PERSECUTION IN AFRICA: Power In Christian Worship

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The Voice of the Martyrs

Christianity, Martyr, Vom, Persecution, Gospel, Pastor, Persecutedchurch, Apologetics, Islam, Christian, Church, Missions, Missionaries, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If there was no spiritual power when believers gather together to worship Christ, then Christians in hostile and restricted nations wouldn’t be attacked. If their worship wasn’t a threat, why would enemies of the gospel try to prevent it?

Jeremy Malkin, who oversees VOM’s international ministry work in west and central Africa, explains that animistic and Muslim communities’ sense that power of Christians gathering together, and they often respond with violence and persecution towards our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jeremy will share the story of one of our brothers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Matendo, who was abducted by an armed group of Muslims targeting Christians. He was beaten and threatened for his witness, causing long-term damage to his body, yet he is praising God for miraculously sparing his life.

As Christian persecution increases across Africa, there is great need for prayer and support for brothers and sisters who are being driven from their homes and seeing their churches destroyed. On one trip, Jeremy and his team met 300 believers at a church, all wanting to share their story. When Jeremy asked how many had family members who’d been killed by the Islamist rebels, almost everyone in the room raised their hands.

Listen to hear an update on Christians in Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin and other African nations, and learn how you can be in prayer for the persecuted church there. Subscribe to VOM’s free magazine to read more about Matendo’s story in the January issue, as well as recieve the 2023 VOM Prayer Map. Listen to Brother Malik’s episode on VOM Radio to hear more about this Fulani Christian’s testimony.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The Eastern part of the DRC has been in a war since 96, Mutimbo. He shared of being abducted by the ADF.
0:10.6	Mutimbo and a few others were taken, they were beaten over the head, they were eventually put into basically a well and left there for days.
0:22.8	And he can't actually remember how he got out, but he knew that somehow he was rescued, spared, and he praised God for that.
0:35.0	Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them. He sent them out as sheep among wolves.
0:44.6	Jesus' words came true in the life of the apostles, and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers around the world.
0:51.8	Join host Todd Nettleton. We hear their inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
0:59.6	Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd Nettleton. We're in the studio today in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with Jeremy Malcolm.
1:06.2	He is the regional leader for Voice of the Martyrs' work in West and Central Africa.
1:11.2	And we will talk a little bit about some of the countries that he is working in and overseeing our work in.
1:17.4	We will talk about new countries that have just been added to the Voice of the Martyrs' Paramap. In fact, that map will be in your mailbox just in a few days.
1:26.4	If you already subscribed to the Voice of the Martyrs magazine, if you don't already subscribed, you can at VOMradio.net.
1:34.0	I would encourage you to do so. Jeremy has been our guest previously on Voice of the Martyrs Radio, so Jeremy, welcome back to VOM Radio.
1:42.0	Thank you so much, Todd.
1:44.0	You know, it's interesting to me we started out this year talking about some places in Africa. You and Sean, we're here together.
1:52.0	One of the countries we talked about is Benin. We're going to talk about that again today.
1:56.0	But as we think about a new Paramap and new countries, what goes into that on your side, on the International Ministry side, to say, hey, this is a country that hasn't been on our Paramap, but we need to put it on there.
2:09.0	The Christians are being persecuted there. We need it on our Paramap. How does that conversation go?
2:15.0	Yeah, I think there's two things that really go into that. One is just the amount of persecution in a particular country.
2:24.0	One of the countries we added to the Paramap, which we'll talk a little bit more about later, is the country of Niger.
2:30.0	Because VOM is responding to so many cases of persecution throughout the country, a lot of them somewhat isolated cases of those who come to faith, but are ostracized by their families, just face that communal pressure, as well as you have some jihadist activity coming into the western part of the country, which we'll talk about.
2:51.0	The other aspect is just there are some countries where the persecution is very violent and very immense, and it's either started really within the last year or two, or VOM has really just had the capacity to really start digging in and seeing what's actually happening in those areas.
3:11.0	I think one of the things for our listeners to understand is, like we say, Niger is now added to the Paramap. It's not the first time we've ever been to Niger. It's not the first time we've ever assisted persecuted Christians there.
	...

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