International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Sunday, November 8, 2009.  International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  The least and the most you can do is intercede for our brothers and sisters who are bleeding, burning, and dying every day in the name of our Precious Savior.  Praise be to God for their devastating faithfulness.

 

Intercessory Saturday

On Sept. 21, Pastor Manuel was shot and killed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in San Jose del Guaviare, Colombia, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. FARC guerrillas made an appointment with Pastor Manuel and his family. “He thought they were going to authorize him to have an official church, which he had requested before,” said VOM contacts. The guerrillas came and shot Pastor Manuel five times outside his home. A FARC guerrilla who was in the house with the rest of the family yelled, “Make sure that dog stays dead,” referring to the pastor. The pastor was shot once more, in the neck.

Following the shooting, Pastor Manuel’s wife, Gloria, ran outside and cleaned his face. With the help of her children, she dragged his body under a tree. “She ran and got her Bible and, shaking with tears, preached to all those who got near,” VOM contacts said. “Her 10-year-old son said to her, ‘Don’t worry, Dad died for Christ and now he is with Christ.’”

Please Pray!

Please pray that God will bring peace and comfort to Pastor Manuel’s family. Also pray for the protection of other pastors who are under threat in Colombia. Pray that they will not be hindered in their ministries but will continue their faithful witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray for a spiritual awakening that will overcome and bind the powers of darkness that have such a stronghold in Colombia.

VOM assists Christians in Colombia by providing ministry tools and training, Action Packs and prayer ministry to widows of Christian martyrs.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network

The Semantics of Persecution

I’m going to have to go with Amanda on this.  You’re wrong.
~My darling husband.

Let me back up a little.  I recently did a book review of sorts where I told everyone to read Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand.  (You can read that post here.)  In the comments, some readers and I got onto the subject of persecution in America.  I boldly claimed that Christian Americans are not persecuted and that it’s disrespectful to say so.  I still stand by my words, but I want to make some clarifications.

Amanda disagreed with me.  She even busted out her fancy lexicon to prove me wrong.  Persecution is:

1. to make to run or flee, put to flight, drive away
2. to run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing, to run after
1. to press on: figuratively of one who in a race runs swiftly to reach the goal
2. to pursue (in a hostile manner)
3. in any way whatever to harass, trouble, molest one
1. to persecute
2. to be mistreated, suffer persecution on account of something
4. without the idea of hostility, to run after, follow after: someone
5. metaph., to pursue
1. to seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavour to acquire

I will completely concede that, when looking solely at the definition, she and my husband are correct.  But, I’m looking at context, too, so that makes me shy away from reaching the same conclusion.

A definition doesn’t always communicate the full weight of the word.  When hearing a story about someone being religiously persecuted, most of us probably don’t imagine a suburban housewife with a big, silver cross around her neck tearing up at a snide remark about her outdated and unscientific beliefs.  Rather, the word “persecution” carries with it a certain weightiness, seriousness, or painfulness.  There is a connotation that the word carries which should not be ignored.  Another example would be the word “bastard.”  Technically, it means one thing.  In usage, however, it carries with it a more serious meaning.

I just have a hard time saying that Americans — who have the legal right to religious freedom and who can win cases in a federal court of law to protect and defend those freedoms — are persecuted.  Especially in light of the fact that people in other parts of the world are having their flesh ripped off and their children murdered because they dared to own a few lines of Scripture, and then when they go to court, their testimony is worthless because they’re Christian.

Does that mean Christians in America don’t suffer?  Of course not.  Sometimes we get overlooked as ignorant.  Sometimes we are called judgmental.  (By the way, there’s no argument for those things being persecution if they’re true!)  There is a subtle, yet steady, climate change going on in America.  It’s no longer in fashion to go to church or to uphold traditional values, much less to actually devote oneself to Christ.  As a result, people mock what they don’t understand.  There is a growing hostility toward those who hold firm in the faith.  But our little hurt feelings over people’s opinions are petty compared to what’s going on out there.   It’s not appropriate to use the same term to describe both situations.

In America, people have the right to express displeasure or disagreement about anything.  In America, if those opinions cross the line and infringe upon the rights of another, all parties have equal say in court.  And rights are protected.  We pay a price for the freedom we all enjoy; sometimes people laugh at us.  We get offended, and then we go to church in front of God and everyone, because we can.

To me, that’s not persecution.

Intercessory Saturday

UPDATE: VOM has learned a judge is dropping charges of anti-state activities against the two Christian Iranian women, Maryam Rustampoor and Marzieh Amirizadeh, who have been imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison since March 5.

Maryam and Marzieh will be charged with apostasy and propagation of the gospel instead. If convicted on these new charges the women could spend the rest of their lives in prison. Sources have informed VOM that Maryam and Marzieh are in poor health and in desperate need of medical attention. In August, the pair was summoned to appear before the court and told to recant their faith, but they refused to deny Christ.

Please Pray!

Praise the Lord the charges have been lessened, but we still need to pray for these courageous women, Maryam and Marzieh. Pray the Lord will sustain their minds and their bodies with the right hand of his righteousness while they are in prison. Pray the Lord will touch the heart of the judge and move him to release these young women.

Photo: Farsi Christian News Network

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network

Tortured for Christ

If you know me, or if you’ve been hanging around my blog for any length of time, or if you simply glance to the left and to the right sidebars, you will see that I have a passion for the persecuted Church.  It’s a recently developed passion — the Lord has opened up this world to me only within the last couple of years.  But, I can’t shake it.

The book pictured is one that I read in one day.  It is not a stylistically difficult book to read, but it is difficult for other reasons.  It’s not even very well-written; the author even admits that.  But, as the author states,

This book is written not so much with ink, as with the blood of bleeding hearts. (p. 63)

The author, Richard Wurmbrand, was the founder of Voice of the Martyrs.  A fitting founder indeed, he himself underwent countless tortures for his faith in Communist Russia.  This is a retelling of some of his experiences.  He is not terribly graphic, as it pained him to relive those experiences.  But, it is terribly powerful.

Into his testimony, he interweaves hard-hitting words:

A man really believes not what he recites in his creed, but only the things he is ready to die for. (p. 62)

I tremble because of the sufferings of those persecuted in different lands.  I tremble thinking about the eternal destiny of their torturers.  I tremble for Western Christians who don’t help their persecuted brethren. (p. 88)

When I was beaten on the bottom of the feet, my tongue cried.  Why did my tongue cry?  It was not beaten.  It cried because the tongue and feet are both part of the same body.  And you free Christians are part of the same Body of Christ that is now beaten in prisons in restricted nations, that even now gives martyrs for Christ.  Can you not feel our pain? (p. 150)

The Underground Church represents the deepest need of enslaved people in captive nations.  Help her!  (p. 113)

To the Christian I say, read this book.  You have no excuse; you can get it for free right here.

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated,
since you yourselves also are in the body.  ~Hebrews 13:3

Intercessory Saturday

UPDATE: Nine Fushan Church leaders were taken by Shanxi Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers on Sept. 25, according to China Aid Association. The church leaders were traveling to Beijing to petition the central government for justice concerning a Sept.13 raid on the church’s campus. The raid, conducted by local and military authorities, left more than 10 people hospitalized and several buildings destroyed. According to ChinaAid, the church leaders were illegally seized without warrant, and have not been heard from since.

Military police confiscated church property and closed the campus to church members. The remaining church leaders are under house arrest and surveillance.

According to ChinaAid, in the Fushan raid government agencies used a new method of military force dubbed the “Xinjiang Model” against Chinese citizens who protest the communist government. The model is named after an August raid in Xinjiang where hundreds of Uyghurs were killed.

Please Pray!

Please continue to pray for the Fushan Church members and for the release of the abducted church leaders. Pray God’s justice will prevail.

Go to ChinaAid.org to read more about this story and find out how you can contact Chinese officials to voice your outrage over this brutal attack on Fushan Church members and the abduction of its leaders.

VOM assists Chinese Christians by providing Bibles, Christian literature, scholarships for training and emergency aid to families of prisoners.

PHOTO: ChinaAid

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network

The Generation to Come …from my journal

September 30, 2009

Psalm 78:1-7

Listen, O my people, to my instruction; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.  For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

I love this passage.  I love the generational charge to teach new generations the secret, holy things.  I take that very seriously, and I am already praying for __________ and _________, or whatever children God gives me.  I pray that they would have a hunger and thirst for the Holy One.  I pray for a profound dissatisfaction with this world.  I pray that my children will be vital parts of His kingdom.  And I pray that God would grant Justin and me wisdom as we prepare to one day raise up these great warriors.  Having a family is not something I view as just “the next step,” or “the thing to do.”  Just as I was intentional about marriage, I am intentional about family.  My children should be workers in God’s field.  It is my plea that their souls not be wasted.

~Maranatha

Intercessory Saturday

On Sept. 3, Thao Oun, a Boukham Church elder in Liansai village, was arrested at his home and taken to the Saybounthong subdistrict office, according to a report by Compass News Direct and Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

HRWLRF said the chief of police detained, interrogated and terrorized Thao for nearly six hours. Thao was charged with bringing destruction to the Lao nation and government by embracing Christianity, which the officials consider a “foreign religion to be abhorred.” The police chief demanded Thao renounce Christianity or be expelled from the village. He also said Thao would be put to death if his arrest and interrogation got out to the international community, according to HRWLRF. The chief reportedly said Thao’s harsh treatment would end “only after the death of all believers in Boukham Church.” An HRWLRF spokesman told Compass that publicizing the incident was “the most effective way of preventing Lao officials from carrying out the threats.”

Please Pray!

Lao officials have denied schooling to 10 children who attend Boukham Church and cut off access to water at village wells, according to HRWLRF. They have also deprived area Christians of civil rights and threatened to deny public medical care to Christians who get sick or injured.

Let us praise God for Thao Oun’s resolve to stand firm in his faith! May his steadfastness serve as a testimony to all the officials involved. Pray for his protection and that of the other Boukham Church members. Pray that this obvious effort to break the will of the Christians by denying services to them and their children would serve to do just the opposite: “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20a).

VOM assists Christians in Laos by providing Bibles, Christian radio broadcasts, skills training and support for pastors.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network

Intercessory Saturday

At 3 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 13, a mass of 400 people in police suits and red armbands rushed the Good News Cloth Shoes Factory located on the land of the Fushan Church’s building in Linfin City, Shanxi Province, China, according to a ChinaAid report. The power, water and telephone lines to the factory were cut off. Two shovel loaders tore at the factory and new church building foundations while the mob, with bricks and other blunt instruments, beat Fushan church members who were sleeping at the church construction site. Within an hour, more than 10 church members lay bleeding heavily. Some were severely injured and taken to the emergency room. Several people lost consciousness and were hospitalized.

According to ChinaAid, anonymous authorities instructed local emergency room personnel to withhold treatment and prohibit blood transfusions for the injured church members. On Sunday night, two seriously injured patients had to be transferred to another hospital.

Photo: ChinaAid

Take Action!

The Voice of the Martyrs joins ChinaAid in calling on the international community to voice their protests to the Chinese government against the brutal treatment of Christians, and to pray for justice and healing for the victims of the attack. We further pray for the souls of the participants in the crime, that they will be internally convicted of their inhumane treatment of others and blatant disregard for human life.

Go to ChinaAid.org to read more about this story and find out how you can contact Chinese officials to voice your outrage over this brutal attack on the Christians of Fushan Church.

VOM assists Chinese Christians by providing Bibles, Christian literature, scholarships for training and emergency aid to families of prisoners.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network

Intercessory Saturday

Thousands of civilians have fled after fresh attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Sudan’s remote western Equatoria region, according to a Barnabas Fund report. On Aug. 29 the rebel group LRA attacked villages in Jonglei State, killing more than 42 people, including women and children and injuring more than 60 people. Among the dead was a senior church leader who was shot as he lead morning services at his church in Wemyol. Reports indicate more than 24,000 people from 17 villages were displaced.

In an earlier attack on Aug. 12, the LRA killed two people and injured three others when it carried out a series of attacks in Ezo district, near the Sudanese border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has also been reported that the rebel group abducted ten girls from a local church, ransacked and torched homes and stole food. They also struck in Bereamburu village, burning a local church and health center and raiding medical supplies.

Please Pray!

Pray the Lord will lift a standard against those who seek to harm Christians and innocent civilians in Sudan, and pray his hand of protection and healing would be extended over them, especially the ten girls abducted from the church. Pray the Lord will comfort those mourning the deaths of loved ones. Pray the members of the LRA will find new life in Jesus Christ.

The Voice of the Martyrs assists Christians in Sudan by providing medicine, blankets, Action Packs, Bibles, motorboats, motorcycles and Biblical training.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs’ Be-A-Voice Network