Languishing in prison after being arrested for his faith, a native Christian worker in Laos feared he would die of starvation. “Samyoung* said everyone in the prison relieved themselves on the floor, and he saw people die of starvation,” a native ministry leader said. “If no family member came to retrieve the body, they were wrapped in plastic and just thrown away. It was a terrifying experience, but he kept praying and thinking about the ministry’s radio messages of encouragement.”

A young nurse had visited the worship service of a Middle Eastern country after traveling from her home 50 miles away. She told the pastor that she had studied other religions online for more than half a year, drawing warnings from friends that leaving Islam was among the worst sins. The pastor asked her what she had concluded about Jesus Christ.

A native missionary in a Muslim-majority country in sub-Saharan Africa could have guessed what persecution awaited him when he put his faith in Christ, but he never imagined what would follow. In the years since Ibrahim Kabore* received Christ’s salvation as a newly married young man, he helped plant 13 churches. The initial cost of accepting Christ was steep. “My wife and everything I had was taken away from me,” Kabore said. “I was forced to flee to save my life.”

As native ministry workers in Greece began building trust with a Muslim refugee from a country in the Middle East, she told them how she had married at 14 and that her husband had physically abused her. She had divorced her husband, but they were living together again for the sake of the children – though he continued to verbally abuse her. The refugee mother of four had obtained replacement documents with help from the workers, but she continued to come to the ministry office for no apparent reason.