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Henry and Carol Russell* work jointly with The Mission Society and a partnering organization in a predominantly Muslim country in West Africa. They have lived there for 15 years, translating Scripture into the native tongue of the local people. Henry and Carol work with more than 30 languages, most of which represent people groups that are considered least reached. The Russells' team has completed the translation of the entire Bible in one language, the New Testament in two other languages, and portions of Scripture in several other languages.

Here, they tell of a young Muslim woman who chose to follow Jesus and was persecuted for her faith.

There is a young woman who is from a Muslim family. She had become a Christian, but her family was unaware. She memorized a lot of Scripture that had been translated into her language and grew in her faith.

She moved to the capital city to attend the university and continued to practice her faith. One of her cousins came to visit her and discovered that she had become a Christian. He notified her family. Her family members came to her school, moved her back to the village, and locked her in her room in their house. She is only allowed to leave to go to the mosque five times a day for prayer, which she does in Jesus’ name.

She is allowed one visitor a day, which is a religious leader from the mosque. He visits her each day and tries to get her to return to Islam.

One of our colleagues went to visit her and asked if she would like help getting out of her current situation. She responded, “You know, the Bible says to honor your father and mother. If this is what my parents want to do, my honoring them is going to be to stay locked in this room. I will just continue to share scriptures I have memorized with my family and with this religious leader. I’ll continue to share Jesus with them. So no, I don’t want to escape. I want to honor my mother and father by adhering to what they’re requiring of me right now.”

The last we heard, she is still locked in her room.

We hear stories like these frequently, ranging in different levels of persecution. Many families are very upset if someone chooses to follow Jesus. Please pray that more people would be drawn to Jesus, and that God would use these translations of His Word to bring people to know Him as Lord.

*Pseudonym and stock photo used for security purposes.