Service to the Lord will take you to the very threshold of death, but Jesus will not abandon you,” Gideon’s* pastor told him when he became a Global Mission pioneer. The words would prove to be prophetic.

During Gideon’s assignment, a group of terrorists attacked his community one Sabbath. As they approached the church, many of the worshippers escaped to safety. Within moments, the sound of heavy gunfire erupted.

Amid the chaos, Gideon gathered his children inside the church and knelt with them to pray. Outside, the terrorists passed by without seeing them, although the doors and windows stood open.

Believing the immediate danger had passed, the family went home, only to find more assailants. One of them fired at Gideon, but the bullets struck a mango tree. Then the terrorists grabbed his son, forced him onto a motorcycle, and fled toward the surrounding bushland.

“I stood and watched as my son waved back to me in distress,” Gideon said. “In that moment, I was overcome with grief, certain that I would never see him again.”

In anguish, Gideon returned to the church, knelt, and prayed with an intensity he had never felt before.

Eventually, Gideon emerged from the church. As he gazed in the direction his son had been taken, he perceived a figure approaching in the distance. Unable to discern whether it was an actual person or a mirage, he ran toward it.

It was his son. “We embraced and wept together, thanking God for one of the greatest miracles of our lives,” Gideon said.

Though the effect of the terrorist attack was severe, the incident strengthened the congregation's faith in Christ. Please pray for Gideon and other Global Mission pioneers like him who work on the “threshold of death.”

*Name has been changed