Monthly Mission Focus – April – Open Doors

The category: Events, News

The tags: Community, Mission Partner

OPEN DOORS:

Standing with the persecuted Church across the world

As part of our focus on the work of Open Doors for the month of April, we are excited to have Andy Worthington, the Head of Church Relations at Open Doors come and join us on Sunday 3^rd of April. He will share God’s word with us and will bring an insight into the experiences of those suffering persecution in many countries across the world. Open Doors work to mobilise the church in the UK and Ireland to serve Christians living under religious persecution. “When one member suffers, all members suffer” (1 Corinthians 12:26), . Open Doors works in the countries where it is dangerous to be a Christian supplying Bibles, leadership training, literacy programmes, livelihood support and provides advocacy support.

Open Doors is currently focusing on a “See, Change” campaign focusing on women persecuted for their faith and gender to ensure that they are seen, valued and empowered. In many countries, women discovered to be Christians are often rejected by their families or are forced to marry and are extremely vulnerable. The See, Change campaign started with a tapestry of over 16,000 embroidered squares which were sewn into a quilt making handmade petition which was exhibited at Westminster Abbey calling for the government policy to recognise the link between religious persecution and sexual violence. We at Bloxham Baptist Church contributed to the making of the quilt with some talented members making squares and helping sew the quilt together. This quilt spoke in a way words could not. Open Doors work on behalf of those Christians facing danger and hardship as a result of their faith in Christ.

Open Doors encourage us to :-

• PRAY for our persecuted family, and women in particular, across the world as they suffer extreme hardship for their faith.
• GIVE to enable the provision of targeted training and support for women thrown out of their homes, rejected by their families and suffering extreme hardship for their faith and
• ACT by participating in advocacy campaigns speaking out for those whose voices cannot be heard.

For more information and to support their work, please visit them at:

www.opendoorsuk.org/