Suffering is not always followed by healing. Christians are perhaps more aware of this fact than anyone else.
Missionaries give up everything to evangelize in Africa, only to find that their message is rejected.
Christians in the Middle East lose their families when they accept Christ. Instead of finding peace, they find their conversion met with increasing amounts of persecution.
Christian brothers and sisters in North Korea are caught and sent to prisons for Christ, only to find their grave.
“I have already given you so much,” we sometimes cry to God. “Why would you ask more of me?”
Pastor S, however, sees things in a different way.
Pastor S is a Christian from Sri Lanka who gave up everything she had to follow Christ. She and her husband traveled to an area in Sri Lanka renown for its violence to Christians. They were verbally abused, physically assaulted, and continually threatened. But they endured this violence for Jesus’ name.
After all this suffering, Pastor S and her husband were both shot by a neighbor.
Pastor S survived. Her husband did not.
Yet she continues to preach about God’s goodness and love in the very same area she was shot in.
“God has given me so much,” she says. “I am indebted to God and will do whatever I can for him.”
How can Pastor S think this way? Watch this week’s podcast to find out:
To watch other Voice of the Martyrs videos, visit the Voice of the Martyrs Video Page!
Do the Word 
I sit here in my comfortable living room, in my comfortable home listening to Pastor S’s testimony on what it is like to put Christ above all else. To live totally dependent on His mercy and grace. She has endured many horrible trials and still walks forward with Christ as her light and driving force. She does not paint a pretty picture – so why then do I long to walk with her? To gather strength from her faith and living to shine a light on the living God, Jesus Christ. I want what she has.