Q1. Testimony and witnessing forms important tools to strengthen one's FAITH and HOPE for the end goal, which is eternal life with our tiune God.
A witness testifying about himself carries more weight than other testimonies and encourages us to perservere as He did as man, to attain the prize.
I do not believe that it is a question of being "affraid", it is more like being reluctant or luke warm to be a witness. The persecution does not lie in the physical but in the spiritual plain. (Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spirits and principalities of the air)
"Prosecution" can be the removing of the Christian morals and priciples from
legislation and social norms, like same sex marriages. These attacks will intensify and will subdue and therefore beat some to submission.
Thankfully, the allpowerful and loving God will not allow it if we heed His warnings in Revelations.