This is the Truth Network. I'm standing next to a longtime friend, a prayer warrior, and a woman who advocates for the persecuted church abroad with Frontlines International, Ellen Grigsby. What an honor to talk to you. You've been at this a long time, serving the church abroad. People don't here don't know what our brothers and sisters in Christ face on a daily basis, do they?
They don't. It is unbelievable what they face, and they are our. They go before us. It might come here one day.
Well, and every time I talk to you, I hear you testify. We're at a cool conference in Colorado Springs, and I was able to just pull you aside for a second in between all your other, you know, big press stuff. And I'm with my daughter Faith. We were just wanting to talk to you about, like, what. Put it in your heart to get into this work, to really love, advocate, support.
Tell us that, and then tell us what all you do for these folks. First, when I was with another organization for 23 years, I was just amazed to know how many Christians are persecuted, and of course, that number has just grown to 380 million Christians who are persecuted outside of this country for their faith in Christ. Just to know that He is not just founder of another religion; He is the Savior of anyone who would believe that His death. Accomplished our redemption from our sins. That got you into it, and so Frontlines.
Describe the work that you do with Frontlines that they do all over the world.
Well, I do stuff mostly in this country, although I have in the past gone to different countries and taken Bibles in underground and that kind of thing. But we have the field who does that now, and we are so.
So honored to be in several places in the Middle East, taking in hundreds of thousands of Bibles and in various formats, and also into all over Southeast Asia, Central Asia. Just helping Christians in discipleship training, they they just are so hungry for that. It's often unsafe for them to do that in their countries. I'm here with my daughter Faith, who's host of Truth for the Youth, the Truth Network, college student, rural entrepreneur, loves the Lord. Faith, what kind of question comes to your mind when you think about Ellen's work with the persecuted church around the world?
Well, I think my first question is: I'm just curious, like what first opened your eyes to like The reality of persecution of Christians and how did you get involved with Frontlines International?
Well, I was with another organization for so long, and it's a long story. How some of us decided to work with Frontlines International, and because we are smaller than normal. Long-time Bible agencies, we are able to maybe get in a little bit more undercover.
So all we do is completely underground work, and I just hurt for these people who are traumatized, who have lost members of their family, who have seen their parents or their children. Killed, maybe macheted, in the middle of the night in Nigeria, or who are arrested because they have a Bible or a discipleship training manual or something like that because they're of their governments. Yeah.
So, for all the young people out there, or a young person like myself listening, who hears these stories and think, "I'm only one person. What could I possibly do?" What would you tell them? How they can have an impact in this organization? Praying is the main thing, and we have a weekly prayer email. You just register for that at FrontLinesInternational.org.
Register for the prayer email. It tells you so much about what is going on, and it is. It changes things. That's what we are built on. Prayer it fuels everything.
But we also, of course, raise support too to get these things done. But they can, your friends can also go on courier trips with us to these countries. They can take materials, if you know what I mean. They can also take money because sometimes we are not able to wire it into certain places, and we need to pay for some of the Bibles that we we get printed and that kind of thing.
So they can go with us. On trips? How would you describe? You mentioned three hundred eighty million. I can't even get my my mind around that number.
But we know that you know places like North Korea, where you'll be put in a death camp if they find out you're a Christian, or they'll kill you right on the spot, put your kids in slavery, or kill them too. Other countries, I heard a recent number that that the Bible's illegal in thirty five countries or so. And but talk about what these people face. Like, give us. You know, put put a face on the suffering.
You know, instead of we throw out numbers, but what is you know what is it like? I mean, Faith has led Bible studies at her college campus. Faith, how many times have they run in with machine guns and machetes to shut you guys down from those Bible studies? None. And that that's a thought.
A wow, you know, that's a whole thing. But it kind of makes you wonder. Wait, is this Jesus worth following? Is he worth serving? Is he worth living for?
Is he worth dying for? Ellen, what is the plight of these Christians who are? Beaten, persecuted, killed, and all that. Describe a little bit so our listeners can kind of follow you on a little trip. What would they see?
They see it as suffering, but a privilege to. To suffer for, for the Lord Jesus Christ, because they know He is the way and the truth and the life, and what an honor to even die for Him. But they are so hurting; they have lost their own children. I have lost my daughter, and it is one of the hardest things I've ever been through in my life. But I can't imagine I have time to grieve.
They have to just move on to where they're more protected, and it is the it's just unbelievable. But they know they're going to see them when they all meet again. The hope of the resurrection. But God bless you for working with these folks. What's the website, folks, to learn more about front lines?
There's a lot of ministries, what's the Martyrs Persecution Project Foundation? Our friend Brad Phillips, who's here at the same conference, that are doing work directly with folks that are. Beaten up and battled, attacked.
Sometimes it's an intellectual attack.
Sometimes it's it's a financial attack. But sometimes it is physical. They will kill you if they know if they find out you're a believer. Website for folks to learn more about your great ministry. Frontlines plural, FrontlinesInternational dot org, and there is so much about Bible access these days that we are working on doing a fascinating thing on that that I will tell you about later.
