A Message From Our President
In Acts 5, we read about some of the very first persecuted Christians. They were imprisoned for their faith. But during the night, an angel appeared. “Go, stand in the temple courts ... and tell the people all about this new life!” the angel said, setting them free.
In the Islamic World, people are experiencing this new life in Jesus. Like the apostles, they are sharing Him with others, often at great cost to themselves. Yet they stand bold and firm in their faith, clinging to Christ.
Our team recently ministered to Yazan, whose family assaulted him when he came to faith. When we offered to help him escape, he told us, “I will not leave the house. I want my family to come to Christ. Even if I lose my life for it. Please continue to pray for me.” Yazan is risking his life so that his persecutors — his own family — can experience this new life.
Help The Persecuted exists because of a hard truth: All over the Islamic World, converts to Christianity are losing everything — their children, their parents, their spouses, their livelihoods, their homes, their physical safety...
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When lives are threatened, we rescue them.
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When hearts and spirits are broken, we restore them.
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When livelihoods are lost, we rebuild them.
May our stories fill you with joy at this new life by ministering to your heart — just as you have ministered to persecuted believers through your prayers and giving. Thank you for your partnership.
Joshua Youssef
President and CEO
Help The Persecuted is an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, and an Excellence in Giving Certified Transparent Charity.
Help The Persecuted is a proud member of the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP). RLP is a collaborative effort of Christian organizations from every continent focused on religious liberty for all.
THE HELP THE PERSECUTED LOGO
The Tau-Rho symbol is the earliest artistic depiction of the crucifixion. It combines the Greek letter Rho with a cross bar, presenting the image of a man on a cross. In early Christian writings (including some of the earliest manuscripts) the translators used this symbol to represent “the cross” and “the crucifixion”.
This Tau-Rho symbol pre-dates the Chi Rho symbol which was adopted some 150 years later by Constantine. Later came the Iota and Eta Christogram. Clement of Alexandria was one of the first to reference this. It is the Greek letters Iota (I) and ETA (H) which are the first two letters of Jesus’s name.
Around the 4th Century, a symbol known as Chi Rho was used by Constantine. It took the first two Greek letters of Christ - Chi (X) and Rho (P) - and placed them atop one another. This was a much different time in the life of the church, persecution virtually comes to a halt due to Constantine’s embrace of Christianity. The first 300 years of the church were marked by periods of intense persecution and the symbols above were more subversive than we now view them. They stood against Caesar worship and pagan practice. We find them now scribbled on cave walls where believers worshiped in secret.
Our logo is a reminder that our salvation was purchased by the ultimate persecution on the cross, and that we stand historically and presently with our brothers and sisters who, even now, cry out - “How Long O Lord?” - Revelation 6:10.jpg?width=306&height=172&name=image%20(1).jpg)