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When Mala* and Noy*, sisters from Laos, gave their testimonies during a local ministry’s youth conference, the ministry leader was deeply saddened by the trials they had suffered. But he was also in awe of their perseverance. Despite constant pressure from their family to renounce their faith, the sisters always refused. And when their mother insisted they prostitute themselves to help support the family, they chose to go to church instead.
Farah* and her son arrived in Greece as refugees from the Middle East. Over time, she became a familiar face at a local ministry’s refugee center as she sought to get her paperwork, and that of her son’s, in order. Workers were impressed with her dignity and determination. Despite the difficulties she faced in her home country, she remained courageous, pushing forward toward a future that promised to be better than her past. But when her health took a drastic, deadly turn, the life she’d hoped to attain for herself disappeared.
When eight local missionaries set out to help victims of the devastating earthquake that rocked Myanmar in March, they had no idea of the human misery they would soon encounter. They knew the disaster had crippled their country, but their own ministry buildings had survived with minimal damage and their fellow missionaries were safe. Now, however, the team fell into silence as the ministry van approached the first stop: a railway station. Here, more than 300 families huddled on the platforms, the only shelter they could find after their homes were destroyed. “Their lives were so miserable and pitiful,” the ministry leader said.
When Akello*, a young Kenyan pastor, arrived at his church early one morning, he had no idea that day would be his last. As he fitted the key into the lock, robbers suddenly surrounded him, demanding entry in hopes they could steal whatever valuables might be inside. Maybe Akello resisted. Maybe that’s why they killed him. But the details became irrelevant when he fell to the ground, church keys still in hand. “He was one of the Christian youth leaders that I have trained in evangelism and discipleship,” a local ministry leader later said. “The burial will be next week; it is very difficult for them.”
Yusuf*, a young Muslim man in Turkey, believed Christianity was false. He believed it was a threat to the true religion—Islam—and from the time he was a young child, he felt a deep hatred toward it. But that was to be expected of a young boy growing up in a strict Muslim family. When he was old enough for formal education, his parents sent him away to be educated in the rules of Islam, and those principles became the guiding force of his life. He had no reason to believe that what he studied and chose to believe in was anything other than the ultimate Truth.
At first, when 50-year-old Camila* opened her home to her homeless sister and niece, she was relieved to have her family off the streets and in a safe place. But her niece suffered from schizophrenia, and because she did not have the proper medication, she became violent with Camila and her mother, abusing them with her fists and with her words. What had begun as an act of mercy for the people Camila loved most quickly dissolved into disaster.
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