It's really important for us to remember that when we suffer faithfully, that helps other people through those doubts.

It's a positive thing that we contribute to others in the church, even if it's not intended primarily for our benefit.

Our sufferings are something different.

It's God working through our sufferings in the lives of others to show them his ability

to sustain us.

Matt Rhodes has lived in North Africa since 2011, where he and his wife serve as part of a church

planting team to a previously

unengaged people group. He's the author of a number of books and articles, including his

latest from Crossway, persecution in missions, a practical theology. Matt, thanks for joining me

again on the Crossway podcast. Glad to be here. So Matt, your book includes a foreword by a man

will call Joshua. That's not his real name. That's a pseudonym that he's using. And I wonder

if you could just start out by telling us a little bit about Joshua and his story. Yeah, Joshua is a

Chinese pastor and he's faced some significant hurdles himself

as a pastor, trying to pastor his church in ways that would maybe not be approved by the

Chinese government.

There obviously are government sanctions churches, but in order to maintain his church's freedom and independence

from the government, he's faced significant hurdles like a lot of Chinese pastors do.

Yeah, and reading his preface to your book, it really was a powerful way to start the book

because it was a bit of a,

I know for me, a wake-up call, a reminder that, you know, persecution is still a very real

and live issue for so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

And I think sometimes for us as Western Christians and especially American Christians, we can sort of think that maybe persecution is something from a previous era.

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