
Cops remove 88 children from a Bible study camp in Iowa as part of a human trafficking investigation: officials
The youngsters are now in protective custody of local agencies after they were taken from the Shekinah Glory Camp run by Kingdom Ministry of Rehab and Recreation, according to police and local reports.
Deputies executing search warrants removed the children over the weekend and took them to nearby Wapello Methodist Church to meet with child protection workers, deputies told KWQC.
3 Police removed 88 children from a Bible study camp in Iowa.
Shekinah Ranch Camp
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services placed the children in temporary foster care until they could be reunited with their parents or guardians, deputies added.
The Kingdom Ministry of Rehabilitation and Recreation, founded in 2018, was hosting the summer camp from June 8-29.
The family behind the ministry that runs the camp in Columbus Junction denied the allegations, according to WQAD8.
'What we try to do is, we take care of adults and children who are under the influence of drugs, alcohol, nicotine,' Victor Bawi, whose parents run the ministry, told the outlet.
'The adults and children, we take care of them, we provide food for them. The children we separate from the adults. We separate the boys and girls. We care for them, we provide for them.'
3 Police launched a human trafficking investigation at a church in Iowa where they removed 88 children.
Shekinah Ranch Camp
Bawi told KWQC that a teen from Texas called authorities because he didn't want to attend the camp.
Bawi said no children were ever in danger or harmed.
'We never harmed that child. We loved him,' he said. We bought him like $400 shoes, clothing, everything.'
Christian teenagers from across the nation attend the camp, he added.
Bawi told WQAD8 that when the children aren't studying the Bible, they have fun playing volleyball, soccer and other outdoor activities.
3 Deputies removed 88 children from a church camp under investigation for human trafficking in Iowa.
Shekinah Ranch Camp
Deputies executed search warrants at several locations — one where the camp was taking place in Columbus Junction, and another less than two miles away in Fredonia, where the church helps people find housing.
The Louisa County Sheriff's Office said the operation took place in coordination with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Columbus Junction Police Department, according to WQAD8. The investigation remains ongoing.
The church is run by two pastors from Burma. They are members of the Chin, an ethnic minority, according to an Iowa cultural organization. Iowa has resettled thousands of refugees fleeing the longest-running civil war in the world.
Iowa has one of the largest Burmese populations in the Midwest, and Columbus Junction had a significant number in the area. Many of the refugees are poor and work in the Tyson's Food Inc. meat packing plant, where the company has translators on premises. The plant is responsible for 2% of the hogs slaughtered each year in the nation.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, is one of the countries added to the controversial list of countries banned for entry to the US by the State Department on June 16.
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News24
an hour ago
- News24
Israel settlers launch ‘terror attack' on Christian West Bank town, says Palestinian Authority
Israeli settlers attacked Taybeh in the West Bank. Taybeh is home to about 1 300 mostly Christian Palestinians. Germany condemned the attack. Israeli settlers attacked the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, torching cars and spray-painting threatening graffiti, the Palestinian Authority said on Monday. 'Israeli colonial settlers launched a terror attack tonight on the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh (Ramallah), setting fire to Palestinian vehicles and spray-painting racist threats in Hebrew on homes and property,' the Ramallah-based authority wrote on X. A Taybeh resident, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, told AFP the attack occurred at about 02:00 (23:00 GMT), with at least two vehicles burned. They said one vehicle belonged to a journalist, while noting the damage appeared to target Palestinian property broadly. A photo shared by a Palestinian government agency on X showed graffiti on a Taybeh wall that read: 'Al-Mughayyir, you will regret', referring to a nearby village that was also attacked by settlers earlier this year. The Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it 'settler terrorism'. Germany's ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also condemned it, writing on X: 'These extremist settlers may claim that God gave them the land. But they are nothing but criminals abhorrent to any faith.' Zain Jaafar/AFP Taybeh and its surroundings have experienced several bouts of settler violence in recent months, including an arson attack at an ancient Byzantine church. The village - home to about 1 300 mostly Christian Palestinians, many holding US dual citizenship - is known for its brewery, the oldest in the Palestinian territories. Settlers have attacked neighbouring communities in recent months, resulting in three deaths, damage to Palestinian water wells and the displacement of at least one rural herding community. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians and around 700 000 Israeli settlers, including about 200 000 in east Jerusalem. Last week, 71 members of Israel's 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the West Bank.

Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
I fled persecution in Iran. ICE enforcement here today reminds me of Tehran
As a Christian who smuggled Bibles into my home country of Iran, I became a target of the country's Islamist regime, which imprisons and sometimes kills those who invite Muslims to convert. After living under house arrest for two years, I fled as a refugee and was ultimately resettled to the United States. I experienced true religious freedom for the first time in my life in this country, of which I am now a proud, grateful citizen — and that's why I am shocked by the ways that my government is now treating my Iranian congregants, who have been detained by masked officers, separated from their families and threatened with deportation to a country that would kill them for their Christian faith. What I have witnessed gives me flashbacks to Tehran, and I believe that America must be better. Two families who are a part of the Farsi-speaking evangelical congregation that I pastor in Los Angeles have been detained in recent weeks. First, a couple and their 3-year-old daughter, who are in the process of seeking asylum because they fear persecution if they were returned to Iran. They were detained at their court hearing in downtown Los Angeles on June 23. The entire family is now being held in South Texas. The next day, I received a call from a woman in my church. Like me, she had been forced to flee Iran for Turkey when her involvement in Iran's underground churches was exposed. When the woman and her husband found themselves in a desperate situation in Turkey last year, they were not offered the option to fly to the U.S. as resettled refugees as I had been in 2010. Instead, they flew to South America, made a treacherous journey north and waited in Mexico for an appointment they reserved on a U.S. government app, CBP One, to be able to explain their situation to officers of the U.S. government. Once lawfully allowed in with provisional humanitarian status, they found our church — where they could be baptized and publicly profess their faith in Jesus — and legal help to begin their asylum request. They received their work authorization documents and found jobs. Their first asylum hearing in immigration court was scheduled for this September. When President Trump returned to office, however, his administration both suspended all refugee resettlement and canceled humanitarian parole for those who had been allowed to enter via the CBP One app. Many parolees received menacing letters instructing them to self-deport or face prosecution, fines or deportation. But these letters also noted that these instructions did not apply to those who had 'otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain,' such as a pending asylum application. That's why I was so shocked to receive a call from the woman in my congregation informing me that her husband had been detained by masked immigration officers on the street, just a few blocks from our church. I rushed over and began to film the shocking scene: First he was detained by masked officers, and then she was. I asked if they had a judicial warrant, but if they did, they would not show me. The woman experienced a panic attack and was taken to a hospital but discharged into ICE custody; she is now hours away in a detention center in California. Her husband is in a detention center in Texas. It's not just these two families who are affected. My community of Iranian Christians is terrified of being detained and deported back to Iran, where they fear being killed for their faith. Some have lost jobs because they fear leaving their homes. Others lost jobs because their work authorization, tied to humanitarian parole, was abruptly terminated. I believe that America is better than this. This behavior reminds me disturbingly of what I fled in Iran. But I know that most Americans do not support this, nor do most fellow evangelical Christians: Many evangelicals voted for Trump because he pledged to protect persecuted Christians — not to deport them. While most evangelicals want those convicted of violent crimes detained, one-quarter or less of us say that about other immigrants, and 7 in 10 believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to receive refugees. I have been overwhelmed by the support of English- and Spanish-speaking sister congregations of our church, by the outreach of Christians from across the country and by a recent biblically rooted statement of many California evangelical leaders. Now, Congress has passed legislation to exponentially increase the funding for detaining and deporting immigrants. Trump's administration has been clear that anyone in the country unlawfully — including more than a million who were here lawfully until his administration abruptly canceled their status — is at risk of deportation. According to a recent study by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 80% of those vulnerable to deportation are Christians; some, like those in my church, would likely face death if deported to their home countries. I hope and pray Trump will reverse course on these policies, going after those who genuinely present a public safety threat but having mercy on others, especially those who fled persecution on account of their faith. And until he does make that policy shift, I plead with Congress to pass real immigration reforms that would halt these horrifying detentions and deportations. Ara Torosian is a pastor at Cornerstone West Los Angeles.


Buzz Feed
13 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
Creepy, Dark, And Seriously Messed-Up Things I Learned This Week
Hello! I'm Crystal, and I write the That Got Dark newsletter, BuzzFeed's weekly roundup of all things creepy, macabre, and horrible AF. And if you looooove this kind of content, you should subscribe to get your weekly dopamine fix of the macabre delivered RIGHT to your inbox! Here's what the newsletter is covering this week: The 1987 sleepwalking murder case of Kenneth Parks in Toronto, Canada. One night, ALL while sleepwalking, Parks got out of bed and drove almost 15 miles from his home, where he killed his mother-in-law, then attempted to kill his father-in-law. Parks, who said he was unconscious through the whole ordeal, had entered his in-laws' home with a key he'd been given in the past. He bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death with a tire iron, then attempted to choke his father-in-law to death, who miraculously survived the attack. In an extra surprising twist, Parks then drove straight to a police station (still covered in blood), and told the cops, 'I think I have just killed two people.' Parks would even go on to say he was fast asleep when he surrendered. A year later, he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder using a rare legal defense known as 'non-insane automatism,' supported by evidence of parasomnia (a sleep disorder). The existence of Heritage USA, a massive Christian theme park and resort complex in Fort Mill, South Carolina, that was built in 1978 by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. At its peak, Heritage USA drew 5–6 million visitors annually, billing itself as the third most-visited park in the US and being called a "Christian Disneyland." It closed in 1989 after a major financial scandal, the loss of its tax-exempt status, and damage from Hurricane Hugo. Today, some structures remain, with parts repurposed by a church ministry, but nearly everyone who's seen it since says its abandoned state and sketchy history make it very creepy. Above is "Praise the Lord" board chairman Rev. Jerry Falwell sliding down the 52-foot water slide at Heritage USA. And here's what one Buzzfeed Community member had to say about their IRL experience with the eerie theme park: 'In the mid-'80s, my brother returned to school as a journalism major at the University of South Carolina. One of his assignments was to write a story about the newly opened theme park. So, one weekend, off he went. He later told me that the whole time he was there, he felt like he had to keep looking over his shoulder because he felt like a couple of guys were going to come up behind him, grab him, and say, 'You don't belong here.' Wish he was still here to tell the story himself.' —Anonymous The horrible case of Genie, a 13-year-old feral child who was discovered in Arcadia, California, in 1970 after years of horrific abuse. Genie (which was a pseudonym) was discovered after being brutally isolated and starved, strapped either to a potty chair or a crib, and forbidden to speak by her abusive father for almost her entire life. Her treatment had been so bad, it resulted in severe physical and linguistic deprivation. She was subsequently placed under intensive study and gained some vocabulary and basic communication skills, but failed to acquire normal grammar. Genie's case became known as one of the "worst cases of child abuse" in the US, and ultimately raised ethical concerns about the treatment of vulnerable subjects and their rights. The tragic death of actor Angus Cloud, who died of an accidental drug overdose — a lethal mix of methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, and benzodiazepines — on July 31, 2023, in his family's home in Oakland, California. Cloud had reportedly been staying with his mother following the death of his father in May. In an interview with People, Cloud's mother, Lisa, said that she found her son in the morning slumped over his desk. She tried to resuscitate him, but by the time first responders arrived, it was too late, and they later determined Cloud had already been deceased by the time they'd even been dispatched. Lisa explained to People, "He got tired from lack of oxygen. Everything just slowed down, and eventually his heart stopped and he went to sleep. But he didn't kill himself.' Finally, the case of gruesome serial killer William Bonin, known as the 'Freeway Killer,' who raped and murdered at least 21 teenage boys and young men in Southern California between 1979 and 1980. Bonin would lure victims into his van, often with help from accomplices, then assault and kill them, dumping their bodies along freeways. Caught in 1980, he was convicted of 14 murders and died by lethal injection in 1996 — California's first to be carried out by that method. His last meal: Two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of coffee ice cream, and three six-packs of Coca-Cola. I think that's just about enough unsettling stuff for the week, don't you? In the next issue, we'll tackle the story of the 'Twitter Killer' and the infamous murder of Sharon Tate. Love this kind of content? Subscribe to the That Got Dark newsletter to get a weekly post just like this delivered directly to your inbox. It's a scary good time you won't want to miss. Do you have a weird, creepy, or shocking story you want to share? Perhaps there's a strange Wikipedia page you want to talk about? Tell me all about it at thatgotdark@ and who knows, maybe it'll be featured in a future edition of That Got Dark!