Missions………...…...Open Doors Ministry…………….Missions

VOM (Voice of the Martyrs)
Joseph’s father kicked him out of his house as a teenager when Joseph became a Christian. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to tell other people about his faith. He shares Jesus everywhere he goes. “I always start with a verse from the Bible. At first, I never mention it is a Bible verse, but when somebody is interested, then I tell him that the verses are from the Bible.”

Though Pakistan is an Islamic republic, its law says that everyone is free to worship as they please. But in this Muslim country, Christians are persecuted by family members and neighbors. Under Shariah law, or laws based on principals of Islam, Christians are guilty of rejecting Mohammad, Islam’s prophet, and are thus punishable by imprisonment of death.

One day Joseph was going from shop to shop distributing Bibles in the main bazaar of the city. A beggar approached him, asking for money. Joseph gave him a Bible instead. “I told him about Christ, how he sacrificed Himself for our sins.” Then he prayed with him. As Joseph looked up from prayer, suddenly he saw six men standing around him. “They started beating me until I was unconscious. When I came back to my senses, I saw them still surrounding me,” Joseph said. “I was bleeding and in severe pain. Again the beat me. I was crying. They were using bad language against me and yelling, ‘You are an infidel; you are misleading Muslim people, we will kill you.’”

These men tied Joseph’s hands and feet and locked him in a room. He stayed there all night, in pain. Sometime during the night, he felt a touch on his shoulder. “All of a sudden my fear was gone. Immediately a verse came in my mind: ‘Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.’” (Rev. 2:10)

At 5:00 AM the next day, the men came in the room and beat him again, shouting and cursing him. They offered him money to leave Christianity. They threatened to shoot him. But Joseph was firm, unafraid. “I was thinking it was a perfect time to preach Christ,” he said.

“I said, ‘Do whatever you want to do,’ then started preaching to them. I told them Jesus says I am the way, I am the truth and I am salvation…I told them about the birth and the resurrection of Christ. When I finished preaching, I said, ‘OK now it is your turn, do what you want with me.’ I was very bold and this is all because of Christ.”

As Joseph spoke, he noticed the leader of the group was listening intently. When Joseph finished, the leader told the others to let him go. In the early morning darkness, the leader took Joseph on his motorcycle to a bus stop. Before he left, Joseph told the man that Jesus teaches us to love others, and He shed His blood for all human beings and Jesus loved him. Moved, the man asked Joseph to forgive him for beating him.

“Because of the beating I couldn’t even stand properly, but saw tears in his eyes. I know he was touched,” he said. Joseph gave him a Bible.Despite his run-ins with Muslim attackers, Joseph continues to distribute Christian literature and talk about Jesus’ love.
_____________________________________________________________________CIC supports Open Doors Ministry on a monthly basis. Open Doors distributes Bibles and Christian literature and provides other help to persecuted Christians around the world