[Field News] Yemen Christian Community Deteriorates Rapidly After Israel-Hamas Conflict

Samuel, a convert who escaped from Yemen 20 years ago, recently shared the news in an interview with Open Door, a Christian persecution monitoring group, saying, “Christians are being made scapegoats because of the anger felt by Yemen’s Houthi leaders over the Gaza conflict.”

Houthi rebels, who have recently been in the news for attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, are known to be targeting ships heading to Israel or connected to Israel.

“The international situation with Israel will make life much more difficult for Christians in Yemen,” Samuel said. “That means people will support the Houthis as heroes.”

(Omitted)

Yemen ranked 5th in the ranking of countries with Christian persecution published by Open Doors this year. Christians in Yemen are forced to practice their faith in secret and, sadly, some of the persecution is carried out by family members.

After Samuel converted to Christianity, he faced severe persecution and left his homeland. He received many death threats, and even his father wanted him executed. “I know of one convert in Yemen who was taken prisoner by his father and subsequently killed,” he said. “There is no way to make your faith public as a Christian in this country.”

He continued, “Your life is in danger and you could die. Those who have come to faith in Yemen know that no matter who they are, they can lose everything. Conversion is very dangerous. (But) people die for Christ. “It could be at the hands of your family, neighbors or the police.”

Source: Christian Today

4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5

We hear that Brother Samuel and his brothers and sisters in Yemen are being persecuted as a result of ethnic and religious conflicts, resulting in antipathy towards Christianity.

To our Lord who loves Yemen, we pray that the brothers and sisters in Yemen will become those who can surely endure all hardships and persecution, and receive God's grace and care even in the Islamic society.

May You cover Brother Samuel and the brothers and sisters in Yemen with the blood of Jesus' salvation so that the power of death cannot attack them, and may they be established as worthy of the eternal kingdom of God.

Rather may their faith become more firm through these hardships and persecutions, and pour out the Holy Spirit and the Word of God on the church of which Jesus is the head, making it the pride of all nations.

In this way, may only Jesus receive the praise and glory of the Yemeni people, and may the Yemeni people rise up as a holy nation until the gospel of the kingdom of heaven is spread to all nations and to the ends of the earth!