Five Steps to Healthy Praying Habits for the Persecuted

It’s funny where a person can get some ideas from. Or maybe it’s just the way that I am wired, but the other day as I was reading through the Readers Digest, I ran across an ad for Listerine (a mouthwash sold here in Canada) in which was listed five step to developing healthy habits. As I looked them over, I thought, “These are actually pretty good.” And then it struck me that these same five steps (slightly modified, of course) could also be helpful in developing healthier prayer habits on behalf of persecuted Christians. I think many of us know we should pray more regularly for persecuted believers but we forget or we start off great and then peter out.

The fact is, it often does take more than just willpower to develop healthy habits. Developing a good habit is like making a ceramic vase, creating a mould into which the liquid ceramic mixture can be poured into and allowed to set. Eventually, the mixture matures and hardens and the mould can be taken a way and the genuine article remains. So, prayer (as with most healthy habits) means building moulds into our lives, structures or patterns that allow us to be moulded and shaped, matured, gradually becoming the people that we want to become, by God’s grace. Eventually, the artificial mould can be removed but the habit remains.

So, here are my suggested Five Steps to Healthy Praying Habits for the Persecuted.

1. Be specific about what habit of prayer you want to develop and write it down. Example: “I will pray for my persecuted brothers and sisters every morning and evening.” or “Each morning I will pray for one person mentioned in this month’s Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter” or “I will pray each evening for one of the situations reported in this week’s Persecution and Prayer Alert.”

2. Tackle only one habit at a time, make it attainable and measurable. Give yourself a month to fully integrate this habit into your life. Make sure that it is something you can realistically do. You might want to track your progress by dropping a loonie into a jar every time you complete your task.

3. Set up a reminder system. Example: Put a sticky note on the bathroom mirror, in your wallet, on the fridge, or your car’s dashboard with a reminder message, e.g., pray for the persecuted this morning.

4. Start now. No procrastinating or excuse making. Write your start date and end date on the piece of paper where you wrote down the habit that you want to develop.

5. Reward yourself. Now you’ll know why I mentioned putting a loonie in a jar in #2. At the end of the month, take the money you saved and either buy a book or a DVD or some other resource on the persecuted that will help you to deepen your habit of prayer. Or perhaps you might want to donate it to a specific project that assists the persecuted in some way.

I think you’ll find that once you start this habit of prayer, you’ll keep it up. We at our office started praying specifically for the persecuted each morning at 9:00 each morning in January 2008. I don’t think we’ve missed a day since and it is amazing to see what God has done in answer to these prayers!

Saudi authorities release Christian blogger

We were delighted and thankful to God to learn today from Middle East Concern (MEC) that Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri, a 28 year-old Saudi national imprisoned in January for writing in his blog (www.christforsaudi.blogspot.com) about his decision to follow Jesus, was released by the Saudi authorities on March 28th. He had been arrested on January 13th after writing in his blog about his decision to follow Jesus.  Hamoud has been banned from travelling outside Saudi Arabia or appearing in media but additional entries have since appeared in his blog.

As MEC states in today’s press release,

The relative leniency of the Saudi authorities in this case has surprised some analysts, given the outspoken nature of Hamoud's criticism of the regime and his explicit claim to have left Islam. Although there have been some recent tentative moves towards reform, Saudi Arabia remains a country where political expression is overtly restricted and only one closely defined version of Sunni Islam is allowed to be publicly practised. Other forms of Islam and all other faiths are severely restricted.

According to MEC, Christians in Saudi Arabia request our continued prayers that:

• Hamoud will know the peace and presence of Jesus each day
• The authorities will continue to act leniently towards Hamoud
• That he will know the Spirit's guidance in all his actions, especially those related to the restrictions placed upon him
• Those who have read Hamoud's blog would make a similar decision to follow Jesus
• The reform process will continue, and will lead to greater freedom for Christians to express their faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

One story from Orissa

Sometimes as we hear stories of persecution, especially when hundreds or thousands of people are involved, it is easy to forget that individuals are involved.  Here is the story of one courageous girl who was among the thousands of Christians who were attacked by Hindu militants during the wave of violence that swept through her home state of Orissa, India last year.

14-year-old Manini is from Burakama, a village in the Kandamala district. When Hindu militants attacked her family in late August 2008, she was beaten until she was unconscious. Then, unaware of what was happening to her, she was raped (thankfully she has no memory of this). Her attackers then poured gasoline on her, set her on fire and fled.  Shocked in consciousness by the burning of her flesh, she ran to a tub of water and poured water on herself. But it was too late. The right side of her body was totally burnt.

In the months following, she received treatment and underwent a number of surgical procedures for the burns. She is now going for weekly therapy to help restore movement in the affected areas. 

VOMC contacts who recently met with her ask that we remember Manini in prayer. One said, “She is an amazing person…She has the joy of the Lord in her and she told me that if the Lord gives her a chance, she wants to have the courage to tell those that did this to her about the Lord and His love and forgiveness.” On April 9, she went through yet another surgery in one of the best private hospitals in Indore.

Please pray for Manini as she continues to recuperate and rehabilitate from her injuries.

U.S. International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) is lacking says long-time diplomat

Long-time diplomat, Thomas Farr served in the U.S. State Department under the last two ambassadors at large for religious freedom. In his new book, World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty is Vital to American National Security, and in a 65-page report he coauthored with Dennis Hoover, Farr looks at the execution of the 10-year-old International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).  Quite frankly, as he says in an interview with Christianity Today, he finds it lacking.  Here’s an excerpt:

You say in the report that U.S. religious freedom advocacy is ineffective.

The function of advancing religious freedom has never — and I say somewhat surprisingly [not] under the Bush administration — never been integrated into the broader foreign policy of the United States. This whole [IRFA] thing was a backwater, it was compartmentalized.

Both ambassadors, [Robert] Seiple and [John] Hanford, did some very good things. Because of their personal persistence, they both got people out of jail. I would guess that over ten years there are hundreds of people who are walking free because of their efforts.

But the rule is that we're not actually advancing religious freedom. We're cursing the darkness of persecution.

To read the rest of this fascinating and informative interview, you can click here.  I would also highly recommend downloading and reading the report referred to above.

Malatya video now available from VOMC

 
Three Christians were brutally murdered on April 18, 2007 in the offices of a Christian publisher in Malatya, Turkey. The five Muslim men who killed them all carried identical notes in their pockets: "We did this for our country. They were attacking our religion."

Instead of hatred, Christians responded with love. On national television two widowed mothers echoed Christ: "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Muslims across the nation wondered how Christians could respond with such love.

Malatya, a feature-length documentary film, tells the story of three men willing to give up their lives to share the gospel with Muslims, and the fruit that has grown up from their sacrifice. We are pleased to announce that Canadians can now order this DVD from The Voice of the Martyrs online for only $13 (plus shipping)

VOMC welcomes temporary truce in Sri Lanka

The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada, one of the signatories to the recently released “Toronto Statement” welcomes the government of Sri Lanka’s decision to declare a temporary ceasefire in its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in order to allow civilians to  leave the war zone safely.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in a statement today that people should be "given uninhibited freedom of movement from the no-fire zone" in the Sinhala and Tamil New Year period which goes through Tuesday. “With this objective in view, His Excellency has directed the armed forces of the state to restrict their operations during the New Year to those of a defensive nature," a statement from the president's office said.

The Voice of the Martyrs urges the Tamil Tigers to respond in kind by allowing those civilians trapped by the conflict to leave without delay and hindrance. We also reiterate the Toronto Statement’s call to the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to return to the negotiating table and resolve differences through a negotiated settlement rather than through conflict.  We also urge Christians from around the world to remember Sri Lanka in prayer. Especially pray for the many churches located within the conflict zones. These peace loving citizens from all ethnic backgrounds are uniquely placed to assist in restoring peace and rebuilding and reconciling the community.

To view the entire Toronto Statement, click here. For more information about the Toronto Statement, please contact Glenn Penner or Floyd Brobbel.

Recognizing the Armenian Genocide

Each year on April 24, Armenians around the world set aside a day called Genocide Remembrance Day (Medz Yeghern) to specifically remember an event that much of the world would rather forget – the deliberate and systematic slaughter and forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey) from 1918 to 1923. Many estimate that at least half of the Armenian population (numbered at 2 million in 1915) was killed. As is often the case where ethnic and religious identity are virtually inseparable, it is difficult to determine the extent to which religious intolerance played a part in the atrocities that took place. However, many Armenians were reportedly spared if they converted to Islam.*

In 2002, the Canadian Senate adopted a motion acknowledging this period as “the first genocide of the twentieth century.” Two years later, the House of Commons adopted a motion (Bill M-380) that “acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”

The use of the word “genocide” was deliberate and one that most countries and their leaders have avoided using because of the political consequences behind the term. I am thankful that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has affirmed Canada’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide although it is sometimes not easy “for the foreign service of Canada” to accept. On April 19, 2006, the Prime Minister issued a statement reaffirming and supporting the motions of the Senate and the House of Commons, despite strenuous protests from Turkey.

One the campaign trail last year, Barack Obama made the following statement:

I also share with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors - a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. Senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term "genocide" to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

May I urge our American readers to contact Present Obama and urge him to fulfill this promise?

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* e.g. Richard G. Hovannisian, The Armenian genocide: history, politics, ethics: 159, 169, 180, 187; Peter Balakian, The burning Tigris: the Armenian genocide and America's response: 253; Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: 176; Jeri Freedman, The Armenian Genocide: 27.

Easter message from the Prime Minister of Canada

The battle over gay rights that US faith groups are losing

The Washington Post noted today (April 10, 2009) in an article entitled “Faith Groups Increasingly Lose Gay Rights Fights” that:

Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.

The lawsuits have resulted from states and communities that have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. Those laws have created a clash between the right to be free from discrimination and the right to freedom of religion, religious groups said, with faith losing.

Indeed, the article points that some legal analysts suggest that religious groups that do not support gay rights might lose their tax exemptions because of their politically unpopular views. 

It does seem that the battle lines are being drawn, just as they are here in Canada.  To read the full Washington Post article, click here.

Will Islam reciprocate Obama’s “mutual respect”?

Daniel Henninger, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal, wrote a column yesterday in Wonder Land (April 9) suggesting that US President Obama should make formalized protection and tolerance of Christian churches in the Middle East the basis for arriving at what he recently called a "common ground" with Islam. This past week in Turkey, Obama spoke of seeking engagement with Islam based on "mutual respect."  Yet, as Henninger notes in his column and in the interview below, the experience of Arab Christians living now amid majority Islamic populations is often not “mutual respect” but repression, arrest, imprisonment and death.

VOMC stands with formerly imprisoned pastor and family

In May 2007, Vyacheslav Kalataevsky, a Ukrainian pastor of a church in Turkmenistan, was given a three-year labour camp sentence for "illegally" crossing back into Turkmenistan in 2001 after he was deported from the country. After serving one year of the sentence, he was released and was sent to Ukraine.

VOMC staff and partners were recently able to visit with the Kalataevsky family in the city of Khartov. Eleven people, including children and grandchildren, share the small three room house, which was lent to family by a local church member. The living conditions are poor and the family struggles financially. The home is without indoor plumbing and there are not enough beds. They did not even have pillows for their heads!

Over a meal, the family shared some of the trials they'd faced for their faith. The entire family shone with the light of Jesus—even in their hardship they sang praises to God and spoke of His faithfulness. VOMC workers then presented them with a  special gift—pillows, a stove and extra food for the family. The whole family was deeply moved at this expression of love and concern from their Canadian brothers and sisters. "Never before has God used anyone to lavish such blessings on us!" Mrs. Kalataevsky said. She shared that her mother had recently made ten pillow cases for "when the pillows came"—even though no one was aware that such a gift was on its way! It is only through the generosity of our supporters that such special projects are possible. So thank you!

May edition of The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter to focus on religious liberty issues in Canada

This week the Erin, Adele, and I were putting the final touches on our May edition of The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter and I have to say that I am very excited about it.  We still have a few things to polish up on Monday, but we are almost ready to send it to the designer.  Working on our monthly magazine is one of the favourite parts of my job.  I love to see how it all comes together each month, even though there are inevitably glitches and moments of panic, especially when I invariably want to make some last minute changes. This month has been no different.  If anything, it’s been more of a challenge than usual as we will be doing something a little different from what we normally do. In May, we are focusing on religious freedom issues in Canada, something we have only done once before in the history of our ministry.  Over the past couple of years, though, a number of issues have come up that cause us concern and so we felt that we needed to address them. This is not to equate Canadian religious freedom issues with those facing Christians in places like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or India.  But we do Canadian Christians no favour either by ignoring these domestic concerns and failing to equip them to deal with them in a biblical fashion, drawing upon the experience of our family in restricted and hostile nations.

I am very pleased that my friend Janet Epp Buckingham agreed to write the feature article.  I respect her immensely.  She has taught me a lot over the years I have known her and her article is insightful.  Also included is my monthly biblical study, this time focusing on Philippians 2 entitled “Rights: Real but not grasped” in which I try to bring a biblical perspective to how we are to view our personal rights as Christians.   We are making a couple of new exciting resources available to our readers for the first time in May including Ezra Levant’s new bestselling book Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights and Thomas Johnson’s Human Rights: A Christian Primer. We’ll also be giving away up to 10 copies (upon request) of the helpful booklet, Christians and Civil Disobedience to anyone who makes a book order through our newsletter in May.   For the past few years, VOMC has also been supporting a number of pensioners in Ukraine who were imprisoned and exiled for their faith during the Soviet regime.  Many are desperately poor and sick in their old age because of what they went through. We will be publishing a number of thank you letters that they have written expressing their gratitude for how Canadian Christians continue to remember and honour their sacrifice for Christ through this support.

If you are not receiving our newsletter, I would encourage you to subscribe today. Right now, if you subscribe through Persecuted Church Weblog, we’ll also send you a free “Pray for North Korea” prayer band.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a criminal organization

Imagine the scene.

You are at an illegal house church meeting. You are standing in front of a dozen believers, reading from your Bible. Suddenly, four secret police officers burst into the room. One of them points a gun at you and snaps,

"Throw that book on the floor - do it now or I will shoot!" Do you:

A. Obey the officer

B. Politely refuse

C. Do nothing

In 2001, armed Muslim extremists burst into a church service in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. One gunman ordered Pastor Emmanuel to throw his Bible to the ground. The pastor clutched his Bible to his chest, and said, "I will not." The gunman shot and killed Pastor Emmanuel in front of the congregation and his family.

Why didn't Pastor Emmanuel drop his Bible? He knew that in the eyes of the Muslim extremist, throwing down a Bible was a rejection of Christianity. Pastor Emmanuel loved God's Word and didn't want his last action on earth to disgrace what was so precious to him.

At Easter, we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus - how He was arrested on false charges, beaten, sentenced to death and executed as a common criminal. Jesus Himself taught us that "A servant is not above His Master" (Matthew 10:24).

The Voice of the Martyrs works with criminals - our founder, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in prison for witnessing in Communist Romania. He was declared a criminal for obeying God.

In many restricted countries, becoming a Christian means becoming a criminal. Owning a Bible, being baptised, planting a church, evangelising the lost - these are all illegal activities leading to hefty fines, imprisonment, torture and even death. We cooperate with such criminals every day, unashamedly.

Would you still follow Christ if it meant being labelled a criminal? Are you prepared to identify yourself as the friend and supporter of criminals? As the follower of a criminal?

In the words of one criminal, "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God...." -2 Tim. 1:8 (ESV)

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*Thanks to my Australian colleagues for helping plant the seed thoughts for this blog in a publication of theirs that I received in the mail today. The wording at the beginning is largely theirs. If you are from Australia, make sure that you are on their mailing list! They do good work for the persecuted!

Crusader ministries

Over the years that I have been involved in mission work, I have seen a lot of wonderful ministries with God-honouring ministry that is obviously dedicated to bringing men and women under the rule of Christ.  Kingdom building ministries, characterized by servanthood, humility, prayer, and sacrifice, marked with an obvious leading by the Holy Spirit.

I have also seen work done in the name of Christ (whether it was or not, I leave it to God to decide) which was marked by selfishness, pride, utilizing the best in planning and technology but I wondered if the Holy Spirit was even needed for their work to succeed.  They often didn't seem to give that impression.  I am tempted to call these kinds of ministries, “crusader” ministries in that they tended to be marked, like the Crusaders of old, by a corporate environment that claims that they were doing God's work but using methods and means that are all too often marked by their own agendas, strategies, and strength rather than on God's.

What are some of the marks of a crusader ministry?

1. When you discuss with crusader ministries about their work in a particular country, they tend to use terms like "our man" "our project" "our contacts", they focus on their own reports and give the impression that nothing really significant happened in the country or in the persecuted person's life until they got there.  There is rarely any acknowledgement that others are working there, perhaps before they were, and little sense that the work might be done better in partnership with one of these other groups.  No, they have to set up their own program, because they know how to do it best!

2. Crusader ministries tend to strategize about ministry in a country as to what will be popular with their supporters rather than what would be best for the believers in the religiously restricted or hostile nation. In fact, sometimes their ministries are completely inappropriate for the countries they are targeted for but they engage in them for the plain and simple reason that it is profitable to do so; their supporters like projects like this and are willing to give to them. And so these ministries pressure local believers to find ways of making such programs take place. Which brings me to the third point....

3. Crusader ministries tend to tell persecuted Christians what the project priorities will be in their country, based on their own organizational strengths, goals, and fund-raising strategies rather than spend time listening and learning.  Now, some of these programs may indeed be perfectly legitimate in other countries, or in other parts of the same country, or even at other times in the same country.  But past successes are no guarantee of present day relevance or appropriateness.  To suggest otherwise is, quite simply, hubris. I have seen ministries threaten to cut off funding to persecuted Christians if they suggest that a certain pet program or project is no longer really relevant and would like an alternative instead that would better meet their need and situation. Crusader ministries don’t like to hear that their specialties and preferences are not always appropriate. Advocacy is not always suitable in a given situation.  Relief aid is not always needed or the best response.  Bibles can be sometimes be secured or even printed clandestinely in the country itself rather than smuggled or mailed in, often at a fraction of the cost and in far greater numbers. Local communities can be empowered to care for orphans and others in need rather than institutionalizing the solution. Sadly, many persecuted church leaders soon learn that the key to receiving aid is to simply acquiesce to their Western patron’s agenda.

4. Crusader ministries tend to focus on quick fixes and handouts that are easier to manage rather than on developing well-considered longer-term solutions to the needs of the persecuted and enhancing their ability to stand on their own rather than increasingly becoming dependent on Western financial assistance and adoptive of Western methodology and mentalities.

Sadly, we in the West tend to be attracted to creating and supporting crusader ministries. I know the temptation. I don’t pretend to be blameless here. As a mission leader, I feel the pull to put together attractive programs that appeal to our desire to ride in to the rescue of poor besieged Jerusalem with dollar bills in one hand and a digital camera in the other. Like the crusaders of old, we may believe that we are fulfilling a sacred duty when we may, unless we work hard to do otherwise, inadvertently and tragically end up doing the local Christians harm in the long run, just as the Crusades ultimately contributed greatly to the demise of Christianity in the Middle East. 

This is my passion here in Canada at The Voice of the Martyrs. To make sure that we serve the persecuted in such a way that I can stand unashamed before them and before the Lord and can say that we were a Kingdom-building ministry, characterized by servanthood, humility, prayer, and sacrifice, marked with an obvious leading by the Holy Spirit, committed to values such as:

Practicing an Uncompromising Faithfulness to God

Being Evangelical and Non-denominational

Demonstrating Integrity

Pursuing Excellence

Practicing Empowerment

Exhibiting Independence Within Partnerships

Showing Respect

Pray for us, to glorify God by serving His Persecuted Church in a way that honours God and builds His Church worldwide.