Tag: persecution
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Christmas in The Shadows
During Christmas, we remember believers in “creative access nations” where faith can lead to persecution. Ordinary believers share their faith through personal connections, transforming whispers into a powerful Gospel movement.
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Obedient Unto Death
This poignant piece reflects the heart-wrenching reality of injustice and persecution faced by Christians around the world. The AsianRoughRider passionately expresses anger towards the perpetrators of such atrocities, but also emphasizes the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ over evil. He encourages practical actions, through prayer, serving those around them, and supporting policies that promote religious…
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Death of a Seed
I remember his smile best. Tai had this quiet humility about him…it was his smile that said, “God changed me, Jesus is my everything and I want the world to know it.” Tai was part of a team of local leaders I had been coaching for years. He wasn’t always a faithful church planter but…
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Cultural Hijacking: Why You Can Longer Be Yourself
I love being Asian-American. I love devoting my life to cross-cultural work cause I believe God is passionate about all ethnic groups and cultures. I love hip-hop with heart, soul, and purpose. I love being from the streets. I love being poor. I love being a family on mission. I love America and I love…
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Denying Jesus With Pen & Phone
DENYING JESUS WITH A PEN Last week my friends were sitting inside a village office in a third world communist country. Local leaders and police with stoic faces sat around the room, one held an AK-47. On a table in front of my friends was a piece of paper and a pen. All they had…
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Modern Day Slavery, From Fear to Freedom
Slavery comes in many forms. It exists in every culture…even among tribes in Southeast Asia. I had never seen a tribe so remote. After 2 hours of motorbiking and 3 hours of boating we finally arrived in a small village along the river. The houses sat on stilts, the roofs were made of thatch and…
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Love My Sheep: Discipleship in the Midst of Persecution
We rode our motorbikes down the valley with apprehension and occasional fear, though our hearts were full of faith. The last couple weeks have been difficult for the more than 60 ethnic minority believers in the village churches down the remote valley. Even the strongest leaders felt the pressure bearing down on the young flock.…
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Persecution Story
I was trying hard not to shed tears as I was listening to Chanthi’s story. I had asked him a very simple question, “So tell me about your time in prison for Jesus.” Chanthi was from a remote tribe of spirit worshippers in Southeast Asia. He lived in a simple village high up the mountains…
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3 Reasons Why Suffering is Essential in God’s Kingdom
From the safety of our homes in the US, being persecuted for our faith sounds like something that only happens in outlandish countries or ancient biblical stories. To be interrogated, threatened, beaten and jailed for our faith in Jesus is just something that doesn’t typically happen in America. When suffering does occur in other places…
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4 Christian Responses to the LGBT Community
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states this week leading to a mixture of responses and heated discussions – my wife and I included. As missionaries on the other side of the planet we can’t help but think of the missiological implications, “How will this affect the faith…
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A Story of Hope: From Afghanistan to San Diego
Ghaffar was furiously digging a hole through a prison wall in Pakistan. His life depended on it. Over three years ago the Taliban captured him, an Afghani refugee, on his way to the United Nations refugee camps (UNHCR) in Turkey. He was separated from his wife, Shabana, and their four kids. He remembers how much…
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Nameless & Shoeless for God’s Glory
The true heroes of the faith are the ones without faces. They are the ones who don’t own a single pair of shoes but walk miles to proclaim the Gospel. They are the ones who have never written a book but have seen the dead raised to life and the oppressed set free. They are…
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Is the Gospel Worth the Risk?
I was on a skinny wooden boat recently traveling up river to a remote cluster of villages we had never been to. We’ve only seen these villages in our minds as we prayed for them and on satellite images surrounded by mountain valleys. We were determined to get there despite the fact that we didn’t…
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The Joy of Persecution
A few weeks ago we took a sweet little boat ride up river to visit dear friends. No big deal. Just two hours of zigzagging through mazes of dead trees in a tiny leaking boat, to reach a remote village in the mountains with no electricity, phones or latrines, where there was a real possibility…
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Suffering – The Key to Church Movements
Every week I pray that our friends do not get arrested for telling others about Jesus. Whenever I travel I ask God for wisdom each time I am questioned by the police. When I sit down with local leaders and church planters the types of problems we face are: -Who is being followed? -How do…
The Asian Rough Rider 