I twitch a little to when I hear those words, heart aching just a bit and a whole other part of me wanting to declare, "Why do they get a day? They deserve every day. They deserve every Sunday to be the day when we freely, collectively bow before a God and say "We remember. We remember our brothers our sisters in chains."
This isn't the persecuted church that we pray for-- this is OUR church that we pray for.
This morning I donned my GAP jeans, trendy-ish shirt, and did my hair. My kids ate an unhealthy breakfast and drank apple cider that I bought yesterday at the cider mill. We went to church, I left my kids in the nursery and bowed my head for three minutes to say thank you for what you've given and please help those who have left or who are being persecuted.
Persecuted.
Have I ever taken a moment to mull that word over in my head. Let it rage in my brain along with what's for dinner and what blog post I want to write next? Have I allowed words like sister, family, brother, mother, aunt, and uncle be fused with words like beheaded, hanged, sentenced to death, beaten, disappeared? Probably not. I pray that fate would never befall me or my family and yet I don't pray it for the other members family.
I've got some amazing friends. I know their names and we have walked each other through some of the darkest times in our lives. Names like Kristin, Erin, Amy, Johanna, Christel, Michelle, Shannon, Meghann come to mind. We've prayed and cried and begged for varying reasons. When something hurts the heart of one of these women, it hurts mine too. Reaching even further than that if someone in our church of 700-ish hurts, we reach out to them. What if names like Benham Irani, Yang Rongli, and Ilmurad Nuliev became a daily part of my prayer journal? What if instead of just names thought of once a year, I prayed for them like they were my daughter or son. How would I pray if that were my dad imprisoned? What would I do if that were my mom or my best friend?
So instead of observing The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, I say we observe every day as a Day of Prayer for OUR Church...the Persecuted Church. The oceans don't divide us, language barriers are of no consequence, and the gates of Hell will not prevail over us, because we are His church...and we are persecuted.
Now what? I ask myself the same thing. My brothers, my sisters are persecuted and now what? As only God can, he has strategically placed each of us to have an impact, and have a voice. I challenge you to share yours. Here are some links with action steps to get involved...
and of course,
