Peace, his mother, and his little brother
The Voice of the Martyrs contacts recently met a Christian in Laos who boldly shares his faith in an area where most people are Buddhists. He has proclaimed the truth about Jesus in Buddhist temples, and has prayed with others as they gave their lives to Jesus. He continues to study the Bible with two new believers who became Christians.
And he is in the first grade.
Jamil and his family
Jamil grew up in a Muslim family in Central Asia. But after Christians shared their faith with him, he gave his life to Jesus! He was happy that he had found the truth, and he began telling Muslims the good news about Jesus’ gift of salvation.
Many Muslims came to Christ. Others were angry that their fellow Muslims were leaving their religion to follow Jesus.
Angry Muslims began coming to the house where Jamil lived with his wife and 6-year-old son. Every time they came, they beat Jamil up. Jamil shared Bible verses with them, and he didn’t fight back.
Sumayah sewed to help her family
Parents and Teachers: The September 2014 issue of The Voice of the Martyrs magazine features information about bold Christians who serve God in Central Asia. To subscribe to the free monthly magazine, visit our subscription signup page. As you read the magazines, you may want to share stories from this site about the featured Christians with your children. Then pray together for the people in the stories.
Sumayah lives in a country in Central Asia where most people are Muslims. She and her husband were also Muslims, and they were not getting along well. They divorced when Sumayah was pregnant with their second child.
Sumayah moved in with her parents. Then she heard the good news of Jesus and trusted in Him as her Savior! But her Muslim parents were angry. “[Let’s] send her away and see how her God feeds her,” they said.
God did take care of her. Sumayah supported herself and her two children by sewing for people.
The Good News Spreads
Sumayah shared her new faith with her ex-husband and he also came to Christ! They got back together and remarried. Their children are now 4 and 2.
But Sumayah’s parents told her, “It’s bad enough that you have become a Christian, but now you are trying to drag others into it!” Now her parents will not even speak to her.
Sumayah is encouraged by John 15:20 in which Jesus says to His followers, “If they persecute Me, they will persecute you.” Sumayah said, “I came to have joy from this because the persecution showed me that I belong to Christ. Now I know that I am His child!”
(Source: The September 2014 The Voice of the Martyrs magazine.)
To Talk About
How can Sumayah be joyful even though she has been persecuted by her family?
One day Sung-Mi, a 12-year-old girl in North Korea, discovered something scary. It was a book secretly hidden deep in a drawer at her house.
She opened the book to the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters,” she read.
Sung-Mi was very upset. She had learned at school that there was no God in heaven. People who believed in such a God were often taken away by the police and never heard from again.
Mother and child in China
This story comes from a testimony sent to The Voice of the Martyrs by a student in China.
Bullied
Anna’s family had serious problems. Her mother was sick, and her father was disabled after an accident at work. The family was very poor.
Anna’s grandmother fell and broke both legs. The family had to sell many of their possessions to pay for operations. Then Grandmother died in an earthquake. Anna was sad and miserable.
Anna did not like to study for school, and because of her family’s problems, she had few friends. Her classmates began to bully her and even to hit her.
