“For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ

but also the privilege of suffering for him.” (Phil. 1:29)

Amid the daily challenges and opportunities of working with partners in many contexts around the globe, we are blessed by great examples of faith. Here are a few samples from last month:

1. Beatings and Boldness: We receive regular reports from Central Asia. Caught in the tragedy of uprooted lives, Muslim refugees and others are watching the KING of GLORY movie in their heart languages, asking for Bibles, and turning to Christ — even entire families. These new believers are enduring arrests and beatings as they spread the gospel.

Ten days ago, we received this: “Pray for our Afghan evangelist who has been arrested and brutally beaten several times. He has recovered from his latest beatings and tomorrow will launch out on an evangelistic push into the mountains. KoG SD cards will go with him.” We regularly receive similar testimonies.

2. A prayer of distress and hope was passed on to us today from some Afghan refugees in a neighboring country. The brother who sent it wrote that most of their children cannot attend school as they cannot afford the books, uniforms and bus fare. Here’s the prayer:

“Our dear Heavenly Father, we come to You through Jesus Christ our Savior and ask You to look upon all our needs. We refugees have no one apart from You who can meet our needs and help us in our distress! The entire world has shown us that we are not needed and are [not] important to anyone as refugees, but Lord, we are Your children, and we come to ask our loving Father to help us in our distress. Come quickly Jesus, take us so that we would be with You, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has given us your eternal life, abundant life that will be without tears, hunger and death. 'I would have fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!' (Psalm 27:13-14) Amen."

3. An Iranian's Testimony: "I was born and raised as a Shia Muslim in Iran…. I always knew deep within that there was something more and that 'Islam was not it.' I firmly believed there was a God, and I told my small family that I was searching and hoped to find who God was. The day I finally left Iran to join my wife and daughter in North America, I had no idea what was waiting for me. A Christian friend of our family emailed me a link to the Farsi KING of GLORY movie. I watched the entire video.

"Some weeks later, the same Christian friend came for a visit to our home. The same video was paused when his knock came at my door. We welcomed him and his wife in for lunch, and as they were being seated, he said, 'Oh, I see you are watching KING of GLORY!' I said, 'Yes, I am watching it again!' He asked what I thought of it, and I told him, 'I watched it as soon as I got off my international flight — and something happened to me as I watched it. Jesus Christ came to live in me, and now I not only know who God is — I know who I am!' I went on to tell him, 'Ever since I came to know Christ, I have felt His presence daily and in difficult times. He has always been there for me.' I went on to memorize verses from the Word of God, and that has helped me immensely. My Christian friend invited my wife and me to his home for a week, where they discipled me in the Word."

Amid an intense and blessed month for ROCK Resources and ROCKids, we close with this from Tanzania: “Next month, 19 girls are set to be the first graduates from Tumaini Jipya (New Hope) Secondary School. Whether or not they continue their education, please pray even now that they will continue to cherish the truths they have learned and, even without the protection and support of the school staff, choose to continue walking with the Lord.” 


Amen! Thank you, dear fellow workers in the gospel, for your prayers and your part in it all!