It is a great honor to walk across the street to share Jesus with your neighbor. A large percentage of people in America, along with most of the Western world, do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, nor is He the only way to eternal life.

God is also bringing the nations to our doorstep. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and all other religions are flocking to America. In many cases we have not been faithful to go to them so God has brought them to us – giving us a second chance to reach them for Jesus. These websites will help you in reaching the nations that now are next door to you.

Work hard to get in a local church and a Bible study group that loves the Lord and has a high degree of accountability. Jesus has called us to go locally and globally. It is the height of folly to take Jesus across the oceans while failing to share him with our neighbors who live just across the street.

God’s command for us to go to the nations is just that; it is a command.  Please don’t wait until you get a special call to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of the people groups, as we have already been commanded to do just this.  We all are commanded, but under the power of the Holy Spirit we understand which place on this planet, being close to home or far from home, we are under the command of God to take the gospel.

The mission agencies listed on this website do not constitute an endorsement of the organization nor of its practices.  These agencies are listed simply because they are the ones we encountered the most among unreached peoples and in the world of persecution.  If you believe that your organization should be listed along with those already cited on this website, please contact Nik and we can start a conversation.

Believers in persecution remind us that persecution in the Bible is normal. Suffering for Jesus is as common as the “sun coming up in the east”.

Mature believers in persecution often say something like, “Don’t pray for our persecution to end. Please pray that we will be obedient through our suffering.”

That is a very different kind of prayer. It is challenging to understand the number one cause of persecution globally is when people accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Therefore, persecution is often a direct by-product of faith.

Let’s think out loud for just a moment. If believers in the West and their churches simply pray to God for persecution to end, the only way for God to answer that type of prayer is to stop people from following Jesus! The Bible commands us to pray for believers in persecution. It does so without giving us names or places to pray for and about.

A biblical and a globally astute prayer for believers in persecution would ask that Jesus would be made known, that believers would remain obedient through their suffering, and that we identify with believers in persecution by sharing our faith in whatever environment we find ourselves.

Believers in persecution could avoid their suffering if they would only leave Jesus alone and leave witness alone. Let’s be clear; the suffering of which we speak is completely avoidable. All one has to do to avoid such persecution is to leave Jesus alone and refuse to witness. This is quite different than always praying prayers of rescue and extraction. Such praying for believers in persecution seek to join them, identifying with their suffering as we also believe in Jesus and refuse to keep His grace to ourselves.

We identify with believers in persecution when we refuse to be silenced! Most organizations that report on believers in persecution are more concerned with rescuing than they are with obedience that is part of paying a huge price for daring to witness and plant new churches in their homes.

As you pray for believers in persecution seek to be part of the body of Christ and support those organizations that have a heart for witness and house church planting more than a practice of rescuing believers in persecution and extracting them to western or Christian countries.

To learn about specific ways to pray, visit Open Doors and Voice of the Martyrs.

As one season closes, another opens for us as we pursue taking Christ to the unreached of the world. After 35 years with our sending agency, it is our joy and honor now to build up Nik Ripken Ministries to share with the world the truths and practices we have learned sitting at the feet of believers in persecution.

We want you to partner with us! NRM is tasked with sharing what we’ve learned from believers in persecution to equip the Body of Christ to send wisely, to encourage believers in hard places, and to help proclaim Jesus where He is not yet known.

Your generous contributions will help NRM continue to create resources for the global Body of Christ. We look forward to producing a 25-hour interactive DVD teaching series, as well as a “Muslim Women’s Worldview” video training. You will also help us give back to, and gather together for training and encouragement purposes, believers in places of persecution who do not have the means or resources of the Western Church.

Would you graciously consider becoming a monthly partner with Nik Ripken Ministries? Your generous contribution each month will ensure that NRM is able to continue not only producing these global resources, but also sharing best practices from believers in persecution who have taught us so much.

The Insanity is only beginning!

Blessings,

Nik and Ruth

If you would like to donate by check, please mail to:

Nik Ripken Ministries
P.O. Box 1314
Shelbyville, KY 40066-1314