Persecution Magazine, June 2013 3/4

PERSECU ION International Christian Concern | June 2013

ISSUE 3/4

From the Ashes FA I T H W I L L R I S E The unshakeable faith of pastors called to lead the persecuted in Indonesia

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SOUTHEAST ASIA

It’s hot, and it’s hard to distinguish the sweat from the tears on the faces of the Christians in the crowd. Suddenly a woman screams as the metallic arm of a backhoe tears through the brick wall of her church. The air is filled with cries of despair mixed with the strange staccato rhythm of applause as dozens of local radical Muslims pump their fists in the air while chanting “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Great!) The Christian woman slumps, fainting as a large section of the church wall collapses to the ground. Just a few weeks ago she and her fellow church members worshiped there peacefully, never suspecting the church was about to be targeted for demolition.

Pastor John (name changed for security) watched in dismay, helpless to stop the demolition of this beloved place of worship. Heavy-hearted, he observed the crowd and saw the delighted faces of Muslim men, women and children who were yelling and clapping as the church walls were smashed to rubble. “I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. There were teenagers and even small children cheering with joy,” he said in an interview with ICC. Sadly, Pastor John, who was visiting from another part of the city, says this church demolition in Jakarta on March 21 was just one event in the now all-too-common saga of churches being forcibly shut down across Indonesia. In 2012, ICC estimates that at least 50 churches were forcibly closed by local governments around the country eager to comply with the demands of radicalized Islamic groups. Unfortunately, 2013 is proving to be just as bad, if not worse.

The remains of a demolished church near Jakarta, Indonesia.

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Congregants cry out in despair as they watch their church (left) being demolished.

PASTOR JOHN’S STORY If not for the saving grace of Jesus, there was a day when Pastor John might have been one of the cheering Muslims in the crowd. Born a Muslim and the son of poor tenant farmers, Pastor John spent his early years helping his family stave off hunger. As a teenager, a family member came home with a Bible and started talking to him about their new faith. At first he didn’t pay much attention, “I told them I had my religion and that they could have theirs, but I was getting tired of hearing about it so I told them to keep silent.”

It wasn’t until this family member asked him point blank, “Do you think you’ll enter heaven if you were to die today?” that Pastor John began to consider Christianity. He recalled that, at the mosque, they often prayed for Muhammad to enter into heaven, and it occurred to him that if even Muhammad needed prayer to get into heaven, what chance did he have?

After that, he started sneaking away to read bits and pieces of the Bible without his parents finding out. Soon enough he found himself sitting in the back pew of church, his heart pounding with a feeling he couldn’t understand, and his eyes filling with tears as the pastor read John 14:6 (NIV) “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

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SOUTHEAST ASIA

Congregants had no idea their church was targeted for distruction.

LISTEN, YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS INTERRUPTING MY SERVICE. LEAVE NOW, AND I WILL COME SPEAK TO YOU WHEN I AM FINISHED IN A FEW MINUTES. -PASTOR JOHN, TO A MUSLIM MOB BOMBARDING A CHURCH SERVICE CALLED TO LEAD THE PERSECUTED Pastor John gave his life to Jesus that day. Little did he know that he would not only become a pastor, but that God would lead him to plant a church in one of the most radical Islamic areas of Indonesia.

After graduating Bible school, with little more to go on than faith and a gritty determination that he would follow after God no matter what, Pastor John began to minister to the people of Bekasi, Indonesia.

A few months later, that determination was dramatically tested. As Pastor John was delivering his Sunday morning message, 15 men clothed in traditional Islamic garb stormed up the steps of his church, shouting and yelling at the church members. They demanded Pastor John halt services immediately and vacate the premises. A small man, John strode forward to meet the raging group. Speaking with a courage he says could have only come from the Lord, John forcefully told them, “Listen, you have no business interrupting my service. Leave now, and I will come speak to you outside when I am finished in a few minutes.”

Amazingly, the men quieted, turned around, and walked back out the door.

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Pastor of the demolished church on March 21, being held back by members of his congregation.

This was not the end of their attacks. The church now meets in different locations almost every Sunday, trying to avoid detection and the harassment that comes along with it. Other churches in recent years have not been so fortunate, sometimes facing angry mobs of hundreds or even thousands as they try to gather for services. Yet John still reflects on that first encounter, and how God was with him when he quieted the mob.

FROM THIS RUBBLE As Pastor John watched the destruction of a Christian church on March 21, he resisted the temptation to lose faith. He grabbed the hand of the church’s pastor, climbed on top of the rubble and led the congregants in a prophetic prayer: “Lord, we believe that even from this rubble you will raise up a new church, stronger than ever before.”

For Pastor John, a man who overcame one obstacle after another to serve the Lord, it is and always will be faith, not persecution, that wins in the end.

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A PERSECUTED PASTOR IN A CLOSED MUSLIM COUNTRY APPEALS TO ICC FOR AN UNDERGROUND PRINTING PRESS

“Dear Brother Jeff, The number of Christians [in our country] is growing every day, thousands are coming to Christ… To meet the needs, Bibles and teaching materials are greatly needed... Christians have been arrested for trying to bring Bibles into the country. We need to be able to print inside the country, this is the safest way.”

Help us Bring Life into the Darkness Right now, we have an incredible opportunity: to build an underground printing press in a closed Muslim country that will open the Word of God to a million or more people, and reduce the cost and risk of smuggling Bibles inside. Each Bible is a seed of life!

AN UNDERGROUND PRINTING PRESS WILL: •

Provide 1,000,000 or more Bible portions

•

Lower the cost per Bible significantly

•

Safeguard those smuggling Bibles from being arrested

•

Bring life to millions!

H O W YO U C A N H E L P Will you join me in this amazing opportunity to bring life to the desert?

Anytime ICC has the opportunity to put an underground printing press into a closed Muslim country, I get excited.... really excited. The reason?

Because Satan imprisons Muslims and does everything he can to keep his prisoners in the dark.

I know that once they meet Jesus, they will fall in love and find the Author of life. Will you help me open the prison doors and release the prisoners?

Know that your gifts will be used prayerfully, efficiently, and effectively.

I promise!

JEFF KING, President

W E A R E PA R T N E R I N G W I T H O T H E R M I N I S T R I E S A N D F O U N D AT I O N S T O P U T T H I S P R O J E C T T O G E T H E R , B U T W E N E E D T O Q U I C K LY R A I S E $ 5 0 , 0 0 0

D O N AT E T O D AY !

B Y M A I L complete the enclosed card B Y P H O N E call 800-422-5441 8:30-5:00 p.m. EST O N L I N E visit www.persecution.org and designate your gift to “Bibles to the Persecuted.�

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