Each week VOM staff members and those volunteering with the ministry gather for a time of worship and prayer. We pray for specific requests from our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. We pray for VOM projects to assist these brothers and sisters. And we pray for the requests of VOM readers from around the US who ask us to pray for specific needs in their lives.
Today one of my colleagues shared stories and testimonies from a recent visit to Nigeria and meeting with Christians who face persecution at the hands of radical Islamic terrorists from Boko Haram in that nation. And at the end of his presentation we had a special time of prayer for the girls kidnapped last month by Boko Haram.
On each chair was a special card with one of the 180 names that have been publicly released of those kidnapped girls. We were invited to pray specifically for the person whose name we held in our hands. Some of them are Christian girls being pressured to convert to Islam by their captors. Some (15) are Muslim girls, reminding us that Muslims also suffer at the hands of Boko Haram. And we know that not all the names have been released publicly, so we pray for those “known but to God” also being held captive.
And finally we were invited to remember the Biblical mandate to pray for those who persecute, and we prayed that God’s spirit would move mightily among the Boko Haram fighters and that many would be reached with the saving message of salvation through the shed blood of Christ. “The Apostle Paul was the Boko Haram of his day,” we were reminded. “Until the love and the grace and the blood of Christ reached out and saved him.”
We pray that God will raise up more “Pauls” out of the “Sauls” that are currently persecuting Christians as part of Boko Haram.
Will you join VOM staff today in linking up with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria through your prayers?
Todd Nettleton has served the persecuted church and VOM more than 16 years. He has been interviewed more than 2000 times by various media outlets. He's the author of Restricted Nations: North Korea, and served on the writing team for FOXE, Extreme Devotion, Hearts of Fire and other VOM books.
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