Reverend Ben Cooper  0:01  
Hello, and welcome to our podcast at eating church here. We thank you so much for joining myself, Reverend Ben Cooper and we have sand with us today. And we are so glad that Sandra is with us. We are discussing the persecuted church as we always do on a weekly basis. We thank you for everything that you're sharing in the world of podcasting. And please share this stuff out that we do and if any questions that you have regarding the persecuted church, please come back to us. And good morning, Sondra. How you

Sandra Robson  0:28  
doing? I'm very well thank you. It's my anniversary today. anniversary. Happy

Reverend Ben Cooper  0:32  
anniversary. How long you been married now? Four years? four big years? Yeah. Excellent. My god bless your marriage today. In the name of Jesus. It's so good. Has David.

Sandra Robson  0:40  
He's very well working away. Still at home. Yes.

Reverend Ben Cooper  0:45  
We're still in COVID. We are still coming through. And you know, and we thank God for what he's doing. But Sandra is great to have you this morning. And we are getting back into North Korea. We just got a little bit of a recap of what I saw in Nigeria. We've got Nigeria this morning. We've got Nigeria a bit of a recap on that. And then we're going to go global into possibly into India. So where do we where do we finish off? Well, what we what we've got to recap on we know we've got the kidnapper girls, we got the target and apart. We got villages being overthrown. Boko Haram. Yeah, so much going on.

Sandra Robson  1:20  
Yeah, there is Yeah. So it was just recap really that is the northern central plateau state in Nigeria that's being attacked. And, you know, unfortunately, the government are not responding. And due to COVID, a lot of the responses people are scared to go in to the police and other people are not are not responding. And so the Christians are sitting targets, unfortunately. But it seems that there is now be as I was listening to CSW during the week, and there was a person who's particularly looking at into this, and they're saying yes, and that it now seems that you know that they are the government are being compliant with what's going on. So it's, you know, but again, it's a thing of prayer. And it's the thing to say, this is what the enemy is trying to do is infiltrated. And, you know, as we've seen in Sudan, these you know, things happened, and things can change. And we need to pray for those in Sudan, by the way, because some of you know, the people of the old order, are not happy that now things are going to be freer. And that, you know, the Christian minorities and other minorities are going to be able to, and be able to say what they believe. And so there's still issues there. But we thank God, that things are changing. And so we need to remember in these situations where it seems impossible, for God, it is possible, and for the people and moment to remember to help them praying for forgiveness, for those who are perpetrating it, they're praying for them to turn to Christ. And yes, there are a lot of them are mating making the ultimate sacrifice. But in that, I'm reminded that others do come to know Jesus because they see the way that Christians are, and it does something, and when they hear of how God is protected. And we do pray for that protection, as well. So that's where I'll leave Nigeria. So yes, pray for our brothers and sisters, and pray that then the message of peace and hope in Jesus will continue. And God will protect them and keep them safe. And the Holy Spirit will alert them to when there is an attacks that's happened as well, and they'll be able to find shelter. And that some of these people will start to think you know differently, the ones that are sort of on the edge that are unsure, you know, those people who are looking and thinking, I don't like this because that's what's happened in the ISIS situation in Iran in Iraq. Iran, well, I'm sorry, Syria and Iraq, and that some of those fighters suddenly thought, what are we doing? What are we doing and look at these people who are helping and caring and they've even heard from me, and they've come to Christ?

Reverend Ben Cooper  4:31  
They've had a spiritual encounter. Yes.

Sandra Robson  4:32  
Yes. So this is is happening and can happen more in Nigeria? completely right. Today, India. for India, it's the rise of ultra nationalism, nationalism.

Reverend Ben Cooper  4:49  
Yes,

Sandra Robson  4:51  
sir, and basically the party that is in control and is the B j. Party and its Prime Minister Modi, and he desires for India to go back to Hinduism and to be a Hindu only country.

Reverend Ben Cooper  5:11  
Yes. So there's a sweep there of Christianity, there's a sweep there of everything. So this is what is it? 80%? Hindu?

Sandra Robson  5:20  
Yes, 80% Hindu, percent Christian, but you've got to remember about the big population in India. So, you know, my husband's been out there, and he's, you know, done stuff with a missionary organization some years ago. And he's saying, you know, there are thousands and thousands, you know, million, they are Christians, but there are millions and millions, you know, it's a large, it's a large number of Christians and are there and but as a whole, they say there is some small, small group according to this piece of code into this, it's a lot of people in reality. And the reasoning behind this Hindu push is because they feel that's their identity, that

Reverend Ben Cooper  6:09  
back to their roots. So yes, but using the history as a form of identity. Yes.

Sandra Robson  6:16  
And it started off with the Muslims, they started to persecute the Muslims, and now they're persecuting the Christians as well. So we need to think about that. And I know that CSW look at both because they feel that anybody being persecuted, that's wrong, because it says we are to love our neighbor as ourself. So, and they're doing a lot just to put this on the agenda for the United Nations. That's the one that I got. Yes, and to say, you know, what's going on in India, and there's been others, but I was just reading recently, that they have passed something about NGOs. And so organizations that have been looking into the way that people have been treated, and that they're trying to stop their funding. So for example, and the trying to think, well, the gold one of the organizations, they've stopped their their funding. So this is a new thing they're trying to do.

Reverend Ben Cooper  7:33  
So they're trying to squeeze it out by stopping financial flow.

Sandra Robson  7:36  
Yeah, stop them different organizations. Yeah.

Reverend Ben Cooper  7:39  
So yeah,

Sandra Robson  7:40  
so and that might affect the

Reverend Ben Cooper  7:42  
Christians, I think it will do at some point, it's gonna, when when finances is being squeezed, it will, it will affect you know, and we're starting to see what's happening with the financial squeeze in a lot of nations. And you can imagine what's coming in India, Carney you can imagine that the struggle that the Christians have had and what they're going to have now. So especially as Hinduism is going to be pressed and pushed on every platform of life and every area, you know, that the Prime Minister is going to push for this. So we need to pray. As we said earlier, prayer is so powerful. So we keep prying into India, you know, all these different nations that we're reading about week in and week out. And all everyone that looks at the world of the persecuted church, is prayer. Prayer is the link to seeing change. And we've got to keep praying for our brothers and sisters. So there is a rise in India, surely, yeah. 80% Hindu at the moment. Yeah. 4% 4% are Christians.

Sandra Robson  8:42  
But I mean, they, they've really been preaching the gospel. I mean, Dave says, you know, the heart of Indians, when they come to Christ

Reverend Ben Cooper  8:49  
is very, they

Sandra Robson  8:50  
Yeah, they just want to tell their neighbors and I mean, you know, he saw, you know, it just amazing things happening when he was out there, you know, you have an outreach, and many people came, and many, many people, hundreds of people came to Jesus when he was when he was out there some years ago. And he knows that, you know, the people used to go out with, they still are going out. Yeah, okay, you know, supported things. And so we have to remember that there's pockets and there's particular places where there is now this increase in violence,

Reverend Ben Cooper  9:29  
just churches

Sandra Robson  9:30  
and villages, and pastors.

Reverend Ben Cooper  9:33  
It's the same pattern, Odin, sand or whatever, whatever nation we look at, to a certain degree, the persecution seems to follow. They go into the village, they destroy the village, they separate the families, they kill the pastors, they, they do the atrocities to the children and the women. So there's a same pattern that flows from country to country. same pattern, as if you're a Christian in that area, or in that nation, wherever you are in the world. of the nations that we're looking at, there is a set pattern that these terrorists, these terrible, brutal things that go on, there is a pattern that seems to flow. It's the same, same sort of thing that we read, whether we're in Nigeria, whether we're in India, whether we're in China, in the villages, they get burnt down, the churches get flattened. So there is a common thread. So what we need to do, I keep coming back to the same thing to pray. And even though we're just looking at the statistics, 80% Hinduism and 4% Christianity, what we've got to understand, remember is that's only church stuff, isn't it? The church, and I've realized through this COVID, The Church of Jesus Christ is small. Religion is big, but the real body of Christ is small and powerful. So just because it's a small percentage, doesn't mean to say that that's gonna get crushed, that will not get crushed. We know that through persecution, believers grow and things happen. There is a power that God moved by spirit and persecution and necessary again, I'm coming back to what we keep talking about that smile on that lady's face on these magazines. The smile. Yeah. When there's persecution. God, God, yes. hills, he guides, he strengthens the joy of the Lord. Yes, it's my strong strength. Yes. So India is a place now, that started to rise in persecution. Yes,

Sandra Robson  11:23  
yeah. So and they're saying that the, this violence towards the churches, and as she said, it's like the remote villages as well, where they believed other things, on basis on Hinduism, and other social traditions and things. And when they see that these people have come to Christ and not following that, then that is an attack to them. And that is, you know, bothers them. And they feel they're going away from their traditions, their roots, and they ostracize them, so they throw them out of their villages, yeah, they won't let them live there. And if they continue to preach the gospel, then that's when you know, they can then get a bit more violence and things. And I mean, there's this wonderful store of the you know, this is true. I was looking at this on prayer news dvd, 279, by open doors. And it's the story of a lady called Kirti. And she became a Christian in a small village, with a husband and a family and some other families then came to Christ as well. And they started to me and they weren't, you know, bothering anybody, they just were meeting together. But because they weren't following the same pattern as the rest of the village. They were asked to leave. So they did. And they made up their own little place. And for some time they met, but again, there was a violent reaction. And sadly, within that husband was killed idea, and she was badly hurt. But that didn't deter her group, another group of Christians called me I said, you know, come and live with the Sunland. And they helped her and open doors partners helped her to make her little house hut house, for her family. And, I mean, you know, when you see this on here, there was a dramatization of it on here, and just, oh, the scripture she was bringing up, you know, like the Lord gave, and law takes away, Blessed be the Lord, Oh, my goodness. And this person that, you know, the, as I said, you have these people who are supporters or that have connections, you know, that maybe about a pastor or somebody who just feels the Lord is calling them to encourage and support within their country? Yes, he managed to get to her because as say they're in very rural places. And he took her Bible, he took her Bible, and he prayed with her, and you should just see that joy, and he said, that he received more from her than he,

Reverend Ben Cooper  14:27  
he went, he reversed. Yeah.

Sandra Robson  14:30  
And, you know, and and yeah, and it's just you know, those moments when she said that, you know, things were so hard and she felt just

Reverend Ben Cooper  14:42  
so overwhelming Sandra. And so here we have a story of a lady that the her and her husband got pulled out of their village. They went and started another small little home together. They continue to follow Christ. A husband life was taken. Someone comes along Strength gives her the Bible. But she was encouraging the messenger of the Bible. This is power. This is this is the power of real movement.

Sandra Robson  15:09  
She just prayed. She said, Please pray that my children will continue in the faith. And that

Reverend Ben Cooper  15:16  
is beautiful. And that's what we're going to do. We continue. And we're just going to pause a moment, Lord, wherever this lady is, at this moment, at this particular point in time we pray for this lady, we thank you for the messenger that you send. The Lord, we thank you for her relentlessness. We pray, Lord, that You will hear a prayer. Her children will continue in the faith and will continue to follow your Lord So Father Bless the Lord, we gather this morning that there are many, many across the earth with the same story touched them we pray. Yeah, what us What, what? He had a story I'm absolutely lost this morning for words when you when you hear of the the desire for more of Jesus, even that your husband has been taken. You're you're left on your own, you're widower, you're been ostracized from your culture in your society. And you are still speaking about Jesus, yes, you are still giving out. And the person that took the Bible got a greater blessing.

Sandra Robson  16:21  
While she's reading it to her children, she was measured and know more about Jesus. And there was another lady Also, I'm in a similar situation. And she was praying that's her relative, and wouldn't wouldn't, you know, cause a problem during COVID and that she would be able to get the food that she needed, and he wouldn't sort of block things. Oh, yeah. And praise God, those prayers were answered. And so they were saying fine cue to the Lord, you know, for people praying for that. And so another issue that has come up is the anti conversion laws in India. So that means that even if past, you know, people come to Jesus, they, the Christians around can be accused, falsely accused, and more so now of converting them because of this anti conversion. So basically, they don't want Hindus to become Christians or anything else. And so that they put

Reverend Ben Cooper  17:29  
a law in place. Yes, by law, you're not allowed to become

Sandra Robson  17:35  
allowed to proselytize, you're not allowed. And you see, this is where this NGO business comes in, that they feel that there was money coming from international groups, yes. To promote this and enable this to happen, and that the money was enticing people to come out of Hindus into Christianity. Yeah. And the thing is, you see God looks on the lowly doesn't he always? Yeah, those you know, because he says about the foolish things these world, you know, those who think, yeah, and he comes to those, because how did Jesus come? He came into a stable Didn't he came into the world in that that's place. And so he very much speaks to those who are the downtrodden. And the ones that are the lower ones. And as we know, in Hinduism, there's a caste system. Yes. And so is the daylights that account more of the delights. I mean, there are others. Yeah, but massively the delights are coming to the Lord. Yeah. And obviously, again, that's upsetting the Hindu balance because they don't want to rise they want to stay where they are, stay where they are, and to be the the slaves to be the underdog to be the ones because they think well, that's where they're meant to be. Our gods have said that's where they're meant to be. Yeah. So that is what causes an issue because then when they make Christ, they realize that they are a new creation they are, God wants them to be everything. So suddenly, they can be whatever they want to be in him. It changes everything. Yes. And and that they have a hope and a future and, and so they are so you know, so changed.

Reverend Ben Cooper  19:19  
They get free. And yes, I guess they get free from where they've been oppressed. Yes, for so long and pushed down. Suddenly, they realize I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. Yeah, I can go and I can be who God has called me to Yes, rather than be a slave and be

Sandra Robson  19:36  
pressure. Oh, person. That's right. But you can see how the enemy is saying, Ah, well, you know, what you're doing is you're giving them money. And of course, if they have money, then they you know, then they will do this because their life is so bad. They will. Yeah, you see, so they have to show now that the challenge is that that money goes that's cut off that these people People still flourish. And we need to pray that that is

Reverend Ben Cooper  20:04  
the kingdom operates without the flow of money. Yeah, God, God, microwave he will provide Yes.

Sandra Robson  20:10  
And like feeding the Indian Christians what they've done, you know, during COVID. I mean, they, you know, the lockdown, there's been so much discrimination. We talked about this before open doors as particularly done a thing on India because they found out that they were just being completely ignored. The stuff was going to the Hindu center. And if they were being asked it, are you a Hindu, and if they weren't a Hindu, they weren't getting anything. So, you know, there's been a real push to, to get this food out. And then just show pastor Ben, this picture. This is one of the open door workers. And as he says, he got to pray because he was fearful of going into these villages where the wood could be COVID. And he said, I I needed to do this for my brothers and sisters. I needed to take a draw in

Reverend Ben Cooper  20:57  
nature. This is my calling.

Sandra Robson  20:58  
Yes. And he is

Reverend Ben Cooper  21:00  
such that people are so scared. Yeah. And we need to keep praying. We come back. Yeah, shine strapline. We keep praying. that's a that's a great picture that has the fruit. Yeah.

Sandra Robson  21:10  
Now. So there's, there's villages, you know, they've provided for difference, because they lost their jobs overnight, you know, as a side, you know, the things that they did were daily laboring things, and they had ceased. Yeah. So you know, and they, and they said, you know, we've been praying, and we were, we were on the edge of starvation and UK, feathers. So that's why it says about when I was hungry.

Reverend Ben Cooper  21:39  
Yeah. So as to what we're looking at here, we have three or four pictures, there are people in different villages with a small bag of food, you know, and they're just, they're just people that just have brothers and sisters that are living in little villages that have lost their jobs. Yeah. And you know, we talk about hunger in the UK, we haven't got hunger, nothing, you know, we got hunger, but we don't have starvation, we're not living on the brink, like they have and you understand what I'm saying here. But these, these brothers and sisters in this, these villages that we're looking at, in these pictures, you can see look at that they've got their huts, their living areas are completely different to what we experience here, look at the way they live, yeah, to begin with. And then to drop even lower to have a cut off of food to lose your job. This is they are on the edge. They are they're on the edge, then on the you know,

Sandra Robson  22:34  
on the pastors and the pastors are expected to give to the the rest of the congregation and they're struggling themselves. They're struggling themselves. So you know, there's a real need to uplift them and encourage them. And it says Christian brother named Shama and his family have been facing constant opposition from his village, who are abusing them and accusing them of having COVID-19. This is another thing that cues in the the people spreading it. Yeah. And this is because he and his family have refused to take homemade medicine, made by a black magician in the area. Yeah, this is a type of alternative medicine associated with Hinduism said it wouldn't take it. And monotype has taken place in a whole community of believers, some believers were forced into a village hall, and they were they were beaten. And one of the Christians managed to call the police during the attack, but they took no action, Christians in the area. And now fear, you know, that things are intensifying. That it says here.

Reverend Ben Cooper  23:50  
So with we have a spiritual battle, wherever we are in the world, there is a spiritual battle, you spoke about the occultic medicine being laid there. There was expected to take to this battle between Christ and Satan. There is a continuation wherever we are in the world. And it's very interesting that this spiritual battle that we're in, it's getting stronger and getting stronger. And we're leading up to end times. And as we look at these pictures, you know, we we have in the UK, we have food banks, we have hubs, we have community cupboards, we have places that give food out. So there is a way of getting food. We have a system but when we're looking at these nations, they don't have a system.

Unknown Speaker  24:30  
There's no

Reverend Ben Cooper  24:32  
there's no there's no sizzle back. There's nothing to fall back on. Yeah, we will always find food somewhere here in the UK, there will always be somewhere where we can get food. But when we're looking at this nation that we're looking at at this moment in India, when they say they got no food, they have got no phone, they are when they have no they have no system they have no government looking after, they don't have no social so they don't have any Universal Credit, they don't have any social housing. They don't have anything like what we have. So in these villages that are literally on the edge, they are on the edge of will we make it? Or will we die?

Sandra Robson  25:12  
Yeah. So this was this campaign and did take part in it. And you could take a picture of yourself with an empty bowl, to really bring it home powerful image. Yeah. And also tell your MP. So I sent her a message, the MP and said, You know that that's this, because we are providing like the government, our government are providing money to different countries to help

Reverend Ben Cooper  25:39  
support.

Sandra Robson  25:41  
Yes. And I said, we need to make sure that it is being thoroughly distributed and everything,

Reverend Ben Cooper  25:47  
because that's the issue. Another issue that we face, don't we even though that we may be given and the money lands, it doesn't mean to say that it gets to the point that it should get to yes, that's the issue that we've we need to pray into as well that the funds that the UK sends out, yeah, go to the point where they put the food on the table and is not got into the wrong hands. And it hasn't been misspent. And it hasn't been used for all ill gotten gains, but it actually goes. So that's the problem that we face that as we give we say that we're given. But then we need to pray that the funds that we give go directly to the source. Yes, that's very important, practical prayer.

Sandra Robson  26:27  
And we know through open doors release International, and Barnabas that it does because there are people on the ground there, ya know, the churches, the populations, and we need to pray for them. Because physically, because of the the weather conditions, the roads is is really treacherous, but they desire they see it as their ministry to go and feed these people and to give them the medicines they need. So we

Reverend Ben Cooper  26:53  
got two types of hunger going on here. We've got those that are physically hungry, and we've got those that are spiritually hungry to get the food the practical needs. Yes, they're hungry to get God's work done. Yes. And they are given and their hunger is driving them to get the food to the right places. So hunger is a very important word. Yeah, hunger, there's two sides to it. There's the side were the ones in the village that are physically needing the food and the ones that have been called to this treacherous nation, this land, which is hard to get to hard. So the only way that you can deliver that is being hungry for Jesus and you know, you're calling. Yeah, so there's a spiritual hunger and there's a natural hunger. So hunger is key on both sides of the fence here. Those that are spiritually hungry, are driving the food to get to the table. And those that need their belly filled are getting it filled purely because those that are hungry, spiritually, are given the drive by the Holy Spirit and the press, because they're spiritually hungry to get God's work done.

Sandra Robson  27:56  
Yes. And, you know, and for the Gospels to continue to go out. I mean, even teenagers, I mean, just such courage. I mean, this one where, you know, this teenager, his pastor had been continually harassed and threatened. And you know, about preaching the gospel. And often now, Hynde, Hindu extremists, will try and disrupt meetings and church services and just keep harassing people. And, and in this case, they they just ran this man out of his his village and said that he couldn't, you know, couldn't preach any more. So there was one of three families in their village who had come to faith through the gospel outreach in a local church when the pastor stopped visiting to conduct services because of repeated threats. Samburu and that he's a teenager, about 1416 years old, took it upon himself to lead the church. And then again, this anger rose up that they hadn't managed to stop things. And so they came after him. They came after him came after him and some others and sadly, he was murdered. And they have now they have now arrested for men. And we do pray for them for what they for what they did. You know that he was stoned to death by me, you know, but do you remember about Stephen? Yeah. Stephen stone and how? Yeah, glory

Reverend Ben Cooper  29:40  
of the Lord descended? Yeah, God took him. You know, that took him out. God took him out. Yeah, yeah, Sahara was this young guy.

Sandra Robson  29:49  
Um, well, this report says 16 but somewhere else they said 14 so they're not sure about but he's a teenager so he

Reverend Ben Cooper  29:58  
took the math Alanis show to take the responsibility of leading and sharing giving the gospel. Yes. And the elders and the old older guys have come along. Yeah, found him and stoned into death. Yeah, please God. Yeah, please go.

Sandra Robson  30:14  
Yeah, it was it was a very brutal. And, you know, so they said they received threat several times from the radical stop worshipping Jesus Christ but they are firm in their faith. And they've helped them relocate the the other families to relocate. Yeah. And yeah, we just pray for them. And thank God for their wisdom that for the way we thank God for their courage, we pray for wisdom for them. And we pray for justice for believers who have been attacked, and who have been martyred as well. And to comfort the families of those people. But just the power of, you know, the test dummies when you you look at these test dummies and how they, they're not going to give up the No, carry on and carry on and believe that in being faithful, it's this faithfulness to the Lord. And remembering his example.

Reverend Ben Cooper  31:13  
It makes you look at your own life, doesn't it make you have to recalibrate? and it pulls you out? When you hear a story of like that a 16 year old young man has decided to take the lead position of the pastor and the spiritual lead, and then suddenly realize that his life was taken for Jesus Christ. It makes you realize the things that we nitpick about over in the UK are nothing in the world of the church when this young man's life was taken, because he was he was driving.

Sandra Robson  31:42  
He was said I saw right pastor, don't worry if you can't come out. I'll do it.

Reverend Ben Cooper  31:47  
I'll do it. Yeah. And his life was taken, and he was stoned. And that that does that comes to the scripture of Stephen, the stoning of Stephen. And they were standing at his feet. So he became Paul.

Sandra Robson  31:59  
And so we pray for we pray,

Reverend Ben Cooper  32:01  
pray, the ones that done the stoning. We pray, as Sandra said earlier, you know, that's very powerful text when, when Stephen was stoned at the gates, outside of the city, and that young that young man saw and what they were they crushed a soul. So why do you persecute me later on? That's it. So there is there is there is an importance here to pray for the ones that bring the persecution. Yeah, we are praying for our brothers and sisters. But also, look how POWs conversion came around. He was a god hater. He was a murderer and all we understand what what Saul was. But then on that road on that great road on that that powerful road, crushed it saw, so why do you persecute me? Yes. So there's hope for that persecutors as well. Yeah, we must pray for them also.

Sandra Robson  32:56  
Yeah, so that's, so what they're asking for prayer is, as I said, for, and the Bible's continue to go out Christian literature. And for that not to be stopped for outreaches and discipleship, for the, you know, the Christian Christian Indians to be able to continue that to develop that. And that we sustain them with the food, because as it says, you know, if we do that, then they can shine the light for Christ. You know, so as you were saying about this, this hunger that they you know, they are fed, so that it can feed others spiritual light. You just gave me my daily bread and

Reverend Ben Cooper  33:36  
bread.

Sandra Robson  33:37  
Yes, practically. Daily Bread.

And so this is it. This is how we work in partnership. This is what we've been called to, yes, who are not experiencing such you know, strong

persecution,

we can pray, and we can tell, and we can share. And if we have the the means to give, then give as the Lord leads, as I was looking in, in Corinthians, two Corinthians it says, you know, be a joyful giver. Not that, you know, anybody's asking you or pushing you to, but just let the Lord because everything belongs to him. Yeah. Yeah, so we need to be very open in these times. And, you know, listening and looking and saying, why is it that you want me to do and one thing that is coming up soon is the International Day of Prayer. And next time, we'll talk more about that.

Yes. That's going

to be on the November the 15th. And one of the places they're going to look at as India. So if you're more interested in that, you can find out about that.

Reverend Ben Cooper  34:52  
That'd be great. That'd be good to hear what's going on. In that prayer that that place of prayer cuz that's really key, isn't it? We keep talking about But it is very, very important that the Christians pray that we pray that we pray that we pray, you know, we get that in our spirit. So that'd be great songwriter to discuss them to look at that.

Sandra Robson  35:11  
So we thank the father, Heavenly Father for the fruits of their labor, that is increasing his kingdom, the this costly fruit, the you know, cost the fruit that they are producing and that they are willing to give everything to the to the Lord. Yeah, for the sake of the gospel. And we thank you for their fervency, and we pray that they will be fed. And so they can continue their ministry and in that feed others with your bread with the bread of life, and your water, the water of life, and things will turn around for many, many, and they will not see Christianity as a threat. And we pray as, as the Hindus, the people who believe in Hinduism, know because they're all your people, and very easy start thinking by religions, and these are people you love people. And as they reach out to Muslims, as well farther as Christians reach out to the Muslims who are also being persecuted, that it will make people think about what they're doing. And why do these people so love, even though they are treated so harshly? What is it and we thank You, Lord, that You are in control in this situation, and you can change things. And we just praise you for what you're doing in India, even when it seems so hard and so dark. Lord, we know the light is shining brighter. And we thank you for our brothers and sisters who are going out there to help and support. raise them up, encourage them, strengthen them, Lord, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Reverend Ben Cooper  36:58  
Amen. Amen. Sandra, we are so blessed. And we in the UK, really, we are so blessed. We've got the health care service, we've got a roof over our head, you know, there's vehicles, there's cars, we got jobs, you know, when you look at our nation, and then you look at these pictures that we're looking at, we are really blessed. And that really strikes me every time I look at a family that are in a village and you look at their hearts, no lettering, no wallpaper, no carpets, you know, look at the roof flipper, look at what they live in the x. And here we have, we have such materialism, we are driven in materialism. So look, I can look at you look at these villages, and they streets and these towns. It's It's amazing. Look at this. We're just looking here, of this roof, we've got the shift and Mike shaped kind of a loose

Sandra Robson  37:50  
village. So

they've made a makeshift hub.

Reverend Ben Cooper  37:54  
So they got a make shift. And they're just they're just smiling. And this one here is fascinates me this one that we looked at the unity that earlier, persecuted Christians in India receiving vital aid from open doors, partners. And we have like a square small brick building, with a few windows and with no door with no door on there whatsoever, just completely open. The walls are just completely bare. They're just like the masonry. The staircase on this one going up to the next level is just concrete. There is no luxury world. When we talk about the word luxury, I think it's a trap, isn't it. But then when you look at what we're looking at this roof on this hot here, this you've got like, sticks and the strong and just everything. Gosh, Lord, we are blessed here in the UK. And Lord, we do pray Father, this mission that's going on here in Sri Lanka, I'm just skipping here. But I'm just drawn to the fact that where we sit in the UK that we are, when we say materially Blessed are not I'm not referring to money of I'm referring to the comfort that we have. And it's really important that we hold on to that, that we say thank you, God, you know, and then you're looking at these sacks of rice, look at this, look at the sacks of food. And just turn over that these people just all these families together. What they got going on is they got smiles. They they're smiling, they're smiling. So Sandra, it warms the heart doesn't have to see everything that's going on. And we thank God for open doors Barnabas release international for the great things that are happening, the missionaries that are going out the prayers that are coming out of the UK. It's support. It's really, really important. And sundry thank you for what you've been bringing today. And we've got anything else that we can share before we before we call this a day on this podcast. But it really interest in the stuff that we've had on India today. And God is opening our eyes and certainly with myself. I'm learning a lot more about my brothers and sisters on the other side of the world in nations I'll probably never ever get to all that a powerful picture. Just on this podcast in depth. We've got an open doors magazine. It's the small magazine in July and August 2020. And disease. Follow people. A tiny little child. Possibly a brother. They could be related. Look at these that. Look at that picture. Look at that image, Sandra. Yeah, they know, they know, older and 11 or they may drop down from probably the age of 11 down to a little child free four years old. No. Socks, no shoes, nothing on their feet. Their clothes are just you know, it goes with the territory that they're in. That little that little chaps got a bag tied around his neck. Yeah, he's obviously got supplies in that bag. They could be completely homeless. They could have lost their parents. They could be for it looks like two brothers and possibly two sisters. We don't know if they're related. But when you look at this picture, this is a very powerful image. It says below that on the right hand side when I was hungry. Please God we pray for these little children. No shoes and no socks. Can you imagine walking down the town with no shoes or socks? We can't we can't we even get frustrated indoors. Maybe we have no shoes and socks and we tread on something and we get a bit grisly let alone walking living your life with no shoes and socks and Faraj Jane and on on on tips and away cycles just trying to get through you can imagine the life that these these four little people live. Very powerful image that is Sandra, you've got the same image on the CD case. Oh, yeah, on the DVD and the D on the DVD. Yeah, it's a very powerful image. I mean, if

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