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February 13, 2012

Home > 2000 > August (Web-only)Christianity Today, August (Web-only), 2000
Indonesian Island Attacks Go Unnoticed
World ignoring plight of Christians in Ambon, visitors say.

Persecuted Christians on Indonesia's Ambon island face desperate conditions and the world is largely ignoring their plight, said two Americans who recently returned from a visit to the island.As many as 500,000 Christians have been driven from their homes and more than 2,500 have been killed by Muslim "jihad" warriors who have publicly declared they will push all Christians off the island or kill them.Christians are fleeing into the mountains, flooding into refugee camps and clogging ports to wait for the few ships ferrying refugees off the island. Meanwhile, an Indonesian government reluctant to confront the extremists is refusing to allow international intervention. Elements of the Indonesian army reportedly are assisting the jihad warriors.Drew Stephens and Brett Ferguson, members of Riverside Baptist Church in Denver were in a refugee camp on Ambon Aug. 1 just after Muslim fighters attacked the village of Waai, killing two dozen people."Villagers were coming into the camp after walking 10 hours on a trail through the mountains," said Ferguson, broadcasting major at Metro State University in Denver and son of Riverside's pastor, Rick Ferguson. "Many of them were malnourished. There were lots of children whose parents had been killed. One baby we saw died of exposure from the long night of walking in the rain over the hills."Ferguson and Stephens, Riverside Baptist Church's media minister, traveled to Indonesia with Imam Sugianto, a member of Riverside's Indonesian mission congregation, to videotape the persecution Ambonese Christians are enduring.Members of that mission congregation -- many of whom have friends and family in Indonesia -- are extremely distressed that U.S. media aren't telling the story of what is happening ...

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