Author: Open Doors Canada

Adam faces imprisonment for his faith

Adam lives in Saudi Arabia, and he is facing a court hearing on May 30.

Originally a devout Muslim, Adam became a Christian because of the testimony of his sister in law. A few years ago, when she was in danger, he helped her escape from the country – an act that infuriated his family, and resulted in legal action.

The family brough Adam to court, accusing him of stealing money, importing Bibles, and converting Muslims to Jesus.

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Since he helped his sister in law escape, Adam has been in and out of prison for a total of about four months. He was flogged for the crime of importing Bibles, and has remained in the court system for three years now. During the most recent hearing, in April, some prayers were answered when the judge determined there was no evidence for him stealing money from his family. This was a great encouragement not only to his wife and children, but to the larger Christian community in Iran.

But the case remains open, yet Adam’s testimony remains strong. His friend Rasheed* says “Adam is a strong believer. He put himself in danger for the sake of others when he helped Eve to flee. He is open about his faith. He wants other people to know Jesus too. He is very active in sharing about his faith publicly. Sometimes he leaves Bibles behind in the great mosque. He goes to the mosque to pray to Jesus.” For that reason, he is also accused of proselytizing.

Adam frequently joins the meetings of a house church. Rasheed, a member of the same church, remembers how Adam sent him a text-message on the day he had to go to court. “He expected that it would be his last day in freedom,” Rasheed* says. “He texted me and said ‘Know my brother that I am praying for you. That you will continue to spread the gospel, to tell about Jesus. Go on with that. Don’t worry about me.”

But even after that court hearing that ended so miraculously well, the pressure on Adam continues. On May 5,  his wife was contacted by her family and told her mother was ill. However, when she arrived at the family house she was locked in and is no longer allowed to leave. Her family tells her they believe her husband will be sent to prison soon and it would be better for her to stay with them.

Adam is afraid of what would happen to his wife and children if he is to be imprisoned. “Last week he joined us during our meeting as a church,” says Rasheed. “We started praying for him. We laid hands on him, prayed, wept. It was a long time of prayer. I believe it went on for three and a half hours. Adam cried. At a certain moment he asked me if I would help his children go to university. I said we as a church would with support of many brothers and sisters around the world. He fell on the ground and cried and cried. We comforted him and then he started praising and worshiping God.”

“It was a great moment for all of us. Many of the church also were rejected by their families. They all understand what Adam is going through,” Rasheed explains.

Pray

Pray that the rest of Adam’s court hearings will go well, and that he will miraculously avoid imprisonment.

Pray for the safety of his wife and children, who are being threatened by her family.

Pray that his testimony will bear fruit and that those accusing him will come to know Jesus.

Encourage Adam

You can send Adam a message of encouragement.

Send an email to encourage@odcan.org, or leave a comment on our social media. All messages will be sent directly to Adam.

*Pseudonym used. Please note the image is representative only.

Early Persecution: What happened to the apostles?

According to the 2021 World Watch List, 1 in 8 Christians around the world suffer persecution because of their faith. It’s a staggering number, equating to approximately 340 Million Christians being victims of very strong or extreme persecution.

For Christians in Canada, where we enjoy freedom to express our faith and worship openly, persecution can seem foreign, something that is the exception and not the rule. Western Christianity has a tradition of being the dominant faith through centuries of North American history, and European before that. As a result, it can be easy to forget that this freedom is the exception, not the norm.

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Jesus himself said that “In the world you face persecution. But take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33, NRSV). For the early church, persecution was the expectation, not the exception. They suffered greatly at the hands of the Roman empire, and many were killed for their faith.

On Pentecost Sunday, when we mark the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the Church, it’s worth remembering that persecution of the Church is not new. Christians were ready and willing to die for their faith, and perhaps the best examples of this are the disciples themselves. They were responsible for establishing the first Christian communities, and they suffered as a result.

Of the twelve, the Bible only records the death of two apostles. Judas Iscariot took his own life, apparently by hanging (Matthew 27:5). The other recorded death is James, brother of John. The book of Acts says that “King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword.” (Acts 12:1-2, NRSV). James was one of the first believers to be killed as a result of faith in Christ.

As for the other ten, their deaths have been mostly left to history, legend, and church tradition; but this tradition indicates that most of them ended up giving their lives for the Gospel. The available information is sometimes unclear and often disputed; but it is still a clear indication of how the early church was ready to be persecuted and killed because they chose to follow Jesus.

John

The only one of the twelve who seems to have survived to old age, being exiled to the Isle of Patmos where he was given the Revelation. Some accounts exist of this exile occurring after John survived torture.

Peter

Possibly the most well-known of the traditional deaths, Peter’s was foretold by Jesus in John 21:18: “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” Peter was apparently sentenced to death by crucifixion. He did not even consider himself worthy of the same death as his beloved Jesus, and so his last request was to be crucified upside down.

Andrew

Andrew’s execution was similar to his brother Peter, in that he was crucified in a different way. According to the earliest historical sources, he was arrested while preaching in Greece. He was tied to an X-shaped cross, where he died.

Thomas

Apparently, Thomas preached in Syria and as far east as India. Early historical sources say that he was killed there by being stabbed with a spear.

Matthew

The death of the writer of the first gospel is the subject of multiple historical accounts. Most sources agree he preached in Ethiopia. Some sources say he was stabbed to death there, others attest that he escaped martyrdom.

Philip

The fact that there were two Philips in the early church (the apostle and the deacon) make the historical accounts a little muddled. Some traditions say that the disciple converted the wife of an official in Greece, who then had Philip killed.

Bartholomew

All of the sources agree that Bartholomew’s death came as a result of his ministry, though the exact place and method isn’t always agreed upon. It seems that he was brutally whipped before being executed by either crucifixion or beheading.

James the Less

Another example of a name given to multiple church leaders, including James the brother of Jesus. Some traditions say that James was thrown from the top of the temple and then beaten with clubs, others say he was stoned. It’s not fully clear which of the James’ endured which death.

Simon the Zealot

Multiple accounts of Simon’s death exist, ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand years after he lived, so their credibility is questionable. Some accounts claim he was killed as far east as Spain, others that he died in Syria.

Jude

Like many other disciples, Jude is generally said to have been killed while preaching in a different land, usually said to be Persia. In art, Jude is often shown with an axe, considered to have been the method of his execution.

Why does this matter?

Some of these traditions are more credible than others, but the fact that most of these apostles were supposedly killed while spreading the message of Christ shows how the early church felt about persecution. When faced with their death, these disciples must have remembered what Jesus said about persecution, and taken courage from the fact that “I have conquered the world.” And as a result of their faithful spreading of Christ’s message, the Gospel was taken to the ends of the earth.

Today, that persecution continues. In addition to some believers being killed for their faith, many others suffer imprisonment, loss of community, family rejection, and more. In Canada, we are called to pray for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted; but we do not pray that persecution will end. Jesus certainly expected his followers to suffer for their faith. But we can pray for is that the hope of Christ’s victory over the world will be expressed through the lives – and deaths – of our persecuted family in the same way that it was in the early days of the church.

Prison Power 3: Hanani

2 Chronicles 16:10

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign as King of Judah, he made a pact with Ben-Hadad, King of Aram, and paid him to attack the towns of Israel. Hanani the prophet came to King Asa and said: “Because you relied on the King of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand…You have done a foolish thing and from now on you will be at war.” (16:7b & 9b)

This is the same King Asa who earlier came to power and “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” His heart was “fully committed to the Lord” all his life. But at the end of his life he had a heart change. Hanani summed it up: “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (16:9a)

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PRINCIPLE #4

Being bold and speaking the truth in love may not always reap immediate positive results…and may cause unjust imprisonment

We are not told how long Hanani spent in prison, but we are told for what he was sentenced: “Asa was angry with the prophet because of what he said; he was so enraged that he put him in prison…and brutally oppressed some of the people.” (16:10)

WANG MING-DAO – CHINA

In the first decade of communist rule in China, pastors were required to join the government’s Three Self Patriotic Movement. Pastor Wang Ming-dao (meaning “witness to the truth”) spoke out strongly against joining the government body and was arrested and imprisoned.

He boldly stated that his Chinese church had no traces of “imperialist influences.” After his first arrest in 1955, Pastor Wang was under tremendous pressure. He was tortured and brainwashed and promised release from prison and return to his pulpit if he would just “preach for the government”. In his mind this would be lying, and he was certain he could not live a hypocritical life.

Pastor Wang was firm in his resolve, until he heard that his beloved wife, Debra, had also been arrested and was in grave danger. He heard that she was not eating properly and was growing critically weak because of the poor food she was receiving in prison. She would not survive if something were not done. This news so disturbed him that he broke and agreed with his persecutors that he would join the government-controlled church. His plan was to get his wife to safety with her mother and then he would commit suicide.

And so he did not preach for the government. But when the authorities realized that he would not compromise himself by preaching in the government controlled church, Pastor Wang and wife, Debra, were re-arrested. She received a fifteen-year sentence and he life imprisonment.

Wang Ming-dao was finally released in 1980 at eighty years of age. When he was released, he said “I have been through 23 years of refining and the Lord has not allowed me to suffer loss through it all, but rather to receive an even greater blessing.”

An Update on Christians in India during COVID-19

The pandemic continues to tear through India. Sabita*, an Open Doors local partner, shared about how it is affecting Christians.

The COVID situation is really bad in India, especially during this second wave of Corona. Every day more than 300,000 people are being infected. Many deaths are happening. This is the official data, but according to the experts the real number is 10 times higher.

Blog Featured image (76)In the first wave in 2020 when Corona hit India, India was more drastically impacted in its economy. But during the second wave, this is more life threatening. More people are dying, more people are affected because of this.

During 2020, the economy went down. It has affected the Christians because they are among those who are in the poorest areas, they come from poor backgrounds and have less privileges and less job opportunities. Already they were financially low, and when this second wave has hit India, these people don’t have enough to meet their medical needs. There is a lack of ventilators, oxygen cylinders and other medical facilities in the hospitals. For those who come from poor backgrounds, it’s a very difficult situation, and especially for Christians because they were already struggling financially.

It is reported that the virus is now spreading in the villages and the rural areas more rapidly. There the medical facilities are almost negligible, and those who are Christian come from these areas mostly. They are concentrated in the rural areas where the medical facilities are very minimal. Christians in rural areas are suffering because they are financially struggling and they have no proper medical equipment in the hospitals. The Christians do not have enough money to get all the medicines and all the medical help that they should be getting.

Pray for the COVID situation in India. Pray for God’s mercy and healing on our land. Pray that, among all these challenges, we will be able to reach the persecuted Christians who really need the help and relief, like food, medicines and medical equipment. Pray also that we will reach those are really struggling financially and need our help so that they become self-sufficient and self-sustaining.

I want to thank all of you, those who have been praying for India, supporting India, thank you so much for all your help. Though there is persecution, the church is growing beyond its four walls. In spite of all the challenges, the church is not destroyed, the church is not confined, but it is growing beyond number. Many people are experiencing deliverance, they are receiving healings and coming to the Lord, and this is all happening just because of your prayers. The people who are persecuted are standing strong because of your prayers and support. Thank you so much. Continue to pray for us, continue to give us your support. Thank you.

Four Christians Beheaded in Indonesia

On the morning of May 11, four Christians were beheaded in Indonesia.

Around 7:30 AM, in the village of Kalimago, five men were seen and identified as members of the terrorist group East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT). Word was spread around the village and an alarm raised. Nevertheless, when a task force combed through the area later, they found four victims that had been beheaded.

All four victims were identified as members of local churches, adults over the age of 40. Open Doors local partners are now trying to reach out to these churches and the families of the victims.

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The executions took place in Central Sulawesi, the same province where four other believers were killed in November of 2020. The Christian community in the area is still reeling from that experience and are now traumatized by a second event.

One Open Doors partner, Brother Ari*, asks for prayer. “Pray for church leaders in the village, pray for their families, and also pray for the police and army. Hope they can protect all people in that village. Pray also that we can connect with the families of the victims.”

“Pray for the peace of God to cover this area. Fear and intimidation are trying to take over people’s hearts, but God’s power is more powerful. May the heart of His people be reminded of that truth. Pray for protection over God’s people in Poso and Central Sulawesi. As long as these terrorists are not caught yet, the threat is lingering. People are afraid to go to their field, therefore they cannot work and produce crops. This will affect their economic. Pray for His angels to encamp surround His people and deliver them from any evil scheme. Pray for Madago Raya Task Force as they are hunting this terrorist group. Pray for protection, strength and wisdom to do their job, and pray that they will catch these perpetrators.”

Prayer

In keeping with Ari’s requests, please pray:

-For God’s peace to overwhelm the Indonesian Christians

-For protection from any future attacks

-For the police and task force seeking to apprehend the terrorists

Indonesian Christians request Bibles after losing theirs in Typhoon Seroja

On April 4, 2021, a massive tropical typhoon, Seroja, hit East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It was devastating – many homes were destroyed, livestock was gone and around 177 people were killed.

Pastor Gomar Gultom, Chairman of the Church Fellowship in Indonesia (PGI), reflects: “I witnessed empty houses because all the belongings in them had been swept away by the big flood. I also saw lots of land because the houses too were completely washed away. Countless livestock (cows, pigs, and goats) had disappeared and they left a disturbing smell.”

But amidst the destruction, he was amazed at the resilience of the people and the show of unity in facing the disaster together. “They no longer thought of their own denominational background. Each pastor was serving people regardless of where they are from,” he said.

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“But what amazed me even more was that no one complained about the loss of their property, instead they were grieving because they’ve lost their Bibles. They hope they can get a new Bible soon. For me this is very extraordinary.”

Pastor Daud Tari, Chairman of the Evangelical Church of West Timor also said, “This Sunday I have to borrow a Bible. I don’t care about clothes. I can preach wearing sarong. But for Sunday service, I must have a Bible!”

Pastor Gomar explained this need to our local partners. In his estimation, the church in that region is in need of approximately 14,000 Bibles.Our partners are currently working with the Indonesian Bible Society to send the first 4,000 of these to these believers in East Nusa Tenggara.

Prayer

1. Pray for God’s provision in helping those who need the Bible. PGI is arranging it through its resources to fulfill the needs. Pray that God will move people’s heart to take part and be a blessing for their brothers and sisters in East Nusa Tenggara.

2. Pray for distribution on site. Damaged infrastructure will hinder the distribution of the Bibles. Many areas still cannot be reached by vehicles. Pray for alternative routes and provision for those who are going to the field and make the distribution.

3. Pray for the typhoon victims. Some of them lost their houses and belonging, and it will take some time for them to rebuild what have been lost. Let’s pray for God’s provision and strength upon them. Pray for the peace of God to reign in their heart while dealing with this tragedy.

Prison Power 2: Joseph

Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery and then the victim of sexual asault by his master’s wife, Joseph knew the meaning of unexplainable opposition. He was sent to the king’s prison, where he met the King’s butler and baker. Joseph accurately interpreted their dreams, but the released butler returned to the King and forgot his pledge to speak on behalf of Joseph’s release – for another two years.

When the King has a dream and needs an interpretation, Joseph is finally called from the prison. He washes, shaves and enters the palace, never to return to his prison cell. After giving the Lord’s interpretation, Joseph becomes second in command in Egypt. He oversees food production and distribution for the entire country. His deliverance at that exact moment led to the salvation of his own father and brothers from starvation.

Joseph later detained his brothers for three days “in prison” (Genesis 42:17-19) before revealing himself to them. Prison became Joseph’s sovereign placement for a divine appointment with the King. In turn, Joseph was responsible for the salvation of an entire nation.

“But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” Genesis 39: 20b-21

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PRINCIPLE #1 What man intends for evil to hinder God’s Kingdom, God uses for good to advance His Kingdom.

PASTOR HA – VIETNAM

Following the communist take-over of Vietnam in 1975, Rev. Ho Hieu Ha moved from a mid- country tribal area (where he was a missionary) to the former southern capital city of Saigon, now called Ho Chi Minh. After much prayer, he miraculously received permission to use the old International Church of Saigon building for church services with 29 other believers who joined him. It became known as the Tran Cao Van church.

Every day began with a 5:00 A.M. three-hour prayer meeting and each evening concluded with a Bible Study. Every month they experienced 80-100 conversions. One year they baptized over 800 new believers. Within three years, the church services were filled to overflowing each Sunday with more than 5,000 worshippers. It took four services to get everyone into the sanctuary on a Sunday and all services per week totalled 21.

The amount of attention the church received worried the government, and they regretted giving permission to use the church. They waited to see if Pastor Ha would say something against the government that they could use to censure him, but he never did.

Finally, the government moved in during an early-morning prayer meeting on December 10, 1983. They confiscated the Bibles and hymnbooks, closed the church and locked the gate. Many believers stood weeping at the gates for days.

Pastor Ha’s family was evicted from their apartment at the back of the church and his wife and two children were forced to find other accommodations. Pastor Ha was taken away to prison.

After two years in detention, Pastor Ha was finally brought to trial on multiple false charges. When his prison truck arrived at the courthouse, he was amazed to find hundreds of people waiting outside – many from his congregation. Upon seeing him, his wife began to cry. Pastor Ha called out to her in a loud but gentle voice, so all his parishioners could also hear. “Dear, please don’t cry. God has given me as much ministry in the prison as I had before in the church and I’m willing to stay here to serve Him!”

Altogether, he spent more than six years in prison and upon release, immigrated with his family to the USA. There he shared this report on God’s working in his life during those important imprisonment years:

“If God had called me to prison ministry in 1975, I would have refused. But He spent those years preparing my heart, so when the time came, I accepted. I saw all this as the amazing plan of God.

“During my six years and twenty-three days of living in iron cages, the Lord called ninety-six people to believe in Him. They were members of the former government, officials from the new communist government, refugees, Chinese, Cambodian – even a few of our captors.

“My prison wasn’t like one in the United States with television sets everywhere. We slept on the cold floor, facing mosquitoes, leeches, and cockroaches. Prisoners were always hungry, fighting disease constantly and battling each other. One time I was isolated in a very dark room. For sixteen months I didn’t see anything. The food was rotten. But praise God, I wasn’t sick once during that period.

“God put me in prison to share Jesus Christ with the outcasts and the hopeless to express His love. His glory became known in that prison. The guards tried many ways to keep us from communicating with one another, but the witness went on. Over the years, the prisoners had dug holes in the thick walls from one cell to another. Their purpose was to pass cigarettes, but I used them to speak about the Lord. When I was in isolation, I found that the people below me could hear through the toilet hole. They memorized verses of the Bible, learned songs and came to Christ – all through that hole.”

Pastor Ha currently ministers in North America longing for the day he can return to minister again in his beloved Vietnam.

 

Christians among 5 million people displaced in the Sahel

The deteriorating security situation in the greater Sahel region is causing immense human suffering.

In a recent statement, the UN said a record 29 million people in six countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, northeastern Nigeria, Chad and northern Cameroon) need humanitarian assistance as they face “unparalleled” insecurity and growing hunger. They say some 5.3 million people have been displaced, thousands of schools have been closed across the region, and 1.6 million children will likely suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

sahel

Large parts of western Sahel have been plagued by violence that started with the 2012 Tuareg rebellion in Mali in 2012. France led an intervention against the armed groups, which scattered and regrouped before taking their campaign into central Mali in 2015 and then into neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. But “the conflict in Sahel is growing wider, more complex and involving more armed actors,” said Xavier Creach, Sahel coordinator for the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) and deputy director for West and Central Africa.

Many of these countries are featured on the 2021 World Watch List. One Open Doors’ local spokesperson says of Christians “Aid agencies play an important role in delivering help, but they cannot reach everyone. Often, Christians also miss out on aid, especially when it is delivered via local entities. Our brothers and sisters need urgent help to survive, and they depend on the goodwill of family, fellow Christian compatriots, and the larger Body of Christ to make it through.”

“Open Doors wants to ensure that the Church remains resilient despite the horrific circumstances they are forced into, by offering them urgent physical support in the form of food aid and physical support in the form of encouragement and trauma care. Open Doors calls on the international Christian community to join us in rallying around these beleaguered Christian communities.”

The situation in the western Sahel is expected to deteriorate after the death of Chadian president Idriss Deby, says Al Jazeera. He died Apr 22 of injuries sustained while commanding troops fighting rebels of a new rebel group, Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT).

Chad has built a reputation for possessing the most powerful military in the G5 Sahel, an alliance also comprised of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger that was created to tackle armed groups operating in the region. Shortly after his death, on Thursday, the Burkinabe newspaper Sidwaya reported that Chadian troops with “pick-ups, tanks and personnel carriers” had been spotted leaving the Burkinabe section of the tri-border region, apparently to return to Chad.

Similar reports in the days before Deby’s death had also said Chadian military units deployed abroad were being brought back to help defend Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, from FACT.

In all these situations, “civilians end up paying the price as they face an increasing number of deadly attacks, gender-based violence, extortion or intimidation, and are forced to flee, often multiple times,” Creach says.

Pray

Please pray for peace in the Sahel

Pray for the Lord’s protection and provision for His Church and that He will continue to build His Body in this part of the world.

Pray for grace for Christians to continue to be witnesses for Christ in their circumstances.

Pray for the Lord’s protection over our teams and that they may receive wisdom as they work to strengthen the Church facing these circumstances.

The Crisis Continues in Myanmar

Following February’s military coup, Myanmar’s Christians have been sharing with Open Doors partners how they are living in constant fear.

With the internet shut down, communications from the country have been few and far between. However, Open Doors’ partners in Myanmar have been able to share the experiences of Christians there.

Min Naing*, a Christian from the capital Yangon, told Open Doors: “Every day I hear gunshots and sounds of grenades near my house. Most homes do not turn on lights after 8 pm and nobody makes any noise. We stay indoors during the day too. We cannot go out except for groceries and taking out the rubbish. I live in the middle of Yangon without any security.”

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Due to the current unrest, many businesses have closed. Families are without food and other essentials. Some pastors in Central Myanmar are distributing food packages to both Christians and non-Christians who are facing hunger and difficulties because of the coup. One pastor, Zaw, donated 77 pounds of rice to the poor in his church’s neighbourhood. He also helps and encourages other pastors from remote rural areas through phone calls.

Pastor Chit* and his congregation have fled to the jungle for their safety. They have dug the ground, made a hole and stay there most of the time. Since the price of food has doubled following the coup, Pastor Chit and his community forage for roots and leaves from the jungle.

Pastor Kyaw* leads a small church in an area where martial law is imposed. Because of the daily gunfire near the church, all their activities have been suspended. The pastor and his wife had to move to another town but then fled for the second time. Pastor Kyaw told Open doors: “We fled again because the army was recruiting more soldiers.”

Many are at risk of being forcibly conscripted into the army. One pastor in a remote village told Open Doors’ partner Lwin*: “Last week, the village chief was asked to recruit 30 men for the military. Now the Christians, including the pastor, are hiding in the forest.”

According to Lwin, people are frustrated, hopeless and under a lot of stress as there is no sign of a resolution to the situation.

Christians  already faced serious persecution in Myanmar and many fear that they will be further targeted during the current conflict. The country is embroiled in what is currently the longest running civil war anywhere in the world. The predominantly Christian communities of Chin, Kachin and Karen. Christians are particularly vulnerable to attacks by both insurgent groups and the army.

Due to much of the fighting taking place in states with a large Christian minority, 100.000 Christians are currently living in displaced persons’ camps, without food and medical care. Violence against Christians continues to increase in the form of detentions, attacks on their homes, rape and sexual harassment.

Myanmar is number 18 on the 2021 World Watch List.

*names changed for security reasons

Aman’s Testimony

I am Aman* from South India. I am blessed with three children. For the last 20 years I have been ministering in a small town here.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I was born into a Hindu family. My family used to be involved in idol worship. Our entire village used to look up to our family as the mediators between the gods and goddesses and men. We were renowned for having direct conversations with our gods and goddesses and carry messages from them to men on Earth. So, I was very firm in my faith. I was growing in a Hindu spiritual atmosphere and had no idea about the Living God.

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I got married when I was 21 years old and was waiting upon our Hindu gods and goddesses to bless us with a child. We were childless for eight years. Meanwhile my mother died and my  grandmother committed suicide because of the stress in their lives.

I decided to leave my hometown for work along with my wife. I started earning well but whatever I was earning I had to spend on our treatment as we were longing for a child and there was an emptiness in my heart.

A few years later one of my friends who had accepted Christ used to come to us to share about Jesus and His love for us. I was not happy with his conversion. But he kept coming and sharing the gospel.

Something inside me was forcing me to listen to him but my mind would always say, ‘No’. Then one fine day, I went to church with him and got to know that Jesus died for us. I was hearing this for the first time. ‘How can someone die for us?’ I thought. ‘God can kill us, punish us but he cannot die for us. In fact we have to be the ones to offer sacrifices to them.’

This thought forced me to read the Bible. I accepted Christ as my saviour that year after reading the Bible.

Soon after that I went back to my village and my wife conceived. We were blessed with a baby boy but the boy died after the sixth day. Untimely death (natural or unnatural) was like a generational curse in my family. The people in my family blamed my new faith for this sad demise.

This did not shake my faith in Christ as by then I had completed reading the Bible twice. Amidst that trauma God talked to me through book of Job and I was encouraged.

I was mocked, persecuted in my family and then they expelled me from my house so I took my wife and again we went back to the town.

We started a new life with Christ and after some time again I was blessed with a baby girl. After her birth I started working for the ministry. My father had stopped talking to me but we were praying for his salvation. He accepted Christ as his saviour in answer to our prayers, after some time. He was expelled from the village for this. He had been known in past for his spiritual walk with gods and goddesses, but now people saw in him as a different person. He kept sharing his testimony and slowly many villagers accepted Christ through him, so they invited him back to their village.

From the beginning I have been facing persecution in various forms.

I used to organise health awareness programs in the villages to help with their health conditions. But one day while working in a village, someone filed a complaint against me, saying that I am involved in conversion. A few days later I was surrounded by thousands of people who wanted to kill me, and the police force was called to arrest me.

This happened many times; people used to come to beat me, but always God did a miracle and always the village head or some of the influential villagers would stand by me and God saved me from death.

A few years ago a believer brother was killed for his faith. Prior to this his church was forcefully closed by the extremists while he was been conducting church services in a different village. He had been threatened to stop his ministry, but he did not step back and he was finally murdered.

The extremists openly mocked him and his family while attacking him. This incident was a traumatic experience for all of us. Seeing his children and wife in such a painful situation, I got connected with your team and stood firm for that family. With our encouragement and prayer support, the family is nicely settled and standing firm amidst the storm.

The way your team responded to our call, the way they stand with the persecuted body of Christ made me realise that I should also work for them and support them in their initiatives.

Prayer

Aman is one of many Open Doors local partners who works with persecuted Christians where faith costs the most. Your prayers continue to help the Gospel spread in these places, and reach people like Aman. Please pray for his work with our persecuted family, and for Christ’s work in his life to bear fruit through him.

Prison Power 1: Micaiah

Ahab was king of Israel, and he was evil. He was a murderer and a greedy, deceitful King – and he despised the Lord’s chosen prophets. In 1 Kings 22, the Bible records one particular story about Ahab’s interaction with a prophet.

Ahab was allied with King Jehoshaphat of Judah against the King of Aram. When Jehoshaphat advised seeking the Lord’s advice, gathered some 400 prophets and asked, “Shall I go to war?” “Go”, they answered, “For the Lord will give it into the King’s hand.” Jehoshaphat was unsatisfied and asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, of whom we can inquire?” Ahab answered, “There is…but I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad.”

This was the prophet Micaiah. And when he arrived, he had a simple philosophy for what to say to the King: “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.” Sure enough, Micaiah contradicted the other 400 prophets who had told the king what he wanted to hear. He told Ahab that the war would be a disaster.

The King was furious. Ahab said, “Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water, until I return safely.” Micaiah complied, but his last word to Ahab was a conviction that he spoke from the Lord. “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” He was taken away and imprisoned, but Ahab never returned. He was shot down with an enemy arrow.

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Prison Principle:  Speaking the words of the Lord may mean persecution and imprisonment, but God’s truth ultimately prevails.

AHMAD

Ahmad was a respected Muslim leader and a brilliant scholar in Sudan. While studying for his doctorate in comparative religions he began reading the New Testament, and ultimately gave his life to Jesus.

Then in 1991, Sharia Islamic law became the law of the land in Sudan. Ahmad was called in for questioning. When he admitted to being a Christian, he was arrested, put in chains, and thrown into solitary confinement. His first night in prison, his execution was arranged – but unexplainably, the guards could find no gasoline for their car to drive him to the place of execution.

The next day, he was to be arraigned before the Islamic High Court. A lawyer friend urged him to renounce his faith publicly and just keep it secretly in his heart. Ahmad refused. “Jesus is my only defence,” he said. “I cannot deny Him.” As a result, Ahmad was sentenced to six months in prison, stripped of his military rank, and fired from his teaching position. His wife had already divorced him. He also lost his four children, his car, house, and bank account. The judges informed him that if, at the end of his sentence he still refused to return to Islam, he would spend six more months behind bars.

But in the prison, Ahmad organized small Bible studies and prayer groups. “By the end of three months,” he said, “there were 305 known Christians in our prison, at least seven from Muslim background.”

They moved him to a second prison where Ahmad and seven other Christians began meeting together. After a week, 50 gathered around a tree in the prison courtyard. Two months later, there were 115 believers, growing bolder and experiencing miraculous answers to their prayers.

Ahmad refused to tell the courts what they wanted to hear, choosing instead to stand by the truth of Christ. And despite the ruling against him, that truth prevailed in the midst of persecution, loss, and imprisonment.

 

Abebu survived thanks to you

Open Doors first came alongside Abebu in 2014 after her husband was murdered. The single mother of seven was doing well and starting a business with Open Doors’ support. She would buy produce in bulk, portioning it, and then selling it at the market. “With the profit we got from it, we bought salt, coffee, grains and we lived on it.”

That is, until the pandemic began.

Blog Featured image (70)Last year when we visited, she said: “We have finished all the money we had earned, and we can’t do anything else but stay at home.”

During that time, the schools also were closed, which made life even harder for the single mother. It was a struggle to keep all her children fed. Usually, Abebu would be able to count on her church for help, but even the churches were closed. “That means our church does not have any income. So, they can’t help us with food.”

But thanks to your generosity, Open Doors was able to support Abebu with COVID-19 financial relief. to help her and her children survive the new challenges the pandemic had brought.

Now, more than a year since the pandemic started, she’s back on her feet and working harder than ever. The schools reopened and all her children, except for her youngest Chera, have returned. Because of your support, Abebu and her children were able to weather the COVID-19 storm.

Recently, our partners visited her again. Upon entering her compound, they were met by a flurry of activity. Chickens were scurrying about, waiting for Abebu to feed them, while the children were busy with chores or playing.

With a little support and encouragement, Abebu has grown into an avid farmer and entrepreneur. To ensure an immediate income, she has taken out a loan and bought food in bulk to sell at the market. On top of that, she’s bought chicks and lambs which she’s rearing to sell once they are big (and fat) enough, and growing eucalyptus tree seedlings to sell.

The family’s faith remains strong. “My spiritual life is good. We are worshipping and praising God together. My children are well and healthy. They are pursuing their education,” Abebu said during the visit.

But there was more news. Abebu was informed that the man who had killed her husband seven years ago had turned his life around and accepted Christ’s gift of salvation. He had been released from prison and requested to join Abebu’s church.

It is a hard thing to face someone who has caused so much pain, but Abebu has forgiven him. She told Open Doors, “We have no revenge. We have no resentment.” At the same time, she decided that it was not in her children’s best interest to interact with the man and his family every Sunday. She appealed to her church elders to find him another church, and they have respected her request.

Now, Abebu considers Open Doors as her family. She shared: “To my family who has supported me… who prayed to God on our behalf: we would not be here and would not have anything, (without you). May God bless those who are concerned for us and assist them.”

Pray

 

  • Thank the Lord for Abebu’s perseverance and faithfulness amid a very difficult year.
  • Also thank God for answering Abebu and her children’s prayers for the murderer who has chosen to follow Christ. Abebu’s willingness to forgive her husband’s murderer is a miracle and we thank Him for this testimony.
  • Abebu wants her children to know God and be strong in their faith. Pray that they will follow their mother’s example and be faithful in their Bible study and trusting God with all their concerns.
  • Continue to pray for the children’s schooling. “I want my children to reach a better place,” she told OD workers. Pray that they will be encouraged by their mother’s example of hard work.
  • As a widow, Abebu remains vulnerable concerned about her safety. Please pray that the Lord will continue to protect her, her children, and her property.

More Christians need help than ever before.

As we close out 2023, the number of persecuted Christians is higher than ever. With greater persecution comes greater need. Your year-end gift will help – including providing more Bibles, more discipleship, and more relief aid.

Our year-end goal is $500,000 to help our persecuted family. Will you prayerfully give a gift today?

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