In the Middle of Thorns

Missionary to America, Philip Gai, Sudan

Philip Gai is a missionary to America from the Sudan. He describes his early life in the Sudan as “Growing up in the middle of thorns.” Philip’s early life was in the company of terror. Christians would be taken off the street by the government or some secret group. A knock might come on the door of a Christian pastor and when the door was opened the pastor would face a bullet. Thorns is too kind a word.

According to Philip, by the time he was a teenager Christians were being offered bribes to convert to Islam: Christians were offered a shop, or a house to set aside their faith in Jesus. Philip and other students did not just protest the persecution, they saw it as their mission to evangelize Muslims. They shared Christ on Sudanese college campuses. For this they were under constant threat of imprisonment, and finally murder. Philip escaped to Egypt, where he was granted asylum in Canada. He lost everything – and gained more. Today he is a missionary in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Philip describes his ministry as “bridge building.” He bridges the divide between Canadian and Sudanese cultures. He is a bridge, bringing the gospel to Canadian Muslims. He is a bridge between traditional Canadian Christianity and the Sudanese way of worship and service. “You cannot come to a Sudanese worship service and be bored.” He says both groups are learning and gaining new strength.

Philip Gai is doing what Jesus did – Jesus was a bridge, between a broken humanity and a loving God. Jesus lost everything and gained more – he gained a new life for humanity: John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Get a sense of who Philip Gai is in this short clip of his testimony

Watch Philips inspiring testimony!