{"id":4083,"date":"2022-07-30T17:09:02","date_gmt":"2022-07-30T17:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/"},"modified":"2022-07-30T17:09:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-30T17:09:02","slug":"africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Paton enrolled in university to study pastoral ministry. But on the first day of his first class, the professor challenged students to think more broadly, to consider if God was calling them to take His love to people who hadn\u2019t yet heard the name of Christ. Sean left class that day and changed his major to missions\u2014and ever since he\u2019s seen and lived a direct link between pastoral and missionary work.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years Sean has led VOM\u2019s work serving Christians on the continent of Africa. Now he\u2019s transitioning back into a pastoral role with an American congregation. Listen as he shares some of the stories he\u2019ll take with him\u2014like the story of meeting the wife and children of a long-imprisoned Eritrean pastor and being inspired by their faithfulness. Sean will tell how persecuted Christians like these impacted his own faith and understanding of the gospel.<\/p>\n<p>He will also encourage listeners to pray\u2014with specific ideas on how to pray for VOM\u2019s international staff that travel extensively and deal often with suffering and pain. Sean encourages pastors to incorporate our persecuted brothers and sister\u2019s stories within their church services, such as during communion or prayer time, as weekly reminders that we are one body in Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! <a href= \"https:\/\/www.vomradio.net\/subscribe\">Subscribe to the Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vomradio.net\/episodes\/detail\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Listen to this episode on VOMRadio.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sean Paton enrolled in university to study pastoral ministry. But on the first day of his first class, the professor challenged students to think more broadly, to consider if God was calling them to take His love to people who hadn\u2019t yet heard the name of Christ. Sean left class that day and changed his major to missions\u2014and ever since he\u2019s seen and lived a direct link between pastoral and missionary work. In recent years Sean has led VOM\u2019s work serving Christians on the continent of Africa. Now he\u2019s transitioning back into a pastoral role with an American congregation. Listen as he shares some of the stories he\u2019ll take with him\u2014like the story of meeting the wife and children of a long-imprisoned Eritrean pastor and being inspired by their faithfulness. Sean will tell how persecuted Christians like these impacted his own faith and understanding of the gospel. He will also encourage listeners to pray\u2014with specific ideas on how to pray for VOM\u2019s international staff that travel extensively and deal often with suffering and pain. Sean encourages pastors to incorporate our persecuted brothers and sister\u2019s stories within their church services, such as during communion or prayer time, as weekly reminders that we are one body in Christ. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the Podcast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vom-radio","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sean Paton enrolled in university to study pastoral ministry. But on the first day of his first class, the professor challenged students to think more broadly, to consider if God was calling them to take His love to people who hadn\u2019t yet heard the name of Christ. Sean left class that day and changed his major to missions\u2014and ever since he\u2019s seen and lived a direct link between pastoral and missionary work. In recent years Sean has led VOM\u2019s work serving Christians on the continent of Africa. Now he\u2019s transitioning back into a pastoral role with an American congregation. Listen as he shares some of the stories he\u2019ll take with him\u2014like the story of meeting the wife and children of a long-imprisoned Eritrean pastor and being inspired by their faithfulness. Sean will tell how persecuted Christians like these impacted his own faith and understanding of the gospel. He will also encourage listeners to pray\u2014with specific ideas on how to pray for VOM\u2019s international staff that travel extensively and deal often with suffering and pain. Sean encourages pastors to incorporate our persecuted brothers and sister\u2019s stories within their church services, such as during communion or prayer time, as weekly reminders that we are one body in Christ. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the Podcast.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\"},\"wordCount\":242,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"VOM Radio\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\",\"name\":\"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"width\":978,\"height\":640},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/\",\"name\":\"Stories\",\"description\":\"VOM\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\",\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56abf41aaad92dceb4cfa25e0a29cb1f744b86aceb206be3435e6e45da62f65a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56abf41aaad92dceb4cfa25e0a29cb1f744b86aceb206be3435e6e45da62f65a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"vomtechsupport\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories","og_description":"Sean Paton enrolled in university to study pastoral ministry. But on the first day of his first class, the professor challenged students to think more broadly, to consider if God was calling them to take His love to people who hadn\u2019t yet heard the name of Christ. Sean left class that day and changed his major to missions\u2014and ever since he\u2019s seen and lived a direct link between pastoral and missionary work. In recent years Sean has led VOM\u2019s work serving Christians on the continent of Africa. Now he\u2019s transitioning back into a pastoral role with an American congregation. Listen as he shares some of the stories he\u2019ll take with him\u2014like the story of meeting the wife and children of a long-imprisoned Eritrean pastor and being inspired by their faithfulness. Sean will tell how persecuted Christians like these impacted his own faith and understanding of the gospel. He will also encourage listeners to pray\u2014with specific ideas on how to pray for VOM\u2019s international staff that travel extensively and deal often with suffering and pain. Sean encourages pastors to incorporate our persecuted brothers and sister\u2019s stories within their church services, such as during communion or prayer time, as weekly reminders that we are one body in Christ. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the Podcast.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/","og_site_name":"Stories","article_published_time":"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00","author":"vomtechsupport","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"vomtechsupport","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/"},"author":{"name":"vomtechsupport","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216"},"headline":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d","datePublished":"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/"},"wordCount":242,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg","articleSection":["VOM Radio"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/","url":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/","name":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d - Stories","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-30T17:09:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg","width":978,"height":640},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/africa-the-church-is-the-pillar-of-truth\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AFRICA: \u201cThe Church is the Pillar of Truth\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/","name":"Stories","description":"VOM","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216","name":"vomtechsupport","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56abf41aaad92dceb4cfa25e0a29cb1f744b86aceb206be3435e6e45da62f65a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56abf41aaad92dceb4cfa25e0a29cb1f744b86aceb206be3435e6e45da62f65a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"vomtechsupport"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}