Blessed Friday. This coming Sunday, November 3rd, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. As you’re reading this, you might be thinking “I wish I’d known sooner! I could’ve done something special…”. You still can! You can pray. Today, and this coming Sunday. What’s more special than knowing, with absolute certainty, that God listens—and answers!—our prayers. So, let’s start praying.

• How to pray on a special Sunday

• What to know about a very “reached” country

• A tiny island gives a glimpse of a glorious future

⛪ An island with a Christian name, yet no church.

In 1766, Lieutenant Ivan Synd of the Russian Navy stumbled upon an uninhabited island in the midst of the Bering Sea. It’s the most remote part of Alaska. It’s a tiny little speck on the map, halfway to Siberia and a 24-hour boat ride from the nearest inhabited village.

Lieutenant Synd named it St. Matthew Island, but despite being named after an apostle, you won’t find a single church on the island. It’s just too remote.

And yet, this isn’t the only place in Alaska where there’s no church. There are about 240 remote villages and communities in the state. 86% of Alaska is off-road, meaning that you have to take a boat or a plane to get there. And this has made it hard to bring the gospel to many villages throughout the state. So much so that about 80% of these remote villages don’t have a gospel believing church.

But it’s more than just St. Matthew Island or Alaska. How often is there no church presence somewhere because it’s too hard to get to? How often does a place have a Christian name yet no gospel presence? How often does a place have a church yet no evidence of a fruitful harvest?

Yet, we have hope. Just because the gospel hasn’t been brought to a place or a harvest has yet to be reaped does not mean that it won’t. We know one day there will be believers from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Revelation 7:9). It’s slow work, but even some of the smallest, most remote villages in Alaska now have a pastor and a church. 

Will you pray with us for God to raise up more faithful disciples to go to these places, to share the gospel, and for more disciples to be made?

— Selah Lipsey

🇨🇴 “Very reached” in some places, not reached at all in others.

Latin America is one of the regions in the world where gospel growth is most rapid. So, Colombia must be reached, right?

Well, while Colombia may be considered 95% Christian, there are still unreached people, particularly in rural areas, and persecution. Colombia is currently ranked as one of the hardest countries to be a Christian because of the challenges and opposition believers face in rural and indigenous areas.

How You Can Pray: As we hope to see the gospel known in Colombia, pray that the gospel that’s taught and heard is the true gospel, not a false or prosperity gospel. As believers face persecution and violence in rural regions, pray for churches to hold fast to the Word and to place their hope in Christ. Pray for the safety of Colombian Christians and their boldness as they seek to share the gospel.

_{Next Steps: Learn more about the Church in Colombia by watching our documentary, The Gospel Survived the Cartels—Can It Reach the Jungles?}

🙏🏼 Who is my persecuted neighbor—and how can I pray for them? 

Each year, the first Sunday in November marks the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And each year, I think about the most remarkable church banner I’ve ever seen. It was hanging in the rubble of a church building that had recently burned.

It wasn’t the only burned church I saw. During a reporting trip to northern Nigeria, I bumped along roads littered with the remains of church buildings torched by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram.

For more than a decade, Boko Haram militants have waged a campaign designed to steal, kill, and destroy the Christian community in northern Nigeria. They’ve kidnapped children from Christian schools, razed church buildings in cities and villages, and killed believers during sudden raids.  

They’ve often left a calling card: Before setting a church on fire, militants scale roofs or hoist themselves up inside to pry off the church’s cross. Sometimes, you can still see the faded imprint of a cross on partially burned walls.

But on a hot, sunny morning in one northeastern village, men put on neckties and women wore colorful dresses as they stepped around piles of rubble to sit in plastic chairs under a tarp that offered shade in the absence of the church’s burned roof.

Behind a small podium at the front, a handmade banner declared: “WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS.”

It was astounding. At that moment, in the shadow of a burned-out building and the company of recently- widowed women, this little gathering honestly looked more than conquered.

But, of course, they weren’t just looking at the moment.

They were looking, with eyes of faith, at the rest of the passage from Romans 8: “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” Not conquerors because of their own courage or grit or determination to stay in their village. But conquerors through their hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has already conquered death and hell for them.

Against all human odds, they were more than conquerors.

I think about that group as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church approaches on Nov. 3. And I think about Christians in other parts of the world, realizing that persecution has many faces.

It may look like death and destruction, or it may look like government pressure and surveillance. Earlier this year, as I was working on The Glory Road podcast, I visited with a house church pastor from China who assumes he’s being monitored by local police most of the time.

He’s already been hauled in for questioning twice, and he knows arrest isn’t impossible. He’s seen it happen to other Chinese pastors. But he keeps preaching and praying and leaning into evangelism—and his church keeps growing. He tries to be wise, but he’s also determined to be bold. 

When I asked him how he prepares to face police, his answer surprised me: He said he mostly doesn’t. He thinks about how Jesus told His disciples not to worry about what they would say when they’re delivered over to trial, because the Spirit will help them in that hour.

The pastor wants to be wise, but he also wants to trust the Lord. 

As churches and families and individuals prepare to pray for the persecuted church this coming Sunday, knowing how to pray may feel overwhelming. Where to start? There are lots of good resources to learn more about persecuted Christians, and we have a resource at Radical.net that might be a helpful guide for prayer.

But you don’t have to be an expert on persecution to pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. And you don’t have to confine your prayers to a single day. Maybe consider folding this into the natural rhythms of your prayer life—perhaps one morning a week add a prayer for those suffering for Christ.

Because behind the lists and data, there are ordinary saints trying to live for Christ in extraordinary circumstances. We can pray in simple ways as we imagine them echoing the Apostle Paul’s simple plea when he endured persecution: “Remember my chains.”

— Jamie Dean

📍 Attention Worthy

• People won’t recognize their need for a Savior if they don’t know what sin is. Here’s a simple and clear definition of sin.

• While much of Europe is considered post-Christian and in great need of the gospel, there are hopeful signs that God is still at work across the continent building his church.

• How do I know if I’m ”called” to missions? This question has significant consequences, and Jon Hoglund offers biblical guidance for answering it.

THIS WEEK’S COLLABORATORS:

Jamie Dean, Selah Lipsey, Steven Morales, Jairo Namnún, Camille Suazo

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT!