I have always had a heart for the persecuted church, but one day in Malaysia it all changed for me.
I would like to give a little bit of a back story. In 2014, the year I graduated from High School, my friend invited me to an event run by Voice of the Martyrs, or VOM. I didn’t know what to expect. My younger and less exposed eyes were opened. It took me to a whole new level of understanding what the Body of Christ is and what the persecuted church really looks like. I heard testimonies of people who have, first handedly, been persecuted. One of the ladies talked about being tortured for 7 years of her life for doing work for God in China. Another man lived in Palestine and was a Christian and had a church in a rough area. People would throw stones at the people on Sundays or even throw a Molotov Cocktail inside the church building. For that reason they would always have buckets of water at ready during the service. It was insane to me that so much was happening to my brothers and sisters all over the world. God had done something in my heart that day, something radical. He put on my heart His Church, His children that were facing persecution and long term mission work. Because of this event and God putting certain passions in my heart is why I want to eventually do long term mission work. I’ve always, since then, had a passion for the persecuted church as well as unreached people groups. So, I decided to start by going on the World Race.
So badly, I wanted to encounter the secret/underground/persecuted church. I knew there were going to be ample opportunities in China, but we had a route change. I thought that this meant I would not have the kind of encounter I had hoped for. I was a little upset. To be quite frank, it was one of the main things I wanted to have the opportunity to see on the race. It was taken from me… or so I thought.
That very route change took us to Malaysia. Malaysia is a country that is run by Islam. This means that I am not allowed to evangelize to the Malay people. This meant that the Malay cannot convert from Islam to any other religion. It could mean death, or worse, torture/brainwashing until you confess Allah again. I didn’t know this until a week into arriving in Malaysia.
For this month our squad + Fusion squad did MANistry together, which means the men from both squads came together for ministry. (To protect the people in which this story is involved I will not say which part of Malaysia we were in, nor say the names of the people which we met.) And together we went to a certain place in Malaysia and started doing ministry. What ministry looked like was building relationships and just having conversations with people about faith and life. We were getting done with MANistry and had to head back to meet with the rest of our squad and so we booked a bus ticket to where the rest of our team would be. Our bus would leave the day after Easter.
The day before we left this town, we wanted to go to an Easter service. The day of Easter we looked around for a church and discovered that there was a church nearby and they had a night service. We went and after the service talked with the congregation and the pastor. The pastor said that there was going to be a prayer meeting the next evening at 8PM and wanted us to be there. We looked at each other and we knew that our bus was leaving at 11PM. We said yes because we knew we would have enough time to get our stuff and go to the bus after the prayer meeting. He told us to be there a little early so we could talk about what we were doing in Malaysia, so we said, “yes, we will see you there.” We really didn’t expect much. We thought that maybe just some of the church elders or something similar to that would be there.
The next evening we arrive at the church door. We arrived just when we should have, but the door was locked. We couldn’t get in. We were a little confused until the pastor drives up and tells us that the meeting is in a different location just around the corner. He takes half of us in his car, because his car wasn’t that big, and tells the rest of us where to walk. He drives us to this little building and tells us to go upstairs. He would wait to make sure the other guys found the building. We get up there and there is only one other guy. We say hi and it turned out that we saw him the night before at the church service so we said our hellos and sat down in the chairs which were in the middle of this room. Over the course of the next 15ish minutes people kept walking into the room. The man sitting next to me would tell me who these people were. He said that this person was the pastor of the Roman Catholic Church, this is the pastor of the AOG church, this is the pastor of the Chinese Protestant church, etc. it turns out that this was a prayer meeting for all of the area’s church pastors. They thought it so important to get together to pray that they each set apart a time weekly to pray with each other. They thought it important because their people were hurting. Their nation was hurting. The things they cared about were hurting. This was a place that they came to, rather secretly, to pray for the aching Body of Christ in Malaysia. Some of them have been pastors in these areas for over 20 years, some over even 40 years! They prayed over very serious things. Some of their prayer requests were about a younger generation being on fire for the Lord. Some prayer requests were for their people to not be afraid of the government, but to evangelize to all they see. Lastly, and this is what hit home for me, they asked us to pray over 3 members of their congregations, for they went missing. Three people, whose names we were told, were just missing. They had disappeared overnight. They presume/know that they were abducted by the government because they evangelized to Malay Muslims. This moment immediately woke me up. If I was half paying attention before, they had my whole attention now.
This moment I realized that the secret church is very real. It is not something far away, but a present reality. These people are affected by it. I’m affected by it. These people are my brothers and sisters. Their lives are in danger 24/7. My eyes were wide open. God once again affirmed my passion for His global church and He reminded me why I was here on the race. I am not here for personal gain. I am not here to prove to someone who I am. I am here to serve the Almighty God who takes care of His children. I am serving the God of the living and the dead. I am serving the God who will eventually turn every wrong into a right, everything hard you went through will turn into a glory and even if you are killed for His name’s sake He will reward you and welcome you with open arms on the other side and say to you, “well done child, come in.” I was reminded also of how fragile we are in the world. We are not promised a long life, but we are called to live a life of obedience and servitude to our amazing God. It reminded me that He is my all and will always be my all.
I know that China was taken away from me, but I’m at peace about that news because God had planned for us to meet our brothers and sisters in need in Malaysia. I thank God that he allowed me to have that opportunity with the secret church. It was something I was hoping and praying for and He gave it to me in such an unexpected way. I hope that you will join me in prayer today for this family of ours. The family that is in the worst part of the battle for God. Pray for the Gospel to spread like wildfire. Pray for the persecutors that they turn to God like Paul had done. Pray for those enduring the persecution that they would feel the presence of God with them and that God would ease pain that they are facing. Thank you guys for reading this blog today. Please, please and please share this with someone you know. Get the word out there that you have brothers and sisters facing persecution in the world. Get the word out there so that our brothers and sister will be prayed for. Thank you once again. God bless you. Amen.
