Voice Of The Christians

Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. We'll end for quite a journey, as we have two folks with us from the Voice of the Christians.

And wait till you hear about what this is about. So we've got Kajon and Jamie Vallejo. And so Kajon, can you, for those who are not familiar with the Voice of the Christians, why don't you share a little bit about who they are? Yeah, Robbie, thank you so very much for letting us come on on this amazing program and share our hearts, basically, our lives, because this is not about an organization. This is about the passion that we live, and that passion is to live for Christ in a way that we are also connected with Christians who are perhaps across the ocean, across the borders, but they are persecuted for the sake of Christ.

And our desire is to help them. That's what Voice of the Christians is all about. And I am founder and one of the forerunners of Voice of the Christians. Folks who are listening to us prayerfully, they can visit our website, www.voiceofchristians.org.

And as you mentioned, my name Kajon. Let me give you a little bit of insight that how it started and who am I, certainly in God's kingdom and then in my birth and birth weight. I was born in the majority Muslim country and at the age of 18 years, what happened is that one of my friends calls it that the process to breaking the man started in my life and I found out that one of my siblings has converted to Christianity. And being a devout Muslim at that time, I was angry and that just turned my world upside down. And it was the next nine years that the Lord in his ultimate grace took me through that journey that not only I tried to confront my convert sibling, but also at the same time oppose Christians not knowing that God has a greater plan for my life. And during those nine years, eventually I came to know about the ultimate grace of Christ and sacrifice on the cross. And at the age of 27 years old, I found Christ. Indeed, I think it's better to say Christ found me and rescued me. And that's when the journey started, which now we know as voice of Christians, the forming of voice of Christians. Because when I was going through not only pre conversion, those nine years of pre conversion time of my life, but post conversion, I went through a lot of challenges in first place, out of disparity and hopelessness, I tried to take my own life.

But at some point, now it wasn't me anymore. It was other people around me who were trying to take my life because now I have become one of the followers of Christ. And during those years, I very quickly came to realize that whether church was completely unaware of what goes in the life of persecuted believers, and particularly convert, or they don't know how to help. And that's where all this passion started developing in my heart during those years. And then my next few years, God really led me to start a ministry called Christian Resource Center, which evolved to be what we know today as voice of Christians.

We are global, we operate in most hostile countries, where Christians are being persecuted day and night, and our prayerful desire and objective is to help them not only stay safe, but bear fruit for the sake of Christ and kingdom. So wow, that's quite a story. And you can see that obviously, we're going to have an amazing show of testimonies and those kind of things.

So Jamie, how about a little bit about you? Yeah, thank you, Robbie. It's really great to be here today. So I mean, I've worked in the nonprofit sector over 14 years now, and been a Christian most of my life. And I got connected to voice of Christians a couple years ago, I met him and heard his testimony. And it just pierces the heart really understanding and hearing it from someone who's walked through that persecution and, and have their life threatened for believing in Jesus. And so this has been a ministry that I've been connected to the last couple of years and just had a passion for and I'm now involved in supporting and helping raise funds and kind of create awareness about the work of voice of Christian. And so it's really impactful and I'm excited to be here today and share some more. So, right, you had this opportunity and was there a particular story at a point where you went, Okay, God, this is why you have me here, or something that touched your heart?

Could you relate that? Well, I think just like hearing the reality that there are more than 365 million Christians suffering levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. And here I am someone who I was born and raised in Canada, but in a country where I can go to church every Sunday, and I'm not discriminated against when I'm applying for a job or just going to the grocery store. Those things we don't think about every day, but there are millions of people around the world. And so it's just it's that reality that's very sobering to understand, like, I've walked around my whole life and been able to practice my faith publicly.

And that is not the case for so many people in this world. And I think it's incumbent upon us as Christians in a place where we're able to do that and practice our faith openly, that we be a lifeline and we be a voice for those who cannot. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's okay, John, did you actually experience that where you weren't able to go to the grocery store or worse?

Yes. So I have a 10 year long history of persevering through a severe persecution, severe to the point where I was shot and through God's grace bullet did not hit my heart, it hit my arm and I was able to survive. And then so many stories. I was attacked by a mob and when the agency security agencies and aid came to eventually came to rescue us, we were beaten to kind of death. My my mom was there. So, yeah, it's not very pleasant, by the way, but it's just the only reason I am able to do that, because I know by telling these stories, I can mobilize the hearts of believers who then as a return of hearing my story and the many thousands of the stories that voice of Christians are rescued can help to rescue perhaps another life or many more lives.

Anyhow, getting to your question, back to your question. Yes, I was beaten and then just particularly I mentioned that my mom attacked my home and literally they kind of bulldozed the whole whole house and everything. They broke down and humiliated us to the point where we were in absolutely absolutely miserable condition. But to God's grace, we survived that day and it didn't end there.

I can I can spend hours and hours because I'm not talking about an hour worth of time. Ten years of spending quite precisely eight years under under severe persecution where I was attacked, I was beaten. There was a point out of so many occasions where only thing I can say that God had a plan for my life and does have even today. And that is the reason I'm alive and talking here otherwise, like just give me another example at another another time in that was 2010. My household was attacked and we just have our first first child born and he was held by by these radicals in front of my wife.

His mom and told that you better go and convince your husband to come back, repent and come back to Islam and or be ready to lose your child and and your husband. And she knew that it's not only that she's going to lose her husband and her only child, but they're going to kill her too. But it was God's grace that that we again survived that day. But there are a lot of stories that that I can tell.

So I know that listeners are all like me. Did did the baby the baby was OK and your mom was OK in the other attack? Yes. Yes.

To God's grace, we survived and that baby is now almost 15 years old and going to school and praising Lord alongside. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's wonderful.

We've got to go to a break, guys. We will be back with a whole lot more on voice of the Christians. Again, their website, VoiceTheChristians.org.

You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And we are more than blessed to have with us today Kay John and Jamie Vallejo with the Voice of the Christians, which their website, as Kay John said, is VoiceTheChristians.org.

Or if you go to Kingdom Pursuits, you're going to see it there pretty clearly, pretty easily. But Kay John and Jamie, you know, part of Kingdom Pursuits, you know, I know we're on sort of a heavy duty subject, but we have to our listeners are expecting that we would play a little shenanigans here. And so, you know, today, since we're talking about voice of the Christians, speaking of voice, right? So we got to you guys have to suffer through a few bad dad jokes on the situation of voice in order to give the listeners a chance to call in and win today. And so be prepared because one's coming at you wherever you are listening at today. So and feel free if you guys know one of these. Just jump right in. Of course, Nick, my producer, is always standing by.

He's got plenty of experience. So what does someone with a good singing voice have? What do they have?

Oh, man. And it comes to voice, right? What does someone with a good singing voice have range? That's true.

They also have opera tunity. I was going to say hot air that I have that I have now this one. I'm thinking you can get Nick because you're quick. All right. So what voice did Bob Barker hope he would not hear when he passed when he died? Bob Barker, you remember? Host of The Price is Right. What does he hoping he didn't hear? Let me see if I could do it.

Bob Barker, come on down. He did not want to do that. Yeah, that was it. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't want to have to come down.

None of us do after he passed. Now, here's one you might get, Nick. I don't know. Why do most people singing in little bitty apartments?

They're not at their best when they sing in little bitty apartments. Do you know? I don't know. You got any idea, K. John? No.

Well, it's a little flat. And this one is actually my favorite of the list before we get to the actual Bible riddle. So why are chickens the cheapest voice actors? You know, if you're going to go out there and I've actually paid voice actors in the past. So I know about this.

Why are chickens the cheapest, least expensive voice actors? You got it. Three bucks and you got it. That was really good, Jamie.

I'm very proud. So, you know, at the end of those shenanigans, we'd actually have a riddle for you to call in and win today. And so along those lines, if you can guess this one. So according to the Bible, his blank. Hear his voice. And it's not bad. According to the Bible, his blank. Hear his voice.

And it's not bad. Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four. And if they can guess it, Nick, tell them what they'll win.

Absolutely. Yes, you'll be winning a prize from our King of Pursuits prize. Well, you can get a big the word calendar or anything from our big box of King of Pursuits prize. Call in at eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.

We might just throw in a date the word calendar. Yes, this one. It's pretty tough. According to the Bible, his blank is what you hear.

And it's not bad. Eight six six. The number to call. Eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four eight six six three four truth. We would love to hear from you today. And of course, getting back to the real issue at hand is, you know, the voice of the Christians. And I love what God put on your heart, Kay John. I certainly love Jamie that he he he has you there in that position to help spread the word. And so when you originally you know, it was like, man, all this stuff's going on. God help me form this.

What what kind of resources or what were you hoping the outcome would be of of the organization that became voice of the Christians? Yes. So based on my very own personal experience and what I felt, kind of like I mean, it's and I really apologize. But it is what it is. It's the reality of my life and the story that I felt abandoned. I left.

I felt left alone. So my prayerful heart's desire was that there will be an organization which will be true to its words. Will stand where they say and they will do what they say. And we are we are the ones who I mean, certainly there are all other great organizations. But we are unique in a way that we are answering the call to not only provide charity and aid, but would help people when they are in the midst of persecution and believers. So that was my prayer based on my own personal experience. And God really led me to start voice of Christians by having only like faith, because it wasn't me in first place who decided to start another organization when there are a multitude of organizations already existing. It was God and his plan.

And he gave me this call. And I heard a real vocal voice. And that's where the name comes from, voice of Christians. And I started voice of Christians just by having faith.

And then people kept joining. And now we have a big team and we have had people in 31 countries and we have active network in seven countries. We have a level one network in 11 countries where we say yes to our call and help our dear brothers and sisters.

I know I'm giving you a longer answer, but I also want to touch on the actual topic that what actually voice of Christians does and how it does. We develop a network, what we call network of good Samaritans, and we go in any given nation or region or territory and we find like minded believers and we develop networks there and through their dedication and commitment, we try to serve and save the lives of those who become under persecution. And we have done it in a very cost effective way, prayerfully. We have rescued thousands. And a very quick story like we just about a couple of years ago, we rescued a nine year old girl whose father has converted to Christianity in Iran and then she was sexually assaulted. And we were make aware of their situation and we decided to take up that case and we successfully extracted them, rescued them, brought them to another neighboring country where they are still residing safely and multiplying by telling their testimony. But think about this, this nine year old girl where she has to be in school and instead she is forced to face sexual assault and all sorts of abuse. And the last thing I would say that every 10 people we rescue seven or mostly seven or 70 percent in terms of percentage are minors, are children, girls and boys, many of them abducted for all wrong reasons. Yeah and I would jump in there Kay John and say that one of the things that I'm aware of because of my association with Land and Rescue that one of the difference about their organization is they literally do these extractions.

What's the word? I'm like these folks are being abused in all sorts of different ways and their lives are threatened and here comes literally folks to the rescue to pull them out of that situation. And that comes obviously at a cost but then where are you going to put them? And you got to have a place to go and it's got to be a safe place and you know there's a whole lot of dynamics that go along with that, right Jamie? Absolutely and you know the beautiful thing about Voice of Christian is it's creating such incredible local capacity. Our networks are people who live there, they're part of the community. Many of them have converted themselves and want to be a part of supporting and helping other families so we really focus on those three areas of impact where we're rescuing. So we are removing individuals or families where there could be a threat of death and we're helping them to relocate. That's our refuge area of impact where we're finding perhaps a safe house or we're placing them in one of our living hope centers, a facility that we have and we're running. And then we have that area of replenish. So we're providing training, community connection and support so that those families or individuals can begin the healing process.

So there's the intervention piece of it, then there's that removal from like immediate threat or potential of death and that might be within the same country, it might be through a different country. And then there's that replenish, that healing and that development of skills and abilities to become self-sustainable. But we're supporting families through that whole process and we're making sure that they are supported and they're given community and they're able to be in a place where they can be Christians and impact the community around them as well as they continue to heal and grow and build. And there's another beautiful aspect that I guess God's been teaching me over the years of this because I used to know a show called Jesus is Junkets which was about missionaries around the world and what they often discovered when you came into an area where people had been abused and beaten and all these different things that have gone on is a lot of them just need to tell their story. There's a huge need to share that and that literally is their testimony. And so when we hear these testimonies, obviously it increases faith around the world. Again, it's voiceofthechristians.com and when we come back, we're going to have a whole lot more with K. John and Jamie, but you know, we haven't heard, according to the Bible, who hears his voice and it's not bad.

866-342. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom and we are so blessed to have with us the voice of the Christians today, both K. John and Jamie, and we've been hearing amazing stories and testimonies, but we don't want you to miss out on, right? Kingdom Pursuits prize vault where we have all sorts of interesting goodies, books and date the word calendars.

You need this. It's got a scripture verse for every single date. You can hone in on your own birthday or somebody else's birthday and share their Bible verse with them.

It's all on that date, the word calendar. All you got to do is tell us, according to the Bible, his blank, hear his voice and it's not bad. 866-348. Who hears his voice? Come on, you know that.

866-348-7884 is the number to call in and win and please. So getting back to K. John and Jamie. So K. John, as you just mentioned, here's these children, right? And of course you experienced that firsthand. You can imagine, or I don't think I can imagine what it would like to be a parent and watch your child be abused like that because of a decision you made with your faith. And what kind of relief, I mean, when you have this opportunity to help like this and be obviously the face and feet and hands of God, you know, what might you explain, K. John, it's like to be in the presence of somebody that's undergone something like that kind of rescue?

Well, it means whole world to them. And also, so we are doing this with Christian passion. So we should never forget that how in first place, church sprouted.

It wasn't out of strategic development. It was out of persecution and believers, early believers survived by helping each other by becoming a tightly knitted community. And so we just are kind of we have a lot of times I say that we are doing nothing. We are just kind of leaving or reliving those times again.

We are where there is no disconnect between the church and the prosperous church. And we come alongside each other. We encourage each other. And when that happens, then think about a life in jeopardy, in misery, in hopelessness. And then they find this nurturing, encouraging, sporting community, even to the extent where this community is willing to lay their own lives. Remember, Bible tells us not to forget those who are in prison.

Indeed, feel like you are in prison with them. So it's just amazing that these people, when they see this hope and they are reassured that they are not left alone, their lives are radically changed, encouraged. And that's where we have seen that these people, when they, the church starts multiplying basically. These people, they start bearing fruit. And this is just, again, I can say a lot of things.

What I have seen is that that kingdom is growing because of that very act that when we bring a cup of water to someone who is thirsty or helps someone, or feeds someone, or just so many ways, but the fruit is amazing. I can take hours to tell the stories of those thousands of people that we have rescued between 2005 and today. It's just amazing. Well, just take another few minutes and tell one more story. That's part of what you've got is those testimonies.

It's amazing, yes. So this story is about a girl who, through God's grace, and she was the youngest of six siblings in her household, one way or the other, because God has a plan, she was told about Christ and the gospel was shared with her and she became the first believer in a very hostile, in fact, the most hostile nation on the planet Earth today. She became a secret believer and then she couldn't contain that joy of being follower of Christ and she decided to start sharing with her siblings in first place and then parents, yes, she did face opposition, persecution, but she decided to persevere even at the cost of persecution. And as a result, the next two years, her whole family became a secret believer and within the next two years, or maybe like a little over two years, there were 20 underground home churches planted within her town, her region where God first and first place spoke to her heart.

And this is how the church is growing and remember what Jesus has called us to always and therefore to carry our cross and be yoked, equally yoked. And that is exactly what we are seeing and observing and witnessing through these testimonies that when the lives of these persecuted believers are touched and they survive, it's God's plan for them. Because being part of the church, they just start multiplying and that is exactly what we are seeing, what is happening in nations like Afghanistan. And I will make last comment, not as a result of prosperity, but as a result of persecution, Afghanistan has now the second fastest growing church on the planet Earth today.

And this is not my word, this has been verified by many independent agencies and now there are hundreds of thousands of secret believers within Afghanistan and outside the boundaries of Afghanistan, but Afghan believers. It's just amazing, amazing to see the fruit of our labor. Yeah, God is clearly at work in that and what might you add, Jamie, to what you're seeing? Well, yeah, I did want to have some final thoughts here and we know Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, he said, So it's so wonderful to hear the testimonies and the families coming out, but there are so many families that are still in situations of persecution, their fathers and mothers and children in these desperate situations of bondage and they're praying and crying out to the Lord to meet them where they're at and to rescue them. And so they're asking for the Lord to do immeasurably more than all they can ask or imagine. And a challenge to us who are listening is that if God, what if God used you to answer those prayers, to be the vessel for him, to work immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine. So what if someone's life was saved and their situation was drastically changed because we were obedient to his reading? So I just wanted to leave us all with that because I think we hear these things and it can be hard to really connect because it is on the other side of the world and we don't know them personally. But there is a calling and there is a challenge and if we can be a vessel for the Lord to answer someone's prayer through us, then it is time for us to rise up and answer that calling and be obedient to it.

And what would that look like practically? So they go to voiceofthechristians.org and then what? So it's voiceoftchristians.org. There's a few different ways to get involved and of course the first thing is prayer. Join us on our prayer team, you can receive updates and hear more stories and understand more on the ground in specific countries what the Lord is hearing through voice of Christians.

You can give financially and become a monthly recurring donor and make a one-time gift. You can serve. So we have an opportunity to be an ambassador of voice of Christians so you can spread the word, you can advocate on behalf of persecuted Christians and be someone connected to voice of Christians and taking that message out to your network, to others you know in your churches. And you can go. So there's opportunities coming up with you where you can actually travel internationally and see firsthand and meet families and experience what the Lord is doing and the way that he is answering prayers for those in other countries.

And so that's cool. So if somebody decides to be an advocate, right, then you know obviously they begin to spread the word and help people in their community and all those things are coordinated through you guys, right? And all those connections are there at voiceofthechristians.org.

Very easy and again the link is there at kingdomforsuits.com. We've got one more segment coming up with Kajon and Jamie. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build a kingdom and so fun today. Well, you know, informative and intense that God's doing so many amazing things through Voice of the Christians, voiceofthechristians.org. And we have with us Kajon and Jamie and, you know, when we were talking about ways people could be involved practically, I love that, Jamie, that those advocates.

So how many people like that do you have at this point? There's several. So we have a wide base of volunteers and actually pretty much everyone who is involved with Voice of Christians is on a volunteer basis. But we're just ramping up our ambassador program kind of officially and especially wanting to connect with university students and be able to use them in, you know, how God is calling them to spread the word on campuses, on sports teams, in their communities and be able to take that out and share what other believers are going through in other parts of the world.

Right. And as an ambassador, you know, again, just becoming aware of and all that stuff's available at the website. Again, if I go in there, you can see how you could be an ambassador or again, you know, I love the fact that you could go. And certainly the prayer team and those updates, I'm familiar with that again from when I was laying on rescue and, you know, to be able to actually see, wow, this extraction is going on or this situation really needs our prayers. And to take part in that, what an honor that someday, you know, we get to heaven like, man, God, you know, you know, these people that had this opportunity to not only be rescued, but then their testimony gets out there. And then their strength is added to, you know, all the other folks that are helping people that understand as only they can understand, like, hey, John, only you understand what it's really like in that situation. And as God comforted you, you're now out there comforting others, right?

Yes, absolutely. And by the way, just building along the line that Jamie mentioned, we have a prayer line opened every night from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern time every night. We have not missed a single night over the course of past almost more than four years. Every night that prayer line is open. People who want to pray for the persecuted church or want to be prayed over.

They can join every night 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern. And in addition to that, on our Web site, which is www dot voice of Christians dot org, there are a lot of ways that people can sign up. They can come along with us on a mission tree where they can be the part of the persecuted church, be the part of the story as one of our co-laborer says that we don't tell their story. We become their story.

We become the story of the persecuted church. And that's the big difference between us and others that we are in trenches with these brothers and sisters. And we need we cannot do it alone. So we have people, but we need more people. We need more hands and feet and we need a lot of prayers. We need a lot of partners.

Everything can be found the ways how it can be done through our Web site. People can sign up. People can give. People can become ambassadors. And if nothing is expensive, I mean, think about that, that if I just simply do one thing that I sign up for our e-mail or newsletter and we don't send a lot of marketing stuff. Instead, we send out these amazing stories, short, few second videos, testimonials. And when people hear those, then they can go back to their community, their friends and family, their churches that they can tell the story and how the difference was made.

What the difference was made to little or no investment. And then that's how I mean, it's all become connected. We become that's what I mentioned, that we are trying to eliminate that disconnect between prosperous and persecuted church. And it is happening.

It is happening. Kingdom is one. And in that kingdom, under that kingdom, we should be one.

And there are so many ways it's to in one's own choice. Just visit our Web site. Write to us.

You can also become volunteer. We need help here. What we call North America and then beyond. OK, well, we got Jamal is got an answer to our question. So, Jamal, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Thank you for taking my call. Rafael, it's a pleasure and glad to hear you. Mr. K, John and Jamie, God bless you all.

And I just pray that God bless you to keep doing what you're doing. Oh, it's awesome, isn't it? Yes, sir, it is. And so your answer to according to the Bible, who hears voice? Well, according to the good kind of hits that I got, I want to say it's sheep hear his voice. Yeah, John Chapter 10 is sheep hear his voice and it's not bad.

Not bad at all. Oh, thank you, Jamal. And maybe you're hearing his voice right now to go to Voice of Christians.

I've been saying it wrong the whole show and nobody corrected me. It's not voice of the Christians. It's just voice of Christians, right? Correct, yes. Voice of Christians. There's no the in there. It's just voiceofchristians.org.

And you can access all that stuff. Jamal, congratulations. As always, it's great to hear from you, my friend. So amazing to hear all that that Voice of Christians is doing.

And again, we urge you to go to their website, take part in it. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you, Colleen. Amazing work that God's doing through you and so honored to have you on today. Now as we're wrapping up.

Yeah, thank you. We're going to remind you that you've got so much wonderful programming coming your way. Encouraging Prayer is up next with James Banks and he's going to be talking about love. Followed by Masculine Journey starts here now at 12 o'clock. And then it's time to man up with Nikita Koloff. So much truth coming at you on the Truth Network. Thanks for listening.