Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Reverend Ben Coopers podcast, offers an inviting space for listeners to explore Christianity and spiritual growth with wisdom, humor, and a deep commitment to biblical truth. Through Rev. Ben's engaging conversations with guests, the podcast not only explores the timeless wisdom of the Bible but also tackles the pressing issues of life, faith, and hope in a way that is accessible, thought-provoking, and enriching. Whether you’re seeking spiritual nourishment, answers to life’s big questions, or simply a place to reflect on your faith, the Rev Ben podcast is a valuable resource on your journey.
In each episode, Rev. Ben guides listeners through profound theological reflections, personal stories, and practical insights drawn from the Bible and the broader Christian tradition.
Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Standing Firm: Stories of Faith and Perseverance Amidst Persecution (#700 - Elim)
What drives individuals to stand firm in their faith amidst peril and persecution? Join us as we welcome Sandra, a passionate advocate from Arise Africa, who shares poignant stories and groundbreaking initiatives designed to support the persecuted church. Sandra's insights illuminate the stark realities faced by Christians in regions threatened by Islamist groups, and she unveils the powerful global campaign that gained momentum at the Lausanne Congress in South Korea. Discover how Arise Africa and organizations like Open Doors are tirelessly working with international bodies to amplify the voices of those who endure unimaginable challenges for their beliefs.
This episode also honors the extraordinary courage of pastors in Uganda and Laos, who paid the ultimate price for their devotion. Their sacrifices highlight the relentless hostility faced by Christians worldwide. We also hear from Candy in Indonesia, whose journey from tragedy to resilience serves as a beacon of hope. Her story, intertwined with community support and unyielding faith, reflects the spirit of perseverance that many persecuted Christians embody. Listen in to find out how these narratives of strength and solidarity offer both a sobering perspective and an inspiring call to action.
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https://www.pastorbencooper.co.uk/
Welcome to Reverend Ben Cooper's podcast. We are a radio and podcast ministry based here within the UK. Your support is vital through prayer and through sowing a seed of faith. We are so thankful to have so many people around the globe downloading and listening to our podcasts, whether you are on Spotify, apple Podcast, google, alexa, amazon Music and so many other platforms. For more information about our ministry, please find us on pastorbencoopercouk. We would love to hear from you as you partner with us as we reach the world for Jesus Christ. Please send us an email through our contact form on pastorbencoopercouk. Also, you can find our latest books on Amazon under hashtag one, hashtag two and hashtag three under Christian Straight Talk hard-hitting, real-life conversations taken from our podcasts.
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Speaker 2:God bless you. God bless you wherever you are. We thank you so much for your life across the world. Again, I will say it again God bless every one of you. Thank you so much for sharing these podcasts. You know tens of thousands across the globe, wherever you are situated, may the hand of the Lord just be upon you at this hour, whether it's the morning, whether it's the evening, or whether it's the morning, whether it's the evening, or whether it's the mid-afternoon, wherever you are. We thank God for your lives and thank for, as we gather around these mics, for the persecuted church we're going to.
Speaker 2:We've got Sandra with us this afternoon and the title of this podcast is Help for the Widows and we pray for the persecuted church. You know this has been a big ministry from this podcasting room from the church, from Sandra, many, many years ago. So this is a powerful ministry. The persecuted church and the suffering church, the underground church. We thank God for all the ministries that support that and fund everything that goes along. You know you've got Open Doors, you've got Release International, barnabas, you've got all that other stuff out there and we are really blessed to be, you know, aware of the persecuted church. But we're going to sit back. We're going to listen to what Sandra's got to share with us today. You know we've got some updates and the title is Help for the Widows and we welcome Sandra. Sandra, good afternoon, hello. How are you?
Speaker 3:I'm all right, thank you.
Speaker 2:How's school been?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been good, a bit of a stretch as supplier teacher, with everything going on within school, and we thank God for your life, thank God for your ministry, sandra, for everything that you do for the years that you've been pressing into the persecuted church, and we are really blessed to have you here and, as often as we can gather, across the other side of the table as we just record these podcasts as they go out across the world, across the other side of the table, as we just record these podcasts as they go out across the world, and we would ask every one of you, wherever you are, could you share these out to your family, your friends, your pastors, maybe your leaders?
Speaker 2:Uh, these are critical, these podcasts regarding the end times and also what we do with brian greenaway, mayoz, israel and especially our sister, sandra. We got the bible studies through the week, we've got all the individual stuff. So, please, we would really ask that you will support us through prayer and, uh, share everything that we do. So, sandra, will you, uh, will you take it away, so to speak, and we'll sit back and we'll listen and we'll just see what you've got to come from the holy spirit this afternoon, as we just in the world of the persecuted church okay, so.
Speaker 3:So last time we were looking at news updates and about Christian martyrs as well and their families, and we said I would find out a bit more information about Arise Africa, because we were talking about the situation in Africa where many pastors and many men are being martyred by different Islamist groups, and so Open Doors have set up this petition to try and put greater awareness about what's going on before the different bodies like EU, united Nations, world Council in Africa and things, and so the latest thing I found out is that there was a Lausanne Congress and apparently it's in different places in the world. I think it's each year and it's about global mission, and this year, open Doors had an opportunity to share about Arise Africa and the World Watch List, and it was held in South Korea in end of October and they were saying that they had the opportunity for 1,000 people to sign this petition. It's a very big event and they were able to talk about it and they said it was very encouraging.
Speaker 2:It's interesting, isn't it, to think that this is happening right before our very eyes. The end times is unfolding and you've got to rise. Africa, a thousand people to sign up for this, and where did you say that this took place?
Speaker 3:In South Korea.
Speaker 2:That's interesting In South Korea. How did they ever get themselves to that position? I don't know. That's quite amazing really to think that they got themselves in South Korea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, yeah. So it was a big congress, you know, and it was attended by thousands of church and ministry leaders from across the world to discuss, pray for and be inspired about opportunities in global mission. Inspired about opportunities in global mission. And they prayed for the Arise Africa campaign to stop the violence, start the healing, building resilience of the church in sub-Saharan Africa in the face of persecution, and praying for the end of jihadist attacks. So that's yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a lot.
Speaker 3:There's a lot going on there, sandra so that continue to pray the global petition critical, isn't it?
Speaker 3:is intended to be presented to the EU, the UN and the African Union and local governments around the world, including the UK government, in 2026. But as soon as you've finished a sheet, you should send it to them, because the more they have then, the more they can show. You know that people are interested and, as I say so, they've had 1,000 signatures with this. So, yeah, there'll be more updates as we go along, probably after Christmas, and the World Watch List, you know, because that's the big thing really in January is, you know, unveiling again.
Speaker 2:Do you know if there's much change that's gone on within the World Watch List?
Speaker 3:No, I don't know. They don't really say, you know, to be beforehand and they just encourage us to get in our mps involved. So I will be doing that now because, um I you know there's things going on at home, aren't they? Like you know this um assisted dying bill, so I've been involved in writing to the mp for that so I wanted to leave a bit of time before I said about hey, there's so much going on so much going on across the world.
Speaker 2:We got russia, we got ukraine, we got stuff happening here in the uk. We got this government that is talking about assisted dying. You know, assisted, all that stuff. You've got Israel. We are really at the door of Christ's return. So, wherever you are across the world, pray, pray, pray, pray, keep praying. You know prayer is critical, that we pray and we just believe. You know Sandra's given us a little bit of detail. Arise, africa. You know, help for the widows.
Speaker 3:We all know that there's serious stuff going on around the globe and we are sitting in end days yeah, and, as I said, like last week, um, you know, let us consider how to spare one another on to love and good deeds because, like we were hearing, that, because of the terrible things that have happened and because they've not stopped happening and some people have experienced being, um, you know, having to leave their homes more times and family members have died in one incident, and then more family members have died in another incident, that some of them are losing their faith or they're having to flee to the big cities, and then they haven't got the contacts, they haven't got the church that they had, and the churches in the villages have gone, and so, um, you know, we're sense of loneliness maybe yeah, praying about that, you know, and and you know not giving up.
Speaker 3:you know that saying we've got to run the race with perseverance, you know, Jesus said didn't he run the race? And Paul said because it's easy to start, but it's not so easy to finish.
Speaker 2:No, no, completely not.
Speaker 3:And we need to encourage one another, as I said, to spare one another in love and good deeds. You know, that's it. We need each other and we need prayers. So we're going to talk about some widows this time and we need prayers. So we're going to talk about some widows. This time I'm going to go to Bikino Faso, which is another place now where there's a lot of killing, sadly, through islamist groups.
Speaker 2:And this lady.
Speaker 3:She was only 24 years old, annette. She was pregnant and her village was attacked. Her husband was killed. He was part of the leadership. He did the Bible for the children and the youth.
Speaker 3:He was the youth pastor and so she fled to her husband's family and had her baby but it sounds like her husband's family and had her baby, but it sounds like her husband's family. They blamed her for the death of her husband. They blamed her because of her Christian faith and they tried to pressure her into marrying another family member according to Islamic traditions, so it sounds like he maybe came from an Islamic background and she didn't, and they resented her and thought that she'd taken him off and now he died but anyway. So she had to flee again and so she ended up in the capital and fortunately she found a church and a pastor who's sympathetic to her needs and he found her a small place to live which costs a single room, which she's showing in this picture, and that's worth seven pounds. She pays seven pounds a month for that room and she has other children.
Speaker 2:Seven pounds a week or £7 a month, £7 a month, but that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money for them.
Speaker 3:It's 5,000 CFA, whatever they are. But yeah, she had a single room and that is where she and her baby and the rest of her family live. And she was her husband was a tailor, and she also weaved traditional cloth and she told the release partners that she would love to do this again, that she would like to, you know, be able to earn a living doing that, but she didn't have the equipment anymore. But she didn't have the equipment anymore and so release international um. One of their projects now is to rebuild lives for these widows and assist them with housing and food, and also they're now helping her to be able to do what she did. So and they're doing it for other people as well, whatever they were doing like, they're giving them opportunities to build skills in weaving, tailoring, hairdressing, door to door, selling rearing poultry. So, yes, the funds are provided.
Speaker 2:Basic life skills.
Speaker 3:Yes, so you know, a lot of them have got skills, but they've just had to flee and now they're in a different place and they need support to start again. So, yeah, so it's an encouraging story. It's a sad story, but it's encouraging. You know again that God is using Release International to be his hands and feet.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 3:And put a loving arm around this woman. And she says my children are supported through the school by an education project. Partners visit regularly and read God's word, praying and even weeping with them, expressing Christian solidarity with them through their grief. Anita told us that she likes to read the Psalms because King David also passed through difficult times. She said give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in the UK. May God and other places. May God give you strength in your daily Christian walk. Now I see that I am not alone thank you, jesus.
Speaker 2:We're not alone. The Bible tells us, doesn't he, that God says I will not leave you as orphans. Through the voice of Jesus Christ, I will not leave you as orphans.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting story, a harrowing story. All the stories carry the same sort of thread than they just a different external. Uh, but right, the core of everything. Persecution is persecution. You know everything is stripped back from them, everything's been taken from them, and when you read these stories it's heartwarming.
Speaker 2:But prayer is the key. Wherever you are across the world, prayer is the ultimate weapon against the devil's work. You know prayer. You know just pray for the persecuted church and and they, there is prayer. Um, guides isn't there as well? Sandra, you can pick up prayer guides. They're obviously they're online. If you go online to open doors or release international, whatever one that you you might want to, you might feel the holy spirit is leading you to just Just follow the stories through. You know Release International there's beautiful prayer guides and how to pray and what to pray for, so there's a lot of guidance through prayer. I know we mention prayer a lot because prayer is key. Prayer is critical for everything that we do. So isn't that amazing for that lady to say give our blessings to everybody here in the UK when she's going through what she is going through, experiencing what she is experiencing and we're here?
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 2:Lord.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So now we're going to Uganda just to give you an idea of where all the different things are happening. Just to give you an idea of where all the different things are happening. So in Uganda, a pastor was killed by a sword, somebody on a motorbike.
Speaker 2:And he just led a discipleship class at 5.45 that day, so he'd come out of church. He'd come out of a home group, yeah, and he was on his motorbike. And another motorbike came up and they wielded a sword and he was killed. He was killed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but they had warned him so he knew that it could happen. He was only 52.
Speaker 2:And he kept going he kept preaching the gospel.
Speaker 3:keep making disciples yeah they said we are aware of some secret meetings you are undertaking. They said we are aware of some secret meetings you are undertaking. You have to stop preaching as well as converting our faithful Muslims to Christianity, and if not, then soon. We are coming for your life.
Speaker 2:Hear that, hear that church in the West that this faithful, spirit-filled disciple had all these threats against his life, but he was committed, even unto death, to serve Jesus Christ. He knew the consequences, he knew what was coming, he knew what could happen, but he didn't give up. He still made disciples. And he had just came out, he had just exited a discipleship group.
Speaker 3:His life was taken, lord we can't work this stuff out yeah, he had a companion and he managed to escape and he said the attackers were shouting your time has come. Pray hard if your god will save you. You have been deceiving people about life after death given by isa and um. He said that he did recognise one of the attackers but, you know, a lot of the time the police won't do anything about it. So I don't know whether they are following it up or not.
Speaker 2:I think the issue that we all know here with the authorities in these foreign lands is that they will never do anything about it because they're frightened themselves and they're threatened themselves. So they literally, they just turn a blind eye and they just walk away. So we understand that the only way this will ever change in these islamist nations is by god actually doing a complete miracle. But the authorities are either for Islam or they're fearful of Islam. Yeah so we won't never see anything until.
Speaker 3:Or God does something. So the neighbours arrived and they rushed him to hospital, but he died on the way. So he's left a wife, and so she is grieving for her husband.
Speaker 2:And what nation is this, sandra, and?
Speaker 3:that was Uganda.
Speaker 2:We pray for Uganda.
Speaker 3:And now we turn to Laos, where a pastor was shot dead and he was feeding his chickens and ducks behind the house when he was attacked again two men on a motorcycle. There was a brief exchange and one of the men took out a gun and shot him and uh, yeah, so he the price for following jesus in a nation that is completely antichrist.
Speaker 2:You know your life is at risk. This is so. This is beyond the word serious. This is in the realms of like. Will you give your life for Jesus? Will you preach the gospel until death itself?
Speaker 3:Yeah, look at the martyrs in the Bible. He was a key leader.
Speaker 2:So he was a pastor.
Speaker 3:He was a pastor and a key leader. He'd come from this tribal group. He was a tribal Camus leader. He'd come from this tribal group, he was a tribal Camu leader and yeah. So it says that. Yeah, he had two teenage children and a wife and they are looking in. The police are looking into the killing. He had been sharing the gospel and screening the jesus film and hosting trainings for pastors so he was a week before he was killed um lec leaders had gathered to dedicate the expansion of a church building as the congregation had grown.
Speaker 3:According to local Christians, Pastor Thongkam was closely monitored by the authorities and had been warned several times to stop his Christian activities.
Speaker 2:So he'd been warned by the local authorities. There's an altercation, exchange of gunfire Well, not exchange of, but there was gunfire and the pastor of the church that was growing spiritually numerically giving the gospel out for Jesus Christ, his life was taken. A second incident, we would say, where we have just had two stories where two men, one with a sword and one with a gun, All for the gospel of.
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:make you think, Doesn't it make you look at our situation here in the UK and think to ourselves what would it be if our lives were threatened unto death itself? Please, God would.
Speaker 3:What would it be if, if our lives were threatened unto death itself, please, god? I mean, obviously we are praying for the families and this is what we're looking at at the moment and the martyrs, but we need to just thank god for the work that they did and the so that they sowed and the lives that they have rescued. And how angry the enemy because these people think they're acting on behalf of God. But obviously it's the deceiving spirit and it's the enemy, like Satan, is angry about this. He knows his days are numbered and he's got to do whatever he can to stop. And we know that well. Ever, like from the time of paul to now. You know, missionaries, they have to shut them up if they won't be quiet that's correct the gospel, then they have to be and this is silenced.
Speaker 2:Nothing new under the sun, is it?
Speaker 3:no, but uh, it is increasing. That's the problem.
Speaker 2:This is the thing and the thing is, those signs as well, these, incidents are not uh isolated, they are increasing yes, and the thing is it's it's always been since the gospel of jesus christ, as we have said, and what we are finding is that, uh, we're hearing more of it, obviously due to social media and the power of technology, but what we must remind ourselves is that how many uh are not getting to the, to the to be reported? How many are actually still losing their lives? Pastors and leaders and preachers and teachers and their, their names are not getting into the literature that we have the privilege of having before our, our eyes today. So this is not just one or two. Just across the, the world, we are talking hundreds, we are, we're, we're probably uncountable men and women that are losing their lives because of jesus christ, and what I mean by that? We know what I mean by the gospel, you know. But, and jesus said, as, as they persecuted me, as they struck me, so will they strike you.
Speaker 2:So this is nothing new under the sun, but what we find is that, uh, social media and the power of, of media itself as it displays these stories, how many more uncountable pastors, leaders, church planters, missionaries as you said, sandra, people that are just maybe giving tracks out, yeah, christians that are not even preachers, that just families disregarded from their families and kicked out of their workplace, and all that the persecuted, the underground church is. What's the normal figure? Is it 365 million displaced Christians roughly around the world? Something like that? Displaced brothers and sisters, and then the ones that are losing their lives?
Speaker 3:yeah, and you know, you just think about that. You know the scripture where it says you know, they, the um, they say how long lord, all the martyrs under the under the altar are waiting, aren't they? In revelation it says how long, lord, how long you know, and they've been faithful and they've run their race and but they leave behind loved ones who are grieving, but even then, they want to carry on the work that their husbands left and be supported and all those people, as I said, that have been saved also. But, yeah, we do need to think of those who are grieving, but there's a bit of a. So I left this to the last because I thought, well, we've had quite a lot of, you know, sadness, although you know you need to weep with those who weep, and now we're going to rejoice with those who rejoice.
Speaker 3:So, this lady Candy, she lost her husband in another attack in 2020. She lost her husband and her father and this was in Indonesia and she was grief stricken and you know they asked for people to pray for her. This is open doors. Now we've moved to open doors, and also that you know the the nearby where she lived, they attacked the village and a makeshift church that the Salvation Army had um provided and that was destroyed. So they had the church and the Salvation Army building were both destroyed and, um, you know, houses in the village and so, um, a call went out to help to rebuild all this Um, and she said um, right now my overall condition is fine. My children too. The oldest is 15 and the second is 13 and the youngest is nine years old, and you know she has a smile on her face. She says I remarried two years ago as well. Now we live in a new house in another village and that was donated to us and that was donated to us, she said. I smile as I watch my youngest play with her pet cat. With my new husband, I'm attempting to rebuild my life. We have some land and grow cocoa here.
Speaker 3:I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the donors who helped fund the construction of the wonderful church as well as the pastor's house next to the church building, which is very beautiful, says the mayor from there. I am amazed by these buildings. That is in this mountainous area and it is so beautiful area and it is so beautiful. This church means a lot to us because there is a history of our lives behind its founding. He said a member, and he's a member of the congregation as well. This mayor, in this beautiful church, we can continue to worship God. I believe that what has happened is part of God's plan. Thank you for your generosity and thank you for praying for Candy and others affected by the attack, and please continue to pray. The new homes are currently borrowing electricity from neighbours while we wait for the government to provide them with their own, and they will be able to um also let live and sustain themselves.
Speaker 3:Um, but they said that the region is susceptible to earthquakes, so that's another thing to think that's another serious thing to think about wow, we haven't got enough going on so they said that electricity provisions need to be protected from um earthquakes and attacks wow, so very interesting, yeah, so you know good news good news and good news looking very, very happy there. But again, it's just the loving support of brothers and sisters raising these people what booklet is that, sandra? This is the prayer diary for november, december 2024.
Speaker 2:From open doors and that's accessible to anybody. I believe it's online as well, so you can get it on the pdf form. Yeah, so you can read these stories. You know, everything that sandra brings, brings to the table, everything is in the public domain. You can even get it on paper form when you can even get it on, uh, on the internet, on the site. So it's everywhere. It's free to read. Um, but please, brothers and sisters, wherever you are, you know, keep lifting up our brothers and sisters across the world within the persecuted church. Sandra, is there anything else you're going to share before we finish?
Speaker 3:no, that that's about it, just to pray, like you said, and give thanks for the partner support please do so you know and um for comfort for these women and their and their children. Thank god for the financial support for widows with the micro loans from the different organizations. And um, just to finish with that scripture, that psalm that came to mind that I felt God gave me today.
Speaker 2:Most definitely it's good to have the scriptures.
Speaker 3:So it says Sing to the Lord, sing praises to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds by his name, yah, rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary in families, he brings out those who are bound into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in dry land.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Amen to that. Wherever you are across the world, we thank God for your life, whatever your time zone is. Sandra, we thank you for bringing all this material to the table. Thank you for all the years, Sandra, everything that you've done and wherever you are. We thank you so much from the very bottom of our heart. Everybody online will catch you very, very soon. You've been listening to Sandra Robson, who has brought so much information to the table, and obviously my name's, Reverend Ben Cooper. It's lovely to know that you are listening to these podcasts wherever you are across the world. God bless, Take care and we'll see you very, very soon. Bye-bye.
