“Christ makes himself known in the North Africa region in a variety of ways,” says Representative Foley. “Our contacts there say that people there learn about Christ through social media, or through dreams.”  

But Representative Foley says one of the main ways Christ has made himself known for more than two decades is through the ministry of “Pastor Joe” (name changed for security reasons). 

“Pastor Joe is originally from the sub-Saharan Africa region, where more than 60 percent of the population is Christian,” says Representative Foley. “But because of war, he emigrated as a student to a country in North Africa with a Muslim population of more than 99 percent.”  

She says that as Joe shared his Christian faith with fellow students, God gave him a passion to lead North Africans to Christ and then disciple them.  

“Joe soon changed the focus of his studies to Christian theology and eventually became a pastor,” says Representative Foley. “Much of his ministry work now involves training Christian leaders and teaching new Christians how to follow Christ in this restricted nation.” 

Representative Foley says that though the North Africa region’s Christian history dates back to the early church, today there are few churches or Christians in the country. “The gospel is still opposed by many Muslims, and Christian converts from Islam often have to conceal their new faith from even their closest relatives,” she says. “That’s why they need help from people like Pastor Joe.” 

Pastor Joe and his church help many new Christians who are rejected by their families for leaving Islam. He recently shared with Voice of the Martyrs about one such person—a young North African woman who accepted Christ and went home without realizing the difficulties her newfound faith would create for her with her family. Pastor Joe told Voice of the Martyrs, “Joyfully, without anyone warning her, as soon as she arrived back home she started telling people, ‘I discovered Jesus. I’ve become a believer.’” 

The young woman’s Muslim family was angry about her conversion. Pastor Joe said that the girl’s mother told her, “I would rather that my daughter became a prostitute than a Christian.” 

Then, other relatives started attacking her. “The whole family came against her,” Pastor Joe told Voice of the Martyrs. “They started insulting her and beating her, and one night they just threw her outside [in her] pajamas. She ran away, and I am glad we were there to receive her and help.” 

“You can’t really imagine what the people here endure,” Pastor Joe told Voice of the Martyrs. “If you are identified as a Christian, you are [treated like] someone who has leprosy.”  

Pastor Joe told Voice of the Martyrs that family members often hide their conversion to Christianity from other family members.  

“We heard a story where the husband was trying to hide his Christian faith,” Pastor Joe said, “and his wife became a believer without knowing that the husband was a believer. She was also hiding her Christian faith. Later the two met in a Christian service. You can imagine it was a great day for them.” 

According to Representative Foley, Pastor Joe is in danger every day because his work is among Muslims who convert to Christianity, which is against the law in North African countries. “Muslims try to intimidate Pastor Joe and his church members in order to stop them from converting more Muslims.” She says that someone has left threatening messages on the church door and also smashed church members’ car windows. 

“We are afraid,” Pastor Joe admitted to Voice of the Martyrs. “We are exposed, so there are many times we start a day, but we don’t know how the day will end.” 

Still, Pastor Joe told Voice of the Martyrs that encouragement from Christians around the world has helped him and his congregation persevere and continue in the ministry to which the Lord has called them. “It is good to help the Christians here who are going through hardships know that they are not alone,” he said. “The body of Christ is not a theory; it is true, it is a reality. [We are] the family of God, and we need to help each other.” 

“No single believer I know [here in North Africa] ever told me it is easy,” Pastor Joe said.  

Pastor Joe said the local church is growing, and he requests prayer that the Lord will sustain him as he points others to “living water in the North African desert”. 

Representative Foley says Voice of the Martyrs posts urgent prayer requests for Christians like Ps. Joe on its website at https://vomkorea.com/en/prayer/urgent/.