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A worldwide ministry is dedicating this month to shedding light on the persecuted reality many Christians face for their faith, and they're asking churches to stand with them.
"We serve the church and still do provide Bibles," says Gary Stagg, the Executive Director of Open Doors Canada. "We provide Christian literature, training, discipleship, trauma counselling, social economic development, and also help in crisis situations."
The ministry is putting on an event called 'One with Them: A Day for Christian Captives.'
"This is something that was born in our hearts five years ago," says Stagg. "I was reading in Acts where it says, 'Peter was held in prison, but the church prayed fervently for him.' That really struck me because we talk about Christians when they go to prison for their faith, there are so many of them, but we often tell the story but then that's it. We also realized, there are different kinds of prisons."
The Open Doors team are encouraging churches to join them in this event on June 22, and they're offering tools to help incorporate this idea in their services.
"We provide a digital toolkit with video and PowerPoint slides, and sermon outlines. Anything that would help a pastor promote that day and pray for our brothers and sisters that are being held captive. They can take two minutes in a service, five minutes, or there is enough material, they can do the whole service on it."
Last year, there were 4,700 people who were detained or in prison for their Christian faith. Open Doors also thinks there may be up to 60,000 North Koreans currently living in labour camps because of their faith or even association with it.
"We also invite people to sign up for our 5-day, One with Them Challenge. It's five activities that helps people put themselves in the place of a persecuted Christian. For instance, many of our brothers and sisters have to meet in secret, under the cover of darkness. A challenge one day is to sit in darkness."
Reality for Many Christians Around the World
Open Doors offers a World Watch List each year stating the top 50 countries around the world where people are persecuted the most for their faith in Jesus.
"These Christians are marginalized. Quite often, it's the head of the family, as that's the strategic thing to do, to take our the breadwinner. The family crumbles. Because now the husband/father is considered a convict, they're not only marginalized, they're ostracized for the fact that he's in prison. There's also the emotional trauma that goes along with it."
The story of Leah Sharibu shows the level of persecution. She was only a teenager when her and her classmates were abducted in Nigeria in 2018.
"She was abducted with 100 other girls but she was the Christian in the group. All the others were let go, yet she is still held in captivity. Her mother, Rebecca, often thinks the church has forgotten her daughter. That's why we keep telling these stories."
The One with Them event encourages Christians in Canada to take time and learn more about what life is like for Christians in captivity, so that they can pray for them.
"We've been doing 'One with Them' for five years, praying for Christian captives. Each year after we've done it, we've seen an early release of a prisoner. That's the power of prayer."