Testimonies of God at Work
Undisclosed Location
“Are you a believer?” This was the question that an electronics repairman asked one of our team (we’ll call him Ethan) who serves in a place that is hostile to the Gospel and where Christians like him often experience persecution.
Ethan is part of an underground team that secretly produces a lot of Biblically-based digital content. Some of their content is designed specifically to engage with unbelievers, while other content provides an oasis of spiritual nourishment to the few believers that exist in that part of the world.
This story began when one of Ethan’s microphones stopped working. It was an expensive and complicated microphone—something that no one in that country was trained to repair. Ethan began searching and eventually found a technician who was highly skilled, loved a good challenge, and was willing to give it a try.
As the technician laid out his tools on the table and started working, he and Ethan talked about a wide variety of common topics in their culture. After a while, the technician asked Ethan a question that is not at all typical in that part of the world. He asked, “Are you a believer?” God had opened a door.
Once Ethan responded that he was, the technician told Ethan that he was the first believer he had ever met. He then began to tell Ethan how he had been reading the Bible. He said the concept of Christianity was something he was drawn to, but as a technician, he had lots of questions about the apparent contradictions and inconsistencies in the things he had read. Ethan told him he was free to ask any question and he would try his best to answer them
Ethan spent the next 30 minutes responding to the man’s questions. God had long ago prepared him to answer each one in a way that spoke directly to the technician’s intellect as well as to his heart. God was at work. They ended their conversation praying together. The man who had come to repair a broken microphone found his own brokenness repaired when he asked Jesus to be his Savior!
Central Asia
Duriga* was devastated. She’d done all she could to raise her five children while her husband worked abroad. Sometimes he sent her money, but it was never enough, so she and the children grew and sold vegetables to supplement the funds he sent.
One day she received a “gift” from her husband—an old mobile phone with a note that said, “I’m leaving you and the kids because I’ve found another wife. I don’t want to see you anymore. You must learn how to earn money and raise the kids by yourself.”
“Everything for me seemed unreal,” Duriga confided. “At first I didn’t tell my kids what their father said.” Duriga saw suicide as her only way out. “There was nothing left for me to do in this life,” she lamented, praying that Allah would forgive her for what she was about to do. Waiting for her children to fall sleep, she pulled out that mobile phone and came across a Christian radio program.
“I heard the voice of someone praying for families and kids,” she shared. “As I started to pray with that voice, I felt an inner peace—a kind of confidence that all would be OK. I began to understand God’s love … is just what we needed to survive.”
“And we will survive!” Duriga exclaimed. “Thank you, guys. You saved my life, and my children still have their mother. God bless you and your families.”
North Africa / Middle EastA 35-year-old man called our partner’s follow-up team desperately looking for help. For eight years he had been suffering from debilitating fear, anxiety, loneliness and disturbing dreams, causing fatigue and low blood pressure. Medical tests revealed no physical causes for his symptoms. He began to isolate himself from his family and went to live by himself on the roof. Because of extreme fear, he had to leave his job. After listening to him, our partners talked about the love and goodness of God, and that what he was experiencing was not God's purpose for his life. He heard that God wants to set him free from all these fears, but first, he had to allow God to reign in him. Then they prayed for him, and the caller accepted Jesus as Savior. Soon afterwards, his symptoms started disappearing and he was able to overcome his paralyzing fear. He found a new job and he is currently being discipled! |
Undisclosed Location
“I give all praise and thanks to God for His goodness and mercy poured out upon both my family and myself. This is because 3 months ago I, together with my wife and 2 children, received Jesus into our lives.
"Previously I despised Christians. I even once requested my mosque assembly to try to burn down the church that was present in our territory. At that time, I was happy when I heard of a church destroyed, or a Christian forced to leave the territory of Muslims. However I realized that apparently Jesus still loved those who hated Him, and even forgave them and prayed for them.
"I asked Jesus forgiveness for my actions and am ashamed of them. Together with my family, we were baptized, and now I realize Jesus is the door to heaven, not through any one else.
"I am ready to die for the name of Jesus, so that His name can be spoken about everywhere. Pray for me and my family, and especially my children, who are mocked by their friends because they had a New Testament in their school bag.”
Sub-Saharan AfricaMusa* writes down notes as he listens intently to his radio under the shade of a mango tree. He is a pastor of a 60-member congregation in this farming community in northern Sierra Leone. But just three years earlier, Musa was ardently practicing African traditional religion. Musa couldn’t keep the news of his new-found faith a secret and he started sharing it with friends and neighbors. They started joining him for early morning prayer meetings which later developed into a small group which grew into a community church. Without any formal Bible training, Musa depends on the teachings he receives through BBN broadcasts. The broadcasts help him grow in the faith and the understanding of Biblical concepts, which help him to teach the flock God has put in his care. A local church mission now mentors Musa. Fewer than 30% of Sierra Leone’s over 7 million people are Christians, and in far flung villages like Musa’s, generations have gone into eternity without ever having the opportunity to hear the Gospel. But like Musa, they are just one broadcast away from the Light. Believers Broadcasting Network (BBN) has been affirming the faith, providing hope and encouraging growth in this small West African nation for over two decades. Testimonies abound of the many people who have been saved and are being discipled regularly through their 24-hour broadcasts. |
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Undisclosed Location
ThailandA pastor in a small city northeast of Bangkok gives a solar-powered, fixedtuned SonSet® radio to a neighbor lady who runs a restaurant. One week later the pastor and some church members visit the restaurant. During a conversation, the lady asks how she can become a Christian. |
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Sub-Saharan Africa
Asia Pacific"My husband died five years ago. I have three children. We know about Jesus from your radio station, and we listen to all your programs. The nearest church is far away, and attending makes the villagers angry, so every Sunday your radio program, ‘Church On-Air’ is church for us. My children also believe in Jesus, and we pray to Him." |
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