Latest / Thinking Christian: Bible, Theology, and Culture / Suffering for Christ's Sake

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Suffering for Christ's Sake · Thinking Christian: Bible, Theology, and Culture

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian sort of.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to be doing a feed drop with
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  Speaker 1: Samaritan's Purse and Samaritans Purse has a podcast called on
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the Ground with Samaritan's Purse, and I'm excited to bring
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  Speaker 1: this to you. They're doing some really great work in
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  Speaker 1: Sudan and South Sudan, and I have some connection with this.
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  Speaker 1: A former colleague of mine, a Lean Vrancela, does grain
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  Speaker 1: for pain and he provides grain for the people in
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  Speaker 1: South Sudan. So I'm a little bit I know a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about what's going on over there. But in
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  Speaker 1: this episode, what you're really going to hear is stories
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  Speaker 1: of pastors who have experienced some intense persecution and how
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  Speaker 1: their faith has sustained them. So I'm excited to bring
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  Speaker 1: this to you and hope you enjoy it. Kat Stick around, subscribe,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: hit the you know, hit the YouTube channel for everything
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Thinking Christian, and we'll be back with a new episode
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: pretty soon. Take everybody.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I started the ministry in a very difficult time, and
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  Speaker 2: that's the moment when I got us calling me to
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  Speaker 2: save and to preach the gospel. There's many ways for
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  Speaker 2: us to give up but we say we will not
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  Speaker 2: give up. If we die, we die, but we must
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  Speaker 2: treat the Gospel season and abosis.
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  Speaker 3: That story was born out of the Samaritans Purse Church
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  Speaker 3: reconstruction program. The program started in the early two thousands
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  Speaker 3: in Sudan and South Sudan and it has made an
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  Speaker 3: eternal impact. Welcome back to another episode of On the
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  Speaker 3: Ground with Samaritan's Purse, where we take you to the
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  Speaker 3: front lines and behind the scenes of our work around
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  Speaker 3: the world. I'm your host, Christy Graham, and this week
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  Speaker 3: we're reflecting on more than twenty years of church growth,
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  Speaker 3: beginning in a time of utter hopelessness. In the nineteen eighties,
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  Speaker 3: civil war broke out once again in this country and
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  Speaker 3: there was intense persecution as the government attempted to eliminate Christianity.
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  Speaker 3: Sudanese soldiers would come into villages. They would burn churches
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  Speaker 3: and arrest and torture pastors. I want you to hear
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  Speaker 3: from Ryan Yet he came to the Nuba Mountains in
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  Speaker 3: Sudan in two thousand and three after he graduated college.
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  Speaker 3: He read an article and learned about the terrible war
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  Speaker 3: that was taking place. He preyed on it and then
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  Speaker 3: he felt compelled to go, so he took a job
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  Speaker 3: with Samaritan's Purse as a logistics manager. He eventually became
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  Speaker 3: our regional manager in the area, and more than twenty
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  Speaker 3: years later, Ryan still lives there. He looks back and
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  Speaker 3: he's amazed at the faith of the people who shared
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  Speaker 3: their pain and loss with him. My hope in this
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  Speaker 3: episode is that as Christians, we'll recognize that we're called
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  Speaker 3: to suffer like Jesus. Scripture promises us that trials and
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  Speaker 3: persecutions they will come as believers. But we're encouraged that
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  Speaker 3: God is with us and he uses our suffering for
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  Speaker 3: his glory. Nothing is wasted if you're walking through a
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  Speaker 3: difficult season. I hope this encourages you to see how
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  Speaker 3: the Church not only survives, but thrives and grows out
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  Speaker 3: of hardships.
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  Speaker 4: When I first arrived in New Mountains in two thousand
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  Speaker 4: and three, there was absolutely nothing here because of years
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  Speaker 4: and years of war. And then when I would go
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  Speaker 4: to local churches to pray. At the local churches, you
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  Speaker 4: could see the ruins of the buildings of so many
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  Speaker 4: of them that had been burned down and destroyed.
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  Speaker 3: After a year of working with Samaritans Purse and seeing
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  Speaker 3: the suffering firsthand, Ryan wrote a letter asking leadership to
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  Speaker 3: consider rebuilding the destroyed churches. The team asked Ryan to
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  Speaker 3: document the number of churches all across Nuba that had
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  Speaker 3: been attacked.
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  Speaker 4: So I took a four wheeler drove all over Nuba,
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  Speaker 4: I mean hours and days driving all over Nuba and
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  Speaker 4: getting some of the stories. The common theme was that
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  Speaker 4: there was an elder or pastor of the church and
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  Speaker 4: the government came in, they destroyed the village, and maybe
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  Speaker 4: the church was still there or not, but the pastor
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  Speaker 4: would always come and open the church doors on Sunday
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  Speaker 4: for prayers, and the government soldiers would tell them, if
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  Speaker 4: you open the dotorre again, we're going to arrest you
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  Speaker 4: or beat you. And many of the times the pastors
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  Speaker 4: would come and still open the villers of those churches,
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  Speaker 4: and sure enough they would be beaten. Some would be killed.
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  Speaker 4: Stories of Pastor James's drug behind a car, Pastor Hamat
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  Speaker 4: being shot. There was a man that was even tortured
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  Speaker 4: and put out on a metal plate in the sun,
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  Speaker 4: naked for opening the church. So there was these soldiers
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  Speaker 4: that came into the villages occupying these villages were closing
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  Speaker 4: down the churches and then ultimately destroying them.
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  Speaker 3: After reporting back on what he saw, Ryan heard back
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  Speaker 3: from leadership.
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  Speaker 4: He said, We're going to do this for all Studan,
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  Speaker 4: which was a much bigger and much greater idea than
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  Speaker 4: what I had originally thought. There were so many faithful
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  Speaker 4: Christians coming under trees, coming undergrass shelters to Keith raising God.
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  Speaker 3: Franklin Graham had the vision to rebuild churches, but not
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  Speaker 3: just a few. He wanted to rebuild hundreds. He committed
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  Speaker 3: to rebuilding every church in South Sudan that was destroyed
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  Speaker 3: in the war, but also training pastors. For every one
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  Speaker 3: pastor that was martyred, he wanted to train ten in
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  Speaker 3: their faith. And it's Samaritan's purse. We always operate under
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  Speaker 3: the God Room principle. We want to make plans and
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  Speaker 3: dreams so big that we can't accomplish them on our
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  Speaker 3: own strength. And this project was just like that. Church
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  Speaker 3: reconstruction was a newer concept with Samaritan's purse. And I
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  Speaker 3: love Franklin's vision in his heart that he didn't want
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  Speaker 3: to just build back what was lost. He wanted to
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  Speaker 3: see the church flourish and be built back stronger than
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  Speaker 3: ever before. Our teams received the approval to begin the
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  Speaker 3: church reconstruction program and Ryan began working through the challenge
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  Speaker 3: of coordinating logistics to carry this out.
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  Speaker 4: All over Nuba. You could drive for hours and hours
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  Speaker 4: and you are coming across all of these churches, but
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  Speaker 4: how do you materials for them? Over time, we started
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  Speaker 4: to learn the exact materials we would need. We'd find
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  Speaker 4: we started finding good vendors, so they would just pack
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  Speaker 4: a full truck for one church.
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  Speaker 5: But we'd have.
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  Speaker 4: Phases, so we'd say, okay, if you collect all of
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  Speaker 4: the gravel, then we will bring all the materials. Then
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  Speaker 4: you have to build a small store, a local storeroom.
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  Speaker 4: Then we would put all the materials in the storeroom
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  Speaker 4: and we said, okay, now you have to bring more
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  Speaker 4: sand and gravel. Once you do that, then we will
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  Speaker 4: bring the building crew to start the work. And so
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  Speaker 4: that's how we would do it. And throughout the program
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  Speaker 4: you would see members of the church coming and singing
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  Speaker 4: songs and celebrating the entire process. So once we reach
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  Speaker 4: a certain level, people would come with excitement and sing
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  Speaker 4: songs and the youth would encourage us to keep going.
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  Speaker 4: So we would take months to complete one church, and
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  Speaker 4: it was primarily because of the issue of logistics. During
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  Speaker 4: the church canstruction, there are several times where we kind
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  Speaker 4: of came against some resistance. So there was kind of
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  Speaker 4: a front line established during the war, and near those
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  Speaker 4: front lines there was a lot of militias that really
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  Speaker 4: were not friendly with the church. So we went to
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  Speaker 4: a certain community called Shot and this community was quite mixed.
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  Speaker 4: There was half Muslim, half Christian. And so we went
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  Speaker 4: there and we started building this church that was destroyed
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  Speaker 4: by a pretty big militia leader. And this militia leader
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  Speaker 4: heard the church was being built and so he came
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  Speaker 4: in and he destroyed. So when this took place, he was,
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  Speaker 4: you know, he thought, we finished the church, they're not
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  Speaker 4: going to come. The next day the Muslims of the
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  Speaker 4: area and the Christians. The Muslims came to the Christian
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  Speaker 4: said hey, we saw what this guy did to you,
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  Speaker 4: and we want to help you reconstruct your church because
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  Speaker 4: what he did was wrong. And again up to today,
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  Speaker 4: that church are still standing. And I do believe that
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  Speaker 4: many of the Muslims saw that I and many of
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  Speaker 4: them has come to that church.
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  Speaker 3: Now today, all across the Nuba mountains where Ryan has
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  Speaker 3: worked for years. These churches are not only surviving, but
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  Speaker 3: they're thriving. Next, I want to introduce you to Reverend James.
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  Speaker 3: He's an archbishop in Sudan and he has been connected
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  Speaker 3: to our ministry before the church reconstruction began. He was
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  Speaker 3: just a young pastor when the civil war broke out
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  Speaker 3: in the eighties, and one year, as his congregation was
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  Speaker 3: preparing to celebrate Christmas, the government sent a bulldozer. They
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  Speaker 3: were going to completely destroy his church. There was no
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  Speaker 3: money or materials to rebuild, and still they continued to
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  Speaker 3: gather and then one day a call from Smaritan's Purse
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  Speaker 3: changed their life. They shared with them their plan to
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  Speaker 3: reconstruct any church that had been destroyed.
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  Speaker 5: My name is Jim Slugos Alexander.
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  Speaker 2: I'm the Bishop of Africallian Church, and you know I
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  Speaker 2: spent most of my time in Sudan. I started the
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  Speaker 2: ministry in a very difficult time, a time where the
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  Speaker 2: Islamists have taken over the country, a time where you
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  Speaker 2: know the government doesn't want to see churches exist. And
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  Speaker 2: that is the moment where God has called me to
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  Speaker 2: serve and to preach the Gospel there's many ways for
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  Speaker 2: us to give up, but we say we will not
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  Speaker 2: give up. If we die, we die, but we must
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  Speaker 2: preach the gospel in season and out of season. We
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  Speaker 2: have been tortured and put in jail. I personally has
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  Speaker 2: gone to jail many times in Katu. I've never committed
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  Speaker 2: any crime. My crime is only preaching the Gospel. And
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  Speaker 2: I remember in the twenty four of December and that
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  Speaker 2: year a long time ago, and we were preparing for
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  Speaker 2: the Christmas and the Bulldogo came in just around eleven
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  Speaker 2: am and to change down. And that's something you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of like what and we pray, We say God, what.
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  Speaker 5: Do you want us to do?
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  Speaker 2: And we still say, okay, we'll celebrate our Christmas. We
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  Speaker 2: put the tents and then we celebrate Christmas. And that's
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  Speaker 2: going on and on and on. Not only are we
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  Speaker 2: Church African and Church, but many other churches are being
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  Speaker 2: put thosed down and things like that, and we're crying
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  Speaker 2: here and there nobody. We felt that we had just
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  Speaker 2: forgotten Christians, with no friends, with no brothers and sisters
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  Speaker 2: around the world, we're just alone. That's where the church
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  Speaker 2: building project is starting. So it starts from from from
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  Speaker 2: pain and start from suffering, and start from crying.
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  Speaker 5: People.
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  Speaker 2: The Church of Sudan has been crying and crying and crying,
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  Speaker 2: and God hear our cry. One day I got a
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  Speaker 2: call from getting answer. And then we say, hey, James,
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  Speaker 2: are you around? Say I see our life? I say
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  Speaker 2: us a life. And then he say Fright is coming
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  Speaker 2: to Katsum. I say what he says. He's coming in
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  Speaker 2: a time where people are crying, churches are crying, at
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  Speaker 2: the time people are suffering. That is a moment Frankly
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  Speaker 2: decided to take a journey to Sudan in a very
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  Speaker 2: dangerous moment. We met with him. He say, I'm coming
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  Speaker 2: as a guest of the church and I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: meet a president.
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  Speaker 5: What do you want ask what do you want me
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  Speaker 5: to say?
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  Speaker 2: And then we least a lot of stuff, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things, say go ahead tell him this Loo, stop
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  Speaker 2: breaking churches, stop putting Christians in Joel and passes in Joel.
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  Speaker 2: You know he stopped all these prosecutions. And Frankly took
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  Speaker 2: all this request and went to the president and he
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  Speaker 2: met the president and he says, stop prosecuting Christians, stop
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  Speaker 2: bulldozing the churches, stop bombing those churches in the villages.
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  Speaker 2: And then and even he requested the President to build
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  Speaker 2: back those judges.
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  Speaker 5: He bull does it.
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  Speaker 2: And the President said, no, I can't do that, but
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  Speaker 2: you do it. And then he said, okay, give me
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  Speaker 2: the permission. And he granted the permission, frankly, to build
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  Speaker 2: churches any church that have been destroyed during the time
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  Speaker 2: of war. And he just started building it. And that's
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  Speaker 2: where that's how this building project started. And instead of
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  Speaker 2: just focusing on the areas where churches have been destroyed,
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  Speaker 2: he went all of us to dine and he built
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  Speaker 2: it over five hundred churches.
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  Speaker 3: Samaritan's Purse has the privilege of walking alongside our church partners,
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  Speaker 3: our brothers and sisters, in their suffering. It's so humbling
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  Speaker 3: and it's such a joy to be able to bolster
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  Speaker 3: and strengthen pastors like Reverend James, people that have suffered
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  Speaker 3: so much during the war, and we learned so much
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  Speaker 3: from them. They truly live out following Jesus's example, serving
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  Speaker 3: even until death. One Peter two twenty one says, for
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  Speaker 3: you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you,
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  Speaker 3: leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.
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  Speaker 3: When our team showed up, they offered to help rebuild
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  Speaker 3: their churches, and it truly was an overwhelming sense of
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  Speaker 3: being seen.
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  Speaker 2: It reflects the love of Christ. It's reflects that somebody
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  Speaker 2: somewhere still cares. And even we are in the time
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  Speaker 2: of cry, even in the time of suffering, but somebody
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  Speaker 2: is there, say you're not alone. I'm coming besides you.
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  Speaker 2: I loved you so much. Generations will never forget this
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  Speaker 2: effort that I've been done. For these projects to come
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  Speaker 2: in and the churches to be built. It's kind of
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  Speaker 2: restoring my identity. It's kind of like God is coming
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  Speaker 2: back to me and saying I'm here and I'm with you.
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  Speaker 2: And instead of worshiping under the trees, and now we
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  Speaker 2: have the place. We felt that, like the Wall of
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  Speaker 2: Jerusalem has been built game. We felt that God has
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: come back home. We felt that, you know, our identity
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  Speaker 2: has been restarted. What the enemy has taken from us,
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  Speaker 2: now God has brought it back again. Even one of
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  Speaker 2: my church came to me and the pastor came to
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  Speaker 2: me and say, hey, Pasta, you have caused a problem
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  Speaker 2: in my church. You have to fix it. I say,
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  Speaker 2: what the problem is? Say now I don't have space.
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  Speaker 2: I need this church to be extended. So this increase,
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  Speaker 2: it happens because of what God is doing. People are
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: seeing God at works. Twenty years ago, we have been
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  Speaker 2: feeling bad and we feel that we've been prosecuted, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, things are bad. But now we felt God
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  Speaker 2: has given us a new country and we are free
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  Speaker 2: to put the gospel and everywhere you go and find
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  Speaker 2: churches and the one beautiful part of it. And the
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  Speaker 2: refugees that have come from the north, those are the northerns.
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  Speaker 5: Those are the people that acuted us.
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  Speaker 2: And those are the people that put our past us
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  Speaker 2: our friends, and put us in jail. Those are the
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  Speaker 2: children or the people who destroy our churches. And now
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  Speaker 2: they are coming here as a refugees, and we, you know,
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  Speaker 2: our churches. We hosted them and we give them water,
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  Speaker 2: we give them food, and we provide our shoulder to
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  Speaker 2: put their head on. And a lot of them are
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  Speaker 2: crying on our shoulder and confessing. We say, we are
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  Speaker 2: so sorry for what our four fathers have done to you.
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  Speaker 2: And today you're hosting us, you're giving us water, but
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  Speaker 2: we have destroyed churches and now here we're giving us
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  Speaker 2: food from this church.
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  Speaker 5: So it's kind of like God's plan is different.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we cried, yes, we suffered, yes, but today we
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  Speaker 2: rejoiced because of God got us done a long time ago.
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  Speaker 3: God's plans can be so different than our own. We
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  Speaker 3: have to trust that His ways are higher than ours,
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  Speaker 3: and He works all things together for the good of
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  Speaker 3: those who love him. But this is often easier said
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  Speaker 3: than done. One pastor in particular, suffered a great deal,
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  Speaker 3: and to this day his story remains one of the
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  Speaker 3: most memorable. For Ryan.
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  Speaker 4: There's a man named Kamal from the village of Alnugra,
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  Speaker 4: and I remember I interviewed this man and he and
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  Speaker 4: you came out dragging himself on the ground, and I said,
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  Speaker 4: are you the elder of the church? And he kind
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  Speaker 4: of nodded. While we were taking his information of what
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  Speaker 4: happened to the church, we learned it was his story,
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  Speaker 4: and what had happened was the government came in and
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  Speaker 4: they'd burned his entire village, and they said, where's the
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  Speaker 4: elders of the church, And it was him and one
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  Speaker 4: other elder, a good friend of his, and they stripped
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  Speaker 4: them naked. They tied their hands and feet behind their
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  Speaker 4: back and They laid them out on a piece of
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  Speaker 4: metal in one hundred and five to one hundred and
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  Speaker 4: ten degree weather, and he was laid out on top
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  Speaker 4: of this metal all day, essentially just cooking him slowly.
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  Speaker 4: Like if this metal was out on the ground, you
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: could not touch it with your hand, it would be
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: too hot. So his friend died that day and Kamal
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: was continually tortured until his family came and begged to
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: take him home. So when they realized this man probably
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: won't live, they let him go home. Well, he was
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: crippled for the rest of his life. By the time
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  Speaker 4: I saw him was over twenty years and they had
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  Speaker 4: destroyed the church, but kamal a church was still thriving
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  Speaker 4: when we arrived. Even though the church was also destroyed,
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: they built it out of grass and mud again, and
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  Speaker 4: the people still went to the church. Later on in
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: the project, we also wanted to help Kamal, and Samaritans
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  Speaker 4: first sent him for rehabilitation in Nairobi. We had built
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: the al Nugra Church and we brought Kamal back after
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  Speaker 4: a few months. I got to see a man who
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: hadn't walked in twenty years stand up and walk out
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  Speaker 4: of the car I was driving and walk into the
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  Speaker 4: church that we had just built, and he got to
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  Speaker 4: see everyone crazing God inside the new church as he
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: walked in for the first time. That by far was
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  Speaker 4: the most memorable moment. I'll never forget him.
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  Speaker 3: I've heard this story many times before. In fact, Ryan
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: told me about it years ago, but every time I
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  Speaker 3: hear it, I get tiary. The perseverance in the midst
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  Speaker 3: of suffering of Comal just reminds me of James one
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  Speaker 3: two says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
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  Speaker 3: whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know
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  Speaker 3: that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Kamal truly
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  Speaker 3: finds joy in serving Jesus, even in his suffering, and
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  Speaker 3: he has the scars and the limp to remind him
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: each and every day, yet he isn't bitter. First Peter
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: two twenty one says, for you were called to this
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example that
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: you should follow in his steps. And so many of
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: our churches they've expanded into new villages and the buildings
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: are being used throughout this week as schools, adult education programs, orphanages,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: and shelters for people displaced by conflict, and this opens
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: the doors for many gospel opportunities. Samaritans Purse also opened
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Hayband Bible College to train and prepare pastors. And I
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: just love that what the enemy meant to silence Christianity,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: the church is growing and persevering and discipling and sharing
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: more and more.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: Rebuilding the churches in this area was really, I would say,
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: the foundation of other work that Samaritans Versus done. Seeing
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: how God set it up in a way that allowed U.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: S p.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: To do so many other things here was just ordained
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: by God. As we were able to build the churches,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: so many things happen within those walls. But then when
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: you even look beyond the walls, you see how this
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: set up also helped other things in the region. Because
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: they knew every single pastor, every congregation, every church that
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: they had constructed, they were able now to access the
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: communities in needle. So seeing these churches today after twenty
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: years of reconstruction, I know and I've seen that has
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: given hope to the believers in Toudam.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: There's been so.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Much time in which they have been beaten down over
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: generation and decades, of just war and targeted attacks, but
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: the construction of these churches has allowed that hope to remain.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: It's a symbol that Christ is there and he loves
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: this church and he loves these people. We all know
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: that the church is not the building, that it's the people,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: but this building being established in a place that is
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: so remote speaks volumes to everyone around the fact that
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Samaritan's Purse was able to construct all these churches. I
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: remember at the beginning of the program, I was like,
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: there's no way we're going to rebuild every church. I
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: don't think they know how many churches were destroyed. But
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: as we reached one hundred churches done, two hundred churches done,
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: three hundred churches done, I started realizing we were going
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: to reach that goal, which is an unbelievable feat that
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: we were able to accomplish. So seeing the joy in
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: each of these churches and going to the celebration of
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: each of these churches and the relationships developed, it not
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: only helped the church, but people outside of the church
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: that were not believers seeing these things being reconstructed and
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: people coming together, people not from Sudan with people from
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Sudan rebuilding these churches, despite all the conflict, despite everything
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: that was going on in the country, was just an
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: incredible witness to who God is privileged to be a
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: part of it. This is my favorite verse. It's Acts
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: Chapter five, thirty eight and thirty nine, and it's talking
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: about when the apostle were before the Sanhedrin and they
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: were about to be stoned to death for preaching about
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: God in the name of Jesus. And as they were
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: doing that, someone stood up and they said, you're If
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: what these men are doing is of human origin, it
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: will fail. But if it is from God, you will
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: not be able to stop these men. You'll find yourselfs
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: fighting against God.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: And to me, that.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: Fits CRP perfect because there are many people against what
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: we're doing, but God saw it through. He saw through
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: the plus five hundred churches that were built despite the odds.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: And that's what I want to be a part of.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: I want to be a part of something that cannot fail.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: I want to be a part of something that God
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: is in and He's leading that that even though I
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: might trip or fall on the way, his glory is
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: still going to be seen and is still going to
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: be completed according to His purpose.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: What incredible stories. As Ryan shared, we can look back
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: on the twenty years of rebuild that could not have
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: been accomplished in our own strength, but only in God's.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: And I love the scripture he shared and the testimony
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: are much like the early Church and Acts. I want
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: to reread what Ryan shared because many of our church
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: partners are living this out and it should strengthen us.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Acts five thirty eight through forty two says for if
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: this plan or this work of human origin, it will fail.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: But if it is of God, you will not be
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: against God. They were persuaded by him. After they called
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: not to speak in the name of Jesus and release them.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin,
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: on behalf of the name. Every day in the temple
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: good news that Jesus is the Messiah. Ah. This fires
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: me up.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: Ah.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Both I mean God's word is alive and active, and
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: we are seeing it lived out in Sudan, but also
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: all over the world. I want to be a part
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: of something like Ryan said that cannot fail, eternal work, gospel, kingdom,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: minded work through Jesus Christ. And Ryan actually told me
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: one time that he was being bombed and he prayed, Lord,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: if you still have purpose for me, let me live.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: And that prayer has stuck with me. And this is
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: what we hear from pastors and partners that live in
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: hard places. Their heartbeat and ours should be. To live
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: is Christ, to die is gain. If you still have
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: work for me, let me live. But if not, I
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: get to glory with you. And I hope that this
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: episode encouraged you whatever you're facing. The testimonies from our
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: brothers and sisters in Sudan remind us to be bold,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: to not grow weary in doing good. And I'm so
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: grateful for twenty years of rebuilding not just the physical church,
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: but the pastors and the church body. It truly echoes
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: what Joseph said in Genesis fifty twenty. You planned evil
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: against me, but God planned it for good to bring
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: about the present result, the survival of many people. That
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: is what we're seeing in Sudan. Pastor James shared that
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: what was taken from them has been given back. It's
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: beautiful that they recognize that they get to take in refugees,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: family members of the ones that tried to destroy the church.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: But God is using it for the survival of many people. Again,
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: this episode just fired me up, and I want to
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: close with Colaussians one twenty four through twenty nine. I
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: just read it this morning, and I immediately thought of
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: our church partners who've been jailed, beaten, persecuted for their faith.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Yet they're joyful and relentless in sharing the Gospel. Now
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: for his body, that is the Church. I have become
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a servant according to God's commission that was given to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: me for you, to make the word of God fully
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: known among the gentiles. The glorious wealth of this mystery,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, we
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone mature in Christ. I
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: labor for this, striving with is strength that powerfully works
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: in me. I hope you labor for the Gospel today
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: in His strength, working powerfully in you, and be praying
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: for our persecuted church and our church partners in hard
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: places as they continue to share the gospel. If you
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: love this episode, Search on the Ground with Smaritan's Purse
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: wherever you're listening. We release episodes every week and we
• 26:46
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  Speaker 3: you to the front lines and behind the scenes of
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• 26:54
  Speaker 3: You'll be challenged and encouraged in your faith as you
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  Speaker 3: hear how God is actively changing lives. And I'm so
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: excited about an episode that we're working on right now.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: It highlights our staff who are faithfully serving and sharing
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: the Gospel in hard places like conflict zones, and I've
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: learned so much from their perseverance and their endurance to
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: run the race even when it's hard. Again to find
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: the show Search on the Ground with Samaritan's Purse wherever
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: you're listening, or by going to Samaritanspurse dot org slash explore.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for tuning in. God bless you.