thriving amidst persecution

What is it like to be a student in a country where religious ‘freedom’ is strictly controlled? Here is what we learned from someone who regularly visits a country where this is the common experience for Christians.

‘The general policy is to try to intimidate students and professors by taking their names down, taking photos of them, telling their families, threatening to expel them from university and stopping their scholarships if they have one. In some cases, they encourage students to report on other students that they are involved in Christian activities.

‘But even all those threats haven’t dampened their enthusiasm. There is such a desire to gather and witness for Christ; they find another place to meet, maybe at a different time. In all my visits I have not seen any discouragements - it’s all really by the grace of God! And the thing is, it’s contagious. If the leaders are not intimidated, students will follow their model, sheep follow the shepherd. So please do pray for the leaders.

‘Two weeks ago, I travelled to a city and was told by a staff worker that six first-year students had been summoned by the local police. They gathered them, took their photos, interrogated them for two hours and, 20 or 30 minutes after being released, they received a phone call from the police. It is common practice to have your phone tapped – new students don’t know these things, so they leave the police station and call their families and friends to tell them everything.

‘But that’s not a problem, it’s “part of the game”, because officials have their job to do too. In his sovereignty, God is the one who chooses whether he sees fit to allow or stop these things from happening. What we need is to train our students to be wise and watchful.

‘We need to equip and envision local people. More and more people are volunteering to work part-time or full-time in campus ministry. There is a steady growth of people, more and more from prestigious universities, wanting to sacrifice material gains and give up a successful career.

‘But here if they choose to be in full-time student work they don’t get paid, they can’t tell anybody what they’re doing and they don’t get any benefits or pension, because who will pay for them? So against that background it is encouraging to see them dedicating their lives to the ministry. They are setting an example, and a lot of them will become church leaders.

‘There is also steady growth of young people willing to go and do mission – they are very passionate but often very unprepared. We don’t want to waste that energy and so we need to help them to be prepared cross-culturally. For example, we try to encourage them to reach out to the minority groups within their local groups, to learn their language, their history and so on. Then they can go outside the country and reach out to others of different cultures.’

Please pray for student work to continue to grow - in numbers and also in depth - and for more people who can help guide and train these young Christians, thriving in the midst of persecution.