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FOLLOW-UP ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
PRAYER FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
He also talks about his recent
visit to the killing fields of Colombia where the
church is growing at an "unprecedented" rate despite the
on-going violence
SANTA ANA, CA (November 13, 2000)
-- Terry Madison, President and CEO of Open Doors
With Brother Andrew, USA, has urged the thousands of Christians throughout the United States who
prayed for persecuted believers on the International
Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on Sunday, November 12, to "keep on praying daily for our
suffering brothers and sisters around the world
that are persecuted for their faith."
Madison, who has traveled widely
around the world to meet with and report on the
Christians in the Suffering Church, said that he was delighted to
hear that more than 300,000
churches in 130 countries took part in praying for their
brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith.
However, he stated that we need
to continue to pray "without ceasing" for the 200
million believers in 60
countries who daily face persecution.
"Our brothers and sisters
around the world in the Persecuted Church don't just
get persecuted on November 12, but they face this every day of the year," he said. "They are
challenged every morning, when they wake up, to stand
firm for Jesus one more time. For them, persecution is a
day-by-day event. They don't
know if they will be arrested, have their house burned down or be put in jail. They may even face
the ultimate, to die for their faith. "Persecution
is a constant factor each day of the year for these people. So while we value the special emphasis on
November 12, we need to continue the battle
for them before the Throne of Grace every day in our personal devotions, our family devotions and in
our church life. We need to remember in
prayer those who have remained faithful to Christ and for whom He
died and for whom they are
willing to die with that kind of identification."
"ONE OF THE MOST
HEART-WRENCHING AND HEART-EXHILARATING TRIPS OF MY LIFE"
Madison then revealed that he has
just returned from "one of the most heart-wrenching
and heart-exhilarating trips of my life in more than 30 years of traveling the world in Christian
work."
He went on, "I went to
Colombia to see the church at work. Yet to sit with and
talk with godly men and women who put their lives on the line
every day and who do not know
whether they will be alive tomorrow... or next week...or next
month, is such a sobering feeling.
"Colombia is in the midst of a
revival that is unprecedented in its Christian history.
The troubles in that land are so pervasive that, for many, the
only hope is to find a way
out... and many are finding that escape through Christ. And they are staying there as Christ's
soldiers, not as members of the para-militaries,
or guerillas or narco-traffickers. This is what makes them so
susceptible to kidnapping and assassination, because they are
being so wonderfully
effective."
FORCED TO BE A KILLER AT THE AGE OF
EIGHT
He shared the story of one
12-year-old boy he met that he has called Roberto. "At
the age of eight, this little boy was kidnapped by one of the
armed groups in Colombia and
turned into a boy solider," said Madison. "He was taught in the ways of armed conflict
and guerilla activities and was forced to
prove his loyalty to the cause by killing someone. He was forced,
on penalty of his own death if
he did not, to kill a man who had been kidnapped and
who was unable to pay the ransom.
"This then eight-year-old boy
suffered nightmares for months thereafter. He was
full of grief and recrimination for what he had done, and yet he
had no choice unless he wanted
to die himself. Out of that mess, this young boy was able
to get away from this influence and he ended up in a center that
Open Doors has set up for
children between the ages of eight and 12. Here they live
in a Christian community with caring adults working with them,
providing education and
healthcare and helping them get over the trauma.
"A number of the children in
this center are orphaned because their parents were
killed as part of the violence of that land. Others were brought
to the center by their parents
who said, 'If you don't take them from us, the armed forces
will recruit them from us and they will turn them into killers;
our only way of saving them is
to turn them over to you.' Others are also from families
where their parents are alive but they cannot afford to feed them, and also they fear that an insurgency
group will recruit them.
"While we were there we were
told that the word on the street is that the armed
forces of the various groups, of which there are many - both
leftists and rightists, are
going to start recruiting children as young as age six. To hear
that and then to meet sweet freckled-face Roberto, now age 12,
with a baseball cap was
something else. He showed us some of his drawings. His artwork
was filled with pictures of violence, soldiers and guns. I saw his prized model 747 airplane that someone
had given him on his shelf in the dorm room
where he lives; one of his few possessions. He's like a boy who
lives next door to us or could
be our own son. It was very moving and we need to pray
for children like this that are caught up in this violence.
"These children aren't
necessarily Christians at the time, but they come to know
the Lord when they get to our center and this one of many
outreaches that Open Doors has
throughout Colombia."
A FARM TO TRAIN COLOMBIAN CHRISTIAN
LEADERS
Madison says that he visited a farm
that Open Doors has set up where Colombian
Christian leaders learn the Bible in a structured way and also are taught the techniques of farming.
"It is very intensive, and we teach them how
to be self-supporting, so that when they go off into these wild
regions, they can care for
themselves and their families.
"This particular farm is only
about an hour-and-a-half from one of the key armed forces areas
and these lines of troops regularly make raids into some of
the nearby towns and sometimes come perilously close to the
property. The Christians there
have prayed that the Lord would preserve them by placing angels
every three meters around the perimeter of the property and their testimony to me was that they have
never had any of these armed forces enter that
piece of property. But the intensity of the warfare is
accelerating and they said that
they are now praying that the Lord will station an angel every meter around the perimeter of the
property, that they might be spared the kidnapping
and the rape and the murder that goes on."
Madison shared that on one day he
was able to visit a refugee camp for displaced
Christians, and then he visited some of the widows of men killed
by the various armed groups,
then the graves of Christian martyrs and placed flowers
on them. Finally he met with a number of key Christian leaders. "As we sat around the table and
talked with these very brave men, I realized that
within a few days they would be going into the remote areas of the
country with their Bibles to teach. As I was eating with them and
we were laughing and praying
and sharing stories, I said to myself, 'Some of these brothers
will not be here this time next year. They may even lose their
lives next week or next month.'
"It's that violent and
challenging. But in the midst of this -- and this is the
wonder of it all -- the church is growing and brothers in Christ
there have declared themselves
'dead unto the world and dead men unto Christ' and so
they are incredibly fearless and bold. And having considered
themselves already dead, then
they don't fear that anymore and they just get on with their
lives.
"That's why I think that the
follow-up to the International Day of Prayer is so
important. It's wonderful to pray on a given date in November
around the world, but these
brothers and sisters face the challenge of death every day and
the challenge of trying to provide for tens of thousands of
Christian refugees who are
being driven off their land by the insurgency that goes on and
by the narco-traffickers. They are showing up in larger and larger numbers in different areas all over
Colombia.
"We visited one of the refugee
centers, which are very primitive. So many of the
children there are sick with all kinds of diseases and are living
on the edge; again Open Doors
is there, trying to address some of their needs. "In
the midst of all of this horror and violence and death and mayhem
and rape, we see the church
which is strong and getting stronger."
For further information on the ministry of
Open Doors, call 949-752-6600 or write:
Open Doors
with Brother Andrew
PO Box 27001, Santa Ana, CA
92799.
The Open Doors USA Website is at www.opendoorsusa.org
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