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By Rick Postma, referenced in Spring 2011
Imagine attending a regular worship service in your church. Your pastor is preaching, you are surrounded with familiar faces – family, friends – when suddenly you hear a series of loud noises all but drowning the pastor’s voice. What is that? Instinctively you, along with everyone else, peer towards a rapidly growing commotion at the back of the church. Someone runs down the aisle with a gun in his hand shouting at the top of his lungs, shooting in all directions. You grab your children and dive down between the benches. It can’t be, not here! But with a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach, you realize that your church is under attack.
For many Christians in places like Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria, attacks like the one imagined above are becoming an increasingly regular occurrence. In many of these places, Christians have lived in peace side by side for hundreds, if not thousands, of years with members of other faiths. But no longer.
During the Middle Ages, the Crusades were launched in response to the Muslim slaughter of Christians in the middle east (a fact often overlooked by Muslim apologists, by the way). Should we once again embark on a crusade in the name of fellow Christians in these countries? Some would argue that the invasion of Iraq was such a crusade, but if that was so, why are the Christians experiencing a much more difficult time now than they did under Saddam Hussein? Even if the Pope could once again whip the “Christian” nations of the West into a frenzy of righteous anger towards the enemies of Christ in the Middle East, would we take part? I’m sure you would agree when I give a resounding “No” to that question. In imitation of Christ, we confess that our battle is not of this world. Instead we are called to come in peace, bringing with us The Book that contains the hope of Salvation for miserable sinners – even those, like Paul, who have viciously persecuted Christ’s followers in the past.
Pray for God’s people who are under violent attack in so many parts of the world. In this issue, Hanna Luong provides a summary of our rapidly growing Christian education program in Nigeria – a country with rising tensions and violence between Muslim and Christians. We read of the sponsorship program in India, a country where we also regularly hear of persecution. Randy Lodder provides an update on the challenging work in Haiti and we also receive updates on disaster recovery work in Guatemala.
The army of God requires faithful soldiers fighting against sin and the devil in their own lives while looking for opportunities to spread the good news, both locally and abroad. Rredemption has been accomplished by the coming of the King and He will one day return in triumph so that no one will ever again fear the attack of the enemy. Have you enlisted?
Rick Postma is Director of Public Relations for Word & Deed Ministries.
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Quarterly Magazine 
