NEWS PAPER ARCTICLES ABOUT SIEGE:

VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST, AUG. 12th, 2005.

"Tour aims to give social conservatives a meaningful voice" b JEFF RUD (Times Colonist staff )

They’re calling it Siege 2005, and they’re asking God to dispatch his "angelic armies of heaven against the works of darkness.’’

But spokeswoman Faytene Kryskow, who kicked off a ninecity tour with a prayer rally on the steps of the B.C. legislature Thursday, says the movement is mostly about raising awareness of Canada’s large contingent of socially conservative young people, who are too often ignored. "This is not a protest, but a mobilization of those of us who have more of a socially conservative ideology,’’ said the 30-year-old Vancouver missionary. Among young people in Canada, it’s the ideologically liberal voices that are usually loudest, she said. Her tour, which will include prayer meetings at legislatures and culminate at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa on Aug. 23, is designed to turn up the volume on the other side.

On Thursday, about 70 people — young and old, including one man with a T-shirt reading "Jesus is my Homeboy" — listened to Kryskow speak about taking a stand as the "voice of righteousness and justice" in Canada. Afterward, the group recited in unison the "Josiah Covenant," which spells out a commitment to help "re-establish the righteous foundations laid up by our righteous forefathers.’’

Kryskow said the group isn’t telling other people how to live, and her speech didn’t make reference to topics such as abortion or gay and lesbian marriage. But NDP MLA Rob Fleming, who agreed to meet with the group, said in an interview that he had a "very frank difference of opinion" with them when he said that he was proud that Canada was one of the first countries in the world to allow gay marriage.

Kryskow said she personally supports the traditional view of marriage and believes that "in the womb a baby is a life, absolutely.’’ But she said her group has no collective or official stance on these issues. "We’re not out to be pegged with any cause, at all.’’

A core group of about 10 young Christians from the Lower Mainland is doing the entire Siege Tour and organizing local rallies along the way. Kryskow, who has pre-arranged meetings with politicians, said her tour is getting organizational support from two Christian sponsors — Extreme Prophetic Vancouver and the National House of Prayer.

The movement represents "untapped votes" in Canada, she said. "We want to live in a nation that … doesn’t make us feel like we’ve got three eyes if we choose not to have sex before marriage or something like that."