Persecuted Church Weblog

New Weblog for The Voice of the Martyrs Canada

2010-02-16T16:08:00.004-05:00

Dear blog readers,

As of today, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada has launched a new blog following the passing of VOMC's former C.E.O., Glenn Penner, who was largely responsible for managing this weblog site. We felt that a new space, a fresh forum, was needed to reconnect with you and dialogue with you about the persecuted Church.

So, we warmly invite you to check out our new blog today.

Thanks, and God bless!

-Adele Konyndyk and Erin Vandenberg

Glenn Penner passes on to glory

2010-01-27T16:17:00.004-05:00

After a seven year struggle with cancer, Glenn Penner of The Voice of the Martyrs Canada went home to be with the Lord on the evening of January 26, 2010 at the age of 48.

Glenn first joined VOM-Canada in 1997. Klaas Brobbel, the Director of the mission at the time, recalls, "Looking back to August 1997 when we interviewed Glenn for the position of Development Director for The Voice of the Martyrs, I marvel at God’s goodness and timing to send Glenn our way. The mission was floundering and we needed help. Little could we have known the great work that Glenn would be able to pack into the nearly 12½ years of service to the Persecuted Church."

Barely five years after joining VOM-Canada, Glenn was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. After undergoing chemotherapy, radiation treatment and a stem cell transplant, Glenn, his wife Denita, and their family decided not to pursue further treatment when the cancer returned. With confidence in God's provision, Glenn bravely continued to serve the Persecuted Church and strove to utilize the time God gave him to its fullest potential.

Merv Knight, Ambassador-at-Large with International Christian Association, of which VOM-Canada is an affiliate, reflected, "It is my privilege to have had a close association with VOM-Canada from its formative days. I have seen it move through various stages of change and growth. One of those positive changes came with the appointment in 2007 of Glenn Penner as C.E.O. Glenn was God’s man for the time."

Glenn had a particular passion for helping suffering believers to understand the biblical basis for their trials. His book, In the Shadow of the Cross, is an intensive study of the theology of persecution and discipleship which continues to be an invaluable resource to Christians worldwide who are suffering for Christ's sake. A gifted teacher, Glenn was blessed to be able to share his study with Christian leaders in religiously restricted and hostile nations in South America, Africa and Asia, as well as in seminaries and colleges in Europe and North America.

In January 2010, Glenn stepped down from the position of C.E.O. to allow him to serve more in line with the limitations and challenges of his condition. Corey Odden, who served for 10 years with VOM-USA, assumed the role of C.E.O. while Glenn became VOMC's Scholar-in-Residence/Executive Advisor.

Glenn's faithful dedication has inspired many – his family, the staff and supporters of VOM-Canada, international partners, and the many suffering Christians worldwide who have been touched by his service to them. As the mission moves forward into a new chapter, the staff is profoundly thankful to God for Glenn's example.

Greg Musselman, VOM-Canada's Chief Communications Officer, said, "I’ve known Glenn for the past 10 years and we worked together at VOM-Canada for seven. We travelled together overseas several times and worked on many video projects and newsletter articles about the Persecuted Church. I learned so much from him in the area of theology and church history and for that I will always be grateful. The rest of the team and I at VOM-Canada will strive to carry on his legacy as we serve the Persecuted Church."

VOM-Canada's Chief Operations Officer, Floyd Brobbel, added, "Words can never completely convey what Glenn meant to me and over the years ahead I will cherish the memories of my time with Glenn. The meetings, the travel, the laughter, the tears, the heated discussions, the planning, the practical jokes, and the list goes on to form a wonderful tapestry Glenn wove into my life. I would not change a thing because it all narrows to one word for me, and that is 'friend.'"

Friends and family of Glenn Penner are invited to celebrate his life and express condolences to his loved ones on Friday, January 29 at City Centre Baptist Church. The viewing will be held, the Lord willing, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with the funeral beginning at 1:00 p.m. City Centre Baptist Church is located at 1075 Eglinton Avenue West in Mississauga, Ontario. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, February 6 at 1:00 p.m. at the Zion Evangelical Missionary Church in Didsbury, Alberta. Directions are available here. For more information, please phone 1.888.298.6423.

Prisoner of Tehran

2010-01-22T16:12:00.005-05:00

As a subscriber to the CBC Radio's Between the Covers podcast, I am currently listening to a reading of Marina Nemat's memoir, Prisoner of Tehran. In the book, Marina recounts her arrest in 1982 at the age of 16 and her subsequent detention at Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Since we receive reports about Iranian Christians detained at Evin prison, this book immediately grabbed my attention. I hope it will help me have a fuller understanding of the conditions and challenges they face and how I can better pray for them.

You can watch a video interview below for more information about Marina Nemat:

Have you read Prisoner of Tehran? If so, please feel free to comment with your reactions to the book. Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to others?

Stand with Gao Zhisheng

2010-01-18T15:24:00.008-05:00

The following report from VOMC partner ChinaAid shares the latest information on Gao Zhisheng, a Christian human rights lawyer who has endured much persecution from authorities. Please consider joining ChinaAid in raising a voice for Gao and his family by signing their petition. To sign today, and for other ways you can help, please visit their website at www.freegao.com.

Since mid-December, 2009, ominous rumors have circulated about Gao Zhisheng, hinting that he has died after brutal torture in prison. However, no reports have been confirmed, and the Chinese government continues to refuse comment on his condition and whereabouts.

Gege, Gao's daughter, had been reportedly "pale and tired-looking" with worry for months. After hearing a rumor of Gao's death just before Christmas, Gege became so emotionally distraught, she was forced to be hospitalized. She remains fragile and under medical watch in a New York hospital.

This week, after searching out the policeman who originally detained Gao Zhisheng back in February, 2009, Gao's brother Zhiyi was told that Attorney Gao allegedly "went missing while out on a walk" on September 25, 2009. Gao's wife refused to comment, but was reported to be extremely upset after hearing the news.

This is the first time a Chinese government official has hinted that they no longer have Gao Zhisheng in their custody, leading ChinaAid to believe Gao's condition has taken a turn for the worse.

"It is totally unacceptable for the Chinese government to lose track of their own prisoner," said President of ChinaAid Bob Fu. "It is absolutely clear that he was forcibly taken from his home in February 2009. Nearly a year later, the Chinese government now says they do not have him."

Though the rumors of death cannot be confirmed, Bob Fu remains extremely concerned for this new development.

"We have every reason to suspect that the Chinese government has something very serious to hide. Gao's family has every right to know what happened to him. It is unbelievable that a high security prisoner would go missing while "out on a walk," without suspecting that there is a major cover up of his condition."

The Chinese government can no longer hide their actions from the world and must be held accountable for their treatment of Gao Zhisheng. Now is the time to act!

Reaching out to Haiti

2010-01-16T16:07:00.001-05:00

At times like this, The Voice of the Martyrs is thankful that there are committed ministries whom we can refer to when our friends and supporters contact us asking how they they can reach out to when disasters take place like that taking place in Haiti. As the suffering in Haiti is clearly not one of Christian persecution, The Voice of the Martyrs, as a ministry, will not proposing any projects for Haiti at this time (the only reason we might do so is if we learn that Christians are being discriminated against in the aid distribution and this seems unlikely in Haiti at this time, as persecution of any sort is rare there art other times).

Hence, we are pleased to refer you to other excellent ministries who are stepping up to effectively assist those in need in Haiti at this time. The Voice of the Martyrs recommends the following ministries:

1. World Vision Canada

2. Compassion Canada

3. Samaritan’s Purse Canada

4. Health Partners International Canada

5. CRWRC

6. Your own denominational mission, if applicable.

Check out The new PersecutionTV!

2010-01-15T19:00:00.001-05:00

Check out the radical new update of The Voice of the Martyrs’ multimedia website. With more features and videos than ever before, this site is definitely the place to go for video and audio reports on Christian persecution around the world.

Google Takes a Stand

2010-01-15T09:18:00.001-05:00

The following editorial appeared in today’s New York Times. As an organization that devotes considerable time and effort in promoting religious freedom, we believe, Google’s actions in this are both laudatory and worth imitating.

January 14, 2010

Op-Ed Columnist

Google Takes a Stand

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

It has been dispiriting to see America’s banks apparently stand for nothing more lofty than plunder. It has been demoralizing to see President Obama hiding from the Dalai Lama rather than offend China’s rulers.

So all that makes Google’s decision to stand up to Chinese cyberoppression positively breathtaking. By announcing that it no longer plans to censor search results in China, even if that means it must withdraw from the country, Google is showing spine — a kind that few other companies or governments have shown toward Beijing.

One result was immediate: Young Chinese have been visiting Google’s headquarters in Beijing to deposit flowers and pay their respects.

China promptly tried to censor the ensuing debate about its censorship, but many Chinese Twitter users went out of their way to praise Google. One from Guangdong declared: “It’s not Google that’s withdrawing from China, it’s China that’s withdrawing from the world.”

Cynics say that Google tried to turn a business setback (it lags in the Chinese market behind a local search engine, Baidu) into a bid to burnish its brand. Whatever the motivations, it marks a refreshing contrast to Yahoo assisting the Chinese government in sending four dissidents — Shi Tao, Li Zhi, Jiang Lijun and Wang Xiaoning — to prison for terms of up to 10 years.

“In the 20 years I’ve been doing this work, I can’t think of anything comparable,” said John Kamm, the founder of the Dui Hua Foundation, which has enjoyed remarkable success in encouraging China to release dissidents. Mr. Kamm, a former business leader himself, argues that Western companies could do far more to project their values.

Google announced its decision after a sophisticated Chinese attempt to penetrate the Gmail addresses of dissidents. The episode and the resulting flap highlight two important points about China.

The first is that Beijing is increasingly devoting itself to cyberwarfare. This is a cheap way to counter American dominance in traditional military fields. If the U.S. and China ever jostle with force, Beijing may hit us not with missiles but with cyberinfiltrations that shut down the electrical grid, disrupt communications and tinker with the floodgates of dams.

Moreover, China’s leaders aren’t keeping their cyberarsenal in reserve. They seem to be using it aggressively already.

A major coordinated assault on computers of the Dalai Lama, foreign embassies and even foreign ministries was uncovered last year and traced to Chinese hackers. The operation targeted computers in more than 100 countries and was so widespread that Western intelligence experts believe it was organized by the Chinese government, although there is no definitive proof of that.

(If this column is replaced on nytimes.com with one under my byline praising the glorious courage of the Chinese Communist Party in standing up to the bourgeois imperialists of Google — well, that would make my case.)

A second point is that China is redrawing the balance between openness and economic efficiency. The architect of China’s astonishingly successful economic reforms, Deng Xiaoping, clenched his teeth and accepted photocopiers, fax machines, cellphones, computers and lawyers because they were part of modernization.

Yet in the last few years, President Hu Jintao has cracked down on Internet freedoms and independent lawyers and journalists. President Hu is intellectually brilliant but seems to have no vision for China 20 years from now. He seems to be the weakest Chinese leader since Hua Guofeng was stripped of power in 1978.

Instead, vision and leadership in China have come from its Netizens, who show none of the lame sycophancy that so many foreigners do. In their Twitter photos, many display yellow ribbons to show solidarity with Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese writer recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. That’s guts!

China’s Netizens scale the Great Firewall of China with virtual private networks and American-based proxy servers like Freegate. (The United States should support these efforts with additional server capacity as a way of promoting free information and undermining censorship by China and Iran).

Young Chinese also are infinitely creative. When the government blocks references to “June 4,” the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Netizens evade the restriction by typing in “May 35.”

When I lived China in the 1990s, an early computer virus would pop up on the screen and ask: Do you like Li Peng? (He was then the widely disliked hard-line prime minister.) If you said you didn’t like Li Peng, the virus disappeared and did no harm. If you expressed support for him, it tried to wipe out your hard drive.

Eventually, I think, a combination of technology, education and information will end the present stasis in China. In a conflict between the Communist Party and Google, the party will win in the short run. But in the long run, I’d put my money on Google.

For further comment from other media sources click here or here

Living in the shadow of the martyrs

2010-01-14T14:09:00.001-05:00

Yesterday a young Vietnamese Catholic priest was ordained as a bishop in Toronto. His ordination was significant not primarily because he is only 26 years old, making him Canada’s youngest bishop or because he is Canada’s first non-white bishop. Rather, what makes his ordination so significant, in my opinion, is the fact that Bishop Vincent Nguyen has grown up in the shadow of martyrdom.

In the 19th century, 21-year-old Joseph Can Nguyen was arrested for being a Christian. His executioners tied him to a post in the river and waited for the tide to rise. Every now and then, at their leisure, they would wade out to Joseph to see if he would recant his faith. He consistently refused until finally he drowned.

This story of courage and faith has been a legacy of the Nguyen family ever since.

It is in this sense that the blood of the martyrs has served to embolden following generations. Remembering his faith and courage, the Nguyen family has continued to follow Christ faithfully both in Vietnam and in Canada. At the age of 16, Vincent dreamed of being a priest but saw no chance of that happening in communist Vietnam. Risking his life, he and several others boarded a rickety fishing boat hoping to sail for freedom to follow his passion for Christ.

By God’s grace, he survived, culminating in yesterday’s ordination.

As Christians, we all live in the shadow of the martyrs. Hebrews 13:7 calls us to observe the lives of those leaders who have walked the path of martyrdom and to follow their example. This legacy is essential if we are to walk faithfully as they did. This is why we tell the stories of the martyrs in our monthly newsletter. A task with a God-given mandate, valuable in it’s own right, even if we were to never suggest ways of providing aid.

Oddly enough, there are more admonitions to remember the martyrs in scripture than there are admonitions for advocacy or providing practical aid. Could it be that the former is more essential to the survival of the faith than the later?

Video report: Churches set ablaze as religious strife rages in Malaysia

2010-01-13T15:51:00.004-05:00

Urgent Prayer Requested for Hostages in Yemen

2010-01-12T13:03:00.001-05:00

Middle East Concern has released the following report concerning six Christians who have been held hostage in Yemen since June 12. Please join us in praying for this situation requiring urgent prayer.

Greetings in the name of Jesus, who came that all may have life.

In recent months we have requested prayer following the kidnapping on Friday 12th June of nine foreigners in Saada, north-west Yemen, three of whom were murdered shortly afterwards. Recall that those missing are a German couple, their three children, and a British man.

We are pleased to report that a Yemeni government official has announced that the government has seen proof that the missing six are alive. Precise details have not been disclosed. However, a recent video showing the three young children has been confirmed. This has led some to speculate that the children are being held separately from the adults.

The government has given assurances that, together with German and British investigators, it is continuing to work for their release.

Christians in Yemen give praise for these signs of hope and request our continued prayers that:
a. The missing six will know the peace and presence of Jesus and will be released unharmed shortly
b. They will receive enough healthy food and keep warm during the cold nights
c. If separated, the three children will be reunited with their parents soon
d. Efforts to negotiate their release will be successful
e. The families and colleagues of those missing and murdered will know the peace of Jesus amidst the intense uncertainty
f. Efforts to end the violence in Saada province will be successful and the root causes addressed
g. All expatriate Christians in Yemen will know the Lord's guiding and protecting at this time, in particular in view of the latest AlQaeda threats
h. The perpetrators will be convicted by the Spirit and drawn to the forgiveness, love and true life offered by Jesus.

We encourage you to post prayers on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall as a means on expressing your solidarity with them and their family during this time. We will keep you up to date as to the status of the hostages as negotiations for their freedom continue.

Keeping the faith in the shadow of persecution

2010-01-12T11:40:00.007-05:00

In Egypt, converts to Christianity are facing a number of challenges for refusing to deny their faith in Jesus and embrace Islam. They can be rejected from their families and communities, harassed by authorities and even imprisoned. Some believers remain in the country, despite such difficult conditions, and some flee out of fear for their lives. The following article is the story of an Egyptian Christian man who was arrested, beaten and jailed for his conversion from Islam to Christianity:

Keeping the faith in the shadow of persecution

ANDRA JACKSON

FOR the past two years, ''Mina'' has regularly phoned his mother in Egypt. But the 36-year-old is so scared for the safety of his family here and in Egypt that he has not told her he lives in Australia, instead letting her believe he is in the United States.

It is a fiction devised out of fear that Egypt's security police will track him down or persecute his family in Egypt in retaliation for defying them and fleeing the country.

What brought Mina to their attention was his conversion at age 21 to the Coptic Orthodox Christian faith, which meant turning his back on Islam, the dominant, state-sanctioned religion.

He was arrested and beaten numerous times, then thrown in a room with Islamic radical prisoners who were encouraged to beat him, his Melbourne lawyer, Jimmy Morcos, said.

Mina is one of 70,000 Coptic Orthodox Christians who have fled persecution in Egypt and resettled in Australia since 1971, according to their bishop in Victoria, Bishop Suriel.

He is also one of 12,000 people expected to march to the Egyptian consulate in the city tomorrow to protest over the killing of six Coptic Orthodox Christians in a drive-by shooting in Egypt last month.

The killings are the latest in a catalogue of attacks on Copts in Egypt dating back more than a decade. Even now, the climate of fear is so strong that Mina refuses to publicly reveal his real name for fear of repercussions.

Australia granted him a humanitarian visa in 2003 but Egyptian authorities seized his passport and stopped him from leaving the country six times.

He said he was eventually taken to a prison.

''I saw a person with a blindfold over his eyes and he was hit and there was shouting and he was as taken to a dark place,'' he said.

Mina said he was told this would happen to him if he did not recant, and that leaving Islam was ''a big crime''.

He had to report to the security officials every week to rethink his stance.

In 2007, a way was found to get him to Australia to rejoin his wife and children who had left ahead of him.

Mr Morcos said that international pressure needed to be brought on Egypt to guarantee the human rights of Copts, who make up 18 per cent of the country's population.

Bishop Suriel said the protest would also call on the Australian Government to break its silence on the attacks on Copts in Egypt which has drawn wide condemnation round the world, including from the Pope.

Study shows that U.S. has failed to assist Christians in China due to financial interests

2010-01-10T21:37:00.001-05:00

In another example of the improving coverage of Christian persecution by the Canadian secular media, the National Post published an excellent article on Thursday on the how the United States has lost a major opportunity to help improve the plight of Christians in China by putting financial interests first, according to the author of a new report on religious freedom.

"It's terribly inconsistent. It's a real black eye in American foreign policy for us to turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses going on in China while we pursue economic advantage," Carl Moeller, head of Open Doors USA, said yesterday.

"It's like selling our birthright. Our nation was founded by people fleeing Europe to seek the very religious freedom being denied people in these countries.

"In the case of China, the chance to use influence is now gone. The American economy has become enslaved to the Chinese banks. It would be economic suicide to make threats now."

His remarks came as the California non-denominational Christian group issued its World Watch List, which ranks 50 countries in terms of their abuse of Christians.

North Korea, an official atheist state that worships its supreme leader, was the most fanatically anti-Christian, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. China was No. 13.

"They [North Korea] have arrested and tortured Christians in various horrible ways, such as sometimes using them as a means of testing biological or chemical weapons," the report said.

Mr. Moeller said getting reliable information from North Korea is difficult, but over the years his group has made contact with enough people "on the ground" to believe these extreme reports are accurate.

He said many of the countries, especially those at the top of the list, are so politically isolated from the West the best that can be hoped is the report will give moral support to those facing bigotry and violence.

Other top offenders were: Somalia The report says Somali Christians "practise their faith in secret under extremely dangerous conditions. At least 10 Christians, including four teachers, were killed for their faith in 2008 and several others kidnapped and raped. Islam is the official religion; there is no legal provision for religious freedom." Yemen "Converts from Islam encounter opposition from the authorities and extremist groups who threaten 'apostates' with death if they do not turn back to Islam."

Mr. Moeller was particularly scathing about Saudi Arabia, which has strong military ties with the United States.

"Saudi Arabia is our ally and they are horrific when it comes to religious liberty," he said.

"[In general], Western governments are not doing enough to combat anti-religious activity."

Religious oppression is a global issue and not just restricted to Christians, Mr. Moeller acknowledged. But pointing out discrimination against Christians is an efficient way to point to the greater issue of religious liberty.

"Evangelicals are becoming a litmus test for human rights abuses in these countries. How Christians are treated in Iran is a good litmus test about how [Iranians] do on human rights overall."

In December, the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which has no religious affiliation, produced a massive report called Global Restrictions on Religion. This looked at government restrictions and social hostility against religious groups.

The two-year study found 64 countries -- about one-third of all nations -- had "high or very high restrictions on religion."

"But because some of the most restrictive countries are very populous, nearly 70% of the world's 6.8 billion people live in countries with high restrictions on religion, the brunt of which falls on religious minorities."

Brian Grim, a senior researcher at Pew, said in those 64 countries minorities are constantly exposed to violence or imprisonment. Even those not persecuted directly find their civil liberties restricted.

clewis@nationalpost.com---------

WORLD'S TOP 10 ANTI-CHRISTIAN REGIMES

1. North Korea
2. Iran
3. Saudi Arabia
4. Somalia
5. Maldives
6. Afghanistan
7. Yemen
8. Mauritania
9. Laos
10. Uzbekistan

The National Post is perhaps the best example of secular press organizations here in Canada in covering religious liberty and Christian persecution but they are hardly alone. Others have also shown marked improvement in recent years, in my opinion. Could there be further improvement? Undoubtedly; but almost any special interest group would probably say the same. Let’s be grateful for the coverage being given and let editors know that we appreciate their coverage.

Also, continue to pray for the U.S. administration as they fail to assist Christians in China due to their financial priorities. Pray for the Canadian government as it has faced similar pressures but, to this point, has resisted stepping off of the human rights wagon in the pursuit of international trade with China.

Kidnap victims reported still alive in Yemen

2010-01-09T19:49:00.001-05:00

AFP reported on Thursday that the five Germans, including three children, and a British national who have been held by kidnappers in Yemen for the past six months are still alive, a top official said on Thursday. According to the report:

"We have confirmed information that they are still alive. They are five Germans and a British national," said Rashad al-Aleemi, the deputy prime minister for defence and security affairs.

"The three possible places they could be in are [the provinces of] Maarib, Al-Jouf and Saada. Available information confirm that there is coordination between the [northern Shi'ite rebels] Huthis and the Al Qaeda in this matter.

"It is believed that the three children, who were shown in a recent video, are alive in Maarib, while the elders are being used by the Huthis [to provide] medical treatment."

The three children had resurfaced in a new video two weeks ago but the tape featured no sign of their parents. All were kidnapped in June.

German officials who requested anonymity had confirmed a report in the daily Bild saying the images, apparently recorded recently by the abductors, indicated at least that the three children aged one, three and five were still alive.

The German government now has a copy of the video, Bild said in December.

"The children seemed exhausted," a high-ranking German official was quoted by the newspaper as saying, as the German government declined to comment.

The family of five and the Briton were abducted in northern Yemen along with two German Bible students and a South Korean who were shot dead soon after.

The Yemeni government had repeatedly accused the Huthi rebels of being behind the kidnapping, a charge they denied, charging that the government was behind their disappearance to use it as an excuse to attack them.

Since August, the army has been engaged in an all-out offensive against the Zaidi Shi'ite rebels in the Saada northern province and its surrounding, in a bid to end their five year rebellion.

[click here for a collaborating AP report and here for a Channel 4 report]

Pray that these reports are true. Pray for the hostages during this time. Show your solidarity with them by posting a prayer request on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall for them and their family.

Don’t ban the burka

2010-01-09T17:58:00.001-05:00

We would love to get your opinion on this editorial from today’s National Post on this highly controversial subject. Please leave your comment below, remembering that they need to be moderated before they will be posted

French legislators are considering a measure that would impose a fine of more than $1,000 on women who wear a burka, a garment that covers Muslim women from head to foot, with a thin, gauzy slit for the eyes.

The government maintains the ban would be a statement in support of “French values,” which, as appears to be endlessly the case in France, are the subject of much public debate. Burkas have been denounced as “a walking coffin” and “a prison for women.” President Nicolas Sarkozy last year declared the burka a “sign of subservience and debasement.”

We share this abhorrence for such clothing: The burka signifies the notion that a woman is a piece of male property, which must be packaged and caged. Contrary to received wisdom, the use of burkas has no “traditional” basis in Islam. It is a vestige of primitive tribal practices from certain parts of the Middle East and Asia, where honour killings are common, and female sexuality is a subject of phobic paranoia.

Still, banning burkas is not the right way to battle the sexist ideas that burkas symbolize. In our society, women have a right to wear what they want, assuming they choose to do so of their own free will.

If women are being forced to wear the burka, that is unacceptable, of course. But even in such cases, the crime lies in the coercion, not the clothing. If radical Muslims forced their wives to memorize the Koran on pain of beating, we wouldn’t ban the Koran — we’d throw the husbands in jail. The same principle should hold with burkas.

Western liberalism means, among other things, the right to dress, eat, pray, and speak as we please. And so the government’s role in the burka debate should be to educate all immigrant cultures, including those that are Muslim, that women have every right to behave as they wish, whether or not it pleases their fathers, brothers or imams.

If a woman understands this fact, and still chooses to go around in a burka, well, so be it. Being free means having the right to make bad decisions.

Yemen: Christians vulnerable in a failing state

2010-01-08T10:35:00.003-05:00

Yemen has been a unified state only since 1990. Before that, North Yemen (on the Red Sea) was 60 percent Shi'ite and ruled by a conservative Shi'ite Imamate, while South Yemen (on the Gulf of Aden) was 99 percent Sunni and Communist. In 1962, Ali Abdallah Saleh, a northern socialist and nominal Sunni, seized power in North Yemen in a military coup. He was elected president of North Yemen in 1978 and retains power as president of the unitary Republic of Yemen, which today is on the verge of collapse. The Shi'ites, a 30 percent minority in the unitary state, are marginalised by the Sunnis, while the oil- rich south is marginalised by the ruling north. The Shi'ites want to restore the Imamate, while the south wants to secede. Since at least 2005, President Saleh has been using al Qaeda jihadists (fundamentalist Sunnis) in his fight against the al Houthi rebels (Shi'ites) in the north and more secular (formerly Soviet-backed Communist) secessionists in the south. The conflict also has regional dimensions: Saudi Arabia is fighting advancing Iran-backed al Houthi Shi'ite rebels, while Somalis have joined the Sunnis and Lebanese Hezballah have joined the Shi'ites.

Underneath this crumbling structure are vulnerable Jewish and Christian minorities amidst a population of 24 million. In 1949-50 Israel rescued 45,000 of Yemen's Jews from genocide through Operation Magic Carpet. A further 32,000 Jews have left Yemen since then and now less than 400 remain. As sectarian conflict escalated in the north in January 2007, the Shi'ite rebels forced the 45 remaining Jews in al Haid, Sa'ada, from their homes under threat of death. Most Christians in Yemen (est. 9000 in Operation World 2000) are expatriate workers or Ethiopian refugees. They are a source of light and hope for Yemen, one of the world's poorest and least evangelised nations. Participate! Intercede for the Church in Yemen.

Please pray specifically that, by His word and Holy Spirit, God:

-- will draw all Christians in Yemen into prayer and supply all their needs, increasing their faith and courage; may their lives witness to the faithfulness and supremacy of Jesus Christ.

-- will awaken many Muslims in Yemen (local Arabs and foreign jihadists) to the truth that it is Jesus Christ who is the light of God.

For the 'true light, which enlightens' has come into the world. And to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gives the right to become children of God (See John 1:9-13).

This Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin was written for the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (AEA RLC) by Elizabeth Kendal, an international religious liberty analyst and advocate, and a member of the AEA RLC team. All previous bulletins may be viewed here.

Video report: World Watch List 2010

2010-01-06T12:07:00.008-05:00

As we begin 2010, I encourage you to watch the following video from Open Doors, another ministry that serves the Persecuted Church worldwide. This video and the accompanying report will assist you in understanding the areas of the world where Christians face the most severe persecution because of their Christian faith.

Words from our founder - Two kinds of love

2010-01-05T15:16:00.008-05:00

There are two kinds of love: "love because of" the good and beautiful in a person, and "love in spite" of all that this person does to puzzle and hurt us. Obviously, "love in spite of" is superior. It is the most exquisite jewel to be found in the universe. God loves us in spite of our sins. Jesus loved His torturers in spite of what they did to Him.

We can love God not only because of the splendid things that enchant us in the universe, but also in spite of the sufferings we encounter. Without pain in this world, the highest form of love could not exist. This love is worth its price.

Excerpted from pages 130-131 of Pastor Wurmbrand's Proofs of God's Existence. In this book, we are reminded that the questions of God's existence and absolute truth are not new. But, as our founder writes, they are critical to both the atheist as well as the Christian. Will the atheist embrace or reject God, and will the Christian live a life that reflects our Creator? You can order a copy of this unique book for only $7.00 from our online catalogue.

Tips for getting your thoughts published

2010-01-04T16:23:00.003-05:00

As the National Post notes today, “Close to 100 letters to the editor arrive at the Post each day. All are read, but only 10 to 15 make it into print each issue. That's partly due to space limitations, but also because many are basically unusable.”

One of the best ways to raise a voice for the persecuted is through well-written letters to newspaper editors. And a 1 in 10 printed average is pretty good odds that your letter will be taken seriously if you do a good job. To help get your letter into print, Paul Russell, the National Post letters editor, suggests the following tips:

A reader recently commented that he has "been impressed for a long time with the quality of the letters that appear on the Post's pages. That must mean that your job of selecting puts you in the same position as a kid with a free pass in a candy store."
Nice analogy, but not quite accurate. Numerous letters can be savoured and enjoyed in their raw form, but most require some degree of editing before publication. So here are 15 pointers on how to make your letter irresistible in that candy store we call the letters file.
Shorter is always better In this era of decreased attention spans -- encouraged by 140-character Tweets and abbreviated text messaging conversations -- newspapers have to compete. That is why we insist that letters be short and to the point. While it may seem difficult to express your ground-breaking thoughts in 200 words or less, this limit is for your benefit. The more succinctly the point is made, the better the chance the letter will be read and remembered.
Letters aren't mini-columns Instead of trying to frame a complex argument, the best letters make a single point, convincingly yet briefly. If you can throw in a pithy observation or humorous twist along the way, all the better.
Be topical Readers want letters about the issues and stories that are currently in the news. You don't have to limit your subject choice to Tiger Woods's bizarre love life or what's happening in Israel (a topic that never goes out of date), but at the same time, don't bother sending us your thoughts on Michael Jackson, Balloon Boy or the Copenhagen summit. Those topics are soooo yesterday.
Appeal to readers' emotions Some of our best letters come from people talking about their own experiences. Last year, for example, we carried an amazing letter from a man coping with Autistic Disorder. As he noted, "Often it seems like I'm looking in on a bad movie scene -- with me as the anti-hero."
Draw from your own experience and thoughts Don't pen a letter that relies on quotes from outside authorities to make its point. We want to hear what you think, not what you read elsewhere.
Financial Post vs. National Post If you want to blast Terence Corcoran for his views on global warming or if you disagree with any other Financial Post article, send your thoughts to fpletters@nationalpost.com.The FP Comment page runs letters related to all content in its section, and FP editors welcome all feedback. - Print vs. online We only run letters to the editor about articles that appear in our print edition. Responses to articles on one of the Post's almost two dozen blogs can be posted by the public online (where you get to assume a cool nickname, like SassieLassie or GrungyOldVan).
Articles vs. advertising Interest groups often buy advertising space in the Post to advocate positions that some readers will find controversial. If you want to respond to these paid advertisements, either buy your own ad or send your letter to the group in question.
Your letter will be edited All letters are fine-tuned -- and probably shortened -- by Post staff, in the interest of clarity and space. Don't take it personally, but instead consider it a learning experience for the next missive you send in.
Eschew obfuscation Write your letter as clearly and simply as possible. While columnists such as Conrad Black are given the leeway to use terms such as "callipygian" (it's worth looking up) to describe Michelle Obama, letter writers are advised to avoid using words that require readers to reach for their dictionaries.
Avoid cliches like the plague "Thinking outside the box" is now an "inside the box" expression. Don't write that someone has "hit the nail on the head" unless you're talking about carpentry, and for the love of God, avoid gratuitous religious references (as I just failed to do). They offend some readers.
We need exclusivity Don't send your letter to numerous media outlets thinking that will increase its chance of publication. Letters editors across the land, seeing the note is not unique to their paper, will just delete it.
Play nice Don't attack the personal views of a reporter, fellow letter writer or columnist (even people as incendiary as John Moore or Don Martin). Instead offer a thoughtful countervailing opinion and try to advance the debate, which will encourage other readers to join in.
Know the two-week rule In an effort to allow as many readers as possible to have their say on our pages, we aim to space out contributions by letter writers by at least two weeks.
Tell us who you are Give us your name, phone number and address. This information is needed not only for verification, but also so we can contact you about editing changes. And we will not publish letters with your name withheld, except in extraordinary circumstances that have to be arranged beforehand with our staff.

I hope that these tips will help you to write more effective letters to editors on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world. For even more information, click here.

Year after year, He is faithful

2009-12-31T13:06:00.004-05:00

As 2009 draws to a close, we can be grateful to God for the many ways He has provided for His persecuted children around the world. In the past year, we have witnessed prisoners released, families reunited, false charges dropped, faith strengthened, and the truth of Christ received by many. We have much to be thankful for.

But even for those whose situations seemingly haven't improved -- those who spent Christmas in prison, those who are being physically or verbally abused, those who know that 2010 will bring many difficult days -- we can still be thankful to God for providing for and sustaining them in the midst of their suffering.

At the end of the year, while we pause and look back on what has happened and anticipate what is to come, we can see God's hand in the lives of persecuted Christians. Their testimonies make us grateful to serve a God who is so intimately concerned with all our needs. By recognizing what He has done in the past, we can look ahead confidently to 2010, knowing that He will continue to guide and support all His children. Year after year, He is faithful.

It is imperative to know God's constant faithfulness as we enter a New Year. Many will undoubtedly suffer in the year to come, and without understanding that this world belongs to God -- at all times, in all situations -- it is easy to lose our footing and grow weary over the amount of suffering our Christian family faces around the globe.

We are so grateful for the ways Christians in Canada and around the world have supported the persecuted Church this year. We ask that you please continue to stand with them in 2010. We know that God is faithful year after year. May we too be faithful to the Lord and to each other in the year to come.

Blessings to you!

Christian woman murdered in Somalia

2009-12-30T16:04:00.003-05:00

For more videos and media reports, check out our multimedia site at www.persecution.tv.

The Voice of the Martyrs Canada appoints new C.E.O.

2009-12-29T15:24:00.006-05:00

The following is the official press release announcing the appointment of Corey Odden as VOMC's C.E.O. beginning January 2010. Please pray for Corey and his family as well as the staff at VOMC during this time of transition.

Contacts: Glenn Penner/Floyd Brobbel, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, 905‐670‐9721

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario. -- December. 29, 2009 / ‐‐ The Board of Directors of The Voice of The Martyrs Canada, a non‐profit charitable organization dedicated to raising awareness and support for persecuted Christians around the world, is pleased to announce the appointment of Corey Odden to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

Corey Odden joins VOM‐Canada after having served most recently as Vice‐President of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Prior to that, Mr. Odden served for 10 years as the Chief Financial Officer with The Voice of the Martyrs in the United States and had the opportunity to travel to many countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia in service to the persecuted church.

Mr. Odden will officially assume the role of C.E.O. from Rev. Glenn Penner on January 4, 2010. Rev. Penner, who has been battling Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia since 2002, will assume a more specialized role that will enable him to continue to serve the Persecuted Church more in line with his health limitations. Rev. Penner has been with the mission since 1997, during which time he authored an extensive study on the theology of persecution and discipleship and ministered across the world to suffering believers.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Rev. Peter Jardine, is confident of the Lord's provision during this time of transition. "Glenn Penner took the mission to a level of excellence which leaves me both thankful to be part of it and humbled by the extent of it. I am profoundly thankful that Glenn will continue to be involved, spending time on his great work on the theology of persecution and remaining as an invaluable resource to the leadership."

Rev. Jardine is also excited about the addition of Mr. Odden to the mission. "I cannot thank God enough for bringing to us Corey Odden, who is, in my humble opinion, uniquely qualified to step into the C.E.O.'s office. We remain in God's hands, secure in the knowledge that He is guiding us, sustaining us and loving us through this difficult but rewarding work."

In anticipation of joining the team and VOM‐Canada, Mr. Odden stated, “I am deeply grateful for the testimony of my friends, the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, and their son, Mihai, who stirred the hearts of Klaas and Nellie Brobbel to establish VOM’s mission in Canada nearly 40 years ago. In addition, Glenn Penner has assembled a highly qualified and dedicated team. It is an honour to serve alongside the staff and volunteers as we raise the voice of such Christians who would otherwise be forgotten.”

About The Voice of the Martyrs Canada

The Voice of the Martyrs Inc., a registered non‐profit charitable organization founded in Canada in 1971 by Klaas and Nellie Brobbel, has been ministering to persecuted Christians worldwide for nearly 40 years in more than 50 countries. The Voice of the Martyrs, which has multiple missions around the world, was founded by Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor who was imprisoned and tortured for 14 years for professing his faith in Christ.

For more information on The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, please visit www.persecution.net or contact thevoice@persecution.net.

Christmas in North Korea

2009-12-29T09:34:00.015-05:00

Over Christmas a news story broke regarding a 28-year-old American who "illegally entered" North Korea on Christmas Eve. The man is believed to be a Christian missionary who slipped across the frozen Tumen River in China bearing a letter urging leader Kim Jong Il to resign, repent, and free all political prisoners in the country. Quite a story, and one we'll continue to keep an eye on and pray for.

While looking for details and information on this story, I discovered a TIME Magazine article which looks at what Christmas is like in North Korea. Certainly a challenging reality to think about following a time of church services, carol concerts, school programs and other such Christmas events, which are so encouraged in many areas of the world. I found it to be a helpful look into the government's view of Christianity in North Korea:

How Christmas Is (Not) Celebrated in North Korea

By Geoffrey Cain / Seoul

When North Korean authorities caught Jeong Young Sil helping Christians escape to China seven years ago, they did not take her transgression lightly. First, they pulled out her teeth and fingernails to get information about her underground church in the country's northeast. Then, they threw her in prison for four years. "They demanded to know who was helping me and where they were," says Jeong, an evangelist in her 50s now living in South Korea, who uses an alias to protect her family back home. Despite their efforts, the Northern officials could not stop her. After she fled two years ago, she secretly began sending Christmas gifts to her old church. "Christmas," Jeong says, "would otherwise be meaningless."

For most North Koreans, Christmas has long been a nonevent, in part because the government keeps a tight rein on information about religious holidays from entering the country, and in part because Christians can be arrested for celebrating it. Though the country's constitution does grant freedom of religion to all citizens, North Korean authorities don't seem to pay the idea much heed. The government also monitors other religions — such as Buddhism and Cheondoism, a popular Korean belief system that combines elements of several faiths — but underground churches are particularly feared by authorities because they're estimated to have helped some 20,000 North Koreans defect to China. As a result, the regime routinely imprisons and executes Christian religious leaders who teach their faith without state approval, according to a U.S. State department report. Official figures put the number of practicing Christians at 13,000 in 2001, but South Korean church groups estimate about 100,000 Christians practice in secret churches across the nation now. "We always met for prayer at peoples' homes, in groups of two to keep it private," Jeong says. "When we met in bigger groups, we went far away to the mountains where no one could find us." (See rare pictures from inside North Korea)

Of course, in an impoverished nation where aid organizations provide food aid to some six million people, the Western notion of a gift-giving holiday does not translate very well, particularly after Kim Jong Il's regime effectively stripped most of the nation of any personal savings three weeks ago. Each year underground worshippers in North Korea receive an array of presents from the outside world, including foreign-made clothes and candy, smuggled in by defectors like Jeong.

Meanwhile, the communist regime has placed a slew of nationalistic holidays around Christmas, though their timing is probably a coincidence. On December 24, many North Koreans observe the birthday of Kim Jong Suk — the deceased mother of dictator Kim Jong Il and a revolutionary hero — by making pilgrimages to her birthplace of Hoeryong, a town in the northeast. Three days later, they are given a day off work for Constitution Day. Even New Years' Day is more about revolutionary zeal than ushering in 2010, when thousands of North Koreans will walk in a yearly procession to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace at the northeast outskirts of the capital to pay homage to the preserved body of Kim Il Sung, the father of North Korea. (See pictures of Kim Jong Il.)

Life in the North wasn't always so rank-and-file. In the early 1900s, Pyongyang was widely known as the "Jerusalem of the East" for its vibrant milieu of Christians. American Protestant missionaries arrived as early as the 1880s (Catholics arrived centuries earlier but the religion didn't catch on as widely), building religious schools and universities across the capital. Later, as Christianity gained popularity, worshippers held group prayers in public every Christmas. But after the Japanese government took control of Korea in 1910, the new administration began suppressing religious gatherings, and by the 1950s, — after the Korean War left the peninsula split into a communist north and capitalist south, — the northern government began to carry out executions of thousands of Christians for the years to come.

The government took a more nuanced — if short-lived — approach to religion in the following decades. In 1988, South Korea expanded economic ties with its neighbor, bringing in more foreigners on business and exchange trips; the following year Pyongyang hosted the World Festival of Youth and Students, a massive socialist festival that attracted 22,000 people from 177 countries. With an influx of foreigners, the government saw a need to build four state-run churches in Pyongyang in the following years, though critics maintain they're facades to show the world that it supports freedom of religion. "[Foreign missionaries] are allowed to come for relief or other purposes, only if they promise not to spread the word," argues Kim. (See pictures of the key moments in North Korea's history.)

Still, some scholars contend the regime practices a kind of pragmatic tolerance of Christianity, suggesting North Korea's intelligence agency chooses to ignore underground churches because of their political usefulness. "How can they not know the whereabouts of 100,000 Christians?" says Philo Kim, a professor of sociology at Seoul National University in South Korea, who has visited North Korea several times to study Christianity there. "The government takes advantage of them by dispatching spies into the churches. They can gather information about the churches in China and how they help defectors escape."

That may be, but it's a limit that most are not willing to test. North Koreans still face execution if they're caught evangelizing, prompting most Christians to put aside Christmas for more patriotic holidays. Because useful or not, says Kim, "Among all religions, Christianity is seen as the most threatening to the regime."

The more that is needed

2009-12-24T12:16:00.030-05:00

Last week I had the wonderful experience of seeing George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" in concert for the very first time. It was as moving as many had promised it would be. The moments of exuberant joy were of course among the most familiar in the production. Yet I was also deeply moved by the moments of solemnity, which are choruses of other kind: cries for relief from the anguish of a world bent by sin and death.

In many ways, my emotional response to the production echoed that of well-known Christian author Philip Yancey who, in his Christianity Today essay, describes how "the bright and glistening theology" of the Messiah broke through to him in a new way one memorable winter night. The essay is truly a treat to read, and I highly encourage you to do so, especially if you have listened to or attended a performance of Handel's masterpiece recently.

For me, the highlight of Yancey's piece is his reflection on why Handel's Messiah could not rightly end with the ever-lively and stirring "Hallelujah!" chorus. He begins by explaining that many still speculate that when King George I attended the premiere of the production, he rose to his feet at the singing of the "Hallelujah!" chorus out of the mistaken assumption it had reached its conclusion. Apparently his mistake also continues to be repeated by novice audience members today. "Who can blame them? " says Yancey. "After two hours of performance, the music seems to culminate in the rousing chorus. What more is needed?"

By way of an answer, Yancey breaks down the Messiah's finale and eloquently illustrates the 'more' that is needed--not just in Handel's classic oratorio, but in Lord's masterpiece of achieving salvation for His children through the sacrifice of His son. He writes:

The Messiah has come in "glory" (Part 1); the Messiah has died and been resurrected (Part 2). Why, then, does the world remain in such a sorry state? Part 3 attempts an answer. Beyond the images from Bethlehem and Calvary, one more messianic image is needed: the Messiah as Sovereign Lord. The Incarnation did not usher in the end of history--only the beginning of the end. Much work remains before creation is restored to God's original intent.

In a brilliant stroke, Part 3 of Messiah opens with a quotation from Job, that tragic figure who clung stubbornly to faith amid circumstances that called for bleak despair. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," the soprano sings out. Overwhelmed by tragedy, with scant evidence of a sovereign God, Job still managed to believe; and, Handel implies, so should we.

From that defiant opening, Part 3 shifts to the apostle Paul's theological explanation of Christ's death ("Since by man came death ... ") and then moves quickly to his lofty words about a final resurrection ("The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised").

Just as the tragedy of Good Friday was transformed into the triumph of Easter Sunday, one day all war, all violence, all injustice, all sadness will likewise be transformed. Then and only then we will be able to say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" The soprano carries that thought forward to its logical conclusion, quoting from Romans 8: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" If we believe, truly believe, that the last enemy has been destroyed, then we indeed have nothing to fear. At long last, death is swallowed up in victory.

Handel's masterwork ends with a single scene frozen in time. To make his point about the Christ of eternity, librettist Jennens could have settled on the scene from Revelation 2, where Jesus appears with a face like the shining sun and eyes like blazing fire. Instead, his text concludes with the scene from Revelation 4-5, perhaps the most vivid image in a book of vivid imagery.

Twenty-four impressive rulers are gathered together, along with four living creatures who represent strength and wisdom and majesty--the best in all creation. These creatures and rulers kneel respectfully before a throne luminous with lightning and encircled by a rainbow. An angel asks who is worthy to break a seal that will open up the scroll of history. Neither the creatures nor the 24 rulers are worthy. The author realizes well the significance of that moment, "I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside."

Besides these creatures, impotent for the grand task, one more creature stands before the throne. Though appearance offers little to recommend him, he is nevertheless history's sole remaining hope. "Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain." A lamb! A helpless, baa-baa lamb, and a slaughtered one at that! Yet John in Revelation, and Handel in Messiah, sum up all history in this one mysterious image. The great God who became a baby, who became a lamb, who became a sacrifice--this God, who bore our stripes and died our death, this one alone is worthy. That is where Handel leaves us, with the chorus "Worthy Is the Lamb," followed by exultant amens.

I recently heard an anecdote about Handel during his creation of the Messiah. One day, while Handel was working in his room while his assistant was trying to shout for his attention. He called and called for Handel for several minutes but received no response. Finally, the assistant walked over to Handel's room, where he found the composer in tears. "What's wrong?" he asked. Handel then held up the score to the "Hallelujah" movement and said, "I thought I saw the face of God."

A powerful story indeed. And yet, it's worth noting that, even after Handel apparently felt as if he had glimpsed God's splendorous face, he continued on to write the third and final chapter to his musical creation. He knew the face of God could not be fully revealed even in the most beautiful of earthly choruses. His classical masterpiece acknowledges that while our world rightly rejoices in the God who is with us (and who suffers with us), it also aches for the 'more' of our Saviour's return.

This is the eternal 'more' that all of us, including our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters, look towards--not only now, in this time of Christmas celebration, but always. Together we lean into Christ's light in joyful anticipation of the day when our afflictions will cease and we will be rewarded with the finale that Christ has deemed worthy for His faithful.

Until then, our cries of joy and of sorrow all culminate in the same heartrending chorus: Hallelujah! Come, Lord Jesus!

Words from our founder - Overcoming solitude

2009-12-22T16:14:00.002-05:00

One of the greatest problems for an underground fighter is to know how to fill up his solitude. We had absolutely no books. Not only no Bible, but no books, no scrap of paper, and no pencil. We never heard a noise, and there was absolutely nothing to distract our attention. We looked at the walls, that was all. Now normally a mind under such circumstances becomes mad. …I can tell you from my own experience how I avoided becoming mad, but this again has to be prepared by a life of spiritual exercise beforehand. …

I, and many other prisoners, did it like this. We never slept during the night. We slept during the day. The whole night we were awake. …The demonic forces are forces of the night, and therefore, it is so important to oppose them during the night. Vigils are very important. In the free world, vigils are largely unknown. In my country, even before the Communist takeover, we had vigils. …

In solitary confinement we awoke when the other prisoners went to bed. We filled our time with a program that was so heavy we could not fulfill it. We started with a prayer, a prayer in which we traveled through the whole world. We prayed for each country, for where we knew the names of towns and men, and we prayed for great preachers. It took a good hour or two to come back. We prayed for pilots, and for those on the sea, and for those who were in prisons.

The Bible tells us about one of the great joys we can have, even in a prison cell: “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15). I rejoiced that there were families somewhere who gathered with their children, read the Bible together, told jokes, and were so happy with each other.

Somewhere there was a boy who loved a young girl and dated her; I could be happy about them. There they had a prayer meeting; and there was someone who studied; and there is somebody who enjoyed good food, etc. We could rejoice with those who rejoiced.

After having traveled through the whole world, I read the Bible from memory. To memorize the Bible is very important for an underground worker.

Excerpted and edited from Pastor Wurmbrand’s The Triumphant Church, pp. 22-23. You can order this special resource on our online catalog.

Christians in Vietnam hold historic Christmas celebrations

2009-12-22T08:27:00.018-05:00

What a delight it has been to read of the Christmas celebrations that have been held by Christians in Vietnam in recent weeks. Last week, Compass Direct reported that some 40,000 people gathered in Ho Chi Minh City to worship God, celebrate Christmas, and hear a gospel message. Many believers were reportedly overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude, spontaneously hugging each other and crying out statements such as, “Lord, bring revival to all of Vietnam!” and “Nothing could stop the hand of the Lord.” Then on December 20, an estimated 12,000 people attended a Christmas rally in Hanoi. Local sources said long-requested written permission for the event was never given, in spite of several reminders to authorities. However, four days before the event was to take place, Hanoi authorities and police told organizers that they would not interfere with the proceedings. "The sound of crying, of praise, of prayer were blended as one, beseeching Almighty God for spiritual revival in Vietnam,” said a believer who attended the special Christmas gathering.

Praise God for the resilient faith of His children in Vietnam. Pray that the Lord will continue to make His presence and grace known to them as they celebrate their Saviour, whether it be in large Christmas services such as these, small gatherings with friends and family, or from a prison cell.

You can read the full report on the Christmas celebration in Hanoi below:

Christians in Vietnam Hold Another Historic Celebration

Largest-ever event in northern part of country encourages house churches.

HANOI, December 21 (CDN) — For the second time in 10 days, Protestant history was made in Vietnam yesterday when 12,000 people gathered for a Christmas rally here.

The event, which took place in the large square in front of the entrance to My Dinh National Stadium in the heart of Hanoi, was said to be 10 times larger than any prior Protestant gathering in history in northern Vietnam. On Dec. 11 in southern Vietnam, an estimated 40,000 people attended a Christmas celebration in Ho Chi Minh City (see “Unprecedented Christmas Gathering Held in Vietnam”).

Local sources said long-requested written permission for the event, entitled “Praise Jesus Together,” never came in spite of several reminders. But four days before the event was to take place, Hanoi authorities and police told organizers – in words as close as they would get to granting permission – that they would “not interfere.”

“One can hardly overestimate the importance of such an event in the lives of northern house church Christians,” said one long-time Compass source. “For many, this will have been the first time to join in a large crowd with other Christians, to feel the growing power of their movement, to hear, see and participate in the high quality, and deeply spiritual mass worship.”

The day before the event, Christians gathered near the stadium for final prayer and to help with preparations. Witnesses said the huge public square at the entrance to the stadium was arrayed with thousands of stools rather than chairs – plastic, backless, and bright blue and red. In 10-foot tall letters, “JESUS’ was emblazoned on the backdrop to the stage.

Invitations had been sent through house church networks even as official permission for the event was still pending. When church leaders decided to move ahead only days before, Christians were asked to send out mass invitations by text-message, leading some to speculate whether this may have been the largest ever such messaging for a Christian event.

Nearby Christians as well as those bussed from more distant areas began to fill the venue hours before the event. They were not dissuaded by a Hanoi cool spell of 12 Celsius (56 Fahrenheit) with a chill wind. Bundled in thick jackets, their heads wrapped in scarves, they waited expectantly without complaint.

They were not disappointed. Witnesses said the throng deeply appreciated a program of outstanding music and dance, a powerful personal narrative followed by a gospel message and an extended time for prayer for the nation. As at the previous event in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 11 that house church Christians had long worked and prayed for, the program featured music from Jackson Family Ministries of the United States.

In a world of globalized gospel and praise choruses, songs included hymns such as “How Great Thou Art” as well as classic praise songs such as “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.” Witnesses said the music was accompanied by tasteful, emotionally engaging dance. Top Vietnamese artists performed, including news songs by Vietnamese songwriters, and a Vietnamese choir of 80 sang, as did a Korean choir.

A young man in his 30s who now pastors two house churches told the crowd how an encounter with Jesus proved more powerful than the grip of drug addiction. His story, simply and humbly told, proved an effective bridge to a Christmas evangelistic message by Pastor Pham Tuan Nhuong of the Word of Life house church. Then the winsome Pastor Pham Dinh Nhan, a top southern house church leader, gave a disarming but strong invitation to follow Jesus, witnesses said.

Organizers said approximately 2,000 people then poured forward in response, packing the large area in front of the stage.

The final portion of the program included a time of intense prayer for the nation, with pastors confessing and praying for righteousness for Vietnam’s leaders, as well as for God’s protection and blessing on their land. In their prayers they claimed Vietnam for Christ, witnesses said.

A high point for the throng was the superimposing of a large white cross on a yellow map of Vietnam on the backdrop. As the Korean choir sang a spirited revival hymn, the crowd raised thousands of hands and exploded in sound.

“The sound of crying, of praise, of prayer were blended as one, beseeching Almighty God for spiritual revival in Vietnam,” said one participant.

The event was streamed live at www.hoithanh.com for Vietnamese and others around the world to see.

Until recently – and still in some places – most Vietnamese meet in small groups in homes knowing at any time there could be a hostile knock on the door, a source said.

“None of these groups is registered or recognized by the government,” the source said of the crowd at yesterday’s event. “What you see is Christians standing up!”

In addition to this event and the Dec. 11 event in Ho Chi Minh City, a large public Christmas rally was held by the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) at the Hoang Nhi church in Nam Dinh Province on Saturday (Dec. 19). Some 2,500 people gathered in the church’s large courtyard, with sources saying 200 responded to an invitation to follow Christ.

In Tuy Hoa, on the coast of central Vietnam, a Christmas program is planned for Saturday (Dec. 26) in a 4,000- seat theater. Many smaller events are also planned in other areas, part of an unprecedented public display by Vietnam’s Protestants.

At the same time, the freedom for Christians tolerated in large cities has not reached some more remote parts of the country, where ethnic minority Christians live. In Dien Bien Dong district of Dien Bien Province, authorities on Tuesday (Dec. 15) orchestrated immense ethnic social pressure on a new Christian couple to recant. The couple told Compass that police added their own pressure.

“The police said they would beat me to death, and take away all my possessions, leaving my wife a widow, and my children orphans with no place to live,” the husband told Compass. “I folded. I signed promising that I would no longer follow God. I really want to, but it is very, very hard to be a believer where we live, as the officials will not allow us.”

Christmas greetings from The Voice of the Martyrs

2009-12-21T14:48:00.003-05:00

Father and daughter released from prison in Pakistan

2009-12-18T10:05:00.010-05:00

We are pleased to report that Gulsher Masih and his daughter, Sandul, who were falsely accused of desecrating the Quran, have been released from prison.

Christians Accused of Desecrating Quran Freed in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan, December 16 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian in Faisalabad district and his 20-year-old daughter were released on Monday (Dec. 14) after 14 grueling months in jail on false charges of blaspheming the Quran.

Khalil Tahir, attorney for Gulsher Masih and his daughter Ashyana Gulsher (known as Sandal), said the case was typical of the way Pakistan’s blasphemy laws can be used to harass innocent Christians.

“Christians are the soft targets, and most of the people implicated in these inhumane laws are Christians,” Tahir said. “We Christians are fighting for the same, noble goal – to provide justice to the victims of blasphemy laws.”

Masih said that inmates beat him at least five times since he was arrested on Oct. 23, 2008. His daughter was arrested two weeks earlier, on Oct. 10.

“These long 14 months seemed like ages,” Masih told Compass. “There was one inmate, Ghulam Fareed, a rich man, who always harassed me, trying to coerce me to convert to Islam by saying he would make me rich and would send me abroad.”

Fareed, who also promised high quality education for Masih’s children, joined with Islamic extremists jailed for terrorist acts to beat him in an effort to force him to “come into the fold of Islam,” Masih said. While in jail, he said, his wife told him that their daughter had been beaten several times by the superintendent of police.

Masih and his daughter were charged under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code for blaspheming the Quran. Before charges were filed in October 2008, Masih said an initial incident occurred on Aug. 25, when Ashyana Gulsher found some burned pages of the Quran in a garbage dump outside their community of Chak No. 57, Chak Jhumra in the district of Faisalabad.

[To read the rest of the report, click here.]

See below for a special video of Sandul thanking everyone who prayed and advocated on her and her father's behalf.

We encourage you to continue to keep this family in your prayers. Pray that the hardships they endured will draw them closer to Christ. Pray that they will continue to be a light to those in their community.

Arrest made in attack on Christian family

2009-12-17T14:21:00.006-05:00

Watch the latest edition of The Overcomers to find out how a suspect has finally been arrested for the March 2008 bomb attack in the Jewish settlement town of Ariel that severely injured Ami Ortiz, the teenage son of a Messianic pastor. To find out more about Ami and the struggles he and his family has faced, please click here or here.

To watch more video reports from The Voice of the Martyrs, check out our media site.

Elderly Eritrean Christians released

2009-12-16T14:23:00.006-05:00

It was just reported that the Eritrean Christians arrested on December 5 have been released. Praise the Lord! Here's the report from International Christian Concern:

Eritrea Releases Elderly Christian Women

Washington, D.C. (December 16, 2009)–International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that yesterday at 3:30 PM local time, Eritrean officials released all the Christian women they had arrested on December 5.

The elderly women were detained for praying together at a house in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital. Eritrean security forces raided the prayer meeting and brought them to a police station in Asmara. ICC broke the news of the arrest in a press release issued on December 7. (See story)

Most of the released Christians are members of Faith Mission Church, an Evangelical Church with a Methodist background. The church has been carrying out evangelistic and development activities in Eritrea for over five decades and was forced to go underground in 2002 after Eritrean officials required all religious groups to register. The officials then allowed only three Christian denominations to register. The three registered churches are: the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Eritrea.

Since 2002, officials of Eritrea have been cracking down on members of both registered and unregistered churches. They have imprisoned more than 3000 Christians keeping them in underground dungeons, mental shipping containers, and military barracks. Several Christians have died inside prisons due to torture and lack of medical attention.

One of the released women told ICC source that “we appreciate all the people who prayed for us. Please thank God for our release.”

ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa and South Asia, Jonathan Racho said “We welcome Eritrea’s decision to release all the women. We urge the Eritrean officials to release the more than 3000 Christians who are suffering in underground dungeons, military barracks, and metal shipping containers.”

ICC would like to thank all individuals who prayed for the release of the Christian women. Please continue praying for the release more than 3000 imprisoned Christians in Eritrea.

Somali Christian flees refugee camp under death threat

2009-12-14T16:27:00.003-05:00

NAIROBI, Kenya, December 9 (CDN) — Somali Christian Mohamud Muridi Saidi last month fled a refugee camp near Kenya’s border with Sudan after Muslims threatened to kill him.

For Saidi, a father of four, the recent relocation of 13,000 refugees from the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border to the Kakuma camp, where he had lived since 2002, brought its own nightmare: the arrival of Muslims from Somalia’s Lower Juba region who knew of his father’s Christian activities in his home village.

After Somalis four times threw stones at Saidi’s iron sheet home in the Kakuma refugee camp – once in mid-October, and again on Nov. 17, 21 and 22 – word spread that they intended to kill him. Case workers for a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) service group confirmed the death threat.

“I know the attackers are the Muslims who forced us to leave Somalia in 2002,” Saidi told Compass in Nairobi, adding that he was unable to bring his family with him when he fled on Nov. 23. “They are not safe, and that is why we should be out of Kakuma as soon as possible.”

Saidi has reported the attacks to the LWF service group as well as to police in Kakuma. Case workers for the LWF service group confirmed that the stoning of his home had escalated to the threat of him being assassinated.

“Saidi has security-related issues fueled by the new refugees from Dadaab,” said one LWF service group worker, who requested anonymity for security reasons, last month. “I did some investigation and found out that Saidi’s life is threatened.”

On one of the occasions in which his house was stoned as his family slept, Saidi turned on a flashlight and neighbors rose up, scaring off the assailants.

He and his family had enjoyed some tranquility since fleeing raging conflict in Somalia, but that ceased with the transference of the Somali Muslims from Dadaab refugee camp to Kakuma in August. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees relocated the refugees to ease congestion in the crowded Dadaab camps of Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley, where close to 300,000 Somalis had arrived to sites designed to house only 90,000 refugees.

The influx of those refugees from the Dadaab camp more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away came with the quickly spreading word that Saidi and his family must be Christian, since his father was a well-known Christian while living in Somalia. A Somali Bantu from Marere, Lower Juba, Saidi’s family left Marere in 2002 after strict Muslims sought to kill them when they found out they were followers of Christ.

Saidi’s late father had coordinated activities for a Christian charity in Lower Juba. Since the death of his father in 2005, Saidi has been working as a translator for a Non-Governmental Organization. As a translator, he became known to the newly arrived Somalis from Dadaab.

Because of the dangers, Saidi has been forced to abandon his job for fear of exposing himself to other Muslims who might know of his father. He is the sole supporter for his family, including his 55-year-old mother, wife and four children.

“It is not safe for us to continue living in Kakuma – we have to move away, possibly to Nairobi,” Saidi said.

As a stop-gap measure, Saidi said he hopes to work as a freelance translator, for which he would need a computer, printer, photocopying machine and laminator.

“This would be a temporary measure – asylum for my family would be a permanent solution,” he said.

Despite the relocation of the refugees from Dadaab, overcrowding has not eased due an influx of newly displaced people fleeing fighting in southern Somalia. Earlier this month, radical Islamic al Shabaab militia recaptured three key towns, including the key town of Dobhley, in Lower Juba province along Somalia’s border with Kenya. They retook control from the more moderate Isbul-Islam militants as they each try to overthrow the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government of president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed in Mogadishu.

Messengers of peace and hope in Iraq this Christmas

2009-12-14T10:18:00.005-05:00

In the Christmas season, when the potential for attacks on Christians can intensify in certain countries, it is always a comfort to hear followers of Jesus in these hostile environments call on fellow believers to live as messengers of peace and hope. Such are the words shared by Louis Sako, the Chaldean Archbishop of Kirkuk in Iraq, in this recent AsiaNews article:

Christmas in Kirkuk, Christians messengers of peace and hope
Louis Sako

Kirkuk (AsiaNews) - What is Iraq expecting of Christmas? What does it expect from this time of Advent? We posed this question to some of our friends and Msgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk has sent us the answers that we publish below. Kirkuk, inhabited by Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, has fought for its immense oil reserves. Throughout the year there have been kidnappings, killings and violence against Christians in the city. According to the same archbishop, Christians are subject to violence because "they want to have a role in rebuilding the nation."

This year all activities in our diocese focus on the message of Christmas: peace on earth and hope to men.

In these weeks of Advent, the Catholic priests and those of other Christian churches have gathered together for a day of reflection, in preparation for Christmas.

Young people and associations, for their part, have deepened the basics of the faith with catechism. All the faithful have made time for prayer vigils, visits to the sick, those who are isolated or disabled.

In the difficult economic situation, the youth of the Emmaus communities have collected gifts and money to help poor families, without distinguishing between Christians and Muslims.

A young Mandaean (gnostic) doctor received baptism.

Christians must be aware of their mission: the faithful have the duty to be messengers of the Good News of peace and hope in Iraq and Kirkuk. For the message to be received and heard, we must love it and strive to live it in a concrete manner. Our example affects more than words. People see this and are moved.

Although there are difficulties in the country and a lack of security, Christians must have the courage to pass on this message without fear and anxiety, instead with great freedom and enthusiasm. The heart is full of confidence in the One who calls us, sends us and accompanies us because he is Emmanuel; God-with-us.

We are messengers of joy even when there are tears and suffering and sacrifices, as in this our land of Iraq.

So this message can increasingly become an integral part of our lives, we must live together with others in the Church. The true messenger remains faithful to the Tradition of the Church and with it bears witness.

The Church is the place where the faithful share their spiritual experiences and support one another in giving testimony.

Continue to pray for Yemen hostages

2009-12-13T11:28:00.006-05:00

Six months have passed without any news about Worldwide Services workers Johannes and Sabine, their children Lydia (5), Anna (3), Simon (1), and their friend Tony, who went missing on June 12 in Yemen [click here for more details]. Thank you for all of you have have continued to pray for them . We have not given up hope that they are alive and will be returned safely to their homes and loved ones.

Today Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that the Germen foreign office confirmed today that a German diplomat has travelled to Yemen to help negotiate the release of the hostages. "The trip is part of the intensive efforts by the emergency task force to achieve a solution to this case," a ministerial spokeswoman said in Berlin, confirming reports by Yemeni news agency Saba. The foreign office gave no new information about the condition of the hostages.

This news may provide a glimmer of hope that the hostages are alive and that negotiations are taking place but it by no means confirms these things. Please continue to pray for them and their family at this difficult time. Show your solidarity with them by posting a prayer on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall today.

This week in persecuted church history (December 13-19)

2009-12-13T10:27:00.001-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

December 13

37: Nero, the Roman emperor who was the scourge of early Christians, is born. After his suicide in 68, many believed he would return, and "false Neros" appeared throughout the eastern provinces.
304: Lucy, one of the earliest Christian saints to achieve popularity, dies. According to legend, she renounced marriage out of devotion to Christ, but a spurned suitor convinced Roman authorities to force her into a life of prostitution. When this was unsuccessful, they tried to burn her to death, but she wouldn't catch fire. Finally, she was killed by the sword. More realistically, she was probably one of several Christians killed in the Diocletian persecution. But within a century of her death, she had a remarkable following.
1545: The first session of the Counter- Reformation Council of Trent opens. Responding to the spread of Protestantism and the drastic need for moral and administrative reforms within the Roman Catholic church, it met on and off for 18 years. Ultimately the reforms were not comprehensive enough to satisfy the Protestants or even many Catholics, but it created a basis for a renewal of discipline and spiritual life within the church.
1571: Hans Misel is martyred for his faith after refusing to recant his Anabaptist beliefs. According to Martyr’s Mirror, when the executioner brought him to the place where he was to be executed, he said to him, that if he would recant, he still had authority to let him go. But he refused, and would there seal his faith with his blood, and so far as he was concerned, he said, he might proceed. Thus he was beheaded and then burnt, and as they could not burn him quickly enough, they cut him into pieces and burned the pieces. When the executioner had struck off his head, so that the same lay on the ground, his body still remained erect, with the hands uplifted, as though he were praying, till the executioner pushed him over with his foot. It was also said that his head and hair could not~be burned, but that it was found entire and undisfigured in the ashes, and was thus buried.

December 14

1591: Spanish poet John of the Cross, one of the greatest Christian mystics, dies. His "Dark Night of the Soul" is one of the era's best known religious poems, and his treatises have profoundly influenced both Catholic and Protestant thought.
2003: Nigerian federal police officers kill four Catholics and injure eight others for refusing to pay a bribe. A group was returning from a crusade and prayer vigil when police stopped their bus. According to one of the passengers who escaped, the bus driver refused to pay a bribe because of his faith and was then shot point-blank. When others in the group intervened, they were also shot while the rest fled on foot.
2006: The church building of the Pentecostal Church of Alamar, a suburb of Havana, Cuba is destroyed by government officials. The official reason for the destruction is that the building was an "illegal construction."

December 15

1418: English pre-Reformer John Oldcastle is burned alive for his efforts to preserve and promote the cause of the Lollards (preachers who spread John Wycliffe's views). Shakespeare reportedly based his character Falstaff on Oldcastle.
1564: Anabaptist believer Jan Gerrits is burned at the stake in the Hague in Holland, for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
1900: Count Leo Tolstoy writes to the tsar asking him to end religious persecution in Russia.

December 16

345: Eusebius (not to be confused with historian Eusebius of Caesarea) becomes bishop of Vercelli, Italy. After refusing to sign the condemnation of Athanasius at the Council of Milan, he was exiled. But he was pardoned by Julian the Apostate and led the movement to restore the Nicene Creed—and thus orthodoxy—to the empire.
2007: An Italian priest, Father Adriano Franchini (65), is stabbed in the stomach by a 19-year-old Muslim man outside St. Anthony Church in the city of Izmir, Turkey. Father Franchini and the assailant, Ramazan Bay, had a brief conversation after mass in which Bay expressed his interest in becoming a Christian. During the discussion, Bay suddenly became angry and stabbed Father Franchini. In his statement to the police, Bay reportedly said that his actions were influenced by an episode of a television program that depicts Christian missionaries as political "infiltrators" who pay poor families to convert to Christianity.

December 17

1912: Yale-educated Chicago native Bill Borden, heir to a fortune in real estate and milk production, boards a ship to China via Egypt. Converted to Christ as a young man, Borden had given his inheritance and his life to the cause of world evangelism. Only a month after arriving in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died. However, publication of his story prompted many young people to enter the mission field.
1917: Bolsheviks confiscate all property of the Russian Orthodox Church and abolish religious instruction in the schools. Within two decades, at least 45,000 priests were reportedly martyred in the country.
2006: An evangelical church building in the Serbian town of Kraljevo, south of Belgrade is fire-bombed. The bomb caused damage to the furniture, carpets and the air conditioning system of the rented facility. Thankfully, no one was injured.
2008: At 7:00 a.m., a large contingent of government officials, police and demolition workers destroy the Cu Hat Church building in Cu Hat, Dak Lak province, Vietnam. Wielding electric cattle prods, police beat back hundreds of distraught Christians who rush to the site to protect the building. Five people were injured, including a child who suffered a broken arm and a pregnant woman who was prodded in the stomach. After the workers had loaded the lumber onto their trucks, they emptied sacks of the Christians' rice on the ground, put the roof tile into the sacks and sped away. In 90 minutes, the destruction was complete. To watch a video of the demolition, click here.

December 18

1555: John Philpot, Archdeacon Of Winchester, is burned at the stake for refusing to recant his Protestant faith in Smithfield, England.
1568: Jan Thielemans and Job Jans are burnt to death for the testimony of Jesus Christ in The Hague In Holland, condemned by church leaders as heretics for their Anabaptist beliefs.

December 19

1734: Count Nicholaus von Zinzendorf, founder of the modern Moravian church and a pioneer in ecumenism and missions, is recognized as a minister by the theology faculty of Tubigen, Germany.
2004: St. Michael's Church in Homagama, Sri Lanka is virtually destroyed when it is set on fire. Using two gas cylinders, petrol and two tires, the arsonists burned the roof, pews, statues, organ and other furniture, completely blackening the interior of the building. Dad de Silva, a church official, said, "Our church is gone this time, nothing is left which is usable."

Prayer: “Grant that we, who now remember these before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” – taken from The Book of Common Prayer, Canada (1962)

When we are accused of exaggerating or lying about persecution.

2009-12-12T09:24:00.002-05:00

It is not uncommon for someone to contact us here at the mission saying that they have recently been talking to a friend or an acquaintance from China, Eritrea, Sri Lanka, India, or some other country where we say there is persecution taking place. To their surprise, they find that their friend or acquaintance denies what we say is going on in their homeland. “It’s an exaggeration,” their friend says. Or something from the past, they suggest. They might concede, “Sure, things aren’t perfect but it’s not as bad as VOMC’s newsletter says.” And so they contact us, confused and torn between believing us or their friend.

It’s hard to know how to respond to such such inquiries. It is not as if we speak out of a vacuum or report only what others tell us. We personally know those who have experienced violent persecution against them. We have met them, held their hands and prayed for them as tears stream down their cheeks. It is impossible for us to deny the reality of what we report when we (or our colleagues in our sister missions) actually travel to these countries and see for ourselves what we report.

So, how do we respond to suggestions or accusations that we are inaccurate in our reporting? We don’t want to call them or their friend a liar but what do you say when you actually do know that what they are saying is not really true.

I recall how difficult it was for my grandparents to talk about their experiences in the former Soviet Union. Their hesitation to speak about the suffering they experienced seemed to range between a desire to leave the past behind on the one hand and the love for homeland that almost all expatriates feel regardless of why they leave, on the other hand. To criticize the government of their place of birth is to risk offending or embarrassing the country itself. To focus on the failures of one’s homeland might seem to negate any progress that has been achieved. To suggest that your homeland needs to improve its human rights record, for example, risks being accused of not being proud of who you are, ethnically and nationalistically. Deep inside most of us there is the nationalistic pull to defend one’s homeland. There are few who are immune to this.

This pull must be understood and taken into consideration whenever you read both affirmations and denials of persecution. We must not assume that because someone is from Eritrea, Pakistan, China, or any other nation, that their analysis of what is going on “on the ground” is without bias and demands special credibility. In fact, it may be needed to be taken with even greater care.

Orissa: A Call to Action and a Call to Prayer

2009-12-10T12:42:00.001-05:00

The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada is a member of the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), a collaborative effort of Christian organizations in over a dozen countries focused on religious liberty. Founded in the spring of 2007, the RLP seeks to more intentionally work together in addressing advocacy and in raising the awareness of religious liberty issues globally.

Two years after the first outbreak of mob violence against Christians in Kandhamal district, Orissa state, India, the RLP remains deeply concerned for the situation. As a collaborative effort of Christian organizations focused on religious liberty, the RLP is urging its members to call upon Christians to unite in continued prayer for justice, reconciliation and peace in the area, and to encourage the Indian government to do all in its power to bring this about.

During the week of Christmas 2007, Christians belonging to Dalit and adivasi communities in Kandhamal were targeted in a wave of violence, which resulted in the widespread destruction of property. Then, in August 2008, when Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati and four of his followers were condemnably assassinated, allegedly by Maoist insurgents, the Christians were blamed, and became targets of ferocious reprisals. This resulted in the worst communal violence suffered by Christians in the history of post-independence India. At least 75 people have been confirmed as dead, and over 50,000 were forced to flee their homes. More than a year later, thousands of victims of violence are still suffering and waiting for justice.

The RLP welcomes the efforts made by the Indian government and Orissa state government to restore security and bring justice, reconciliation and peace. However, deep concerns remain about the continuing challenges. The government relief camps are now closed, yet a large proportion of victims have been unable to return to their villages for fear of death or forcible conversions to Hinduism. Many are living in grievous poverty in makeshift camps, often with no regular means of sustenance. Although compensation has been delivered to many victims, often it does not match their needs. Victims are continuing to receive threats from the perpetrators of violence, witnesses are facing intimidation by mobs outside courtrooms, and there is widespread fear of the danger posed by impunity. Hundreds of cases have not been registered properly by police, and therefore will not be subject to investigations or prosecutions. The future of the children of victims is also at risk. Many are fearful of attending school, and a large proportion of those sitting their tenth grade examinations have been failed, largely as a consequence of the severe disruption during the past year.

Mervyn Thomas, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide in the UK and Chairman of the RLP said, “We urge that justice must be served in Kandhamal: it will be crucial for the restoration of peace and stability in the area. The wheels of justice are turning slowly, but the authorities need to tackle the significant challenges facing the judicial system. India is famous for her diversity and pluralism, and we look forward to the restoration of inter-communal harmony in this area.”

The RLP also supports a call to prayer for the victims of violence, from Mgr. Raphael Cheenath, Catholic Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in Orissa, who requests that churches around the world use the following prayer for Orissa on Christmas Day, 2010:

Gracious Father, Lord of all the earth, we praise you for the gift of Jesus Christ, sent into the world to break down the dividing walls of hostility. Have mercy upon those in Orissa who are suffering. Give them the peace and the justice that they crave, and cause the walls of bitterness and hatred in Orissa to be torn down. Comfort those who have been bereaved, counsel those who have been traumatised, provide for those who have lost everything. Give them the grace to forgive and confidence in your gracious favour. Do not let us forget them, our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate the coming of the Prince of Peace and look forward to his coming again in glory.

[For more information on the Religious Liberty Partnership, contact Brian O’Connell, RLP Facilitator at: +1 425-218-4718 or Brian@REACTServices.com]

Unknown to many but known to God

2009-12-10T10:38:00.002-05:00

In the past week, two excellent studies on religious freedom have been released on two of the most restricted nations on earth and two of the least known. Ask any group of people if they have ever heard of Maldives or Eritrea and I would suggest that the majority would admit that they know little to nothing of both nations--and Maldives in particular. This is not a chastisement or suggestion that people ought to have a better grasp of geography; it is simply an acknowledgment that these two nations have a rather small footprint in the world’s geopolitical landscape.

For this reason, religious persecution goes on in Maldives and Eritrea rather unnoticed and under-reported. Significant studies such as these recent ones by Forum 18 on Maldives and the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission on Eritrea are rare.

There is comfort in knowing that although these nations are unknown to many, they are known to God. Still, I am also pleased to to see this quality of research, believing that God can use it to further His purposes in these nations.

And so I urge you to study these reports in depth, to pray for the believers there and to financially support ministries like The Voice of the Martyrs who work in restricted nations like these but who, for security reasons, usually cannot share details of their work there. The Voice of the Martyrs’ Underground Church Fund is specifically set up to fund such projects. I also encourage you to stand behind Forum 18 and the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission in their important research work both financially and prayerfully.

But to the reports….

To read the report on Maldives click here.

To read the report on Eritrea, click here.

To conclude, I recall reading the late Ralph Winter’s observation that the most significant ministries are those that are the most difficult to raise support for because they are often the most difficult to explain. I would add that it is also because sometimes you can’t talk about them at all or, at best, in the most general of terms. On behalf of the mission, I want to express our thanks to the many of you who trust us as we glorify God by serving His Persecuted Church around the world by donating to our work. We also thank God for you and pray for you, our supporters, almost every day during our staff prayer time. Together, we hope to roll back the ignorance that many have of nations like Maldives and Eritrea so that we may truthfully say that the plight of our brothers and sisters is known both to God and to man.

How does one keep one’s faith when heavily drugged?

2009-12-09T18:38:00.002-05:00

Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, readily admitted that of all of the tortures that he faced, it was the use of drugs by his persecutors that he found the most difficult. When I first read that over 12 years ago, I could not grasp the truth of what he was referring to, especially not when I had read of the horrific physical tortures that he had endured.

Now, as I struggle to write each line of this blog, I understand Pastor Wurmbrand’s words far better.

Right now I am in hospital undergoing radiation treatment. My doctor is hoping to shrink cancerous lymph nodes in my lower back and pelvic region that have increased in size and are pressing against nerves, causing a great deal of pain.

To counter this pain, I am taking painkillers that are increasingly hindering my ability to think clearly. Emotionally, these drugs are making me fragile and insecure, and my inability to remember details is only reinforcing this.

Yes, I can understand why Pastor Wurmbrand felt that drugs were the greatest challenge that he had faced in his years of torture. You find yourself in a position when you wonder how successful you are really being in controlling your mind, mouth, or emotions. You simply don’t know. You fear what you might have said but which you cannot remember. You cannot remember Bible verses that were once precious to you. You cannot remember things that you know you should know (right now, for example, I cannot remember how many years Pastor Wurmbrand was in prison. I should know this and I could look it up, but it is good that you know what I am referring to. I simply do not remember if it was 12 or 14 years).

When drugged up, you find it harder to retain one’s confession of faith and truth when you cannot control your tongue. Of course, I am sure of God’s faithfulness at times like this. But drugs make you wonder what is real was real and what was drug-induced. Perhaps your past faithfulness was just a ruse. Guilt becomes a constant companion.

To that end, I ask you to pray for me during this time. More importantly, pray for Christian prisoners who undergo such drug-induced torture daily. For me, there is hope that it will end soon. For many of them, there is no such hope.

Refugee who fears fatwa in Guinea gets reprieve

2009-12-08T18:25:00.001-05:00

Last week, we reported about Lamine Yansané, a Muslim convert from Guinea who is seeking to stay in Canada after his own father, an Muslim imam in his homeland, issued a call for his son’s death during his Friday prayers at the mosque in Boké.

The National Post reported today that a federal judge has granted him a temporary reprieve yesterday. According to the paper:

Justice Michel Shore ordered Citizenship and Immigration Canada to conduct a new assessment of the risk Lamine Yansane faces if returned to Guinea, citing evidence that Mr. Yansane's father has issued a fatwa against him.

The federal immigration agent who last year dismissed Mr. Yansane's fears failed to conduct a reasonable evaluation of the situation, the judge concluded. "In his case, the change of religion, apostasy, is punishable by death," Mr. Shore wrote. "Mr. Yansane's father, in evidence that has not been contradicted, threatened his own son with death by a fatwa announced publicly during official prayers." [read more….]

Mr. Yansane, who has a full-time job operating an overhead crane in a Montreal factory, told the Post that he is encouraged by the ruling. "I am very, very happy," he said. "It gives me great hope to be able to stay in Canada."

Please pray that this new assessment will be more thorough than the last one and that Mr. Yansane will able to stay in the country. You can post a prayer on his behalf on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

Latest update on VOMC partners in southern Sudan

2009-12-08T12:11:00.003-05:00

Here is the latest email from Global Response Network with an update on the crisis facing GRN staff who are being falsely accused of hitting a woman with their truck.

Dear Friends,
Tom and our field coordinator are safe. Thank you so much for your prayers, they are working. Here is an update on their situation:
Tom and our field coordinator gave their statements on the “accident” today (again, the woman is making up the story that she was hit by GRN’s truck – totally lying). The Police chief of the county is leaning toward believing that they are guilty of hitting the woman. The woman is still holding to the fact that she was hit by Tom and our field coordinator’s truck as well. She is still in the clinic and won’t let go of her stance. Tom is free to leave the country at this point (a high official they have favor with is standing in his place) and our field coordinator will have to go to court which could possibly take up to a month. No mob formed against them today.
Now, a few more details...
The day before Tom and our field coordinator were accused falsely of hitting this woman, 10 United Nations workers were abducted, beaten and tortured, all only a mile from where Tom and our field coordinators “accident” occurred. The next day is when Tom and our field coordinator were accused and threatened for 4 hours. That is also when there was a search happening for these UN workers. Also happening that day, a high ranking government official of southern Sudan was the target of an assassination plot as he was returning to his hometown in the same county where Tom and our field coordinator were being held. The official’s driver was killed and he was wounded. Also, the commissioner of the area was traveling with the police chief of the entire Central Equatorial area, who was one of the people behind the assassination plot (the commissioner didn’t know this). Finally, the governor of southern Sudan was also traveling the country that very day as well. So all this was happening on the very day Tom and our field coordinator were being wrongfully accused and threatened. The devil was having a hay-day in that area to say the least that day.
So, all that to say, Tom was wondering why none of the people in higher rankings were coming to his aid that day. Little did he know that all this other stuff was happening the very same day - they were tied up in that. Finally, the head of the Southern Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, Lawrence, caught up with Tom and apologized for not being available to help Tom and our field coordinator. He was aware of their situation but couldn’t get to them because of all this other stuff that was happening simultaneously.
Tom and our field coordinator have favor with Lawrence and the Commissioner, and know they are not guilty. However, as said before, the woman still claims she was hit, and the local police chief is leaning in that direction. Our field coordinator is going to have to go to court at this point unless things change. Tom is also concerned for our field coordinator’s safety too.
Please continue to pray for justice to be done, and the truth to come out. Your prayers are making a difference. Little did we know that Tom and our field coordinator were one of many scary situations that were occurring in that area that day. Tomorrow they will be meeting with high ranking officials in the government about all these situations, and what can be done to help prevent these several things from happening again. Pray Tom and our field coordinator will continue to have favor in their eyes and will speak clearly the words needed to be shared.
Again, Tom and our field coordinator are safe. Thank you for praying for us and them, and we continue to ask for your prayers on their behalf.
The Zurowski’s

We would encourage you to show your solidarity with the Zurowski’s and the GRN staff by posting a prayer on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

New wave of arrests in Eritrea reported

2009-12-08T10:06:00.010-05:00

Yesterday, the following report was released by the organization In Chains For Christ regarding reported arrests in Eritrea:

Press Release.
ICFC/1015/09
Monday, 7 December 2009

New Wave of Arrest in Eritrea

ICFC has learned from sources in Asmara that the government of Eritrea has of late unleashed another wave of arrests against Christians. On Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 4:00pm, one group of thirty women were rounded up in Asmara by security agents and hauled off to prison.

Multiple sources confirm that the women were mostly elderly and were praying together when they were arrested. Most of the women were believers of Faith Mission, an Evangelical Church with a Methodist background. The denomination has been in existence since the early 1950s. Until it was closed down along with many other churches in May 2002, it operated orphanages and several schools throughout Eritrea.

The Eritrean government is known for its policy of religious repression. As a consequence, the US State Department has designated the Marxist nation as one of eight Countries of Particular Concern' (CPC). At the moment, the United Nations is considering sanctions against it.

ICFC once again calls on the government of Eritrea that these and the thousands of other Eritreans who are languishing in prison for their faith be immediately released.

D. Amine,
Communications Directory, ICFC

"Remember those who are in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoner. Remember those who are suffering as if you were suffering with them..." (Heb. 13:3).
www.InChainsForChrist.org
(Voice of the Persecuted Church in Eritrea)

As far as we're concerned, this report remains unconfirmed, as we have yet to find additional sources on the situation. However, we will certainly continue to monitor the story and watch for any further details.

The Voice of the Martyrs has a special petition available, "Eritrea: A Time to Act," that is designed to press Eritrean authorities to take action to stop the brutal harassment of Christians in the country. If you are a newsletter subscriber who received one in September, then there's still time to fill it out and mail it to our office by the December 31 deadline. You can also download a printable pdf of the petition from our website. Ask your friends, family members, and colleagues to sign it today, as the deadline is fast approaching.

Urgent prayer requested for VOMC partners in southern Sudan

2009-12-06T18:44:00.001-05:00

For several years, The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada has partnered with Global Response Network (GRN) in helping to rebuild the witness of the church in southern Sudan after many years of civil war and religious persecution. This task is challenging and frequently dangerous as the rule of law is threadbare at best in the region.

This afternoon we received the following urgent letter from the family of Tom Zurowski, Director of GRN, that requires your urgent prayers:

Dear GRN Friends,

Over the last 2 or 3 days, Tom and our field coordinator, have been involved in a very serious situation. While traveling back from purchasing supplies from the city of Yei, they drove by a lady on a bicycle, who decided to “fake” as if she was hit by their truck. The lady fell in the gravel on the side of the road on her own power (the truck didn’t hit her at all). As a result a mob from the village quickly surrounded Tom and our field coordinator in the truck. The mob was out of control and wanted to kill both of them. From there they were taken into custody by the police and were further threatened. The mob of about 100 people continued to threaten Tom and our field coordinator from the outside of the hut they were for 4 hours, until they were able to be escorted back to Loka and the GRN compound by the police chief and 20 armed soldiers.

There are more details to the situation, but the bottom line is that both Tom and our field coordinator desperately need your prayers. They have to return to the village where all this occurred tomorrow (Monday, keep in mind they are 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time). They have no idea how the people will respond when they return to the village. They are being required to come to give statements to the police chief about the “accident,” and may have to go to court later. Tom is concerned not only about the now, but also realizes that our field coordinator travels through this village often to get supplies in Yei. It is easy to see a truck coming, and the mob could easily attack GRN’s truck the next time he comes through.

Tom and our field coordinator seem to have found some sort of favor with the gentleman who is the “second in command” in the county, and also with the police chief. However, after Tom and our field coordinator were escorted back to the compound, the “second in command” was attacked and beaten by the mob for his role in protecting them. The concern is that if the mob will do that to one of their own, what will/could they do to them.

The situation is still very volatile. Again, Tom and our field coordinator never hit the lady, and have not done anything wrong. Pray that the lady who is lying and acted as if she was hit would fall under conviction and would confess the truth. Please pray that justice would be done, and that Tom and our field coordinator’s name would be cleared. Again, the fact that the second in command in the village was beaten by the people without any recourse shows how different things are handled in Sudan than in the U.S.

Please pray for us and our field coordinator’s family as well. Thank you for going to God on their behalf.

The Zurowski Family

Thank you for upholding Tom and his team in your prayers at this time. Please show your solidarity with them and their families by posting a prayer on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall. We will update you as details become available.

Alberta judge overturns hate speech ruling

2009-12-06T18:24:00.001-05:00

The Voice of the Martyrs welcomes a Queen of Court of Queen's Bench judge ruling on Thursday overturning a December 2007 ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Commission that a letter by Stephen Boissoin that was published in the Red Deer Advocate broke provincial law against spreading hatred. Justice E.C. Wilson ruled that the human rights panel chair Lori Andreachuk had made many errors in her ruling and that her order for Boissoin to pay Lund $5,000 and to refrain from making “disparaging remarks” about gays could not be enforced as they were “unlawful or unconstitutional.”

The judge said that while Boissoin’s remarks were “jarring, offensive, bewildering, puerile, nonsensical and insulting," they were not hateful or extreme and that there was nothing in the letter to suggest it was exhorting Albertans to discriminate against homosexuals in areas which fall under provincial jurisdiction.

"The letter's target audience are people that (Boissoin) believes are apathetic to the inroads made by the 'homosexual machine,' " Wilson said. "Inferring some sort of call for discriminatory practices prohibited by provincial law is an unreasonable interpretation of the letter's message."

Darren Lund, the University of Calgary professor who launched the complaint against Boissoin has not decided whether he will appeal this ruling.

This week in persecuted church history (December 6-12)

2009-12-06T11:30:00.001-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

December 6

345: Nicholas, bishop of Myra, one of the most popular saints in the Greek and Latin churches—and Santa Claus's namesake—dies. [click here for a VOMC children’s book on the life of Nicolaus]

December 7

303: Sabinius, bishop of Assisium, is brutally scourged to death. He hwas initially arrested after refusing to sacrifice to Jupiter, and pushing the idol from him. By the order of the governor of Tuscany, his hand was cut off. While in prison, he converted the governor and his family, all of whom suffered martyrdom for the faith. Soon after their execution, Sabinus himself was killed.
430: December 7, 430: Cyril of Alexandria condemns the Antiochene monk Nestorius, who claimed Christ was two persons (divine and human) rather than one person with two natures.
1965: Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications in place since the Great Schism of 1054
1649: Jesuit missionary Charles Garnier is killed with a blow of an Iroquois tomahawk at the age of 43 about thirty miles from Ste. Marie, in what is now the province of Ontario.
2003: Three churches in Bulathkohupitiya in the Kegalle District of Sri Lanka is attacked by religiously motivated militants. Belongings are stolen, one church is burned, and church members are beaten. On the same day, the Assembly of God Church in Deraniyagala (Kegalle District) is also besieged as a mob smashes the church building's windows and doors, burns the belongings and threatens the lives of some church workers who lived in the building.

December 8

1649: Jesuit missionary Noël Chabanel is secretly killed by Iroquois warriors on the Nottawasaga, twenty-five miles from Ste. Marie in what is now the province of Ontario
1691: English Puritan minister Richard Baxter dies in London. One of England's most renowned preachers and author of nearly 200 works (including several hymns), he was known as a peacemaker who sought unity among Protestants.
1934: American missionaries John and Betty Stam are beheaded by Chinese communists. The couple had met while attending Moody Bible Institute and married just the year before their death. Publication of their biography prompted hundreds to volunteer for missionary service. [click here for a book offered by VOMC on martyrs from Moody Bible Institute including the Stames]
2003: Sri Lankan Buddhist groups hold a rally in Embilipitiya (Ratnapura District). The speakers say that Christian churches are functioning illegally and should be attacked and smashed. The police were threatened not to intervene. That evening, several Christian organizations discovered just how serious these groups were. Police prevented an attack on a local Assembly of God Church, but the World Vision office and Catholic church were not spared. Soldiers from a nearby army camp attempted to prevent the Catholic church building from being burned, but were told by the mob to not intervene, claiming they had orders from "higher authorities." When the mob left, the military personnel extinguished the fire. In nearby Udawalawe, police warned the Assembly of God church of a potential attack, due to the spreading violence. After they left, the church was besieged by about thirty people, who smashed windows and doors and burned furnishings. The pastor managed to escape unharmed, but the home of another pastor was damaged by stones.
2005: Father Javier Francisco Montoya is traveling to a religious celebration in a jungle area in northwest Colombia when he disappears. A humanitarian commission sent by church authorities managed to meet with leaders of the Marxist rebel group FARC. They report on December 24 that Father Montoya was shot by the rebels and his body was buried.

December 9

1843: The first Christmas cards—actually more like postcards—are created and sold for a shilling.
2004: In the early morning, Sunday Nache Achi is taken from his dormitory room at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in the northern city of Bauchi, Nigeria by men dressed in jihad style clothing. When Achi's roommate attempted to intervene, he was threatened at gunpoint and then locked in his room. The next morning, Achi was found strangled to death next to a mosque, near the home of the university's vice-chancellor. The office of the Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Bauchi was also set on fire.
2007: Four Christians are killed when Matthew Murray (24), who was described by one policeman as a man who "hated Christians," goes on shooting sprees at two locations in Colorado. At approximately midnight Murray walks into the Youth with a Mission (YWAM) training centre on the grounds of Faith Bible Chapel in the Denver suburb of Arvada. After a staff member refuses to let him spend the night, he pulls out a gun and began shooting. Tiffany Johnson (26) and Philip Crouse (24) are shot dead. Two others are wounded.

In 2002, Murray had attended the YWAM training school but had to leave without completing his term because of health concerns, according to a December 10 press release from YWAM. Recently he had been reportedly sending hate mail to the school.

Twelve hours later, Murray opens fire at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, killing sisters Stephanie (18) and Rachael Works (16). After being shot by a security guard at the church, Murray then shots and kills himself.

Between the two attacks, Murray posted anti-Christian messages on an internet forum including a statement saying that he wanted to kill and injure as many Christians as he could and that Christians "[were] to blame for most of the problems in the world."
2008: Approximately 20 Hindus stop Yuvraj Digal (40), a respected Christian leader, and his 20-year-old son as they are heading home on motorbike from the village of Tikabali, Kandhamal district, Orissa. The Hindus accuse Digal of being involved in the murder of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati (click here for more details) and began beating him. His son was able to escape the attackers and seek help from the police. Digal, however, disappeared and his body was found on December 18.

December 10

1520: German reformer Martin Luther publicly burns Pope Leo X's bull "Exsurge Domine," which had demanded that Luther recant his heresies—including justification by faith alone.

December 11

1518: Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli becomes "people's priest" at the Old Minster Church in Zurich, a position he held for the remaining 13 years of his life. After nearly dying from the plague, he began his reforming program almost immediately, persuading the city council to judge religious issues by Scripture alone.
1640: English Puritans introduced a petition with 15,000 signatures to Parliament, seeking to abolish the church episcopacy, "with all its dependencies, roots and branches." The House of Commons accepted what has become known as the "Roots and Branch Petition," but the House of Lords (many of whom were bishops) rejected it, and the episcopal organization of the Church of England remained.
1918: Russian author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, an Orthodox believer whose works include One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago, is born. His books are credited by many scholars with "helping to bring down the last empire on earth."
1984: The White House displays a nativity scene for the first time since courts ordered its removal in 1973.
2007: Ten people are killed, several Christians seriously injured, and Christian churches, businesses and homes burned when Muslims went on a rampage in the Yelwa Tudu area in Bauchi state, Nigeria.

December 12

1189: King Richard I "the Lion Hearted" leaves England on the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, which had fallen to Muslim general Saladin in 1187.
1582: Spanish General Fernando Alvarez de Toledo (also known as the Duke of Alva) dies. The duke had been sent, along with 10,000 troops, by King Philip II of Spain to quell the Reformation in Holland. The duke's "Council of Blood" was responsible for some 18,000 deaths.
1667: The Council of Moscow deposes Russian Orthodox Patriarch Nikon. A "man of great ability and sincerity but of autocratic temper," according to one historian, his calls for liturgical reform grew into a fight over the relationship between church and state. Though deposed at the council, banished, and imprisoned for 14 years, his liturgical reforms were sanctioned. In 1681, he was recalled to Moscow by the new tsar, but he died on the way. He was buried with patriarchal honors and all decrees against him were revoked.
1712: The colony of South Carolina requires "all persons whatsoever" to attend church each Sunday and refrain from skilled labor and travel. Violators of the "Sunday Law" could be fined 10 shillings or locked in the stocks for two hours.
2008: Pastor Jean Carlos Salazar (30), his wife, Ingrid Higuera (33), and their young daughter are brutally murdered in the town of El Trigrito, Anzoategui state, Venezuela by suspected satanic cult members. At approximately 3:30 a.m., neighbours of the Salazars notice that the family's home is in flames and phone the fire department. When the fire officials arrive, they find the decapitated bodies of the Christians. The assailants reportedly also painted satanic slogans on the walls. Pastor Salazar was a preacher at the World Centre of Peace church and was well-known in the area.

Remember Father Nguyen Van Ly in Vietnam

2009-12-04T12:26:00.011-05:00

Father Nguyen Van Ly, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2007, recently suffered a severe stroke (click here for more information). He was admitted to the military hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. At last report, he was semi-paralyzed but was conscious and able to speak. Family members report that he is being treated well.

We encourage you to pray for Father Nguyen Van Ly at this time and continue writing him letters. We also encourage you to write to the Vietnamese government requesting Father Nguyen Van Ly's release.

You can write Father Nguyen Van Ly at the following address:

Father Nguyen Van Ly
Ba Le Thi Phu Dung
C5/1H Tran Nao, Khu Pho 1
Phuong Binn Khanh, Quan 2
TP Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam

You can also write a letter using a helpful online tool from VOM-USA's Prisoner Alert website by clicking here.

Please remember when writing a letter to never mention the name of the source of your information or the name of any organization such as The Voice of the Martyrs. It is not dangerous for a prisoner to receive letters from individuals, but if an organization is mentioned they may be accused of links with "foreign organizations" and receive harsher sentences. Also, please do not state anything negative about their government.

For more information about writing letters, check out our advocacy page at www.persecution.net/write.htm.

Sending cards this Christmas?

2009-12-03T17:49:00.002-05:00

Do you send out Christmas cards? Although it can be hard to find the time in the busyness of the season, I try to send out a few to those people that I am only able to see once or twice a year but think about often.

It is also so nice to receive Christmas cards! Sure, emails are convenient, but there is nothing quite like receiving a handwritten card. It means a lot to know that someone thought of you and took the time to drop you a note in the mail.

Last night as I was scribbling down a few more names to my Christmas card list, I thought about the prisoners of faith who will be celebrating Christmas in jail this year. For them, the season won't be filled with fellowship, food, and gifts like it is for many of us. Some will celebrate silently, without even a fellow Christian inmate to share in the joy of Jesus' birth.

If you are writing Christmas cards this year, consider sending some along to your extended Christian family members who are suffering for their faith. Or perhaps you can get together with family members, friends, or a Bible/prayer group to write a few cards. Even the smallest notes can bring hope and encouragement!

To find out more about writing letters and for a list of prisoner addresses, please check out advocacy site at www.persecution.net/write.htm.

Guianese convert from Islam seeks refugee status in Canada

2009-12-02T14:30:00.001-05:00

Lamine Yansané, a Muslim convert from Guinea is seeking to stay in Canada after his own father, an imam in his homeland, issued a call for his son’s death during his Friday prayers at the mosque in Boké. Here is the story from today’s National Post

In Lamine Yansané's hometown of Boké in Guinea, his father is a revered imam who sometimes leads Friday prayers. But after Mr. Yansané married a Catholic woman and abandoned Islam for Christianity, his father disowned him, and Friday prayers have featured a call for his death, the Federal Court heard yesterday.

Mr. Yansané, who has been denied refugee status, is seeking a last-ditch reprieve on the grounds that he faces certain harm if he is deported from Canada. "If you return him to his country, he is going to die," Mr. Yansané's lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, told the court. He called his client "a victim of radical Islam, who is threatened by the imam of his town, his own father."

Mr. Yansané, 37, arrived in Canada from Guinea in the fall of 2005. He told the Immigration and Refugee Board that he fled the West African nation after his father and uncle tracked him down in the country's capital of Conakry, confronted him about his church attendance and threatened him as a traitor to Islam. His wife and three children remain in Guinea. [read more.…]

At present, his case does not seem to be going well. Canadian authorities seem to be unwilling to believe that Mr. Yansané’s life would truly be in danger, despite his father’s repeated public threats. In June 2008, the National Post was able to reach the father, El Hadj Aboubacar Yansané, in Boké and he warned his son to stay away: "He knows what will happen. It would be dangerous for him to come back to Boké," he said.

Please pray for Lamine Yansané during these days. Pray that God will guide Justice Michel Shore as he makes the final decision as to whether he will remain in Canada.

Reaching out to North Korea

2009-12-01T11:43:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, a set of addendums to its penal code leaked out of North Korea that permit execution for some ordinary crimes in addition to those stipulated by the full penal code itself. According to exiles who have fled North Korea, among these crimes deserving of death is the theft of a half sack of rice.

While these addendums were apparently passed in 2007, they were not enforced until recently as the government was not convinced that they were needed. Hardships caused by recent famine and the halt to international humanitarian aid after Pyongyang's nuclear tests has resulted in a significant rise in crime. One defector told of seeing a young woman publicly executed for stealing electrical wiring.

Such severe penalties for minor offenses speaks to the desperation of North Koreans. The besieged Christian population is certainly not exempt from such deprivations and may even be more susceptible.

This is why The Voice of the Martyrs is reaching out with a special Christmas project this year to our brothers and sisters in North Korea.

For only $50, you can sponsor a special Christmas Blessing package containing such vital necessities as rice, clothing, vitamins, Bibles, Christian books, a backpack, various toiletries like soap, clippers and toothpaste, and many more necessities that are expensive or virtually impossible to get in North Korea.

We are committed to delivering at least 750 of these packs directly to believers in North Korea! As funds become available, we will also distribute some to North Korean defectors hiding in China. To insure that they are properly delivered to the intended recipients, all packs are being delivered in person by VOMC contacts. Be assured that every security precaution is being taken to protect both our workers and (even more importantly) those who receive these packs.

Will this solve their problems for the long term? Of course not. This is only one aspect of our work in North Korea but one that we think is vital at this time in history.

Won’t you join us?

As we noted in our blog post last Friday, our partners are already assembling and shipping some of the packs. Again, I want to thank those of you who have already given towards this project. Your expression of love is going to send a powerful message to our brothers and sisters in this isolated society.

Donations for this project will be received until the needs of this projects are met or until the end of December. You can make cheques for this project payable to The Voice of the Martyrs Inc. and mail them (with a note indicating what the gift is for) to:

The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 117, Port Credit,
Mississauga, Ontario
L5G 4L5

Or you can donate securely online through CanadaHelpsIf you have any questions about this project, you can contact us by clicking here.

We would covet your prayers on behalf of our workers and those who will be receiving these packs. Pray that God will enable them to be safely delivered and that they will provide a blessing to our brothers and sisters there. Please post a prayer on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall, as evidence that you stand together with the church in North Korea during these days of deprivation.

We also have some new resources on North Korea that will help you to have a better understanding of this isolated state and its people.

Restricted Nations: North Korea by The Voice of the Martyrs with P. Todd Nettleton. An concise introduction to the history and testimonies of the church in North Korea
Escaping North Korea by Mike Kim. A rare and unique inside look into the hidden world of ordinary North Koreans.

Pray for the Prime Minister’s visit to China

2009-12-01T10:05:00.001-05:00

Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives in China tomorrow during which time he will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Some of the PM’s political foes and business leaders have accused Harper of neglecting China (Canada’s second largest trading partner after the United States). It can also be argued, however, that trade between Canada and China has never been been stronger, despite Canada’s persistence in addressing human rights concerns with Chinese officials.

It would appear that human rights will once again be a topic of discussion during this visit and we welcome that. Despite China’s complaining that Canada is interfering in an internal Chinese matters by expressing such concerns, they have, nevertheless, continued to increase trade with Canada, demonstrating that Canada’s approach is not without merit. One need not sacrifice human rights on the altar of international trade.

We recognize the strategic benefit of addressing cases where there is a Canadian connection, such as the wrongful detention of Huseyincan Celil, a Uyghur imam of Canadian and Chinese citizenship who remains in prison in China on terrorism charges and we sincerely hope that this visit will contribute to a resolution to this case. The Voice of the Martyrs has urged the Prime Minister to also raise such important cases as the well-known Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng who was seized by a dozen police officers and last seen in public on February 4, 2009. Please pray that he will do so. He and his officials are also aware of the plight of unregistered religious groups. Please pray, too, that he will raise this issue in his conversations with Chinese officials.

May I urge you to post prayer on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall? Pray that God will guide these discussions in a way that honours Him and the nations of Canada and China.

Tu Quoque: On Islam and the Crusades

2009-11-30T14:18:00.001-05:00

by Ibn Warraq
City Journal
Autumn 2009 vol.19, no.4

Often, when I am criticizing crimes inspired by Islamic extremism, I am interrupted by the remark that Christianity was once culpable of similar abuses. That Christianity may have been intolerant in the past, however, does not make criticisms of Islam's present-day intolerance any less valid. Also, Islamic intolerance is an immediate danger, whereas Christian intolerance is generally a historical phenomenon and no longer a threat to civilization. And Christendom's crimes were recorded by Christians themselves -- a stark contrast to our politically correct climate, in which many, especially Muslims, are reluctant to criticize Islam.

Still, one might point out Christianity's historical shortcomings in order to avoid demonizing Islam alone. But this principle should work both ways: We should also avoid demonizing Christianity and be prepared to point out Islam's shortcomings. In December 2008, Boris Johnson, mayor of London, presented a biased BBC program on the Crusades that laid the blame for them entirely on Christians. The program pointed out that after expelling the Moors from Spain, Christians converted a mosque into a church -- an act of "vandalism." However, it failed to note that the Crusades were a reaction against over 300 years of jihad and persecution of Eastern Christians, during which Muslims destroyed hundreds of churches and converted many others into mosques, including the magnificent Byzantine church Hagia Sophia.

Consider the situation in the Holy Land 100 years before Pope Urban II's call in 1095 for a crusade to liberate it. It was part of the territory ruled by the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim, whose cruelties Christian and Muslim historians alike recorded. Fourteenth-century historian Ibn al-Dawadari tells us that al-Hakim destroyed the Church of Saint Mark in al-Fustat, Egypt (on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo), which Christians had built in defiance of a law forbidding new church construction. The al-Rashida mosque arose not only over the ruins of Saint Mark's but also over Jewish and Christian cemeteries, surely an act of vandalism. But the height of al-Hakim's cruelties was the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which, according to Muslim sources, began in September 1007. Also known as the Church of the Resurrection, this was possibly the most revered shrine in Christendom -- considered not only Golgotha (or Calvary), where the New Testament says that Jesus was crucified, but also the place where he was buried and hence the site of the Resurrection. According to historian Moshe Gil, al-Hakim ordered that the Church of the Resurrection be torn down "to its very foundations, apart from what could not be destroyed or pulled up, and they also destroyed the Golgotha and the Church of Saint Constantine and all that they contained, as well as all the sacred gravestones. They even tried to dig up the graves and wipe out all traces of their existence."

A new generation of Western medieval scholars has tried to rectify misconceptions about the Crusades. Historian Jonathan Riley-Smith has pointed out that "modern Western public opinion, Arab nationalism and Pan-Islamism all share perceptions of crusading that have more to do with nineteenth-century European imperialism than with actuality." Muslims, in particular, have developed what Riley-Smith calls "mythistories" concerning the putative injuries that they received at the crusaders' hands. This is not to deny, of course, that the crusaders were responsible for outrages, including what is sometimes called the First Holocaust -- the massacres of Jews that began in Worms on May 18, 1096, and continued into Mainz, where the Jewish community, one of the largest in Europe, was decimated. It is rather to say that the Crusades are misunderstood on multiple levels.

For one thing, they were not exclusively concerned with combating Islam. Pagan Wends, Balts and Lithuanians; shamanist Mongols; Orthodox Russians and Greeks; Cathar and Hussite heretics; and those Catholics whom the Church perceived as its enemies -- all were targets of the broader mission to extirpate heresy.

Nor were the Crusades "thoughtless explosions of barbarism," as Riley-Smith accurately characterizes their reputation today. They had a sophisticated underlying rationale, elaborated theologically by Christian nations threatened by Muslim invaders who had managed to reach into the heart of Europe -- from central France in the eighth century to Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were a response to the desecration of Christian shrines in the Holy Land, the destruction of churches there and the general persecution of Christians in the Near East. A Crusade had to fulfill strict criteria for the Church to consider it legitimate and just. It had to be waged for purposes of repelling violence or injury, with the goal of imposing justice on wrongdoers. A Crusade was not to be a war of conversion but rather a rightful attempt to recover unjustly seized Christian territory. And only a recognized church authority like the pope could call for one.

Most crusaders would have laughed at the prospect of material gain. In fact, crusading became a financial burden as the costs of warfare increased. The Crusades were far more concerned with saving not only Christendom from Islam, but also the souls of the crusaders themselves. Many believed that, by taking part, they would redeem their sinfulness.

It's commonly believed today that modern Muslims have inherited from their medieval ancestors memories of crusader violence and destruction. But nothing could be further from the truth. By the fourteenth century in the Islamic world, the Crusades had almost passed out of mind. Muslims had lost interest, and, in any case, they saw themselves as the victors. The Muslim world did not renew its interest in the Crusades until the 1890s, but now it saw them through a Western prism. Western imperialist rhetoric, infused with a tendentious reading of crusader history, gave Muslims the false idea of a continuing Western assault, while the novels of Sir Walter Scott encouraged the myth of the culturally inferior crusaders confronting civilized, liberal and modern-thinking Muslims. Many Arab nationalists believed "their struggle for independence to be a predominantly Arab riposte to a crusade that was being waged against them," as Riley-Smith notes. "Since the 1970s, however, they have been challenged by a renewed and militant Pan-Islamism, the adherents of which have globalized the Nationalist interpretation of crusade history."

Thus the spectacle of modern Islamists invoking the Crusades. As Osama bin Laden wrote: "For the first time, the crusaders have managed to achieve their historic ambitions and dreams against our Islamic umma, gaining control over the Islamic holy places and the Holy Sanctuaries, and hegemony over the wealth and riches of our umma." The battle, according to bin Laden, is between the people of Islam and the global crusaders.

In trying to make sense of their humiliation under Western imperialist powers, aggrieved Muslims have come upon an ingenious but false interpretation of history that sees their nineteenth-and twentieth-century exploitation as a continuation of the medieval Crusades. Such a reworking of history enables them to cast contemporary events, such as the war in Afghanistan and the American presence in Iraq, in an anti-Western light, making the West and the Crusades a convenient scapegoat for the shame and dishonor that Muslims have experienced for decades. Their distorted reading of history gives Islamists both a cause for grievance and a justification for their sense of superiority -- since Muslims did, after all, succeed in expelling the infidels from Islamic lands.

Ibn Warraq is a senior fellow at the Center for Inquiry Transnational and the author of five books on Islam and Koranic criticism, including Why I Am Not a Muslim.

Do we need to hear both sides of the story?

2009-11-30T11:55:00.004-05:00

Last week I finished my latest video project “Indian Voices: Testimonies of the Persecuted.” The DVD documents the reasons why Christians in the Indian state of Orissa were being so brutally persecuted by militant Hindus and also the personal stories of some of those most affected by the violence. We interviewed two women whose husbands had been murdered because of their effective work as pastors in bringing Hindus to Christ and helping them grow in their new faith. We also talked with several men who have endured horrible beatings but are determined to continue their ministries. We spent several hours with young lady named Manini (picture on the right) who courageously shared how she had been beaten and doused with kerosene and now has scars all over the right side of her body as a result of that attack. Manini was also raped. However she says she has forgiven those who did to her. What an amazing young lady! Those are just some of the stories covered in the video.

By the way, it is not my intent in this blog to try and promote and sell the video but to give some context as to what I’m going to talk about. I showed “Indian Voices” to the church house group my wife and I attend on a weekly basis. After we watched the video we had some great discussion about why Christians are persecuted, some of the things the Bible tells us about persecution and what we as Christians in Canada can learn from believers who are being persecuted because of their love for Jesus.

During the discussion one of the guys in the group challenged me as to why we heard only one side of the story; that of those people who either lost loves ones or had been attacked. Why didn’t we tell the other side of the story; that of the so-called persecutors? I explained to him that we at The Voice of the Martyrs Canada do our best to ensure that the stories we put out on videos are true. Our partners in the countries we work verify the reliability of the testimonies of these persecuted Christians. To interview militant Hindus, for example, as to why they kill and rape Christians, burn down their homes and churches might be interesting (but also probably dangerous) it doesn’t change the facts of that their victims have suffered for being a follower of Jesus. Do we really need to hear from the boys and men who raped Manini, unless it was to hear how sorry they were for acting so evil?

I have a long and varied background in broadcasting, so getting both sides to a story is ingrained in me. However VOM Canada is not a news organization; we are a ministry with a set goal of bringing awareness and prayer support to our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, and doing what we can to help them. If that sounds biased, so be it. We exist to serve the Persecuted Church. As I was saying to my wife on the way home after that lively discussion and debate at the house group, the apostle Paul didn’t feel he needed to include comments from those who beat him up (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-27). Neither do we.
VOM Canada will continue to bring credible firsthand stories and reports from our Christian family around the world. If from time to time we hear from the persecutor, that’s fine. But that’s not our focus.

Reporting the news, not becoming it

2009-11-29T11:10:00.001-05:00

As the Toronto Star rightly noted on Saturday

A golden rule for journalists is to report the story, not become it.

Unfortunately for Amanda Lindhout, this was not the case. Kidnapped in Somalia, the Canadian journalist endured 15 months of captivity before her release this week.

Snatched along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan in August 2008, the pair says they were beaten, tortured and left alone, often without food.

The sad details of what they experienced will emerge in coming weeks as they return home and begin to heal. (Both were reported Friday to be in good condition at a Nairobi hospital.)

But their release has also sparked discussion about journalists in conflict zones – and questions about Lindhout's credentials. Online blogs note her dozens of Facebook photos striking glamorous poses amid conflict.

Gutsy reporter? Or naive thrill-seeker?

The temptation to become the story rather than reporting it is not unique to the secular news media. Those of us who work with persecuted Christians may, indeed, even be especially susceptible to it. Early in my ministry with The Voice of the Martyrs I remember how a colleague of mine (who is no longer with the ministry) had been interviewed by a major newspaper and described as a modern-day Christian “Indiana Jones.”

I can understand how that can happen. Our work tends to take us to remote areas in foreign countries meeting individuals who stories are often engaging, inspirational, and rather exotic. There is a degree of danger and secrecy to our work. Our workers often see a side to the Christian life that many others in the West only read about in history books. Sometimes more than just a little hint of adventurism is implied in the the way our kind of ministry is described in writing or at meetings. Some ministries do it deliberately. Sometimes it is unavoidable, regardless of how much one tries to avoid sensationalism. It’s the nature of the work.

Now, add to this mix individual depravity - a need for recognition, a love of the limelight or any other desire to become the object of affection, respect or attention - and you can perhaps see why I have seen it a part of my mandate as a leader to repeatedly remind my colleagues that the focus of our ministry needs to be on the faithfulness of God and His persecuted children and not on us as an organization or as individuals. I warn new staff (and remind old staff) to be careful about believing their own press.

This has been one of the reasons why I have been reluctant until recently about getting involved in interviews about my own struggle with cancer. When I finally consented, I deliberately sought to steer the interview in the direction of bringing focus back to the persecuted church as much as possible and how having cancer has equipped me for better service to them or how working with them has helped prepare me for my fight with this (in my case) incurable disease. The focus of our work is to glorify God by serving His Persecuted Church, not to glorify ourselves by serving them.

Understanding this also finds expression in how we as a mission talk about our work with the persecuted. We deliberately don’t spend a lot of time talking about our work or the projects that we get involved in. Again, this is not our focus. With some organizations, their reporting primarily concerns the work that they are engaged in. Like reporters reporting on the news media, they have become the news rather than the reporters of it.

“But how else will you raise financial support?” some will ask.

It’s actually not that hard. Why not simply pray that God will speak to the hearts of those who read your material? I challenge you to report on how God is being glorified and His purposes are being fulfilled and watch how people gravitate to this kind of “fundraising” as God works in their hearts.

This week in persecuted church history (November 29-December 5)

2009-11-29T10:51:00.001-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

November 29

257: Saturninus, a missionary-bishop is killed in in Toulouse when local religious leaders, enraged by the impact that his preaching was having in their community, seized and chained him and gave him the ultimatum of worshipping their gods or be killed. When he refused, they whipped him and then brought in a bull that they had intended to use as a sacrifice in their temple. They tied Saturninus to the animal and then set it loose, dragging the faithful bishop to his death.
1847: Missionary physician Marcus Whitman, his wife, and 12 others are killed by American Indians in Washington's Walla Walla valley. Whitman had recently returned from a 3,000-mile journey to convince the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions not to close down one of his three mission stations. He was successful, and returned with a fresh group of immigrants—and the measles virus. Many Indians died of the disease, some of them because Whitman gave them vaccinations. The Indians accused Whitman and other missionaries of black magic and murdered them.
2003: Christians I Made Simson and Ketut Sarmon are shot and killed by Islamists and four others injured in the village of Kilotrans, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. In the village of Morowa, two others Christians, Ruslan Parrafik and Ririn Bode, are shot dead when attackers on motorcycles opened fire on villagers who had gathered for prayer at a church.
2005: Swedish pastor Ake Green is acquitted on charges that he had violated the country's hate propaganda laws.

November 30

1554: The English Parliament present a supplication to King Philip and Queen Mary for restoration of the Roman Catholic church, making it the official religion of England. During Mary's five-year reign, hundreds are killed for insisting that salvation was to be found only in Christ and that Scripture was the believer's authority.
1725: Martin Boehm is born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A Mennonite bishop, he was excluded from the Mennonite communion because of his less conservative views and association with persons of other sects. He later joined with Philip W. Otterbein and others to form the United Brethren in Christ Church.
2005: Pamong Praja police bulldoze five church buildings in an area of Tangerang county, Indonesia while church members stand in front of their buildings and watch. When the churches initially heard about the proposed demolitions, they requested a delay until after Christmas. However, at 11:00 a.m., hundreds of local security officials moved in. They cleared the buildings of their contents and destroyed the buildings. The five churches were the Indonesia Protestant Christian Church, Indonesia Pentecost Church, Protestant Batak Christian Huria Church, Indonesia Haleluyah Pentecost Church, and Indonesia Bethel Church. Officials claim that the church buildings violated residential bylaws. Church leaders believe, however, that political interests motivated the destruction.
2007: The Alberta Human Rights Commission rules that Stephen Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition violate Alberta's human rights law in a letter published in the Red Deer Advocate in 2002. The ruling states that the letter was "likely to expose homosexuals to hatred or contempt because of their sexual preference."

December 1

1170: Banished earlier by king Henry II because he sided with the church against the crown, archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket returns to England, electrifying the country. Henry orders his former friend's execution, and Becket is slain by four knights while at vespers on December 29.
1521: Pope Leo X, enemy of Martin Luther (whom he excommunicated in 1520), dies.
1989: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II meet at the Vatican, announcing an agreement to re-establish diplomatic ties. Gorbachev also denounced 70 years of religious oppression in his country

December 2

1980: Three American nuns and a lay churchwoman are killed by death squads in El Salvador.

December 3

1552: Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, one of the founding members of his order and one of the greatest missionaries ever, dies awaiting admission to China. Before that, he had converted 700,000 people in Portugal, India, Indonesia, Japan, and elsewhere.

December 4

1572: Mattheus Bernaerts, Adriaen Rogiers, Maerten Van Der Straten and Dingentgen of Honschoten are burned at the stake in Ghent, Flanders because of their testimony of Christ.
1573: Two sisters, Susanneken and Kalleken Claes are publicly burned at the stake with their mouth gagged to prevent them from speaking about Christ to the crowd in Ghent, Flanders
1917: The Bolsheviks in Russia confiscate all church lands.
2005: At least twenty-five members of Dharma Sena, a militant Hindu group, attack a church in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The mob severely beat four of those present, including two visiting speakers. The four Christians and an area pastor who was dragged from his home are forcibly taken to a local Hindu temple. The militants try to force them to bow before the idols and proclaim, "Victory be to the god Ram." The Christians refuse. One of the guest speakers, Masih Das Rai, says to them, "You can kill me, but I will not bow down to the idol." Rai had been previously accused by Dharma Sena of forcibly converting people to Christianity.

December 5

1527: Hans Schlaffer is arrested by local Roman Catholic authorities in Schwaz, Austria. In nearby Frundsberg Castle, they torture him and priests interrogate him about his beliefs on baptism and faith in Christ. Two months later, he was beheaded for his convictions.
1572: Willem De Rijcker and Christoffel Fierens are strangled and then burned at the stake in Meenen, Flanders as heretics by local Roman Catholic authorities because of their anabaptist beliefs.

“The Privilege of Suffering” lectures

2009-11-28T15:04:00.001-05:00

Is it wrong to covet another organization’s conference?

I recently came across the website of an organization that I met through Twitter and was delighted to see the focus of their recently conference in Georgia - The Privilege of Suffering. To Every Tribe (TET) has posted the lectures from the conference and I would highly recommend taking the time to listen to them. Hershael York’s exposition of “What is Lacking in Christ’s Sufferings” is especially good.

Looking through the messages of TET’s director David Sitton, it would seem that persecution and martyrdom is a focus of this ministry and of his own study. I look forward to getting to know more of this ministry in the days to come.

"I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer."

2009-11-28T10:09:00.002-05:00

As part of my daily devotional practice over the past few months, I have been reading a chapter or two from Mike Mason’s book The Gospel According to Job. This morning’s reading was especially helpful to me in light of my present circumstances. For those of you who have been reading my personal blog, you will have known that I have been experiencing severe pain in my lower torso and left leg for over two weeks. Job’s words in 30:20 have been my cry as well, just as I know that they are the cry of God’s persecuted children worldwide. I hope that you find these words a blessing as I have.

True Prayer
"I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer." (30:20)
In the Bible we often read of people "crying out to the Lord." But what does it mean to "cry out"? Does it mean to express oneself demurely to God, with polite restraint, using the well-worn, time-honored phrases of the conventional prayer meeting? Or do the words "cry out" suggest more the sort of sound a man might make whose legs have just been caught up in a piece of machinery? "Surely [God] will save you from the fowler's snare;" sings the psalmist (91:3). A snare is a leghold trap, a contrivance designed to catch an animal and hold it until it dies of shock or starvation, condemning it in the meanwhile to hopeless struggle and horror. Is this not the sort of situation that might bring a human being to the point of crying out to God?
There is no true prayer without agony. Perhaps this is the problem in many of our churches. What little prayer we have is shallow, timid, carefully censored, and full of oratorical flourishes and hot air. There is little agony in it, and therefore little honesty or humility. We seem to think that the Lord is like everyone else we know, and that He cannot handle real honesty. So we put on our Sunday best to visit Him, and when we return home and take off our fancy duds we are left alone with what is underneath: the dirty underwear of hypocrisy.
Why do we flatly refuse to bring real emotions to our prayer meetings? Do we think that the public humbling of ourselves before the Lord should always be a pretty and an enjoyable thing? Do we think the Lord is only honored so long as our own public image and personal dignity are in no way compromised? But the truth is just the opposite: only when we ourselves are prepared to lose face can the Lord's face begin to shine through. It is for Him to exalt us; our part is to humble ourselves. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14).
Even in our private prayers, let alone in our public ones, we Christians have a way of tiptoeing around the throne of God as if He were an invalid or a doddering old man. But who do we think we are kidding? The Lord always knows exactly what we are feeling. He knows all there is to know about us. There is not a shadow of doubt or anger or hate in our hearts but God sees it. So why not just lay all our cards on the table? Real prayer is playing straight with God. If we have never cried out to the Lord, perhaps it is because we have not realized the true horror of our situation. We need to be careful that we do not grow so preoccupied with maintaining our spiritual equilibrium that we regard it as unseemly to cry out to God.
At bottom, probably what we are most afraid of in prayer is that no answer will come, and that then we will be left worse off than before. But true prayer has two parts: first there is the crying out, and then there is the waiting for an answer. If we are the sort of people who insist on having instant answers, then we shall certainly lack the courage to cry out. Though we might continue to go through the motions of prayer, we will have given up on the real thing.
Towards the end of the book of Jeremiah, the nation of Judah was on its last legs. It had been conquered by the Babylonians, and most of its people had been led away into captivity. Only a small remnant was left under the puppet governor Gedaliah. But when Gedaliah was assassinated by a rebel, suddenly even these survivors were in peril, for everyone knew that a brutal reprisal could be expected from the Babylonians. So what were they to do? What they did, surprisingly, was to go to the prophet Jeremiah and beg him to consult the Lord for them. Furthermore they bound themselves to obey God's Word no matter what. Their situation was desperate. They were crying out. Jeremiah agreed to pray for them.
At this point, we read one of the most astounding understatements in the Bible: "Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah" (42:7). Imagine! Ten days later! Who could possibly wait ten days under such circumstances? Did the Lord not understand that this was a dire emergency? After ten days, naturally, the people had already made up their minds to ignore God's answer and to do exactly what they felt like doing: run like crazy down to Egypt. When the pressure was on, they performed the first requirement of prayer admirably: they cried out to the Lord. But for the second half of prayer they had no stomach. They could not wait for an answer.
[Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job. Crossway, 1994: 309-310. Available to order from The Voice of the Martyrs]

Christmas Blessing: North Korea is underway!

2009-11-27T11:47:00.003-05:00

It’s begun. One of our most exciting Christmas Blessing projects has been launched and we are tremendously excited.

This year we are making it possible for you to encourage and strengthen members of your persecuted brothers and sisters in North Korea. For only $50, you can sponsor a special Christmas Blessing package containing such vital necessities as rice, clothing, vitamins, Bibles, Christian books, a backpack (see photo on left), various toiletries like soap, clippers and toothpaste, and many more items that are expensive or virtually impossible to get in North Korea.

As you can see from the photo on the right, the assembly of the packs is underway and we have received reports that some are already being delivered. Thank you to those of you who have already given towards this project. Your expression of love is going to send a powerful message to our brothers and sisters in this isolated society. If you haven’t joined us yet, it’s not too late! We want to distribute as many packs as we can and that will depend on how much we receive.

Get involved in this exciting project today as we grasp the hands of our brothers and sisters in North Korea and share the blessing of Christmas with them!

Please make cheques for this project payable to The Voice of the Martyrs Inc. and mail them (with a note indicating what the gift is for) to:

The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 117, Port Credit,
Mississauga, Ontario
L5G 4L5

Or you can donate securely online through CanadaHelps

Donations for this project will be received until the needs of this projects are met or until the end of December.

Questions? Contact us by clicking here.

True repentance: The martyrdom of James the Persian

2009-11-27T10:47:00.001-05:00

James was from the city of Bythlaba and was of noble birth. He became the closest and most honoured friend of Isdiger (or Yazdegerd) I, King of Persia (reigned 399-420). Though a Christian from his youth, James renounced Christ because he was allured by the king's friendship and flatteries and became an important member of the imperial court.

When James’ mother and his wife learned of this, they wrote him a letter they begging him to repent and return to Christ. They said that they would have nothing more to do with him, since he had preferred a glory that is temporal to the love of Christ. Wounded in soul by these words, James came to himself, James wept over his error, and repudiated the worship of the idols. He then courageously confessed his faith in Christ the Lord to the king, Isdiger’s son and successor Bahram (or Varahran) V (reigned 421-438), who was the king by that time.

The king was enraged by James’ decision. He commanded that his entire body was to be cut up, piece by piece. Having been cut asunder limb by limb to his very hips and shoulders, the courageous martyr was finally beheaded, in the year 421.

Thanksgiving Day and the Persecuted Church

2009-11-25T13:33:00.001-05:00

In my opinion, Thanksgiving Day is one of those days when the inconsistency with which North Americans view persecution is the most glaring. To that end, I rewrote an older article this year for Thanksgiving Day here in Canada (October 12). I would like to draw attention to it for our many American readers as well. Click here to read Thanksgiving, Freedom & The Persecuted Church (redux*) as we consider if perhaps thankfulness may not be the most appropriate response to religious freedom.

We do wish all of our American friends a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?

2009-11-25T10:55:00.001-05:00

by Raymond Ibrahim
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2009, pp. 3-12

http://www.meforum.org/2159/are-judaism-and-christianity-as-violent-as-islam

"There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam." So announces former nun and self-professed "freelance monotheist," Karen Armstrong. This quote sums up the single most influential argument currently serving to deflect the accusation that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant: All monotheistic religions, proponents of such an argument say, and not just Islam, have their fair share of violent and intolerant scriptures, as well as bloody histories. Thus, whenever Islam's sacred scriptures—the Qur'an first, followed by the reports on the words and deeds of Muhammad (the Hadith)—are highlighted as demonstrative of the religion's innate bellicosity, the immediate rejoinder is that other scriptures, specifically those of Judeo-Christianity, are as riddled with violent passages.

More often than not, this argument puts an end to any discussion regarding whether violence and intolerance are unique to Islam. Instead, the default answer becomes that it is not Islam per se but rather Muslim grievance and frustration—ever exacerbated by economic, political, and social factors—that lead to violence. That this view comports perfectly with the secular West's "materialistic" epistemology makes it all the more unquestioned.

Therefore, before condemning the Qur'an and the historical words and deeds of Islam's prophet Muhammad for inciting violence and intolerance, Jews are counseled to consider the historical atrocities committed by their Hebrew forefathers as recorded in their own scriptures; Christians are advised to consider the brutal cycle of violence their forbears have committed in the name of their faith against both non-Christians and fellow Christians. In other words, Jews and Christians are reminded that those who live in glass houses should not be hurling stones.

But is that really the case? Is the analogy with other scriptures legitimate? Does Hebrew violence in the ancient era, and Christian violence in the medieval era, compare to or explain away the tenacity of Muslim violence in the modern era?

[click here to download the full article]

20 nation poll reveals that most people support the right to criticize religions

2009-11-24T15:09:00.001-05:00

As the UN General Assembly prepares to debate a proposal calling for its member nations to take action against the defamation of religion, a survey conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org shows that majorities in 13 of 20 nations polled around the world support the right to criticize a religion. According to the survey of more than 18,000 people, on average 57% of respondents agreed that "people should be allowed to publicly criticize a religion because people should have freedom of speech." 34% of respondents also agreed that governments "should have the right to fine or imprison people who publicly criticize a religion because such criticism could defame the religion."

The issue of whether freedom of speech should extend to criticism and defamation of religion has come to the forefront in recent months as the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a group of 56 Muslim nations, continues to promote a UN resolution that calls on all nations of the world "to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred in general and against Islam and Muslims in particular." There is even discussion of a binding treaty amendment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), an existing international treaty on racism, that would include the defamation of religion.

It is interesting to note from the survey that of the seven nations where most people agree with that criticism of religion should be prohibited, five have overwhelmingly Muslim populations -- Egypt (71%), Pakistan (62%), Iraq (57%), Indonesia (49%), and the Palestinian territories (51%). The other two -- India (59%) and Nigeria (54%)—have a considerable history of religiously motivated violence.

Earlier this month, The Voice of the Martyrs joined a coalition of over 100 Christian, Muslim and Jewish organisations as well as humanist and secular groups from around the world in signing a common civil society statement against the concept of “defamation of religions.”

We continue to urge you to stand with us by contacting Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, John McNee, and encourage him to support Canada’s opposition to any defamation of religions resolutions and any attempt to extend the concept into binding treaties such as ICERD (for the contact information for UN embassies of other countries, click here). A preliminary vote on the General Assembly resolution is expected before the end of November with a final plenary vote expected in early to mid-December.

Are you suffering for the real Jesus?

2009-11-24T14:22:00.001-05:00

You probably didn’t notice, but we recently removed reference to an imprisoned pastor on our websites when we learned that he and the group that he was a part of denied that Jesus is and has always been truly God. Denying the Trinity, they claim that only God the Father is truly and eternally God.

Sadly but truly, this belief places them firmly outside of the limits of what can be truly called the Christian faith and while we believe that the pastor’s arrest is unjust because no one should be arrested for their religious beliefs, it is outside of our mandate as an organization to speak out on his behalf as our mission is strictly that of glorifying God by serving His persecuted church. Denying the deity of Jesus places him and his group outside of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Surely you might say, this sort of theological hair-splitting is unnecessary in today’s world. Who are we to decide one way or another who belongs in the kingdom of God and who is outside of its boundaries?

In the late fourth century, Amphilocus was the bishop of Iconium. At this point of church history, there was tremendous debate over the nature of Jesus’ humanity and divinity. The rise of the Arian heresy was at its highest and the very existence of the Christian faith was on the tipping point, as many embraced the belief that Jesus was a created being who was a divine man but not truly and eternally God. Amphilocus personally begged the emperor Theodosius the Great to drive the Arians out of every city in the Empire, but the Emperor did not comply with his request. Personally, I think that his request was inappropriate but I understand the intent behind it and wonder if I would have responded much differently had I been in his place.

A few days later, Amphilochius came before the Emperor again. When the bishop was taken into the emperor’s presence, he was sitting on his throne with his son Arcadius, whom he had taken as co-Emperor, sitting at his right hand. Entering the room, Amphilochius gave the appropriate reverence to Theodosius, but ignored Arcadius, treating him as if he were not even there. Theodosius was infuriated by this and commanded that Amphilochius be instantly driven from court. The bishop responded, “Do you see, O Emperor, how you do not tolerate a slight paid to your son? In the same way, God the Father does not tolerate dishonour paid to His Son, turning with loathing from those who blaspheme against Him, and being angered at that accursed Arian heresy.”

Theology matters. What one believes about Jesus matters and not only for the good of the Church. I am certain that it matters to God the Father. If we want to truly glorify God, we have to make such distinctives, as difficult as they may be. Who wants to be labelled as “narrow-minded” or “judgmental”? But just claiming to believe in Jesus or calling oneself a Christian does not make it so; one must know who this Jesus is that he/she claims to believe in and identify with. This is even true for those who are persecuted and suffer for their religious convictions. People don’t always suffer for the real Jesus.

(Source of story: http://www.abbamoses.com/)

This week in persecuted church history (November 22-28)

2009-11-22T10:33:00.001-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

November 22

1546: Hans Staudtach, Anthony Keyn, Blasius Beck and Leonhard Schneider are condemned to death in Vienna because of their refusal to renounce their faith and beheaded.
2005: Ghorban Tori, an Iranian convert to Christianity, is kidnapped from his home in Gonbad-e-Kavus. A few hours later, body is dumped outside of his home. The 50-year-old pastor of an independent house church had been stabbed to death.
2008: Refaat and Ibrahim Fawzy Abdo, Egyptian Christian brothers falsely accused of murdering a Muslim, are sent to the El Wadi El Gadid Detention Camp in an attempt to coerce them into confessing to the crime.

November 23

101: Clement, the bishop of Rome, is martyred.
1555: Digna Pieters, after being tortured by authorities in an attempt to force her to renounce her faith, is put into a bag and drowned in Dortrecht, Netherlands.
2003: Pastor Iyob and seven of his parishioners of the Kale Hiwot Church in the town of Mendefera, Eritrea are arrested and taken into custody simply because of their evangelical Christian faith.
2005: Sixteen nuns are injured by police as they protest plans to destroy a school building in Xian, China. The building had been confiscated by the Chinese government during Mao's "Cultural Revolution," but should have been returned to the Catholic Church after policies changed in 1979.

November 24

1531: Johannes Oecolampadius, a leader in the Swiss Reformation, dies at 49. He sided with Ulrich Zwingli in disputing Martin Luther on the Lord's Supper and also helped Erasmus edit the New Testament in Greek.
1572: Scottish reformer John Knox dies in Edinburgh

November 25

311: Peter, the sixteenth bishop of Alexandria, is martyred by beheading by order of the emperor Diocletian
523: Hundreds of Christians, including women and children, are massacred in the city of Najran at the order of Dhu Nuwas, ruler of the Himyarite tribe in south Arabia. Dhu Nuwas was a Judaizer who had sworn to wipe out Christianity in his kingdom. When he captured the Christian city of Najran, he ordered the Christians to renounce their faith. In an amazing display of courage and faithfulness, in the weeks that followed, thousands more were beheaded, tortured, and burned in a fruitless attempt to force the Christians to deny Christ.
2007: Two pastors, C.J. Joemon and C.J. Jojo, and another believer, G. Anil, are stripped, tied to a pole and beaten after a worship service at the Christ Vision Church is attacked by Hindu nationalists in the Hassan district of Karnataka, India.

November 26

2008: Salat Sekondo Mberwa, a Somali Christian who fled to a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya in 2005 after Muslims murdered a Christian relative, is shot by Muslims at approximately 6:00 p.m., when they broke into his residence in the camp and shot him in the shoulder as he tried to escape out a window. The assailants left him for dead. He was later discovered by his family.

November 27

1095: After nine days of sessions among clerics, Pope Urban II addresses the public to proclaim the First Crusade. The goals were to defend Eastern Christians from Muslim aggression, make pilgrimages to Jerusalem safer, and recapture the Holy Sepulcher. "God wills it! God wills it!" the crowd shouted in response
1560: Soetgen Van Den Houte and an other women named Martha are martyred in the city of Ghent, Flanders (in present day Belgium) after being severely mistreated while in prison for their faith.
1970: On a trip to the Philippines, Pope Paul VI is attacked by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest. Though the Vatican announced the pontiff was unhurt, he suffered a chest wound in the assault.
2005: As approximately thirty children gather in a home in Curug, Indonesia to study the Bible, a mob of Islamic militants descend upon the home and cause the children to scatter in panic. The militants destroy guitars, a keyboard, an organ and a fan as well as several desks and chairs. They force the teachers and children out of the house and then "seal" it with posters denouncing the Sunday school.

November 28

1628: John Bunyan is born in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. He would spend much of his life in jail because of his preaching.
2006: A Moroccan court sentences a German tourist, Sadek Noshi Yassa (64) to six months in prison and a fine of 500 dirhams ($68 CAD) for trying to "shake the faith of a Muslim." Authorities allege that Yassa was distributing books and CDs about the Christian faith to young Muslims on the streets of Agadir.

Orthodox priest gunned down in Moscow church

2009-11-20T15:20:00.001-05:00

Fr. Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest well known for his missionary activities among Muslims, occultists and others, was shot an killed in the St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Moscow on Thursday evening. The killer reportedly entered the church, asked for the priest by name, and then opened fire at close range with a pistol. Sysoyev was hit in the head and chest and died later in hospital. He was 35 years old and the father of three.

There seems to be little doubt that religious motives are behind the killing. Syosyev had reportedly been receiving a number of death threats because of his teachings and missionary activities.

Please remember Fr. Daniil’s wife and children during this time of grief. You can post prayers on their behalf on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

Finally, a practical book on how to help the poor

2009-11-20T12:13:00.001-05:00

Peter Greer and Phil Smith have done the Christian community a great service with their new book The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty. Practical and realistic are the two words that I would use to describe this book. This is what people like me are looking for.

I know that I should feel differently. but I have little time or interest in the arguments for or against global debt reduction. I am convinced that simply throwing more relief aid money into Africa is any real solution at all. Personally, I think that initiatives like Micah Challenge and the Millennium Development Goals have done very little practical good and have perhaps served to distance the average Christian and church from the discussion of how to assist the poor. I have grave doubts that simply reducing developing world debt is any kind of long-term solution (or even short-term solution). Hence, it seems to me, the discussion of how to help the poor has become specialized, leaving the average “Joe” or “Jane” wondering what he or she can really do. The problem seems so large and our ability to contribute so limited in comparison to the need.

Greer and Smith, however, introduce the problem, describe practical and real strategies that can break the cycle of dependency and and point to possible ways that the average church and individual can get involved in reducing poverty. This is what most people are looking for. This is what I am looking for.

The authors don’t provide all of the answers, of course. I am still wondering how micro-financing, credits and insurance can be established in societies where religious persecution is common and where the poor not only have to deal with poverty but societal prejudice and hostility. All of the examples given by Greer and Smith are in countries where there is relative stability in terms of religious tolerance. Is it possible, we wonder, to graft onto an already existing microfinance institutes a program of providing micro-loans specifically to persecuted Christians? We were able to do something similar in India a few years ago. Could this be replicated elsewhere? As a ministry that focuses solely on serving the persecuted, this is a fundamental question, since most MFI’s serve the poor in general, regardless of religion. We respect that, but that would take us beyond our mandate. Having read Greer and Smith, I feel better equipped to know where to proceed, however, in finding the answers to some of these questions.

Join the team

2009-11-19T16:56:00.001-05:00

Do you live within driving distance of our office in Mississauga, Ontario? Do you have the kind of job where you can give time to the Lord during the week? Perhaps you are retired but have a passion to serve persecuted Christians in a meaningful way. Consider being part of our office team! Right now The Voice of the Martyrs is looking for committed volunteers who can serve at our office anywhere from 4-8 hours weekly with the following:

Adding new newsletter subscriptions into our database
Preparing, packing and shipping book orders
Stuffing envelopes and writing thank you notes to our donors
Preparing, packing, and shipping books and other resources for various events
Unpacking and counting books after events
Preparing books for sale with labels and book cards
Answering telephones and forwarding calls to appropriate staff
Scanning and indexing pictures that we take and receive from around the world.

Want to know more? Why not fill out the volunteer contact form or contact Ed, our Volunteer Network Administrator at 1.888.298.6423, or use our online contact form?

The story of Anastasius of Epirus and Daniel

2009-11-18T12:09:00.001-05:00

One of the things I appreciate most about Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the way in which they value history and make a point of remembering those who have sacrificed everything for their faith. Everyday, they commemorate the lives of some of these individuals. I have subscribed to an RSS feed where everyday I receive a link to a podcast by Ancient Faith Radio where the story of one of them is told. I have found listening to these to be one of my quiet pleasures of the day.

Today’s podcast has to to with Anastasius of Epirus and Daniel, a Muslim whom he led to faith in Christ. Here is their story:

Anastasius and his sister were Greek peasants living in Epirus under Ottoman rule. One day a band of Turks came through their village, led by Musa, the son of the local Pasha (Governor). Musa was struck by the beauty of Anastasius' sister and tried to seize her, but Anastasius threw himself at the Turks and fought them off long enough for his sister to escape. Musa's father had Anastasius arrested and brought before him and, impressed by his courage, attempted to convert him to Islam by many means: threats, beatings, and offers of worldly honor; but Anastasius held firm and was cast into prison.

Musa was moved by the way that Anastasius bore all these trials and temptations, and wanted to know more about the Faith that sustained him. Going secretly to Anastasius' prison cell, he peered in and saw two young men of shining appearance with the prisoner. They vanished as soon as Musa entered. Anastasius told Musa that these were angels who guard and aid every Christian, especially when they suffer for Christ. He also explained in a simple way the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which enables His followers to set little value upon worldly things. Musa, deeply moved, threw himself at Anastasius' feet and asked to become a Christian. Anastasius told him to wait until the proper time, because his conversion would cause his father to persecute all the Christians under his power. A few days later, in 1750, Anastasius was beheaded by order of the Pasha.

Soon after this, Musa visited the tomb of a holy Martyr and was granted a vision of Anastasius, who appeared to him encircled in light and urged him to continue on the road to Christ. Musa fled his father's domain to the Peleponnese where he received direction in the Faith from an aged ascetic. He then traveled to Venice to be baptized without fear of reprisal by the Turks. In time he became a monk on Corfu, receiving the monastic name of Daniel. He lived there in asceticism, but the desire grew in him to taste martyrdom for Christ, so he traveled to Constantinople to declare his conversion to the Muslims. But the Christians there dissuaded him, knowing that the conversion of such a prominent Turk would, if it were known, lead to retaliation against Christians. Saint Daniel returned to Corfu, where he founded a church in honor of St Anastasius and reposed in peace.

Maryam and Marzieh set free

2009-11-18T11:29:00.001-05:00

We rejoice to announce that, after 259 days in detention, Iranian Christians Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh were released from Evin prison on Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 3:30pm without bail. Elam Ministries notes that “they may yet have to face a court hearing and still need our prayers.”

“Words are not enough to express our gratitude to the Lord and to His people who have prayed and worked for our release," Elam quoted them as saying.

Thank you to all who have been praying for these young ladies for the past nine months. Join us and others around the world in praying:

For their health to be fully restored.
For their continued safety.
For their full acquittal.

Please feel free to post your prayers and praise on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

Is God Losing?

2009-11-17T12:33:00.004-05:00

One of the main reasons why the Voice of the Martyrs exists is to be a voice for those who are being persecuted. We do that in a number of ways - through our month newsletter, our weekly Persecution and Prayer Alert, web sites and multimedia (to name a few). Technology has dramatically changed since the time Richard Wurmbrand began this mission over 40 years ago. As a result we get information about the persecution of Christians around the world more often and much sooner. Technology and the availability of travel allows us to produce more video reports and write articles of persecuted believers so we can hear their voices and see their faces which in turn helps us better understand what they are facing as followers of Jesus. They aren’t just living in some far off land, but they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, a part of the same family as us. Their stories become more real to us. We can’t ignore them.

This constant access of information about the Persecuted Church makes us more aware of those who are suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

However there are those who feel that by reporting too much on the subject Christian persecution makes it appear that God’s Kingdom is not doing so well. A recent email from Dave got me thinking about this. Here is what he wrote.

Hello, I have heard that some people were complaining that the VOMC The Voice of the Martyrs Canada) was painting a picture that God was 'losing' in the world by posting so many articles of persecution. I wanted to say that seeing God answer prayers, like Chen Le being invited back to the school he had been banned from in China, is just one example of how God is winning. And working. And moving. As a Canadian we need to see what is happening around the world to Christians. Thank you all for your hard work in presenting stories of persecution from around the world. Thank you for the newsletters and for the people you are representing through them. Keep on presenting the truth! For His glory! – Dave

Dave is right. It not God’s Kingdom that is being destroyed, it is Satan’s kingdom that is falling. The enemy of our souls is desperate, and is doing all he can to disrupt the work of God. All through the Bible we read about the suffering of God’s righteous servants. Much of the New Testament was written by persecuted Christians to persecuted Christians. Being persecuted for those who desire to live of godly life in Christ Jesus is just a part of what it is to be a follower of the Lord (2 Timothy 3:12). The persecution of Christians is often proof that God is advancing His Kingdom, not losing ground.

We are in a war, and that battle which is often brutal will continue until the end of time. However the Bible tells us, God’s people are on the winning side! Yes, there are wounded along the way. But rather than ignoring them or turning away, let’s pray for them, remember them and help them. God is NOT losing! And we’ll keep reporting and telling the stories from the Persecuted Church.

Release delayed for Maryam and Marzieh

2009-11-16T12:08:00.001-05:00

We were informed this morning by Elam Ministries that the release of Iranian Christians Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh was delayed today due to legal procedures but that their release is still imminent. They ask that we continue to uphold this situation in our prayers.

Update! Maryam and Marzieh told that they will be released!

2009-11-15T10:53:00.001-05:00

We have just learned from Elam Ministries that Iranian Christians Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh have been told that they will be released tomorrow, Monday November 16, 2009 after 255 days of captivity in the Evin prison. According to the report, after their release they still might have to attend court hearings. However, their release would be a significant step forward. Elam said, “We are rejoicing at the prospect of their release but would ask you to pray for their full and unconditional release, and for their safety and quick recovery.

More news will be released as it comes available. Use our “Search This Blog” feature to get further information and other postings that we have released on Maryam and Marzieh in the past year.

This week in persecuted church history (November 15-21)

2009-11-15T10:11:00.001-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

November 15

1838: A group from the university of Oxford, England and the city meets at Town Hall and agree to ask the public for funds to erect a Gothic Cross atop a spire in Oxford to the memory of Nicholas Ridley, Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer, whose sacrifice they believed had been deliberately overlooked in a recently published church history book. The work was completed in 1841.
1885: Joseph Mukasa, a member of the royal family and a convert to Christianity, is beheaded in Uganda at the order of King Mwanga.
Mwanga was cruel and wicked with little political sense. One of his early acts (January 1885) was to martyr three Protestant converts. Later that same year, his troops massacred Anglican bishop James Hannington and the Africans traveling with him. Mukasa opposed the killing of the bishop. Also, being in charge of the palace pages, he was alarmed when he noticed that the king was sexually attracted to the young boys and hide them. Angered, the king agreed to his Prime Minister Katikiro’s suggestion that Mukasa should be killed because he was leader of the young Christian community.

Inspired by Mukasa's heroism, the church grew rapidly. Another convert, Charles Lwanga, took Mukasa's place in the palace and acted with the same integrity. The king roasted him over a slow fire. Many other converts were murdered in the next two years, but Mukasa was the first of the Catholic martyrs in Uganda.

November 16

2008: Four Christians in the community of Santiago Teotlaxco, Oaxaca State, Mexico are jailed for refusing to participate or help pay for a festival that blends traditional native religions and Roman Catholicism.

November 17

303: Romanus, a native of Palestine and deacon of the church of Caesarea, is ordered strangled to death having been brutally tortured by scourging, being put to the rack, his body torn with hooks, his flesh cut with knives, his face scared, his teeth knocked out, and his hair plucked up by the roots.
1558: Elizabeth I's accession to the English throne leads to the re-establishment of the Church of England.
2004: A 24-year-old new convert to Christianity in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines is seriously wounded by Muslim militants as he was making his way home from the market around 9:00 p.m. He was ambushed by three men and shot in the abdomen and the chest.

November 18

1302: Pope Boniface VIII publishes "Unam Sanctam," declaring there is "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" outside of which there is "neither salvation nor remission of sins." Emphasizing the pope's position as Supreme Head of the Church, it also demanded that temporal powers subjugate themselves to spiritual ones.
2007: Pastor Siddarama Gokhavi (60) and six other Christians are beaten by Bajrang Dal activists who attack them as they are worshiping in Ananda Nagara, Karnataka. The attackers vandalize the building, burn Bibles and chant slogans against Christians. The militants include a senior police officer. Pastor Gokhavi and his wife, Rekha, are injured in the attack, along with five others. The attackers accuse the Christians of coercing Hindus into becoming Christians.

November 19

2003: A group of Christian pilgrims from Ecuador are deliberately targeted by a Palestinian terrorist as they prepare to enter Israel at the Eilat-Aqaba border crossing. One is killed and four others wounded.

November 20

869: Edmund, king of East Anglia, is executed by the invading Danish Vikings when he refused to deny his Christian convictions as the condition of surrender. He was then beaten with sticks, used as an archery target and eventually beheaded.
1527: Weynken of Monickendam in burnt to death in the Hague after being interrogated by the local governor for converting to Protestantism.
1541: In Switzerland, French reformer John Calvin, 32, established a theocratic government at Geneva, thereby creating a home base for emergent Protestantism throughout Europe.
1806: Baptist preacher Isaac Backus, an influential voice in arguing for religious liberty in Massachusetts and later the United States, dies.
1839: Veteran missionary John Williams is killed and eaten by cannibals when he lands on Erromanga, New Hebrides (Vanuatu) to begin a new mission work. Williams had successfully planted churches in Tahiti, the Samoan Islands, Raratonga and numerous other islands of the Pacific. This was his first (and last) visit to the New Hebrides.

November 21

235: Anterus is elected pope, a position he would hold for only a few weeks. According to the Liber pontificalis, he was martyred for ordering the "acts of the martyrs" to be written down and put in the church library.
1570: Barbelken Goethals znd Saerken Van Duerhove are sentenced to death as heretics for being their anabaptist beliefs and brunt to death outside of the city of Ghent (in present day Belgium).
1964: The third session of Vatican II closes with the approval of three documents. One of these, the "Decree on Ecumenism," declared both Catholics and Protestants to blame for past divisions and called for dialogue, not derision, in the future .
2006: Bashir Ahmed Tantray (50) is shot and killed while he was waiting by a bus stand in the village of Mamoosa, Barmullah. Eye-witness accounts claim that two young Muslim men came to the bus stand at 10:10 a.m. and started to inquire about bus timings. Then one of the militants took out a pistol and fired three rounds at Tantray at point-blank range. Tantray converted to Christianity ten years earlier and had been an active and widely known Christian worker in the state.

Update on Maryam and Marzieh: Case may end up back in Iranian revolutionary court

2009-11-14T12:44:00.001-05:00

Elam Ministries released the following report last night and ask for intensified prayers on behalf of these two young women. We invite you to join the many others who have posted a special prayer on their behalf on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

Maryam and Marzieh: case back with revolutionary court

In October the two imprisoned Christian women, Maryam Rostampour and Marzieh Amirizadeh, were encouraged to hear their case would be heard by the civil courts. However, they now have been advised by their lawyer that their case may not in fact be transferred to the civil courts. Although they have continued to suffer ill health they have remained strong in their faith and are believing the Lord for a breakthrough. Originally arrested on March 5 2009, Maryam and Marzieh have now been held against their will for over eight months solely because as adults they chose to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. In prison they have both continued to suffer ill health, though they are encouraged by the outpouring of love and prayers from Christians world-wide.

November 25th will mark Marzieh’s 31st birthday, so we would be most grateful for you to pray for both young women, trusting the Lord to bring about their release before that date.

Forsaking the kaafirs and not being unequally yoked

2009-11-13T16:06:00.001-05:00

The message of segregation that goes on in both the mosque and the church

Earlier this week, Tarek Fatah in his commentary on November 9 in the National Post “Spreading intolerance, one fatwah at a time” noted the teaching of influential Islamist clerics that the Koran forbade Muslims from making friends with non-Muslims (kaafirs) or even living among them unless the objective was to convert the non-Muslim to Islam. The purpose of such teaching, Fatah suggested, is to convince young Muslims to view their non-Muslim fellow citizens with suspicion and derision. No countervailing effort is being made, he said, at any level in the West to counter the Islamists’ hateful message of isolation, segregation and hostility.

As I read this article, the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:14 came to mind:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

I recalled how, in my youth, I was taught that this verse meant that I, as a Christian, should not have close friends who were non-Christians. I especially should not date a non-Christian girl! Such a relationship was doomed to drag me down spiritually, it was said. And for the years, that is how I have tended to view this verse, as I suspect many have. A letter to the editor on Thursday in response to Fatah’s article referred to this same passage, in fact, the author proposing that the Bible actually teaches the same type of isolation and segregation as the Koran did. The only difference, he said, is that Christian churches have learned to ignore such exhortations!

I’m not so sure that this writer is correct, but I do think that Christians have been torn as to how to practice these verses if they are understood to be teaching a strict separation between Christians and non-Christians. I wonder if perhaps we have misunderstood Paul’s words, especially in light of the persecution that Jesus experienced for hanging around with sinners. And so I dug into 2 Corinthians 6 this week and was surprised to see how this verse, when taken out of context and viewed separately from the rest of the book, could be used to instill fear, suspicion and isolation in Christian youth in a similar way to how Koranic verses are being used to create Islamists.

It is vital that we see Paul’s words in the context of the book itself. In chapter 5:11-6:13, Paul is speaking of his being entrusted with God’s message of reconciliation, the Gospel, and urges the Corinthians not to receive this message in vain. The Corinthians risk doing this due to their propensity to embrace teachers whose message and methods run counter to Paul’s. Their gospel is not the gospel of Christ suffering on the cross to bring reconciliation with God and their ministry methods are not those of sacrificial service and a readiness to suffer (and even die) in order to bring this message to others.

It is in this context that 2 Corinthian 6:14-7:1 appears and should be interpreted. What Paul is calling for is for the Corinthians to recognize that they cannot follow Paul’s message brought to them sacrificially and in much suffering and follow these other false teachers whose message and methods are so diametrically different. The Corinthians are trying to yoke together two incompatible animals to the same plow. “Stop trying!” Paul says. The call here is to disassociate themselves from complicity with those who would attempt to propagate a false gospel within the church.[i]

Hence, the call here is not to pull away from the world or unbelievers in general, but from those who would seek to contaminate the church with false teachings. Indeed, only a church committed to such segregation can hold forth the true message of reconciliation to a needy world and be willing to sacrifice themselves in order to bring such a gospel to those who need it. Find me a church that is unwilling to sacrifice and suffer and you will likely have found one that is yoking together the gospel of Christ and false teaching similar to that which Paul’s opponents were teaching in Corinth.
____________________________________

[i] c.f. R. Kent Hughes, 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness. Crossway Books, 2006: 141; C.K. Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Harper’s New Testament Commentaries. Hendrickson Publishers, 1973: 194-196

Do we apply a double standard to acts of violence committed by Muslims?

2009-11-13T11:13:00.001-05:00

Why is it that we refuse to apply the same standards to acts of violence committed by Muslims than those committed by almost any other group? So asks Father Raymond J. de Souza in his commentary in yesterday’s National Post entitled The Fort Hood double standard.

Add Fort Hood to the list. It's getting longer: New York, Washington, Jerusalem, Bali, Madrid, London, Bombay. It's the list of places where, we are told, it is important to be vigilant about anti-Muslim activity.

The phenomenon is by now well-established. An apparent jihadist visits death and destruction upon innocents, motivated in part by a violent brand of Islamic extremism, and soon the violence becomes an apt occasion to raise awareness about the danger of anti-Muslim thoughts, words and deeds. Violence by Muslims has a unique ability to spur a Canadian prime minister, British royal, or, as was the case this time, the American secretary of homeland security, to sound the alarm about violence against Muslims.

"The tragic shootings at the Fort Hood U.S. Army Base raise the spectres of hostility against Muslims within the United States, and of Islamic hostility toward the U.S.," editorialized Toronto's Globe and Mail. That's a strange symmetry. On one hand there may be a "spectre," but on the other there is the reality of 13 dead victims.

Denying at the outset the Islamist motivations of men such as Major Nidal Malik Hasan does no favour to Muslims who, after all, bear the largest share of the global death toll caused by Islamist extremism. But we're getting pretty used to the routine: Islamist violence, followed by pundits getting upset when anyone mentions the link between extreme Islamism and violence.

Click here to read the rest of this excellent article and then feel free to add your views to our comments section. Let’s discuss this. Do we treat crimes committed by Muslims differently than those of others? Do the media and our political leaders tend to downplay the role that Islam may play in these acts of violence such as we witnessed in Fort Hood? Should they? Why or why not?

Update on attack on Sri Lankan church

2009-11-13T10:43:00.001-05:00

VOMC partners, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) released a report today with further details regarding the November 5th attack on the prayer centre of the Jesus Never Fails Good News Centre in Koswatta, Sri Lanka which we reported on earlier. Here is their report:

A mob of about 200 persons surrounded the prayer centre at approximately 12.45 in the afternoon and hurled stones at the building, damaging the building exterior, windows and air conditioning units and the gate. They shouted threats to kill the pastor, accusing him of unethical conversions and demanding he stops conducting healing services. A large protest march led by members of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) including some of their party M.P. monks preceded the violent attack.

The protest and the attack were a reaction to the death of two women who were brought to an open air healing service conducted by the pastor of the church on the 31st of October 2009, at the Vihara Mahadevi Park in Colombo. A spokesman for the church said the women came of their own free will, seeking divine healing and they died on admission to hospital and not at the healing service.

Police were called in to stop the attack but were unable to prevent damage to the building. No arrests have been made so far. The prayer centre suspended services AND meetings due to fear of further attacks and threats issued to members of the church. Video footage of the attack on the church were televised by several local TV stations.

Pastor Joseph is a respected member of the community and the prayer centre has been there for a considerable period of time, coexisting harmoniously with the local Buddhist temple. According to members of the church, the local Temple had no part in the attack.

Ven. Athureliye Rathana Thero M.P. and leader of the JHU Parliamentary group on the 6th speaking in Parliament denied the JHU's involvement in the attack, but called for the arrest of the pastor and urged the Anti-Conversion Bill to be made law.

Remember Sri Lanka’s Christians in your prayers. Feel free to post a pray on their behalf on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall.

The Voice of the Martyrs joins coalition to combat “defamation of religions” concept

2009-11-12T20:12:00.002-05:00

The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada) has joined a coalition of over 100 Christian, Muslim and Jewish organisations as well as humanist and secular groups from around the world in signing a common civil society statement against the concept of “defamation of religions.” The statement was drafted due to the ongoing “Combating Defamation of Religion” agenda at the United Nations and a concern that a new, legally-binding international treaty limiting the criticism of religion may become a reality.

This concern arose as Syria, on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), along with Belarus and Venezuela, proposed on October 29 a General Assembly resolution “combating defamation of religions.” While similar, non-binding resolutions have been passed in previous years, this year, for the first time, a UN body proposed a binding treaty to combat “defamation of religions.” At meeting in Geneva that concluded on October 30th, Pakistan (on behalf of the OIC) and Nigeria, (on behalf of the Africa Group) proposed a binding treaty amendment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), an existing international treaty on racism.

The Voice of the Martyrs opposes such resolutions and amendments on the premise that it is individuals who have rights, not ideas, governments or religions. To extend such protection beyond individual human rights jeopardises the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects. Such resolutions against the defamation of religions, even when nonbinding, have already provided international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws in countries like Pakistan where these laws are used to persecute Christians and other religious minorities under the guise of protecting Islam from defamation. A legally binding treaty would almost certainly lead to other Islamic countries, in particular, passing similar domestic laws as a “human rights” requirement and could conceivably been used to support legal action against individuals and organizations in Western countries with the intent to suppress criticism (real or perceived) of Islam.

We encourage you to contact Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, John McNee, and encourage him to support Canada’s opposition to any defamation of religions resolutions and any attempt to extend the concept into binding treaties such as ICERD (for the contact information for UN embassies of other countries, click here). A preliminary vote on the General Assembly resolution is expected before the end of November with a final plenary vote expected in early to mid-December.

(Note: The United States Commission on International Freedom has published an excellent policy focus on explaining the problems with the idea that religions should be protected from "defamation." Please click here to download copy of this paper)

The blessing of uselessness

2009-11-11T15:47:00.001-05:00

With the decline of my health over the past year, one of the issues that I struggle with is a sense of uselessness since I can no longer do many of the things that I used to be able to do in my service for the persecuted around the world. Watching my colleagues do things that I once did and found so much pleasure in is hard. It is easy to feel…useless and unneeded. I don’t say that to sound whiney. I think many who go through suffering often feel this way, especially if they have lived active lives.

This morning, however, I read the following during my devotion time from Mike Mason’s The Gospel According to Job. I hope you are as blessed and challenged by this as I was.

Uselessness

“Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
When God’s intimate friendship blessed my house.” (29:4)

Suffering, like the enemy who causes it, is a many-headed beast, and one of the heads is called Uselessness. A sufferer’s existence can seem so pointless, so stagnant and unworthy. Little wonder that Job’s mood in this chapter is one of intense nostalgia as he longs for “the good old days” when not only was he blessed by God, but when God’s blessing enabled him to bless others. Such feelings are perfectly human and understandable. We all want to be useful and productive. But one of the things we learn from the many set-backs of life is that God, in His wisdom, has a use for uselessness. The Lord Himself seems to be fond of standing around and doing nothing. When we imitate Him in this, the Bible calls it “waiting on the Lord.” But just think of how God waits on us! For thousands of years He has waited for mankind to turn to Him. Right now it is just as though He were standing on a street corner outside our home, hands in His pockets, whistling a gospel tune, waiting for us to keep our appointment with Him. Are we too busy with more pressing matters? Being useless, it seems, is not an important enough activity for us, and so we leave it to God.

Of course it is true that, as Jesus taught, “My Father is always working” (John 5:17). But to our human eyes God’s work often looks like idleness. His methods can appear so lackadaisical, so they involve pain on our part. Suffering puts us out of commission (at least from our perspective), so that we can no longer work, no longer contribute, no longer do much of value. Without this intense feeling of uselessness, suffering and even dying might not seem half so bad. Perhaps it is even true that the very soul of suffering is not so much pain itself, in all its forms, as it is the simple humiliation of having all our plans brought to a standstill, the indignity of being made to stop and wait.

How interesting it is that when the Lord appeared to Moses, and later to Joshua, to each of them He said the same thing: “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15). Why should you take off your shoes in the Lord’s presence? Because without shoes you are not going anywhere. You might try to walk, but you will not get very far, especially in the hot sand and sharp rocks of the wilderness. Taking off one’s shoes may not be quite as drastic as cutting off one’s feet, but it amounts to the same thing. Barefootedness means immobilization, and so it is a symbol of submission. Being immobile (in other words, having nothing better to do) is a prerequisite for worship, and worship is the prerequisite for all activity, all service.

Many churches today are eager to mobilize for the Lord, but without paying much attention to the prior and greater work of immobilization. We need to learn how to kick off our shoes and discover that the place where we are standing is holy. When Daniel saw a vision of the Ancient of Days on His throne, “ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” And what was this multitude doing? Not much. All we are told is that “the court was seated, and the books were opened.” And without anyone moving an inch four powerful empires were destroyed (Dan. 7:10-12). In Heaven, apparently, they know the meaning of the saying, “Don’t just do something—stand there!”

The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and the soles of their shoes never wore out. Why not? Because they only moved at the Lord’s command. In many ways they were disobedient, but in this one point they were constrained to obey because pillars of cloud and of fire were hanging over them. If today we find our souls (pun intended) wearing out, it may be because we are running around doing a lot of things that the Lord has not told us to do. We want to be fruitful. We want to work for our church and contribute to our society. We want to do something, not simply believe. When circumstances are such that we cannot do anything, we get restless and squirm, and just like Job we think back on our full and productive days and we long to see them return. We long to go back, not just so we can feel good again, but so we can get on with our “real work,” get on with making our contribution.

But listen to the words of Catherine Doherty: “If you want to see what a ‘contribution’ really is, look at the Man on the cross. That’s a contribution. When you are hanging on a cross you cannot do anything because you are crucified.”

Imprisoned Christian blogger threatens hunger strike

2009-11-10T15:53:00.001-05:00

Our friends at Compass Direct released the following report yesterday:

A Coptic Christian blogger in Egypt held in prison for more than a year without charge said today he will go on a hunger strike unless authorities grant his next application for release.

Hani Nazeer, a 28-year-old high school social worker from Qena, Egypt and author of the blog “Karz El Hob,” received word today that his latest application for release, sent to the Ministry of the Interior a week ago, was denied. His attorneys said they would re-apply for his release tomorrow.

The interior ministry did not “supply the grounds for refusal” according to Rawda Ahamad, Nazeer’s lead defense attorney.

“He has no charges against him,” Ahamad said. “He is not a criminal. He must be released immediately. He’s an innocent man – anyone exposed to this severe injustice would do the same.”

On Oct. 3, 2008, Nazeer was arrested by Egypt’s State Security Investigations (SSI) and sent to Burj Al-Arab prison. Although police never charged him with any crime, Nazeer has been detained for more than a year under Egypt’s administrative imprisonment law.

Nazeer ran afoul of SSI officers a few days before his arrest when a group of local teenagers visited his website and clicked on a link to an online copy of “Azazil’s Goat in Mecca,” a novel written under the pseudonym “Father Utah.” The book is a response to “Azazil,” a novel by Yusuf Zidane, critical of Christianity. [read more]

Please pray for Hani Nazeer as he fights for his freedom. Pray that he will be released. Why not post a prayer on his behalf on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall?

New report released on the abduction and Islamization of Christian women in Egypt

2009-11-10T15:42:00.001-05:00

Christian Solidarity International released a new report today together with The Coptic Foundation for Human Rights detailing the abduction, rape, forced marriage and forced Islamization of Coptic women and girls in Egypt.

Despite their significant numbers in Egypt (8-12%), the Christian community, known as the Coptics, is frequently subject to widespread marginalization from society and even violent forms of abuse. According to the Egyptian Constitution, Islam is the “religion of the state” and its “principle source of legislation”.

While the hardship of minority communities in the Middle East is well documented, the abuse detailed in this report reveals a disturbing union of religious oppression, gender-based sexual and physical violence and forced marriage that corresponds with international standards of human trafficking. There have been fifty such cases in the previous year in one Egyptian parish alone. [read more]

To download this important report in pdf format, click here.

Buddhist monks attack Sri Lankan church

2009-11-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

We have just received confirmation of the accuracy of this video of a November 5th attack on the Jesus Never Fails Good News Centre, No.351, Kaduwela Rd, Koswatta, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka by a mob lead by Buddhist monks. This is the first time such an attack has been captured on film. More details of the attacks will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please remember this church in your prayers.

How much time did your church devote to the persecuted on IDOP Sunday? (survey)

2009-11-08T13:19:00.001-05:00

As we look ahead and plan for the future, we would be interested in knowing how much time your church devoted to the persecuted church on International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) on November 8.

If your church did set aside some time to remember those who are persecuted for their faith on IDOP Sunday, please let us know what exactly your church did in our comments section. Thanks.

Thou shalt not touch Islam

2009-11-08T11:52:00.001-05:00

If you want to destroy a hallowed Christian site on the big screen, that's OK. Just don't try doing the same thing to Islam.

In the upcoming 2012, disaster director Roland Emmerich turns his sights on the Vatican and crumbles the Sistine Chapel into dust. But when he proposed demolishing a Muslim shrine as well, his colleagues on the project freaked out.

"I do not want to have a fatwa on my head because of a movie!" co-writer Harald Kloser objected. And, concedes Emmerich, "He was right."

So begins an entertainment article in yesterday’s National Post on the upcoming sci-fi, disaster film 2012.

Which got me thinking how sad it is that Muslim militants have been so successful in intimidation that even artists, authors and film-makers (often considered the champions of free speech) are now prepared to restrict their freedom of expression just to avoid even the possibility of offending the Muslim population and instigating a violent backlash(or even the threat of one). Courage has given way to compromise, creativity to safety. “It’s just not worth the risk” has become the slogan.

Such self-censorship inevitably becomes the mark of every totalitarian society. But we are giving up our freedom of expression without the militants even having to fight for political power. All they have had to do is threaten violence and we have submitted to their expectations.

It is this same attempt to silence all criticism of Islam that lies behind the Defamation of Religions Resolution, introduced annually at the UN General Assembly by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization of 57 countries with majority or significant Muslim populations.

This two-pronged effort – legislative pressure combined with the threat of violence - is making Islam virtually untouchable. It will impact our lives for the worse in the future if we continue to allow Islamists to intimidate us into silence.

This week in persecuted church history (November 8-14)

2009-11-08T11:19:00.002-05:00

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

November 8

1567: Four Anabaptist believers, Jacques Mesdagh, Willem Aerts, Joos Kasteel, and Karel are burned to death at Kortrijck in Flanders because of their convictions.
2004: Three people are killed and forty injured after coordinated car bombs detonate outside two Iraqi churches. Around 6:30 p.m. a car bomb exploded outside St. George's Catholic Church in southern Baghdad. Minutes later, another car bomb damaged St. Matthew's Church. There were no services at the churches at the time, and the casualties are reported to be residents of nearby houses.
2005: Two Christian high school girls are shot at point blank at 7:45 p.m. near the Pentecostal church they attend. Ivone (last name unknown) and (Yuli) Siti Nuraini, both 17 years old, were shot by men on a motorcycle in the Gatot Subroto area of Poso. Ivone was shot in the left jaw, while Yuli was wounded in the neck.

November 9

1549: Jacob Claess is burned to death in Amsterdam for “joined the doctrine, sect and heresies of the Anabaptists, having been rebaptized, and holding pernicious views in regard to the sacraments of the holy church, contrary to the holy Christian faith, the ordinances of the holy Christian church, and the written laws and decrees of his Imperial Majesty our gracious lord; and, moreover, obstinately persists in his errors and heresy, notwithstanding the instruction which has been given him concerning the true faith.:
1559: Andries Langedul, Mattheus Pottebacker,and Lauwerens van der Leyenare are beheaded in prison in Antwerp because they were caught preaching and reading the Bible.

November 10

1483: Martin Luther is born in Eisleben, Germany
2003: Turkmenistan passes a law making all unregistered religious activity illegal. Penalties for breaking the law include up to one year of "corrective labour." The only religious communities who had been able to be registered are Sunni Muslims and the Russian Orthodox Church.

November 11

397 (traditional date): Martin of Tours, a bishop responsible for the evangelization of Gaul, dies.
1620: Forty-one Puritan separatists arrive in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They had hoped to settle further south, but as William Bradford wrote in his journal on December 19, "We could not now take much time for further search . . . our victuals being much spent, especially our beer."
1793: William Carey and his family arrive in Calcutta, India as pioneer missionaries.

November 12

655: Pope Martin dies of starvation and sickness after being banished to present-day Crimea at the order of the Byzantine emperor because of his opposition to eastern Orthodox teaching on the nature of Christ.
1564: Two sisters, Prijntgen Maelbouts and Martijntgen Maelbouts, are beheaded at Ghent in Flanders for having left the Roman Catholic church and become anabaptists.
1660: John Bunyan is arrested for unlicensed preaching and sentenced to prison. While incarcerated, he penned Pilgrim's Progess and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, the greatest Puritan spiritual autobiography
2004: After a four-hour trial, six Mennonite workers are convicted of "resisting officers of the law while doing their duty" and sentenced to prison. Pastor Quang, the general secretary of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam and a human rights activist, receives a three-year sentence. The other five workers receive sentences ranging from nine months to two years in prison. Apart from seven family members, all observers, including a representative from the Canadian Consulate, were refused entry into the courthouse.
2008: Two sisters are killed and their mother wounded by a gang of teenaged assailants in Mosul, Iraq. The gunmen shot one of the sisters as she was waiting for a bus outside of her house. They then stormed into her home and killed her sister and injured her mother. A bomb placed by the assailants at the entrance of the house detonated as the police arrived on the scene, injuring several officers. The mother later dies from her injuries.

November 13

307: A young Christian women named Ennathas is horribly tortured and finally burned alive in Scythopolis in Palestine.
2005: A public school teacher in Saudi Arabia is sentenced to forty months in prison and 750 lashes for "mocking religion" after he discussed the Bible and allegedly praised Jews. The Al-Madina newspaper that Mohammad al-Harbi was taken to court by his colleagues and students where he was accused of, and charged with, promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer."

November 14

2006: Nine families from the Bodo tribe in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, India are forced from their homes for converting to Christianity.

Thank you for your prayers

2009-11-05T16:16:00.002-05:00

Thank you to those of you who prayed and fasted last Saturday on behalf of German doctor Johannes (36), his wife Sabine (36), their three children Lydia (4), Anna (3) and Simon (1) and British engineer Anthony S., all of who were kidnapped in Yemen on June 12.

Please continue to uphold these folks in your prayers. The organization they serve with, Worldwide Services, has not yet given up hope of their safe return and neither have we.

Why not show your solidarity with them and their family by posting a prayer on our Persecuted Church Prayer Wall? And please be sure to pray for them on Sunday during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

Update on house church raid in Vietnam

2009-11-05T15:34:00.001-05:00

Back in September, we showed you a video we had received from a house church in Vietnam that was raided by authorities as they were worshipping. This church had been raided before. Local officials told the house church they did not have official permission to meet, so they could not have religious meetings.

Since this initial report we have received both an update as to what happened and we have been able to get the video subtitled into English so that you can understand what was being said during the raid.

Church members reported:

On Sunday, August 23, 2009, we were still gathering together for service meeting since this is necessary spiritual need. At 3 p.m., many district security officers came into my house. At that time, we were having service meeting, they came and stopped and dismissed us. We stopped and explained to them we had made the application of permission already, but they still blustered. Several of them towed Brother --- out to the house and had him sit on their motorbike. They did the same way to ---. They oppressed him ruthlessly and towed him; they did not allow for him to speak a word. And other women were towed away also. They did take away one guitar but they did not make a report to taking away guitar. After arriving at the district police station, they made the report with the accusation: “They are gathering together illegally.” They used the abuse words and threatened Brother ---: “If you came back this place again; you will be beaten.” … and at 6:30 p.m. they released us.

Please remember this church and others like it in Vietnam who continue to worship Christ despite opposition.

New resources from The Voice of the Martyrs

2009-11-05T15:08:00.001-05:00

We have been making some big changes on our online catalogue in recent weeks that I have been negligent in telling you about. So, let me spend a few minutes telling you about some of the great new resources that we have available.

E-books: We now have 46 different titles available in pdf format, ranging from children’s books to some of the classics by Richard Wurmbrand. Some, like our Bold Believers activities books, are free. None are priced over $5.00.

Family-oriented books & videos: We have a number of new books and videos available available for all ages including the beautifully illustrated God’s Prisoner: The Richard Wurmbrand Story and the latest in the Torchlighter video series, The Perpetua Story.

We also have just received a shipment of two incredible books that we are sure parents will want to get their hands. The Mission Minded Child and The Mission Minded Family are invaluable resources in helping parent to raise children who have God’s mission for the world as a life-long priority. May I encourage you to order them today for yourself or for someone you know who has young children.

Reference: We have also just received a shipment of our books Restricted Nations: China and Restricted Nations: Iran that you will want to get your hands on. These small, easily accessible books are great introductions to the history and persecution facing Christians in these countries. I am also delighted to announce that we now have Mark Bradley’s excellent book Iran: Open Hearts in a Closed Land available to purchase online!

Discounts: We are also clearing out a number of resources at very affordable prices, including children’s books, posters, jewelry, baseball caps, t-shirts, and books. Place your order today because once they are gone, we will not be ordering any more of these resources.

If you haven’t visited our online resource catalogue for a while, why not pop over today?

Praying while in prison

2009-11-04T17:21:00.001-05:00

The following is VOMC’s founder Richard Wurmbrand explaining how he would pray during his time in Romanian prison.

You can see the entire film from which this clip is an excerpt by ordering either Richard Wurmbrand: The Voice of the Martyrs or Richard & Sabina Wurmbrand: The Underground Pastor and His Wife.

Remember those in chains: Pastor Thongchan (Laos)

2009-11-03T16:55:00.001-05:00

Before becoming a pastor, Thongchan was a district governor in Laos. He became a Christian in 1997 through the ministry of the Far Eastern Broadcasting Company. Thong wanted desperately to bring new hope to the villagers in his province through the power of the Gospel. But when his church began to grow, local authorities took exception to his evangelistic witness and detained him for ‘illegal activities against the Government’. He was accused of receiving training from foreign countries in order to convert the Laotian people, turning them away from Communism. On June 8, 1999 Thong was arrested and charged with being a paid activist. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment in a prison, which specializes in punishing those who are thought to have betrayed the nation of Laos.

The first five months of his imprisonment were very difficult for Pastor Thongchang. He was kept in a darkened cell. Many times he was beaten, and whilst in his cell his hands were manacled and his feet shackled. His days of solitary confinement meant little food and regular interrogations about his faith. Most people however, understood that the charges against him were false and that his only desire was to share the Gospel.

At the time of his arrest, two of his friends and fellow pastors, Nhot (73) and Lu (64) were arrested and imprisoned with him. Sadly both men died during their time in prison.

His wife Saengkham lives a short distance from the prison and is permitted to visit her husband regularly. She takes food and medical supplies to him. Thong now works outside the prison, under guard, as a pig farmer. As he works faithfully on the farm and inside the prison itself, Pastor Thongchan seeks to live out his faith and to share the love of God with those around him. He is now seen as a man who can be trusted and any come to him to talk about their needs. Several sick prisoners have received healing as a result of his prayers. Even the guards and police have asked him to pray for their families. Recently the authorities allowed Saengkham to bring her husband to the local Udomxai hospital for treatment for an eye problem. The family has asked us to pray that he would be permitted to receive further treatment in the hospital in the capital Vientiane.

Please pray

That the authorities would shorten the sentence and release Thongchan
For healing in regard to all health problems
For his wife Saengkham and for the Laotian church

Please write

When writing please do not mention The Voice of the Martyrs, or advance your political opinion or include anything which could be insulting to the authorities. Over recent months there has been increasing pressure on Christians in Laos, particularly those living in the more rural areas and provincial districts.

You can send a card to encourage him to:

Pastor Thongchan
Ban Na Prison
Muang Xai, Udomxai, Laos

You may also send a letter on his behalf to the Laotian ambassador:

His Excellency Phiane Philakone
Ambassador
Embassy of the Lao People's Democratic Republic
2222 S Street N.W.
Washington, D.C.
DC 20008
United States of America

Here is a sample letter

Your Excellency,

I would like to express my concern about Mr Thongchan who was arrested on the 8th of June1999 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Ba Na Prison.

I am extremely concerned by his punishment when, according to my information, Mr Thongchan is a much loved, respected and law-abiding citizen who has not been involved in any crime but has been targeted in this way because of his Christian beliefs. It is my understanding that he is held in high regard in the prison and his behaviour is exemplary. Given the fact that he has already served two thirds of his sentence, I respectfully petition your involvement in this case to persuade the Laotian government to consider him for early release.

I am thankful that the Laotian authorities kindly permitted him to receive recent medical attention in a local hospital and would ask that he is allowed to receive whatever further treatment is needed.

Yours sincerely,

For more help on how to write to and on behalf of prisoners of faith, click here.

(Source: Release International, VOMC’s sister mission in the United Kingdom)

A statement by the Church of Pakistan on the recent attacks on Christians in Pakistan

2009-11-02T16:27:00.001-05:00

One of our tasks as The Voice of the Martyrs is to give a voice to the persecuted church. The following is an official statement by the Church of Pakistan in response to the recent attacks on Christians in their country.

A statement by the Church of Pakistan

Adopted by the Executive Committee of the Synod: Church of Pakistan, at its meeting on 21 October, 2009, at Murree

The recent tragedy of Gojra, where nine Pakistani Christians were burnt to death by a frenzied mob, has raised yet again the whole issue of the status and security of the religious minorities in an overwhelmingly Islamic country like Pakistan. This incident has highlighted in a very painful and tragic way, the experiences of Pakistani Christians, who so often are victimized under the false pretext of either having desecrated the Holy Quran or insulting the holy Prophet of Islam. Such cases have become rampant during the recent decades as the Pakistani society has become increasingly intolerant of fellow Pakistanis, based on their religious identity. This attitude has been sharply accentuated by the new clauses into the Blasphemy Law, which is being blatantly and maliciously abused for the harassment and marginalization of Christians, it is overwhelmingly evident that almost all such cases arise out of personal disputes and malice or to gain some political points or even for some sinister covert operations. All this of course has created a deep sense of insecurity, anxiety and fear amongst the Christian community, especially in vulnerable places like remote villages and 'bastis'. The most alarming whisper that is going around within these communities is the acquisition of some personal firearms for self-protection. This of course cannot be encouraged or supported under any conditions, but it does show the extreme tension under which these communities are living and of course it falls upon all of us to redeem their situation.

It is very sad to say that the motivation and the impetus for such actions come from the exploitation of faith and thus religion is used as a 'red rag' to incite the masses. These incidents have almost become a continuum and sadly almost all such cases are decided by the 'lynch mobs' which results in the burning of properties and public killing of victims. Unfortunately, it seems that the 'genie' is out of the bottle and the bull is on the rampage. The challenge before us is as to how do we contain this situation and lead it towards its healing and restoration, We the Church of Pakistan on behalf of all the Christians of Pakistan:

Call upon the Government of Pakistan to implement and introduce effective legislative and administrative measures, which would contain and control the situation. This concerns especially the repeal of the Blasphemy Law which seems to have become a tool for ultimate abuse of any civil law and even a curse for the religious minorities.

The Policing of such incidents is invariably high-handed and malicious regarding the victims and very often prejudicial in favor of the majority community (Ref: the killing of Christian youth in judicial custody in Sumbrial case), The administration of Justice in such cases especially in the lower Courts also requires strict monitoring and accountability procedures, as they often succumb to outside influences.

We further urge the Authorities to legislate such positive and affirmative actions which would redress the prevailing inequality being experienced by the Christians of Pakistan, especially in the job market and the public sector at large.

We strongly demand of the Political Parties to resist all temptations to use the 'religion card' for political gains and instead use their influence and network to foster peace and harmony among all communities. We are deeply hurt to find that it seems the political parties had an active role to play in the incitement of the mobs in such cases, This was very self evident in the recent events of Gojra, Sumbrial and Kasur.

We invite all our allies in Civil Society who believe in equality, justice and equal opportunities for all, to join us to eliminate discriminatory practices and help in building bridges with the majority community, leading towards a harmonious society.

We finally challenge ourselves and our allies in approaching the militants/extremists groups and challenge them for the redeeming of this unfortunate situation by realizing that we are all inheritors of Abrahamic faiths and hold so much in common. We need to join hands in bringing peace and harmony for the good of us all as citizens of Pakistan.

What have you been reading lately?

2009-11-01T15:16:00.001-05:00

It’s been a few months since I last blogged about what I have been reading. The fact is, since my last posting in late July I went through a bout of pneumonia and fatigue that made it rather difficult for me to concentrate on reading. However, I have been feeling better the last few weeks and have had the chance to read a couple of books that I would like to pass on to you.

The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans. The first of a trilogy of documenting the history of Hitler’s Third Reich. Thorough, well-researched, and well-written. This volume focuses on the conditions that led to the coming of power of the Nazis in Germany. Very enlightening. Having read a fair bit on this subject, I think I can say that this trilogy will become the new standard text on the subject. Highly recommended. I am now reading the second volume, The Third Reich in Power.

Escaping North Korea by Mike Kim. A While not a work of scholarship, this is a very readable and helpful look into the life of ordinary North Koreans. It contains a number of inspirational stories of those who fled to China, overcoming great adversity with many becoming Christians and choosing to return to win their families to Christ. We will soon be making this book available on our online catalogue.

So what have you been reading lately?

Arrest made in attack on Messianic family

2009-11-01T11:42:00.001-05:00

Israeli authorities lifted their gag order on the press today (November 1) revealing that a suspect in the attack on Amiel Ortiz in March 2008 has finally been apprehended and is being held in a Shin Bet facility in central Israel.

Amiel Ortiz, the teenage son of a Messianic pastor David Ortiz, was seriously injured when a bomb delivered to the family's home in the Jewish settlement town of Ariel went off in his hands on March 20, 2008. The explosive was reportedly delivered in one of the gift baskets Jews exchange on the Purim holiday. The family was targeted apparently because they are Messianic Jews.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Yaakov "Jack" Teitel, 37, was arrested on October 7 and is alleged to behind a number of other deadly terror shootings and bombings spanning over a decade, in which two Palestinians were killed and Israel Prize Laureate Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell was injured. Officials said that Teitel was in midst of planning additional attacks but would not specify against whom.

Leah Ortiz, Ami’s mother, told the Jerusalem Post, “We are relieved that a suspect has been arrested for the attempted murder which took place in our home a year and a half ago. As a family the past year and a half has been a struggle in every way.”