Suffering for Christ's Sake

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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian sort of. Today we're going to be doing a feed drop with Samaritan's Purse and Samaritans Purse has a podcast called on the Ground with Samaritan's Purse, and I'm excited to bring this to you. They're doing some really great work in Sudan and South Sudan, and I have some connection with this. A former colleague of mine, a Lean Vrancela, does grain for pain and he provides grain for the people in South Sudan. So I'm a little bit I know a little bit about what's going on over there. But in this episode, what you're really going to hear is stories of pastors who have experienced some intense persecution and how their faith has sustained them. So I'm excited to bring this to you and hope you enjoy it. Kat Stick around, subscribe, hit the you know, hit the YouTube channel for everything Thinking Christian, and we'll be back with a new episode pretty soon. Take everybody.

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Speaker 2: I started the ministry in a very difficult time, and that's the moment when I got us calling me to save and to preach the gospel. There's many ways for us to give up but we say we will not give up. If we die, we die, but we must treat the Gospel season and abosis.

00:01:11
Speaker 3: That story was born out of the Samaritans Purse Church reconstruction program. The program started in the early two thousands in Sudan and South Sudan and it has made an eternal impact. Welcome back to another episode of On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse, where we take you to the front lines and behind the scenes of our work around the world. I'm your host, Christy Graham, and this week we're reflecting on more than twenty years of church growth, beginning in a time of utter hopelessness. In the nineteen eighties, civil war broke out once again in this country and there was intense persecution as the government attempted to eliminate Christianity. Sudanese soldiers would come into villages. They would burn churches and arrest and torture pastors. I want you to hear from Ryan Yet he came to the Nuba Mountains in Sudan in two thousand and three after he graduated college. He read an article and learned about the terrible war that was taking place. He preyed on it and then he felt compelled to go, so he took a job with Samaritan's Purse as a logistics manager. He eventually became our regional manager in the area, and more than twenty years later, Ryan still lives there. He looks back and he's amazed at the faith of the people who shared their pain and loss with him. My hope in this episode is that as Christians, we'll recognize that we're called to suffer like Jesus. Scripture promises us that trials and persecutions they will come as believers. But we're encouraged that God is with us and he uses our suffering for his glory. Nothing is wasted if you're walking through a difficult season. I hope this encourages you to see how the Church not only survives, but thrives and grows out of hardships.

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Speaker 4: When I first arrived in New Mountains in two thousand and three, there was absolutely nothing here because of years and years of war. And then when I would go to local churches to pray. At the local churches, you could see the ruins of the buildings of so many of them that had been burned down and destroyed.

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Speaker 3: After a year of working with Samaritans Purse and seeing the suffering firsthand, Ryan wrote a letter asking leadership to consider rebuilding the destroyed churches. The team asked Ryan to document the number of churches all across Nuba that had been attacked.

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Speaker 4: So I took a four wheeler drove all over Nuba, I mean hours and days driving all over Nuba and getting some of the stories. The common theme was that there was an elder or pastor of the church and the government came in, they destroyed the village, and maybe the church was still there or not, but the pastor would always come and open the church doors on Sunday for prayers, and the government soldiers would tell them, if you open the dotorre again, we're going to arrest you or beat you. And many of the times the pastors would come and still open the villers of those churches, and sure enough they would be beaten. Some would be killed. Stories of Pastor James's drug behind a car, Pastor Hamat being shot. There was a man that was even tortured and put out on a metal plate in the sun, naked for opening the church. So there was these soldiers that came into the villages occupying these villages were closing down the churches and then ultimately destroying them.

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Speaker 3: After reporting back on what he saw, Ryan heard back from leadership.

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Speaker 4: He said, We're going to do this for all Studan, which was a much bigger and much greater idea than what I had originally thought. There were so many faithful Christians coming under trees, coming undergrass shelters to Keith raising God.

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Speaker 3: Franklin Graham had the vision to rebuild churches, but not just a few. He wanted to rebuild hundreds. He committed to rebuilding every church in South Sudan that was destroyed in the war, but also training pastors. For every one pastor that was martyred, he wanted to train ten in their faith. And it's Samaritan's purse. We always operate under the God Room principle. We want to make plans and dreams so big that we can't accomplish them on our own strength. And this project was just like that. Church reconstruction was a newer concept with Samaritan's purse. And I love Franklin's vision in his heart that he didn't want to just build back what was lost. He wanted to see the church flourish and be built back stronger than ever before. Our teams received the approval to begin the church reconstruction program and Ryan began working through the challenge of coordinating logistics to carry this out.

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Speaker 4: All over Nuba. You could drive for hours and hours and you are coming across all of these churches, but how do you materials for them? Over time, we started to learn the exact materials we would need. We'd find we started finding good vendors, so they would just pack a full truck for one church.

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Speaker 5: But we'd have.

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Speaker 4: Phases, so we'd say, okay, if you collect all of the gravel, then we will bring all the materials. Then you have to build a small store, a local storeroom. Then we would put all the materials in the storeroom and we said, okay, now you have to bring more sand and gravel. Once you do that, then we will bring the building crew to start the work. And so that's how we would do it. And throughout the program you would see members of the church coming and singing songs and celebrating the entire process. So once we reach a certain level, people would come with excitement and sing songs and the youth would encourage us to keep going. So we would take months to complete one church, and it was primarily because of the issue of logistics. During the church canstruction, there are several times where we kind of came against some resistance. So there was kind of a front line established during the war, and near those front lines there was a lot of militias that really were not friendly with the church. So we went to a certain community called Shot and this community was quite mixed. There was half Muslim, half Christian. And so we went there and we started building this church that was destroyed by a pretty big militia leader. And this militia leader heard the church was being built and so he came in and he destroyed. So when this took place, he was, you know, he thought, we finished the church, they're not going to come. The next day the Muslims of the area and the Christians. The Muslims came to the Christian said hey, we saw what this guy did to you, and we want to help you reconstruct your church because what he did was wrong. And again up to today, that church are still standing. And I do believe that many of the Muslims saw that I and many of them has come to that church.

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Speaker 3: Now today, all across the Nuba mountains where Ryan has worked for years. These churches are not only surviving, but they're thriving. Next, I want to introduce you to Reverend James. He's an archbishop in Sudan and he has been connected to our ministry before the church reconstruction began. He was just a young pastor when the civil war broke out in the eighties, and one year, as his congregation was preparing to celebrate Christmas, the government sent a bulldozer. They were going to completely destroy his church. There was no money or materials to rebuild, and still they continued to gather and then one day a call from Smaritan's Purse changed their life. They shared with them their plan to reconstruct any church that had been destroyed.

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Speaker 5: My name is Jim Slugos Alexander.

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Speaker 2: I'm the Bishop of Africallian Church, and you know I spent most of my time in Sudan. I started the ministry in a very difficult time, a time where the Islamists have taken over the country, a time where you know the government doesn't want to see churches exist. And that is the moment where God has called me to serve and to preach the Gospel there's many ways for us to give up, but we say we will not give up. If we die, we die, but we must preach the gospel in season and out of season. We have been tortured and put in jail. I personally has gone to jail many times in Katu. I've never committed any crime. My crime is only preaching the Gospel. And I remember in the twenty four of December and that year a long time ago, and we were preparing for the Christmas and the Bulldogo came in just around eleven am and to change down. And that's something you know, it's kind of like what and we pray, We say God, what.

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Speaker 5: Do you want us to do?

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Speaker 2: And we still say, okay, we'll celebrate our Christmas. We put the tents and then we celebrate Christmas. And that's going on and on and on. Not only are we Church African and Church, but many other churches are being put thosed down and things like that, and we're crying here and there nobody. We felt that we had just forgotten Christians, with no friends, with no brothers and sisters around the world, we're just alone. That's where the church building project is starting. So it starts from from from pain and start from suffering, and start from crying.

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Speaker 5: People.

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Speaker 2: The Church of Sudan has been crying and crying and crying, and God hear our cry. One day I got a call from getting answer. And then we say, hey, James, are you around? Say I see our life? I say us a life. And then he say Fright is coming to Katsum. I say what he says. He's coming in a time where people are crying, churches are crying, at the time people are suffering. That is a moment Frankly decided to take a journey to Sudan in a very dangerous moment. We met with him. He say, I'm coming as a guest of the church and I'm going to meet a president.

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Speaker 5: What do you want ask what do you want me to say?

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Speaker 2: And then we least a lot of stuff, a lot of things, say go ahead tell him this Loo, stop breaking churches, stop putting Christians in Joel and passes in Joel. You know he stopped all these prosecutions. And Frankly took all this request and went to the president and he met the president and he says, stop prosecuting Christians, stop bulldozing the churches, stop bombing those churches in the villages. And then and even he requested the President to build back those judges.

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Speaker 5: He bull does it.

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Speaker 2: And the President said, no, I can't do that, but you do it. And then he said, okay, give me the permission. And he granted the permission, frankly, to build churches any church that have been destroyed during the time of war. And he just started building it. And that's where that's how this building project started. And instead of just focusing on the areas where churches have been destroyed, he went all of us to dine and he built it over five hundred churches.

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Speaker 3: Samaritan's Purse has the privilege of walking alongside our church partners, our brothers and sisters, in their suffering. It's so humbling and it's such a joy to be able to bolster and strengthen pastors like Reverend James, people that have suffered so much during the war, and we learned so much from them. They truly live out following Jesus's example, serving even until death. One Peter two twenty one says, for you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. When our team showed up, they offered to help rebuild their churches, and it truly was an overwhelming sense of being seen.

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Speaker 2: It reflects the love of Christ. It's reflects that somebody somewhere still cares. And even we are in the time of cry, even in the time of suffering, but somebody is there, say you're not alone. I'm coming besides you. I loved you so much. Generations will never forget this effort that I've been done. For these projects to come in and the churches to be built. It's kind of restoring my identity. It's kind of like God is coming back to me and saying I'm here and I'm with you. And instead of worshiping under the trees, and now we have the place. We felt that, like the Wall of Jerusalem has been built game. We felt that God has come back home. We felt that, you know, our identity has been restarted. What the enemy has taken from us, now God has brought it back again. Even one of my church came to me and the pastor came to me and say, hey, Pasta, you have caused a problem in my church. You have to fix it. I say, what the problem is? Say now I don't have space. I need this church to be extended. So this increase, it happens because of what God is doing. People are seeing God at works. Twenty years ago, we have been feeling bad and we feel that we've been prosecuted, and you know, things are bad. But now we felt God has given us a new country and we are free to put the gospel and everywhere you go and find churches and the one beautiful part of it. And the refugees that have come from the north, those are the northerns.

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Speaker 5: Those are the people that acuted us.

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Speaker 2: And those are the people that put our past us our friends, and put us in jail. Those are the children or the people who destroy our churches. And now they are coming here as a refugees, and we, you know, our churches. We hosted them and we give them water, we give them food, and we provide our shoulder to put their head on. And a lot of them are crying on our shoulder and confessing. We say, we are so sorry for what our four fathers have done to you. And today you're hosting us, you're giving us water, but we have destroyed churches and now here we're giving us food from this church.

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Speaker 5: So it's kind of like God's plan is different.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we cried, yes, we suffered, yes, but today we rejoiced because of God got us done a long time ago.

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Speaker 3: God's plans can be so different than our own. We have to trust that His ways are higher than ours, and He works all things together for the good of those who love him. But this is often easier said than done. One pastor in particular, suffered a great deal, and to this day his story remains one of the most memorable. For Ryan.

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Speaker 4: There's a man named Kamal from the village of Alnugra, and I remember I interviewed this man and he and you came out dragging himself on the ground, and I said, are you the elder of the church? And he kind of nodded. While we were taking his information of what happened to the church, we learned it was his story, and what had happened was the government came in and they'd burned his entire village, and they said, where's the elders of the church, And it was him and one other elder, a good friend of his, and they stripped them naked. They tied their hands and feet behind their back and They laid them out on a piece of metal in one hundred and five to one hundred and ten degree weather, and he was laid out on top of this metal all day, essentially just cooking him slowly. Like if this metal was out on the ground, you could not touch it with your hand, it would be too hot. So his friend died that day and Kamal was continually tortured until his family came and begged to take him home. So when they realized this man probably won't live, they let him go home. Well, he was crippled for the rest of his life. By the time I saw him was over twenty years and they had destroyed the church, but kamal a church was still thriving when we arrived. Even though the church was also destroyed, they built it out of grass and mud again, and the people still went to the church. Later on in the project, we also wanted to help Kamal, and Samaritans first sent him for rehabilitation in Nairobi. We had built the al Nugra Church and we brought Kamal back after a few months. I got to see a man who hadn't walked in twenty years stand up and walk out of the car I was driving and walk into the church that we had just built, and he got to see everyone crazing God inside the new church as he walked in for the first time. That by far was the most memorable moment. I'll never forget him.

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Speaker 3: I've heard this story many times before. In fact, Ryan told me about it years ago, but every time I hear it, I get tiary. The perseverance in the midst of suffering of Comal just reminds me of James one two says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Kamal truly finds joy in serving Jesus, even in his suffering, and he has the scars and the limp to remind him each and every day, yet he isn't bitter. First Peter two twenty one says, for you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example that you should follow in his steps. And so many of our churches they've expanded into new villages and the buildings are being used throughout this week as schools, adult education programs, orphanages, and shelters for people displaced by conflict, and this opens the doors for many gospel opportunities. Samaritans Purse also opened Hayband Bible College to train and prepare pastors. And I just love that what the enemy meant to silence Christianity, the church is growing and persevering and discipling and sharing more and more.

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Speaker 4: Rebuilding the churches in this area was really, I would say, the foundation of other work that Samaritans Versus done. Seeing how God set it up in a way that allowed U.

00:19:44
Speaker 5: S p.

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Speaker 4: To do so many other things here was just ordained by God. As we were able to build the churches, so many things happen within those walls. But then when you even look beyond the walls, you see how this set up also helped other things in the region. Because they knew every single pastor, every congregation, every church that they had constructed, they were able now to access the communities in needle. So seeing these churches today after twenty years of reconstruction, I know and I've seen that has given hope to the believers in Toudam.

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Speaker 5: There's been so.

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Speaker 4: Much time in which they have been beaten down over generation and decades, of just war and targeted attacks, but the construction of these churches has allowed that hope to remain. It's a symbol that Christ is there and he loves this church and he loves these people. We all know that the church is not the building, that it's the people, but this building being established in a place that is so remote speaks volumes to everyone around the fact that Samaritan's Purse was able to construct all these churches. I remember at the beginning of the program, I was like, there's no way we're going to rebuild every church. I don't think they know how many churches were destroyed. But as we reached one hundred churches done, two hundred churches done, three hundred churches done, I started realizing we were going to reach that goal, which is an unbelievable feat that we were able to accomplish. So seeing the joy in each of these churches and going to the celebration of each of these churches and the relationships developed, it not only helped the church, but people outside of the church that were not believers seeing these things being reconstructed and people coming together, people not from Sudan with people from Sudan rebuilding these churches, despite all the conflict, despite everything that was going on in the country, was just an incredible witness to who God is privileged to be a part of it. This is my favorite verse. It's Acts Chapter five, thirty eight and thirty nine, and it's talking about when the apostle were before the Sanhedrin and they were about to be stoned to death for preaching about God in the name of Jesus. And as they were doing that, someone stood up and they said, you're If what these men are doing is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You'll find yourselfs fighting against God.

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Speaker 5: And to me, that.

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Speaker 4: Fits CRP perfect because there are many people against what we're doing, but God saw it through. He saw through the plus five hundred churches that were built despite the odds. And that's what I want to be a part of. I want to be a part of something that cannot fail. I want to be a part of something that God is in and He's leading that that even though I might trip or fall on the way, his glory is still going to be seen and is still going to be completed according to His purpose.

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Speaker 3: What incredible stories. As Ryan shared, we can look back on the twenty years of rebuild that could not have been accomplished in our own strength, but only in God's. And I love the scripture he shared and the testimony are much like the early Church and Acts. I want to reread what Ryan shared because many of our church partners are living this out and it should strengthen us. Acts five thirty eight through forty two says for if this plan or this work of human origin, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God. They were persuaded by him. After they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and release them. Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the name. Every day in the temple and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Ah. This fires me up.

00:23:55
Speaker 4: Ah.

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Speaker 3: Both I mean God's word is alive and active, and we are seeing it lived out in Sudan, but also all over the world. I want to be a part of something like Ryan said that cannot fail, eternal work, gospel, kingdom, minded work through Jesus Christ. And Ryan actually told me one time that he was being bombed and he prayed, Lord, if you still have purpose for me, let me live. And that prayer has stuck with me. And this is what we hear from pastors and partners that live in hard places. Their heartbeat and ours should be. To live is Christ, to die is gain. If you still have work for me, let me live. But if not, I get to glory with you. And I hope that this episode encouraged you whatever you're facing. The testimonies from our brothers and sisters in Sudan remind us to be bold, to not grow weary in doing good. And I'm so grateful for twenty years of rebuilding not just the physical church, but the pastors and the church body. It truly echoes what Joseph said in Genesis fifty twenty. You planned evil against me, but God planned it for good to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. That is what we're seeing in Sudan. Pastor James shared that what was taken from them has been given back. It's beautiful that they recognize that they get to take in refugees, family members of the ones that tried to destroy the church. But God is using it for the survival of many people. Again, this episode just fired me up, and I want to close with Colaussians one twenty four through twenty nine. I just read it this morning, and I immediately thought of our church partners who've been jailed, beaten, persecuted for their faith. Yet they're joyful and relentless in sharing the Gospel. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for his body, that is the Church. I have become a servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known among the gentiles. The glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, we proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with is strength that powerfully works in me. I hope you labor for the Gospel today in His strength, working powerfully in you, and be praying for our persecuted church and our church partners in hard places as they continue to share the gospel. If you love this episode, Search on the Ground with Smaritan's Purse wherever you're listening. We release episodes every week and we encourage you in your walk with the Lord. We take you to the front lines and behind the scenes of our work around the world, so make sure you subscribe. You'll be challenged and encouraged in your faith as you hear how God is actively changing lives. And I'm so excited about an episode that we're working on right now. It highlights our staff who are faithfully serving and sharing the Gospel in hard places like conflict zones, and I've learned so much from their perseverance and their endurance to run the race even when it's hard. Again to find the show Search on the Ground with Samaritan's Purse wherever you're listening, or by going to Samaritanspurse dot org slash explore. Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless you.