Releasing Your Child to God

"As Hannah embraced her little Samuel one last time, what thoughts must have filled her mind? As she placed his timid fingers into the hands of the old priest, Eli, . . . and let go, . . . what questions did she surrender to the Lord? (1 Samuel 1:2-2:21) 

As Hannah looked back toward her home, what did her mother’s heart feel? How could she walk away from the answer to all her prayers? How could she release this dream she had so desperately longed for—this dream that was now a real little boy looking up at her with questioning eyes and a quivering lip, trying to obey her loving instructions, and trying to hold back his tears?

If only Hannah could have known at that moment how the story looks from our perspective. We know her Samuel would soon hear the audible voice of God, he would impact the entire nation of Israel, and this very act of her obedient surrender would be recorded and recalled for generations.

But Hannah didn’t know the future. She only knew it was time to say goodbye and go home—childless once again. She must have turned her face quickly so Samuel wouldn’t see her mixed emotions.

As Hannah walked away, she released her little one into the mighty hand of God and chose to worship. As she did, God’s plan began to unfold. For this child was not just Hannah’s dream; he was God’s dream. At the time, the nation of Israel desperately needed a new spiritual leader, and God had found a mother desperate enough for Him to willingly yield to His plans.

As parents...we don’t always realize the importance of our vital role in the kingdom of God. Will we equip our children to fulfill God’s purposes and to reach for God’s potential? Will we train our children to reach their world for Jesus?

Through this (website) I desire to light a spark for world missions (like God has lit in me) that will grow into a fire for the unsaved like you’ve never had before. I want God’s love for unreached people to burn so strongly inside you that it will start spreading to others, specifically to your own children and to the young people you come in contact with.

Over the years I’ve seen many of our world’s appalling needs. I’ve had opportunities to travel to dozens of countries. However, in this particular season of my life I’m primarily called to be at home. I love being a mother, raising a family, and teaching children. But sometimes, I admit, I get frustrated.

Many days I wonder if I am “doing” anything of significance and I often struggle with a horrible “striving” mentality in my flesh. When I hear of “big needs”—like the “big need” for world missions—I feel a striving to want to do something “important” (for God, of course!).

I want to be busy!

I want to go!

But sometimes it feels like I’m meeting only “little needs”—like helping a child with homework, cooking a meal or reading that bedtime story (again!), and simply watching my children grow.

Yet, deep inside, I do know the truth. Raising and training children (and serving my husband) is important! “Striving,” or mere “busyness,” is not the same as “fruitfulness,” and all God really requires is for me to stay close to Him and obey Him, day by day.

Today the Lord is simply showing me to be faithful—that is, to love God and to support my husband here at home; to be fruitful—to be a mother and to teach and train our children in the ways of the Lord; and to keep my eyes on the future—to eagerly anticipate the Lord’s return and keep living in His joy.

As parents and teachers, we must “train up a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6), and in the Great Commission; Jesus said the way we should go is “into all the world and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15).

David Livingstone said, “God had only one Son, and He made Him a missionary.” Jesus came as our missionary to earth. He relinquished everything in heaven to provide the way for us (and all people) to come into relationship with Him. He knew the cost before Him, and the price He paid was beyond anything we could imagine.

In Hebrews 12:2, the Bible says we are to look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.” Jesus’ incredible love compelled Him to the cross. His burning desire was to fully obey the will of the Father, providing a way for humanity to be reconciled back to God. Jesus was willing to sacrifice whatever it took: His position in heaven, His unsurpassed riches and glory, His reputation, and even His very life. Jesus was whipped, beaten, tortured, and despised—all for the joy that was set before Him.

Isaiah 9:2–3 describes the joy of harvest as a light shining through darkness. There is rejoicing when a lost coin is found! There is joy when a shepherd finds a lost sheep or when a prodigal finally comes home! Luke 15:7 tells us that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”

This is the joy that led Jesus to the cross.

How many of us are so captivated by God’s love that we would be willing to lay down everything to follow Him?

We should take a moment to consider our lives and our priorities from God’s eternal perspective:

- As we teach and train our children, what are we hoping they will achieve?

- As we steward God’s resources, what are we saving toward?

- As we influence the next generation, what dreams are we instilling?

- As we talk to God, what is the primary focus of our prayers?

As Christians, we must realize that God’s love, His passionate love, resides in us. Are we willing to allow this love to flow through us (and through our children) to the world? Second Corinthians 5:14–15 says, “For the love of Christ compels us . . . that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

Like Hannah, we must realize that our child is actually God’s child—entrusted to us for only a short time. We need to release our child to God and then follow His guidance to raise His child for His divine purposes!

My prayer is for the simple words in this (website) to penetrate deep into your soul and spirit. I know you don’t need more information; but we all need more inspiration. I pray that God’s love for the world will explode in your heart like a blast of dynamite. I hope you will be moved by the things that move God’s heart and that you will allow God’s precious Holy Spirit to impart this heart into your child.

We’ve all heard the famous saying, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” I say, “May the child in our cradle reach the world . . . for the One who rules it all!”

* Taken from the book The Mission Minded Child: Raising a New Generation to Fulfill God's Purpose by Ann Dunagan

EE-Taow

A friend of ours, Riki, shared a video that had been shown at her church. It is called EE-Taow which means "it's very true" in the Mouk language.

The Mouk people are a tribe living in Papua New Guinea. This is the story of what happened when two missionaries went to live among them and teach them the Gospel.
The missionaries took about two years to study the Mouk language and way of life, to educate the Mouk people, and to translate the Bible into the Mouk language. When the missionaries were ready to present the Gospel, they invited the entire village to a series of Bible teachings in which they explained the Bible in the language of the tribe.
For three months, the villagers would gather together twice a day on Monday to Friday where each session lasted about an hour, while the missionaries chronologically walked through the key points of the Bible.

This video is the amazing story of what happened when they heard about Christ's love for them!!! Click on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjRTBQcf-uc

Eternity in Their Hearts

Who were the Magi who brought gifts to the baby Jesus, and how did they know that a Messiah was coming?

Who was Melchizedek, the contemporary of Abraham, who was a priest of the one high God?

How did a fifteenth century Peruvian king named Pachacuti, recognize that there was only one true God, before the coming of the Europeans? In his own words, Pachacuti described the one true God, they called Viracocha: "He is ancient, remote, supreme, and uncreated...He manifests himself as a trinity when he wishes...otherwise only heavenly warriors and archangels surround his loneliness. He created all peoples by his 'word.'"

God has "made every nation of men...so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27) Think about that for a moment...every nation of men...not just the Jews or the Americans or the Europeans or the Chinese, but every nation. Paul tells us that God has made them in such a way that men from every nation would seek Him.
But do they? Is there any proof that when missionaries enter a new culture/nation with the Gospel of Jesus, that they may find a people who are already prepared to hear and receive the Gospel? The answer is an astounding YES!!!

I read a book called Eternity in their Hearts by Don Richardson. Don Richardson and his late wife, Carol, spent 15 years among the Sawi, a Stone Age tribe of Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea. Don designed an alphabet suited to the Sawi language, authored 19 primers, taught the tribesmen to read in their native tongue and translated the entire New Testament. More than half of the Sawi accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior!

The premise of his book is that in every culture God has preserved for Himself a testimony. In His mercy, He has permitted every culture in the world to retain a portion of the truth. If a missionary goes into a region, searching the culture for its grains of truth, and then affirms that these ideas ARE true, and then presents the Gospel as the REST of the truth, he and the Gospel will quite often be received. The book is heavily documented with specific examples of missionaries finding and utilizing these culture keys, and seeing large numbers of people become Christian.

I'd like to share some of the many examples of this. I pray they will hearten any of you, including me, who agonize over the question of God's justice in regard to people who have never heard the Gospel.

In 1867, a Norwegian missionary named Lars Skrefsrud found 2.5 million people called the Santal living in a region north of Calcutta, India. Once Lars learned the language and began proclaiming the Gospel to the Santal, he wondered how many years it would be before he saw converts. "To Skrefsurd's utter amazement, the Santal were electrified almost at once by the Gospel message. At length he heard Santal sages, including one named Kolean, exclaim, 'What this stranger is saying must mean that Thakur Jiu has not forgotten us after all this time!'" Kolean then went on to explain that their forefathers had taught them that "Thakur is distinct. He is not to be seen with fleshy eyes, but he sees all. He has created all things. He has set everything in its place, and he nourishes all, great and small." These were people who had never met a Christian or Jew nor had seen any part of the Bible, yet their understanding of God was Biblical! Once Lars explained the Gospel to them, they began to experience "eighty baptisms per day (which) signified that young Santal churches in 'Hindu India' were growing more than 500 times as fast as churches in 'Christian Europe.'"

Before I share a couple more examples, I must admit that reading this book shattered a belief that I held. I believed that the folk religions (the native religions of a people group, distinct from the major world religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hindu, etc.) of the world were almost entirely pagan and held very little hint or understanding of God. But according to Richardson, "We have been wrong. In actual fact, more than 90 percent of this world's folk religions acknowledge at least the existence of God. Some even anticipate His redeeming concern for mankind."

"The Chinese call him Shang Ti - the Lord of Heaven...In Korea he is known as Hananim, The Great One. Belief in Shang Ti/Hananim predates Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism by an unknown number of centuries." When missionaries entered China and Korea, they discovered this ancient belief in Shang Ti/Hananim and used it to explain a further revelation of God. Just as Paul pointed to the altar to the "unknown god" in Athens (Acts 17:22), the missionaries pointed to Shang Ti/Hananim. Today, "more than 3 million Koreans belong to Protestant churches...and Seoul contains the world's two largest Protestant churches." I can attest to this fact after living in Seoul for two years...there are crosses on the tops of churches everywhere! And in China, more than 23,000 people come to Christ a day!

The Karen of Burma were another group of people magnificently poised to receive the Gospel with open arms when it was presented to them. They had been searching for centuries for a "white brother who was supposed to bring them a book...(whose) author is Y'wa-the Supreme God...that the white brother, having given them the lost book, will thereby set them free from all who oppress them." Their folk religion's hymns bear striking resemblances to God's character and "the Karen story of man's falling away from God contains stunning parallels to Genesis chapter 1: Y'wa formed the world originally. He appointed food and drink. He appointed the 'fruit of trial.' He gave detailed orders. Mu-kaw-lee deceived two persons. He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of the trial. They obeyed not...they believed not Y'wa...when they ate the fruit of trial they became subject to sickness, aging and death." Wow! This was a remote group of people who had never come in contact with Jews or Christians before, yet their own religion, thousands of years old, had an incredible witness of the Lord! The Karen nation was thus poised like an 800,000 member welcoming party, ready for the first unsuspecting missionary who approached them with a Bible and a message of deliverance from God." When missionaries finally brought the Gospel to the Karen in the early 1800s, thousands accepted Christ almost immediately and "almost as quickly as Karen were converted and baptized, they became missionaries to spread the good news still further among their own people" and neighboring tribes!

There are so many more examples of people groups with prior knowledge of God, being prepared and ready to accept Jesus as Savior, once He was presented to them. It is truly amazing and so very comforting. It is our job to do all we can to bring them the Good News.

Malachi 1:11  says, says "'My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,'the LORD Almighty." May this be our prayer:

Lord, You are the true and living God, You rule over all things visible and invisible. The nations belong to You, and you have woven into the fabric of every culture a testimony to Your name.

I bring the unreached people groups of the world before you now, and I ask Lord that You would reveal those things in their culture, that reflect who you are and Your son Jesus. Cause the hidden treasures of Your truth to be brought up and displayed for all to see. Lord use these keys of insight to ignite a curiosity and hunger among them to know more about who You are. Give Your servants wisdom and strategy to use these keys to promote the Gospel among this people group. In Your name we pray, Amen.

What's on the Other Side?

There are a lot of touching emails out there these days. But this one really made me think and it reminded me of one of the main reasons I write this blog:

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said,

"Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side."

Very quietly, the doctor said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?  You're, a Christian man, and don't know what's on the other side?"

The doctor was holding the handle of the door. On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.

Turning to the patient, the doctor said, "Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death,  but I do know one thing... I know my Master is there and that is enough."

That is enough! We are so incredibly privileged and blessed to have heard the name of Jesus and to have been given the grace to believe in His name. We don't know what lies beyond the grave (the details, what our bodies will be like, what we will do all the time, what it will look like, etc.) but we know who lies beyond the grave...Jesus Christ!

But there are billions who do not know what lies beyond...billions who fear death with every ounce of their being...who live in a very dark world and who will go to an even darker world when they die. Friends, this should not be!

I spend my early morning hours reading the Bible, praying and just getting to know Jesus more. I can't WAIT to see Him face to face and be with Him forever! I want the unreached people of the world to get a chance to be with Him as well. I can't imagine life without Jesus!!!

I encourage you to pick one unreached people group and start praying for them daily. Find out more about them... https://www.unreachedoftheday.org has a list of just about all of them with links to lots of information. I have been praying for the Hui of China and the Bahing of Nepal for awhile now.

They need our prayers! They are people just like us. There, but for the grace of God, could be each of us. They are God's children too and He is asking us to pray!

God's Number One Agenda Item?

There are so many good ministries and causes that Christians can be involved in today...pro-life, pro-marriage, adoption/orphan care, anti-sex trafficking, missions, persecuted church, Bible translation, VBS...the list goes on and on. But of all of these, I believe there is one that stands out as God's number one agenda item...saving the lost. Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel...the Great Commission. I believe that He desires, more than anything else on this earth, that people would know Him and spend eternity with Him.

So, I believe, that the question for each of us, as believers, becomes: What am I doing to fulfill the Great Commission; to spread the Gospel to those who have never heard His name?

Although I love my country, I am not really talking here about spreading the Gospel in America. Yes, it is very important to share our faith with our family and friends. But, as Oswald J. Smith said, “Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice before everyone has heard it once?” I believe that each of us has the responsibility to take the good news of the Gospel to those in other countries who have never heard of Him. How we do this may be different for each of us, but it is a responsibility that we shouldn’t ignore!

There are over 1.7 billion people, that’s 30% of the world population, who have NEVER heard the name of Jesus. How will they hear if we don’t go or pray for and support those who do? And we shouldn’t desire that they hear just so that billions of people won’t suffer in Hell for eternity, though that is an incredibly important reason. The main reason should be our desire that Jesus receives the glory He deserves when people from every nation bow before Him as Lord and Savior! These are His children that He created and who He loves. He has asked us to tell them about Him. It is the greatest responsibility we will ever have.

You know, we only have about 70-80 years out of eternity to tell others about Jesus and to gain people for His Kingdom. People are what He is referring to when He tells us to store up treasures in Heaven. People are the only things we can bring with us to Heaven.

Many of you may be members now or in the past of a church which was very world-mission oriented...that is wonderful! I was not. I vaguely remember my childhood church mentioning a missionary here and there but the lost world did not seem to be the focus of my church. After leaving home, I don't remember missions being a big focus in any church I attended until we lived in Seoul, South Korea from 2006-2008. Why was this the case?

More often than I can count, I sat through multiple services where the pastor asked us for money to improve our church and it's "campus." But what about money to build churches in other countries where they have never heard of Jesus? Never. I read recently that for the cost of one of the mega-churches in America, 7,000 churches could be built in a 3rd world nation. Are we truly being good stewards of the incredible resources God has given us?

If the Great Commission is to be on the heart of every Christian, as it was on the heart of Jesus and His disciples, why is the American Church, seminaries, major Christian personalities, and many Christian organizations not more outspoken about the persecuted church and worldwide missions? According to Tim Dearborn,  “Lack of interest in mission is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment, nor by a lack of information or exhortation. And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by more shocking statistics, more gruesome stories or more emotionally manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by intensifying people’s passion for Christ, so that the passions of His heart become the passions that propel our hearts.”

That's what happened to me! Some of you may be familiar with the song Hosanna by Hillsong. There is a line in there that has become my personal prayer: “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.” I began seriously praying that prayer while living in South Korea, two hours away from the most repressive, closed to the Gospel, nation on earth...North Korea. As I began to really ask God to draw me closer to Him and to help me know Him more, I became more and more passionate about the lost and the persecuted Church. I write this blog because God has shown me what the number one item on His agenda is...winning the lost for Christ!

We are living in exciting times! The move of Christ throughout the world is amazing and He is asking us to join Him. I shared these stats before but they are worth repeating. This comes from the book 2020 Vision by Bill and Amy Stearns

- An average of 160,000 a day hear the message of redemption in Christ for the first time.

- Every hour, 3,000 more people decide to follow Jesus Christ which results in 72,000 new believers in Jesus every day, 91% of which are found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

- 1,600 new churches open every week around the world

- 80 percent of the world's people have access to at least some portion of the Bible in a language they can understand

- Daily, in Africa, 20,000 new believers; Africa was 3% Christian in 1900 and is now more than 50% Christian

- In India, the home of the largest number of unreached people groups in the world, Gospel for Asia plants an amazing 7-10 churches a day!

- Uganda: One church in Kampala seats 10,500 and is filled to capacity for four services every Sunday. The church has planted more than 1,000 daughter churches across Uganda. Twenty-five years ago, Uganda’s population was 22% Muslim. Today that figure is around 6% Muslim. To find out how God is using one young lady in a remarkable way in Uganda go to Amazima

- Explosive growth in Latin America...almost all unreached people groups have been reached with 50,000 new churches per year

- In 1950 in China - 1 million believers; 2009 in China - 80 million Christians with average of 10,000 - 23,000 new Christians daily

- Mongolia - In 1989 there were only four known Christians; today there are more than 10,000 indigenous believers.

- Afghanistan - Before Sept. 11, 2001, there were only 17 known Muslim-background followers of Christ. Today there are more than 10,000.

- During the 1990s, the number of born-again believers in the world doubled!

- In 100 AD, the time of the earliest persecution of the Church, there were 360 non-Christians for every true believer...today that number has shrunk to just 7 non-Christians for every Christian as the Holy Spirit continues to move in our world

God is doing amazing things in the world and He will do them with or without our help. My fervent prayer is that we will be involved...pray, get educated, teach our children, tell those around us, support financially, go if God calls!  "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Luke 10:2

Why Does God Allow Christian Persecution?

In my last blog entry I about Voice of the Martyrs and Christian persecution. Why does God allow this persecution we might ask? Because in no other act of a human being is God’s love shown more profoundly. Jesus was the ultimate martyr. He gave His life for us and He tells us time and again that we must be willing to do the same for others.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:10

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  Matthew 5:44

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  John 15:88

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  2 Timothy 3:12

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.  1 Peter 4:12-14

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.  2 Corinthians 4:8-12

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  Romans 8:35-37

Giving their lives for Christ is just what Christians are doing all over the world. As people willingly sacrifice their lives, not just through death but also through other types of loss and persecution, those around them see a God who is worth giving everything for. As they see Christians give everything for God, they begin to believe that God loves them and will give everything for them.

Let me interject some thoughts about America at this point. Right now, there is much concern about the future of America, both financially and morally, but I don’t think we, as Christians, should be worried and concerned or look on this as entirely bad. According to Robert E. Coleman, "The Church should not fear affliction, though it causes anguish and even death. Suffering may be necessary to convince us that we do not live by bread alone. When received as an expression of God's trust, our suffering can be a means of helping us comprehend more of the love of Christ, 'who suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps' (1 Pet 2:21; Heb. 2:10, 5:8). Without hardship, probably few of us would learn much about the deeper life of grace."

We all know this is true in our own lives. When we go through difficult times, it draws us closer to the Lord. Well, maybe God has more difficult times ahead for the Church in America, in order to draw her closer to Him and purify her for greater works as we anticipate the return, someday, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After you read a bit about the persecuted church, you may ask yourself, why am I not hearing about this on the news? One reason is that the visual media have eroded the faith of believers in God’s sovereignty in the world. Television cameramen swoop down on the wars, famines, disasters and tragedies of this world. (if it bleeds, it leads). The beautiful, wholesome and good is less photogenic, so what God does and what God’s servants are achieving are rarely noticed. Like Elisha’s servant (2 Kings 6), we need our eyes opened to see reality. The view from a heavenly vantage point is very different. There is a titanic struggle going on in the heavenlies between the forces of the Lord Jesus and the hosts of darkness and the effects in our world are dramatic. Yet the victory has already been won on the cross!”

Sharing the good news of that victory and encouraging the persecuted church is what Voice of the Martyrs is all about. There are many different things that they do, but I will just highlight a few:

They launch balloons, covered with Bible verses, into North Korea...the most closed nation on earth; they also send weekly Christian faxes to North Korean businesses...using any means to get the Bible into North Korea. They help with Chinese safe houses where North Koreans can find shelter and safety when they are escaping from North Korea. At these homes they often find faith in Jesus Christ as well.

In Pakistan they encourage and give legal aid to Christian prisoners and their families; you can send Action Packs into Pakistan...bags filled with clothing, blankets, the Bible and Christian literature and they produce and distribute many evangelistic tools to help win Muslims to Christ.

In China they support Christian prisoners and their families and provide aid to Christians whose churches have been destroyed.

There are many more ways that VoM can help you to help the persecuted church: signing up to receive the weekly prayers requests, writing letters to prisoners and sending blankets to Sudan. We have been given SO MUCH in America. Jesus asks us to help the least of these. VoM makes it very easy to do this. It has changed my life!

Yes, the persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters can be shocking, sad and depressing. If...we stop here. But, there’s more to this story! I’d like to conclude by sharing with you what God is doing in these three countries specifically. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 16:18, that “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Satan is doing his best to destroy Christians and keep the lost from ever hearing about the good news of Jesus Christ. But our God is greater and more powerful and He is winning the battle one person at a time!

In North Korea: the number of Christians is growing despite persecution with the percentage of Christian as high as 10%!  Hearts are longing for truth and for a loving relationship with their Creator so much so that many who flee to China and receive Christ go back into North Korea, with the reality of certain death if they are caught, to share the Good News with their family and friends. Many believe that the North Korean government will fall and South Korea, a very Christian nation, is waiting to flood the country with the good news of Jesus. Just as a side note...100 years ago, Korea had no Protestant Church and was thought of as “impossible to penetrate.” Today the country is over 30% Christian and in Seoul, alone, there are over 7,000 churches...we lived there for 2 years and I can attest to the truth of this!

In Pakistan: Christians have become the second largest religious minority. Incredibly, God is appearing to Muslims in visions and dreams (more than 1/3 of the converts in Turkey said they came to Christ because He appeared to them in a dream).

In China: Every day approximately 23,000 Chinese come to know Christ! In fact, right now there are many more Christians in China than members of the Communist party. There is so much more I could share but I will end this. God is doing incredible things throughout the world and it is our joy and privilege to be involved!!!

Voice of the Martyrs

One thing I would like to do with this blog is to introduce you to some of the wonderful ministries that are out there, helping spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping those who are sharing the news. One  such organization is Voice of the Martyrs. I first learned about VoM when we were in the process of adopting our oldest daughter from China. I didn't really know much about the daily persecution that Christians undergo throughout the world for their faith and their incredible testimonies. VoM helped me learn so much!

When Jesus was asked by His disciples about His return, Jesus spoke these words (Luke 21),
"But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. This will result in your being witnesses to them. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life.”

Persecution, betrayal, martyrdom - these are not things that many of us may think of very often in America, where it is relatively easy to be a Christian. But in many countries our Christian family is treated horribly! Imagine yourself at church on Sunday morning or at a ladies' Bible study. Now, if you lived in North Korea, Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Iran or a host of other nations, the police could come into the room, take everyone to prison and torture or even kill you without any legal proceedings. Right now Pastor Andrew Brunson is on trial in Turkey for sharing his faith, Pastor John Cao was sentenced to 7 years in prison in China for sharing his faith and two men were arrested in Pakistan for handing a Christian book to a man in a marketplace.

When many Christians in America do think about persecution and martyrdom, they automatically think of Rome, the gladiators, lions, Stephen and Paul. But do you know that more Christians became martyrs for their faith in the last century, approximately 41 million, than in all the centuries before that combined?

I encourage you to go to the VoM website, read through it and sign up to receive their free monthly newsletter. You can also order the free book Tortured for Christ. Learn about what our brothers and sisters are enduring as Christians so that your heart will be broken for them and so that you will pray for them. Prayer for the persecuted church is the number one thing each of us can do and it is the main request that they have. We need to do what Hebrews 13:3 asks of us, “Remember those in prison as if you yourselves were prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”