Standing with the Persecuted Church

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Well, hello. This is Michael Zwick sitting in for Stu Epperson Jr., and we have a show for you today. And I tell you what, you're hearing a lot on social media. You're seeing a lot on social media about the CEO and the girlfriend. Pictures are all over the place about what they've done.

And that seems to get all the attention. But did you know that there was severe Christian persecution going on all over the world? And unfortunately, this is not something that you're seeing on television.

So today we've got a Matt Chancy here. And Matt Chancy is from Nuba Exodus. And he is highlighting what is going on over in Sudan. Welcome to the show, Matt. Thanks a lot.

It's great to be with you today. Yes, sir.

So tell me a little bit about this. How did you get into this interesting work about what's going on over in Sudan?

Well, I'll tell you the Wikipedia version of the story. About 25 years ago, I was invited to join the board of directors of a new organization called Persecution Project, which is started by Brad Phillips. He's currently still our CEO and very active. He lives in East Africa. He has been in East Africa for about 20 years, leading the effort.

And we were started as an organization to bring people's attention in the United States to the plight of persecuted Christians on the continent of Africa with specific emphasis on the nation of Sudan, which doesn't feature very widely in people's consciousness today. Sudan is a very large country. It used to be Africa's largest country until it broke into two pieces in 2011. But it sits just below Egypt and has the two branches of the Nile River, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, that run through the country and connect in the capital of Khartoum and then head north to Egypt.

So, very strategic water resource for North Africa areas like Egypt in terms of also agricultural production. There's lots of oil, there's other natural gold and other natural resources that the world is interested in. And so, Sudan, since about 1956, has been ruled by a radical Islamist regime, one regime or another. And so the Christian minority in that country, which has been steadily growing through the years, Has faced enormous persecution. And so our organization was started.

To try to highlight the plight of our brothers and sisters in Christ and inform Christians in America how they can intercede, not just in prayer, but in solidarity through supporting projects that we speak. Sponsor in partnership with the local church.

So we're not like an aid organization that kind of rocks up and starts something and invites people to come in. We actually find the indigenous church in Sudan doing the work of God, whether it's in discipleship and evangelism or in providing safe water for their communities. And we just buy into their projects, so to speak. And partner with them that way so that they get something that is incredibly important to people who are suffering persecution. It's more than just the physical aid, they receive encouragement because we can all identify times in our lives when the encouragement of a friend or the prayers in their sessions of people on our behalf kind of helped us push through when we were surviving on just vapors of hope.

And that's what our brothers and sisters routinely face in Sudan. And so our organization is heavily involved in addressing their plight and trying to bring it to the world's attention, fighting, as you said earlier, with all of these competitors in social media, whether it's Scandal, or whether it's just other conflicts around the world that seem to suck all the oxygen out of the room and take attention away from the area that is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today. And that's worth repeating. You hear about Ukraine, you hear about Gaza, you hear about Syria, all of these regional conflicts. The conflict that's taking place in Sudan today is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

There are over twelve million, some say up to fifteen million people that have been displaced in this conflict just in the last two years. There are over 25 million people facing severe food insecurity in this area. And among those people is a ethnic group indigenous to Sudan called the Nuba. And the Nuba people are home to the largest community of Christians in Sudan. And we work with that community and have been working with that community for over 25 years.

And we, when you said earlier you were talking about Nuba Exodus, Nuba Exodus is actually a project that we started last year to film a pastor and an evangelist who were telling us the story of a very heroic rescue operation that they conducted. In the capital city of Khartoum to help Christians evacuate when the new war began in April of 2023. And so your listeners can go to NubaExodus.com because we called the film Exodus. To which you'll, you'll, when you watch the trailer, you'll understand why. And we are hopefully going to be launching this film.

In September, and we hope to come to the area with you. Stu Epperson is one of our board members, and we've been on your show many times to talk about the persecuted church in Sudan. Stu's been and the whole Epperson family have been terrific supporters of this project, and we hope to do sort of a red carpet event. In the Winston-Salem area, which we'll certainly let your listeners know about who are in the area if they want to attend. And they can watch this film and get active, we say, for the persecuted.

Get active. Active compassion is what they need. And we have a lot of it in the church in the United States. And so it's a pleasure to be a part of this project. Absolutely.

And one of the things that I was thinking about before the show, Matt, was there is some terrible, terrible persecution going on. Like you said, not just in Sudan, but all over the world. But you said it is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. And sometimes people wonder why would somebody want to have to go through this? And I've studied a lot with Voice of the Martyrs and some other groups like that who help fight Christian persecution and really to highlight it.

But one of the things that I was thinking about was Revelation 21. And in Revelation 21, it talks about heaven. And the Bible says that one day we have this promise of God dwelling with humanity. He will wipe away all of our tears and he'll eliminate death, sorrow, crying, and pain. And I think there's a lot of people out there, Matt, who want to get involved.

They want to be a part of something and they feel like, hey, I want to help people. If they're listening today, how could they get involved right now?

Well, the first thing that they can do, which seems kind of cliché, but it's so vitally important, is to lift up our persecuted brothers and sisters in prayer. And that's important because we, part of the big part of the Christian life in following the example of Jesus. Just getting outside of our egos, right? And so when we pray and we think about other people and their suffering and their needs, we're not thinking about ours, we're not focusing on ourselves. And so much of our problems are just because we focus way too much on ourselves.

And we call them first world problems in the United States. You know, we get really upset if we have to wait too long in a line at a grocery store, right? We're in a grocery store and look at all this food all around us. And there's believers out there who are wondering where their next meal is coming from.

So we need to get outside of ourselves.

So the first thing that people need to do is they need to start a regular routine of praying for the persecuted church, wherever they are. And if this is the first time you're hearing about the persecuted church in Sudan. Congratulations, you've just been recruited to be praying for the church in Sudan. Start a regular routine of praying for the persecuted church. That's number one.

Number two is just inform yourself about the area and about the plight of our brothers and sisters, because if you don't know what's going on in their lives, it's hard for you to pray for them. You know, you can pray in general, but if you know specifically that there's a water crisis or a famine or a security concern, you can pray for those things just like you can when you know your friends and family members' needs.

So you can go to our website, persecutionproject.org. And you can sign up for a newsletter. We have a monthly newsletter, we also have e-alerts occasionally. And you can learn more about the persecuted church.

So that equips you how to pray. And lastly, you can support. And Matt, before you do, we're going to be right back. You're going to tell about the last way, and then we're going to get into some of the stories. We will be right back on Truth Talk Live.

Chris. Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. All right, this is Michael Zwick, and I am back with Matt Chancy. And before the break, Matt was telling us about what we can do to get involved. Yes, it's good to cry for our Christian brothers and sisters who are overseas, but it is another thing to actually take action when we have the chance to do so.

You know, it actually says in the word of God, it says, don't let anybody come to you and say, hey, if you're in need of food or if you're in need of water or whatever it is, and then you say, I'm going to pray for you, which is part of it. And then you walk away and you don't do anything to meet their physical needs. It says you haven't done what you've been called to do.

So the first thing, Matt, that we need to do for these Christians, brothers and sisters over in Sudan is you said we need to pray for them, but you said there's something else that we can do as well. Is that right? That's correct. We need to inform ourselves. We need to learn about ways that we can intercede more than just prayer because you'll be really shocked, Michael, at just how easy it is to uh uh bless the persecuted church in places like Sudan with a very small material giving.

I mean, compared to what it costs to do anything here. That was when my family and I lived in in East Africa for eight years, we were just shocked at just how little it took to make a huge impact in people's lives. This is no less the same in for Christians in Sudan. And so for instance, we have a therapeutic feeding program right now for children who are severely malnourished from this war. And it costs us less than a hundred dollars a month to bring a child from the brink of starvation back to stable, so kind of back to zero, where they can start eating normal food again.

It's less than $100. We thought it was going to be $100. Then it turned out they're treating a lot more kids than we thought.

So it's even cheaper than that.

So for us, Uh that just that's unbelievable. And the same thing goes for safe water. We're able to repair a broken borehole pump that provides safe water to a thousand people. uh for the cost of like a dollar a person.

So if you think, you know, well, I don't have much, there's nothing really I can do. No, no, no, no. You'd be shocked at how much you can do and how little goes a long way in these parts of the world. But as I said before, there's the physical relief, but also it's the encouragement. When you actually, it doesn't matter, it's kind of like the widows might.

You know, you read in the scriptures. And Christ said, Well, she gave more than everyone. And God just looks at that kind of giving and just loves it because that's giving that hurts. And so it doesn't have to be, you know, tons of money. You don't have to sell your house and give everything away.

You don't have to do that. It's just. Just wake up and say, you know what, there's more people in this world that need my prayers and intercessions besides myself. And what can I do to intercede?

So inform yourself. And that's why, if you go to our website at persecutionproject.org, you can learn about what's going on in Sudan. You can learn what's going on in the church there. You can learn what we're doing to address the needs of our brothers and sisters. And then it gives you steps that you can take in order to get active.

And you can choose different programs to get involved in. There's safe water programs. There's relief and shelter programs. There's discipleship and evangelism programs where we Distribute lots of audio Bibles, which are these little solar-powered, they're about the size of a Nokia brick phone, a small Nokia brick phone, and yet they are powered by solar panels and they contain the Word of God in the indigenous languages. And in a largely illiterate population, it's one of the most popular things that we've distributed, and people just love those Bibles.

And they've had a powerful testimony in the community in terms of converting the large population of Muslims that are in the area, because most of the persecution is coming from these Islamists in the government. And so when Christians are the only ones that are helping you and giving you the word of God on top of that, we're seeing lots of young people come to Christ. because they're being moved by the active compassion of the believers in their community. And so we also have a medical program. I mentioned the therapeutic feeding program, but we also sponsor several hospitals and clinics Our little organization provides more than eighty five percent of the medicine that makes it into the Nuba Mountains region, which is about the size of the state of Georgia.

So we're talking about a huge area, over two hundred clinics Several regional hospitals, and these are very small hospitals. We wouldn't call them hospitals here, but they're definitely there. And So, again, it doesn't take much to have a huge impact.

So, I just would encourage our listeners that if they are hearing this. For the first time, or if this is part of many messages that they've heard, and God is just knocking at their door saying, Hey, you need to get up and engage in this area. We just invite them to learn more about us and pray about how they can get active for the persecuted church and turn their compassion into action and mobilize their prayers and intercessions on behalf. Of our brothers and sisters in Christ, because it's not just an obligation that we have. And I'll be honest with you, Michael, I thought of that initially when I joined the board.

I was like, well, yeah, you know, I have an obligation. I have it pretty good. I won the lottery of life because I was born in America. And so I just sort of had this obligation to help those less fortunate. But then I just, the more I got involved with the organization and met the people and traveled to the field and lived in East Africa for several years.

It just, I realized that, you know, it's, I'm the one getting blessed out of this. I'm the one who's privileged to be a part of this community of faith. And uh it just changed my life forever. And it's So, I look at helping my brothers and sisters not as just this obligation that I have, but I look at it the way I would look at it if my own brother, my biological brother, called me up and said, Hey, you know, I just had a flat tire on I-65. Can you come and help me?

I'm not going to say, Well, I'm going to talk to my wife about it, we'll pray about it, and then we'll get back to you. You know, how would he feel that way? You know, of course, it's my pleasure to help my brothers, my and it's my great love to be able to help my own family members. And so, that's that's sort of the attitude that I had. Sadly, it wasn't always the attitude.

But it became very personal, and that community becomes your community. And really, it ceases to be sort of an us versus them kind of thing, which is how often we look at the persecuted church overseas And it just becomes us. And if we start looking at it that way, that it's not us and them, it's just us. And that starts to change not just the reality on the ground over there, but it changes the spiritual ground in our own hearts. Yeah, absolutely.

And when I think about and hear about giving to the poor and helping persecuted Christians and helping those who literally cannot help themselves, you know, we look at America, we look at America at people who are poor, and I've heard that our poor people are fat. You know, people say, hey, our poor people are fat, but other people in the world who are Christians, they literally don't know where they're going to get their next drink of water or they don't know where they're going to get their next meal. I've heard in some places they're happy to eat maybe three times a week. And this is not optional. It is not optional to help our brothers and sisters.

Jesus calls every single one of us to do it. It says in Matthew chapter 25, verse 31, it says, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and And the goats on the left. And then shall the king say unto the ones on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared before you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungered, and ye gave me meat.

I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me. I was sick, and ye visited me. I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see thee and hungered? When did we feed thee or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and took you in or naked and clothed you? Or when shall we say you were sick or in prison and came unto you? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Now, unfortunately, there's going to be some other people as well who come to Jesus and he's going to say, you didn't do those things. And they say, well, when did we not do it? And Jesus will say to them, which you have not done to the least of these, my brethren, you have not done it unto me.

Now, there's a lot of organizations that are out there asking for money and this and that. But this organization is persecutionproject.org. Go to the website right now. And when we come back, I'm sure you're going to be able to share some stories, Matt, of what you guys are doing to help out. Is that right?

Oh, yeah. We'll be right back. Truth Talk Live. Truth talk. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com.

All right, welcome back to Truth Talk Live. This is Michael Zwick. We are interviewing Matt Chancy. from Persecution Project. If you check out the website, persecutionproject.org.

And as we come back, I've got 1 John chapter 4, verse 17, and it says, Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

And here it is: if a man say that I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his brother also. And I'm looking at your website right now, Matt, and under persecutionproject.org. And if you, if you can go to your website, guys, who are listening right now, go to persecutionproject.org.

And one of the things that I love is that you guys meet people. Needs as far as the water and the food, but you're also meeting their spiritual needs as well. Is that right? That's right.

Well, almost everything that we do, Michael, is through the ministry of the local church.

So most of our relief outreach is whether it's passing out tarps to cover grass shelters during the rainy season or whether it's mosquito nets to protect people from malaria borne illness mosquitoes. Those things are provided and distributed by the local church mostly to their communities to make sure that everyone, the most vulnerable, are served first. the least of these, if you will, are served first. And that so people don't see this help coming from some. Faithless international organiza national organization, but it comes from the people of God.

Because that's, you know, Christ came and He did the work. He did the dirty work himself. He just didn't send others to do it. He sent himself, he went himself and then commissioned others to go and put themselves on the firing line, so so to speak, and do the dirty work and get down and wash the feet of the saints. And that's what we're called to do.

So what we do is we partner with the local church to do that. You're talking about stories. That we have, and of course, over 25 years, you get a few stories from this area. And actually, if you go to one of our websites, we started to promote this film and this outreach, this particular outreach of ours, is called NubaExodus.com. The film is called Exodus, and it tells the story of two Christian men.

Two Sudanese, they were Nuba, ethnic Nubas, living in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, among the Nuba diaspora. That were there. And one of them was a pastor of a church, and the other was an evangelist who was an assistant of the pastor, a young man who was an evangelist. And when in on April 15, 2023, when the new civil war began in Sudan between these two Islamist Generals that were fighting for control of the military government. The Christians in that city were caught in the firing line.

And so we received a distress call through many of our workers and volunteers who are ethnic Nubas. They received distress messages. from this pastor and this evangelist. And they said we have to get our we have lots of women and children here that we need to get out. It was too dangerous for the men to travel because they would be pulled off of the buses and either shot or forcefully conscripted or accused of being on the in the enemy's forces.

And so they just had to get the focus on getting women and children out of the city.

So they needed help to do that. And so we were able to partner with them secretly, raise the money to charter the buses that were available and get these people out on the several in the very harrowing five-day journey to get back down to the Nuba Mountains. And so this film documents this story. And what is so amazing is God is the greatest storyteller in all of these things. Because do you know the name of the pastor?

who led this effort to get the women and children out of this war zone. His name is Moses. It's Musa, which means Moses. And his evangelist assistant, who did a lot of the legwork going house to house to tell people where they needed to go. His name is Emmanuel.

So you have Moses and Emmanuel working together to get the people to safety. And so we didn't make this up. This was actually what happened. And so we said, we have to document this. And so we sent a film crew in.

Yeah after this Rescue had taken place, and we interviewed several of the people that they rescued. We interviewed Pastor Musa, or Moses, and his, and, and, uh, Emmanuel, his assistant, and just got some incredible testimony there. But you know what's even more a story that I find even more amazing. is is the people that made this rescue possible, these nameless heroes that you will that only are known to God, and you will get to meet them one day, but you don't but we it's important that we tell these stories to encourage one another. We recently received a notice of a gift from a lady who had been supporting us for like 20 years.

Her name was Judy Brown. There's nothing more American. American sounding up. She came from a little town in Colorado. And she recently passed away after having supported us.

for uh like twenty years And she never married, never had a family, but she worked at a bank. She had a normal job, she had friends, she had a church. And no, I guarantee you that nobody in her community knew that this woman had been giving. for 20 years towards a little ministry to help Christians like Pastor Musin Emmanuel in Sudan rescue hundreds. They rescued, over a few weeks, they rescued over 2,000 women and children that they got out of the city.

And this little lady, Judy Brown, was involved in that.

Now, that's another story that God writes. You know, God loves to pick these little shepherd boys out of nowhere that nobody's paying attention to and bring down giants and raise them up as kings. That's what He does. And so, if you think that there's nothing that you can bring to the table, there's nothing, there's no way you can have an impact among the persecuted church and these. Oppressive under these oppressive regimes in Africa, you're totally mistaken.

You are exactly the kind of person that God wants to use. You're exactly this, you fit. In all of the ways that God wants to use you, because if you come from a humble circumstance, if nobody knows who you are, you're exactly the kind of person that God wants to raise up to do great things.

So never be discouraged. Where you are in life, God has something for you to do. I don't care if you're bagging groceries at Publix. or whether you're sitting in a boardroom of a Fortune five hundred company, there is something for you to do. You just have to be available.

And when you tell God, hey, I'm available, watch out because you will be shocked at what can be accomplished for the glory of God. Absolutely. And when you told that story about Judy Brown, Matt, I was reminded of Matthew chapter 6, where it says in verse 1, it says, Take heed that you do not do your alms before men to be seen of them. Otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.

Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. And as I'm looking at the website right now, it's persecutionproject.org. It is so easy to give to this organization that is not only sharing, giving water, giving food, helping churches in Sudan where there are persecuted Christians, but they are also giving the living word of God. When I go to that website in the top right-hand corner, there's a red bar where it says send help now. And you guys make it pretty easy to give, don't you?

We do, but also we want to hear from you. There's a place in the comment field where you can actually send us a prayer request because one of the things we try to do as a staff is get together every day and pray for those who are supporting this ministry. We don't just pray for the persecuted, we pray for those who are supporting the ministry and the persecuted. If you join our team, don't be surprised if you get a call from Ms. Lisa in our office asking you if there are any prayer requests that you have for us to lift up, because we're a part of the same team.

We're part of the same family. And we need to be looking after each other because let me tell you something. When you start getting involved in helping the persecuted, you're going to be under attack. And we have experienced this. Many times as an organization and as staff, and just there have been times when there's enormous spiritual attack.

sometimes individually and sometimes like all of us at once. And we're just looking at each other saying, something big is about to happen because we are all under attack right now. And so being united in prayer for each other is very important. And so we try to have a very close-knit team. We have thousands of people that support us, but we try to keep it as personal as we can because we realize.

You know, we can't do it without this cooperation, without people responding in faith and generosity. And we want to bring them as close as we can to this work and to the people that they're serving. And so we brought people to Sudan with us on outreaches who just had invested so much and said, I want to meet these people. And we're like, okay, we'll make it possible. You know, it's not easy, but we'll make it possible.

But most people don't need that. But they do want to know this and hear the stories. And we try to connect them as As best we can, because it is, you want to know what's going on with your family, and we want to. share that with you. Yeah, and you know, I've actually heard it said that so many people, when they say that I'm depressed, I'm feeling down, I'm not happy, I, I, I, the word that they keep saying is I, I, I, I, I, I.

But it's funny when when we look to look to help other people, it actually gives us peace and we become happier ourselves. Have you seen that since you've been involved with the project? Of course, of course. I mean, and that's just not with involved in the persecution project, that's with anything. I mean, it's sometimes what we don't like.

About the circumstances or people who are around us. Really, what needs to change is ourself. And so when we make peace with that part of ourself and try to change ourselves, then magically, somehow, the issue that was bothering us before that somebody, you know, somebody was bothering us or whatever, they don't bother us anymore. Whatever that concern or that anxiety that we had no longer bothers us as it did before. And it doesn't mean that it disappeared or was solved.

It just means we're looking at it differently. We're looking at people differently. And so that's a very important Thing to remember in not just the work with the persecutor, but just in daily life.

So, yeah, your listeners can visit our website at persecutionproject.org. They can also go to our website, nubaexodus.com, to watch the trailer of this story about Moses and Emmanuel. And hopefully, they'll just be encouraged to see what God is doing around the world they may not have ever heard of. And we will be right back with our final segment after these messages. And we've got some good news, too.

There's some good news, good stories that have been going on. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. All right, this is Michael Zwick back for the final segment today of Truth Talk Live. And I've got a Matt Chancy, and we are highlighting, if you guys want to go to the website, it's persecutionproject.org, persecutionproject.org.

And there is a, Stu Epperson actually called it a Holocaust, Matt. Yeah. No, it certainly it certainly can be can meet those There have been millions and millions of Christians since the 1990s. that have been slaughtered in South Sudan and also North Sudan because of the ongoing wars that were that are, of course, prosecuted by Islamists in the government for the most part. And it's a tragic.

It's a tragedy. There's been a million NUBA. We're talking about specifically the NUBA community. In the last twenty five, thirty years, a million NUBA have been killed in these different conflicts. And what's interesting is that some of the guys that are currently fighting, the two leaders that are battling each other, they were both involved in slaughtering the Nuba people in the 1990s and early 2000s.

So when we're talking about the Nuba people, we're talking mostly about the Nuba church. And most of the Christians in Sudan come from the Nuba community. Most of the churches you find have been planted by Nuba pastors or evangelists. And that comes mainly as a result of missionary activity that's been going on in this area of Sudan for the last 100 years, where there's been a resurgence of Christianity. Uh the Nuba kingdom used to be the kingdoms of Nubia used to be a Christian area in northern Sudan, and they were uh driven o out by uh Islamist invasion for about five hundred years.

Many of them ended up in the m these mountains Of southern Sudan, and they lost their faith over time just through isolation. And now the renewed missionary activity over the last hundred years has brought it back. And now we believe that a majority of the population, there's about 3 million that now live in the Nuba area. A majority of them are now professing Christians, we believe. And so there's just a hunger for God's word like we've never seen.

And that's kind of illustrated in a story of a Of a disabled man. He's got cerebral palsy. His name is Abdul Aziz. And we've met, we've known him for over 10 years. He still farms.

He was crawling around on the ground when we met him and told us he was a farmer. He would plant seeds and harvest for people, and that was how he made his living. And we were able to secure one of those tricycle wheelchairs that he can use with his hands to move around. uh because his legs were immobilized. and he was able to be mobile now.

And so it's radically changed his life over the last few years. But every time we go and visit the community where he lives, he always comes and visits us. And one of the last times we went to see him or we went to this community, he saw us in the distance and shouted and we greeted him and then he came to our compound where we were staying. And he asked for an audio Bible. And we said, sure, we'll probably get one for you tomorrow.

Come and see us then. Uh and that night it It just rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. And then in the morning, we got up and went outside, and Abdul Aziz. had slept under one of our trucks So he was in the mud. He was covered in mud.

We didn't realize that his home was not nearby.

So he just was afraid. We said, why did you just come in? Why did you sleep under the truck? And he said, well, I was afraid you'd be gone in the morning. You forget.

And I really want that Bible. And so we went and got him an audio Bible immediately. And it just convicted us. Here's this precious human being that just loves the Lord and wants to listen to the Word of God and was willing to sleep in the mud in a rainstorm under a vehicle all night long in order to make sure he got a copy of God's Word.

So I just felt really convicted because I'm not sure. I'm examining my own heart. Like, would I, you know, be that dedicated?

So it's just it's there's so many touching stories like this. We just we've met some fascinating people, just real heroes. Again, people you will never meet in the course of your life, and you'll only meet them in heaven But we have a lot of great stories to tell one day in glory. And if you want to be a part of those stories, you can do it by visiting persecutionproject.org. You can join the team.

You can get on our prayer list, you can learn about what's happening, and you can decide for yourself how you want to engage. There's lots of ways to do it. And we are happy to receive as much help as we can, however, you can help.

So, thank you very much again for this opportunity to. to share this with you. And uh I was just being I was thinking there was a you were uh giving us some great scripture earlier. And I remember there is also a scripture in Proverbs 24 that I've referenced a lot in this work. Perhaps you've.

You've heard of this. It talks about rescuing those who are being led away to death. And holding back those staggering towards slaughter. If you say, we knew nothing about this, Does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it?

Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

So a lot of times, willful ignorance can be a problem where we just don't want to know what's going on. And we don't want to know what's going on because we know that knowledge obligates us to do something about it because that's exactly what our Savior did. He knew, he did not hide his ears or his eyes from our condition. He condescended. He came down from heaven.

He became fully man, and he experienced all of our problems. He experienced all of our rejection and betrayals and humiliation and false accusations and all the pain. And he just went right down to the very depths of human suffering to redeem us. And he says to us, you know, pick up your cross and follow me. He's like, I showed you the path, I showed you how to do it.

Now, pick up your cross and follow me. And that is a tough. Tough thing to do, but he assures us he's with us and that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

So he gives us the ability to do this. But it doesn't mean the road is going to be easy, and it doesn't mean we're not going to be inconvenienced at times, but we have to change the way we see Uh these trials, people will throw up their hands and say, you know what, why should I get involved? It's never going to change. These crises just never seem to cease. You know, why bother?

Well, I'm very glad that Jesus did not take that attitude with us. Because he could very easily take that position and say, Oh, these people keep falling down. I keep picking them up, putting them right, and then they fall into sin again. And I keep doing it over and over again. I'm constantly rescuing them.

But he never sleeps. He never gets tired of loving us, forgiving us. Sanctifying us, calling us to something better, calling us to be what he always wanted for us to be. Um you know, standing before him face to face. Perfect relationship with him.

And he says, The way I want you to do this is to love your brother, to love not just your brother, love your neighbor, not just love your neighbor, love your enemy, and pray for those who are persecuting you. And that's a tough road. But I'll tell you what's even tougher, not doing that, living selfishly, thinking about your own problems all day long. That is a clear path to misery. And so Jesus says, I will help you avoid that.

But it's not the path we would normally choose, but it's the path that works and works very effectively. And the more you do it, you just meet so many fascinating people and you realize that the family of faith is huge and it's just filled with real amazing diversity, people with diverse talents. And skills. And spiritual giftings that you get to benefit from. We're kind of in our bubble in the West.

And sometimes it's good to get outside of that bubble and realize what God has been doing throughout the rest of the world and receive the benefits of the giftings that the Holy Spirit has taught these people in these communities who have gone through trials and tribulations that we never experienced. They can teach us so much about the Lord. They can teach us so much about love and faith. We just have to make ourselves available. And that is usually through the path of service.

It absolutely is. And when you were talking about that, I was reminded of a movie. It was called About Schmidt. And I don't know if you remember it, but it was back in 2002 with Jack Nicholson. And this guy's wife passes away, and he becomes absolutely miserable.

And he tries to do all of these things that make him happy. But at the very end of the movie, he decides he wants to sponsor a child, a very poor child in another country. And at the end of the movie, the guy's name is Warren Schmidt. It's Jack Nicholson in the movie. When he sponsors this boy, he gets a letter from somebody back, and I believe it was a Christian organization.

And they're talking about how... His donations, his financial contributions have been helping this young boy. And all of the purpose and all of the ways that Jack Nicholson was trying to find purpose in his life, he started to cry and weep. And he realized that we become happy when we help other people. And if you go to the website right now, it's persecutionproject.org.

Go to the website right now, check it out. I mean, there's about us, programs, blog, get involved. There is a red button on the top that says send help now. You may be able to give $100. You may be able to give $50.

You may be able to give $5 or $10. But you know what? I believe you were talking a little bit before about the widow's might. Is that right? That's right.

And it really doesn't take much to do so much. We are and we've been blessed with so much in this country. We even if we're struggling, what we have is still a lot more than what many of our brothers and sisters have. And And when you employ that widow's might to the work of the Lord, he multiplies it over and over and over again. You'll be shocked at how much.

can be done when you just it's not about the the money, it's about opening yourself up to be available to the Lord to do great things on behalf of those who are persecuted. It's picking up that cross and following Christ. And just it's just and look at what happened in history for all of us. Matt, I want to thank you for coming on today. Persecutionproject.org.

Get involved, help out, and thanks again, Matt. You're awesome. Appreciate it, guys. Take care. Truth talk.

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