Tens of thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters in the northeastern border region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are suffering. They have lost homes, farms, livestock, churches and family members. Safety, security and even dignity have been taken away from them, but because of their eternal hope in Christ, they have a joy and peace that their attackers cannot destroy.
The Islamists who are attacking our Christian family in the DRC are experiencing another kind of suffering. They are lost. Committing murder and sexual assault in the name of a false religion. Without peace or joy. Facing an eternity apart from God, in Hell.
Beware of anyone who tries to convince you that being faithful to God eliminates suffering in this world. That idea negates the obedient sacrifices of God’s faithful servants throughout Scripture, all other martyrs throughout church history and, most importantly, Jesus Christ our Lord. For the eternally significant joy that was set before him, he bore the fallen world’s temporal suffering on the cross (Hebrews 12:2). Our Lord suffered obediently instead of being delivered from the pain (Luke 22:42), and in many situations throughout our lives, we are called to do the same. Suffering well, for God’s glory, is what it means to be like Christ.
Everything we do at VOM is meant to fulfil our calling to bring you into fellowship with our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters. We bring you their true testimonies of faith so you will be inspired by their exemplary faith and remember them (Hebrews 13:3), understanding their plight as if you were in their place. This kind of understanding always leads us to pray for them, and then the Lord directs each of us as to how we might serve them.
In short, we seek to see God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. Every person you meet through this newsletter, and thousands of others in the DRC, will be united just as “they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee...” (Christ’s high priestly prayer, John 17:21). As we display unity of love and fellowship with persecuted members of Christ’s body who have suffered, we are a powerful witness to the lost — including the persecutors who attack them. Christ prayed that we would be “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:23).
From our CEO, Ashley.
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