Welcome to the prison pulpit on the China Compass podcast. Once again I'm your China travel guide in exile currently here in Malaysia. I'm a missionary bin. I go by BF Weston and when I write things and I'll talk about that just in a minute. I'm back home with my family in Malaysia finally after about it's been a week now since I got home actually. Still a little bit off on the time it's kind of weird. India is only two and a half hours off from Malaysia but that is weird it's true two and a half hours it's not an even hour but I'm still like having a heart and going to sleep at night and I'm sleeping having a heart and waking up at a decent time in the morning just because that two and a half hours is is enough just to make a difference I guess on my body clock so it's been harder I think almost than when I have to switch completely 12 or 13 hours when you go to North America. You can follow me on Twitter X at China Adventures where I share a new Chinese city to pray for every single day. We've matched up every state in the US with every province in China to adopt for prayer and if you're from some other country or some other province in in Canada for instance pick a place we do encourage you to pray for China. This is the China Compass podcast although this midweek episode is focused more on persecution the prison pulpit not only China related but mostly China related as well. You can email me anytime China Compass at privacy port.com China Compass at privacy port.com and check out PrayGiveGo.us for everything else that we're involved in Patreon link is there, sub stack link is there. The books that I published again I mentioned earlier on the books my name will show up as BF Weston. I do all this and I use a missionary bin just to try to keep my my real name and persona not quite so easy to find on the internet. I Google myself I use GROC every now and then to try to see what shows up when I Google certain terms or words. I just don't want countries like India China for instance India is getting this way as well to be able to easily search my real name and say oh oh you're coming into our country for tourism you say but look here's a list of all the things that GROC says that you're involved in or that Google says that you're doing so I want to keep that from happening so I can continue ministering in many of these places here in Asia especially and maybe someday in other places that are currently still closed off Iran you know anybody although it's not looking good for Iran to be completely liberated here in the next few weeks but where do we are praying for that place to eventually be free for the believers there to worship and free for others to go in and continue ministering in places like Iran that are very difficult places. Speaking of prayer well I'm usually mentioned the books just in case anybody is listening for the first time the memoirs of William Millen is one of the books I hope to publish it's the story the first missionary to Malaysia his own journals and letters the autobiography of John G. Payton who was a famous missionary to the South Seas he was from Scotland a really amazing story Toby Sumter wrote the forward to that book and that was really part one of the autobiography part two I'll be working on later this year I'll be doing the research here in a couple of months I travel back to the islands. Borden of Yale the millionaire missionary is the more recent one that I finished late last year Borden of Yale the millionaire missionary who served in Egypt briefly before passing away he was on his way to China it's an amazing story of his devotion as a young man growing up in the US in the seminary at college at Yale but also his passion to reach the unreach and the loss that he never got to bring to fruition in his own life but his testimony has inspired many many people down to the years finally unbeaten my own story my arrest interrogation and deportation from China I wrote that man it's been six years I wrote it during the first month or two of COVID back in 2020 but the story was from 2018 in late April early May when I was arrested and deported from China so it's a little bit of a memoir of my own about a covers about a month in time during that period where I was being held and under house arrest in China and being processed for deportation that's what the time period that book covers all those you can find it pray give go dot us the prison pulpit the reason I do this midweek podcast I started this again it's been a year and a half now is because it's a way to remind us to pray for persecuted believers as Hebrews 13 three teaches us to do remember those who are in prison as bound with them that's what the verse says right not just to pray for them not just to remember that they're out there somewhere but to pray for them in a certain way in a particular way as bound with them as if we were chained with them in the prison cell so that's a call for a level of prayer and intercession I think more deeper and more emotional more it's more more of a call than what we are typically able to do or willing to do you know to actually imagine ourselves in their shoes suffering what they suffer we've looked at Pastor Wang Yi kind of as an example of this and how to do this early-range church in China we've talked about him a lot especially at the beginning and we'll come back to him as well more in the future as well as Pastor Richard Wormbrand who passed away 20 something years ago but he wrote he left many many books from his time in prison in Romania just amazing stuff that he wrote about his time there and how we can pray for those who are suffering in similar situations there's a link here in the show notes for free books to of his free PDF books lots of his books are available not just in English but in many different languages of the world and in that same vein I want to remind us today to pray for a couple places that aren't really China related but they're back in the news so Nigeria is back in the news as of this past weekend it's really been in the news almost constantly off and on for months and months it's rare that I go a few days without seeing something about Nigeria but just the other day on Palm Sunday there was another attack in Nigeria I'm reading this from open doors us.org there's a link in the show notes pray for praying for Joss Joss is the name of the city or the province in central Nigeria where this attack particularly attacked happened it's it's in the you know middle to northern part of Nigeria up towards where the Muslims live and the Muslims are a majority and so the areas of Nigeria that are under attack are not necessarily the coastal regions or the major city Lagos the capital where the Christians are the majority but it's in the areas where they're mixed with the Muslims or they're getting closer to the Muslim majority areas so the article just to explain what happened on the evening Palm Sunday March 29th 2026 gunmen open fire on people gathered in the streets of Angwan, Rukuba a community in Joss north local government area plateau state Nigeria the attack occurred around 8 p.m. on a busy street that locals know as a common gathering place on a night when many were returning from Palm Sunday church services the death toll is still being confirmed early media reports estimated between six and 10 fatalities but local contacts on the ground have confirmed that 27 bodies were returned to the community 14 who died at the scene and 13 who later died in hospital many more were injured the community is predominantly Christian though not all of those killed were Christian so it was not a not a church attack per se but it was to a majority Christian group in a majority Christian town on a day when Christians were out celebrating and and rejoicing in that that particular Palm Sunday holiday no group has claimed responsibility for the attack local partners are looking to gather more information in response plateau state imposed a 48 hour curfew and the government condemned the attack on innocent citizens and pledges authorities are working to apprehend those responsible but this keeps happening over and over again and I read other things about how the government in many places is dominated by some Muslims as well so they're not always full on trying to catch those responsible there's there's a mixture of motives there even among the government in Nigeria the attack falls in the middle of holy week a time when the church around the world is drawing near to the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus we agree with our brothers and sisters says this is open doors in joss while we invite you to join us in prayer now I'm gonna give you an example of the prayer request given here which aren't bad by any means but it's probably gonna be lacking in something I want that's what I want to point out pray for the community in joss for wisdom and safety amidst the heightened security and tensions of pray for those in the community the Christians there pray for churches and just to find ways of safely operating in holy week amidst the lockdown pray for church leaders to have emotional capacity and wisdom to counsel Christians facing persecution uncertainty and violence due to their faith those are these are good things these are helpful things that we need to be praying for there there's three that was three of seven here pray for pray that Christians will be guided by the Holy Spirit to respond biblically in ways that glorify God in this situation they be guided by the spirit they respond in biblical ways to glorify God so how do we respond biblically to persecution to this kind of suffering pray for the government to have the means and willpower to bring justice to the perpetrator some of the ways the word it is a little awkward praying that God would that would give the government means and willpower so they have the means do they have the willpower to do it maybe not so pray that the government God would move the government to have the desire to bring just they would bring justice so that's something's a word it a little bit funny here pray that the tension during the week of Easter will give way to the piece of Jesus pray that the attackers will face justice but also that they made to Jesus I guess those two things can happen at the same time as I read that the way that's worded whether they face justice by meeting Jesus no but I think that the idea is pray that they would meet Jesus before they meet ultimate justice we do want them to be saved just like the Apostle Paul was saved now again one thing that's not mentioned in this list of prayer request is what I would like to emphasize with Hebrews 13 three right there's nothing here specifically about why don't we put ourselves in the shoes of the victims not the victims themselves are dead but the families of the victims the churches of the victims those who have suffered alongside those who are injured in the hospital what would we feel if it was our church if our church and our community was literally shot up with a gun and many people were killed and died because of the faith because of the time of year what would we be feeling would be we be afraid I'm not going to give you a list I want you to take a minute take a few minutes take time to put yourself in their shoes what kind of fears would you have what kind of anxiety would you have what kind of worries would you have what kind of desires would you have for your community and for the gospel in that particular region that's what we're asked to do by Hebrews 13 three is put ourselves in their shoes and then make our own list of things to pray for again not praying like we're remote people way off somewhere not really understanding but take the time to actually put ourselves in their shoes as best we can and pray for them and intercede from them from that place so I do encourage you to do that today and also any day anytime you hear about not just this particular example in Nigeria but this happens all the time in other parts of the world there's things that happen but learn to do that learn to put yourself in the shoes of those who suffer those that are part of the body of Christ who suffered there are body were part of the same body of Christ and pray for them as Hebrews teaches us to do now that brings me to another Africa story that we've mostly forgotten a few months ago I talked about on the podcast a missionary pilot who was kidnapped in Niger now Niger is different from Nigeria I guess it's the same root word come from the same part of the world it's not too far off I think Niger is actually located maybe just to the north and maybe a little bit to the east of Nigeria I can't remember now off top of my head and but it's right there nearby but Niger is a different country it's more Muslim mostly Muslim whereas Nigeria is more of a half and half slightly majority Christian maybe in Nigeria more people in Nigeria and Niger is a much lesser populated area it's also closer to the Sahara Desert more a difficult climate there for sure there and so I was thinking about that and I thought the other day I thought you know I haven't heard about this missionary pilot who was kidnapped back in October I wonder if he's been released I wonder if anything's happened with him and so I actually did a quick search on GROC I use GROC now more than Google for just random searches and the first thing as I was noticing GROC was searching and looking through it kind of flashes up little things there and you can kind of see what it's searching through briefly and I noticed there was a Facebook post that it was flashing up and it seemed to say that something had happened and he was released but then when GROC came through with the final the final results there was nothing about released it was no we don't know anything about what's happened he's still disappeared he's still gone and so I pushed a little harder to make sure there wasn't something out there that GROC was missing and sure enough there's nothing out there about his release he's not been released he hasn't been found hasn't been located it's really gone gone dry I guess the trail for him so October 21st is when he was kidnapped the last article that I could find available for him is from this about him is from December 18th just two months after and now that's been how many months ago three almost three and a half months ago since there's been anything written about him and he's still gone he's still gone he could be dead we don't know for sure it's unlikely I guess he's dead maybe he's alive because they would have somebody would have said something if he had died I guess I don't know I'm not sure what the how that works in that part of the world if if there's a better chance he's dead or alive at this point but whatever we know he's he's definitely suffering and again let me let me go through the short details of what happened and then I've got a few more thoughts on this two months have passed since missionary pilot Kevin ride out Kevin ride out R-I-D-E-O-U-T was kidnapped from his home in the highly secure I guess you could put that in scare quotes the secure chateau one neighborhood of Niammi which is the capital of Niger in West Africa and local Christians say they are worried about the silence around efforts to rescue him yeah I'd be worried too there's nobody knows anything there's silence about what can we do for him this case seems to be taking longer and no one knows the culprits nor the whereabouts of the victim set a local Catholic outlet there in Nigeria right out was a 48-year-old married father working with the United States headquartered serving in mission S-I-M and he was kidnapped in October a report from radio friends international said the missionary pilot was reportedly abducted October 21st by three men near the Grand Bravia hotel in the city center just a few hundred meters from the presidential palace it was actually this doesn't say it was right outside his door he lived in that neighborhood so it was right outside of his own house and door until now we haven't heard much about the news of the kidnapped pilot we only heard he was kidnapped we don't know the name of the group that kidnapped him yet this is old news nothing there's been no new news come out since that particular time the there there is a note in here that the Trump administration had a top priority on securing his release but it just seems like there's just no leads no nothing again on my point here isn't necessarily go over all the details or what happened exactly we don't know for sure exactly what happened or why there's been no mention maybe he died early on in the process and no one said anything because he's dead and they don't want to take responsibility for it we don't know but there's a very good chance he's still out there suffering and then we as believers brothers and sisters of Kevin Wright out we should be praying for him continuing to remember him that's what the verse says remembering the those who are in prison for the gospel say this is one brother who is in a sort of prison worse than prison in many ways and so I was thinking about him recently and again after checking these sources and seeing that he still isn't there I've been thinking about his wife and children imagine what they're going through facing uncertainty in this way we can be praying for his wife and children as well those of you out there who are wives or children you can be praying for them relating better to those to those the kids or the wife as well I think it's kids there's a picture here that I'm putting in my sub-stack I'm doing a little sub-stack post connected to the same today's podcast and there's a picture of him here it looks young he doesn't look 48 in this picture it looks about maybe 35 to 40 and he's got a young daughter in his arms and so I'm assuming this is an older picture because I think I read where the kids are now getting like late teens even maybe out of the home and so they're not young kids I don't think but they could have some kids that are still young in home I don't know all the details of the children again it's easy to forget about men like him with so much else going on in the world but should we stop praying for him no of course not he's part of the body again I'm kind of reading through here what I wrote from my from my sub-stack that I'm going to post here simultaneously with the podcast we are bound by flesh and blood together in the they are bound by flesh and blood him and his family of course they're still praying for him but we are bound by the spirit with him as well as believers we are one body in Christ now one reason I've been thinking of him and I don't know why I was thinking about the topic of thirst today and yesterday for a different project I'm working on a different thing I was writing and the conditions he must be suffering in there if he's still alive mean he must be extremely thirsty and this is this is a sad thing to even think about think about how thirsty you might be being held in the desert in the beginning of summer the hot season in a place like that if we're going to pray for him as as he was 133 clearly teaches us as bound with him then we need to understand the reality what he faces Kevin right now if he's alive is hot he's dusty he's thirsty and this is just to say the least now I ask Grock again how hot and dry it is currently in northern Niger where he's most likely being held and I thought the answer was actually helpful in in a in a tough sort of way here's a portion of the answer northern Niger particularly the the tila berry region where Kevin right out phone was last tracked and where Islamist militants like those linked to Islamic state operate has a hot semi-arid to hot arid climate it is extremely hot for much of the year an overwhelmingly dry outside a short rainy season the current conditions in early April day time highs commonly hit 100 to 105 Fahrenheit 38 to 30 41 Celsius with lows in the mid 70s to low 80s Fahrenheit this is peak pre-mon soon heat so pre rainy season heat often feeling even more intense due to direct sun and dust April falls squarely in the long dry season expect a bone dry conditions dusty air and frequent winds carrying seharon sand which can reduce visibility and irritate eyes and lungs severe risks include dehydration heat exhaustion and heat stroke especially without shade or water dust and wind add to the harshness hostage situation this is grok speaking hostage situations in such environments compound risks due to extreme heat scarce water limited vegetation for cover and difficult to rain for movement or rescue that's a pretty stark picture and so I'm thinking about these sobering realities and how to pray for Kevin and and just how thirsty he might be if we're going to relate to him and pray for him just put ourselves in his shoes and think about the thirst think about not having a cold drink of water in that situation again it's awful to think about it really is awful to think about but we're called to pray for our brother in this way and not just pray physically we're you know pray Lord bring him some water yes we want him to be provided with water real real water yes we do at the same time that should remind us to pray for him spiritually as well what does he need more than physical water he needs the living water he needs the Lord the Holy Spirit to meet him and to comfort him and to be with him in this time in that place and so that actually brings me to what I was thinking about and related to thirst that led me to thinking of Kevin was actually a message that I've given in the past on thirst and on Jesus words in the book of John where he says I thirst and I won't share the entire sermon here of course with you today there's a lot to learn from the book of John on the topic of living water in thirst there's many references throughout the book of John but I want to fast forward to one the final reference to thirst in the book of John which is chapter 19 verse 28 Jesus knowing all that was now finished said to fulfill the scripture I thirst I thirst and again there's no way to say it in the way he would have said it and dying on the cross bleeding suffering for us he cries out I thirst but I have a few thoughts on this how can the Messiah Jesus Christ who was himself living water how can he be thirsty and I'm asking these rhetorically as if we were one of the people listening there watching him the way I said this particular sermon up is thinking about the woman at the well who talked to Jesus about living water many many chapters earlier we don't know exactly the time frame there what if she was also there what if she was there in the distance with the other women we're not told all the women who were there watching her distance there's a there's a possibility the woman at the well could have been there as well watching and listening and hearing everything going on there at the cross what if she had heard him say what he says here I thirst what would her thoughts have been a knowing he was the Messiah but not understanding all that he was going all that was going on all that he was doing she would have had this kind of question in her own mind how can he the living water how can he be thirsty right how can he who created every drop of water in the world now even like one drop of water for his tongue wasn't he the one who had the living water welling up to eternal life how can he be thirsty how can he be bleeding and dying how can this savior now be dying right in front of me these are the words that she might have had on her mind if she's watching there from from a distance there him bleeding and dying and of course crying that he's thirsty she might have been confused in the moment but later she would have been of course overcome with the glory of Christ when she finally realized what he had done when the glory the resurrection came and she understood everything there that he was a the substitution in our place he lived for us he obeyed for us he prayed for us he was arrested for us he was whipped for us he was pierced for us he bled for us and he thirsted for us even his thirst there was for us he was rejected for us he suffered the wrath of God for us and he died for us on the cross so all of these things he did for us including the thirst now to push the point a bit further Jesus Christ suffered the worst possible thirst imaginable imagine again bleeding piercing dying dryness that the dust the wind blowing no water I mean literally this the worst thirst you can absolutely ever imagine Jesus in that moment it was real thirst he's talking maybe there's a spiritual aspect to it but he's talking about real physical thirst I'm thirsty at that moment but at that exact moment that he was that thirsty he was purchasing the living waters of eternal life for all those who would believe so he's purchasing eternal life in living waters so there's this juxtaposition of the thirst that you can't even comprehend or imagine and at the same moment you can just see the rivers of living water you can imagine the flood of Ezekiel you can imagine the the the waters of life and revelation flowing in just this juxtaposition of what Jesus himself is providing for those who believe at the same moment that he's the most thirsty of anybody that's probably ever lived just an unbelievable thirst in that moment now as we pray as we think about these things and pray for Kevin write out let at least one of our petitions be that he would be enabled in the power of the spirit to glory in the cross of Christ and bask in the in the reality that his eternal thirst is quince because Jesus thirsted for him so he's physically thirsty but Jesus thirsted for him there and as we all rejoice in Christ this Easter again I'm kind of reading here a little bit of what I wrote for this other project may we proclaim the glory of the cross to all of the spiritually thirsty people God places under our instruction in our paths this week as we lead up to Easter now all that to say that's just kind of my own rambling thoughts but Charles Spurgeon has an amazing sermon that I read earlier today on this same topic the Savior's thirst I'm not going to read the whole sermon there's a link to the whole sermon in in the substack that I'm going to post along with the show notes here and there's a I'm going to I'm going to give you a quote and then there's a link to the entire sermon and then in my substack I've also posted sort of an abridged version of the sermon in the substack now Spurgeon himself says this he says remember that all this was for you even as his enemies for you as if there were no others in the world for each one of his people were the nails for each one did he thirst come then and kiss those blessed lips and bow before your Savior in reverent praise now I was going to stop there but I got to read one more one more paragraph from Spurgeon's sermon here before we stop Jesus sayeth I thirst as our Lord uses these words may I ask you for a minute to contemplate it with wonder who was this that said I thirst no you not that it was he who balanced the clouds and who filled the channels of the mighty deep he said I thirst and yet in him was a well of water springing up unto everlasting life yes he who guided every river in its course and watered all the fields with grateful showers he it was the king of kings the Lord of lords before whom held trimbles and the earth is filled with this may he whom heaven adores and all eternity worships he it was who said I thirst matchless condescension from the infinity of to the weakness of a thirsting dying man and this again I must remind you was for you he that suffered for you was no common mortal no ordinary man such as you are but the perfect and ever blessed God high above all principalities and powers in every name that is named he it is who with this condescending loneliness of a state stooped and cried as you have done I thirst once more in this cry of our Lord I thirst I think I see a trace of the atonement which he was then offering the pangs of Christ upon the cross are to be regarded as a substitution for the sins and sorrows of ungodly men he quotes then from a hymn he bore that we might never bear his father's righteous I hear well thank you for listening to today's podcast and it's a little bit of a sobering topic let's continue to pray together and learn from what the word says and think about our Savior this week thank you for listening subscribe leave a review on your favorite platform don't forget to visit praegibgo.us for all the books and of course hebrew's 13-3 remember those who are in prison as bound with them god bless and talk to you again in a few days would you in our scene as if you were bound with me I hear screams of those going mad trying to sleep on this immense land the cards are hard as if they cannot see they don't recognize our humanity oh remember me oh remember me would you in our scene as if you were bound with me oh pastor taught us what is right the snaps to weigh in the dead of night how will we care for his family or answer the question where's my daddy oh remember me oh remember me would you in our scene as if you were bound with me when it's a crime to share of a god who cares a crime to shine light into despair the church will find it's hard to be anything other than guilty oh remember me oh remember me would you in our scene as if you were bound with me remember me when will I walk free oh remember me where's my daddy remember me do we need to flee remember me the season of suffering the child passed then I'll see my Savior's face at last pray that I'll walk faithfully and bear my cross patiently oh remember me oh remember me would you in our scene as if you were bound with me