaking. This is no doubt front line spiritual warfare and you will also need to pray through all your thinking and letter writing.

Hebrews 13:3, Matthew 25: 34-40, Matthew 5:10, 1 Peter 3: 13-17, 1 Peter 4:12-14.

"Never mention the name of the source of your information or the name of any organization such as Voice of the Martyrs or Prisoner Alert. It is not dangerous for a prisoner to receive letters from individuals, but if an organization is mentioned they may be accused of links with ‘foreign organizations’ and receive harsher sentences," they warn on their website.

To learn more about those under persecution in Eritrea and religious freedom, go to: http://www.prisoneralert.com/qry/vp_miniprofiles.taf?_function=country&cid=65&_nc=b8a9ecc293601ba3680f70a9b2a28a73

VOM does not mention Dr. Michael Mehari who was imprisoned before Christmas in Eritrea.

What are the Dangers for Christian Eritrean Orphans?

Eritrean Authorities Arrest the Country’s Most Senior Pediatrician on the Count of his Christian Faith

Submitted by editor on Fri, 2008-12-19 20:02. persecution news

(London 19-12-08) In what seems the culmination of arrests that were carried out right across the country Eritrean authorities arrested several prominent members of Evangelical Churches in Asmara. Among those arrested, over the last few weeks, is Dr Michael Mehari, of Kale Hiwet church in Asmara, a renowned paediatrician, who was known for his commitment to his work and dedication to his faith. Dr Michael is a father of atleast four young children who are now undergoing the uncertainty that has been the fate of all other children and families of prisoners as Eritrean authorities do not allow any visitation rights. Information received from contacts in Asmara includes the names of several others who were arrested along with Dr Michael from the following churches; Full Gospel, Debrebetiel, Hiyaw Yesus (Living God) and Philadelphia (a group associated with the Kidanemihret Orthodox Church), the total number of those arrested is not known.

In a similar move in the town of Dekemhare, a church mission school, that was run by Kalehiwot Church since 1952, until it was taken over by the government two years ago, was raided and several Christian teachers were arrested, many of them are elderly believed to be in their sixties and seventies, with many years of service to the school.

With the arrest of Dr Michael, Eritrean authorities have now arrested three prominent doctors on the count of their Christian faith; Rev Dr Fitsum Gebrenigus, the only Eritrean psychiatrist in the country and Rev Dr Tekelab Mengisteab, a diabetics specialist, have been under arrest since 2004. Both are Orthodox priests who were leaders of a youth reform movement in the Orthodox Church of Eritrea, issues concerning their arrest finally led to the illegal deposition of the Patriarch of the Church who has been under house arrest since September 2005.

At a time when there are reports of severe food shortages Release Eritrea is extremely concerned not just for prisoners, but for their families who are going to find it extremely difficult to provide even the very basic necessities, for themselves. With a prison population of an estimated 3,000 plus Christian victims of religious intolerance Release Eritrea appeals for those who have any influence on the government of Eritrea to advocate on behalf of prisoners and their families. In a statement Dr Berhane Asmelash, Director of Release-Eritrea said ‘’It seems that with every passing year I am loosing more and more of my friends and colleagues to the Eritrean prison system I know the school in Dekemhare and many of those who worked there for many years and Dr Michael was a colleague, at this time of year when many of us focus on our children and families I can’t help but think about all those who are imprisoned and their children, we should all continue to pray and advocate for them’’.

Release Eritrea in a human rights organisation based in the UK, focusing on religious persecution in Eritrea. It is estimated that since 2002 the Government of Eritrea has arrested over 3,000 Eritrean Christians belonging to churches that it decreed illegal and closed in May 2002.

U.S. diplomat killed in Ethiopian capital

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat was killed in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday but the circumstances of his death are unclear, State Department officials said on Thursday.

The 25-year-old diplomat, Brian Adkins, was found dead in his home in Addis Ababa, officials said.

"The death is under investigation and we are coordinating closely with the government of Ethiopia," said a State Department official, who asked not to be named as the department had not officially released details of the death.

Another official said it was a suspected homicide and that U.S. diplomatic security were looking into the incident.

Adkins was a foreign service officer who worked in the consular section of the embassy. A graduate of George Washington University in Washington, Ethiopia was his first foreign assignment for the State Department.

(Reporting by Sue Pleming; Editing by Eric Beech)

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5144FN20090205

Ethiopia is currently in a border dispute with Eritrea.

I posted this news article so you could consider the dangers of being a US Embassy diplomat in the horn of Africa.

Why is it Dangerous to be a Christian Orphan in Eritrea?

To better understand the dangers of being a Christian orphan returned to Eritrea, I gathered information at Voice of the Martyrs website.

Although I've heard personal accounts, I wanted to hear the official US Government take on religious freedom in Eritrea. It is confusing for me, as a Westerner, to hear that some religions are legal in Eritrea while other people of faith are persecuted.

VOM website directed me to the US Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report 2008. It explains that in 2002 the Eritrean Government "closed all religious facilities not belonging to the country's four principal religious groups: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church of Eritrea, Islam, and the Roman Catholic Church."

The report on Eritrea is 8 pages long. This portion was interesting to me:

"Forced Religious Conversion

There were reports that police forced some adherents of unregistered religious groups held in detention to sign statements to abandon their faith and join the Orthodox Christian Church as a precondition of their release. These individuals typically faced imprisonment and/or severe beating until they agreed to sign the document. Reports indicated that these individuals were also monitored after they signed to make sure that they did not practice or proselytize for their unregistered religion.

There were no reports of forced religious conversion of minor U.S. citizens who had been abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or of the refusal to allow such citizens to be returned to the United States."

I recommend that you go to and read the report for yourself:
http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108367.htm

The report helps you understand the dangerous back story of this True-life story of Orphans Abandoned in Eritrea.

Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com

Christian Deaths Mount in Eritrean Prisons

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Three more believers die in military confinement centers in past four months
ANS NEWS STORY
By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

LOS ANGELES (ANS) -- Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the Jan. 16 death of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organization.

Compass News reported sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement center from torture, and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera.

Compass said his death followed the disclosure this month of another death in the same prison.

Mogos Hagos Kiflom, 37, was said to have died as a result of torture he endured for refusing to recant his faith, according to Open Doors, but the exact date of his death was unknown. A member of Rhema Church, Kiflom is survived by his wife, child and mother.

Compass said incarcerated Christians from throughout Eritrea have been transferred to the Mitire prison in the country’s northeast. In 2002 the Eritrean regime outlawed religious activity except that of the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Muslim religions.

Compass said that in October, Open Doors learned of the death of Teklesenbet Gebreab Kiflom, 36, who died while imprisoned for his faith at the Wi’a Military Confinement center. He was reported to have died after prison commanders refused to give him medical attention for malaria.

In June 2008, Compass said, 37-year-old Azib Simon died from untreated malaria as well. Weakened by torture, sources told Compass, Simon contracted malaria only a week before she died.

Together with the deaths this month, the confirmed number of Christians who have died while imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea now totals eight.

Mass Arrests

Compass said that at the same time, the government of President Isaias Afwerki has stepped up its campaign against churches it has outlawed, earning it a spot on the U.S. Department of State’s list of worst violators of religious freedom.

Compas said Open Doors reported the government arrested 15 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Keren on Jan. 11, and before Christmas at least 49 leaders of unregistered churches in Asmara were rounded up over two weeks. Last November, 34 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Dekemhare were arrested.

Those arrested included members of the Church of the Living God, Medhaniel Alem Revival Group and the Philadelphia, Kale-Hiwot, Rhema, Full Gospel and Salvation by Christ churches, according to Open Doors. The church leaders’ names appeared on a government list of 180 people who were taken from their homes and work places.

Compass said in the November sweep, authorities arrested 65 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in the towns of Barentu and Dekemhare, including 17 women. In Keren and Mendefera, 25 members of the Full Gospel Church were arrested, and 20 Christians belonging to the Church of the Living God in Mendefera and Adi-Kuala were arrested.

Compass reported that church leaders in Eritrea told Open Doors that by mid-December, a total of 2,891 Christians, including 101 women, had been incarcerated for their faith.

On June 8 2008 Compass learned that eight Christians held at the Adi-Quala prison were taken to medical emergency facilities as a result of torture by military personnel at the camp. Eritrean officials have routinely denied religious oppression exists in the country, saying the government is only enforcing laws against unregistered churches.

Compass said the government has denied all efforts by independent Protestant churches to register, and people caught worshipping outside the four recognized religious institutions, even in private homes, suffer arrest, torture and severe pressure to deny their faith. The Eritrean Orthodox Church and its flourishing renewal movement has also been subject to government raids.

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Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "The Face of Homelessness." Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. Reynalds' latest book is "We All Need a Little Help." It was released on October 3 2008. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145.

Introduction: Angie's Story

I would count “dogged perseverance” as one of my strengths. My husband, George, may mark that down in the weakness category and call it “stubbornness.” It was that dogged perseverance that sent me down the aisle with tassel bouncing to receive my B.S. in mathematics in the spring of 2005 at the age of 48.

Math department chair, Dr. Skully, had raised one eye-brow with his skeptical response to my query about becoming a math teacher three years earlier, “Only 40% of the applicants complete the degree and you have already admitted that mathematics is not your strongest subject.” He hadn’t mentioned the gray hairs on my head but I saw him sneaking a decidedly dismissive glance at them. It was the raised eye-brow that kicked in my stubbornness and I graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Although the first year of teaching was overwhelming I found why teachers are hooked into a career that has low financial rewards, long hours and unbearable responsibility. The teacher/student bond is a heart response that cannot be experienced anywhere else. And there are those special students who make worth all the late-night hours of lesson planning and paper grading, the frustrations of classroom management and the embarrassing moments of white-board blunders.

Faven was one of those students. My second year of teaching Faven entered our school. She and her two brothers had been orphaned in Eritrea, Africa and recently adopted by a Minnesotan family. Every Eritrean name has a meaning as I was to find out later. Faven means light. Even though Faven had been in the United States less than two years and was still struggling with English skills, she was my top trigonometry student.

Faven's brow would furrow with concentration as she worked to gain mastery over a concept, and then…that smile and the light-bulb-going-off look for which teachers live. She loved to learn and she earned a 4.0 GPA that year she was in my high school. She was the all-school student of the month in April, 2007. I got to know Faven better as she was part of a small group of students who came up to my Northern Minnesota farm for what our school calls May-term. It is a five-day event that offers the students an out-of-classroom educational experience. Faven had such a grace about her, looking out to the needs of others before herself.

The next fall Faven was assigned to my advisory group. I was looking forward the new year and was disappointed when Faven didn’t show up for the first week of school. I sought out her adoptive sisters, also students at my school, and asked where she was. “She decided to go to Park Center High School” was their parent-coached lie. I would ask the girls occasionally how Faven was doing in her new school and would get various non-committal answers. In October I found out why with the following email:

Dear Ms. Johnson, this is Faven your student from last year in trig. class.
First of all i would like to say,how are u doing? well I am emailing you to tell you that i am facing a big problem and ask you if you can do something to help me.
i was adapted with my two brothers almost two years ago.this summer my mom brought as back to Africa to see our relative and go back to the US and start our school, but when we came she told my grandparent that she was going to damp us (leave us in Eritrea).Then after begging her many times they told the governmenrt and the court decided that she has to take us beck or give us our documents.She didnit stop there but she appealed to the high court and they are about to give the same decision.So please i realy need your help,i am just sitting here with out education and not much to eat.you can talk to Mr.Carlstrom he knows about me and email me back as soon as possible,Please.
Thank You.

Within a week after receiving that email, God gave me a love response to Faven that launched my dogged perseverance onto a path that could not, by the strength of Jesus, be deterred.

There are good works that we as Christians do daily. God has prepared these beforehand for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). And then there is at least one GOOD WORK that God has prepared each one of us uniquely for to accomplish. Maybe I didn’t recognize at first that this was the BIG ONE, but as I look back I can see that God used all of my strengths and especially my weaknesses to do the work He planned.

Eritrean Children Adopted by Americans: Abandoned in Africa

In October 2007 math teacher Angie Johnson* received an email from a former student. Faven* had been adopted along with her two brothers from Eritrea, East Africa by a Minnesota family. In June 2007 the adoptive parents took Faven and her brothers back to Africa and abandoned them there.

"Faven emailed me to request help out of the desperate situation. George and I joined forces with a small group of advocates to work towards returning the children to Minnesota," reported Angie in her 2008 Christmas letter to friends and family.

The saga of how God put this dedicated advocacy group together is part of the true-life story told in the upcoming book, Adopted by Americans: Abandoned in Africa. Here is an except:

Quiet-spoken, conservative Angie Johnson from a farm in the Midwest and emotive, colorful Azzezza Issac* from the deserts of Africa seemed an unlikely pair to become advocates for Faven and her brothers. But over the next months the two would become bonded by their love of Christ and their hope that the Lord wanted these children back home in Minneapolis.

The duo sat together, holding hands in Azzazza's kitchen in Brooklyn Park. Neighborhood pre-school children scurried around their feet.

"What can I do, Lord?" grieved Angie. "I'm only a math teacher. Africa and Faven are worlds away. I don't know where to start on adoption or immigration issues. This seems way too big for me." Timid Angie didn't have knowledge of the system, but she did know that this was not too big a problem for her God.

"Jesus can do this," encouraged Azzezza.

"It's just that I'm not the 'action' kind of person, Azzezza. I'm a good listener. I hate talking on the telephone." Yet Angie took a deep breath, picked up the phone and began making calls to public officials.

One of her first calls was to the US Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea. It took some time -- and perseverance - to get past the front desk...

Christian writers -- and sisters -- Angie Johnson and Stacey Wittig come together as to document this true story.

To learn more, sign up for the blog "newsletter" at "Subscribe to Posts" on the upper right side of this blog.


*names have been changed but will be revealed once all legalities have been satisfied.
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