The morning after Sudanese Air Force bombers struck his village in Sudan‘s Nuba Mountains, Pastor Morris prepared to go to jail. The pastor had done nothing wrong. He was going by choice, in obedience to Christ’s command to “Love your enemies.” For him, that meant packing soap, food, clothes and shoes to give to Muslim prisoners of war who served the same government that had bombed his village the previous night. The Sudanese government has reportedly dropped more than 3,700 bombs on civilian targets since April 2012 as part of its campaign against Nuba rebels. Many have questioned the pastor’s actions, including his son. For him, forgiveness of these atrocities is unthinkable. “Are not these the people who are bombing us with the airplane and killing our people?” his son asked him as he packed. “Why are you taking these food items to them to survive when they are killing us?” “I tell him, ‘My son, this is because Jesus says we have to love our enemies,’” Morris recalled. “‘Even if they are killing us, we have to love them. Because of that love — because of the command of Jesus — this is why I am now prepared to
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The evening of August 20, 2014, Abu Fadi received an urgent call from his mother. “Abu, come for me,” she cried from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Before he could respond, an Islamic State (ISIS) fighter grabbed the phone and asked Abu to confirm that he was her son. “Yes, I am her son,” Abu replied. “What is the problem?” “Today, come and take your mother and sister,” the fighter said. “If you will not come today, we will throw them in the street. Either they will be Muslim or we will leave them in the street. You just come and take them.” The ISIS fighter took all the family’s money and belongings, closed up their house and painted the Arabic letter “N” on the home, indicating Nassarah, or “Christian”. Knowing he couldn’t enter Mosul as a Christian, Abu asked a Muslim friend to bring his elderly mother and sister — both in wheelchairs — to his nearby city, which had recently come under ISIS control. Once there, the two women joined Abu and his wife and they drove toward Bashiqa in the north. However, shortly after starting their journey, their car was stopped at an ISIS checkpoint by fighters
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Keo wasn’t surprised by the village leaders’ decision. In some ways, he expected it. Keo, his wife and their five children became Christians in communist Laos in 2011, and they have been denied basic needs ever since. Village leaders even prevented them from accessing the public water system. Laos is a volatile area for Christians, as the gospel offends the country’s traditional, animist spiritual practices. Conversion to Christianity is seen as a rejection of family and tradition; it is believed to anger the spirits tied to ancestor and idol worship. Christians are often harassed and evicted from their homes and villages. They are denied education and work opportunities, and they are sometimes arrested and forced to deny their faith. Despite the hardships, Keo and his family refuse to abandon Christ. “I knew becoming a Christian would be difficult and I would have persecution,” Keo said. Convinced of God’s Power Keo and his family became believers after witnessing the power of prayer. Keo’s son, Khamphuy, 12 at the time, had struggled with his breathing for months. Keo spent all his money on spirit doctors, who told him to kill certain animals to atone for wrongdoings that may have caused the boy’s
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At a prearranged location, Rob waits, watching for a familiar vehicle among the heavy traffic passing by on the street in front of him. When he sees his friend’s car maneuver to the curb, he hops in and they drive around for a few hours. In this Central Asian country, where meeting in public could draw the attention of Islamic extremists, using cars is one of the safest ways for Christians to fellowship and worship. Secret believers in restricted nations use a number of discreet meeting places in order to practice their faith undetected. VOM workers have heard of church meetings in the forest, in a rented vacation home in the country and even in a chicken coop. Rob and his friend cruise the neighborhood and talk freely about their faith, sticking to side streets to avoid police checkpoints and meeting only during the day for safety. Rob pulls out his mobile phone and the two men begin to sing along exuberantly with recorded worship music. Those idly watching them drive by might assume they’re singing the latest pop song, but the two men are in fact joining in heartfelt songs of praise to God in their local language. After
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