Archive for category: Blog

Nik Ripken Ministries (NRM) continues to gain momentum as churches, theological schools, and mission organizations return to in-person gatherings as the effects of Covid 19 are addressed. In spite of Covid 19 restrictions the NRM team has:

• Invested many hours weekly in mentoring believers/leaders in the US and globally through Zoom calls, hundreds of emails, phone conversations, and other social media outlets.
• Provided consultation to various mission agencies and news outlets to aid them in interpreting global events of persecution, affecting our world today. We are often consulted concerning how to respond to persecution events ongoing in today’s world. 
• Spoke in scores of churches and student events this first quarter of 2021. This includes more than 2,000 students and thousands of believers in other settings. Ruth Ripken continues to lead multiple events with women, introducing them to Muslim Women’s Worldview that equips them to meet Muslims in their community, sharing apostolic Christian witness with them.
• Partnered with the International Mission Board for a June 6, 2021 release of a Day of Prayer for the persecuted church https://www.kentuckytoday.com/stories/day-of-prayer-for-persecuted-church. Check also for The Day of Prayer, June 6, 2021 https://www.imb.org/persecuted/ .    This is one of the many ways that NRM seeks to mobilize the body of Christ in the West to engage in fervent prayer for their brothers and sisters in persecution.
• Editing continues on a 25-hour teaching video series based on the interviews of approximately 700 believers in persecution in approximately 72 countries. This one-of-a-kind resource will be made available to churches and mission agencies to prepare those they send cross culturally.  It will especially become a major teaching tool used by short and long-term missionaries who desire to serve cross culturally, especially inside environments of persecution. This has received 60% of needed funding.
• Ruth is developing a companion video that will be used by believing Western women to engage Muslim women with the good news of Jesus Christ. This tool can be used to assist women to cross the street to Muslim women as well as use on foreign mission fields. This has yet to be funded.
• Dan Allen leads NRM in resource development, seeking global translation opportunities for the three books authored by Nik Ripken as well as the reproduction of the Insanity of God film.

 

Nik Ripken Ministries remains to give voice to believers and churches in persecution. We see them as our mentors and teachers. From what they have taught us we can better prepare the church in the West to fulfill the great commission by crossing the street and crossing the oceans utilizing wise practices taught to us by believers in persecution.

Would you consider making a donation today to support the mission of Nik Ripken Ministries?

Nik Ripken shares a story about the joy of the persecuted believer on the Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

Looking for ways to pray for the persecuted? Visit imb.org/persecuted for a prayer guide.

Matthew 11:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…”

Where do you go to learn how to be sheep among wolves? Listen to Nik Ripken share the amazing testimony of Dimitri and his faithfulness to Jesus’ calling.

Within six months of being inside Somalia our team of 8 were feeding 50,000 souls per day, resettling refugees, attempting mobile medical clinics, and providing necessary tools and seeds in “food for work” projects that enabled rural farming families to reestablish their lives after eating even their planting seeds during the famine.

We were in-country for over 6 months before we met a female over 13 who hadn’t been “used” by men in excess of 6-8 times. Burying babies and the aged was a daily activity.

All this was attempted in the midst of a famine and war zone. Our team was less than a mile away when the horror of “Black Hawk Down” took its place in the American narrative and psyche.

To add to this terrible unreality was the gruesome and growing persecution of the few Somali believers. Of the 10 million Somalis in-country, there were an estimate of 150 Somali believers. As civil society continued to meltdown, a more conservative form of Islam infiltrated Somali culture with believers being hunted down and killed, much in the same manner one hunts and kills a rabid animal. 

Such radicals killed 4 of my best friends. These 4 brothers-in-Christ were stalked, followed, and assassinated in 45 minutes on one of the blackest days in Somali history. Their bodies were taken and thrown into latrines, garbage dumps and into the Indian Ocean where the sharks fed.

For 25 years, from 1988-2013 the believing community never had a Somali believer’s body at their own funerals.

Fast forward 23 years. Those who sought to bring life to the all People’s in Somalia during their famine and war zone had been cast out of the country. For years few believers from the West could live anywhere in-country. While the country slowly rebuilds, Somalia remains ungovernable outside of Mogadishu. Fundamentalist Islam is the order of the day while many Somalis have rejected Islam as a failed religion. 

Yet hope is once again on the rise as, increasingly, a new generation of Somalis embrace Jesus. It would be foolish to give details of numbers of believers; where they dwell, what numbers there might be, or to whom they relate. Suffice it to say that God always finds a way to make Himself known and believers from outside of Somalia remain committed to taking Jesus and His Good News to the toughest environments on earth.

Obedience is always a trait of those who are “in Christ.” And obedience to share Jesus among all peoples of the earth, giving the  access to the kingdom of God always leads to new life. The love of Christ and eternal life grows again in Somalia. 

There is nothing new or unusual in this.

Yet, as faith grows in Somalia so does persecution toward those who embrace Jesus. Evil never surrenders its territory and the lives who dwell under its current dominion. Once again Somali believers are being hunted. Once again they are being chased from their homeland. Once again they are experiencing imprisonment and beatings. Once again they are facing death.

There is nothing unusual in this.