Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us across the world today. Wherever you are, whatever your timezone is whatever your life stretch is this morning. May God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. You're joining myself, Reverend Ben Cooper, and we have Sandra Robson. As we are recording this podcast I should say, regarding the persecuted church as we just have a recap with a continuation of last week, the top 10 persecuted countries around the world. We were looking at Afghanistan and some others. And Sandra took us to a couple of places last week, but we ran out of time, time is our biggest enemy. We're going to be looking at Somalia and just the trends and some other bits and pieces as we just see what God is doing through the power of His church. May God bless you and strengthen you. This is the day that the Lord has made we shall rejoice and be glad, Sondra Good morning. How are you? Alright, thank you all it's good.
Sandra Robson:Yes. Just looking forward to going on holiday now getting up tomorrow. Five o'clock to go to down to Cornwall. Excellent.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So a bit of traveling a bit of
Sandra Robson:Yeah, a bit of a you know, just a break and relax, you know, relaxation for a week. And yeah, so we've got the opportunity to go down to Cornwall stay in a little cottage. So yes, you're off. But I wanted to do this before.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Before we before you pop off. Yeah, he's disappearing. Smoke. Right. What have you got for us?
Sandra Robson:Well, we were looking at the world watch lists, little booklets, the top 10 countries. And we looked a little bit at Afghanistan, we've been looking at Afghanistan, because obviously it has been in the news. And it is number one on the World Watch list. So we were looking at that again. And we briefly touched on North Korea, and Somalia, Libya, Yemen, and we finished with a trailer and we particularly looked at a trailer. But afterwards, I've just I just thought, you know, didn't really say very much about Somalia. And I hadn't really done much on an update of Somalia. And so I thought I would have a little look on the Open Doors website and see what they were saying what's the what's the latest there. And they had this particular story about a lady who came to Christ. And I just saw, you know, against the background and knowing that Somalia is at number three, and to see you know how people are coming to know Jesus and the effect of that. So it says narla heard about Jesus online from smiley converts living abroad. She was initially shocked, I started to look for more videos and found others who shared the Word of God. She said, I connected with them through Facebook and ask them to tell me about Christ. One girl shared with me some things from God's Word. After a while, she chose to follow Jesus. And she met with other secret believers and was eventually baptized. That's what I was amazed about, that she managed in this country where you know, you can be killed for your faith and the everybody has to be so secret. She managed to get baptized. It's just amazing. That Lord gave me that opportunity. And she kept her face secret from her Muslim family for some time, got blind. But unfortunately, one day the family became increasingly suspicious and trips narla into coming home, telling her her mother was dying. When I got home, the men in my family were waiting for me. They beat me and took my mobile phone and locked me in my room. They tried different rituals to fix what was wrong with me. Sometimes they put light bulbs against my head and repeated words from the Koran over and over. These were hot, obviously hot light bulbs. They were they were trying different concoctions on me as well. So but she survived. And then her family pledged her certain marry a sheikh, who had two wives. But a few days before the wedding, she managed to run away and hid with friends. And they helped her to escape out of the country. Her life has changed completely, and she lives in danger, but does not regret choosing to follow Jesus. Jesus has told me to change me, I realized that I didn't choose him, but he chose me. I didn't go out looking for him. But he found me. Previously, I didn't have happiness. But now I have joy. I know that until I came to know Jesus, I knew nothing saw. Wow. So I just want this
Reverend Ben Cooper:story. And what is very powerful about that, to me that this is her own family. That they tricked her they gave her a terrible story that our mom was dying. So she's running home in fear what's going on what's going on? And then they turned on her, they beat her and they do whatever, they do different concoctions trying to talk to her out of her. And then they set her up to be married with a man that's married twice. Yeah, what is all this about? And then how can that be religion? How can that be of God? And then she escapes and she is free. And I love that. I love that last part of that. But Jesus changed me. I didn't realize that I didn't choose him. But he chose me. Yeah, he came looking for me. And how lovely is that? Because that's so scripture, isn't it about salvation that Jesus chose me, that God gave us to Christ, and Christ died on the cross for us. When you look at John John chapter six, very beautiful scripture around about verse 44, I believe somewhere around about there. And it talks about where we're God, God gave us chose us and gave us to Jesus. What a beautiful story that is.
Sandra Robson:Yeah, so I thought that was really good. I really hope and dark situation again, gave a bit of you know, yes, hope going on what God's doing. And again, through the good side of, you know, most what we call it media and social media. That's what I was looking for. Social media, so and then I had a little bit on Yemen. And just backing up what I said, because sometimes I say things that I've heard in the news, or I've been reading, but I haven't read them recently. So then I think, Oh, have I got Have I got that quite right. So I thought, right, I need to just read this bit. So it says life is dangerous for all Christians in Yemen, common converts from Islam to Christianity, have also indicated that there is more pressure in Shiite Muslim controlled areas in the west than under the control of the Sunni government. And the Shiite controlled areas are heavily policed, and it's about 1/3 of Yemen's territory, and it's rigorously oppressed, and you're likely to get imprisonment, torture, or possibly worse if you don't follow Islam.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Okay, this is sitting at number five, isn't it? Number five, I'm just checking. Number five. Yeah, I've got five yet. So there's a population of 30 point 9 million.
Sandra Robson:Yeah, they've written two places. And watch this.
Reverend Ben Cooper:I've written up Tony, because of violence, a few 1000 Christians out of 30 million load. This is heavy, isn't it?
Sandra Robson:And the reasons are Islamic extremism, destabilizing of the pandemic and civil war. So I did mention about Civil War, and that was going on. And that's a daily struggle for everybody, but particularly for Christians, and it
Reverend Ben Cooper:talks about, it's very tribal. It's a very tribal place, and there's a lot of violence, and it's getting worse, it's getting higher. And if you are a Christian, you simply face death or complete, banishment, isolated, and you're pushed away.
Sandra Robson:But again, the battle here says courageous believers still carry God's hope. And this is from a believer, we the believers carry Hope that helps us with the certainty that tomorrow will be better and that by the will of our Lord we will pass through this and all the anxieties and fears surrounding us.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Goodness, wow. Tomorrow will be better. What a beautiful way to think about life What a beautiful way to to focus on God and to say tomorrow will be better.
Sandra Robson:And they know they held the hope they know they carried that hope and isn't it to share that hope with other people it might be through giving some bread because of, you know, the situation, if they have something to give you, we, you know, we just pray Lord for those opportunities for our brothers and sisters to share you and you know, by their practical actions, Lord, you know, and you will keep them safe and you will look, you will guard them look after them and, you know, enable them to to have the bread that they need and clothing and, and support and for the helpers to be able to get to them. We just pray that in Jesus name. So, Nigeria, we've talked a lot about Nigeria, but it is rising. And we've seen
Reverend Ben Cooper:that most of them are rising in a roundabout way.
Sandra Robson:I'm not all of them, actually. And there's been a bit of movement. But unfortunately, as they've said, it's not because it's getting any better. In some cases, it's because things are getting worse. Sure, in like other places, so that's very sad, isn't it?
Reverend Ben Cooper:So yeah, so there's just what's it say on the statistics? 98 million Christians in Nigeria? That's almost half of the countries are okay. Two point 11. Wow, million people, us enormous population?
Sandra Robson:And how many they say, are Christians, you think? Well, that's an awful lot of Christians, and they want to wipe them out? And say, you know, because it's so
Reverend Ben Cooper:yeah, that's just just around about half let just less than half. That's what they're saying here. God, wow. So I never thought that they wanted to wipe them out completely. But they don't know they just want to completely have in the north in the north in the north area, when you dive into it, but around and, and the Islamic State on the west side and the province. When you read it, this is really easy information. You know, it's so simple as we always say, go on to open doors, open doors, uk.org. And you just flick into there and you come straight up to the main list of the watch list. And you've got all of them are on the front page. It's so easy to find easy to navigate. And it maybe you could just prayerfully pick a pick a nation, and just go to it, have a read about it. Pray over it. Fantastic. website. So easy. Okay, so I wonder what else we got there we
Sandra Robson:go with Nigeria. And as we did talk about this a little while ago that readers in the North were concerned and we're warning the South, that the violence if they didn't help, and the you know, the government didn't get it under control, and that the you know, the military, that it was going to spread south and it is spreading south. Now this is you know, we're just see what happens because of you know, the South has been very, not touched really, or, and it's like that we've said they're like two countries. Yeah. Nigeria and northern, but now, it's, it's on the border. And so we, you know, just see how that affects things. Because people who have been relatively safe, you know, are now facing an attack, and they are the majority Christian in the south. So, what they're saying is that it's all it's been affecting the North and the middle belt, but it's spreading to the south. And although all civilians are subjected to threats and violence, Christians are often specifically targeted because of their faith. And it's Booker around an Islamic state, West Africa province, who wants to eliminate the presence of Christianity in Nigeria. So they target men and boys aiming to destroy livelihoods and stifle Christian population growth. And they also target women and girls in northern Nigeria. And increasingly, it's going further south. And they kidnap them as we know, and you know, have, yeah, camps and yeah, so they're vulnerable to persecution for their faith and their gender. And there's not another thing and that's come up which I hadn't reported before. For and they may have found out now is discrimination against Christian men is being reported in the government armed forces, really. And this is a bit like she's David and Uriah. The Christian soldiers are being sent to the most dangerous areas where they're actually at risk of being killed by Boko Haram and other extreme groups.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So they're using them. Yeah, putting them right in the front on the front line right on the front line. Yeah.
Sandra Robson:So pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are in the armed forces in Nigeria. Because some of them have been, yeah.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So they've been persecuted Yeah, for their faith or their gender. And it's going on, but again
Sandra Robson:in the midst of all this. So and they're just commenting that in the northern states, if there is Sharia law, then Christians are, are treated as second class citizens. And this is, as two stories now, giving you one from a lady who's a widow now, and the other one is a pastor and how he rebuilt his church. So book around storms amoenus, home, and they said if they denied if they would deny Jesus, then they would not be harmed, but they refused. Her husband was killed, but her two sons miraculously survived. Then five later, years later, she was going to a funeral with some other five men and 10 women. And again, they were stopped by Boko Haram militants, they killed the men and they abducted the women and held them deep in the Sambisa forest. Thankfully, after eight months in captivity, they were freed. And under great pressure, they had stood firm and not denied their faith. And Amina broke out in song and said, by His grace, I am alive. That is why I am singing Jehovah saved my life.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Wow, what a powerful story. Yeah, Jehovah saved my life.
Sandra Robson:Yeah. And then pastor Andrews church was attacked by Boko Haram and it was burned to the ground. And he says, he vividly remembers the attack on guy a coup village. He said about 7pm, the Treasurer of my church runs my house to tell me to run. Fire was consuming the entire village. That was how they entered our community, killing one of my church members, who was there listening to the news on the radio bucur ama trying by all means to wipe us out. From my hiding place, I could see militants banging on the doors of the church. And he said he hates when members of his church until the fate of not knowing the fate of his loved ones. And he said they particularly prayed. It wasn't for safety. It was for faith. During the time of the attack. My prayer for my church members was that God would strengthen their faith. And even if they are addicted, they would not doubt not deny Christ, but hold firm to their faith. And in the morning, they went to look for missing friends and family but it couldn't find every day. And they found out that several have been killed. And all but six of the houses were burned down, and they stole all the possessions. And he says that because persecution was so much that I never imagined we could come again, to worship in the church, we lost everything. But despite what he'd seen, his faith remained strong. And many, although many Christians left the nearby town, some did stay to reestablish the church and the community. And he says I take seriously rejoice always pray continually give thanks in all circumstances, amen. When we came back, we had to think of where we would be worshiping. I called the attention of some of the church members and we brought all our burnt zinc together, and some sticks to make a worship place. So they used all the what was left at the charred remains to create a new church. What a beautiful metaphor for turning destruction into worship. And the person who's interviewing so it was said, you know, his resilience is astonishing, and his faith is inspiring. And they and they were thanking the people from open doors for helping them for giving them food and for giving them trauma counseling, and, and saying they would support them long term so that they Next Generation can survive. And he says, Thank you for that. Thank you for your prayers. Your thanks God for God's mercy and grace. And he says, After the attack, you were the first to come and help each family with food support, we receive both spiritual and physical support, you have strengthened our church and the members who lost hope completely. God thoughts you, God brought you just at the right time. That's what God does turn despair into hope, a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Wow. And they say now that the church is rebuilt, and that you can hear the singing and the clapping, and Bucherer and thought that they'd wiped out Christianity there. But God had bigger plans, the church is now growing. And they built a bigger worship place, and those who fled have come back, and more have returned. And more people have joined as well. And he said, honestly, to me, these attacks brought a lot of positive change. And he's now gone on to help other people in other places and training them. And he says, they asked him, How did you know we can turn what happened? And he said, Come what may I won't turn back because I know there is a reward that awaits me. Jesus promised me, He will not leave me or forsake me that I can test a lovely
Reverend Ben Cooper:scripture, that is He will never leave me nor forsake me. And that's the story of a pastor. That's rebuilding, the stories that are coming out of the persecuted church are absolutely amazing. Only humanity, Christianity can only be strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit, when you hear these stories, and you see what's going on. But there's so much good stuff in this open door site, there's so much you can get from this. And Assange has been reading that been flicking through it and, and just so much information. And obviously, on your prayer list as well. I think it's really, really vital that we pray for these ministries, the ministers as well, you know, as well as the persecuted Christians that they're bringing this information to us for, but also the ministries themselves that God will provide the technology, God will provide the safety, God will provide the finances, God will provide everything that's required to keep these ministries alive and moving forward. Because they are so much. They are so needed, they are so needed for for me, as a westernized Christian to open my heart to see what's going on around the persecuted church. So we thank God for these ministries. Okay, so under what
Sandra Robson:what we, how are we going? Well, I will. You asked how far they've risen to places they've risen. Nigeria is two places on the World Watch List. Yeah. So we'll go to Pakistan next. We know.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So again, back to my list, just so easy to navigate. So there we go. And I go back to them back to the next one. So number eight, number
Sandra Robson:eight. Yeah, that's right. Pakistan. So we have talked about Pakistan in the past. But just to recap, and Christian women and girls are particularly vulnerable in Pakistan. And there's a there's a silent they've done a report, and it says there's an epidemic of kidnappings, forced marriages, forced conversions of Christian girls and women in Pakistan, which is silent. People don't realize that it's going on but it is going on. And these marriages mean that the girl's parents don't have legal recourse to rescue their daughter. And it's widely used as a tactic to persecute minority faith communities such as Christians, and Christians, particularly men are often compelled to take low state jobs referred to as church Chera. Geography term meaning filthy. We know that there's been deaths, because they make a lot of them ended up as sewage workers, and there are two poisonous gases crossing out
Reverend Ben Cooper:Yeah.
Sandra Robson:And then, you know, they die of the fumes or they don't get the medical attention they need and they die afterwards. And we've had some stories about that. And of course, we have the blasphemy laws. There are many Christians who are in prison because of that. And some of them on death row. You And there's one going through at the moment, I might bring you an update on that another time. And, you know, there's it's all to do with them saying that they've defined the Prophet, Prophet Muhammad, insulting him in some way, or the Koran. And it's not. It's false accusations, often to settle disputes and other other things, you know, wanting land and different things. And they can say that, that you've had something on your mobile phone, that's one that's going through at the moment that there was a text message, an inflammatory text message on the phone, but the person didn't have the phone, or they were given the phone or something like that, you know, shut up in the setup. Yeah. And there's pastors in prison, and it's a terrible situation. And the problem is, even if it goes to trial, the judges are intimidated, as we know, a C or BB. I've got her book. Now, by the way, I'm going to read read her there's a market. Yes, I'm going to read about the story. But as we know, it went to the highest court in the land, to sort out her case, and she ended up fleeing she had to flee. And a lot of them, if they are acquitted are then in danger from mobs and still saying just because of the thought that they insulted Muhammad, it isn't that you have, it's the thought that you were accused of it, you're still
Reverend Ben Cooper:the world is crazy. And this is just
Sandra Robson:so there was that girl we spoke about some months ago TOF Arzoo. And she was one who was married off, she was 13. But there was a great outcry about that outside Pakistan, and that judge's ordered our zoos release. But she still needs healing from a terrible trauma. And it's not certain that the legal process is over. And of course, there are many other Christian girls who still need justice and protection from future attack. So that was a prayer point, wasn't it some time ago that we prayed and said, you know, pray for this family and pray that, you know, they they get justice in the the guy that abducted her. He's, you know, he says he married her and had, you know, the legal paperwork. But he was arrested in the end. And you know, it was looked into. But that doesn't usually happen, as we say,
Reverend Ben Cooper:their stories. And what it says there that she still needs healing, from his terrible trauma. So we need to lift her up. And thank God that she got released after the outcry with inside Pakistan. And what a terrible story.
Sandra Robson:And we know that there's been bomb attacks as well. And Christians have been caught up in that terrible bomb attacks. That was one of Easter that really maimed in believers. But again, I've read, you know, amazing stories of how people are alive that shouldn't be alive. I mean, this one guy, he's he's recovered. He who's got memory loss, but he's alive. And they said he was, you know, he was dead, you know, that he was about to die. And the hospital and people prayed. And he's, he's, he's living today as a testimony. And so that's that bit. And so they've gone down three places. But as I say, that isn't because the persecution is particularly fall, and it's because the persecution in other places was written.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Yeah, sadly.
Sandra Robson:And then we've got Iran. And we've talked about Iran and haven't heard any more about the Abraham. So I don't know what's going on with him particularly. But we know there was a whole issue about house churches. And then there was a ruling recently that being a member of a house church wasn't an offense, and we thought that might help you know, things, but there have been some recent arrests for people who are involved in Christian activities. And so,
Reverend Ben Cooper:so there we have in in India, we have what just under 69 million Christians in India. Yeah. But they just make up 5% of the whole
Sandra Robson:Yeah, I was gonna say that massive population in India.
Reverend Ben Cooper:We were over the one wolves were about 14 billion people. Now sorry. 1.1 point 4,000,000,001 point 4 billion people living within India, and then we only have 69 million. So the the percentage is so low, isn't it?
Sandra Robson:But again, the they want them out. Everywhere. Country, you'd have to have another country you put them.
Reverend Ben Cooper:So when you take, yeah, when you take 70 million from one you take 2 million from another, you have an enormous, enormous amount of people within these top 10 persecuted countries. And what you find it's the same trend, isn't it? Governments want them out systems want them out? The enemy wants them out. And they're doing it in such a very barbaric way that this inhumane things that go on just just with a couple of nations that we looked at Nigeria to stand in the armed forces, if you're a believer to the frontline, the most darkest and the hardest fighting area, you know, just just unbelievable. Within the UK, we are just over load. I won't even go there. I won't even go there today. Right, Sandra? Where are we going? We're pushing in a bit further. Well,
Sandra Robson:you know, yeah, we're India, you know, what you're just saying? So yeah, it's just, there's systematic violence and carefully orchestrated, targeted, targeted attacks on Christians are caring. And as we said, they're using social media to spread disinformation and stir up hatred. And remember a little while ago that opened doors sort of tried to try did turn it on its head, they got a hold of some footage of some Hindu extremists beating some Christians, and they put it on social media, for then it to be sent to MPs and different people across the world. And that did have some effects. But there's still a need for more. Because it's a very, again, a complex situation. I mean, you know, they are a democracy. But there's these anti conversion laws in some of the areas and this is causing the problems more. So now for the Christians. And they're worried that these laws could spread. And so the issues are that, you know, obviously, different countries, including our own, wants to have trade agreements. And as you simply saw, there was a visit by our prime minister over to India, and people have been calling for him also, or people within the trade talks, to be highlighting the fact that, you know, different minorities are being mistreated, which includes Christians. And so that's been the thing. And as I said, there's a thing for MPs coming up a meeting for MPs coming up in July, which is a freedom of religion and belief. Okay. And so, again, you know, if you can contact your MP, I, as I say, I had the postcard here.
Reverend Ben Cooper:It's the same process, isn't it? Yeah. It's just contact your MP, fill the card out.
Sandra Robson:So this is, did you get that little pack? Did that come from? It came through? Because I asked for the magazine. And I have the magazine and given sent to me every every month or? I think it's bi monthly. So I think I said two months. And then they sent me this through as well. Sometimes they send me things through on their own, you know, if they've got a particular campaign, so this is 2022 forum for freedom of religion and belief ministerial. And, yeah, so they want as many MPs get involved with this. They're hoping now there's a window because, you know, obviously, we've had the pandemic and that affected the MPs vision. Of course, we've got war situation going on here as well. But this is important and these issues, you know, need to be addressed, addressed, and on the agenda. Good. So,
Reverend Ben Cooper:come on, let's throw the cards in let's get this moving. Let's see some change in the world of the persecuted church, you know, prayer changes everything, but also strategic planning with the power of prayer, you know, we have the capabilities, we have the technology, and we have ways, there are ways you know, and God expects us to use these ways because he puts these ways in front of us. So there is an action that is required from from the believer that we can Act of, you know, faith and actions, faith and movement, faith and decisions and trusting that God is using the vehicle that we're talking about. So faith and actions is really, really important.
Sandra Robson:Yeah. And I just want to say like, we talked about release International, and we did a recap. And I mentioned the founder of that, and I missed that his name, I thought was William, it isn't it's Richard WUWM brand, and it's w u, r, b, r a, n d. So I, you know, if I think I've got something wrong, go and check it out. And yeah, it's Richard Wurmbrand. Thank you, because you wouldn't be able to find the information if you look to William. Okay. So Richard is the guy. And this was the psalm that was, was to do with. Either it was released, or it was to do with them, open doors. But anyway, Psalm 125. And it's verse two, and it says, as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the laws surrounds his people, for this time, fourth, and forever. So although all these things are going on, this is the truth that surrounds his people. And as we keep saying, He is building his church against the darkness, the stars shine brighter,
Reverend Ben Cooper:price guide, God is moving powerfully and very clearly. You know, prayers are needed as always in the world of the persecuted church, Sondra, have you got anything else this morning?
Sandra Robson:No, I think I think that said is, I mean, there's a new letter writing scheme come out by open doors, you might like to have a look at that they haven't been doing it for a while. But now there is a little booklet and encouraging people to write letters, and we know that it's really important. I know that stamps have gone up. But honestly, people really appreciate these letters and cards that get sent and pictures by children. It just really, you know, particularly for those people if I hadn't looked at it, particularly but I know when there was the thing for Nigeria in places you know, when people have suffered terrible trauma it really just courage encourages and and that somebody somewhere else, they often say that I thought I was completely forgotten. But then through your card through your letter through your picture, I realized that people somewhere else were thinking of me. And yeah, and we just the you know, we are one big family. And we all need to support one another. And we just do that in the way that we can through prayer. If we can give we give and if we can write and have the time do that. You know, whatever you you know, you see your pray and ask the Lord and whatever you put your hand to, you know, give it to him, and it will be a great blessing in the kingdom of God.
Reverend Ben Cooper:Amen. There you go. How beautiful was that? Thank you Sandra. We have done 40 minutes. Whoever you are, wherever you are across the world wherever your timezone is this morning, we thank you so much for joining Sondra, and myself for the persecuted churches. We've just caught up with the top 10 list. And Sandra has brought some beautiful stories through the great ministry of open doors and we just pray that you will just focus on The King of kings and the Lord of lords and Hebrews chapter 12 verse to keep your eyes on Jesus. That's all we can do. keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. We'll catch you soon take care. God bless