Open Doors, the international organisation that documents and supports Christians facing persecution, has launched a Czech-language service. The new website, opendoors.cz, carries current news and information about believers under pressure for their faith, together with a fresh prayer prompt published each day. Visitors can also write messages of encouragement to persecuted Christians, take part in an online prayer meeting, or request a presentation about the subject for their congregation or youth group.
The organisation traces its beginnings to 1955, when a young Dutchman known as Brother Andrew carried Bibles into countries of the Eastern bloc — Czechoslovakia among them — and encouraged believers living there. The account of his journeys became an international bestseller and the circle of supporters that gathered around his work grew into Open Doors. The organisation says it now assists persecuted Christians in 70 countries, working from the conviction that no country is closed to the gospel.
Among the resources now available in Czech for the first time is the World Watch List, Open Doors' annual ranking of the fifty countries where Christians face the most severe persecution, with an account of the specific pressures believers encounter in each. The Czech site is to be expanded with further material over time, and testimonies are also being published on the organisation's social media channels. News of the launch was carried by the Church of the Brethren (Církev bratrská), one of the free church denominations in the Czech Republic. Its history intersects with the country's own: the Bibles Brother Andrew smuggled across the Iron Curtain reached congregations of precisely this kind.
(Originally published in Czech. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Církev bratrská — https://portal.cb.cz/cs/clanky/13680-open-doors-rozsiruje-svou-sluzbu-do-ceska
