Prisoners of Hope

As rockets lit up the night sky during Lebanon’s civil war, a small boy begged to stay in his mother’s arms. He wasn’t safe because the storm stopped. He was safe because he wasn’t alone. Decades later, that memory shapes how Salam ministers to persecuted believers across the Islamic world. Salam, a ministry director in Jordan, lost his aunt and a close friend to the violence. As a refugee child in a Muslim-majority country, he was mocked for being a Christian. He read the Quran for six years, searching for a God who proved His love. At 16, in a quiet home church, he heard the Lord say, “I love you.” He ran into the street and began sharing Jesus that day. In this episode, Salam shares his testimony, explains why true peace is God’s presence in the storm rather than the absence of danger, and talks about the Advent devotionals he wrote for Help The Persecuted. Offered in English, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu, they will reach believers around the world. You’ll also hear how we can pray for believers in Jordan as they grieve after a recent deadly attack, and for Christians across the world who will join us as we walk through our Advent devotional together this December. Join our Prayer Network at htp.org/prayer

On Friday, October 23, three gunmen opened fire outside a Greek Orthodox church in southern Jordan, where families had gathered for a funeral. Nine believers were killed, and the Islamic State claimed responsibility. In this special episode, Salam, a Help The Persecuted Field Ministry Director who calls Jordan home, tells us what he saw at the funeral for the victims, how the King and Jordan’s churches responded, and how our Field Ministry Team is reaching grieving families with Lightning Funds and prayer. Listen, and pray with us for the grieving families and for the church in Jordan to stand firm in the hope of Christ.

When a believer in Syria is thrown out of their home for following Jesus, where do they go? For a growing number, the answer is a Help The Persecuted safe house, one of 23 homes in secure locations across 9 countries, quietly offering shelter and protection to Christians who have nowhere else to turn. Daniel, a Field Minister in Syria, will tell you he was wrong about safe houses. He didn’t think one was needed. Then, a week after it opened, a Christian family fleeing an Islamist attack arrived, followed by believers whose own families had thrown them out for leaving Islam. In this episode, Joshua Youssef talks with Daniel about life for Syrian Christians since the fall of the Assad regime, why ministering to a believer hunted by his own family is the harder work, and how we can pray for Syria’s church and the safe house.

When a persecuted believer has to run, where do they go? For many, the answer is a Help The Persecuted safe house, one of 23 homes in secure locations across 9 countries, quietly offering shelter and protection to Christians who have nowhere else to turn. But a safe house is more than four walls and a lock on the door. It's the people who run it, who sit with someone at two in the morning answering questions about faith they've never been allowed to ask before, who take residents out for lunch because they have no way to leave on their own, who become family to people who've lost theirs. In this episode, Joshua Youssef talks with Laila, a Field Minister in Lebanon who has spent years overseeing our safe house ministry, walking alongside believers in crisis, from those fleeing family violence after leaving Islam to those displaced entirely by war. Join our Prayer Network at: HTP.org/prayer

While the world's attention has turned elsewhere, Sudan has become the fourth most dangerous country on earth to follow Jesus. A civil war now in its fourth year has killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced roughly 14 million, and Christians are being crushed between two armies that answer to no one. In the Nuba Mountains, pastors are being executed and churches bombed. Across the border in South Sudan, Sudanese refugees who fled the fighting are discovering that a change of country is not a change of danger, especially the converts from Islam, who are hunted by their own families even inside the camps. In this episode, Josh Youssef talks with two of our Field Ministers serving Sudanese believers, Alaa and Mousa, about what is really happening, why almost no one is talking about it, and how the Gospel is spreading in the very places the world has written off. Join our Prayer Network at htp.org/prayer

Sudan is home to the world's largest displaced population, and for Christians there, survival itself is no longer certain. In this episode, Josh sits down with our ministry partner Cliff, to talk honestly about what is actually happening on the ground: the decades of genocide against Sudan's Black African tribes that set the stage for today's war, the fight for oil, gold, and territory now raging between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, and a government determined to erase the Church from the country entirely. Cliff shares what more than twenty years among Sudan's persecuted believers has shown him: that even as Christians are hunted, imprisoned, and driven from their homes, the Gospel keeps spreading, and hope has not run out. Pray for the church in Sudan: htp.org/prayer

Nigeria has become the deadliest country in the world to be a Christian. Last year, roughly 72% of all Christians killed for their faith globally were killed there – in village raids, in burned churches, and in homes that became coffins. In this episode, Josh Youssef sits down with Dr. Sainom, the Help The Persecuted team leader in Nigeria and a peace builder who has spent decades in the Middle Belt, to talk honestly about what is actually happening on the ground: who is doing the killing, why the world keeps looking away, why the government keeps denying it, and how believers who have lost everything are refusing to leave, refusing to deny Christ, and choosing to stay. SHOW NOTES: Pray for Nigeria by joining our Prayer Network email list: htp.org/prayer

Iran hasn't left the headlines in over a year, and the pressure on its church has only intensified. In this episode, Dr. Sasan Tavassoli and Help the Persecuted field coordinator Qasem join host Joshua Youssef to give an on-the-ground account of a country caught between war, economic collapse, and a regime tightening its grip.

Almost five years after the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places on Earth to follow Jesus. In this episode, Joshua Youssef talks with two Field Ministers who live that pressure every day. Marjan shares the story of a young believer marked for death by his own father and brothers and of a grieving father who found new hope through our Enduring Livelihood Ministry. Timothy recounts sharing the Bible with Afghan refugees abroad, several of whom came to faith after years hiding a Bible they were too afraid to open under the Taliban. Show notes: Join our Prayer Network: htp.org/prayer Help Persecuted Christians: htp.org/donate Previous episodes with Timothy and Marjan: https://htp.org/stories/steadfast-in-afghanistan https://htp.org/stories/you-can-shoot-me-i-will-be-with-jesus-timothys-story

What does it cost to follow Jesus in a country where converts are turned away from churches and worship must be kept to a whisper? Joshua Youssef sits down with Bassam, one of our Field Ministers in Morocco, who shares the night he came to faith in Jesus and how he now walks alongside believers who risk family, job, and freedom to remain steadfast in Christ. Show notes: • Discover the Steadfast Campaign: htp.org/steadfast • Give today: htp.org/donate