Facing a dramatic surge in persecution of Christians in his home country of Canada, a pastor has “exiled” his family to relative religious safety … in Kenya.

According to a report from Joy Pullman at the Federalist, it is Pastor Harold Ristau who has moved his family because his own government has “invoked emergency war measures to punish citizens who attended a protest where he prayed and sang the national anthem.”

The seminary professor was at the “trucker convoy” that protested COVID lockdowns in the nation, and he’s now suing the government over its decision to treat dissent from its adopted ideology regarding COVID as “terrorism.”

The rapidly apostatizing Western culture, and especially its impact on children, convinced the family to make the change.

“Things are normal here, people have traditional values,” Elise Ristau said of Kenya, in the Federalist report. “It’s inconceivable to think of transgender mutilation. As a mother and father, we do our very best to keep our kids Christian.”

John Sikkema, a lawyer, explained adopted Canadian governmental ideology requires Christians “to lie or betray their faith to access government grants and licensing credentials, and avoid punishment in many professions.”

He said, for example, doctors, lawyers, and teachers are required to endorse abortion and LGBT sexual acts. Canadian doctors and many other health care workers must help patients obtain an abortion or doctor-assisted suicide.

Just a few years ago, the nation’s Supreme Court refused to allow a Christian law school to open because of its biblical standards.

“The Canadian military is also working to eject chaplains over Christian sexual ethics. Just about every Canadian business sports a government-provided pride flag, and churches that object to transgender mutilation of children have faced naked protesters as families arrive to worship, Sikkema said.

“Canadians are very aware that we don’t have freedom of religion, we don’t have freedom of speech, we don’t have the right to assemble if that’s in disagreement with the regime,” explained Rev. Johannes Nieminen, who wasn’t allowed to cross provincial borders to perform his pastoral duties.

He explained, “Pastors and teachers cannot speak about the morality of human sexuality. That is a reality Canadians live in, and I think that’s partly why they’re afraid to speak out.”

Elise Ristau told The Federalist she hadn’t wanted to move her family.

“I had dreamed of this perfect life for myself in Canada,” she explained.

But there was a “turning point” and she concluded, “We can go. Nothing is holding us here.”

She said, “In Kenya, I know it’s poor, and there’s corruption, but we’re not getting arrested for praying silently outside abortion clinics. For a Christian in Canada, it’s pretty bleak.”

Marty Moore, of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, said the fight over the government COVID, and other, mandates isn’t over.

“For peaceably assembling to petition his government for one day last year, Ristau says, he was threatened with the removal of his security clearance and government confiscation of his retirement nest egg, kids’ college funds, and other life savings,” the report said.

“There’s no protection, if a pandemic started tomorrow, from future mandates. So that’s why I was really open to coming here,” his wife, Elise Ristau, told The Federalist in a video interview.

“I don’t know that I can go back and be a Christian in Canada. So that’s why we’re here in Kenya,” Harold Ristau said.

He works now at a school of theology.

He said the Canadian governments strategy was to identify those with differing views, and, “As soon as they knew your name if you were on the ground [protesting] in Ottawa, they froze your bank account. The federal government met with the banks, they gave the [protesters’] names to the banks, and the banks were then pushed to freeze the bank accounts of anyone with that name in their banks. It was a fascist collaboration.”

At the time of the truckers convoy, the Canadian government announced it would freeze bank accounts belonging to protesters.

Such actions, Moore said, are how one would combat terrorism.

“So peaceful protesters were the equivalent of terrorists and the government leaned on banks in the guise of a national emergency to freeze their bank accounts.”

This article was originally published by the WND News Center.

This post originally appeared on WND News Center.