Every year at Encounter God’s Presence youth camp we have a special guest speaker from a different country who has been persecuted for their Christian faith. Below you can find out a little about each of them and their amazing stories of remaining faithful to Jesus even under the most trying circumstances.
At camp the teenagers write 4 handwritten letters to specific persecuted Christians who are still imprisoned in different countries. so there are 1,200 to 2,000 letters.
E.G.P. also has the “Spiritual Amazing Race” each day which are activities that are focused on the persecuted Church, those that are suffering for their faith in Jesus. We can’t forget about the persecuted Church, we must be praying for them and as Hebrews 13:3 says, “remember those in prison as if you were bound with them…”
From past E.G.P. Youth Camps…
Esther is from China and is one of our persecuted Christian guest speakers. Her father was a pastor of a 8,000 member church and back on Nov. 16th, 2013 he was persecuted for his Christian faith and arrested. He remains in prison to this day. He isn’t scheduled to be released until Nov. 16th, 2025! Please pray for him & an early release, his name is Shaojie Zhang. This will be the very 1st camp in TX (began in 2012) that one of the prisoners we’re writing to is a family member of our guest speaker! It really brings it home, that much more.
At camp, we will watch actual video footage of him being captured. Esther was beaten and along with her little baby were imprisoned in a “black jail”. You’ll hear her inspiring story and be challenged to live your faith unashamedly.
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In the past, we have had a husband and wife along with their 2 teenage daughters from Syria. See the video made about them and their story below.
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We plan to have this persecuted individual soon, he goes by, “Brother John” to protect his identity. He shares, “Growing up in Syria, I heard the call to prayer shouted out from minarets across a country of 24 million people every day. For me, this has been a continual reminder of how many people need to know the true Lord in heaven. My wife and I feel that God has for years been preparing us and leading us into what we believe is the desire of His heart. We believe He would have us train and equip indigenous followers of Christ who understand their own culture, speak the language, live among their people and work to expand His kingdom in the very heart of the Arab World. Despite the horrific atrocities of war, God is working in awesome ways to bring many Arab people to a true saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
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