It was an extraordinary privilege to participate in EHC’s International Leadership Conference this 
September. The conference is an annual event where leaders from every continent gather to report on what God is doing in cities, villages and remote places around the globe. As I watched them and listened to them I was at times overwhelmed with God’s amazing grace at work in so many lives.
Yes, I was watching as well as listening! Several leaders spoke of the gospel’s advance in areas of the world where the risks are great and the persecution intense. They told us of harrowing personal experiences—threatened at gunpoint, targeted with threats, taunted by mobs. They have gone through difficult times, yet even as they shared the accounts of their deep-valley days, I could see in their countenance a remarkable confidence and peace. Their faces were not marked with grief, concern or despair but with joy and hope!
In many nations today, the very act of visiting a stranger’s door with the intent to share the gospel of Christ takes more than a little courage. It takes a heart that is so filled with God’s love and concern for people that the risk is far more than worth it.
This November, our prayers are concentrated on the Persecuted Church. In preparing my own heart for this prayer emphasis, my attention has been drawn to a particular encounter with Christ recorded in Scripture. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul testifies of his personal experience of Christ’s transforming power. He explains how he was dramatically changed from being a feared and deadly persecutor of Christians to becoming a preacher of the gospel of Christ. In Galatians 1:23 we read a statement that is truly a testimony to the power of Christ and His glorious Gospel: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
Paul’s encounter with Christ has been replicated in countless other lives, and is still being replicated to this very day. God is still transforming lives! The Gospel and the Church, however are still under intense persecution. In some parts of the world it is subtler and blends in with the culture. But it is still there. In other parts of the world it is overt and ferocious. Yet, in both extremes, the Gospel remains the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. So, bravely and boldly, followers of Christ all over the world keep moving forward, announcing the message. And God does His work.
You and I have a very special and sacred role today in all this. We, from where we live, are to pray and provide for those who faithfully and courageously present the good news of God’s love to literally hundreds of thousands of people every day, going from home to home as “ambassadors of Christ”.
This month you will read about the Persecuted Church. EHC workers are present and at work in many of these nations. As they go from home to home it is with one hope—that the name of Christ be lifted up and that many be drawn to Him.
-Denys Blackmore