Pray for the Persecuted Church

Three years ago, I had spent my summer break onboard Logos Hope, famously known as the ‘Book Ship”. OM Ships International is the organisation behind Logos Hope. The Ship Ministry began in 1970 as part of the global Christian training and outreach movement, OM International. Since its operation, OM’s ships have travelled to more than 480 different ports in 150 countries and territories and welcomed over 40 million visitors on board.

During my tenure, I served as a volunteer in the Café as well as an ambassador. As a volunteer, I would serve the visitors on the ship as per their order, whether that was for chocolate or vanilla ice cream, buttery popcorn, colorful slushes or warm croissants graced with ham or chicken. It was a sheer delight working alongside other volunteers from Germany, Korea, US, Haiti etc. The Logos Hope has over 400 volunteers from at least 60 different nations. Literally, how I imagine heaven to be- rich with diversity & cultures, people from every nation and tongue.

As an ambassador, I would have been tasked with the evangelistic responsibility of sharing the gospel with visitors as they walk through the Prodigal Son Story (a huge pictorial display) in the visitor experience deck. In addition, as an ambassador, I was privy to prayer room. Have you seen or heard of the movie “War Room?”—I am almost sure you have. Well, the prayer room was our war room (we would pray for each visitor on board) decorated with many colorful posits of prayer requests sticked on the walls. You enter that room, and you literally felt God’s presence. I was awe-struck, every. single. time.

Anyway, one of the super cool things serving on the vessel is the easy access to events onboard. Each evening, there would some buzzing activity, whether it was a play, a seminar or a worship session. On one occasion, I attended an all-night prayer meeting which left such an indelible mark on me. One of the prayerful activities included being apart of an assimilation exercise. It was made abundantly clear that this was a serious exercise, and the floor was opened for those who are serious to volunteer to participate. Not everyone in the room volunteered. Of course, I did not hesitate. All in for Jesus, right?

On the floor, sitting, we formed a large circle. Lights…. camera…action. First on scene, a Chinese native Pastor giving a word of encouragement to us (have you figured out the setting yet?) then he handed out these small white pieces of paper to each of us in the circle. When closely examined, a verse was inscribed on it. I believe my verse was Roman 8:28 --“all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are called according to His purpose.”

We all seemed a bit puzzled as to why we would have been handed this small piece of paper with a verse on it. But at the same time, beamed with naivety and excitement as we were curious to know which verse each of us were given. Suddenly, our apparent excitement was cut short, as a group of (what appeared to be) soldiers, barged in out of nowhere, from all directions. They were decked in full black, combat boots and kerchief tied around their heads. They arrested the pastor then “us” – the congregants. They bind up our hands behind us, blind folded us and forced us to assembly in a line. Yes, this was just an exercise, but it felt very real. They were around twenty (20) volunteers in total and by this time we were all scared, heart racing, because what the hell is going on? We were then led out to an unknown destination onboard. We had no idea where we were headed, well, we could not see. After walking for just a few minutes but what felt like eternity, we were put in an isolated space then commanded to get on our knees. We were each at a good distance from each other (6 ft apart) and so pretty much all we had was the plain ole white piece of paper with the one verse of scripture. I remember, whispering the verse to myself “for we know all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them called according to his purpose” repeatedly until it became like a song.

Then out of nowhere, I heard footsteps from behind followed by a command to stand up. My blind fold was removed then I was led to dark room with red lights. It was as if I was now on some trial of some sorts. There were questions after questions being hurled at me like I am in baseball faceoff with who appeared to be a commander in chief. It was intimidating. But homegirl did not flinch. “Are you willing to deny your faith in Jesus?” was the penultimate question and of course my answer was a resounding “no”. I was then threatened with what appeared to be an electric saw on the table, that if I did not deny my faith in Christ, my finger would then be cut off. My answer remained. I was led back out to another room. This time, I was commanded to kneel on the ground, say my last words to family and friends on a camera and given a last chance to renounce Christ as Lord. It was noticeably clear what would have transpired next. My execution was sure. As one of the soldiers stood over me with a gun pointed to my head. I closed my eyes and just waited….to be killed or whatever. Then I heard claps, then whispers of congratulations, apparently, I passed the “test” and was immediately brought back to the main area where it all began. A bit shaken up to be honest as I was very much into this exercise as if it were happening in real time.

As I approach the main area, with the others who also passed the test, there were shouts of praise, the atmosphere filled with worship, I was overwhelmed with emotions as I experience a very real epiphany of the plight of the persecuted church. Persecuted for my faith? Where? When? What is that? Yet, in places like North Korea, Yemen, Iran, Libya, India, Eritrea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Nigeria—this is the actual norm. It is mind-blogging to me that over 200 million believers, worldwide, are living every day with the high possibility of being tortured, executed, harassed for professing Christ. That is, 1 in every 9 Christians globally. Imagine, being killed for believing and declaring Jesus is Lord? And imagine, being persecuted for your faith now, in a whole pandemic. I do not know about you, but my faith has been keeping me as I navigate these uncertain times.

In 2021, it is my resolved to pray more for the persecuted church and do my part in raising awareness. May our hearts be so moved with compassion for our brothers and sisters all over the world. Let us pray for their continued boldness in the face of tyranny, pray for their protection, pray that the joy and peace of God will flood their hearts, pray that their faith will be strengthened and pray that they will run the race with purpose in every step. “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)