Christians Are Being Denied US Visas While 'Cradle of Christianity Is Wiped Off the Map,' Evangelicals Warn

'We Will Give Until It Hurts': Evangelicals Urge 1,000 American Churches to Host Persecuted Refugees

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter Friday, September 18, 2015

A young girl is carried by his father as refugees from Syria and Irak disembark from a coach at a refugee centre in Champagne-sur-Seine, near Paris, France, September 9, 2015. France is ready to take in 24,000 refugees as part of European Union plans to welcome more than 100,000 in the next two years, the French President said on Monday, dismissing opinion polls showing public opposition to the move. | (Photo: Reuters/Christian Hartmann)

Refugees and migrants rest after disembarking from a Greek ferry arriving from the island of Kos in the port of Piraeus near Athens, Greece, August 15, 2015. United Nations refugee agency called on Greece to take control of the "total chaos" on Mediterranean islands, where thousands of migrants have landed. About 124,000 have arrived this year by sea, many via Turkey, according to Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR director for Europe. | (Photo: Reuters/Christian Hartmann)

A Christian migrant from Eritrea shows a crucifix made of wood after she attended a Sunday mass at the makeshift church in "The New Jungle" near Calais, France, August 2, 2015. Some 3,000 migrants live around the tunnel entrance in a makeshift camp known as "The Jungle", making the northern French port one of the frontlines in Europe's wider migrant crisis. | (Photo: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol)

A Syrian refugee holds a baby moments after arriving on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, September 11, 2015. A refugee bottleneck on Greece's easternmost islands has eased after recent dangerous overcrowding, rescue agencies said on Friday, as thousands of migrants per day continue to arrive on the mainland. | (Photo: Reuters/Dimitris Michalakis)

A man hands out water to Afghan refugees in Victoria Square at the center of Athens, Greece, September 11, 2015. Some 7,600 migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war, entered Macedonia from Greece between 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Wednesday and 6 p.m. on Thursday, an official with the United Nations refugee agency said on the border. Migrants are flowing in increasing numbers through the Balkan peninsula towards Hungary as Greece ferries them from inundated islands to Athens, from where they head north to Macedonia. | (Photo: Reuters/Paul Hanna)

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A faith-based global ministry has initiated a "Fostering Families" program in which it's calling on over 1,000 churches in America to take in persecuted refugees from the ongoing crisis. Rev. Kevin Jessip, president of Global Strategic Alliance, said Christians are being wiped out from the Middle East, while at the same time being denied visas in the United States, and it's an urgent time for the rest of the Christian body to wake up and help.

"It's inappropriate for the Untied States of America to discriminate against a minority religion who is in dire need of asylum. These are proven cases at the UNHCR that we've seen of people who have been denied, and are in jeopardy of losing their lives," Jessip told The Christian Post in a phone interview on Thursday.

"Not only have they ran and lost everything, but now, in many cases, we are seeing people facing another impending threat, and that is starvation," he said, noting that most of the Christian refugees don't even have basic resources to provide food for themselves.

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Grace Knodt, vice president of GSA, who also spoke with CP over the phone, noted the urgency of the situation.

"As far as our Christian brothers and sisters are concerned, they are facing imminent death, many of them," Knodt said.

The program's goal is to enroll a minimum of 1,000 American churches and embrace the refugees who are fleeing war and terrorism in Syria and the surrounding region by the millions.

"I believe that the church needs to wake up, and we need to revive that which is about to die. The very church, the body of Christ, is being eliminated in the Middle East, and the very cradle of Christianity, is being wiped off the map," Jessip added, drawing from Revelation 3:2 in the Bible.

"And if the rest of the Christian body does not awaken at this time and begin to move by the power of God's Holy Spirit and take action to help these people, we will answer for that one day. We have to do everything that we possibly can."

Many of these refugees have been making their way to Western European countries, stretching resoureces and national borders.

The GSA was formed to help protect the persecuted church and provide safe havens throughout the Middle East, and focuses on building alliances and supporting workers on the ground who are engaged with displaced marginalized people, Jessip told CP.

The organization has also been working with immigration services both globally and domestically; it has held meetings with U.S. congressmen, and spoken at the U.N. to highlight persecution of Jews and Christians on a global basis.