Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) just got back from a trip to Southeast Asia where he met a group of Christians who have found a whole new level of commitment to witnessing for Christ.
“They have committed to share Christ with five people every day. Is this like a one-year program? Is it a two-year program? And one of the young ladies looked at me, and she said until we die,” Nettleton says.
Every Sunday night, he says, they have accountability. "How did you do this week? How many people did you share Christ with? What happened?"
He can't reveal which country this was in because Christian can be persecuted for simply having a faith – much less sharing it. The group has broadened their reach into neighboring countries.
“Three of the young ladies were detained in one of those surrounding countries. They were arrested. They were taken to the Ministry of Religion. They were interrogated for two days,” Nettleton states.
He says they were put in a car, and they thought they were going to jail.
“Instead, they took them to the airport. They walked them, literally walked them to their seats on the plane. Right before they closed the plane door, they handed them their phones and said, ‘Bye-bye, you are banned from our country for five years’,” Nettleton states.
Lesson learned, right? Nope.
“They said, ‘we're counting down the days until our five-year ban is over, so we can go back’,” Nettleton says.
VOM has a Global Prayer Guide to assist Christian in how to pray for each country regarding Christian persecution. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the largest country, and according to the map, it is labeled as hostile to Christians. Hostile nations are ones where the government might provide protection, but more than likely, Christians will be persecuted by political groups or even family and friends.
Other nations in Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, are labeled as restricted to Christians because of government-sanctioned circumstances and anti-Christian laws that contribute to persecution.
