My father has always taught us that faith without courage is just a word — and that light always conquers darkness. Even after two years behind bars, deprived but not defeated, he continues to hold that light.

Across the globe, Christians are enduring persecution and discrimination on a scale unmatched in the modern era. Recent assessments estimate that hundreds of millions of Christians — roughly 1 in 7 believers worldwide, and closer to 1 in 5 in Africa — live in places where their faith puts them at daily risk. In just the past reporting year, well over a quarter-million Christians were driven from their homes.

These are not just statistics. They are families. They are futures. And for my family, this crisis has a name: Ruben Vardanyan.

A personal story of faith under fire

As the world prepares to celebrate Christmas — a season of hope and freedom — my siblings and I are clinging to the hope of seeing our father again. My daughter has never met her grandfather; she was born after he was taken captive more than two years ago.

On Sept. 27, 2023, Azerbaijani forces captured my father as he attempted to leave Nagorno-Karabakh along with the last 120,000 indigenous Christian Armenians still living there — victims of one of the most severe campaigns of forced displacement against a Christian population in the 21st century. His “crime” was advocating for the right of Christian Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to live safely in their ancestral homeland.

Today, he and 22 other Armenian Christian detainees remain imprisoned in Baku — denied due process, denied spiritual support, and even denied the right to possess a Bible.

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