The reader in the U.S. will probably never know that
Christian in the jungle, yet the chain is there. In order to share this
fellowship, the important thing is not that they know each other, but that each
link in the chain shares fellowship with the links on either side of them.
Let me show you what I mean, using the example of our work
in Colombia. A couple in America reads The
Voice of the Martyrs newsletter and feel the prompt of the Holy Spirit to
donate some funds. They decide to donate monthly to VOM and start praying
regularly for the persecuted church. Meanwhile, their money comes to VOM and is
assigned to meet needs in Colombia.
A VOM worker for Colombia, let’s call him Charlie, determines
the best use of the funds. Charlie takes the funds to Colombia and charges
VOM’s local workers with distributing the funds. The local workers use the
funds to buy several boxes of Bibles in Spanish and a motor for a motorboat.
They then give the bibles and the motor to an evangelist who is a former guerrilla member. He can go into areas of the jungle that are restricted to outsiders.
Our evangelist, who we’ll call Andres, loads the Bibles into
a wooden boat and uses the motor to carry him deep into the jungle into a “red
zone” controlled by the guerrillas. There Andres meets with pastors he has been
mentoring who live in the “hot” zones, where FARC guerrillas control the people
and persecute the church. He spends time encouraging them, answering their
questions and praying with them. He gives each pastor a stack of Bibles to
distribute. These pastors will give the Bibles to Christians in their villages who
they are mentoring, along with people they meet who are curious about
Christianity. The pastors reach even deeper into the jungle than Andres can.
So from the hearts of a couple in America, the chain of
fellowship is formed that reaches remote regions of Colombia. Charlie tells the
Colombian workers about the love and support the believers in America have for
Colombia Christians. Our workers tell Andres. Andres tells the jungle pastors,
and the pastors tell the Christians they work with. Each link in the chain is influenced
only by the links on either side of it, but each link is crucial in carrying
the bond of fellowship on to the others.
The bond is further strengthened when Christians living in the red zones tell their testimonies of faith living under hardship, and the stories travel back up their chain until they are told in the VOM newsletter and encourage even more Christians to become a link in the chain.