Todd Nettleton is on a mission to combat Christian persecution.
Nettleton, chief of media relations and message integration for the Voice of the Martyrs, reflected on the lead-up to the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, which kicked off Nov. 2 and continues throughout the month.
“It wasn’t the idea of the Voice of the Martyrs; it’s not a marketing scheme,” Nettleton said. “This is what persecuted Christians ask us to do. The first thing they ask us to do is to pray, and so the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians is an answer to their number one request that we pray for them.”
VOM encouraged churches to participate in praying for the persecuted church, integrating this into their church activities.
“Different churches will do it differently, but the important thing is every church is praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters,” Nettleton said.
The effort underscores the importance of prayer — something that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of life or become so routine its power is ignored or forgotten. But the persecuted church understands the weight and power of prayer.
“They understand the power of prayer maybe better than we do,” he said. “They’ve had their backs against the wall when all they can do is pray, and they’ve seen God come through and God answer those prayers.”
Ultimately, Nettleton said prayer must come first and foremost before anything else.
The persecution watchdog noted that he had recently been on a trip where he heard direct stories from Christians who have faced persecution.
“The one that stands out to me is a pastor from India who shared about the time when he was arrested under the anti-conversion law of his state,” he said. “He was put in prison because he had been warned and he kept on evangelizing. He kept on pastoring a church and, for some reason, they wanted to make an example of him. So the first seven days that he was in prison, he was beaten repeatedly.”
Nettleton continued, “They hung him upside down and two guards would beat him literally until they were too tired to continue.”
Despite the horrific beating, he said the pastor didn’t feel the pain — something he believes is miraculous.
“God intervened and protected him and he didn’t feel the pain of that, which, again, is mind-blowing,” Nettleton said. “But then the story gets even better. So he’s beaten the first seven days of his imprisonment, and then the warden comes to him and says, ‘Hey, you know, I’m an equal opportunity warden, and, in my prison, we celebrate all the different religious festivals.’”
With Good Friday upon them, the warden decided to let the pastor celebrate and actually asked if he would want to share with other prisoners about the meaning of the day and why Christians celebrate it.
“Again, this pastor has just been beaten repeatedly over seven days, and now the warden who ordered him to be beaten is giving him an opportunity to share about Good Friday with the rest of the prisoners,” he said. “And the pastor said, ‘Yes, I will do that.’ He stood up and had the opportunity to share.”
From there, the pastor was able to share the meaning of Easter and the resurrection — something Nettleton said was “just mind-blowing.”
“The fact that this warden who had ordered him to be beaten is now giving him that opportunity — yeah, only God could work that out,” he said. “God changed the warden’s heart, and literally he assigned two other prisoners to take care of that pastor, to make sure he had food, to do his laundry for him.”
Nettleton continued, “And he gave the pastor access to the entire prison to go around and talk to other prisoners.”
And that’s not all. The pastor also prayed for the warden’s son, who ultimately recovered from an illness in a “mind-blowing, amazing” way, with miracles evident throughout the story.
Nettleton said he had heard numerous stories where people expressed gratitude for the persecution they faced because of what God did in the midst of it.
“In one case, [a] man said, ‘It changed the course of my life because our village was persecuted. Our family had to move to a different village and that village had a good school, and so I got a good education. That changed my whole life. And I’m thankful for that persecution that pushed our family out of the village,’” he said. “We never know what God is doing. We never know all that He has in mind.”
When we’re suffering, Nettleton said it’s sometimes hard to see beyond the pain. We pray for relief from the suffering and for rescue, but Nettleton said we sometimes forget something else.
“We don’t often pray, ‘Lord, who are you putting in my path that you want me to reach? What is it you’re trying to teach me?’” he said, encouraging people to look to the persecuted as an example on this front.
With that in mind, Nettleton said he’s concerned right now about persecution across the globe. From Chinese crackdowns on Christians and churches to horror in Nigeria, the situation is tough. Watch above for more.
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