Summer Event Offers Teens a Taste of Religious Persecution
by Allie Martin
May 13, 2005
(AgapePress) - Christian youth groups nationwide will have a chance this summer to experience a small sample of what believers in persecuted nations endure on a daily basis.Open Doors USA is giving young people the opportunity to participate in "Night of Persecution," a program that is designed to help them understand what life is like for persecuted Christians by showing them in a vivid way. According to Jeff Shreve, who coordinates "Underground," Open Doors' youth ministry, the "Night of Persecution" experience is intense.
"The youth leader will announce as the event starts that for the next three hours, the young people are a part of the persecuted Church," Shreve explains. "They'll be sent off to find their prayer meetings, and in the process, if they're trying to find where their church is meeting underground, hidden in their church building or facility, they'll be raided. They'll be caught by security personnel and forced to give account for why they believe in Jesus Christ."
Held during the summer months, the Night of Persecution event involves teens in role playing and other engaging and educational activities. "Their eyes are opened to the reality of Christian persecution," Shreve notes. And meanwhile, he adds, many of the young people learn a lot about themselves and about their own faith.
The Underground coordinator describes an aspect of this innovative youth activity that he found surprising. In the course of their ordeal as "persecuted Christians," he says, "a lot of young people are forced through the interrogation and the intimidation that they face, the intense pressure, to really give an account for why they believe what they believe -- not so much to the interrogator but for themselves."
And what many young people learn, Shreve continues, "is that why they believe is just because their parents believe. So they realize at the end of the event, 'You know what -- my faith needs to be more real.'"
Open Doors is sponsoring the "Night of Persecution" in the hope that, for many young Christians, it will help them begin to develop that deeper, more real faith as they learn about their brothers and sisters in the persecuted Church. Twenty-five dates are being booked for the summer months, with a small admission fee charged for each participant.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
