All of you who faithfully read my e-mail and blog updates know of my involvement with something called Secret Church. With a new simulcast coming up on March 29th, I thought it would be a good time to explain exactly what Secret Church is. How it has not only impacted my life, but also the lives of the people here in East Africa where I am blessed to serve.

First, some background information in how I became involved with Secret Church and why it is so important to me.

From December 2008 through March, 2009 God completed the last details in opening my eyes and heart to understand His calling for me to be a foreign missionary for the next season of my life. It was not an easy journey simply because I didn’t understand the whole of what God was doing. God only revealed parts of His plans along the way. I had to trust Him, even though He didn’t put all the parts together, until He knew I was ready to accept what His will was.

Prior to and during those months I experienced a time of feeling isolated. Not isolated due to not being around people, but a feeling of being isolated and alone, as I didn’t have anyone in my life that seemed to be walking the same pathway as I was. It was difficult to explain to others something I didn’t quite understand myself.

During those months I began to listen to Dr. David Platts podcast sermons from the church services where he pastors, The Church at Brookhills in Birmingham, Alabama.

From the very first sermon I listened to, I knew God had placed Dr. Platts sermons in my life. Since my struggles began with trying to understand what God was doing in my life, I now had a resource that was helping me. Dr. Platt is a faithful servant of God in speaking truth about what a disciple of Christ is and every believers responsibility in fulfilling the Great Commission.

Secret Church is an event Dr. Platt holds on Good Friday each year at The Church at Brookhills. The evening event consist of 6 hours of in-depth bible study, including praying for persecuted believers in our world, with the prayer focus being a specific people group in a persecuted area.

On Good Friday in 2009 I made my first journey to participate in Secret Church in Birmingham. At this point I already understood God’s call to the mission field. Going to my first Secret Church event put that call into action.

As with each and every Secret Church event, there is a featured speaker mid-way. These individuals speak about their own involvement in serving in or near persecuted areas of our world. At my first Secret Church, the speaker was the only evangelical pastor in the Gaza Strip. He spoke to us about life as a persecuted believer; as a pastor in an area where persecution is intense; about those in his congregation that became Martyrs for standing strong in their faith in Jesus Christ.

When this pastor finished speaking to us, he led us in prayer. A prayer that I will never forget, as that prayer time helped me to see the world I live in completely different than I’d ever seen it before.

While this pastor prayed, my eyes were opened and into my heart came a deeper desire than I’d ever known to understand God and His ways the way this pastor did. I cried out to God, telling Him, God, I want in my relationship with You the depth this pastor has. God very clearly spoke to my heart with His answer and told me that to attain the depth this pastor had attained with Him, it would take my total surrender of all I am, given over to Him completely.

I had already surrendered to His call to go to the mission field before that night. However, that night I gave Him permission to take me wherever He needed to take me, in order for me to have this intimacy with Him as I had seen in this pastor.

4 years later now, there hasn’t been a single moment when I regretted my surrender. God knew what I needed in order to fulfill the desire of my heart to know Him more intimately than ever.

That night not only did I surrender All of me to Him, I made a commitment to become a true disciple maker. I committed to God to do my part. I understood that the Secret Church Bible studies were not just for those who participate that night, but they were to be learned and then retaught. Fulfilling this commitment has been a wonderful journey for me since that night.

Once each Secret Church session is complete, the teachings in video, audio and print format are translated into other languages and sent into persecuted areas of our world. Missionaries like myself and other organizations that serve among persecuted believers are provided with this material where we take it to those we serve.

In April 2011, Lifeway simulcast its first Secret Church event. The Secret Church events had reached a point where The Church at Brookhills could no longer accommodate the thousands of people desiring to attend.

Since that first simulcast, more than 50,000 people from all over the world have participated in each of the Secret Church events.

The next Secret Church simulcast is March 29th. Churches, host homes, etc., are geared up to host the simulcast. Dr. Platts Bible study for this event is: Heaven, Hell and The End of The World. The simulcast is scheduled for 6 pm until midnight (CST).

Although I will be participating 9000 miles away here in Kenya, I would love to invite you to attend the simulcast at my home church, Blackshear Place Baptist Church in Flowery Branch, Georgia. Information is available on our church website at: http://bpbc.com/aboutbpbc/events (Remember that the time will be 7pm until 1am as our church is in eastern standard time zone)

Also you would be welcomed to join the simulcast event at First Baptist Church, Woodstock Georgia. The information about this location can be found at: http://www.fbcw.org/secretchurch/

If you are not in the area of our church or First Baptist Woodstock, please check out the Secret Church website for more information on other areas hosting the simulcast: http://www.radical.net/secretchurch/gatherings/simulcast.html

Now, I know exactly what just came to your mind when you read the time for the simulcast. You thought…oh there is no way I can attend a bible study until midnight! However, I want to encourage you to remember that this event is not about you. It’s about reaching out to and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters in this world.

Your part is to attend, grow deeper in understanding the Word of God and learn about persecuted believers throughout our world. To have your eyes opened to the realities of what being a Christian is like in other countries. Then, stand in the gap praying along with those surrounding you for the persecuted believers you learn about.

Surely, you can commit 6 hours out of a year to learn, understand and pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who daily wonder if today will be their last day as they choose to serve God faithfully.

Love to all,

Joy Breedlove

Missionary-East Africa