April 20, 2026 • 38 mins
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What do you do when following Jesus could cost you your family, your freedom, or even your life?
This week, Rachel Morley, the Senior SRP Specialist for Open Doors, joins Jaime for an eye-opening and deeply moving conversation about the realities facing the persecuted church today.
In this episode, Rachel shares the unique, often hidden, and complex challenges that Christian women face in hostile regions around the world. She opens up about the heartbreaking reality of secret believers, the threat of forced marriages, and the profound cost of choosing Christ in places like Afghanistan, Somalia, India and Bangladesh.
Rachel also unpacks incredible stories of resilience that prove God is still doing the impossible in impossible places. From believers finding peace in the face of familial betrayal to Muslims encountering Jesus in miraculous dreams and visions, this conversation highlights the unbreakable spirit of the global church. She also introduces a powerful, simple way to intercede when you don't have the answers: the "somehow" prayer.
You'll walk away inspired by the courageous faith of our persecuted brothers and sisters, reminded that God's light shines brightest in the darkest places, and equipped with practical ways to stand with them in prayer.
Visit ODUS.org to learn more about how you can support persecuted believers, explore the World Watch List at ODUS.org/WWL, and follow them on Facebook at Open Doors US for daily prayer requests, videos, and stories of hope.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Life Audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi there, and welcome to another episode of the Praying
Christian Women podcast. This week, I have the privilege of
sitting down with Rachel Morley, who's the senior SRP specialist
for Open Doors. If you've not heard of Open Doors,
we've definitely had interviews with Open Doors before, but they
are a Christian ministry serving persecuted believers in over seventy
(00:26):
countries by providing Bibles, training, and emergency relief. And I'm
really excited to sit down and talk with Rachel today.
So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Rachel, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, before we get started, we like to ask all
of our guests the same question to start off each episode.
What is your favorite prayer closet? So where do you
like to go to connect with God?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah? I love this, love this question soy much. I
think I've had many many pro closets over the years.
I well, I actually back to so when I was
a teenager and I was kind of first figuring out
some big faith questions for myself for the first time.
I used to walk down the street, over the train tracks,
(01:13):
over the cricket pitch, and there was a field with
a pathway, and I used to just like walk up
and down that footpath and talk to God and figure
that out, start figuring that out for myself. And I
think kind of over the years, my prayer closets, my
places where I go to meet God actually haven't changed
that much since then. I love, Yeah, I love being outside.
(01:36):
I love walking. One of my favorite places at the moment,
I just walk up this wooded track and there's like
a gateway on the right hand side, and it's kind
of shaded, and yeah, I love to just hang out
there and talk to God there. My garden also does
pretty well. Often go into my guards and to pray.
(01:58):
And then you know, I live in England and we
love to talk about the weather for good reason. Say,
if I can't make it outside, I've got a kind
of an armchair by the door to my garden, which
does pretty good in a pinch.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I also so we lived in Alaska for a while
and we recently relocated to Utah, and I can grow
so many more things, and I have a vegetable garden
that I started last year, and I just there's just
something about being outside, something about living things. God's creation,
and it really does. Whether it's, like you said, whether
(02:34):
you're just looking at it or whether you're actually in
the midst of it, I feel like there is just
an added connection there and I love that. Yeah, Well,
can you just share for those who have not heard
about Open Doors, who aren't familiar with Open Doors, can
you talk about the organization and kind of how you
found yourself as the senior SRP specialist and what that is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Oh, open Doors really exist to strengthen and equip those
Christians to facing the highest levels of persecution and discriminations
for their faith. So it actually started kind of, you know,
over seventy years ago our farms, a brother Andrew took
his like his first trips behind that iron curtain as
(03:19):
it was then in Eastern Europe. The met the church
they're facing kind of all sorts of pressure and heard
this call to strengthen what remains. And that's a call
from Revelation and that's really the call that Open Doors
still follows today to strengthen the Church that remains in
all sorts of hostile contexts and places, through being present
(03:44):
on the ground with those believers, through providing what they need,
through mobilizing prayer across the world to encourage encourage the
global church to stand with their persecuted brothers and sisters
in Christ. And one of the ways you know that
we do that mobile age mobilization, that education is through
(04:05):
something called the World Watch List, which you might have
heard of, which are the top fifty countries where persecutor
Christians faces the highest levels of persecution discrimination for their faith.
So we have a research the team that creates that
list every year. Our research teams are talking to believers
(04:26):
on the grounds, consulting with experts, kind of analyzing the
situation as it as it develops and changes and yeah
to in order to create the analysis and the research
behind that list. So my role, as you said, is
the SRP specialist. So I actually I work in that
(04:47):
research team in that research depart them. And if the
World Watch List kind of gives us that picture of
Christian communities at quite a high level in the countries
where they lives, specific religious persecution or SLP is really
about going a level deeper. So we ask questions, like
(05:09):
you know, in this particular Christian community, how do men
and women experience persecution differently for their faith? Or how
do the children and the use of the church in
a particular context experience unique challenges due to their age.
So we look at how factors such as gender inequality
(05:31):
or vulnerabilities due to age or force displacement interacts with
religious persecution and what that means for the church facing
persecution in those places. So I kind of started off
a few a few years ago more on the data
and oursis side, and now I look after our data
(05:53):
and our SIS team that works on specific religious persecution,
and then I also think about, you know, how how
can we use that research to grow insights into the
paskey to church to help the global church pray, to
understand what is going on. How do we help our
teams and partners on the ground to tailor their support
(06:16):
to be as effective as possible as they look to
Saturday's churches and Saturday's communities.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I love that, and I think your vision and the
vision of Open Doors sort of speaks to both of
my passions, which are science. I'm such a science nerd
and I love numbers and statistics and like the facts.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
But I love that your.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Focus is on really the end goal is to be
able to equip people to pray more powerfully because most
of us aren't on the ground. I mean, you all
can be on the ground and do the research and
get behind the curtain, but most of us do not
have that opportunity. But we have so much access to
the power of prayer, and that goes overlooked by a
(07:01):
lot of the world. The idea that the doing and
you know, the tangible things that are happening are the
only real work when I mean prayer is the real work.
And so I love that that you're doing both. That's amazing.
So thank you because it's not easy work, I'm sure
and I'm sure you, like we discussed earlier, there are
(07:23):
security concerns, there's a lot involved. So we appreciate you
and the staff at Open Doors for being willing to
step out so because we're praying Christian women podcasts and
because you do some research that sort of untangles the
unique challenges that women face. I mean, obviously, persecution of
(07:46):
all kinds is difficult and it's terrible. So what would
you say, though, in terms of just picking an area
to focus on today, what are some unique challenges that
you see that women face in the persecuted church.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I mean this can vary hugely from context to context.
But one of the things that I love about the
power of research is just our ability to look at
some of the global patterns and trends from country to country,
and particularly for persecuted women, we often summarize the persecution
(08:26):
that they face as being hidden, violence and complex, so
we can think about it being hidden. You know, Again
with my researchers pat On, it's much easier for me
to observe or verify something if it happens in a
public place, you know, if it's persecution at someone's school,
(08:46):
persecution in the workplace, if someone loses their job, or
if someone's imprisoned, that's much easier to yeah, to observe,
to verify. But often the persecution that women are facing
it happens behind closed doors. That happens often in the home,
often from family members or kind of informal informal networks
(09:08):
with friends or communities or extended family. And that often
means that, yeah, it can be it can be harder
to spot, it can be harder to verify. It's also
often violence, you know, all kind of persecutor Christians are
at risk generally of violence. That's the powerful force at play.
(09:29):
But persecuted women in particular, they're the brands of sexual violence.
And yeah, that's a huge, a huge challenge for women
living in those contexts. And then finally we say, kind
of persecution against women is often complex, and this kind
of gets at that idea that you know, often we
can think of persecution as like a single a single
(09:52):
incident or kind of a moment that happens, but often
the persecution that women face is bit more entangled. It's
a bit more like a like a web of forces,
if you like. And a good example of actually of
that is force marriage, which sadly is a risk for
(10:12):
many Christian women in such contexts, particularly women who convert
from another religion or belief background into Christianity, they can
often risk being forcibly married. And you know, force marriage
is you know, a good example of where, you know,
it's not just an incident that happens one day, it's
(10:33):
an ongoing dynamic potentially you know, for the rest of
that the rest of that woman's life. It can entail
other imbuse. You know, often in some context women will
go and live in like their their husband's family home,
where they can then face further psychological pressure or restrictions
(10:55):
on their freedom of movement, so you know, yeah, it
becomes it becomes more complex, there's more entangled things. And
then we also see the power of particularly like cultural
dynamics at play, particularly in some context the power of
honor or shame. So, you know, just a moment ago,
(11:16):
I mentioned sexual violence, and you know, in many contexts
there's not just the initial impact and obviously the trauma
of that sexual violence, but then women can also face
being marginalized or ostracized from their community or their family
because of that way in which their perceived purity or
(11:39):
their perceived honor has been targeted. So that's quite a
bleak picture I guess I've painted. And often, you know,
as you've referenced, you know, we can feel often quite
far away from what is going on, and these can
feel quite kind of impossible situation. But you know, we
(12:01):
know that with God's you know, he makes the impossible possible.
And we do also see that in the lives of
persecuted women, how they are courageous and creative and faithful
and remain strong despite yeah, the kind of myriads of
challenges that they face.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I would think that in places where women are being
persecuted for their faith a lot of those. I mean,
I'm thinking Islam is probably in many cases the predominant religion.
Is that would you say that's kind of or is
that just one small facet of a huge what would
(12:55):
you let's start here when we're talking about the persecuted church,
what are the different sources of persecution that we see
globally that they're facing, whether they're women, men, children.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, so the power of often the majority religion is incredibly
powerful in many countries. You're correct, that is Islam, But
we also see in you know, contexts such as India,
you know, the power of Hindu nationalism or Hindu extremism
can also be be incredibly powerful. So, yeah, we see
(13:30):
definitely the forces of where there's where there's the you know,
majority religion, extreme interpretations of that religion also can be Yeah,
can be a can be a risk. We see also
the power of kind of authoritarianism or yeah, kind of
governments that are looking to really cement control in every
(13:53):
area of their citizens' lives and perceive kind of Christianity
or other religions to to be a threat to their power.
And then also kind of we talk about you know,
like militant groups or extremist groups where there's that kind
(14:14):
of motivator of violence that can Yeah, that can be
a powerful force as well.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah. My co host Alana actually is that she's a
Christian suspense author and her first book ever, her first
novel involved it was called The Beloved Daughter and it
involves the persecuted church in North Korea. That's kind of
a prayer burden of hers, so she kind of focuses
on that. So that's another facet But in most of
(14:40):
the countries, I would think where women are facing persecution,
the social structures, the religious structures, the political structures probably
already have set themselves up for these women to be
persecuted just for being women. Is that a lot of
times the case?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, so often women facing this, you know, kind of
challenge on two fronts. You know, there's many concepts where
you know, just being female or just kind of being
a woman or a girl, it's already a challenge within
as you've identified, you know, the very structures and systems
of government, and then when you tie that also to
(15:18):
paying a member of a religious minority, that only kind
of compounds their vulnerability and yeah, really shape the type
of persecution of discrimination that they can face.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, maybe persecution wasn't the word like discriminated against for
being women. Yeah, and then there's the persecution layer. So
when you talk to these women, when you identify them
in some of their struggles, are they often living their
faith in secret? Is it often that they are forced
whether because of their marriage, whether because of the family
(15:50):
they're in, I mean, are they are most of them
forced to kind of live a Christian life in secret?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Great question? Yeah, again, I say this kind of varies
from context to context. So particularly in those places where
women have converted, maybe they're the only one in their family,
they might be yes, as you say, living kind of
as secret believers. In other places, so you know, they
(16:18):
might convert because their whole family converts and they choose
to live in a way that is more visible or
outright with their faith. And yeah, it really depends on
how safe it is for them to live visibly as
a Christian. And yeah, that can that can depend on
a whole range of factors. But yes, certainly there are, Yeah,
(16:43):
there are many Christian women who are living living as
secret believers.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So could you give us just kind of a window
into a couple of stories of specifics. Obviously you can't
use names, but if you could, if you could tell us,
could you share a story or two that kind of
talks about the struggles that these women are facing.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, I'd love to, so I'll share the story. I'm
going to call her Ariana obviously of reference, we can't
share her real names, but I always think it's you know,
it's lovely to to pray for proy for a name.
So Ariana is from Afghanistan, So she grew up in Afghanistan.
As you're probably aware, you know, just being a female already,
(17:26):
it's a huge challenge in that in that context, in
that place. You know, she was expected to be small,
to be silent. She didn't have the choice to kind
of go to high school, to choose a career, to
choose a spouse. Thattally, she ended up being married to Uh,
a Christian secretly, so, you know, a family of secret believers.
(17:48):
Ariana didn't know that he was a Christian. Ariana's family
didn't know that he was a Christian. So yeah, she
kind of had no idea that she was marrying into
a family of Christians. But she kind of started to
spend something different about her new family and particularly more
so after they were sadly attacked. Her brother in law
(18:11):
actually was killed for his faith in Afghanistan and the
family fled to Central Asia. And it was actually in
Central Asia where Ariana found out that the family that
she had married into were Christian, that her husband was
a Christian. And yeah, she was understandably kind of curious.
(18:31):
She hadn't met any Christians before, and started going to church,
started to experience some of God's kind of love and
kindness for her own and she made made that decision
also to follow Christ. But you know, even though the
family had left Central left Afghanistan and we're now in
Central Asia, you know, news of her conversion still went
(18:54):
back to her family. And I'd love to actually just
quote her own words, so she said, kind of one
day my brother called me. He called and said, I
heard that you sold your religion and became a Christian.
If they are pressuring you, I will come and save you.
But if you really sold your religion, I'm willing to
(19:14):
sell the carpet under my feet to come and kill
you and put myself in prison for a lifetime so
that I can clear disdain of dishonor from our people.
Which yeah, like incredibly incredibly powerful words and already kind
of just hearing how becoming Christian. You know, that perceived
(19:34):
dishonor on her family was so powerful that her brother
was then kind of threatening, threatening to kill her. But Ariana,
you know, she stayed, stays strong in her faith. She
started to kind of grow in her faith, started to
share the word of God with other Askhan families in
Central Asia. And you know, open Doors works with believers
(19:56):
like Ariana in Central Asia to strengthen strengthen ask And families.
And you know, she's able to share some of some
of the peace and the love of God with the
families living in quite yeah, quite a precarious context. You know,
they're not sure if they'll be deported or yeah, you
(20:16):
know what's going to happen in the next years. But
she says, actually she says these words as well. She says,
all the women I meet with say the same thing.
They thank me and tell me when you come, we
feel at peace. It's the presence of God that brings
peace in these hard times, which yeah, I think is
a beautiful sentiment of how God is at work in
(20:39):
every element and in every place.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's incredible and you know, you think of persecution as
being an external thing, but so many of these women
and men are being persecuted primarily like by the people
closest to them, who feel betrayed, who feel like they're
going again and everything their family and religion stand for.
(21:03):
So that can add like It's one thing to be
persecuted by other you know, but to be persecuted by
people you love and who are close to you like that.
Those words of Arianna's brother are I mean, that's cutting
to hear that. I'm sure that was so hard for her,
but I'm so thankful that she has a Christian family,
(21:26):
like not just one person, not just her husband, but
like a whole family to support her. But I imagine
many do not. Do you have any stories that come
to mind of women who have basically been in impossible
situations and have just displayed resilience in the midst of
just unthinkable persecution that stand out to you.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, good question. I actually think a story from a
few years a day in Bangladesh where there was a
young girl he was actually abducted and forcibly married. Yeah.
So her family were Christian and she was forced, yeah,
forced to marry the brother. I think it was the
(22:11):
brother of a classmate who you know that was a
Muslim family, and they wanted her to become, yeah, to
become Muslim like them, And so she was kind of
stuck in this house. It was actually it was during
the COVID years, so you know, made it even harder
to try and try and escape, try and get out.
(22:33):
And yeah, I can't imagine just that what that sensation
must have been like to be to be on your own,
to be transported into this this yeah, this new situation,
to be forcibly married. You know, Fortunately, the story has
a good ending in that, you know, after a few
(22:53):
weeks she was able to uh able to find a
phone and call her dad, who was a part and
the peace managed to come and rescue her from that situation.
And you know, there's an incredible story of kind of
God's redemption in terms of, you know, how her family
and how her Christian community responded with love and with acceptance.
(23:18):
But yeah, speaking about kind of impossible situations, I can't
imagine what that would have been like to be to
be trapped in someone else's home.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, COVID was hard for everybody, even when you're trapped
with people you love or life.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So I think there's a saying that is like.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I'm going to butcher it probably, but it's like the
blood of the martyrs or seeds of the Gospel.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Do you find in your work that this persecution actually
cultivates a passionate faith more so than kind of the
lukewarm church, maybe that exists in a place of prosperity
and lack of persecution.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Do you see that regular?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think the faith of the persecutor
church is an incredible thing to learn from and be
encouraged by. You know, I think of it more of like,
you know, God's doing incredible things and impossible places of
you know, when you meet kind of persecutor believers, you
know they're not they're not superheroes, but they are incredible
(24:22):
men and women of God. And you know, I was
actually as just thinking of a man called a waste
who's from Somalia. You know, Somalia is one of the
most kind of hostile places on us to be a Christian,
ranks second on the World Watch list, and he he
(24:43):
met with a kind of group of local believers when
he was in Somalia. Once you become a Christian, and
you know, many of those believers did die for their faith,
but God appeared to those to those believers in dreams
to encourage them to strengthen them and a wayte you know,
(25:04):
eventually kind of left Somalia and still works from kind
of strengthen strengthening believers in that region. And yeah, I
think just seeing kind of the faith of those believers,
the amazing things and the amazing ways in which God
is intervening and strengthening the church in those places is
(25:24):
definitely something that we can learn from that we can
be encouraged by that, we can you know, we can
see God moving and we can say, you know, like
we want that faith to God, you know, we want
the spirit to use in the same way. And yeah,
that is definitely definitely a prayer of mine personally.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So you've brought up something that I was thinking of
asking you, and I thought, yeah, maybe I want, but
you brought it up.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So I have a friend many years ago I met her.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
She came from a Muslim country to the US first school,
and she was Muslim herself, and she had a dream
and in her dream, she encountered after what he said,
she realized that it was Jesus and what he said.
He said something about being the morning star or something
(26:27):
like that. One of her professors had already told her
that he was a Christian, had a couple of conversations,
and so she knew to go to him to ask
about some of the words that were said in this
dream because it really impressed her, and she became a believer,
and she was cut off from her country and her family,
(26:48):
and her family endured persecution because of her conversion when
they found out.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
She's never returned.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
And since then, more recently, I've heard people say, just
anecdotally that there has been kind of this theme of
Muslims having dreams or visions that involve Jesus. And it
sounds like you're kind of confirming that that happens. Is
that something you heard about a lot? Is that just
(27:16):
kind of an isolated incident that you recounted, or is
that something you're seeing or hearing about.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, I think I mean with you know, with my
research has on Adovte, I'd love to give you a
counter or a list, which I can't see because we don't,
you know, we don't that doesn't fall into the research.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Right it's not a research category.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
It's not a research category. Maybe it should be, maybe
we should put it as a new category. But it
is certainly something that we do see and I think
just you know, just the power of God to do
the impossible in places where you know, Somalia is yeah,
like I said, you know, kind of number two on
the World watch List. It's an incredibly hostile place. Earlier
we talked about North Korea and you know that's number
(27:58):
one on the World watch List. You know, like an incredibly,
incredibly hostile environment to become a Christian. But we see
kind of God moving in all sorts of ways. So yes,
certainly through through dreams and visions. Also you know the
way in which he kind of heals people or intervenes
through other Christians, so that yeah, so that people can
(28:21):
be provided for or to meet with Jesus. And yeah,
it is kind of incredible just the it kind of
brings me into mind of kind of just God's creativity
of like in these places which you know, I with
my research research heads, like you know, I look at
it and I say, you know, oh, that's you know,
(28:43):
it's restrictive. It's restrictive of movement, it's restricting these rights.
It's you know, we've got these challenges, you know, and
yet God, God is on the move and God is
doing incredible things.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That's so encouraging. I love that.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Well, could you give us just some basic prayer points
based on what you're seeing? What are some how can
our listeners pray for men and women and children in
the persecuted church?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, I mean kind of really specifically, I'd love if
we could pray or your listeners could be praying for
for Ariana for believers like her in Afghanistan. You know,
it's a very specific requests, which is not quite what
you've asked, but you know, it would be great to
pray for for female believers in Afghanistan who are facing Yeah,
(29:36):
this all these kind of compounding challenges. Speaking more generally
about the persctor church as a whole, you know, praying
for strength, for encouragement, praying for the Holy Spirit to
move in those situations and places, praying for yeah, prayer
being for healing, for provision. And I mutually reminded of
(30:01):
someone I'm friends with at church. You know, we're talking
a little bit about about their work a few weeks ago,
and she was kind of running after her kids, and
she kind of closed the conversation and she says kind
of somehow peace, And I think often that's, you know,
that's a great way to kind of pray. Often we
feel like we don't have the words or you know,
(30:23):
we don't have the solutions. But actually, you know, we
don't need we don't need the solutions. We just need
to come to God and you know somehow, Lord, you know,
please please peace in a situation somehow, Lord, you know,
please strengthen these believers somehow, Lord, you know, please bless
them with more of your spirit. And you know, we
(30:44):
don't have to have all the words, and we don't
need to know, uh don't need to come up with
the solutions ourselves. But yeah, we can just bring them,
bring it all to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I think those are the most powerful prayers that we
can pray. Is when it's just like God, I don't
have I don't have the solution to pray for, but
you do.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
There's so much power in that.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's a literal I will be done, you know, act
in this situation as only you can, and all of
the boundaries, all of the limitations come off.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I mean, I just think that is such a powerful prayer.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's going to be a new category of prayer for me,
the somehow prayers.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
So what are some ways that our listeners can support
persecuted believers in practical ways? How can we support open Doors?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
What?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
What are the steps for someone that wants to know
more about how to support persecuted believers?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, I mean, as I've kind of touched on already,
you know, our real ask is prayer, and we really
firmly believe in the power of prayer and the intervention
of prayer. I'm you know, privileged enough and in my
job to hear some of the stories of believers you
kind of share, you know, oh my gosh, Like I
can't believe those these people who I've never met met
(32:01):
before who are praying for me, praying for me in
this situation, and the encouragement that they receive as part
of that. There's actually, i think on the open Doors
website at the moment, and stories from North Korean believers
who are kind of sharing their responses to the prayers
that they've received. And you know, the amazing thing about
prayers that it doesn't just kind of transform other people's
(32:22):
lives that it also transforms our own, and we can
you know, we can also at the same time as
we look to support the persecuted church, we can be
encouraged and strengthened in our face at at the same time.
So yeah, if you if you want to be part
of that, if you want to want to pray for
pray for the persecute to church, we'd love it if
(32:44):
you visited our website, which is ad us dot org,
boy slash w w L. That will take ct a
page with lots of information about the World Watch List,
so you can pray further there and it's also a
good gateway into there's lots of other resources on the
website as well. And yeah, if you want to follow
(33:04):
us on social media, if you look on Facebook or
Open Doors US and there's videos, there's stories, there's prodcusts there,
which you know, if you're looking for something to encourage
you to prey on your social media feeds, that's yeah,
a great, a great place to start as well.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Who couldn't use more positive things on their social media
feed right?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Absolutely, we need that.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
No, I cannot emphasize enough that your website is like
a treasure trove of information for people who care about prayer,
and it is just amazing. So that's a great resource.
That's open door odus dot org. Right, and then to
get to the World Watch List, it's forward slash WWL
(33:49):
and we'll link to that in our description our show notes.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Well, how can we pray for you.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Today, Rachel, either personally or for open Doors or for
whatever is on your heart? How can we pray? I
already know for sure we'll be praying for Arianna and
just for some of the prayer points you touched on before,
but anything.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Else, yeah, I'd love it if you could just pray
for our kind of open Door staff we think about,
you know, our staff and also our partners kind of
on the ground and lots of fragile and challenging contexts,
you know. Yeah, it'd be great, great if we could
pray for them, and also kind of for our leadership
(34:30):
as they navigate situations with wisdom and strength and yeah,
the encouragement and defendment of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
All right, absolutely, thank you so much for joining us, Rachel.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This has been so good.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I know our listeners are going to love this, and
thank you for your time and just for the work
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
It was Yeah, it was such a pleasure to talk
with you.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Thank you all right, let's pray God. We just thank
you so much for open doors. Thank you for the
work doing. Thank you for the risks that everyone involved
takes on a daily basis to work with and to
learn more about the persecuted church. Thank you for Rachel
(35:13):
and her willingness to share. Lord, we lift up Ariana
in Afghanistan. We just thank you that you are faithful,
that you're a redeemer. We just pray for her, Lord
and for all the female believers in Afghanistan, that you
would give them strength, that you would give them encouragement,
that you would protect them, and that you would just
(35:36):
give them hope even in the darkest of times. That
you would just meet them in the very darkest part
of their fears, their experiences, and that you would just
give them, give them a ray of hope, give them love,
and surround them with your presence, surround them with people
(35:57):
who will encourage them and protect them. And we just
pray that you would meet them where they are, and
that what the enemy has intended for evil, that you
would redeem and reclaim for your glory and for the
good of those who love you, who are called according
to your purpose, and we just thank you that you
already do that, You're already in the midst of it,
(36:20):
and we just welcome more of it.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
We just pray for the believers in Somalia, the believers
in North Korea, in Bangladesh, in all of these places
that are just hotbeds of persecution. We pray that your
light would overcome the darkness, and just that the persecuted
church in all of these places would not only survive
(36:44):
but thrive.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
We pray for revival. We pray for you to meet
people in.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Creative, unique ways where all other ways seem blocked, that
you would just meet them directly, whether it's through dreams
or visions, whether it's through unexpected meetings with believers, whether
it's a Bible that is found and read. We pray
that you would just remove any blocks from the Gospel
(37:12):
getting to every corner of these places, God, and that
the Gospel would go out, that it would not return empty.
Thank you so much for your faithfulness, for your goodness,
for being a redeemer, and thank you for open doors.
And we pray your blessing on their organization. We pray
for their staff, for their partners on the ground, for
their safety, for their leadership, for energy, for being able
(37:34):
to persevere through difficult things, and just for your complete
protection and provision in every way. Amen, we'd like to
take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
They've got shows about.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more. That's life
audio dot com.
Life Audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi there, and welcome to another episode of the Praying
Christian Women podcast. This week, I have the privilege of
sitting down with Rachel Morley, who's the senior SRP specialist
for Open Doors. If you've not heard of Open Doors,
we've definitely had interviews with Open Doors before, but they
are a Christian ministry serving persecuted believers in over seventy
(00:26):
countries by providing Bibles, training, and emergency relief. And I'm
really excited to sit down and talk with Rachel today.
So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Rachel, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, before we get started, we like to ask all
of our guests the same question to start off each episode.
What is your favorite prayer closet? So where do you
like to go to connect with God?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah? I love this, love this question soy much. I
think I've had many many pro closets over the years.
I well, I actually back to so when I was
a teenager and I was kind of first figuring out
some big faith questions for myself for the first time.
I used to walk down the street, over the train tracks,
(01:13):
over the cricket pitch, and there was a field with
a pathway, and I used to just like walk up
and down that footpath and talk to God and figure
that out, start figuring that out for myself. And I
think kind of over the years, my prayer closets, my
places where I go to meet God actually haven't changed
that much since then. I love, Yeah, I love being outside.
(01:36):
I love walking. One of my favorite places at the moment,
I just walk up this wooded track and there's like
a gateway on the right hand side, and it's kind
of shaded, and yeah, I love to just hang out
there and talk to God there. My garden also does
pretty well. Often go into my guards and to pray.
(01:58):
And then you know, I live in England and we
love to talk about the weather for good reason. Say,
if I can't make it outside, I've got a kind
of an armchair by the door to my garden, which
does pretty good in a pinch.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I also so we lived in Alaska for a while
and we recently relocated to Utah, and I can grow
so many more things, and I have a vegetable garden
that I started last year, and I just there's just
something about being outside, something about living things. God's creation,
and it really does. Whether it's, like you said, whether
(02:34):
you're just looking at it or whether you're actually in
the midst of it, I feel like there is just
an added connection there and I love that. Yeah, Well,
can you just share for those who have not heard
about Open Doors, who aren't familiar with Open Doors, can
you talk about the organization and kind of how you
found yourself as the senior SRP specialist and what that is.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Oh, open Doors really exist to strengthen and equip those
Christians to facing the highest levels of persecution and discriminations
for their faith. So it actually started kind of, you know,
over seventy years ago our farms, a brother Andrew took
his like his first trips behind that iron curtain as
(03:19):
it was then in Eastern Europe. The met the church
they're facing kind of all sorts of pressure and heard
this call to strengthen what remains. And that's a call
from Revelation and that's really the call that Open Doors
still follows today to strengthen the Church that remains in
all sorts of hostile contexts and places, through being present
(03:44):
on the ground with those believers, through providing what they need,
through mobilizing prayer across the world to encourage encourage the
global church to stand with their persecuted brothers and sisters
in Christ. And one of the ways you know that
we do that mobile age mobilization, that education is through
(04:05):
something called the World Watch List, which you might have
heard of, which are the top fifty countries where persecutor
Christians faces the highest levels of persecution discrimination for their faith.
So we have a research the team that creates that
list every year. Our research teams are talking to believers
(04:26):
on the grounds, consulting with experts, kind of analyzing the
situation as it as it develops and changes and yeah
to in order to create the analysis and the research
behind that list. So my role, as you said, is
the SRP specialist. So I actually I work in that
(04:47):
research team in that research depart them. And if the
World Watch List kind of gives us that picture of
Christian communities at quite a high level in the countries
where they lives, specific religious persecution or SLP is really
about going a level deeper. So we ask questions, like
(05:09):
you know, in this particular Christian community, how do men
and women experience persecution differently for their faith? Or how
do the children and the use of the church in
a particular context experience unique challenges due to their age.
So we look at how factors such as gender inequality
(05:31):
or vulnerabilities due to age or force displacement interacts with
religious persecution and what that means for the church facing
persecution in those places. So I kind of started off
a few a few years ago more on the data
and oursis side, and now I look after our data
(05:53):
and our SIS team that works on specific religious persecution,
and then I also think about, you know, how how
can we use that research to grow insights into the
paskey to church to help the global church pray, to
understand what is going on. How do we help our
teams and partners on the ground to tailor their support
(06:16):
to be as effective as possible as they look to
Saturday's churches and Saturday's communities.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I love that, and I think your vision and the
vision of Open Doors sort of speaks to both of
my passions, which are science. I'm such a science nerd
and I love numbers and statistics and like the facts.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
But I love that your.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Focus is on really the end goal is to be
able to equip people to pray more powerfully because most
of us aren't on the ground. I mean, you all
can be on the ground and do the research and
get behind the curtain, but most of us do not
have that opportunity. But we have so much access to
the power of prayer, and that goes overlooked by a
(07:01):
lot of the world. The idea that the doing and
you know, the tangible things that are happening are the
only real work when I mean prayer is the real work.
And so I love that that you're doing both. That's amazing.
So thank you because it's not easy work, I'm sure
and I'm sure you, like we discussed earlier, there are
(07:23):
security concerns, there's a lot involved. So we appreciate you
and the staff at Open Doors for being willing to
step out so because we're praying Christian women podcasts and
because you do some research that sort of untangles the
unique challenges that women face. I mean, obviously, persecution of
(07:46):
all kinds is difficult and it's terrible. So what would
you say, though, in terms of just picking an area
to focus on today, what are some unique challenges that
you see that women face in the persecuted church.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I mean this can vary hugely from context to context.
But one of the things that I love about the
power of research is just our ability to look at
some of the global patterns and trends from country to country,
and particularly for persecuted women, we often summarize the persecution
(08:26):
that they face as being hidden, violence and complex, so
we can think about it being hidden. You know, Again
with my researchers pat On, it's much easier for me
to observe or verify something if it happens in a
public place, you know, if it's persecution at someone's school,
(08:46):
persecution in the workplace, if someone loses their job, or
if someone's imprisoned, that's much easier to yeah, to observe,
to verify. But often the persecution that women are facing
it happens behind closed doors. That happens often in the home,
often from family members or kind of informal informal networks
(09:08):
with friends or communities or extended family. And that often
means that, yeah, it can be it can be harder
to spot, it can be harder to verify. It's also
often violence, you know, all kind of persecutor Christians are
at risk generally of violence. That's the powerful force at play.
(09:29):
But persecuted women in particular, they're the brands of sexual violence.
And yeah, that's a huge, a huge challenge for women
living in those contexts. And then finally we say, kind
of persecution against women is often complex, and this kind
of gets at that idea that you know, often we
can think of persecution as like a single a single
(09:52):
incident or kind of a moment that happens, but often
the persecution that women face is bit more entangled. It's
a bit more like a like a web of forces,
if you like. And a good example of actually of
that is force marriage, which sadly is a risk for
(10:12):
many Christian women in such contexts, particularly women who convert
from another religion or belief background into Christianity, they can
often risk being forcibly married. And you know, force marriage
is you know, a good example of where, you know,
it's not just an incident that happens one day, it's
(10:33):
an ongoing dynamic potentially you know, for the rest of
that the rest of that woman's life. It can entail
other imbuse. You know, often in some context women will
go and live in like their their husband's family home,
where they can then face further psychological pressure or restrictions
(10:55):
on their freedom of movement, so you know, yeah, it
becomes it becomes more complex, there's more entangled things. And
then we also see the power of particularly like cultural
dynamics at play, particularly in some context the power of
honor or shame. So, you know, just a moment ago,
(11:16):
I mentioned sexual violence, and you know, in many contexts
there's not just the initial impact and obviously the trauma
of that sexual violence, but then women can also face
being marginalized or ostracized from their community or their family
because of that way in which their perceived purity or
(11:39):
their perceived honor has been targeted. So that's quite a
bleak picture I guess I've painted. And often, you know,
as you've referenced, you know, we can feel often quite
far away from what is going on, and these can
feel quite kind of impossible situation. But you know, we
(12:01):
know that with God's you know, he makes the impossible possible.
And we do also see that in the lives of
persecuted women, how they are courageous and creative and faithful
and remain strong despite yeah, the kind of myriads of
challenges that they face.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I would think that in places where women are being
persecuted for their faith a lot of those. I mean,
I'm thinking Islam is probably in many cases the predominant religion.
Is that would you say that's kind of or is
that just one small facet of a huge what would
(12:55):
you let's start here when we're talking about the persecuted church,
what are the different sources of persecution that we see
globally that they're facing, whether they're women, men, children.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Yeah, so the power of often the majority religion is incredibly
powerful in many countries. You're correct, that is Islam, But
we also see in you know, contexts such as India,
you know, the power of Hindu nationalism or Hindu extremism
can also be be incredibly powerful. So, yeah, we see
(13:30):
definitely the forces of where there's where there's the you know,
majority religion, extreme interpretations of that religion also can be Yeah,
can be a can be a risk. We see also
the power of kind of authoritarianism or yeah, kind of
governments that are looking to really cement control in every
(13:53):
area of their citizens' lives and perceive kind of Christianity
or other religions to to be a threat to their power.
And then also kind of we talk about you know,
like militant groups or extremist groups where there's that kind
(14:14):
of motivator of violence that can Yeah, that can be
a powerful force as well.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah. My co host Alana actually is that she's a
Christian suspense author and her first book ever, her first
novel involved it was called The Beloved Daughter and it
involves the persecuted church in North Korea. That's kind of
a prayer burden of hers, so she kind of focuses
on that. So that's another facet But in most of
(14:40):
the countries, I would think where women are facing persecution,
the social structures, the religious structures, the political structures probably
already have set themselves up for these women to be
persecuted just for being women. Is that a lot of
times the case?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, so often women facing this, you know, kind of
challenge on two fronts. You know, there's many concepts where
you know, just being female or just kind of being
a woman or a girl, it's already a challenge within
as you've identified, you know, the very structures and systems
of government, and then when you tie that also to
(15:18):
paying a member of a religious minority, that only kind
of compounds their vulnerability and yeah, really shape the type
of persecution of discrimination that they can face.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, maybe persecution wasn't the word like discriminated against for
being women. Yeah, and then there's the persecution layer. So
when you talk to these women, when you identify them
in some of their struggles, are they often living their
faith in secret? Is it often that they are forced
whether because of their marriage, whether because of the family
(15:50):
they're in, I mean, are they are most of them
forced to kind of live a Christian life in secret?
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Great question? Yeah, again, I say this kind of varies
from context to context. So particularly in those places where
women have converted, maybe they're the only one in their family,
they might be yes, as you say, living kind of
as secret believers. In other places, so you know, they
(16:18):
might convert because their whole family converts and they choose
to live in a way that is more visible or
outright with their faith. And yeah, it really depends on
how safe it is for them to live visibly as
a Christian. And yeah, that can that can depend on
a whole range of factors. But yes, certainly there are, Yeah,
(16:43):
there are many Christian women who are living living as
secret believers.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So could you give us just kind of a window
into a couple of stories of specifics. Obviously you can't
use names, but if you could, if you could tell us,
could you share a story or two that kind of
talks about the struggles that these women are facing.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Yeah, I'd love to, so I'll share the story. I'm
going to call her Ariana obviously of reference, we can't
share her real names, but I always think it's you know,
it's lovely to to pray for proy for a name.
So Ariana is from Afghanistan, So she grew up in Afghanistan.
As you're probably aware, you know, just being a female already,
(17:26):
it's a huge challenge in that in that context, in
that place. You know, she was expected to be small,
to be silent. She didn't have the choice to kind
of go to high school, to choose a career, to
choose a spouse. Thattally, she ended up being married to Uh,
a Christian secretly, so, you know, a family of secret believers.
(17:48):
Ariana didn't know that he was a Christian. Ariana's family
didn't know that he was a Christian. So yeah, she
kind of had no idea that she was marrying into
a family of Christians. But she kind of started to
spend something different about her new family and particularly more
so after they were sadly attacked. Her brother in law
(18:11):
actually was killed for his faith in Afghanistan and the
family fled to Central Asia. And it was actually in
Central Asia where Ariana found out that the family that
she had married into were Christian, that her husband was
a Christian. And yeah, she was understandably kind of curious.
(18:31):
She hadn't met any Christians before, and started going to church,
started to experience some of God's kind of love and
kindness for her own and she made made that decision
also to follow Christ. But you know, even though the
family had left Central left Afghanistan and we're now in
Central Asia, you know, news of her conversion still went
(18:54):
back to her family. And I'd love to actually just
quote her own words, so she said, kind of one
day my brother called me. He called and said, I
heard that you sold your religion and became a Christian.
If they are pressuring you, I will come and save you.
But if you really sold your religion, I'm willing to
(19:14):
sell the carpet under my feet to come and kill
you and put myself in prison for a lifetime so
that I can clear disdain of dishonor from our people.
Which yeah, like incredibly incredibly powerful words and already kind
of just hearing how becoming Christian. You know, that perceived
(19:34):
dishonor on her family was so powerful that her brother
was then kind of threatening, threatening to kill her. But Ariana,
you know, she stayed, stays strong in her faith. She
started to kind of grow in her faith, started to
share the word of God with other Askhan families in
Central Asia. And you know, open Doors works with believers
(19:56):
like Ariana in Central Asia to strengthen strengthen ask And families.
And you know, she's able to share some of some
of the peace and the love of God with the
families living in quite yeah, quite a precarious context. You know,
they're not sure if they'll be deported or yeah, you
(20:16):
know what's going to happen in the next years. But
she says, actually she says these words as well. She says,
all the women I meet with say the same thing.
They thank me and tell me when you come, we
feel at peace. It's the presence of God that brings
peace in these hard times, which yeah, I think is
a beautiful sentiment of how God is at work in
(20:39):
every element and in every place.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
That's incredible and you know, you think of persecution as
being an external thing, but so many of these women
and men are being persecuted primarily like by the people
closest to them, who feel betrayed, who feel like they're
going again and everything their family and religion stand for.
(21:03):
So that can add like It's one thing to be
persecuted by other you know, but to be persecuted by
people you love and who are close to you like that.
Those words of Arianna's brother are I mean, that's cutting
to hear that. I'm sure that was so hard for her,
but I'm so thankful that she has a Christian family,
(21:26):
like not just one person, not just her husband, but
like a whole family to support her. But I imagine
many do not. Do you have any stories that come
to mind of women who have basically been in impossible
situations and have just displayed resilience in the midst of
just unthinkable persecution that stand out to you.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, good question. I actually think a story from a
few years a day in Bangladesh where there was a
young girl he was actually abducted and forcibly married. Yeah.
So her family were Christian and she was forced, yeah,
forced to marry the brother. I think it was the
(22:11):
brother of a classmate who you know that was a
Muslim family, and they wanted her to become, yeah, to
become Muslim like them, And so she was kind of
stuck in this house. It was actually it was during
the COVID years, so you know, made it even harder
to try and try and escape, try and get out.
(22:33):
And yeah, I can't imagine just that what that sensation
must have been like to be to be on your own,
to be transported into this this yeah, this new situation,
to be forcibly married. You know, Fortunately, the story has
a good ending in that, you know, after a few
(22:53):
weeks she was able to uh able to find a
phone and call her dad, who was a part and
the peace managed to come and rescue her from that situation.
And you know, there's an incredible story of kind of
God's redemption in terms of, you know, how her family
and how her Christian community responded with love and with acceptance.
(23:18):
But yeah, speaking about kind of impossible situations, I can't
imagine what that would have been like to be to
be trapped in someone else's home.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, COVID was hard for everybody, even when you're trapped
with people you love or life.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So I think there's a saying that is like.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
I'm going to butcher it probably, but it's like the
blood of the martyrs or seeds of the Gospel.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Something like that.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Do you find in your work that this persecution actually
cultivates a passionate faith more so than kind of the
lukewarm church, maybe that exists in a place of prosperity
and lack of persecution.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Do you see that regular?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think the faith of the persecutor
church is an incredible thing to learn from and be
encouraged by. You know, I think of it more of like,
you know, God's doing incredible things and impossible places of
you know, when you meet kind of persecutor believers, you
know they're not they're not superheroes, but they are incredible
(24:22):
men and women of God. And you know, I was
actually as just thinking of a man called a waste
who's from Somalia. You know, Somalia is one of the
most kind of hostile places on us to be a Christian,
ranks second on the World Watch list, and he he
(24:43):
met with a kind of group of local believers when
he was in Somalia. Once you become a Christian, and
you know, many of those believers did die for their faith,
but God appeared to those to those believers in dreams
to encourage them to strengthen them and a wayte you know,
(25:04):
eventually kind of left Somalia and still works from kind
of strengthen strengthening believers in that region. And yeah, I
think just seeing kind of the faith of those believers,
the amazing things and the amazing ways in which God
is intervening and strengthening the church in those places is
(25:24):
definitely something that we can learn from that we can
be encouraged by that, we can you know, we can
see God moving and we can say, you know, like
we want that faith to God, you know, we want
the spirit to use in the same way. And yeah,
that is definitely definitely a prayer of mine personally.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
So you've brought up something that I was thinking of
asking you, and I thought, yeah, maybe I want, but
you brought it up.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So I have a friend many years ago I met her.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
She came from a Muslim country to the US first school,
and she was Muslim herself, and she had a dream
and in her dream, she encountered after what he said,
she realized that it was Jesus and what he said.
He said something about being the morning star or something
(26:27):
like that. One of her professors had already told her
that he was a Christian, had a couple of conversations,
and so she knew to go to him to ask
about some of the words that were said in this
dream because it really impressed her, and she became a believer,
and she was cut off from her country and her family,
(26:48):
and her family endured persecution because of her conversion when
they found out.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
She's never returned.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
And since then, more recently, I've heard people say, just
anecdotally that there has been kind of this theme of
Muslims having dreams or visions that involve Jesus. And it
sounds like you're kind of confirming that that happens. Is
that something you heard about a lot? Is that just
(27:16):
kind of an isolated incident that you recounted, or is
that something you're seeing or hearing about.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, I think I mean with you know, with my
research has on Adovte, I'd love to give you a
counter or a list, which I can't see because we don't,
you know, we don't that doesn't fall into the research.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Right it's not a research category.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
It's not a research category. Maybe it should be, maybe
we should put it as a new category. But it
is certainly something that we do see and I think
just you know, just the power of God to do
the impossible in places where you know, Somalia is yeah,
like I said, you know, kind of number two on
the World watch List. It's an incredibly hostile place. Earlier
we talked about North Korea and you know that's number
(27:58):
one on the World watch List. You know, like an incredibly,
incredibly hostile environment to become a Christian. But we see
kind of God moving in all sorts of ways. So yes,
certainly through through dreams and visions. Also you know the
way in which he kind of heals people or intervenes
through other Christians, so that yeah, so that people can
(28:21):
be provided for or to meet with Jesus. And yeah,
it is kind of incredible just the it kind of
brings me into mind of kind of just God's creativity
of like in these places which you know, I with
my research research heads, like you know, I look at
it and I say, you know, oh, that's you know,
(28:43):
it's restrictive. It's restrictive of movement, it's restricting these rights.
It's you know, we've got these challenges, you know, and
yet God, God is on the move and God is
doing incredible things.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
That's so encouraging. I love that.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Well, could you give us just some basic prayer points
based on what you're seeing? What are some how can
our listeners pray for men and women and children in
the persecuted church?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah, I mean kind of really specifically, I'd love if
we could pray or your listeners could be praying for
for Ariana for believers like her in Afghanistan. You know,
it's a very specific requests, which is not quite what
you've asked, but you know, it would be great to
pray for for female believers in Afghanistan who are facing Yeah,
(29:36):
this all these kind of compounding challenges. Speaking more generally
about the persctor church as a whole, you know, praying
for strength, for encouragement, praying for the Holy Spirit to
move in those situations and places, praying for yeah, prayer
being for healing, for provision. And I mutually reminded of
(30:01):
someone I'm friends with at church. You know, we're talking
a little bit about about their work a few weeks ago,
and she was kind of running after her kids, and
she kind of closed the conversation and she says kind
of somehow peace, And I think often that's, you know,
that's a great way to kind of pray. Often we
feel like we don't have the words or you know,
(30:23):
we don't have the solutions. But actually, you know, we
don't need we don't need the solutions. We just need
to come to God and you know somehow, Lord, you know,
please please peace in a situation somehow, Lord, you know,
please strengthen these believers somehow, Lord, you know, please bless
them with more of your spirit. And you know, we
(30:44):
don't have to have all the words, and we don't
need to know, uh don't need to come up with
the solutions ourselves. But yeah, we can just bring them,
bring it all to the Lord.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I think those are the most powerful prayers that we
can pray. Is when it's just like God, I don't
have I don't have the solution to pray for, but
you do.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
There's so much power in that.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It's a literal I will be done, you know, act
in this situation as only you can, and all of
the boundaries, all of the limitations come off.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I mean, I just think that is such a powerful prayer.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's going to be a new category of prayer for me,
the somehow prayers.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
So what are some ways that our listeners can support
persecuted believers in practical ways? How can we support open Doors?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
What?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
What are the steps for someone that wants to know
more about how to support persecuted believers?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, I mean, as I've kind of touched on already,
you know, our real ask is prayer, and we really
firmly believe in the power of prayer and the intervention
of prayer. I'm you know, privileged enough and in my
job to hear some of the stories of believers you
kind of share, you know, oh my gosh, Like I
can't believe those these people who I've never met met
(32:01):
before who are praying for me, praying for me in
this situation, and the encouragement that they receive as part
of that. There's actually, i think on the open Doors
website at the moment, and stories from North Korean believers
who are kind of sharing their responses to the prayers
that they've received. And you know, the amazing thing about
prayers that it doesn't just kind of transform other people's
(32:22):
lives that it also transforms our own, and we can
you know, we can also at the same time as
we look to support the persecuted church, we can be
encouraged and strengthened in our face at at the same time.
So yeah, if you if you want to be part
of that, if you want to want to pray for
pray for the persecute to church, we'd love it if
(32:44):
you visited our website, which is ad us dot org,
boy slash w w L. That will take ct a
page with lots of information about the World Watch List,
so you can pray further there and it's also a
good gateway into there's lots of other resources on the
website as well. And yeah, if you want to follow
(33:04):
us on social media, if you look on Facebook or
Open Doors US and there's videos, there's stories, there's prodcusts there,
which you know, if you're looking for something to encourage
you to prey on your social media feeds, that's yeah,
a great, a great place to start as well.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Who couldn't use more positive things on their social media
feed right?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Absolutely, we need that.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
No, I cannot emphasize enough that your website is like
a treasure trove of information for people who care about prayer,
and it is just amazing. So that's a great resource.
That's open door odus dot org. Right, and then to
get to the World Watch List, it's forward slash WWL
(33:49):
and we'll link to that in our description our show notes.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Well, how can we pray for you.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Today, Rachel, either personally or for open Doors or for
whatever is on your heart? How can we pray? I
already know for sure we'll be praying for Arianna and
just for some of the prayer points you touched on before,
but anything.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Else, yeah, I'd love it if you could just pray
for our kind of open Door staff we think about,
you know, our staff and also our partners kind of
on the ground and lots of fragile and challenging contexts,
you know. Yeah, it'd be great, great if we could
pray for them, and also kind of for our leadership
(34:30):
as they navigate situations with wisdom and strength and yeah,
the encouragement and defendment of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
All right, absolutely, thank you so much for joining us, Rachel.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
This has been so good.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
I know our listeners are going to love this, and
thank you for your time and just for the work
you're doing.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
It was Yeah, it was such a pleasure to talk
with you.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Thank you all right, let's pray God. We just thank
you so much for open doors. Thank you for the
work doing. Thank you for the risks that everyone involved
takes on a daily basis to work with and to
learn more about the persecuted church. Thank you for Rachel
(35:13):
and her willingness to share. Lord, we lift up Ariana
in Afghanistan. We just thank you that you are faithful,
that you're a redeemer. We just pray for her, Lord
and for all the female believers in Afghanistan, that you
would give them strength, that you would give them encouragement,
that you would protect them, and that you would just
(35:36):
give them hope even in the darkest of times. That
you would just meet them in the very darkest part
of their fears, their experiences, and that you would just
give them, give them a ray of hope, give them love,
and surround them with your presence, surround them with people
(35:57):
who will encourage them and protect them. And we just
pray that you would meet them where they are, and
that what the enemy has intended for evil, that you
would redeem and reclaim for your glory and for the
good of those who love you, who are called according
to your purpose, and we just thank you that you
already do that, You're already in the midst of it,
(36:20):
and we just welcome more of it.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Lord.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
We just pray for the believers in Somalia, the believers
in North Korea, in Bangladesh, in all of these places
that are just hotbeds of persecution. We pray that your
light would overcome the darkness, and just that the persecuted
church in all of these places would not only survive
(36:44):
but thrive.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
We pray for revival. We pray for you to meet
people in.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Creative, unique ways where all other ways seem blocked, that
you would just meet them directly, whether it's through dreams
or visions, whether it's through unexpected meetings with believers, whether
it's a Bible that is found and read. We pray
that you would just remove any blocks from the Gospel
(37:12):
getting to every corner of these places, God, and that
the Gospel would go out, that it would not return empty.
Thank you so much for your faithfulness, for your goodness,
for being a redeemer, and thank you for open doors.
And we pray your blessing on their organization. We pray
for their staff, for their partners on the ground, for
their safety, for their leadership, for energy, for being able
(37:34):
to persevere through difficult things, and just for your complete
protection and provision in every way. Amen, we'd like to
take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
They've got shows about.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more. That's life
audio dot com.
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