“S tories are powerful. When Jesus was here on earth He told stories and parables. Paul told stories through his letters. This is exactly what we are trying to do at Barnabas+.”
These were the words of Barnabas Aid’s Digital Content Producer – one of the team behind our Barnabas+ streaming service – who has recently returned from filming the story of a Santal Christian family in Bangladesh.
“We want stories that highlight the goodness of God in the lives of His people,” he adds.
“It’s very important to understand the context our brothers and sisters live in to be able to support and pray for them. It’s also an important way for our supporters to know how their support is making a difference all over the world.”
Encouragement and spiritual nourishment
The aim of sharing accounts of suffering and persecution is never to burden or discourage – but rather to encourage Western Christians, especially those who are themselves going through suffering, that the Lord remains faithful through our trials and tribulations.
Believers in the developed world are certainly not immune to hardship. Poverty is not as desperate for many of us as it is for our brothers and sisters in the Global South, but is still a trial to many. Illness and disease affect people everywhere, especially those in the later stages of life. There are many believers in the West who suffer hardship for their faith.
Believers who suffer in these ways – particularly if their suffering is compounded by loneliness or isolation – are searching for encouragement and spiritual nourishment. This is what Barnabas+ is designed to provide.
As well as Barnabas Originals – short features and films produced by Barnabas, such as the account of the Santal Christians – there are hours of Christian content available for you and your family. This includes Bible teaching, short devotionals designed to uplift and inspire, Gospel-based children’s TV shows, and Christian apologetics that re-affirm the truth of our faith.
Barnabas+ can be accessed at www.barnabasplus.tv and is available on multiple devices. New programmes are added every month. There are no monthly fees – the service is completely free.
Trusting in God through difficulties
Christians in the West will also be blessed and edified by the lessons our brothers and sisters in lands of persecution can share with us. Like some others in the Barnabas team, our Digital Content Producer himself grew up in a land of persecution.
“I think the most important thing to learn from the suffering Church is to trust God even in the most difficult situations,” he concludes.
“Living in the West can make us rely on systems, comfort, technology or even wealth. But what we really need to learn is how we can rely on God and not on our own understanding. He is forever faithful.”
In 2016 around 5,000 Santal Christians from a village in Gaibandah district were forcibly evicted by police, aided by local Muslim extremists. Their homes were burned to the ground. Dijen and his family were among the 100 Christian families who have been able to move into new homes built with Barnabas Aid funding. The next 100 houses are in the process of construction.
Project reference: 04-1360 (Rebuilding the Santal community in Bangladesh)
