"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (II Tim. 3:12). Living a Christian life is not easy. And it doesn't get any easier when you are on the mission field. Paul, who wrote the book of II Timothy knew this to be true from his own personal life. In the verse preceding II Timothy 3:12, Paul reminds Timothy of his persecutions and afflictions in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. In these three cities, Paul was persecuted and stoned. Paul, later on, would suffer many other hardships, but two things were true. First, God delivered him from the persecutions, and second, Paul never let the persecutions stop him from preaching the gospel.

During my folks' second term in South America as missionaries, they went back to the same church they had started the term before and planned to build the church building. Construction does not go as quickly or as smoothly as it does here in America. For many months we had window frames in our church, but no glass panels. It wasn't that uncommon to have neighbors throw rocks on top of our roof during church service. Church would usually continue on without much reaction; except for one time. We had just begun the first hymn when we heard a loud bang. Someone had thrown a stone, slightly smaller than a baseball, through the window frame. Instead of sitting up on the platform that night, my dad was sat right in the front row next to my little sister. That stone hit my dad right on the side of his head, almost knocking him out. Had he not been there, it would have hit my sister and might have taken her life. Seeing my dad bent over and holding his head, the song leader stopped the service. Several people helped dad to the parsonage and tried to stop the bleeding. After ten or fifteen minutes, dad came back still holding his head and calmly walked outside and around to the side of the church where the stone had come from. Of course about half the church went too, as well as me. I thought for sure dad would be mad, but he wasn't. He calmly asked some people if they knew who had thrown the stone and of course they all denied it. To be honest, as a little boy, I was disappointed that my dad didn't let them have it. I guess dad wasn't on the mission field to lay down the law. He was there willing to lay down his life for the love of Christ and the unsaved.

You could tell dad wasn't feeling very well, but he got up in the pulpit and preached that night. He would get dizzy and light headed for several weeks, but it didn't stop him from preaching or serving the Lord. What did stop was the rock throwing. That was the last rock I remember being thrown at the church. In II Corinthians 4:8-9 Paul says, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." Paul was persecuted many times, but it never stopped him from preaching the gospel. How about you? Would some hardship or persecution stop you from telling others about Christ? Or is your love for Christ and the lost strong enough to look beyond the hardship and share the gospel with others?

If you feel it would be an encouragement or a blessing to someone, you have the Stilwell's permission to forward this article in its entirety. They just ask that you include this note at the bottom of the article with their name and e-mail address (Jeff and Kim Stilwell, jkstilwell@juno.com) in case someone wishes to contact them. Thank you.

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