Present day Persecution

tonite at Deeper (at St Silas) the focus was on persecution, and the ways in which Christians in the UK have been subject to this, despite it being a free country here. A lot of it is indirect, jokes, sneers, comments from people, nothing too drastic compared to the suffering undergone in a number of other countries and cultures. Africa, Central and South East Asia, the Gulf, Latin America and the Middle East are all areas identified where Christian believers are tortured, imprisoned, abused, and killed. Where bibles are burned, families are ripped apart and people have to go into hiding and meet secretly in order to spend time with other Christians and have fellowship together.

I was inspired tonight to do some more research into the persecuted church worldwide and the various ways that we can actually provide support, encouragement and help. Open Doors is a Christian charity, originating in 1955 when Brother Andrew secretely smuggled a suitcase of Bibles into Eastern Europe. His passion and ministry grew enormously and now Open Doors work to meet the practical and spiritual needs of those living under threat of persecution, or indeed those being persecuted. There is information on how we can get involved, on a small or large scale and can be as simple as sending an email to encourage those who are suffering.

It becomes so easy to forget that not everyone has the luxury of freedom in faith, speech and actions, and i remember reading the book 'Jesus Freaks' by DC Talk when i was about 15 and feeling incredulous at the reality some Christians are facing around the world, even in our modern day and age. But the passion and total conviction these people had, their faith in God and the amazing things they had seen Him do were so inspirng and have never quite left me.

So take 10 minutes out of your week and say a prayer, or send an email, or contribute some money to pay for a bible that someone will appreciate more than we'll ever know.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40

oh how the tables turn

well here's a twist of irony. the honeymoon period i revelled in at work is well and truly over, and as of last week i am officially unemployed. how totally crap. this whole week i'v been trying to stay positive about it all, but now, in the harsh reality of 2 in the morning, it is just crap.

we ended on surprisingly positive terms. i'm getting a full month's pay, glowing reference and the assurance that if anything guidance-based comes up i'll be first in line for the job. the past 6 weeks have been hellish. i cried almost every day after work for the last 2 weeks and spent my evenings job hunting for a new job more suited to what i really wanted to do. which at the end of the day is to help people work out what they want to do and how they can realistically get there. what i did not want to do was to shove people into jobs for the sake of hitting a few targets, even if in my professional opinion it was not in the persons best interests. i did not want to create false information in order to claim outcomes that we had not actually achieved, or be forced to offer people false incentives to register with us so we could get their details and claim them as a target. it goes against everything i believe is true, and useful, and person-centred. so in theory i am happy to be out of there. i just hate that it was them that let me go and not the other way round. and i know that's my pride taking a hit, and i know i can deal with that. and i do know that something better will come out of this and that i'll probably look back and think, yes, what a blessing in disguise that turned out to be. but for now, in this moment, it is officially crap.