Teddy James
AFA Journal staff writer
November 2015 – Two lines of men walk across a peaceful beach. One line clad in black, the other in orange jumpsuits. Upon reaching a particular spot, each man in orange is forced to his knees. Each man in black cups one hand under the chin of a man in orange forcing his face up, giving the knife in the captor’s other hand easier access to his captive’s neck. The man in orange would soon go from looking toward heaven to seeing Jesus face to face.
Be aware
When the video of Christians being executed on a beach in Libya went viral, many asked how someone could be so brutal to another human being.
One church in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, decided to make a public response of solidarity. Dr. Dean Register, pastor of Crosspoint Community Church, declared Sunday, June 14, 2015, “Orange Sunday.” He preached in an orange jumpsuit and congregants wore orange shirts and dresses. Register said, “If I don’t call attention to [Christian persecution], then shame on me. It would be a guilty silence on my behalf.”
Tom Doyle is regional director of the Middle East and Central Asia for E3 Partners, an organization equipping Christians across the world for evangelism and discipleship. Doyle has spent several years living in the Middle East. During that time, he has seen the effects of persecution and heard from many who have endured torture for Christ.
He told AFA Journal, “God began giving me an overwhelming heart for people who need Jesus when I began leading Bible tours of Israel in 1995. In early 2001 I announced to the church I was pastoring that my family and I would be moving to the Middle East for full-time mission work.”
Then 9/11 happened, and Doyle began getting questions from congregants, friends, and family members. “People thought we had lost our minds,” Doyle said. “They asked how we could take our six children to the Middle East. But we found 9/11 was a wake up call for many Muslims. Each one had to answer if serving Allah meant killing innocents. The overwhelming majority of Muslims didn’t want to do that. People became very open to Jesus.”
That openness helped Doyle plant the gospel in the Middle East. As the number of believers grew, so did the stories of persecution. Doyle said, “As stories of persecution were spreading across the world news, I saw the news only telling half the story. I felt like Americans were only getting stories of defeat. I worked with leaders standing victorious in the midst of ISIS and Hamas. Their stories needed to be told.”
This resulted in Killing Christians: Living the Faith Where It’s Not Safe to Believe. (Available at online and retail bookstores.) In the book, Doyle tells the stories of eight victorious believers. Some were victorious because they escaped persecution to spread the gospel. Some were victorious because they were relieved from persecution by entering eternity.
Doyle said American Christians must seek more information than what is routinely made available through cable news. Reporters and writers tend to focus on the loss of life, not the victory of faith.
Be active
Each unique story from Killing Christians has a common ingredient, what Doyle calls “high definition Jesus dreams.”
He said, “The majority of Muslims don’t know one believer. Many don’t have any access to the gospel. Several say their conversion started with a profound dream about Jesus. None went to bed a Muslim and woke a Christian, but these dreams removed boulders between them and Christ.”
It is Doyle’s prayer that knowing how active God is among the Muslim people will encourage Christians in America to get involved with spreading the gospel to these hungry people.
On one trip to Israel with his son Josh, Doyle woke from a deep sleep after a rocket attack from Hamas. He felt an urge to read Romans 8:38-39, “Neither death nor life … can separate us from the love of Christ.” He prayed that passage over and over with the persecuted church in his mind. He prayed that each Christian in a jail cell, each mother with a murdered son, each father separated from his children, would experience the peace promised in that passage.
He began praying for the persecuted church every day at 8:38 p.m., CT. In Killing Christians, he explains this is important because just as night is falling in America, morning is beginning in the Middle East.
Doyle said, “I shared this with a few close friends, and it blew up from there. We quickly developed a Facebook page and mobile app that gives frequent updates on specific prayer requests from Christians enduring persecution. Often Christians following us on Facebook or who have the app can pray for brothers and sisters by name and lift up their specific situations.” (To download the free app, search 8thirty8 in your preferred app store. To follow on Facebook, search 8thirty8.)
Many Christians across America will pray for the persecuted church on Sunday, November 1 and 8, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. (See below.) But the trials of brothers and sisters must not be forgotten Monday morning. For continued encouragement and ways to serve the suffering, visit E3 Partners (E3partners.org). The website offers training, information on needs, prayer requests, and short-term trips to help spread the gospel and serve the persecuted church.
Be unafraid
Doyle said, “This is one of the greatest hours for the body of Christ. You can look at the news of Christian persecution and mourn. But realize that many undergoing this pressure do not similarly mourn. A mother whose son was paraded onto a beach in an orange jumpsuit before being killed said it was her privilege to be involved with this. ‘Just think of all the families around the world Jesus could have selected to die for Him. How privileged we are that we were allowed to be a part of this,’ she said. The enduring testimony of those men is that they prayed for the salvation of their murderers as they were being slain.”
The world is a dark and dangerous place. But it is in the darkest dark that the gospel shines brightest. Christians have a great opportunity today to make their lights blindingly shine whether in a church pew singing freely or on a beach while praying for the man with a knife to their throats. 
THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER is sponsored by the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance. The WEA represents some 620 million Christians in 128 countries (worldea.org).
IDOP is a time set apart for Christians to pray for believers suffering for their faith across the world. The group chose two Sundays, November 1 and 8, to give churches ample opportunity to participate in the event.
On the official IDOP website, Christian leaders can find prayer slides; PowerPoint slides with information regarding the persecuted Church; Bible reading focusing on the Christian response to persecution; articles on the biblical theology of persecution, and much more. For more information, visit idop.org, email [email protected], or mail World Evangelical Alliance, Church Street Station, P.O. Box 3402, New York, NY 10008-3402.
