By Sarah Holliday

God, prayer, daily life… how might Christians in America view these things differently than Christians abroad? It turns out, our understanding is often worlds apart. And while persecution against Christians is global, it tends to look much more violent — far more brutal — beyond our U.S. borders.

Todd Nettleton, vice president of Message for Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) and host of VOM Radio, spoke with me at length. For over 27 years, Mr. Nettleton has been hearing and sharing the stories of persecuted Christians from countries across the globe. His perspective, as I was quick to find out, is one we could all learn from.

1. What Does the Persecution Look Like?

In countries around the world, including India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and more, “it involves sacrifice to choose to follow Jesus.” As Nettleton explained, “That sacrifice can look different depending on where you are. In Nepal, often the first line of sacrifice is your own family.” If a family is Hindu or Buddhist, and someone ends up being Christian, they’re not welcomed or accepted. They’re disowned.

“In India right now,” Nettleton continued, “a lot of the persecution is driven by the government — by the Hindu nationalists who, unfortunately, are the government.” Pastors are commonly arrested, and due to active non-conversion laws, “it is illegal to change your religion. It is illegal to encourage someone else to change their religion.” Of course, Nettleton pointed out the glaring hypocrisy: The Indian Constitution itself “promises freedom of religion, freedom to profess, propagate, and practice your religion. … How can you have an anti-conversion law that says it’s illegal to change your religion or encourage someone else to change their religion, and also have a constitution that says, ‘We have the freedom to profess, propagate, and practice our religion?’”

In China, there’s a similar pattern of the government wanting to control religion. Yet, while some countries won’t allow you to identify as Christian, China will allow it, but only by their standards. The result? The only “Christianity” you’re really allowed to publicly adhere to is under heavy regulation from the Chinese Communist Party, which, in turn, is no Christianity at all.

2. How Does This Relate to the American Church?

Nettleton was 12, in the middle of a family move to Papua New Guinea for missionary work, when his journey toward VOM and putting a spotlight on the testimonies of persecuted Christians began. Out of all the stories he’s heard, a common reality pierces through: referring to Americans, “most of us don’t have to address these kinds of things. We don’t face these kinds of challenges.” In fact, the struggles American believers face, though real, are radically different, aren’t they?

Nettleton put it well when he said, “For most of us as American Christians, and I’m pointing at myself, too … the biggest risk we face in sharing our faith in Christ is an awkward conversation. If I share Christ with my neighbor and he laughs and chuckles and says, ‘I can’t believe you believe in that sky fairy,’ that’s probably the worst-case scenario. It is not a gun to our head. It is not getting beaten up. It’s not getting kicked out of our families — for most of us. I’m not saying that never happens. But for most of us, the risk of sharing our faith is an awkward conversation. But when we understand our brothers and sisters are risking going to prison, when we understand they’re risking their lives, hopefully that gives us a perspective on what we should be willing to risk in order to share Jesus with the people around us.”

Here is what Nettleton wants American Christians to understand about persecuted believers abroad: “If I tell you that someone has been beaten for their faith repeatedly, or someone has just been imprisoned for six months, probably the picture you have in your mind is somebody who’s pretty depressed, pretty discouraged, pretty downtrodden. They’ve just been through this really hard time, and the reality is the opposite. The reality is so many of these believers are filled with the joy of the Lord, so much so that it spills out of them and radiates off of them because they are excited about what God is doing, what God has done.”

As Nettleton went on to say, “We may not all suffer persecution, but we will all suffer something. Maybe it’s a health crisis. Maybe it’s a job loss. Maybe it’s something else. We’re all going to suffer. And we need to use that as an opportunity to grow closer to Christ, to press into Him.” We also need to see it as “an opportunity” where Christ “may have some work for us to do in the midst of that.”

3. What Is the Role of Prayer?

Just when I thought Nettleton had already given me a lot to think about, he addressed the topic of prayer. You see, just a matter of months ago, elementary Catholic school children became victims of a tragic shooting in Minnesota. Amid that tragedy, state officials and Democrats throughout America took it as an opportunity to state their opinion on why they don’t want “thoughts and prayers” — a talking point not so rare from the Left. Even some who may consider themselves neutral or right-leaning, at times, have confessed that they don’t believe prayer is helpful. But for persecuted Christians abroad? In many cases, it’s all they have.

“The first thing that persecuted Christians ask us to do is to pray for them,” Nettleton said. In fact, this very request is what led VOM to start the National Day of Prayer, which is taking place this year on November 1st — a day dedicated to “gathering together to pray for persecuted Christians.” It started, he emphasized, because “they’ve asked us to pray,” because “I think they understand the power of prayer maybe a little better than us.” He explained: “I often say that most American Christians live in biweekly reliance on our paychecks, as opposed to daily reliance on God. Our brothers and sisters in a place like India or Iran or northern Nigeria, they live in daily reliance on God — they wake up in the morning and say, ‘Lord, if you don’t show up today, I don’t know if I’m going to make it through the day.’”

In America, he continued, “we typically don’t have to pray those prayers, and so we don’t learn the power of prayer. We don’t exercise that muscle and get strong in understanding God.” But if only we understood the power of prayer the way our persecuted brothers and sisters do in places like Nigeria, China, and beyond, perhaps we would pray more fervently and consistently. And when it comes to persecuted believers, and maybe you don’t know what to pray, Nettleton noted how Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them.”

“Imagine yourself in the prison cell,” he said. “Imagine yourself being beaten by the guards. Imagine yourself wondering when they’re going to give you food. And if they do, it’s only a handful of rice, and you don’t know how that’s going to sustain you through the day. Imagine yourself surrounded by other prisoners who are not friendly towards Jesus and are not friendly towards you. That’s how we’re supposed to pray. Let’s just take those things to the Lord. And let’s pray for them the way we would want to be prayed for if we were the ones in prison.”

4. Finding Joy in Suffering for the Sake of Christ

In his nearly 30 years of service, Nettleton has had so many impactful encounters, it was nearly impossible for him to choose when I asked him to highlight one. But he told me a story about Sister Tong, and it feels fitting to end with that story.

In the dim glow of a humble Chinese home, just weeks after her release from a six-month prison sentence, Sister Tong welcomed a wide-eyed Mr. Nettleton into her secret house church. She had been arrested for hosting underground believers, her name and face cataloged by raiding authorities, yet when asked to describe the grim confines of her cell — the cold, the misery — she broke into a radiant smile. Through the translator came her unthinkable reply: it was a “wonderful time.” Not because the suffering vanished, but because Jesus met her there in a closeness she had never known outside those walls, His presence so tangible it eclipsed every hardship.

Then came the second miracle: the women locked in with her, strangers hardened by life, left that cell forever changed — now walking with Christ because Sister Tong had been their quiet guide. To her, a “wonderful time” wasn’t an escape; it was Emmanuel and purpose intertwined. While Mr. Nettleton braced for tales of torment, he walked away transformed, carrying her lens back to America: Is Jesus with me? Is there a ministry here? If yes, then even a prison, a hospital bed, or a traffic jam can shimmer with divine wonder — if only we dare to see it.

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.