Source: International Mission Board, July 28, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMark\u201d found faith in Christ about five years ago, reports IMB missionary Owen Stoddard. Mark comes from a South Asian Muslim background and works as a painter in his local community to provide for his wife and young daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Mark became a Christian, he obediently participated in baptism and began to boldly share the saving power of Christ with his fellow villagers. Mark\u2019s obedience cost him his good reputation within the community and has affected his ability to find people who will hire him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDeciding to trust Christ and be baptized has blessed Mark with joy in Christ and fellowship with God\u2019s people,\u201d said Stoddard. \u201cHowever, his faithfulness to share how Christ can also save other villagers causes locals who disapprove of his bold witness to speak out against him. As a result, it has become difficult for Mark to find work. Nevertheless, he has remained faithful to Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Mark\u2019s South Asian country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdowns left many families without jobs and a way to find food. Many residents are day laborers, working the rice and vegetable fields to feed their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Mark sought out the man who was the most responsible for publicizing his conversion and encouraging his persecution and gave his own family\u2019s food to this man\u2014his enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more from IMB: New Strategies Emerge as Japanese Churches Face Future Without Pastors<\/a> and Japanese Hunger for Hope on the Horizon<\/a> (featuring a good infographic).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: International Mission Board, July 28, 2021 \u201cMark\u201d found faith in Christ about five years ago, reports IMB missionary Owen Stoddard. Mark comes from a South Asian Muslim background and works as a painter in his local community to provide for his wife and young daughter. After Mark became a Christian, he obediently participated in … Continue reading SOUTH ASIA: Believer Makes Sacrifice to Serve His Persecutor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10328,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions\/10328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}