Summer Talkback Series - Nik Ripken on Non-Negotiables from Believers in Persecution
Download MP3Alright. Good evening. Good evening. Hope everyone's having a good night. Everyone doing okay?
Speaker 1:We got any thumbs up? I got 1, 2, 3 Alright. A million. Perfect. My name is Dwight Castle.
Speaker 1:I'm one of the pastors here at Redeemer. I'm the pastor of missions. And I'd love to welcome you to our 3rd of 4 summer talk backs that we're having here at Redeemer. And for those of you who maybe are not, part of this church or familiar with this setup, I'm gonna give just a quick outline of what you can expect for tonight. What we do is this talk back is kinda split into 2 parts.
Speaker 1:First part is the talking. 2nd part is the talking back. So we have a speaker who comes and speaks on a topic for roughly 40, 45 minutes. And Then the second half, after a brief break, will be your opportunity to ask questions. So the way that we're gonna do that tonight is we have a link that you can get that might be up here at some point.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we're gonna put it up now or later. But there's a website, slido.com. And, it's super simple. I'm looking up there like it's gonna magically appear. There it is.
Speaker 1:So we're putting it up here now, so you can go ahead and get an idea of it. Because at any point throughout the night, you can go there. Just enter that code, talkback 3, and you can type in a question that you would like for Nick to be able to answer at the end. And then the rest of you, when you go to type in a question, can see all the other questions that have already been asked. And you can like them if you have the same question, if you're interested in hearing the answer.
Speaker 1:So it'll rank them for us. And then, after we come back from that brief 5 minute break, we'll begin to ask questions until we run out of time. So That's the general format for tonight. And we're really excited to have Nick Ripken with us tonight, and we're gonna introduce him in just a minute. But before we do that, I'm gonna open us up in prayer.
Speaker 1:So if you all join me in prayer. Lord, we're so thankful for the opportunity to be here tonight, especially when we consider this topic. Lord, we're just thankful that we live in a country where we have the freedom to be able to gather without fear for our lives or for persecution. It's a gift. And I pray that we will steward it well.
Speaker 1:I pray that for all of us who know you here that we will consider how to use that gift well, how to speak of you freely to those in our lives. We pray that as we gather tonight, we will have ears to hear and hearts that are open to hear the word that you have for us to pray that you will bless him. Bless him and his work. Bless him and his wife and their ministry. Bless him tonight as he speaks.
Speaker 1:We pray that you will deliver your message us that we can be mutually build up and edified, encouraged to do the good works that you've already planned and advanced for us. And so, Lord, we thank you for the opportunity here tonight. We pray that you'll be with us in our midst. We know that you are. We love you in your name.
Speaker 1:Amen. One more reminder, and I'll say this again at the end. We have one more talk back after tonight, and it's actually next week. We're gonna be having Elizabeth Woodson come speaking on the topic, The Gospel as a Better Story. So we're excited to have her here, same place and same time next Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Now we're honored to have Nick here. He's a leading expert on the persecuted church. And there's a lot more that we could say about him, but I thought rather than me introduce him, I'm gonna introduce someone else who's gonna introduce him. Because that's more efficient. But I'm I'm actually excited to have Hannah come up here.
Speaker 1:And so Hannah Hicks works with me in our missions department, and she's the reason that anything ever makes any sense in the missions department. So I am thankful for her. And if you know her, get a chance to thank her for what she does. But she's a personal friend of Nick and his wife, and we're thankful to have them here, really, because of Hannah's connection. So she's gonna introduce
Speaker 2:I'm glad y'all are here tonight. I grew up with the Repkins overseas. I grew up knowing them as uncle Nick and aunt Ruth. Their counsel greatly impacted my family's ministry, and I'm really excited and grateful that y'all get to soak in some of their wisdom and warmth tonight. They've spent over 3 decades serving in North Africa and the Middle East, and, Uncle Nick has written several books, including The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience, which if you haven't read them, they're really great.
Speaker 2:You should. And tonight, they're gonna be sharing with us about the persecuted truths. So welcome, uncle Nick.
Speaker 3:I think what you need to know about Ruth and I let me see if I can get this down so I can see you all. Don't think I can. Is that Ruth and I are both PKs. She's a pastor's kid, and I'm a pagan's kid. And, and, I I I know what it's like, to be outside the kingdom of God and to remodel and build houses for Christians.
Speaker 3:And and I don't ever remember our family being treated well. I don't remember an invitation to church, let alone to Christ. I I don't remember a positive witness whatsoever. I came my wife, can't remember not knowing Christ. By the time she was 9 years of age, she met a a missionary from China, and that just sealed the deal for her.
Speaker 3:I, my dad came and got me off the baseball applied for at the cheese factory, you got the job. Applied for at the cheese factory, you got the job. So you get to go to college. I said, what's the bad news? He said, you start tonight.
Speaker 3:I said, dad, I've got 11 weeks of high school left. He said, you know, I'll use foolish. Don't be foolish, but that's not the word he used. But I'm aware of that, but do you want to go to college or not? And I said, Yes, I want to go to college.
Speaker 3:He said, You start tonight. So from 7 o'clock in the evening to 3:30 in the morning, that's what I did the last 11 last set 11 weeks of high school. And it was in that factory in the middle of the night working by myself where I heard the audible voice of God calling me to Himself. It happened 3 times over a 45 minute period of time. And finally I got on my knees and my mom had 7 kids.
Speaker 3:And when you have 7 kids, you love Vacation Bible School. And before we were old enough to plow or or carry bricks or mix mortar, mom would take us and we knew which which of the Methodists or the Presbyterians or the Baptists had the best cookies or the best, Kool Aid or whatever. And but I, had some of those stories go deep in my heart and and I knew enough of who Jesus was, to give my life to him. And and the first two pastors I went to told me I wasn't a Christian because God did not speak to people direct anymore. Well that didn't bother me, because I I knew who had spoken to me directly in that factory.
Speaker 3:And I found a young pastor that agreed to mentor me and bought me my first bible and and asked and told me to read a chapter from the new testament and the old testament. And I asked him, what's an old testament? What's a new testament? He said, So we'll start at the beginning. And we did.
Speaker 3:And he said, I want you to read a chapter from Genesis, and a chapter from Matthew. And I thought, well I flunk Christianity because my, the first day I read all of Genesis and when I got to, in the beginning God created the heavens and earth. There wasn't a part of my body that didn't have a goosebump on it to realize where we'd come from, and who had created all of this. And when I got to the end of Matthew, and and Jesus said in His last words, He commands us to go to all the world. I said, you mean God, I can get out of rural Kentucky and go anywhere that You want me to go.
Speaker 3:And, and I met my first missionary, my sophomore year of college, and I thought, well, this doesn't work for me because he was a surgeon from Thailand, but his name was doctor Butcher. No. That doesn't work. Not unless you have somebody well, it year old to Africa years years later. And in Malawi, the only reason why all of the villages we went to had not said yes to Jesus was because no one had told them.
Speaker 3:But we lost our running battle with malaria, went lived in a black homeland under apartheid for, 8 years, but just got a hunger, to go, where folks hadn't gone before. And so through a series of events, we moved to Kenya. They told us it'd take us 3 to 5 years to get in Somalia. You you can't trust people who haven't knocked on a door to tell you whether or not that door is open or not. And so about 2 months after we deliberately began following Somalis around in the streets of Nairobi, I made my first trip into Somalia.
Speaker 3:Within 6 months, we're feeding 50,000 people a day. We're resettling refugees. We're digging water wells. We're doing mobile medical clinics. We're doing 80 hour, hours a week.
Speaker 3:There's about a 150, Muslims who have given their lives to Jesus in Somalia and the fundamentalists began to hunt them down. When we went to Somalia, there were a 150 believers when we left. When we were kicked out, only 4 were left alive. They killed 4 of my best friends on one day. We came back to the States early.
Speaker 3:Went back to our schools, to our seminaries, to our government, to organizations that report on persecution. Because Jesus said, I'm sending you out as sheep among the wolves. And my bachelor's, master's, and doctorate, except for one class, Everything I got was how to be sheep among sheep. And it doesn't work in Somalia. And I had no answer for the persecution going on there, because as I watched, every believer that was killed had a relationship with a short term worker in that country that directly contributed to the timing of their death.
Speaker 3:And being killed for who Jesus is, is quite different from being killed for who Nick is. And that was what was happening in that country. And so when Ruth and I got kicked out of Somalia, our 16 year old son died 2 months, 1, 2 months. It was 2 weeks after his 16th birthday. On Easter Sunday morning, Ruth's mother died 2 months after that.
Speaker 3:That was a dark tunnel to walk through. But after that year, we spent fully the next 4 years and partly of the next 10 years, going to 72 countries among believers in persecution, sitting at their feet, asking them to teach us how to be sheep among the wolves, and and and not how to run-in fear, not how to give up but how how to, I have interviewed probably 5 sets of security policemen in the former Soviet Union and China, who came to Jesus through torturing Christians who loved them in turn, and prayed for them as the blows were hitting their body, and as they were being tortured psychologically. And so what we're gonna do tonight is is is is to dare to speak for believers in persecution, and and what I'm gonna do is is I'm gonna take away any kind of, descriptive nature that I have because I love to tell stories. And I I love to describe, what's going on and and and and what God is doing and what evil is doing and what happens when we partner well, we don't partner so well. But I'm not gonna be descriptive, I'm gonna be prescriptive.
Speaker 3:And if this is gonna be more of thus saith the lord moment, where where where I don't really wanna give you any wiggle room. Because if if we could gather those probably 8000 hours of listening to the believers in 72 countries, those who, were knocked down and continually got up, and those who are knocked down and never got up. And those churches who compromise and don't exist today, and those who looked, the wolves in the eyes and and proclaimed Christ and loved Jesus in their midst. And and they've left a legacy, that, the kingdom of God has felt it all over the world. And so in being prescriptive with you, what what I propose to do is to give you, three things out of scripture that are nonnegotiable, that believers in persecution have invested in Ruth and I, that I wish that I had as a new Christian.
Speaker 3:I I wish you see what believers in persecution, Ruth is sitting there praying right now, Lord don't let him get distracted. But see, what I learned as sheep among sheep was to read and and and and and and to learn from God's word so that I could share it with others as if it was history. And what Ruth and I have found all over this planet is that evil is delighted for you to talk about the bible being authoritative. That you talk about the bible being God breathe. That the bible is an authentic record of what God used to do with the implications being that he's not doing this stuff anymore.
Speaker 3:And so we study the bible as history. And we study study it as being dated. And and what I hope that you'll, I hope that you'll take away tonight is is that you'll look at God and you'll look at scriptures and you'll look at your relationship with your neighbors across the street and across the oceans, with a God and with a scripture that's in present active tense, and everything that God has ever done in scripture, and everything that evil has ever done that is encapsulated especially in that old testament, that that is is as real as today. And and that's what your neighbors are experiencing. And the eternity that awaits them, if you don't cross the street and have them in your homes and and and get invited to their homes, It's an eternity of darkness that just makes Somalia look like a birthday party.
Speaker 3:And so if someone, if you've got your bible, on on your phone or you've got it in paper, look up. Someone look up. I don't know if we can get a mic to you. If not, you just speak it out real loud. I want you to read Matthew 10 starting in verse 16 and go through verse 20.
Speaker 3:Somebody do that for us. Who wants to do that? Don't make me call on you. It's always embarrassing. Where are you?
Speaker 3:Right here. Okay. I heard a voice in the wilderness. Go ahead.
Speaker 1:10, 16 through 20.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Go yeah. 1016 through 20. So they're going to arrest you and take you before the leaders of the secular world and the sacred world. The places that you don't have access and they're gonna do horrible things to you and go, I'm orchestrating this, God said.
Speaker 3:Jesus said, I'm orchestrating this and I'm sending you as a witness, not in spite of, but because of the suffering and the persecution that you'll go through. You see, when Ruth and I began to go to believers in persecution, we had a persecution task force that were to be our advisors and they spent a while proof texting the bible to pull out the persecution passages out of the bible to help, equip us to go more wisely. The only problem that they had is those passages are from Genesis through Revelation. There's not in a book or in the Bible that this stuff is not real. And so, the first thing that believers in persecution has have just pounded into the depths of my soul soul is that in the bible, persecution is normal.
Speaker 3:Now if I had more time, I'd ask you if you thought of persecution. What what and I hadn't said what I've already said. What would you think? What does your culture say? What does your church say?
Speaker 3:What what is it that you're supposed to do about those who persecute, and what are you supposed to do with of those who are persecuted? But but what if persecution is God's tool in some cases never excusing those who do evil deeds. But what if it is God's tool to get the good news in places where it otherwise would not go? And see, the question that I want to ask you, one of the many questions is, are we emotionally, physically, psychologically, and spiritually prepared to know when to leave Joseph in jail in pharaoh's prison when you can get him out? How do you know when to leave Joseph in pharaoh's prison?
Speaker 3:See a Iranian pastor, good friend of ours, about 4 years ago, left his wife and his young daughters that we love and went back to Iran. But he let the authorities know that he was coming, they were pre armed, they practically took him off of the airplane and they put him in the worst prison in Tehran and they did, they took him apart. And governments, militaries, parliaments, senates, congresses, presidents, prime ministers, special forces. Got about 3000 to 30,000 pieces of information a month demanding that we do something about this brother, who according to Western forms of human and civil rights that we demand that this brother be released from prison. That he, that if we have to, we use economic sanctions.
Speaker 3:If we have to, we send in the special forces and and get him out. I've witnessed special forces going into a prison where 2 single women from America were being held along with 17 nationals who had accepted Jesus. And they got those 2 Americans out. We never heard from the 17 that wasn't our responsibility. They never came out of there.
Speaker 3:And so the question that I want you to answer is, what what what what what if we're what if we're successful? What if we're successful with this brother in that prison in Iran? What if we're successful in getting him out, if indeed God has orchestrated this and I know that's easy for me to say even from Mogadishu, Somalia. If God has orchestrated his arrest and his torture in order to orchestrate the salvation of those who were torturing him, can we fall on our face before God before we turn on the CNN, Fox News, wherever you get your news about the world? Can we fall on our face in prayer and fasting and ask God, what is your will for this?
Speaker 3:Because what happens if we get Joseph out of pharaoh's prison? And months later, pharaoh has his dream of 7 fat cows and 7 lean cows, and yet there is no Joseph there to interpret that dream. It can only lead to the death of the starvation of the Egyptians in Egypt, and the Jews in Egypt. You cannot read scripture without seeing the normality of persecution and throughout the bible. You see, especially in the south, If you are caucasian in an in the south or in in most of America, You you will believe that people that are in jails and prisons, they've done something to deserve to be there.
Speaker 3:There's a huge population segment in America that wouldn't agree with that that that in interpretation. And for most of the 35 years that Ruth and I have lived overseas with our boys most of that time, we've lived under presidents for life and just another name for dictator. We we we've lived under some of the most horrible governments on on this earth, and you are as likely to be in jail, to be in prison for being good as you are for being bad. Matter of fact, in chapter 10, Jesus said, I'm gonna send you out as sheep among wolves. In chapter 11, John the Baptist is arrested.
Speaker 3:And he's gonna lose his head. What evil deed did he do? Wasn't any evil deed. He just looked at Herod and say, you you can't take your brother's wife into your bedroom. You may think you have godlike qualities, but I'm saying to you, you're under the judgment of God and you're gonna pay an eternal price for this.
Speaker 3:And yet Jesus, when John asked Jesus, are you the Messiah? He asked it from prison. John the Baptist who had washed his feet, who had baptized him, who had said, behold the lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the earth. When his back was against the wall and he was facing eternity, He sent word through his disciples to Jesus. Wanna know, are you the messiah or do we wait for someone else?
Speaker 3:That's what we've learned too from believers in persecution. Every one of them, when persecution is serious and it seems to be unto death, they want to know one thing, is that Jesus that they have believed in and that they're being persecuted for, is he the real deal? Is he Lord of Lord and King of Kings? Or have we believed in some kind of fairy tale or or mystical story? I I sat with about 18 pastors in the Soviet Union and their stories were so dramatic I got bent out of shape.
Speaker 3:What little you've seen of my personality, you're probably not surprised of that. And I just said to them, I just said, what what's wrong with you people? That's really good to say. That's really impressive. And I said, why haven't why haven't you written this stuff down?
Speaker 3:Why why haven't why haven't you made movies of your life? Hollywood can't touch your stories and they waited. They they waited, for a break. And this older pastor, white hair, 15 years in prison, gentle as the day is long like pastors are. Took me to the eastern side of that house away from everybody, and he said, Nick I hear you have 3 sons.
Speaker 3:And I confirmed that. He said, how often did you wake them up in the morning and take them to the eastern side of the house and say, look boys, the sun's coming up in the east. I said, I've never done that. And he asked me why. I said, well, they think I'm foolish because the sun always comes up in the east.
Speaker 3:He said, that's why we don't write about or make movies about our suffering and preparing our children if things don't change for the persecution that's coming for them. For us, persecution's like the the sun coming up in the east, but I'm such a slow learner. I went to Ukraine. Now I'm with about 20 evangelists. Now evangelists, pure evangelists terrify me, because they do one thing.
Speaker 3:I'm riding with 1 of them in a taxi, a bus that holds about 18 people in Morocco. And behind us is about 13 or 14 of the most conservative Muslim men you want to meet. And they are angry and they're looking at me and him like, you know, we're a snack or something. And we drive by this heap of garbage, burning and smoking in the side of the road. And he turns around in that bus and looks at those fundamentalist Muslim men.
Speaker 3:And he said, I've driven by this burning garbage about 6 times the last few weeks and it reminds me of what hell is like. And he looked at them and said, if you don't give your lives to Jesus, that's going to be your eternity. Fire never goes out, smokes and stinks and and and it just burns. And I'm thinking, Lord, get me off of this taxi and away from this guy. I'd like to have a long career.
Speaker 3:And and and I'm with him for some reason that I can't imagine a few days later, and we're on another taxi with just some really troubled, fundamentalist men. And and, it looked like they were plotting something. And he looks up and he sees a cloud in the sky. And within 30 seconds, he's talking about the Holy Spirit of the living God, and their need to find forgiveness for their sins. And and I'm with that kind of group of guys, and I'm asking Well, they didn't wait, to send a kind white haired, gentle pastor to take me quietly off by myself.
Speaker 3:There are a bunch of evangelists and they're in your face and one of them just walked up out of the group, got right here in my face and said, son, when did you stop reading your bible? I said, I read it this morning. He said, I don't think you've ever read it. I said, excuse me? He said, everything that's ever happened to us is in the book.
Speaker 3:And the way that you've asked the question about us making movies and writing this stuff up, It's apparent to us that you haven't read the book. So rather than talking to us, we think you need to go back to wherever you're staying, and get the Bible out and read it. Because our stories are in the book, and I'm thinking, no. I need to go back to Russia and talk those pastors. They're a lot nicer than you guys are.
Speaker 3:You you just wired tough. But in the scriptures, persecution is normal. Now listen to Uncle Nick. Persecution is not something you run toward. It's not something you seek out.
Speaker 3:And it's not something that you run away from. If you've got somebody on your team, on a short term or a career endeavor that is fearful and afraid, take them off to the side with the appropriate people. Do this quietly, lovingly. Don't do it like the evangelist did to me, and do it like the pastors, and and and and talk to them because somebody on your team that's fearful and afraid can get everybody hurt. Can cause all kinds of problems that they're modeling.
Speaker 3:And and so if you've got somebody that's afraid of persecution, you need to deal with it lovingly, but firmly, and and biblically. But if you've got somebody on your team that wants to be persecuted, they want somebody to beat them, put them in jail, harm them, maybe kill them, I suggest you take them to a psychiatrist. Really, they're they're they're they're not wired, right and and persecution is not something you run away from or you run toward. It just, we're gonna say something later, so I'll save it. I'll just amaze myself right then.
Speaker 3:And so when you look at, it's not something you run away from. It's not something that you run toward. And and and my wife always says, there is no such thing as a persecuted church and a church in freedom. There is just a church of Jesus Christ, and it's always 247 free, and it's always persecuted. And Ruth will say, the church in the west is like this parts of the body that you can see.
Speaker 3:You see these fingers and legs and arms and torso and and hear the voice, but the persecuted church has taught us they're like those internal organs, and the lungs, and the livers, and the hearts, and and and the the major arteries, and and vital to the body. But, they're they're that you'll never see them unless something really weird happens. And, but but there are vital to the life of the body. That's the way that believers and persecuted have oftentimes described themselves to us. About 70% of the believers that we've met globally live in environments of persecution.
Speaker 3:If you're looking for normal Christianity, you're going to be looking at believers who are persecuted for their faith. Just like you found the saints in the Old Testament, and those followers and Jesus himself in the New Testament. It's just normal. Spend some time in Hebrews. Somebody read for us, prepare us for the second point.
Speaker 3:Matthew 26 and start verse 36 and go through verse 39. Who will do that for us? Yes, please. Number 2, please don't hear myself and and speaking for Ruth and the time that we have together, being any arrogant over this. But Ruth and I know, the number one cause of persecution.
Speaker 3:And we're not talking about who the persecutors are. The persecutors, the number one persecutor on the planet still is government, as almost always been true from the outbreak of Christianity till today. The 2nd largest persecutor has changed in my lifetime. Yours for sure. Because with the fall of the Soviet Union, the 2nd largest persecutor of Christians, of followers of Jesus, is, is Islam.
Speaker 3:The 3rd largest persecutor is what used to be number 2 is communism, because you gotta figure in at 1,700,000,000 people in China and and the massive persecution that, the house churches undergo on a daily basis. The 4th, largest persecutor of the church in history anybody want to wager a guess? The 4th larger persecution persecutor of the church is the church. It's horrible. You you wanna get something to read devotionally or help you devotionally, it's a weird title.
Speaker 3:It's called the Christian History Institute. Who chose that title? But we get an email from them each day and it gives you a long narrative on somebody who did something on this day in history. A lot of times it'll go back to the 200 and come up to something that happened, late last year. And it'll give you somebody's whole story and then give you about 10 synopsis of people's lives that did something significant in the history on this date.
Speaker 3:And I have never read that one day where there was not persecution of Christians by Christians. And I've been reading it for about 5 or 6 years. And and so, the number one cause of persecution on the planet is people giving their lives to Jesus. Now when I first wrote this, it was the most negative feedback that we've ever gotten saying, look what Ripken is doing, he's excusing persecution and he's given the persecutors a pass. No.
Speaker 3:But here's the thing, where there is a bold witness, like what you find in acts 2, acts 4, and following that. Where's there that where there is a bold witness that cross the streets and crosses into Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. There will be a widespread harvest and where there is a widespread harvest, there will be a widespread persecution. Where there is now stay with me. Where there is little bold witness outside of the gathered church, and there is little response to the kingdom of God except those who are born in the church.
Speaker 3:Generally in the south, 93% of everybody baptized were born in the church. 93%. You don't have to really worry about that being persecuted because it's not much of a threat to evil. And if you lock it up and house it, and don't scatter it among the peoples in your neighborhood, and your family, and where you work, and where you school. You you really don't have to worry about about persecution.
Speaker 3:You see Satan, evil has a few desires. Evil wants to do 2 things. Evil wants to keep you from having access to the kingdom of God. And from the, you know, statistics are not my forte, but almost everyone that I read and those that I trust, it it it's not an estimate. It's a hard number.
Speaker 3:It's between 2.8 to 3,000,000,000 people in our world today, that have absolutely no access to Christ. None. They don't have a verse from the bible, not one. They don't have a scriptural song, because they don't have a scripture. They don't have a single worker for 2.8 to 3000000000 people.
Speaker 3:They there is not a single body of Christ for almost half of the world's population. Now you might recognize what I omitted there, because everything I read will say there's no believers in those places. Ruth and I have tried to go as many of these, places as we can, just to get a feel for them. And and just if we spend 10 days to 2 weeks there, between 10 15 people will come up to us. Many of them husband and wife in a market, in a restaurant, just in random places where we might be staying and say to us, the Holy Spirit told us to come and find you and to tell you that we are followers of Jesus.
Speaker 3:And we just want you to know that there are believers in this country. And then they just disappear back wherever they came from. Now what you need to know about them is that they're they're they're they're, they're they're not measurable. They're not in any kind of community. They are scattered and they're alone, and every time we have found they have found us, they're living in fear.
Speaker 3:Because it's in that body life, where and it's where that body is in a witnessing, mode is is where that fear is conquered, the most. And so Satan has two desires. He wants to keep you from having any access, or he wants the world from having any access to Christ. And secondly, what he wants to do, he wants to shut us up. He wants to make us keep our faith to ourselves.
Speaker 3:And if you give your life to Christ, and you keep Christ within your your bodies, and and buildings, and and even within your house groups, and and you're not exporting him out into the marketplace, you really don't have to worry about persecution very much at all. I haven't met what will happen when Ruth and I usually teach. We teach for 3 days to 5 days. And so you're you're you're getting the hardcore of this. And and and and it's almost without exception that someone will come up to us and and say to us, you know Nick, persecution is coming to America.
Speaker 3:And I always ask them, do I know the answer? Why do they believe that? And then they'll give us the 2 social stands that the church has made very publicly, and say it's because of these 2 social issues, that that we're experienced pushback or we're gonna experience even more persecution. And so therefore, we've got to partner with government in such a way that we can drive these social ills away or at least drive them back underground. In the 7, 600 plus believers in persecution that Ruth and I have set at their feet for 1000 of hours, Not a single one of them experienced persecution because of a social issue.
Speaker 3:They experienced persecution because of 2 things. They gave their lives to Christ and they share Christ appropriately and widespread, with their family, with their friends, with their neighbors, at work, at school. Folks, there has there has never been a mosque in, since 19. We started working, with Somalis early in 1992. We moved up to Kenya late in 91.
Speaker 3:And since then, we've been to every Muslim country, that we, we've been to every Muslim country on the globe. And if we're there long enough, we've always, myself, Ruth Alton doesn't get to do this, but myself and whoever I'm with, we always go to the mosque. We're always able to witness. We're always able to share scripture and we're always able to pray for folks. And I just want to share with you, I don't believe there's an environment in America that you can't do that.
Speaker 3:If you do it the right heart, under the leadership of the spirit, and and you're, you're you're you're speaking when you're supposed to speak, and you're listening when you're supposed to listen. But but often times, you know, Muslims are after to convert us and and to me. And then it's just natural, to meet a Koranic story with a biblical story and and just swap those back and forth and you can do that for hours and days if you want to. And so, the what I want you to hear very clearly is that, the persecution that we've measured is is directly in opposition to what Satan wants. Satan wants to keep us from Jesus and he wants to silence us if we are in Christ and baptized believer for real.
Speaker 3:And the believers that we have set with, the reason that they are persecuted is they've given their life to Christ, opposite to what's evil wants and they have shared Christ, just widespread. Widespread. You know what Jesus does that we've often failed to do is is Jesus prays 2 halves of a prayer. Oftentimes, we in the west, we we pray, in regard to persecution as Jesus did. Now, let's let's pause here for a minute.
Speaker 3:Jesus had told his disciples and knew that the cross was always gonna be the way that he ended his life on earth, his physical life. And yet, when the time came and Judas basically is walking up to wherever Jesus was in the Mount of Olives, that Jesus is praying to his father and he's saying, even though he knew he was created for the cross, he says to God, let this cup pass. I don't want to do this. Let's find another way. But in the same breath, he says, not my will but your will be done.
Speaker 3:Folks, we've got to pray both halves of that prayer. We we've got we've got so many folks around the world that will do anything they can to avoid persecution. The the the the the problem is to avoid persecution is to run from witness. To avoid persecution is to run for witness. And returning home after 35 years, we've been asking, churches that have loved us and supported us a question I think it's, well to ask and needs an answer.
Speaker 3:When did it become okay to die for one's country, but it's no longer okay to die for Christ himself? Now again, we're not going looking for it. We're not running away from it. We're not running toward it. But, what uncle Nick wants you to know that the way that I identify with my brothers and sisters in chains is that they're in chains because they've come to Christ and they've shared Christ with others.
Speaker 3:And the way that I share in their suffering and identify with them is by giving my life to Jesus and giving Christ away. And doing that with family and friends at work, and doing that appropriately, doing that lovingly, doing that in a way that, challenges but doesn't embarrass often. And and and and so, mama I lost my thought. I carry my brain outside my oh here's here's my thought. You can't believe I call it myself.
Speaker 3:Is is the the issue, is is not one of freedom. The believers in persecution, everyone we've sat with, they have given their lives to Christ and they have shared Christ with others and that's how I identify with them. But here is the hardest thing that uncle Nick will ever say, That when I give my life to Christ and I keep Jesus to myself. I I not only fail to identify with my brothers and sisters in chains all over the world. I identify with their persecutors that chained them and put them away.
Speaker 3:Because the worst persecution anywhere is to deny people access to the kingdom of God. The worst persecuted people on earth are those 2,800,000,000 to 3,000,000,000 people who have, after 2,000 plus years of Christianity, have no access to Christ tonight. As we close out this day. Number 3. Somebody read for me John 15 18 through 21.
Speaker 3:John 1518 through 21. This is on pastor's time. Thank you. Number 3, obedience to Christ always leads to suffering for someone. But the deal is, guys, you don't get to choose for that to be you.
Speaker 3:As a husband, as a father, as a leader of of a team, What often that I've witnessed in family situations is that the evil one will go after, our our wives, go after our children, go after the members on our team, and leave the guys alone. And we as guys, we have a difficult time with that. By the way, do did you are you aware that for every, one single man on the mission field, we have 7 single women? Do y'all know that? You go the hard places like used to be in Yemen before we got kicked out in Afghanistan.
Speaker 3:When I was doing interviews there, there were 23 to 26 single women and one single guy. And if you're a guy, and I know I shouldn't say this, and you're having difficulty having a godly relationship, missions might be for you. You know, you might want to consider that a little bit. But, but but the thing is that that is so difficult is you you you don't get to choose who the evil one goes after. But but there's some things that we've learned over these years quickly.
Speaker 3:We can measure objectively that as Ruth and I learn the language and culture increasingly proficient in it, a persecution caused by the outsider, it remains diminished. But the longer that we stay in a place and we're not proficient in the language, and learning the culture, and walking competently in and out of it. Persecution caused by the outsider can get people killed. It's an objective reality. The number one way to reduce persecution as someone from the West is to learn the language and and and to learn the culture.
Speaker 3:What we've learned is to go as teams and as families. Did you know that people among the unreached, they come to Christ when they meet somebody their age and their gender who's in Christ. Early on, when we started going to the unreached peoples, we would send teams out that might have 3 to 5 couples on them and no one was over 30 years of age. Some of them were married. They might have a newborn.
Speaker 3:They may not have kids yet. Some were were singles. But you generally lead to Christ until you get ancient like I'm becoming. You generally lead people to Christ that are 3 to 5 years younger than yourself. Unless you do that with intentionality.
Speaker 3:We've gone to village after village where people, young couples have worked and done everything right And there was after 10 years, there was no one over 25 years of age that was in Christ. Until that worker brought his retired Baptist, Southern Baptist daddy from south of Atlanta out to that village and let his dad give the Sunday's message and the son interpret for him and changed all of his dad's funny stories and jokes, because they never translate. They never work, I promise you. I can to give you horror stories that I'm responsible for. And let that older man in his seventies, give the message.
Speaker 3:And at the end of that day, all of the elders, men and women gave their lives to Jesus, and the son was so upset he said, what's wrong with you people? We've lived here, we eat your food, drink your sour milk, we know your language, your culture, and this old man comes and preaches one time and you come to Christ, what's going on? They said, we thought Jesus was just for young people. You've probably seldom been in a body of Christ that didn't have everything from bed babies, somewhere running around, crawling around, around to somebody that's older, that's not too far from going to heaven. But that's not the way it is for unreached places and and the more that you're witnessing mirror is this rather than this, uh-uh, you'll see all ages come to Christ.
Speaker 3:But when you do everything right, you learn varied in your ages, you you you are bold in your witness. And and and you know what? The only place where Muslims are failing to come to Christ by the 1,000 are the places we don't go. Or or we go where there's just not enough body life to give that witnessing mirror this kind of reflection. It remains something like this.
Speaker 3:And and so when when when we learn and we do everything right, we're seeing Muslims not come to faith by the 100 and the 1,000, but in many places by the tens of 1,000. The cost of reaching Muslims for Jesus is a very, very tiny fraction to the cost financially in reaching Westerners for Christ. Just a interesting byproduct, by statement. And and and so we've learned so many things about working in the hard places over the years. And when we go, and we go in the right numbers, and we go with male and female, singles and families, older with grown children or or no children, as we go and do everything right, and there is a real harvest there when you've done everything right, there is gonna be a great persecution.
Speaker 3:And they're gonna lose their jobs. And they'll have their children taken from them, and they're gonna be taken to jail, but never longer than 72 hours. And there's a a a a United Nations reason for that. But as as the Esthers and the Miriams and and the Simon Peters and and the leaders rise to the top, The persecution is gonna be very very fierce, just because you went and because, you, in in the best way in the language with all the wisdom that you have, made Jesus known. Persecution cannot be avoided, but what you can do by the way that you do your work, is to make as certain as possible that, not if, but when persecution comes, it will be for who Jesus is and not for who someone like Nick might have caused because of a practice that wasn't biblically wise.
Speaker 3:So I'm gonna toss it back to you and say from believers in persecution these 3 truths. Non negotiable, in the bible persecution is normal. Number 2, the number one cause of persecution is people giving their lives to Jesus. And where there is a a great harvest, there's a great persecution. It was true after acts chapter 2 and after acts chapter 4, and it's true across the world.
Speaker 3:And one of the ways that God uses persecution is to scatter us to places that we've never been. That's the lesson that America better learn in a in a hurry, I would believe prophetically. Number 3, when you do everything right and and and wisely, biblically as you can, you can't avoid the cross. You you you can't avoid, Satan attacking, team members and family members and and and and and and and really doing a work of evil. But but when the persecution is for who Jesus is, it generates increasingly larger numbers of followers of Jesus and it it it develops, followers of Jesus who have put on the full armor of God.
Speaker 3:It's the petri dish in which God grows us the most. You see, here here's what we've got going. The dividing the dividing point between no persecution and widespread persecution is witness. Where there's little witness, there's little persecution. It doesn't matter the government that you live under, whether it's in the West, or whether it's communist, or whether it's Buddhist, or Hindu, or animistic, the dividing line between little or no persecution and massive persecution is due to the amount of witness that's taking place that gives people access to the kingdom of God.
Speaker 3:Alright. Come and lead us in any questions that you might have.
Speaker 1:We're back. Okay. In the interest of time thank you. In the interest of time, we're gonna skip the break. We have a lot of questions already on here.
Speaker 1:If you have more that you want to add, note that we changed the code. It's not TalkBack 3. That was a lie. It's some random number. But you can enter your own questions.
Speaker 1:You can like ones that are already on there, so that we can rank kinda what people are most interested about. So I'm just gonna ask a few questions and, let you answer.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, phone.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. Thank you. So here's kind of our top one right now. What is the balance between speaking boldly about one's faith and earning the right and respect from another to speak about your faith? Or is there a balance between having to wait and earn that right versus just speaking boldly?
Speaker 3:You know, I I don't like spiritual drive by shootings very much. But that that has to do more with what I see in the western world where I I share some scriptures, or I give somebody a tract, or knowing if there's some way that I can pray for them and help them. And and and so there there's been, I can't number the 100 of times that see, I know that Jesus answers a question with a question, But see, I know that Jesus answers a question with a question, and I'm very comfortable in my tent making skin. Really comfortable. And I say, why would you ask me a question like that?
Speaker 3:And he said, well, you're different. You don't cheat on your wife, like all the westerners are doing, military people are doing. You you don't drink alcohol. You don't eat pork. You love our people and and you learn our language and we've been talking, skies or in our home or something, why you are different.
Speaker 3:And and if you don't share Christ there, you ought to go home. And so you just take whatever time that person will give you and tell them your own personal testimony. And so I think I think, you take advantage of every situation that God gives you whether it's short term or long term, but I think the number one way that Muslims come to Christ is by sharing meals to our home. And and so, and and and and and so to be where Muslims are when they're ready, to talk about spiritual things, because Arab Muslims, they eat breakfast at noon, they eat the noon meal about 7 PM, and they eat the evening meal at midnight. From midnight to 3, they talk politics, sports and religion.
Speaker 3:And so you've got to you got to change when your kids nap, and when they go to sleep. To be where Muslim families are when they're ready to talk about these things. And I would rather go to Al Qaeda than get between a conservative Christian mom and what time of the day she does homeschooling. 1 of those, you'll survive. One of those, you don't have a chance.
Speaker 3:Alright? And so I think it's just a matter of of of being ready in season and out of season, but but, what you're intentionally doing is building those long term relationships and building, because what you're doing what is so neat is that once you're sharing meals, with that Muslim, that Buddhist, that Hindu family, they make decisions as a group. And the moment that they decide together and they'll decide who's old enough and who's not old enough, that they take believers baptism. The moment that baptism is finished for in that first generation, at that moment, a church is birthed in that house. The number one way of birthing a new church plant is by seeing a family baptized.
Speaker 3:And that is so biblical. There's, you know, Cornelius in the household, and Philippian jailer, and Lydia in our household, and Crispus in his household. That's the biblical pattern. But you want to take, and if you are doing the things that Christ wants you to do, people are gonna come up to you and not give you a lot of time, but ask you, why are you like this? And why do you do this with love and with joy?
Speaker 3:Then, you know, even if that's just a short period of time, you take advantage of that. But you're looking for the long term things.
Speaker 1:It's helpful for me to process what you just said, because that was more wisdom than I could possibly take in in that moment. But I'm hearing long term relationship is ideal, kind of some sort of hospitable environment, particularly a home. It struck me when you said going to their house, but it'll take 4 or 5 times for them to come to yours. But here in the States, there are Muslims in our city who don't know what an inside of an American home looks like, and they would go at the first invitation to your house, so that's remarkable, the opportunity that we have here, to to have a Muslim in our home the first time.
Speaker 3:And the views that Muslims have of American Christians is that we don't want them in this country. Yeah. And we hate them.
Speaker 1:We're going to change that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, the thing is, we've had a you don't want this. There's been a 1000% increase in missionaries among Islam as we go after the we follow the military into these countries, into Somalia, into Kosovo, into Iraq, into Kuwait, into Syria. That's not the way to do Christ's business. We should have been there.
Speaker 3:If we were there, 2000 years ago until now, the militaries wouldn't have to go in there. And and using, I mean, I've seen, the presence of Western workers increase by many 100 percent once the military went into these places, and then when the military leaves, they leave. That's not the way to do this.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a question that has to do with that. I don't know where to where the question is exactly, so I'm not gonna read it exactly, but it was, oh, here it is. Where are the places in the unreached world that you wish westerners would be going for missions? So what are those countries and those places that people should go?
Speaker 3:Well, it's my goodness. I would I would just go, online and go to the Joshua Project, mama be the best place, and and it lists the top unreached peoples of the world. And I would be thinking, in terms of people groups, not countries, because that's the way you're gonna do language and culture and and and and you shouldn't be thinking geographically, you should be thinking linguistically and culturally. And and so I I would just go get that. It's gonna be almost anywhere in the Muslim world.
Speaker 3:Almost 95% of all baptisms in India has been among low cast Hindus. They will say yes to Christ to outsider, and and why we don't trust Jesus enough to do the up and out as well as the down and out. And and and so there's, pastor, I'm from a culture that do this. God. God guys guys hold hands, walk down the street, you know, do the pinky thing and and so, I don't want to make you uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:I don't scare very easily.
Speaker 3:Did I? What was I going to say mama? When he smiled at me, I lost everything.
Speaker 1:That's what my wife says to you. So
Speaker 3:what were you talking about?
Speaker 1:I I I kinda got a little hot and
Speaker 3:humid. Well, it's just, Joshua Project. We should
Speaker 1:go to the Joshua
Speaker 3:It's just, I mean, we're talking about 2.8 to 3000000000 people. And so it's almost all of, 90% of all the house churches in China's in 10% of their location. It really hasn't gone out of, 4 provinces. And and when you look again, among Hindus, it's just touched just a little fringe of that. And so when you look at at at the 3,000,000,000 people, you're looking at 1.7 is Chinese, about 1.7, 1.8 is Hindu.
Speaker 3:You're looking at 1,500,000,000 is Islam. Take your pick. It's just all of that is just, after 2 years 2000 years of Christianity is 99.9% outside the kingdom of God. 90, 93% of all missionaries are in Christian countries. Where that hat 93% of all missionaries are in Christian countries.
Speaker 3:7% are going to that 2.8 to 3000000000.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's startling.
Speaker 3:That's that's I don't I'm not keeping the budget, but, but that those are are hard figure that this right now today, 7% go to that 2.8 to 3,000,000,000. This this is not something you have to go hunt for. Yeah. It's most of the world. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because after that 2.8 to 3,000,000,000, there's another 1,000,000,000 that doesn't have enough information to get to Jesus. So we're looking at close to 4,000,000,000 people. I've, I've never been now that we know the world better and because we've done the harvest stuff for so long, the much of the church's view of Christianity is this great harvest is taking place. And it is in the animistic parts of the world and a lot of places in South America, But we just historically, we haven't done the hard stuff. I finished a podcast this week, 3 sections.
Speaker 3:3 I did it 3 different weeks, why the unreached are unreached. And I gave 8 different reasons. But I mean, for instance, in Kenya, for every $100 I spend in a Kenya, to keep somebody there. In Ethiopia, I'm gonna spend $1500 Somalia, I'm gonna spend $10,000.
Speaker 1:And
Speaker 3:But we don't know in reaching the hard people, the places that they would go and the people they would reach. Because most of the people we have reached in sub Saharan Africa and South America have yet to send the 1st missionary somewhere else. That's a story that needs to be told. So anyway We
Speaker 1:have a lot of questions. Can mind if I ask another one?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm yours. Alright. Spiritually. Maybe we can get practical here just from all of your wealth of experience. Goodness, there are a lot here.
Speaker 1:What does it look like to be led by the spirit in evangelism? So I don't know if you have any practical tips to discern the leading of the spirit in evangelism.
Speaker 3:I I think the number one thing missing in American Christianity is worship in our home with our family. The number one thing, we we we wanna fuss over and in their and and and and and therefore, when Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and others come and and and have a meal with us or, you know, just come over for tea and coffee, we're not manufacturing anything. They're sitting with us at a meal. And I say to them, I said, I'm not to embarrass you, but we thank God for our daily bread. And I asked my wife what she thankful for.
Speaker 3:Ask our boys what they're thankful for. And appropriately, I pray. And instead of doing devotions with the boys in their bedroom, we come out in the living area, and we do the bible story. And I might ask the boys, tell me the story of Job, Jonah that we got to last night and then ask, Ruth tell the next story because that says something very strongly to the Muslim women that are there. The men will get all cloudy when I let her handle the word of God in their minds.
Speaker 3:And the women are they're just their hearts are just soaring that women have a full partnership in that. And so, but but if you're not if you're not doing that, it's not something you put on a show when unchurched or non Christian Americans, westerners, or Muslims, or whoever come, that is I think the biggest need that we have is being the spiritual leaders in our home. Okay. It's just not it's not there in most places.
Speaker 1:And I I hear in that too, just in a call to being authentic and real in your own home will reflect how you are in front of non believers.
Speaker 3:You know what? When we started, we used to count obedience and how many times our team members got to the resurrection each month, and our partners. And we realized that wasn't working. In Islam, if you come to Christ 1 by 1 by 1, Satan picks you off 1 by 1 by 1. And the only thing that can survive and thrive in Islam is when a family comes to Christ.
Speaker 3:So now we count obedience to how many families you've got to meals with, in their homes, in your homes, and how many times that you got, to the stories of Christ and to the resurrection. And and and that's how we measure extension of who you are.
Speaker 1:We'll do at least one more here. See how we are on time. I think you answered this in part. I'd be interested to hear if you say anything additional right now, but I think you answered it partially with your talk, but what do we what do you recommend we do for our brothers and sisters who are currently experiencing persecution globally?
Speaker 3:They they said to us often in Eastern Europe, the one debt we can never repay, the church in the West is, the debt of prayer that they lifted up on our behalf for the 70 years of communism. So that prayer is nonnegotiable. But the reason they're persecuted is because they live in a country where Christ is not known. And so the the way that I can help them change the environment that they're in is by helping them, win their neighbors and people in their government to Christ because Muslim, 93% of all Muslims who come to Christ and don't come to Christ, they every culture has a way that spiritually they intersect the supernatural. And for Muslims, you'll not meet a PhD in America they're already experiencing and and and they they they, Gabriel, appears to them, which is he's important to Islam, but we have him first and and say something about the kingdom of God.
Speaker 3:They they if they are literate and 90% of the women are not, They will dream of the bible. And it's funny that when Muslims dream of the bible, we don't know this. The whole world doesn't know this. It's always a blue book. We thought it'd be green like the Quran or black.
Speaker 3:It's, every Muslim we've ever talked to that dreamed of the bible. It's a blue book. And we tried for 15 years to find out why is the holy spirit have him dream of a blue book and we couldn't find out. We couldn't find out for 15 years. And 2 years ago, we found out why.
Speaker 3:You have me back, I'll tell you. But I won't tell you this time. But then they'll they'll come and and and somewhere in that, they'll dream of a man clothed in white with scars in his head, his hands, his side, his feet, and he'll say in their language, I'm Jesus Messiah. Find me and find eternal life. And they will literally travel to 2 and 3 countries looking for us, because we're not looking for them.
Speaker 3:When Ruth and I started working with Somalis, there was one worker like us for every 1,500,000 Muslims. And now, there's 750,000. So surely we're gonna accomplish that. That's how little how that's how little we are there. We're scattered so thin, still most of the Islamic world are never gonna be able to access Christ.
Speaker 3:For them how to how to, lead their family to Christ and lead them in worship. And so, and so they're they're in so much hurt. And and, listen, I don't have time, but you can't believe what mothers do to their babies when they can't afford an aspirin for that child. And they'll take this stick and burn their baby all over its body wherever that baby is expressing discomfort or pain, trying to chase the demon out. And they'll have burns all over its head, in a circle around its waist, its arm, its legs.
Speaker 3:And and Jesus's people will with Jesus, will stop that nonsense because with Jesus comes healing, comes doctors, comes nurses, comes the very best that we are and that we have. It's just not eternal See, it's like people are saying, well why take them to Jesus and get them persecuted? They're already persecuted. They're living under dictators. They make a dollar a day if they have a job.
Speaker 3:They can send one child to school usually. It'll never be a girl. The life that they're is filled with demons and and and and vendettas and clan fighting and civil wars and famines. Jesus changes all of that. But he can't change if we don't go.
Speaker 1:I think we're gonna end on that. I don't know how you better that. Go and pray is what I hear. 1 or the other. Or both.
Speaker 1:Nick, we can't thank you enough. Can we just show Nick and Ruth our appreciation? Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:There are a lot more questions, and I don't know if people are going to stick around and try to ask you, especially about that blue book, but, I'm gonna be first in line.
Speaker 3:You've gotta have me back.
Speaker 1:Gotta have me back. It
Speaker 3:takes about 20 minutes. But I, but you you can go to nickripkin.com. Some things are posted on the website, and you can you can write us and write Ruth and and, we can do a lot of things that way.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a good segue too. As as we close, 1 or 2 kind of reminders. 1st, if you haven't had a chance to go back to this table back back here, they have all kinds of materials and resources from their ministry. You can go online and you can check, check out more about what they do, but there's some back there and you can also find out ways to support them. Also, on this back table, I'm gonna put kind of a word in for redeemer folks.
Speaker 1:There are 2 missions related opportunities coming up that we just wanted to let you know about. The first is we're beginning sign ups for our Cyprus trip in the fall. We're gonna be going for the 1st week of November to visit our partners, the Daubs, who are church planting in Cyprus, in Northern Cyprus. And you can sign up back there if you're interested in learning more. We also have a 10 week disciple making group that will be going on in the fall that you can sign up for if you're interested as well, but that's an opportunity to learn how to share your faith in a communal group together with others.
Speaker 1:And it's it's a good opportunity summer is next week. It is next Wednesday. The summer is next week. It is next Wednesday, Elizabeth Woodson. And with that, I'm gonna pray for us and we'll be dismissed.
Speaker 1:Lord, we love you and we are thankful that we get to sit here and commit ourselves to learning, learning from others who have gone before, learning from you and your spirit leading us, learning and sitting under the authority of your word. And as Nick pointed out, so accurately, far too often, we we read your word and go to it as something that may have been true in the past, but we don't apply it to our lives as we should now as authoritative and effectual in our lives. And so, Lord, we pray that you will teach us to read your word in a way that changes the way that we think and live now. And that by your spirit, you will change our hearts so that we will care about the loss. We will ask you if you would have us to go.
Speaker 1:You will put on our hearts to pray for those who are both going to share the good news and those who are in persecuted places. Lord, we ask that you'll help make us a more faithful church here at Redeemer, and a church here in the west that can pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are experiencing suffering for the name and cause of Christ. And so we pray right now blessing on Nick and Ruth and all of their ministry, Lord. And so thank you for this time tonight.
