More than 300 faithful writers took time out of their busy schedules to share the love of Christ and pen letters of encouragement to global prisoners this year.  

By God’s grace, it made a difference. Most of the prisoners who were in International Christian Concern’s prisoner letter-writing campaign during the past year have been released.  

Chinese prisoner Pastor Zhang Shaoije and Iranian prisoner Mina Khajavi were freed this fall. They joined Nour Fayez Ibrahim Gerges (Egypt), Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo (Cuba), Abdolreza Ali Haghnejad (Iran), and Apollinaris Darmawan (Indonesia), who were earlier released. The whereabouts and status of Hoodoo Cabdilaah, imprisoned in Somaliland, are unknown. 

Khajavi, 60, was serving a six-year prison sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison. In June 2020, agents with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard arrested her as part of coordinated raids against house churches. Authorities charged Khajavi with “acting against national security by promoting ‘Zionist’ Christianity.”  

Authorities arrested Pastor Shaoije more than a decade ago and sentenced him to 12 years after a series of land disputes with local authorities who tried to seize church property. Shaojie was charged with obstruction of official business and gathering a crowd to disrupt social order after his congregation gathered. The charge was changed to fraud. 

ICC recently added the following names to its prisoner letter-writing kit: 

• Meron Gebreselasie (Eritrea) — imprisoned since June 2004 

On June 3, 2004, Pastor Gebreselasie was arrested at a police checkpoint outside the capital of Eritrea. His arrest and imprisonment are assumed to be linked to his role as a pastor of the Massawa Rhema Evangelical Church. In May 2002, Eritrean authorities banned evangelical churches as part of a broader crackdown on Christianity. Meron has received no official charges and has had no access to a lawyer or a trial. 

• Haile Naizghe (Eritrea) — imprisoned since May 2004 

Naizghe, a husband and father of four children, was arrested in May 2004 due to his leadership in a Christian church network. As chair of the Full Gospel Church of Eritrea — one of the nation’s largest Pentecostal networks with around 150 house churches — Haile’s activities became a target after the Eritrean government banned all religious groups except for Sunni Islam, Roman Catholic, Eritrean Orthodox, and Lutheran churches in 2002. Despite efforts to secure official registration, Haile was arrested. He was moved to a maximum-security prison with other Evangelical pastors. Haile has now been imprisoned for more than 20 years, enduring harsh treatment and having been denied family contact. Reports from former inmates describe the conditions at Wengel Prison as “dungeon-like” and torturous.

• Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh (Iran) — Imprisoned since February 2025 

In February 2025, Gol-Tapeh was detained by Iranian authorities for converting to Christianity. He was arrested alongside several Christians without any charges and sent to the infamous Evin Prison. Gol-Tapeh had previously been imprisoned from 2016 to 2022. In May 2025, Gol-Tapeh was hospitalized after suffering a stroke during a 35-day hunger strike where he protested solitary confinement. He spent two days in the hospital and was returned to prison. Gol-Tapeh was temporarily moved to another prison in June 2025 under conditions that were “overcrowded and unsanitary.” He was returned to Evin prison in August 2025.  

• Ksor Ruk (Vietnam) — imprisoned since October 2018 

In October 2018, Vietnamese authorities arrested Ksor Ruk for his role as a missionary and religious leader. The Montagnard Christian was accused of reviving a religious movement not approved by authorities and of “undermining the state’s unity policy.” In March 2019, Ruk was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three to five years’ probation. Ruk had previously been detained from 2007 to 2013 on similar charges related to his Christian faith. 

• Ju Dianhong (China) — imprisoned since late 2016 

In late 2016, Ju Dianhong was detained in China alongside several colleagues on false accusations related to “cult activity.” On Dec. 28, 2017, she was sentenced to 13 years in prison after authorities accused her of being affiliated with “Three Grades of Servant Sect.” Dianhong also received a fine of 150,000 yuan (about $21,000 USD). According to Prisoners of Faith, during her trial, she asked her lawyer, “Why is it a crime to believe in Jesus? 

• Asif Masih (Pakistan) — August 2017 

On Aug. 12, 2017, a Muslim mob attacked and brutally beat Asif Masih in Pakistan after accusing him of burning a Quran and insulting Islam. Asif, who was just 16 at the time, was brought to a local police station and forced to confess by the angry mob that stormed the premises. Police took his confession and charged Masih with blasphemy for “desecrating the Quran.”  

Those who receive letters from ICC’s prisoner letter-writing campaign are grateful to receive them. 

Professor Solomon Tarfa and his wife, Mercy, have been in a court battle with Nigerian authorities regarding the care of children in their Du Merci Orphanage. Tarfa, who spent time in prison over the case, said the letters encouraged him.  

“They were amazing because they contained Scriptures and so many encouragements to help me forgive those who had accused me wrongly,” Tarfa said. “The first time I received the letters, I was feeling down that morning. I received a call that I had received the letters. I read the letters over the next few days and was greatly encouraged.” 

Joining the Campaign 

ICC’s prisoner letter-writing campaign echoes the writer of Hebrews 13:3: “Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” 

Those who want to write to prisoners can download the prisoner kit at persecution.org/letters. The materials include prisoner profiles, guidelines on what to include and what not to include in letters, and where to send them.                         

To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email [email protected]. To support ICC’s work around the world, please give to our Where Most Needed Fund.