Young children work alongside their parents, struggling for years to repay family debts through the exhausting chore of making bricks. In the brickyards of Nepal, there is no access to education, medical care, or even enough food or decent housing for these suffering families.

But the approaching rainy season will force most laborers to temporarily leave the brickyards and relocate to nearby riverside or slum areas.

Many of the brick laborers are converts to Christianity and face harassment and persecution for their faith. Christian Freedom International helps new converts with food, medicine, medical care, Bibles, clothes, and shelter.

In a nation that was once called the world’s only “Hindu Kingdom,” Christianity has been growing at a remarkable rate. Nepal’s Christian population is estimated to be over 800,000, with approximately 170 churches in Kathmandu, the nation’s capital.

But Christians are still a minority in this isolated region of the world, and persecution is a grave reality for anyone of the Christian faith.

Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei, members of the detained Nobel laureate’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, were each sentenced last week, according to lawyer and NLD spokesman Nyan Win. “They were sentenced... under the act of insulting religion,” Nyan Win said. “We do not know the details about their arrest but they were detained on remand under the Explosives Act,” he said.

Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei were arrested at their homes in April after they led a prayer service in Twante township, about 30 miles west of Rangoon, at which they offered prayers for their leader’s freedom. The two are charged under Section 295a which addresses “desecration of religious buildings and property.”

Aung Soe Wei’s wife Ma Lwin said the two were immediately taken to Rangoon’s Insein prison following the verdict and were barred from speaking to family members waiting outside the court. Lawyer Kyi Toe said that his requests to authorities to let him meet his clients to were denied.

“I made a request to the police station chief Myint Kyaw and also to the court, but was denied both times,” said Kyin Toe. “I was not given the right to freely talk to and discuss with my client from the start until the end of the case.”

The military government of Burma has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, after refusing to recognize the NLD’s landslide victory in the country’s last elections in 1990.

She is currently being held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on charges of breaching her house arrest rules in May, when an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside residence.

The Burmese junta has frequently enforced the law against “insulting religion” -- which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

Nowhere are these “big misapprehensions” more reinforced than in Saudi Arabia where women have few, if any, basic rights and non-Muslims, especially Christians, have none.

For example, women in the Kingdom are not allowed to study law and engineering. They cannot vote, travel without the explicit approval of their husband or a male guardian, drive, or work in most government offices. Even when hired in a private office, they are usually put in a separate room from men. They also most wear an “abaya” -- a neck-to-ankle black robe, and cover their hair with a black scarf.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, residents were recently granted permission to see a movie. The Saudi-made comedy about a Bedouin who moves to the big city was the first film shown in the Saudi capital in 30 years. Naturally, no women were allowed into the performance.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic theocratic monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official religion; the law requires that all Saudi citizens be Muslims. Religious freedom is virtually non-existent. The Saudi government does not provide legal recognition or protection for freedom of religion, and it is severely restricted in practice.

Saudi Arabia allows Christians to enter the country as temporary workers, but does not allow them to practice their faith. Foreign Christians generally only worship in secret within private homes. Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited. These include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David, and others.

There are no official churches in Saudi Arabia. The small number Saudi Christians take enormous risks to meet in internet chat rooms and private meetings. If caught, they face severe consequences.

The Saudi Mutaween, or Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, i.e., the religious police, prohibits practice of the Christian religion.

Christianity is not only illegal, but the practice of Christianity -- even in secret -- is strictly forbidden and results in severe punishments if caught. Saudi Arabia stands out not only for its extremely harsh laws against all religion other than the Wahhabi branch of Islam, but also because it spends millions each year disseminating Islamic teachings around the world.

These religious literatures have been accused by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) of spreading intolerance among young Muslims by teaching them to hate “infidels,” or non-believers.

Saudi Arabia forbids missionary work by any religion other than Wahabi/Salafi Islam. “Freedom of religion does not exist,” the U.S. State Department's 1997 Human Rights Report on Saudi Arabia states. “Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims. The government prohibits the public practice of other religions.”

As a result, more than 4,000 ethnic Karen villagers have fled into Thailand as Burmese troops shelled the camp causing one of the largest movements of refugees across the border into Thailand in more than a decade.

Christian Freedom International has supported schools and a clinic in Ler Per Her for more than five years. Earlier this year, CFI distributed rice to new arrivals in Ler Per Her village.

Those who have fled across the border are in urgent need of shelter, medical assistance, food, and clothing. Others are still trapped inside Burma, unable to reach even the limited safety of Thailand.

Christian Freedom International is supplying emergency medicine, shelter, clothes, food, rain ponchos, mosquito nets, and other assistance to the survivors of the raid.

The recent Burmese offensive is aimed at several ethnic Karen IDP camps. The Karen have been displaced by decades of war, resulting in the world’s longest civil war.

More than 100,000 mostly ethnic Karen refugees already shelter in camps in Thailand after fleeing military raids by the Burmese army, and more than half a million are displaced inside military-run Burma.

CFI has been assisting the persecuted Karen people of Burma for the past 10 years with medicine, backpack medic teams, medical clinics, schools, orphanages, and emergency aid.

How you can help: Click Here

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI (Christian Freedom International) -- Miraculous. It’s the only word I can think of to describe what’s going on here in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

When I say “miraculous,” it’s not what you might think. There hasn’t been an outbreak of sudden, unexplained healings, nor have there been any sightings of angels walking among us here in the Soo.

Instead, the town has been quietly rejuvenated by a group of 14 families—over 50 men, women, and children—who have claimed for themselves a piece of the American dream while making a lasting impact on the small community they’ve learned to call “home.”

What’s so remarkable about these 14 families and the 8 children my wife and I have adopted? They’re Karen refugees from Burma.

Against the greatest of odds, these families have gone from struggling through a bleak existence in Thailand refugee camps to enjoying abundant freedom and opportunities in the United States.

In the recent months since they’ve relocated to Michigan, these refugees have found new homes, friends, and churches, and are happily thriving in ways that they never thought possible.

As they secure jobs and earn their own income, many refugees have begun donating to CFI, simply because they know firsthand how effective our programs in Burma really are.

Many refugee teenagers—kids who were once students at our Vocational School in Thailand—plan to return to their homeland one day to serve and teach at CFI schools and clinics.

And a Karen pastor, who was once in charge of CFI’s Freedom House orphanage in the Mae La refugee camp, has relocated to Sault Ste. Marie in order to provide pastoral care and services.

The fact that these refugees have all overcome the bitter adversity of persecution in Burma and become productive members of American society can only be attributed to the miraculous hand of God.

Want to know something else? Divine intervention may have brought them to the United States, but the loving support they have enjoyed since their arrival wouldn’t have been possible without you, either.

For many years, you have invested your prayers and financial gifts into CFI and its mission to assist the persecuted church in Burma, and I’m excited to tell you that your investment is paying off in a big way.

Because of your generosity, we have been able to effectively help these refugees with everything from medical care to food and clothing needs.

We have even purchased and begun renovating a nearby motel which serves as a Christian refugee resettlement center. This motel helps to provide temporary housing for the many other Christian refugees who are hoping to relocate to the Sault Ste. Marie area.

Local volunteers have been a special blessing to the growing Karen community, as well. Several mentor families are teaching many of the refugees the basics of how to shop, pay bills, and manage their homes, and more than 25 volunteers hold English classes for the refugees three nights a week.

Volunteer manpower has also been a tremendous help with the motel reconstruction, which is an especially important project that will offer clean, safe housing for new families—many of whom have been living in high crime, inner city neighborhoods since their resettlement in the United States.

The anticipated arrival of more Karen refugees is an exciting prospect as well as a challenging one.

After the Soviet communist regime crumbled in 1991, Russia adopted a constitution that, in theory, allowed for freedom of religion. However, in reality “old guard,” draconian regulations are reappearing.

The most recent incident involves the Soviet-style, reconstituted Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) “Council for Conducting State Religious Expert Analysis.”

As reported by the Norway based Forum 18 News Service, the MOJ’s choice of members to the Council includes “anti-cultists” and controversial scholars of Islam. The Council is chaired by Alexander Dvorkin, Russia’s most prominent “anti-cult” activist, who has described the faith of some Protestants as “a crude, magical-occult system with elements of psychological manipulation.”

The powers of the Council were recently widened allowing it to investigate the activity, doctrines, leadership decisions, literature, and worship of any registered religious organization and recommend action to the MOJ.

There is a recently formed Internet movement, “No to Inquisitors,” which hundreds of Russians have managed to join. The protesters have called on the MOJ to either dissolve the Council or ask Dvorkin to submit his resignation. Neither is likely.

If the Council is given free rein, it is likely to recommend harsh measures against certain religious organizations, especially Christian groups.

For example, at the Council’s first meeting, Dvorkin named the Russian Bible Society as a possible target for investigation.

But his life changed forever – in ways that he could never anticipate – the day he made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. After being baptized by a Christian uncle in December 2008, Dipesh was so overjoyed that he knew he had to share his decision with the rest of his family.

But after learning about his conversion, Dipesh’s immediate family – his parents, brother, sister, and brother-in-law – began distancing themselves from him in a way that surprised the young man. The close and loving relationships that he had once enjoyed with each of his family members began to deteriorate right in front of his eyes. “Whenever I tried to talk to them, they just turned their faces from me,” says Dipesh. “My father didn’t talk to me for four months…my family had gone against me.”

It wasn’t until a dark night in May 2009 that Dipesh would truly understand their deep resentment against him.

It began with the family’s attempts to make him leave the Christian faith and reconvert to Hinduism. If he did not reconvert, they argued, his parents’ honor – in fact, the entire family’s honor – would be destroyed. If he left Christianity now before anyone else learned about it, he could continue to lead a normal life. But Dipesh was fixed on his decision. “Jesus Christ is the God-man who sacrificed His life for the salvation of mankind,” he told his father. “I won’t be reconverted into our false Hindu religion. I won’t leave my Savior, Lord Jesus. If you kill me, you can kill me, I don’t care because I have found the true God for my salvation.”