Christian Solidarity International

If you have things to be thankful for, then you should be excited to reciprocate that and show that to the rest of the world.

And that's where my yearly campaign with Christian Solidarity International means so much to us.

Because we use all of that good feeling, all of those wonderful ideas about gratitude and Christ's coming.

And we say, hey, let's actually change some lives with it.

Todd Chapman is back with us from Christian Solidarity International.

And Todd, you and I have talked off air quite a bit about, how unique what CSI is in terms of what they do.

It is one of the most, well, I don't know of anything else like it, but when I give that gift to know that that human life is going from slavery into freedom from maybe the darkest period of their life into maybe the most hope filled it, I just have nothing but, but good vibes at that point to quote

Featuring the music of Dick Tunney and the Dream in Color Orchestra.

Straight ahead on this weekend edition, New York City journalist Jacqueline Toberoff, Todd Chapman from Christian Solidarity International, Mike Gonzalez of the Heritage Foundation, Ambassador Carla Sands, and also actor Alex Kendrick joining us, sketch comedy from the Babylon Bee, and returning to the spotlight, it's Taylor Swift.

And now, from the center of Times Square, where he has to make his way past flooded rain puddles and a bunch of overturned halal carts, here's The Coven! How's your weekend going?

I tell

And the end goal is to change society.

Well, and to change it into things that I think arguably make the situations worse almost across the board.

And if you do think about it, and I happen to be doing a campaign right now with Christian Solidarity International addressing slavery in northern Sudan, there's more slavery being practiced on planet Earth today than at any point in human history.

And you know where it's not practiced? In the West.

... we are concentrating from here to the end for, um, a good outcome for Christmas for Christians that are enslaved and that have no reason to believe that there's gonna be anything good in their life, and we can actually give them their life back.

We're talking about our annual, uh, liberation of people who are enslaved in Sudan, and that voice that chimed in right there is Todd Chapman, who rejoins us from a little group called Christian Solidarity International.

I love this group.

I've told you about them for years.

And so the idea that CSI is going to actively work until we have them all back.

At the, at the, at the height of the, uh, conflict, there were probably about 185,000, maybe 200,000 slaves in total that were enslaved in North Sudan.

Because of Christian Solidarity International, more than 150,000 of those have been liberated and brought home and released.

But that means that there's still 35,000 or 40,000 that are still there.

[Instrumental music] Today on Into the Supernatural, we're looking at a disturbing case unfolding in Syria, where a Christian leader who was once helping to try to defend his town against ISIS is now sitting in prison, held without charge, and reportedly facing serious mistreatment.

Joel Veldkamp from Christian Solidarity International is joining Jen and I to break it all down.

Joel, how you doing today?

I'm good.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, it's...

I think a lot of people understand our partnership and why we work with CSI, with Christian Solidarity International, on this show, is because when we talk about evil, and we look at evil, and we look at...

You know, our show looks at everything in the supernatural realm, but evil in particular, you know, this is the most, I think, clear example of what evil looks like, what is happening in Syria, in Nigeria, and all over the globe with this religious persecution, Christian persecution that is so horrific.

there, there were other international repercussions.

John Eibner, the president of Christian Solidarity International, um, they've, they...

These guys, we've interviewed them before.

They've had, um, decades of experience in Armenia and Artsakh.

I'm Andy, your host, and today we are drilling into a very serious case of Christian persecution emerging from Syria.

We are very pleased to be joined by Joel Veldkamp of Christian Solidarity International.

He's not a stranger.

He's been on the podcast back in September 2023 when there was a lot of problems engulfing Armenia.

Joel Beldkamp.

I'm from Iowa, born and raised Christian in a believing family by God's grace.

I'm the Director of Public Advocacy for Christian Solidarity International, so I'm based in Zurich, Switzerland, a bit far from home.

I got to live in Syria for a year before the war started, so it's a country that's quite close to my heart, and I did my PhD in modern Syrian history.