CHRISTIAN FREEDOM INTERNATIONAL

The goal of Christian Freedom International is to make a real and sustainable difference in the lives of persecuted Christians through advocacy and relief. Although persecution has existed for centuries, it has been steadily on the rise in recent decades - in fact, more Christians were persecuted in the 20th century alone than in all the previous centuries combined. Incredibly, A report from the UK in 2019 documents over 245 million Christians, including children, face persecution each day in more than 140 countries around the world, enduring harassment, imprisonment, abuse, torture, and martyrdom for the “crimes" of owning or reading a Bible, holding “illegal" worship services, proselytizing, and even the simple act of converting to Christianity. Since 1998, Christian Freedom International has been on the forefront in the battle for the rights of persecuted Christians around the world. Christians in oppressive nations are often in need of basic items – food, clean water and medicine – and lack education or jobs due to discrimination. We can help by caring and equipping them. Our goals are to care through physical & spiritual aid: church security, refugee & asylum assistance, advocacy, awareness, and prayer support. CFI will equip through: education, Bible distribution, scholarships, vocational training and micro-enterprise programs.

The strategy of Christian Freedom International has always been to use the maximum amount of the resources which our donors generously and sacrificially give in direct support of our programs; with the least amount possible expended on administration and fundraising. Accordingly we are a low-overhead organization with only 2 full-time, and 6 part-time employees --three of whom are employed 100% percent in program service. Our practice has always been to come along-side of indigenous Christian pastors, evangelists and ministers working in countries of intense persecution, and provide support where there is otherwise not available. We find established, functioning ministries, and enable them to do what they cannot do alone; targeting our resources for the greatest impact. Our small administration allows CFI tremendous flexibility to respond to the changing needs of the persecuted Church in times of disaster or conflict.

CFI staff and volunteers work passionately to ensure that concerned citizens, policy makers, and the Church around the world are aware and informed of the continuing atrocities perpetrated upon the millions of Christians who routinely suffer for their faith. Christian Freedom International has a well-developed network of partnering organizations, working hand in hand, in order to join resources, capabilities, and strengths toward a common mission with less duplication of efforts, and more benefit to the populations in need. We are able to locate, evaluate and coordinate with indigenous pastors and evangelists who are already serving the persecuted Church faithfully, and provide them the capacity to grow, sustain, and minister to the struggling Christians within their reach.

Since 1996, CFI has come to the aid of thousands of suffering Christians world-wide, including emergency and disaster relief, Bible distribution, medical services, food, clothing, shelter, tools, landmine detectors, water purifiers, essential provisions, educational materials, resettlement assistance, asylum case-work, and leadership and vocational training. CFI has sponsored jungle hospitals, schools, pastors, children, backpack medics, micro-enterprise programs, aid to the disabled, and self-help initiatives. These services are provided to affected persons based on need and available resources at no charge by CFI staff and volunteers. Our programs regularly operate in Michigan, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, the Korean peninsula, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Egypt. Other projects may occur in Iraq, Vietnam, China, India, Nigeria, and elsewhere as events require. More information may be found online at www.christianfreedom.org. This work continues in areas where Christians have very few options. Our highest goal, however, is not to allow the cycle of poverty, dependence, and oppression to continue, but to change the narrative.
In the last decade CFI has been especially active in assisting with the U.S. resettlement of Karen and Karenni refugees from Burma. CFI has worked with the State Department to facilitate immigration, and then further helped many refugee families secure jobs and affordable housing, provided orientation and tutors during the citizenship process, and connected these developing citizens to local churches and families as they begin new lives in the United States. By God's grace, that experience now serves us well as we battle to clear a pathway for persecuted Pakistani, and other Christians from oppressive countries, to achieve asylum and immigration to safer countries.
In addition to providing for the basic physical and spiritual needs of the Persecuted, we have also remained a strong advocate on their behalf in Washington DC. Over the last year we put a special emphasis on prayer; on petitioning both God and country; making the needs of the Persecuted Church known with a primary focus on Christian refugees being side-lined for immigration even as they face genocide in their own countries for their faith in Jesus Christ.