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WEST BROMWICH, UK (ANS) -- American writer, Al Janssen, has a new passion in his life – bringing news of the courageous Christians living in the Muslim world.
And he has now teamed up with Brother Andrew, the Dutch-born author of the best selling book, God’s Smuggler, to co-author a dramatic new book called Secret Believers: what happens when Muslims believe in Christ. Peter Wooding, news director of UCB UK, caught up with Janssen at the recent launch of this new book at the UNITE event at the Bethel Convention Center in West Bromwich, UK, and he agreed to talk about his new passion in life.
Al Janssen began by introducing himself. “I am a professional writer and I’ve been in writing and publishing for over thirty years,” he began. “It’s been my privilege, for the last six years, to travel with Brother Andrew and team up with him. I prayed for many years ago for the privilege of meeting him and I kind of had a dream to write the sequel to his book God’s Smuggler which, as most people know has sold over ten-million copies and influenced many people in my generation for ministry.
“As a result of reading God’s Smuggler, I had a heart for persecuted Christians. When I first met Brother Andrew after the events of 9/11, we got to talking. He told me, ‘I think the time has come for me to write about what I’ve learned about the Muslim world.’ So I teamed up with him and we’ve written two books.
“The first one was called Light Force and it is about the church in the Middle East and now we’ve just released Secret Believers: what happens when Muslims believe in Christ. It’s the story of the church in the Islamic world and, particularly, the story of Muslims who are becoming followers of Christ and the challenges that they face. We cover what happens to them when they try to come into the church and the persecution they receive from their families and their communities. There are a lot of challenges for a Muslim who wants to be a follower of Christ.”
Persecuted church of Palestinian believers
Al Janssen then talked about Light Force. “It’s about the church in Israel and the Palestinian areas,” he said. “Brother Andrew went there right after God’s Smuggler was written because he could not go back to Eastern Europe, where he was ministering, as he felt it would endanger the people he was working with -- so he visited Israel. He had a heart for Israel and there he got to meet some of the Messianic believers while speaking in the churches there. One day, after he’d spoken, a woman came up to him and said, ‘You know, there’s a persecuted church here and it’s among the Palestinians.’ At that time, Brother Andrew did not even know there was a church among the Palestinians.
“I think that’s probably one of the reasons why this book is so important, because we wanted the church in the West to realize that there is a Palestinian church. We do not take a stand that is either pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, and we are not trying to advocate on either side. What we wanted to do is to stand for the church. There’s a church among the Israelis -- the Messianic believers -- and there’s a church among the Palestinian Christians and it’s important that we strengthen them -- especially among the Arabs Christians who have been fleeing there homeland. It’s very difficult for them to raise a family and we think there needs to be a church there that should be strengthened because they are the hope for peace.
Coming together at the foot of the Cross
“One of the things that was so moving for me was to spend a wonderful day with Messianic Jewish leaders and Palestinian Pastors. I witnessed them come together and saw them talk through their situations and have a Bible study together. They realized they may have very different political perspectives, and very different living circumstances, but they could also come together at the foot of the Cross and be unified as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“I think that’s a message that needs to be shouted out and we need to see this picture of reconciliation as one that can bring hope to many others; that there is hope for the Palestinian and Jewish people to come together.”
Al Janssen then told Peter Wooding about his latest book, Secret Believers, which he said was “the result of Brother Andrew and I going throughout the Muslim world and meeting with the church and spending time with Muslims who have come to faith in Christ.”
He continued, “It’s written in the form of novel. We had to write it in a way that would protect these people, so we set the story in an unnamed Middle East country. The people are real, but we’ve written them as composites to disguise their identity because they would be at great personal risk if their identities would be known in print, and we couldn’t do that.
“Every one of these people in the book are ones that Brother Andrew and I have known; that we’ve met, prayed with and ministered with. They are rejoicing that finally their story is being told and the world, especially people in the West, can begin to realize there are brothers and sisters there who they can get to know and pray for and encourage and support them in any way they can.
“So we wrote most of the book in the form of a novel to tell their story and then there’s a challenge at the end -- four challenges in fact -- of how can we, as the church in the West, get involved as a result of what we’ve learned about the church in the Muslim world.”
When asked what he hoped the book would achieve, Janssen said, “I wanted to put a face on the church in the Islamic World and I want people to realize that these are real flesh and blood people. I also want them to identify emotionally with people like Ahmad, who grew up in a Middle East village, and was surrounded by Muslim fundamentalists, but began a journey of asking questions and eventually came to realize that Jesus Christ was the One he should be following.
“Also people like Selema, who grew up in a very well-to-do family and found out about Christ through a satellite television broadcast and she really didn’t even know what it meant to be a Christian, but she was intrigued with Jesus Christ and wanted to know more about Him. But then her family discovered that she was doing a Bible correspondence course and they ostracized her. She had to flee for her life.
Visions and dreams
“There’s a wonderful movement of God and many Muslims are having visions and dreams and beginning a journey of discovery and finding out about the person of Christ.
“So we want readers to meet these people and realize the price that they’re paying for their faith; and also to begin to pray for the church in the Islamic world. We also want them to realize that there’s a church that’s been there, in many cases, for two-thousand years. This church is often just trying to survive and we want people to pray that they will not just survive, but they would become what the church should be -- a real light for the Muslim world.
“There’s a lot of tension between Muslims and the church. Muslims will often come and want to get a Bible, attend church and find out more about Christianity, but that then endangers the church. I think most people may be surprised to read about that. So, how do Muslims come together who want to worship our Lord and grow in their faith and yet if they come into the existing church they endanger themselves and they endanger the church? So that’s some of the tension that I hope is revealed in this book.”
Peter Wooding then asked Al Janssen what kind of response there had been so far to the Secret Believers book.
“Well, I think for most people, it’s been a real eye opener and many are saying to us that, for the first time, they are praying for the church in the Muslim world and that they are also praying for fundamentalists to hear the Gospel,” said Janssen. “If we want to really address the problem of terrorism then we should be praying for the church to be more aggressive in sharing the love of Jesus Christ with Muslims and going to them with the Gospel.
“So one of the things that has been a real eye opener for people is the challenge we have made asking ‘Have you prayed for Osama Bin Laden?’ ‘Have you prayed for Muslim Fundamentalists?’ Maybe we need to do more in that sense and pray that these people have a chance to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
When asked what it has done for him personally to meet these “secret believers” and then write about them, Janssen said, “Many of these people are my heroes who have paid a high price for their faith. It’s easy for me, in the West, to go to church and openly express my faith in Christ. I don’t have to put my life on the line. Even just the last couple of days, one of the people that I’ve ministered with, has given his life for Christ. That really hits me hard. I mean, what price am I willing to pay? How can I support those who are putting their lives at risk to take a stand for Jesus Christ?
“So, for me, it’s really challenged me to ask if I am I willing to put everything on the line to follow Jesus Christ. These are real people that I love dearly and that I will do anything for, and it’s my privilege to really try and stand up for them and speak for them so that they can have a voice since they don’t have a voice of their own.”
Janssen concluded by telling Peter Wooding, “It’s a privilege for me to be here today and I’m excited that that four groups that are advocating for the persecuted church are coming together and uniting and I think this is critical. We, as a church in the West, really need to unite as one body. We are one body.
“Often the church that’s persecuted doesn’t feel connected to the church in the West and often churches that I visit in the US don’t feel any connection to the persecuted church. I think this event today, with representatives from the church that is persecuted in Eritrea and Pakistan, meeting with churches and believers in the UK is significant, and through this we are getting to sense a little more of what it means to be one body.
“However, I hope it’s not just a one day event, but that people will go home and spread this information into their own churches so this will become a movement throughout the United Kingdom, throughout Europe, throughout the United States, so that we can really demonstrate with our prayers, activities and with our actions that the Body of Christ is one body.
We need to learn from the persecuted church
“There’s a tendency among us Christians in the West to feel like we need to give to the church that’s being persecuted and we do have a lot of resources. But we also need to pray for them. We need to give financially, but we also have a lot to gain from the persecuted church and, in many respects, I think I’ve gained more from them than I’ve been able to give to them. They’ve showed me what it means to really pay a price for their faith. They’ve shown me that you can have great joy even in the midst of great suffering.
“I’ve learned a lot from them and I think that’s part of what I hope will come out of Secret Believers. It is not just feeling sorry for them. No, I want the faith that they have, and I’m hoping that Secret Believers will show readers that we have a lot to learn from the persecuted church and we have a lot to learn from Muslims who are paying a huge price to follow Christ. Often they give up their jobs, their family, everything to follow Jesus.
“I need to learn from that and I benefit from that faith because it strengthens my faith. So that’s part of what I hope will come out of Secret Believers.”
Note: Peter Wooding is the youngest son of Dan and Norma Wooding, founder of ASSIST Ministries and ANS and he lives in North Wales with their wife, Sharon, and their three daughter, Sarah, Anna and Abigail.
Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books.
Used by permission: ASSIST News Service www.assistnews.net
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