For many believers around the world, December is the season of increased persecution. As I’ve prayed for my brothers and sisters, I was reminded of a testimony I heard recently of one church who is overcoming persecution with love. I want to share it in the hope that it will encourage you and inspire our prayers. 

Pastor Innocent shared this story with us during a training for TCT Master Trainers in Burkina Faso in August 2019. He began with, “I would like to give you the testimony of how fear can lead a community to live in sickness and poverty.”  

Here’s the rest of his story…

Sobou is a village of approximately 800 people about 20 kilometers from the provincial capital, Dano in Burkina Faso. The village is animist and is tightly controlled by traditional leaders heavily steeped in the occult. No one in the village dared to contradict these leaders. Those who tried to do so could be summoned before the traditional tribunal, or even falsely accused before the administrative authorities. Worst of all, people who crossed the occult leaders often became sick or died mysteriously. 

This is where Pastor Innocent and his little congregation of five adults with their children struggled merely to survive.

The village leaders vehemently opposed the church and encouraged everyone in the village to persecute them. Their plan was that heavy persecution would prompt the Christians to respond with violence—giving the village leaders a legal reason to shut down the church altogether. 

In 2016, the church at Sobou began studying Truth Centered Transformation. They were encouraged to do Acts of Love in order to show God’s love to their community—even to their enemies—in practical ways. So they began digging toilets and taking food to the needy. These Acts of Love only prompted more persecution. The waterborne illnesses so prevalent in the village were a profit center for the occult leaders. They taught the people that illnesses were the result of angry ancestors and “bush punishment.” As such, the “cure” was to offer sacrifices and wear special talismans. They didn’t want the church leading the people to improve their hygiene and health, cutting in on their business. 

The church pressed on to show love in the face of persecution, and the people began to recognize the leaders’ lies in the light of God’s love. Then, one day, the wife of the leading persecutor fell seriously ill. The church went to the man’s home and asked permission to care for his wife. At first, he refused their help, but eventually he relented. They took her to the medical clinic, helped to pay for her treatment, and watched over her care until she recovered. 

Seeing the way that the church had cared for his wife, the leader repented. He and his entire family accepted Christ and joined the church. Many other people—their fear overcome by love—also decided to follow Christ. Today, the church has 100 adults worshipping together. God is breaking the stranglehold on this village of fear, sickness, and poverty through the obedience of a few believers willing to love those who persecute them.