Five Prayer Requests for Persecuted Christians

Transcription

1 Kids of Courage Lesson Plan 2014 International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church Five Prayer Requests for Persecuted Christians

2 Lesson Plan Parents and Teachers The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is a time when Christians pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Ask: What is persecution? (Possible answers: Persecution can mean someone is teased, picked on, or made fun of. Or it can mean someone is arrested, put in jail, or injured. They might even die.) Ask: Workers from The Voice of the Martyrs visit persecuted Christians to help and encourage them. What do you think is the number one thing persecuted Christians ask for? Explain: Most Christians say the main thing they need is prayer. Christians know that God is more powerful than their persecutors. They know He can help them and give them peace about their situation (see 2 Corinthians 1:3 5). Lesson Overview What should we ask God on behalf of persecuted Christians? The following list includes five common needs of Christians who live in areas opposed to the gospel. Please keep these needs in mind as you pray for them. 1. Bibles and Christian materials 2. Bold faith at school 3. A way to worship 4. Transportation 5. Physical healing Instructions The following lesson plan is designed to help you guide children in how to pray for those who lack our freedom to worship and serve God. Choose the activities most appropriate for your students and your setting. As you teach the lesson, encourage students to pray for the persecuted not just one day a year, but throughout the year and throughout their lives. The Voice of the Martyrs, P.O. Box 443, Bartlesville, OK To protect their identities, the names of some of the people in this lesson plan and some identifying details have been changed. Some of the quotes and stories have been edited and paraphrased from the original sources for clarity.

3 Five Prayer Requests for Persecuted Christians 1. Bibles and Christian Materials Many people in other lands have never heard the story of Jesus. The governments of some countries do not allow people to own, share, or print Bibles. In obedience to God (Mark 16:15), The Voice of the Martyrs helps people smuggle Bibles into some countries, broadcast Christian radio programs into other lands, float Scripture balloons into North Korea, and drop Bibles from airplanes in small parachutes. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word (Psalm 119:114). Chinese girls reading a Bible People in North Korea can get arrested just for owning a Bible. Some who escape from North Korea learn about Jesus and decide to trust Him as their Savior. They want to share the promise of eternal life with their friends in North Korea. They can help The Voice of the Martyrs launch Scripture balloons that float into North Korea carrying Scriptures. But they know that those who find the Scriptures can be arrested. If you were the escaped North Koreans, what would you do? Would you help float the Scriptures into the country? Christians in places where Bibles are hard to get sometimes write parts of the Bible by hand. They get the verses from a borrowed Bible, or from Christian radio broadcasters who read the verses very slowly for people writing them down. VOM has heard of a man in China whose hands were bent from thousands of hours of copying the entire Bible! Have children copy a verse or two from a Bible, perhaps the verse above. Discuss how hard it would be to copy the entire Bible. If desired, divide the children into two groups, and let one group hide their hand-copied verses and the other group (the police ) see how many they can find in three to five minutes. Even hand-copied Scriptures are not safe in some countries! Pray for Bibles and Christian Materials Pray for the work of Bible translators and for the safety of those who smuggle and distribute Bibles. Also pray that the Bible will reach people who have not read it. Use the following QR codes to see video clips of unique ways to share the gospel. Watch a video clip of a solar-powered recorder playing a Bible story. Watch a Scripture balloon launch.

4 2. Bold Faith at School In countries where most people are not Christians, Christian children often have a difficult time at school. The children may be teased, bullied, treated unfairly, or even expelled. Teachers may try to teach them that Christianity is wrong. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Akash, age 12, and his sister, Rupa, age 8, were born into a Muslim family. An evangelist visited their village and told their family about Jesus. Akash, Rupa, and their parents decided to trust Jesus as their Savior. News traveled quickly through their village. The whole village turned Bangladeshi boy at school against the family. Kids at school treated the children badly. They were teased and hit. If they pretended to deny Jesus and become Muslims again, they would no longer be bullied. If you were Akash and Rupa, what would you do? (The family did not deny Jesus, and soon more villagers came to Christ.) Tell the students you are going to give them a quiz to see how well they remember the lesson so far. Encourage them to be polite no matter what happens. Pass out quizzes with the following questions to all of the students: 1. What was the name of the girl in the story? 2. Where did she and her brother live? 3. Who turned against the family? Pass out pencils to only half the group. Tell them they may begin. Then immediately remove the tests from the students without pencils, saying, That s all our time. Let the other students finish their quizzes, helping them with the answers. Compliment the students who finished their quizzes for doing well. Then explain that Christian students are sometimes treated like the students who got no pencils. Sometimes they are not allowed to finish or take tests, or they are given bad grades even though they did good work. School officials may refuse to pass them on to the next grade or to allow them to graduate. Pray for Christian Children at School Ask God to strengthen Christian children who are bullied or treated unfairly. Pray that Christian children will have God s truth in their hearts and follow it, even when they are taught un-christian things at school.

5 3. A Way to Worship In some countries, building a church is illegal. Christians know that we can worship God anywhere, even outdoors or in a home. Believers in countries where most people are not Christians know that they may be persecuted even if they are allowed to have a church building. In places that have very few Christians, new believers may not know of others they can join for worship. Pray that Christians in these places might have a place to worship. Let us not give up meeting together... but let us encourage one another. (See Hebrews 10:25, NIV.) Karuna, his wife, and their two children were enjoying Christian Some Christians worship at a cave church in Egypt. fellowship at their friends home in Nepal. While they were out, angry Hindus burned down Karuna s home. They were upset because Karuna had led many Hindus to Christ. Many Christians in Iran worship secretly because Muslim authorities raid churches, threatening and arresting believers. Churches in Pakistan have been bombed. Officials have shut down some churches in Indonesia. Radical Muslims frequently attack churches in Nigeria. Hundreds of members of the Shouwang church in China have met outside for months after authorities refused to let them rent or buy a place to worship. If you heard that officials in your area were raiding churches or that attackers were damaging Christians homes and places of worship, would you want to gather for worship next Sunday? Would you want believers to meet in your home to worship secretly if you knew the authorities were closely watching Christians? What would you do? Hold a secret church meeting in a quiet location or a divided-off part of a classroom. Have students arrive a few at a time to avoid attracting the attention of authorities. Use flashlights or electric candles for light. Sing and pray in whispers. Share memorized Bible verses like some persecuted Christians who do not have Bibles. Leave quietly. Pray for Places to Worship Pray that Christians who worship alone will meet other believers. Ask God to protect Christians who gather in areas where it is against the law, and pray that God will provide places to worship for Christians in countries where most people are not Christians.

6 4. Transportation Pastors and evangelists in some countries walk for many hours to visit people who want to learn about Jesus. In other places they have to cross deserts to meet with believers who rarely have fellowship with other Christians. The Voice of the Martyrs has provided camels, boats, small planes, rickshaws, bicycles, motorcycles, donkeys, sturdy boots, and other forms of travel help. The pastors and evangelists are grateful for this assistance that helps them reach more people. A Christian worker is sent out with VOM Bibles for distribution. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news. (See Isaiah 52:7.) A woman who distributes Bibles for VOM in an area of Vietnam where Christians are persecuted sent the following report about one of her group s trips. We left the city at 2 a.m. We walked in darkness and rain on a muddy road. It was really far. We stopped at a small house at 1 a.m. the next morning. We asked where the bathroom was. A man answered that anywhere in the jungle was okay. We went to bed at 3 a.m. We felt itching all over our body; we were bitten by lice. Then we rode three hours on a motorbike and passed through many streams. My friend fell many times. At the next village our hosts welcomed us. We sat by a warm fire, and I felt something. A leech was biting me! The host caught it and threw it in the fire. We did not dare go outside anymore because the area was full of leeches. We didn t know how we would go to the jungle to use the bathroom. The churches we visited were wonderful. They treated the Bibles like treasures. My heart was full of joy. Would you take a long, difficult trip to deliver Bibles to a few believers who lacked Bibles? Do you think you would be joyful after the trip? Photocopy Page 8 for students to color. The page highlights transportation and countries in this lesson plan. Pray for Transportation Pray that creative forms of transportation will be used to deliver Bibles in every hard-toreach area of the world. Pray that God will strengthen travelers who make tiring trips to deliver Bibles. Ask God to keep Christians who deliver Bibles safe and to also protect their forms of transportation. Watch a video clip showing how missionaries use a solar-powered lamp in their trips to remote areas.

7 5. Physical Healing In countries where Christians are persecuted, hospitals sometimes turn away sick or injured Christians because they don t want to help them. If they do admit Christians to the hospital, they may not give them good care. In some areas where Christians have been attacked and injured, medical care is not available nearby. Christians may not have transportation to travel to good hospitals. The Voice of the Martyrs VOMedical and other programs provide health care for persecuted Christians. Pray for one another that you may be healed. (See James 5:16.) Weng has new shoes! They are special shoes that will grow as he grows. When Weng was 3 weeks old, radical Muslims attacked the Christians in his village. All nine people in Weng in his new shoes Weng s family died, including his parents. His family s house was set on fire. Weng survived the fire, but his feet were burned. Christian medical workers from the United States made the special shoes for Weng. For now, Weng can stand his ground, said a VOM-Nigeria worker. Weng has lost his family and his home. As he gets older, he will understand more about what has happened to him. He could be angry and bitter. But many people care for him and are teaching him to hope. If you were Weng, where would your hope come from? What would help you stand your ground? In whom or what would you trust? Where would you go for help if you started to feel angry? (See Psalm 31:24 and Romans 5:3 5.) Do you know a nurse, doctor, nursing-home worker, or caretaker who assists physically or mentally challenged people, or someone who has been a medical worker overseas? Send them a note of encouragement, or videotape an encouraging message to send them. You could even invite them to your class to thank them and pray for them. Pray for Health Pray for the health and safety of persecuted Christians, and pray that those who are injured are able to heal so they can return to sharing the gospel and teaching others. Also ask God to strengthen caretakers who care for sick and injured Christians. Watch a video clip of Weng walking in his new shoes.

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