According to Open Doors, there are more than 365 million Christians being persecuted today. The ministry is inviting Canadian Christians to stand with them in prayer for their One with Them event.
Reverend Gary Stagg is the Executive Director of Open Doors Canada. The Ministry of Open Doors, which was started in 1955, is worldwide and helps Christians who are being persecuted.
"We still provide Bibles and Christian literature, but we do so much more," says Stagg. "We do trauma counselling, discipleship, and we provide aid for people that need that assistance. Basically, whatever the persecuted church asks us."
Each year Open Doors releases what they call the World Watch List. It's a document listing the top 50 countries in the world where it is hardest to be a Christian. Other than one year, North Korea has taken the top spot for the past 20 years.
A few years ago Stagg came up with an event called One with Them.
"It's a call to the Canadian church to those that are being held captive for their faith. It started one morning when I was reading the scriptures, in Acts chapter 12 it basically says, so Peter was held in prison but the church prayed fervently for him. It struck me because we tell stories of persecuted Christians and often times those stories are people being abducted, put in prison, or held captive in their own homes. Then we often forget about them. It struck me, they can't go to prison and be forgotten about."
The official event happens on Sunday, June 23. People can check out the resources through Open Doors, pray in their churches, and the ministry also offers an online live event at 6:00 p.m. CST.
Stories from Persecuted Christians
"A young girl was abducted a few years back at the age of 14 along with a few hundred other girls from her school in Nigeria," says Stagg. "All the other girls were released and sent back to their parents. Leah Sharibu was the Christian in the group and she would not recant her faith so she is still being held captive by Boko Haram."
Sharibu has been held captive for her faith for 6 years now. She was able to get a letter written and sent to her parents during this time.
"She was saying, 'You taught us at the breakfast table during our devotion times, that God is close to those who are hurting. I am experiencing that right now.' She was talking about experiencing God's presence in the midst of the abduction."
For more stories of the persecuted church, watch the full interview above.