Persecution Blog

Persecution Blog Carnival #7

Welcome to our 7th carnival of Christians who are writing and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  Once again, our hope and prayer is that you are encouraged by these writings and that you will find new friends and tell a few friends to join us.

Let's begin our carnival with a post from Egana's Tapdance who shares with us how singing for the persecuted has empowered her prayer life.  This article includes a link to lyrics and a sound recording that I have been prayer-singing for the Christain women and unwanted children of rape in the Darfur conflict area."

Tidbits & Treasures writes about statistics from the China Aid Association that says that 1958 Christians are arrested yearly and  Christians are continuing to be persecuted and arrested in China for fear of their corrupting future generations.

Hal from The Great Separation gives us a round up of news having to do with christian persecution ranging from rape, a murder of one man in police custody, to the thousands of arrests in China.

Jill from Home Learnin has written a short post about the blog the kids who went to Vietnam recently with The Voice of the Martyrs.

Lana who writes at The Byzantine Sacred Art Blog submits a post called "Remembering Kosovo's New Martyrs".  Orthodox Christian Fathers, Rev. Hariton (Chariton) and Stefan, have joined the multitude of Christian New Martyrs after been abducted, tortured, mutilated and killed by Albanian Muslim KLA in Serbian province of Kosovo.

Cindy from Inspirational Korner shares her post called Pray for the Persecuted that she received from the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter.  She hopes to inspire others to get involved with us.

Laura from Pursuing Holiness wrote about Todd Nettleton's excellent live-blogging of the Wear the Crown Conference.

Jan at Counted Worthy shares a post called Christians Who Suffer on the Front Lines and some thoughts she had after attending the Wear the Crown conference last week.

And our final entry comes from Brooks who writes at Jesus Christ, Final Sacrifice concerning what real faith looks like.  He gives a look back at Abdul Rahman.

May the Lord Bless you all richly as you persevere for your faith and give you opportunities to bless His name and others.  Have a great weekend.

We will return on July 5th with more great information for you!

Seen & Heard at the Wear the Crown Conference

Last week The Voice of the Martyr's had their "Wear the Crown" Conference and one of our faithful persecution bloggers, Jan Fletcher, attended.  We asked Jan to share with us her experience at the conference.

Jan, a former atheist, speaks of her observations, how she came to Christ and offers insight and encouragement.

Visit Jan's website at http://www.undergroundbride.com/ to learn more about Jan's ministry.

Click to Listen and then please leave us your feedback.

Mission to Vietnam Exposed

Yesterday I was given top secret information from The Voice of the Martyrs that I was told I can now share with you all.  So today I wanted to do just that.  Did you know that The Voice of the Martyrs recently hosted a bunch of teens who went on a missions trip to Vietnam?  Me neither, but when I found out I was very excited to learn that they blogged about their trip and also took video of it.

If you want to see for yourself the blog that these awesome kids did, click here .  The name of their blog is Reality blog, and I like that for a few reasons.  The first reason is that reality is only found in Christ Jesus, and the second is that when teens are writing about their experiences, it can be nothing but real.

Here's one entry that was from the end of their trip.  I think this rocks!

Bryant on 06/25/2006 8:35 PM

Yesterday we did one of our last activities. We loaded up a bunch of bibles writen in a tribal language into six backpacks. We had to then drive through the city on two of those little motor bikes with sixty pound bags on our backs which was a little scary. We dropped them of at the zoo covertley, to some people we had arranged to meet us there. Sorry about the lack of detail but im in a hurry, somebody else will explain it a little better. Well im almost leaving now so see you soon.

Can you imagine how exciting that must have been? Wow...especially in light of what The Voice of the Martyrs is doing with Bibles Unbound.  A covert operation to hand out God's word...I love it! 

Then there is this entry from Taani who discusses a registered church service versus a nonregistered one.  Very cool...

by taani on 06/24/2006 10:52 PM

This morning we went to a registered church service.  It was great to see the contrast between this church and the unregistered, underground churches.  The pastor is very restricted in what he can say, so did not speak about Jesus being the Saviour, forgiveness of sins, eternal life or anything like that.  The service did not seem nearly as passionate or the people as excited as the service we went to up in the central highlands - it was very subdued.  The service was in vietnamese, but the pastor's son translated for us so we would understand.  We were able to perform two songs, and after the service was over, we presented the pastor with a Study bible, which he really appreciated. We also were able to give him the US$500 he desperately needed but could not afford for a kidney operation he has been waiting on for two years.  He did not have the words to express how thankful he was for that gift.  It was great to see how big an impact it had on him. This afternoon we are organising the couriers to transport all the bibles we brought, and some of us are going to an unregistered church service, although this one is all in english. See you all soon. Love Taani xoxo (More)

CHINA: Another Pastor Arrested for Printing Bibles

Blessed are those who are being persecuted for righteousness sake.  I always remember these precious words from the living book of life when I hear of how our Chinese brothers and sisters are being arrested for simply printing the Bible and other Christian material.

Here in  America I don't think most Christians have any sense of how blessed we are to have not only many Christian publishing houses, but thousands of Christian bookstores where we can go and buy anything we want about Christianity.  In China, they do not have this blessing - instead pastors are being arrested by the Domestic Security Protection Squad for "illegally" printing and distributing Bibles and other Christian material.

This very thing happened on May 26th to Wang Zaiqing, a house-church planter and pastor.  Pastor Wang was giving away the materials, to fellow Christians, free of charge, and yet was accused of of “being involved in illegal business practices” !!!  Unbelievable!

And that is not all because one month earlier, Pastor Wang and his wife were summoned, interrogated and fingerprinted by the Public Security Bureau as Bibles, other Christian literature, bank cards and an electronic piano were confiscated from their house during two searches taking place on April 25th and 26th.

To add insult to injury, the 43-year-old crippled pastor is accused of illegally printing, editing and distributing Christian propaganda material and faces possible sentencing. Pastor Wang was following God’s calling to meet the needs of China’s rapidly growing church, and he is now in the No. 1 Detention Center of Huainan City as a result.

On April 26th, another pastor, Pastor Liu Yuhua of Shandong province was arrested on the same charges, and Pastor Cai Zhuohua of Beijing was sentenced in 2005 to three years in prison for this “crime.”

The good news is that such crackdowns cannot stop the rapid growth of Chinese house churches, as increased persecution has only strengthened the church.

Please pray for these precious saints of God and ask the Lord to use them while they are in prison, and to raise up more godly, passionate and bold pastors who will love and serve the Lord, regardless of the cost.

Uzbekistan Christians Passports and Bibles Seized

Imagine with me for a moment if you were sitting at home and minding your own business celebrating Easter with some friends of yours from church, and then out of nowhere the police barged into your home and took your bibles and other Christian materials.  How would you feel?  What would you do? Unfortunately, this is something we don't have to imagine for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Uzbekistan because it happened to them only a few weeks ago.  Here is a shortened version of a report from The Voice of the Martyrs about what happened.

The Voice of the Martyrs’ staff in Uzbekistan report that on April 16th, police in the city of Nukus burst into a private home of Christians celebrating Easter with friends, searched the home and seized passports and Christian materials without giving receipts. Police confiscated the passports of three Turkmen Christians―Bakhtiyer Gazhayev, Mader Baltayev and Ikram Saburov―as well as the passport of the Uzbek woman hosting the gathering. Believers present were forced to write statements explaining why they were having tea with the group and what they were talking about. Police took the passports knowing the serious problems the Turkmen could face. After three days without such documentation, the three would have been detained in Uzbekistan and imprisoned in Turkmenistan for violating passport codes.

Two days later, with less than 24 hours left before their allowed stay in Uzbekistan expired, police had still not returned the Turkmen believers’ passports. On this evening, a VOM worker visiting Nukus met with the three Turkmen Christians, who told him about the injustice taking place. He went straight to the local police chief and demanded an explanation of why the passports were taken and when they would be returned. Initially, the chief indignantly refused to answer. The VOM worker warned him that in several minutes, the whole world would know about the persecution of Christians in Uzbekistan, especially about its treatment of foreign Christians. The police chief relented and said the Turkmens’ passports would be returned the next day. When the VOM worker insisted he would stay until he personally saw them returned, the police chief exclaimed, “All right! We’ll give them their passports back today.” With only 15 minutes left before the office closed for the day, the police called the three Turkmen Christians in one by one and returned their passports. Bakhtiyer, Mader and Ikram returned home to Turkmenistan the following morning. The Uzbek believer hosting the Easter gathering did not receive her passport that day. A young police lieutenant explained, “You see, our civil workers have the passport of your Uzbek Christian.” The “civil workers” were plainclothes KGB officers. The Voice of the Martyrs is thankful for the opportunity to be the voice of Christians who are oppressed by those hostile to the gospel.

Special Applause for Todd

Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in giving Todd Nettleton a round of applause for all the great blogging he did this weekend!!!

I  don't know about you all, but I absolutely poured over everything Todd wrote and shared it with my husband and some at my church, and yes, even my other blogs.

If you haven't done that yet yourself...would you please do that today?  You will not be disappointed because the testimonies of those who serve the persecuted are enriching, powerful, poignant and evidence that our Lord Jesus Christ is still living and on His throne! 

WEAR THE CROWN: Echoes in Eternity

It is finished; another VOM conference is now in the past. We will never gather like this again. May the time spent this weekend, the challenges given and the hearts touched, echo in eternity.

What was the most powerful moment? What speaker or story grabbed your heart the most? What testimony kept you awake, wondering what you'd do in that situation?

Was it the story of a Pakistani couple abducted because of their Christian faith? The wife was repeatedly abused while her husband was in the room, unable to help her. Or was it Gary Witherall admitting quietly that the video shown Sunday morning was the first time he'd watched video of his martyred wife since her death? Was it a story from India? Nigeria? China? Which one did God use to place a firmer grip on your heart for the persecuted church?

There were almost 1,200 people present at the conference, including the children. I think that each of those 1200 might have a different answer to those questions; a different story or testimony or challenge.

What will be the results of this conference? Are there children who were in the Kids of Courage conference that God has already called to the mission field? Are there some among them that will lay down their very lives in a Muslim nation, or to reach Hindus for Christ?

Did God place a call on someone in the main auditorium Friday night to go to China and minister for Him? Was there a doctor that heard about VOMedical on Saturday night and decided to offer her skills to bless persecuted Christians in Bangladesh or Indonesia? Was there a parent that accepted the challenge Sunday morning to offer their children to go across the sea to share God's Word?

I hope that my posts to the blog have been a blessing to those who were not able to be in Bartlesville this weekend. I hope you were encouraged, challenged and blessed. I hope that many of you will be at the next VOM conference; perhaps we can have multiple bloggers posting from the event!

If you have comments or suggestions, I'm happy to hear them: tnettleton(at)vom-usa.org.

May the Lord use each testimony, each challenge and each lesson shared this weekend to strengthen us for the work that He calls us to. And may we listen to His call and follow His voice, wherever He leads.

WEAR THE CROWN: Carrie McDonnall

Carrie McDonnall is the author of Facing Terror, and served in Iraq planting the seeds of the gospel through relief and development work. It was while working there that her husband, David, was killed when the vehicle they were driving in was attacked by gunmen wielding automatic weapons.

"Our God is not going to wait for the church in North America to rise up and go into the darkness. He's going to use anybody and everybody. But we need to rise up and be faithful."

"I knew that if there was any way I was going to make it through this, it was by His hand and His hand alone."

As she lay in a hospital bed, dealing with her own injuries and also the pain of finding out that her husband had not survived his injuries, God reminded her, "This world is not your home."

"That is why we are compelled to go running into that darkness. That is why we take the love God has placed in our heart and run to the nations."

WEAR THE CROWN: Dr. Tom Elliff

Dr. Tom Elliff is a part of the leadership team for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church and involved in training Christian leaders around the world, including restricted nations.

"Our task is huge, but God is doing some incredible things around the world. And yes, he is working in ways that you and I would never imagine among Islamic people."

An Islamic scholar said recently on Al Jazeera that 627 Muslims come to Christ in the world EVERY HOUR!

"You can be successful without being effective."

"As a friend of mine said, 'Nothing ever dawns on God.'"

"If you are a bond servant of Jesus your life is, in some way, going to be marked by that."

"A person who is effective must be content within the circumference of his or her life."

"There's plenty of room inside God's will to keep you excited."

WEAR THE CROWN: Gary Witherall

Gary Witherall, whose wife Bonnie was martyred in Lebanon, chose as his text a passage from the gospel of John, the passage where the woman breaks the expensive perfume bottle over Jesus' feet.

"One woman said, 'I will humiliate myself in the presence of my God.' And she breaks the bottle, then unfurls her hair and begins wiping Jesus' feet. And the scent filled the room."

A few weeks later it was Jesus' blood that was being spilled, and it was a different scent; one that would change the world.

"The Lord spoke to Bonnie and said, 'I've not called you to a place. I've called you to Myself.'"

Gary pointed out to us that it's sometimes easier to get on a plane and go to Afghanistan than it is to fully, wholly seek after God's heart, to find and do what He desires for you. He shared how hard it was to come to the point of forgiving the man who killed his wife; how he wrestled with it and how God brought him to the point of forgiveness.

"I pray for the next Billy Graham to rise up from my generation. I pray for the next Keith Green. I pray for the next Martin Luther, who will nail the 95 theses on the evangelical church door."