Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Persecuted Church

Just about everyone's heard of the genocide in Darfur being carried out by the Islamic Arab regime in Sudan. Less well known is a similar campaign of terror and mass murder that targeted Sudan's Christians in the South (the Darfur victims are black Muslims).

God Grew Tired Of Us is the shocking, yet ultimately uplifting story of a group of young men known as the Lost Boys. Thousands of them became refugees in the late 1980's with absolutely no one in the world to turn to. They walked literally thousands of miles to refugee camps, first in Ethiopia, then Kenya.

This fine documentary follows a group that gets to come to America. They had never used electricity their entire lives! This is a great movie for internationally adopted teenage children. Our daughters watched with fascination as the young Africans saw a refrigerator and a toaster for the first time. I don't think they ever realized that some people in the world actually have it alot worse than they did in Ukraine.

Most compelling to me was to see America through the eyes of strong Christian believers, who are shocked to see the way we live. At one point one of them says, "Who is this Santa Claus? .... Is he in the Bible?"

Moments like that are seen throughout and indeed many scenes are hilarious. But the most important thing about this film is that it reminds me that our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world are suffering terribly.

Christians are the most persecuted people-group on the planet today. The mainstream media overlooks this fact daily, but if you live in many parts of Africa, South Asia or the Middle East, being a Christian is dangerous and deadly business. Unknown Christians are martyred daily throughout the world.

We need to speak out about this and pray for the more than 200-million Christians who are undergoing active persecution.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

Finally got around to renting this on your recommendation. We laughed, cried, felt shame, and were proud. What a great movie! Have you seen Bella?