“Silence suddenly fell in the cell – then frantic shouts of “Allahu Akbar!” erupted.

I immediately held my breath, shocked. I wide-eyed. The men jumped up from the floor and embraced each other with gestures of jubilation. They raised their arms in triumph and danced around the crowded cell, patting each other on the back and smiling.

I moved very slowly towards the nearest wall, my hands suddenly damp. Drops of sweat appeared above my upper lip and on my forehead, and I tried not to tremble. For several minutes, my cellmates celebrated the success of the terrorist attack in France. I had seen that kind of Muslim celebration on television, but experiencing it firsthand was shocking. I realized, in those terrifying moments, that I had been imprisoned with Islamic extremists. And I would learn that my cellmates were, in fact, ISIS members.”

Petr Jašek is the son of a pastor who was persecuted in communist Czechoslovakia. In 2002, he joined the humanitarian organization The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) to use his professional experience in healthcare to serve persecuted Christians in many nations, especially those in Africa where Christian persecution is most violent, such as Nigeria or Sudan. For this reason, in 2015, he was arrested in Sudan and imprisoned for 445 days. Petr Jašek now travels the world as a VOM ambassador, recounting his imprisonment and encouraging believers to support and help persecuted Christians.