Would you please take your Bibles to the book of Hebrews. And right there in the end part of Hebrews is chapter 13 and verse 3. Hebrews 13 and verse 3. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them. And them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. Our text says, remember them. The ideas continue remembering them. We're hoping you haven't forgotten them. But in case you're slipping, remember them continually. Don't forget them that are in bonds, them that are in prison, them that suffer adversity, those who are mistreated. Remember them as bound with them, as if chained with them, as though in prison with them, as being yourselves also in the body. Remember them. since you also are in the body. Dr. Pat, I think it was the first time you ever came, and I thought I was just a smarty pants, and I found Hebrews 13.3, and I thought, boy, you're gonna love this, and of course you did, but I didn't know at the time that was the theme verse of your ministry. So wow, you know, I was preaching to the choir, of course, but you know, I'm doing it again. Could not get this text off my mind. We are to identify with. We are to be thoughtful of. We are to be prayerful for those who are suffering for the name of Christ. Wherever they are, we are to consider what they're going through and bear this burden with them. I don't know how many times people have told me, I knew you were praying. I could feel the prayers coming. It's hard to put that into words, but many of you know it too. When something has happened in your life and you just know you're being supported. And the Spirit of God has a wonderful way. He doesn't wait for the newscasters to bring up the event. He has a way of alerting us. We don't even know exactly what we're praying for, but we got an idea to pray for somebody and we just give it to the Lord. That's why we accept unspoken prayer requests because they're not unspoken to God. but we're to be in linkage with others throughout this world who are suffering for the cause of Christ. They may not be dying, they are just having a hard time living for Christ because the world makes it that way. So this mutual care means that when one member of the body suffers, we all are to suffer. Consequently, also when they rejoice, we can rejoice with them. When you've borne a burden for someone, and then there's answer to that prayer, and there's something to rejoice about, it's all the more rejoicing to you, too, because you bore the burden as well. What should our prayers look like? You know, if you're a fan of Christmas Carol, Tiny Tim, God bless everyone. I mean, it's okay, but I think our prayer ministry needs to exceed that in some depth. And so, what came to my mind as I was meditating on Hebrews 13, 3, was something I found in Psalm 140. In Psalm 140, I want to read just the four first verses. Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man. which imagine mischiefs in their heart continually. They are gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their lips, Selah. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent man who have purpose to overthrow my goings." Now, if you're ever looking around in the Psalms, we have these Psalms called imprecatory Psalms. Imprecatory Psalms, that's quite a word. What it means is you're praying for the destruction of your enemies. And when David is in actual conflict with nations and armies and so forth, there was a very literal thing going on. But it's a spiritual lesson for us. It's an allegorical thing. I'll mention that in the next point, just in a second. But we need to pray against the deeds of evildoers. We need to pray that their plans are brought to nothing. We need to pray, and God is known for this, by taking people in their own devices. We're praying spiritual warfare. So we're not asking God to kill people and send them to hell, we're asking God to stop them, suppress them, and best yet, what if he converted them? Because sometimes it's the persecutors who see those they're persecuting and see their faith, they're amazingly changed. But we want to consider here 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verses 1 through 3, And Paul says, finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable, my marginal note says absurd, sounds more like the way we'd talk, but they're absurd and they're wicked men, for all men have not faith. And I've told you before, that's the biggest problem, unbelief. We can talk politics till we're blue in the face or red, whatever. Gotta watch out. We can discuss all kinds of social issues, but the biggest problem and why people are not seeing things the same way is because of unbelief. And if we would all seek the Lord while he may be found, if we would consult him in his word, we would get faith because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Do you agree with that, Dr. Pat? I know you do. That's what people need is the words of faith. And so he's not just praying to survive. He's praying that the gospel ministry will go forward. The kingdom of Christ will go forward. The evil that they're doing isn't just hurting people. It's hurting the work of the gospel. And God takes that personally. Jesus takes that personally. Whatever you do to His people, He takes very personally. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? If you remember that one. And so, we want to stop the purposes of evil men. You saw that in Psalm 140. It says, who have purpose to overthrow my doings. And a spirit-filled believer, his goings is to honor Christ, promote Christ, lead other people to Christ, bring up his children for Christ, share it in his business life, every part of his life. That's his goings, and other people can't stand it. Sometimes you can't even bake a cake to the glory of God in this country without having awful repercussions for it. So there's a great thing Paul says when he's about to die. And this is very telling to me. 2 Timothy 4, verse 18, Paul's getting ready to have his head chopped off. And he says, And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now getting your head chopped off might be considered an evil work. But, you know, Paul isn't worried about himself here. He's talked about a course of time in which he's been serving and laboring, being persecuted, and sometimes his own partners forsook him. The going got tough and they split. And Paul just said, lay it not to their charge. They don't understand what they're doing, but they will. But when he talks about being delivered from the mouth of the lion in verse 17, he says, the Lord's gonna always deliver me from every evil work. Now, I want you to think about it. There comes a point where you leave this world and go to your reward in heaven to stand before Christ. Paul considers himself delivered unto the Lord, preserved under that heavenly kingdom. If the work they're doing that's evil against me is gonna harm the gospel, I'm defending that with all my soul. I'm praying for God's help that I never be ashamed of the gospel or ashamed to it. And God's gonna preserve me in that mode all the way. And so he was able to finish through. I remember being taught in track running, you always keep running like the finish line is ahead of you for just a few more feet. You cross the line, keep running. And that's because people tend to slack off just before the line and you can lose a race just like that. So run past the line. Paul's in his mind, in his heart, running past the finish line. And He's preserving me. And all they've done is liberated me now to the heavenly kingdom and my reward. If some ungodly people understood this, they'd never kill us. Because they know that we actually like that. Not the dying part, but the being dead part. I've always had a problem with the dying part, but God help us. He'll give us the grace for it. What does this prayer look like when we are remembering them? I'd like to consult Matthew 5, 44 for just a moment. Here's where it gets personal about those persecutors. What they're doing I pray against, but actually them, they're the prize, they're the goal. And we need to spend more time pitying them than fearing them and hating them. Matthew 5.44, Jesus says, I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. And then he goes on to say, then you'll be the children or the sons of your father, which is in heaven. The idea of a mature process here. You're not just some baby here. You are taking on the appearance of your heavenly father. We as children, we grow up and every now and then people will come up at the family picnic. Oh, you look just like your father. Or boy, I see that picture. You look just like your mother. And mannerisms and things like that, we somehow resemble our parents. And sometimes that horrifies us. But in this case, don't be horrified. You are taking on the appearance of your heavenly Father. You're resembling Him. And somebody's going to notice, it's going to glorify Him, that you may be the mature sons of your Father which is in heaven. For He makes His Son to rise on the evil and on the good too. And He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. So we should pray for God's mercy and grace on those who are doing wickedly. Pray for them to repent and believe our gospel. Our prayer is not for the destruction of evil men, but for the defeat of the satanic work that controls men to do evil. You can take time to look at Ephesians 6. Putting on the whole armor of God, you've got to stand. You've got to take a stand. That evil day comes. Be in full armor to stand. Not against mere flesh and blood. No. Principalities and powers. Spiritual wickedness in high places. Literally, that means wicked spirits in high places. We are fighting a spiritual warfare and Satan is behind and working through people, but they are victims in a sense. I may not be able to tell them that, but they have been caught, like Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 24 and 26, the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be apt to teach. patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if perhaps God grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." You see, we're not on a killing mission with people, we're on a saving mission. Yeah. Rescue. Rescue the perishing. They may be armed and dangerous, and anybody who's been trained to be a lifeguard knows that you've got to really know what you're doing to save a drowning person. You want to throw something to them, if you can. You want to row, if you have a boat. The last thing you want to do is go, because when you get in that water with them, they are looking to cling to something. They are terrified, and they can drown you. Drowning people are dangerous. They don't mean to be, but they're terrified. And there's ways lifeguards are trained to work around that. So sometimes we get to throw the gospel out there. Sometimes we can roll it to them nicely, and other times we got to jump in. But either way, they are the ones we're trying to save. The very worst ones. I mean, really, Saul of Tarsus? Who saw that coming? Well, the last thing I want to share is Proverbs 31, verses 8 and 9. This has typically been the passage that is cited for speaking up for the unborn. Rightly so. It was a mother giving her princely son advice before he became king. And I want to apply it to something else besides the unborn here. But in Proverbs 31, mother said to her son, Verses 8 and 9, Open thy mouth for the dumb, in other words, those who can't speak, in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. A king is not to sit idly by while other people are being oppressed and suffering. He is to be a protector. We had a message on God and country last week. We elaborated on that theme a bit from the Proverbs. But I want us to look at this, that many wicked people have power on earth to do harm to Christ's people. Jesus and Pilate had a little discussion about that. But the fact is, some of them have enough power to destroy and kill God's people. If we can somehow speak up for them and try to make an earthly appeal against what is being done to them, that's great, we should do that. But above that and throughout this and beyond, if we can't do anything else for them, we must be continually, continually speaking to God for them. Now, this is just how God works. Like He already knows, He already loves them, why do you have to pray for them? You're not informing him of something he doesn't know. You're not asking God to do something he doesn't want to do. There's a catalyst, folks. When two things come together, something happens. And all I can say is, from what I've read in Scripture, is when God's people unite and are praying in the Spirit, praying according to the word of God and praying for one another, something starts to light up on the dashboard and there's power in that. And God wants us to work together with him for his will to be done on earth and not just sitting there saying, I'm doing fine, no problems here. Now, He wants us all in, tuned in, plugged in. And the more sensitive we are to this, the more sensitive God will give us more burdens and more things to do. But if we are careless, we haven't gotten to the first step then. If we can't pray for somebody, what else can we do? Let's start with this. For you know, when Paul was talking to the Roman people, the Roman church in Romans 15, He says, strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. That word strive, and I don't know, I didn't have time to look at the other translations, but the word comes down to what we use for agonize. When Jesus was in the garden praying, he agonized. He sweat like blood coming out of the pores of his skin. He was in an agony. It's a word that describes like warfare. Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. And he's saying, come into this with your heart, with your mind, with your spirit. And folks, you know, our biggest problem is being too busy. Too much stuff to do, too many things to take care of. And I'm not gonna tell you what's important or what isn't important, but somehow, and I speak to myself here. Maybe that's why I'm blabbing on the same verse again, sisters. I'm still feeling this need to do a better job of remembering them that are suffering. Now, Dr. Pat has labored on the front lines. Dr. Pat has come to help us. Give us to flesh this out so we can see and understand what's going on with our other brothers and sisters. And I think it should be a very eye-opening time. Father, please bless what's been said and what's about to be said. Give us your grace, Lord, so that we don't just learn more information, but we actually experience some transformation. Help us remember continually. what's going on in your kingdom, in the body of Christ, the family of God on earth. Help us to be a part of it, Lord, in heart. in spirit. And please bless Dr. Pat as she speaks now. In Jesus' name, amen. Dr. Pat. Well, I want to give you a little background before we talk about persecution of Christians. And the background is that I started, I moved into Tomahawk back in 1978. And this church didn't even exist, but the congregation did. We were meeting over at the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And you've got some founding people here. I don't know if you're aware of that. Buddy Rumsey and Kim, they're back there. Dolly, we were part of that group. And then we've got Paula Thomas here and Linda Bielefeld and myself. And I painted or stained a lot of the woodwork in here. It's still looking good, too. And you realize how long ago that was. But also what's important in my life is that from this church, I made my first trip overseas back in 19, oh my gosh, 1982. So it's been 40 some odd years that I've been traveling. I had a veterinary practice right down the road here. And I left that practice in 88 to go full time working for the persecuted church. So like I said, a lot of history here. And it's always just an incredible pleasure to come back here and see everything and have all these reminders and memories. I remember when you lived in that little trailer. Oh my gosh. So yeah, we go back a long way. Well, what I've been doing for the last 40 some odd years is basically doing what I can to help Christians who are persecuted and it's not just me. We've got an organization. Small, but a good organization, and we spend a lot of time overseas meeting with Christians who are persecuted for their faith. And then I bring those stories back here to you so that you can be praying for them, what you talked about this morning. Because Hebrews 13.3 says, remember those in prison. That's maybe we would disagree, but that's a command. We are supposed to be praying for our brothers and sisters since we're all part of the body of Christ. And a good friend of ours that some of, you know, Labib from the Middle East, he said when he was preaching one time here in the States, he said, you know, I've heard this for years. When they suffer, we suffer. And I'm thinking, well, yeah, but we're not suffering. But in reality, what he said was when they suffer, Jesus suffers. And Jesus is our Lord, so when he's suffering, we suffer. So it kind of helped me to understand, because we really aren't persecuted in this country. We do have some problems, but we aren't persecuted like what I'm going to tell you about this morning. But I also want to put you to work, because it's estimated 74% of the world does not have religious freedom. And these are our brothers and sisters who you're going to spend eternity with in heaven. And they're going to come up to you one day and say, thank you for praying for me when I was in prison or when I was being tortured or my family kicked me out or whatever. You're going to spend eternity with them. And so if you can, I love the sheet. You took it away from me, Pastor. But the sheet that we just used for... No, you took it. The sheet... What? What? Oh, it's back there. Well, anyway, that sheet that pastor was using, the whole backside is empty. So if you would get a pencil or a pen and you could write down these names, I'm going to tell you some stories of your brothers and sisters who are persecuted. So while you're doing that, I want to tell you what happened and how I got involved. I mentioned, of course, the church. But my very first trip ever was to China. And that was in 1982 when I was in this church. But go to China to smuggle Bibles. And some of you know the story. Many of you do not. So I decided, well, I'll try to be brief. But I want to tell you what happened and how that trip impacted me. And the Lord then made it clear that I would be going full time. So, in 1982, I went down to Wausau and I heard a seminar about Christian persecution, and at that time, smuggling Bibles. And I thought, like many of us, oh, well, that's interesting. And so I signed up, and a few months later, February of 82, I found myself headed toward China. Now China at that time was and still is communist, but at that time they did not allow importation of Bibles. They did not allow printing of Bibles and yet the church, oh and they closed church buildings. I've even got pictures of that. The Christians had to meet secretly in house churches, but it grew and it grew and it grew and yet they didn't have Bibles. I mean even pastors didn't have Bibles. And so I signed up, ended up spending two weeks in Hong Kong with five other people praying. We were under an organization, so it wasn't like we were flying by the seat of our pants. But so the day came. We signed up as tourists through a travel agency. There might have been 30 people going in this tour. Six of us, though, were Christian, and we had Bibles. Of course, we didn't tell the other people. I had been given a carry-on bag because it was a three-day tour, so it's not like you'd bring big suitcases and stuff. So I had a carry-on bag about this big by this big by maybe that wide. Back then, they didn't have wheels, just a big strap. And I was given 20 Chinese Bibles. Pastor, you have your Bible? Oh, it's probably here. Those Chinese Bibles were as big as your Bible. They weighed three pounds each. So I had 60 pounds of Bibles in that bag. And I had just a little bit of room to put clothing and stuff around there and toiletries. And off we went. We flew into Canton, China. And we had to go through customs. And we had been told that they were going to search our bags. Because the Chinese didn't want foreigners bringing in anything that would be harmful to their citizens. And the three things at the top of their list were drugs, pornography, and Bibles. So here we go. We came into a room about this size, maybe a little bigger, came in through doors like that. And there were what I call church tables. They weren't really church tables, but around the edge. And there were two customs agents behind each of those tables. And as you came in the door, they'd say, you go to that table, you go to that table. Now, most people didn't speak English, but the people that worked in the airport did. So I was assigned a table on the far end of the room. And that bag was heavy, and I'm a weakling. So I was carrying the bag and trying not to do this, you know, because it was over my... To this day, I can't put even a purse there, because I'd damaged a nerve. But I got to the end. They said, put your bag on the table. And I did, hoping the table wouldn't sag. And they unzipped it, had the zip at the top, flipped open the thing. And now the guy's got his hands in there and he's feeling a big square thing. Well, rectangular thing. It's the Bibles. And he takes the clothes off the top and he's looking right at the Bibles. Guy next to him is looking right at the Bibles. Mind you, this is going on at five other tables, too. And that's all he did. He looked, and he put the clothing back on, zipped up the bag, and pushed it back toward me. And I put it on the floor, and I thought, that's my first experience seeing what God could do. I mean, really. And I went, to myself anyway, wow. Then he said he wanted to see my camera. Now back then, I had one of those single lens reflex cameras, a big one where you take the lens off and stuff, you know, a film camera. Most of us know that. And so I had the camera in this bag. This is the bag I had with me. But inside this bag, I also had, if I can find it, it was there someplace. Did I finally lose it? I might have ended up in a church someplace. Anyway, I had 30 Chinese New Testaments, little tiny black bags or black books. Oh, there it is. 30 of these. And so when he said he wanted to see my camera, I opened up the bag by me and I pulled the camera out and handed it to him. They took the lens off. I don't know what they were doing, but they looked at it and maybe they were looking for drugs. I don't know. Before I could stop him, though, he put the camera down and he reached over and he pulled the bag close to him. Well, all he actually wanted to do was just put the camera back in the bag. So he took the camera and he did this, but the camera wouldn't fit. You see, all the New Testaments had been on the top. And when I pulled the camera out, all the New Testaments fell to the bottom and formed a nice pyramid down there. So now he couldn't get the camera in. So this is what he did. He reached, you know, this is more like at this level, he opened the bag wide and he looked in, he saw 30 books in there, and this is what he did. He put his hand in, he did this, put his other hand in, did this, moved those New Testaments out of the way, put the camera back in, zipped it up, and said, welcome to China. Well, from that point on I was pretty well hooked. Paula, you and Pastor Veneman, our first pastor, and his wife came to my house and I told you the whole story at that time. But it was remarkable to see how God could blind the eyes. of someone who, you know, God always was healing people, but this time he blinded the eyes. All six of us got through just fine. And then we went into China, that's for another day. When we went into China, how to disperse those Bibles, because you can't just stand on a street corner and pass them out. You know, and so there was a whole plan involved, you know, changing bags and bathrooms and just different things so that the Chinese could have Bibles. That was my first trip. Then God made it very clear. And again, for another time, how he made it clear. But he did. And I put my practice up for sale and they left here in 88. So, and I keep driving by through Tomahawk and stuff thinking, oh, things have changed. Oh, no, some things haven't changed, you know, so, you know, so it is, it is remarkable to be back here. So now if you got your pencil, your pen and your sheet, I'll tell you about some people that you need to be praying for. Now, the first one I'm going to tell you about is Pastor Jack. And I don't always do that, but we haven't done him for a little while. So I met this young man, an Egyptian guy. He was 23 years of age, living in Cairo, Egypt, which is basically a Muslim-majority country. And when he was in his late teens, God gave him the gift of evangelism, which is a very dangerous gift to have if you live in a Muslim-majority country. By the time I met him, he was about 22, 23 years of age. He'd already led 3,000 people to Christ. And he's still at it. Of course, you couldn't get permission to build a church back then. So they were meeting secretly in house churches. And for some of you that got my recent prayer letter, there's a story called The Beginnings. And it was a house church on an island in the middle of the Nile River. That was the first place I ever went with him. So that story's in one of the, I think, maybe the June or July prayer letter. Anyway, so I've known this guy for, well, over 30 years. Yeah, over 30 years. And he's still at it, but now you can occasionally get permission to build a church. But most of the times, you can even get permission, start a church, maybe it's in the first floor of an apartment building or something, but then the neighbors will come and burn it or harass the people or whatever. So it's still not freedom, but it's better than it was in that sense. But on the other hand, as you hear these stories, you'll see that Egypt is one of the worst places. You don't hear about it very much, but it's one of the worst places for Christians to have freedom. So Pastor Jack, be praying for him. He has four children, two of them are now married. I've been there right from, I was there before he was married even. But be praying for him because as you said, Pastor, it's spiritual warfare. Satan doesn't like what he does. He continues to lead people to Christ. And now it's not just nominal Christians like we would have here, but it's also the Muslim majority peoples. And so that's who we're going to be talking about this morning. He could be killed for doing that. He has been beaten. He has been called in by the police and kept for days. And so, you know, he he's obviously part of that spiritual warfare. But really, there are thousands of people here in the States that are praying for him. And I assume that that's the reason that he has not Now, he has not yet been killed, but be praying for Pastor Jack. So now I want to tell you of Brahan, and I'll spell his name, B-R-A-H-A-N. Now, Brahan was a former Muslim in, again, Cairo, Egypt, and he became a Christian, a secret Christian at first, but his Muslim family found out about it. And they turned him into the police. This was about 15, 20 years ago. They turned him into the police. Even though the Constitution says there's religious freedom, Sharia law or Muslim law says a guy who would become a Christian would leave the Islamic religion. He should be killed if he doesn't become a Muslim again. So they turned him into the police. And the police beat him so badly, especially around his head, that he was almost dead. And they literally opened the front door of the jail and threw him out on the street thinking he was going to die. Well, he didn't die, but he's got, and you won't see it in the pictures this morning, you can't quite see it, but he's got a big dent on this side of his head. He's got another dent on this. They crushed his skull. And so he has brain damage, he has trouble walking, he has trouble with memory, he can't hold a job for that reason. Well, we're helping him. In fact, a couple of families in the mailing list are literally supporting him. And so I was just with him in November. And he wrote a note, which I wish I'd brought today, that was amazing. A note about following Christ and, you know, being firm in his faith. If he had become a Muslim again, he never would have suffered. Today he will suffer until he goes to heaven. But he has an incredibly positive spirit. So be praying for Brahan. We just moved him into a better location and we'll see how he does there. Now I'll tell you about Priva. Priva. Oh my gosh. I just met her again in November, but I knew her story from a few months before that. Priva, former Muslim. She was working at a recording studio where Pastor Jack would go and record sermons. Now, she's a Muslim, but she was listening to what he had to say, and she said, this is the truth. So she became a follower of Jesus Christ. Her family found out, and they invited her to come over to her uncle's one day, and she didn't suspect a thing. When she got there, the male relatives dragged her into a bedroom, tied her to a bed, hands and feet, and left her there for two and a half months. She wasn't even allowed to get up to use the bathroom. So she laid there for two and a half months until she was almost dead. Her organs were shutting down. She was infection because of laying there and all. And then someone said, well, if she dies here, you could be accused of murder. So her uncle said, called in a doctor. The doctor put her like on an IV and stuff. And her uncle said, as soon as you're strong enough to stand again, to be able to walk, We're going to kick you out." And that's exactly what they did. Some Christians took her to the hospital. The hospital said, we're not going to treat her. She's too far gone. She's almost dead. Forget it. They went to another hospital. Second hospital said, nope, don't bring her in. She's almost dead. We're not even going to bother. The third hospital took her in. She told me that she was in the hospital for four and a half months. That's how long it took for her to recover. You're going to see her picture this morning. She's looking pretty good now. But again, if she had simply said, I will become a Muslim again, they would have let her loose. It's hard even for me to fathom that they would be that strong in their faith. that they're willing to die a slow death rather than to deny Jesus Christ. Zina. She's a beautiful black lady from Sudan who fled Sudan and is now in Egypt. And she became a secret believer, begin Muslim background family. She became a secret believer. Her attitude changed. Everything changed. She was sweeter. She was better. But her husband noticed the change and found out that she had become a Christian. And to him, that's a terrible shame for the whole family. So he went to her, he threw down her Bible, which he found, Bible, and he said, choose the Bible or choose your family. She had kids. She chose the Bible. And he kicked her out of the house. She's lost her husband. She's lost her children. She's lost her home. She lost everything to follow Jesus Christ. And she would say that it's worth the price. But, I mean, when I met with her, she was, you know, they don't tell me their stories with bitterness or anger. I can't say they're always happy but there's that joy that comes from following Jesus Christ that is somewhat lacking here I think in our culture that you see there and it's amazing. So what God gave her though was a whole new family. Christians there took care of her, took her in. And when we met together, we were meeting with a number of other Christians, some from Muslim backgrounds, some from a nominal Christian background. But she has a new family, the family of God. Now, who has those clipboards? I think you're sitting on one of them, Pastor. It's right behind you there. There you go. These are simply sign-up sheets for my prayer letter. And I wanted to explain a couple of things about them. One, that we can't send the prayer letter. If you picked one up on your way in, we've got one. We've got two on this side and two on that side already. So you can just keep that over there and pass it just to the back there. Thanks. We can't send the prayer letter via the internet, but we can send you prayer alerts when something urgent does happen. So if you want to put down the email, great, but you have to put down your snail mail also. These things, we had a bunch of these in the back there. If you didn't get one, you can pick one up later. These, we're very happy to send via the mail because we want you to pray. Our whole focus is prayer for the persecuted because that's what they asked me for back in 1982. They said, please pray for us. Not that the persecution would end, but that we would remain faithful. It's amazing. We need to be praying for them. They're just like us. They have families. They have kids. They go to prison. They get tortured. I mean, it's terrible. And yet, they pray that they would remain faithful. So be praying for them. So pass them to the end of your row and then back, the end of your row and back. And I know a lot of you are already on the mailing list. By the way, if you are on the mailing list, I might ask you to sign up again and just write already on, unless your address has changed, because it's been two years since I've been here. And if the computer sees that there's been no activity in your record, It'll bump you. And that will come by year three. And I know that you gave in the past, but if you give cash, we wouldn't know it. So if you would, sign up again, except for somebody like Buddy who's been on forever. All right, let me tell you about a couple of things. Bibles. Pastor Jack, who I mentioned, has discovered that they have these big book fairs in Cairo. Big two-story building full of books and booths and stuff. People love books. And so he got permission to have a Bible book booth. So he goes there and he displays all the Bibles. We buy the Bibles for him, of course. They're about $10 apiece. He is required to sell them. He can't just give them away, but he does. But he's not supposed to sell or to give stuff away. But he sells the full hardcover Bible for 50 cents, maybe a dollar, 50 cents. And the New Testament's for a dime. We want the word of God to go forth. Do you know that almost everybody that comes to that booth, and he's been doing it for a couple of years now, almost everybody are Muslim? They come because they're curious about Christianity or they want to argue the Quran versus the Bible, you know, whatever. And he's an evangelist. So he talks to them. And this one guy came a shake. He's a big religious leader. And he comes and he's got a big skull on his face and he's looking at the Bibles and stuff. And Jack starts to talk to him. And he said, you know, The, you know, your first time here, I can give you this for free. And the guy says, oh, no, I can't even touch a Bible. If I do, I'll be unclean and I'll have to fast for three days and so on and so on. And Jack said to me, he said he can't reach him with theology because he thinks the Bible is corrupted and the Quran is true. So. Instead, he appealed to his scholastic. He said, you're a learned man. He says, you are learned. Wouldn't it be good for you to learn about other things, like including Christianity? And the guy walked away with the Bible. So be praying for those book fairs because that's an incredible way to get Bibles into the hands of Muslims. And another sheik came three years ago, got a Bible from Jack, came back the next year with his daughter who's about yay tall, maybe she was 12, and he secretly said, do you have like a children's book for my daughter? And Jack did. So the girl got, you know, I've got pictures of this. And then this year he came back and he said, He says, well, basically, he asked for a number of Bibles. So he must be a secret believer now who's going to share Bibles with people. So incredible. All right. I have to be quick now because we're running out of time. Juliet, very brief story, but she got on the subway. Christian lady got on the subway in Cairo. And the Muslim ladies, the fanatical Muslim ladies that are all covered in stuff, they went after her. They grabbed her. They pushed her into one of the seats. They, because she's not wearing a scarf, they cut off her hair and in the process gouged her back in three places. And that's what she had to, you know, now she won't take public transportation because she's afraid to do that. So be praying for her. Even Ubers and stuff aren't safe for Christian women. Sophia. Sophia, Christian background, and she married, and her husband was approached by a Muslim gang, and they said, hey, we'll give you X amount of dollars if you'll sign papers and become a Muslim. And he said, to himself anyway, at least, well, that's a good deal, because he wasn't a strong believer or anything in Christianity. He really didn't know much about it. He was born into a Christian family. And so he signed the papers, became a Muslim. And then the gang said, we want your daughter. She was two years old at the time. We want your daughter also to raise her as a Muslim. And he went to get his daughter. But the wife, Sophia, found out about it. And she and the little girl went into hiding. And I met with them while they were in hiding. He was so angry, he went to the police. His name is Ibl, by the way. But if you change the B to a V, What does it say? Evil. He went to the police, and he said, that family tried to kill me. No proof whatsoever, but the entire family, including a 12-year-old girl, they were all taken, and grandma, all taken to jail, where they were tortured in different ways. And when they finally were released, they all packed up and all went into hiding. But Evil one day found out where his daughter and his wife were. There's ways they find out. He found out and he waited for her to come out of the apartment building and he attacked her with a knife. Went after her face. Took 152 stitches. to close up the wounds and that we've moved them just recently again in June. We moved him to another place where we hope he won't be able to find them. And then Sophia's sister, Rebecca, her husband, Emad, Evil one after that family too. They got two little boys. And he told the police that Emad tried to kill him. Again, no proof whatsoever. But the police will always side with the Muslim. And Emad spent months in jail until he was almost dead. Finally had to get a lawyer to get him out. So you can see persecution continues, continues, continues. It will never go away. That's what it says in Second Timothy. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And that means you and me too. Now, persecution may be different, but if you're willing to share your faith openly, like we were singing about, you know, if you're willing to share your faith openly, if you're going to be bold about it, you'll face persecution here. Maybe rejection. It might be ridicule. It might be something else, but you will face persecution. And I say this almost every time I come. If you're not being persecuted for your faith right now, maybe you need to get alone with God and find out why. Because we will all be persecuted. I am not persecuted like they are either. But I've gone through some horrendous spiritual warfare stuff here. But it will happen. And yet God wants to bless us. So be blessed and pray. Please, pray for your brothers and sisters. Okay. Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus' name. And that's the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Satan hates that name. Satan hates the gospel that proclaims that name and the wonderful things that Jesus has done and is doing and will yet do. We are in awe at the faith you give of the people who have paid great prices for their testimony. And yet, Lord, they do not speak despairingly. They know they need Your strength and help. We ask You for that, Lord, and help us to be as specific as we can as we hear of these things. But we ask that You're attending mercies, Lord, to the believers that are serving, to the new believers that are growing, to the ones that are seeking. Hopefully we'll become believers. And we pray, God, that You'll touch some of the worst. As they do these things, they'll come to themselves, and they'll come before you, and they'll see the reality. We know, Lord, you are doing some powerful work amongst Muslim people. And we know that there are among them people who think they're going to dominate the world. We know you have other and better plans. But before Jesus comes to conquer, may we see people brought to submission, And even though they hated him and hated those that loved him, that they could be turned around to love you as we do. Please show us, Lord, how to handle our things here in our country in such a way that we reflect grace and have some space in our minds and hearts to remember them that are suffering in our imbalance in prison. And we ask you please to bless what's been said and done here in Jesus' name. Amen.