Although I was born in Nigeria, West Africa, and hold citizenship in both the United States and Great Britain, my most important citizenship is of God’s family, comprised of people around the world. All believers are truly world Christians. But many of us have trouble acting like one.

People often do not realize the size and scope of the Christian family around the world. Speaking at a church in South ern California recently, I told the congregation, ‘If you don’t like people who are different to you; are of a different color and culture; you are going to have a tough time of it in heaven because you will be with people from every tribe and nation in the world.”

There will be people there like a brother from China, who each day, over a period of years in a Chinese labor camp, would be lowered into a stinking, putrid cesspool. But as he was lowered, a huge smile would envelope his face. As he shoveled out the vile waste-matter there to be used as fertilizer in the fields, he would begin to sing to the Lord.

He once told me, “As I sang, I would feel our Lord holding me tight in His everlasting arms. At that very moment, that Cesspool became my own private garden. You see, this was a wonderful blessing for me because it was the only time I was alone from the prying eyes of the guards. I could now commune with God, praise His name at the top of my voice, and I would also recite scriptures that I had memorized. I have experienced how important it is for us Chris tians to memorize scriptures.

“People wonder how I could keep my faith during those 18 years in prison and labor camp, but I can say that God was with me during that whole time and I bear no ill feelings to those that put me there, even though there were many times that 1 was ill-treated.”

Born in Shanghai, China, to a wealthy family, this believers father was a factory owner. When the communists seized power more than 50 years ago. his family became a target for the local cadres.

Tried To Eat Toothpaste

He says that when he was first arrested, he was put in Shanghai City Jail, where he almost starved to death. “I was so hungry that there were times that I wanted to even eat my toothpaste,” he recalled. “I was so weak that I didn’t have the strength to stand up, so from morning to night I would be exhausted and so I could only crawl along the floor.

“After three-and-a-half years I was sent to the labor camp where there was more food provided because you were expected to work in the open air. While you were working in the fields, the cadre would try to indoctrinate you into Communism. They knew my background of being born in a wealthy background and they did not like it. They hate all capitalists because they said that they exploited the regular people. I was also well educated and they also hated well-educated people; and during the Cultural Revolution, they didn’t allow any educating for 10 years. People went to school, not to study but to act out the revolution. An other problem was that I was a Christian leader and they were atheists.

“They decided that the way they could punish me was to work in the cesspool. Little did they realize was this was to be a great blessing to me. At that time, almost all of the prisoners were afraid to even approach the cesspool because of all of the human waste from the entire camp of about 60,000 prisoners was deposited there. They were scared of picking up a fatal virus from it. I worked there for nearly six years.

‘They thought they would re-educate me there, but they did not know that during those years I enjoyed so much to work in the cesspool. It was very deep and I would have to wade into it to scoop up the mess. The smell would he so strong that none of the guards or prisoners would get near to me because of the stench. But I enjoyed the solitude of being alone with God!

“It is easy for us to praise the Lord in freedom, but are we able to praise our Lord in this kind of circumstances? Be cause He was with me I was able to praise Him in such earthly misery be cause He never leaves or forsakes us. Eighteen years in the camps was not easy for the other people, but not only did I survive physically, I was able to forgive those that put me there, and today I continue to serve the Church in China.”

He added, “I have to say that those 18 years in the labor camp were a blessing because the Lord allowed me to experience His care. If the Lord had not been with me, I would have died on many occasions, and I never became ill at all. When I was finally released, I discovered that many Christians had died during the Cultural Revolution. So my being in the labor camp actually saved my life.”

Not a hint of bitterness in his voice. This brother is a world Christian.

“For Such A Time As This”

The testimony of beautiful queen named Esther, who ruled in the Middle East long ago. has much to say to us today. Queen Esther, the Bible tells us. was a Jew in exile, in a position to appeal to the king to stop the slaughter of her fellow Jews, though it could cost her life. Her guardian told her, ‘Do not think that because you are in the kings house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your fathers family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14).

There has never been a time before in world history where we have needed so mitch to become world Christians.

I first became a world Christian on Dec. 19, 1940 in Nigeria. My mother and father, Alf and Anne Wooding, came from Liverpool, England, and went to Africa in the rnid-1930s, where they met and fell in love.

They were married in Kano, and I arrived some 12 months later. My father has since gone on to heaven, but my 93- year-old mother is still serving the Lord, even though she is blind and partially deaf. I’ve written a book with her about her life as a pioneer missionary amongst the blind of Kano, Northern Nigeria, called Blind Faith.

The Century of Martyrdom

Nina Shea, who wrote the book, In the Lion’s Den, has said, “Millions of Ameri can Christians pray in their churches each week, oblivious to the fact that Christians in many parts of the world are suffering brutal torture, arrest, imprison ment and even death—their homes and communities laid waste—for no other reason than that they are Christians. The shocking untold story of our time is that more Christians have died this century simply for being Christians than in the first 19 centuries after the birth of Christ. They have been persecuted and martyred before an unknowing, indifferent world and largely silent Christian community.”

At least 145,000 believers, by the end of this year, will have died as martyrs for Jesus Christ.

What Can We Do?

If we want to act like world Christians, we must not allow persecution to flourish by poor public policy and apathy. We are called, every one of us, to intercede for them to shatter the silence.

We need to speak out on behalf of the persecuted church and pray for these courageous believers. We can also sup port ministries that are supporting perse cuted and threatened Christians.

It is time for all of us to shatter the silence, just like Queen Esther did all those years ago, and become world Christians.

We read in 1 john 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” Can we do anything less than what Jesus did for us?