Visit your persecuted family with Open Doors You can be a tourist on a life-changing adventure by joining Open Doors on a trip to visit persecuted believers in 2022. Are you ready to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ? Now is your chance to be part of this unique opportunity.
M
onika, who recently went on a trip with Open Doors, shares her testimony: I’ve had the privilege to travel with Open Doors to visit my persecuted family several times in different world regions.
Why do I want to go? Travelling with Open Doors is a one-of-a-kind adventure; you truly are a tourist on a secret mission. We go as tourists and do the tourist things – take pictures, go shopping and experience the local culture and cuisine… but behind the “scenes” we have another mission – to meet with our family in faith, to eat, pray, cry, laugh and learn, attend church, and maybe even take some much-needed “Bread” with us. But then, if you allow the Holy Spirit, He will remove the scales from your eyes and you will see the truth of what is really happening in these countries.
See the truth with your own eyes In my most recent trip to, let’s just say “an Arabic country up in Africa”, I experienced something else. For the first time I had a glimpse of what it is like to be a follower of Jesus living with persecution. On the surface, it seems like there is real freedom of religion… there are church buildings, monasteries, and private Christians schools. But behind this facade, you hear about the struggle to get permits
for new church buildings and you see every church entrance fitted with a metal detector. So when someone with a backpack enters a church service you are attending, your heart skips a beat as you’re reminded of the recent bomb attacks on a church down the road. Or when driving on a secluded road to a secret gathering with our family and suddenly you’re surrounded by cars with men with AK47s (which turns out to just be military), you remember the bus carrying Christians that was hijacked and all the men executed because they refused to deny their Saviour. But the irrational fears and panic I experienced are the daily reality for our family around the world. And despite all of this, the persecuted Church is ALIVE as they keep their eyes fixed on Jesus…
Aren’t you afraid? As one traveller replied: “No, but I am afraid I will come back and forget… come back and become complacent.” This is what we should be afraid of. That we are so caught up in our small lives and everyday struggles of loadshedding, politics, and keeping up with the Joneses that we forget about that part of the Body that is laying it all down for the Cross.
The same faith, but much different lives I am convinced that the Cross they carry is much heavier than mine. So why do I go, you ask? Yes, for the adventures, but also to meet my family and once again let the scales be removed so I may come back changed and challenged in my own walk with Jesus.
So my question is: Why don’t you go? Base trips from South Africa in 2022: • •
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International trips in 2022: • • •
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For more information on the Open Doors Presence Ministry, visit opendoors.org.za or send an email to Sam at travel@opendoors.org.za
