“At one point, it was easier to kill a person than a chicken,” said Alejandro. Back then, he was a terrorist with a militant Islamic organization in Mindanao. He’d bombed civilians, government soldiers, U.S. Marines and the homes of Christians. He didn’t even know how many people he’d killed. “I was not afraid to kill anyone for the glory of Allah,” he said. Alejandro was the only son in a strict Muslim family. He’d brought honor to his father by joining the Islamist rebels and was considered a worthy heir. But after several years of indiscriminate killing, Alejandro’s conscience began to bother him. He left the militant group and went into secular work, but he remained committed to his Muslim faith and to his family. Alejandro’s work required that he travel around the island of Mindanao, and in 2009 he met a Christian who invited him to church. At first Alejandro turned down the invitation; he wasn’t interested in Christianity. But the Christian persisted, and after five invitations Alejandro finally agreed to visit the man’s church. During the church service, Alejandro suddenly found himself crying and walking to the front of the church. “I was a tough military guy, an
Read More
Chandrashekar stood in a simple home in a small Indian farming village and prayed with a couple who had come to Christ just four months earlier. Brother Bala and Sister Kuskuma were the only Christians in their village, and they were surrounded by 40 families — all devout Hindus. With no church in their village, their only source of fellowship and spiritual nourishment was Chandrashekar, who lived 15 kilometers [a little over nine miles] away. After sharing a message of abiding in Christ from John 15 and Psalm 1, Chandrashekar prayed for the couple. He prayed that they would boldly share the gospel with fellow villagers, and he prayed that their relatives would also come to know Christ. Since Chandrashekar had to visit a family in another village before returning home, he thanked Brother Bala and Sister Kuskuma, packed his Bible and left their home. Chandrashekar hadn’t traveled far down the road when he was confronted by a mob of 40 men, some armed with sticks. “Did you visit Hindu people’s houses to convert them?” they demanded. “I visited their house to pray,” he replied. That was enough evidence for the mob. They grabbed Chandrashekar’s Bible and tore it up,
Read More
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
Read More
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
Read More