Persecution Blog

The Greatest Opportunity

We were privileged this week to have a visit from Dr. Hormoz Shariat, the president of Iran Alive Ministries. Dr. Hormoz shares with millions of Iranians around the world each week via satellite television, and receives calls back from hundreds of viewers. Some report amazing miracles and the fact that they are now following Jesus. Some call to argue or to threaten. Here are some highlights from his visit to VOM as he talked about the growth of the church in Iran.

“Persecution happens when two kingdoms clash. When there is persecution, there is suffering—yes. But there is also the greatest opportunity to advance the Kingdom.”

“Iran is the only country where Islam is on the defensive.”

“There is no hope inside of Iran. Their hope was the (Islamic) Revolution, and the Revolution was the biggest disaster inside of Iran. Islam has shown its true nature in Iran.”

Operation World reports that Iran has the fastest growing church in the world. Some estimate that there are more than one million believers there. Please pray for the nation of Iran today; pray for believers there and pray for ministries like IAM who are reaching out with the gospel. Learn more about Iran here, and read stories from Iranian Christians ministering on the front lines there in VOM's May newsletter.

 

Extreme Letters

THE UKRAINE

Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Psalm 119:89

The Soviet newspaper, Molodoij Gruzii, reported the imprisonment of three Christians. Their crime was starting an organized chain letter to help people all across the Soviet Union understand the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Unable to publish Bibles or Christian books, they had begun sending out multiple copies of these letters and asking recipients to make copies and pass them on. Through this creative method of spreading the gospel, thousands of letters had reached into many areas of the Soviet Union. The children especially liked them because they were not allowed to attend church, and the letters became an integral part of their Christian teaching.

In addition, these letters helped to bolster the faith of Christians throughout the country during that time. After years of government repression and interference in their churches, they were ready to try something bold and new. They sincerely wanted everyone to know about the love of God, and despite the restrictions placed upon them, their brilliant simplicity allowed the message to spread throughout the town of Tbilisi and even into some areas of the Ukraine!

Another newspaper article stated, “The Christians have flooded our town with their writings.” It described this coordinated effort as “an offensive on the part of the believers.”

Who could predict the far-reaching effects of a mere chain letter!

After fifty years of tyranny against Christianity, Soviet officials felt threatened by a chain letter. Their cowardly response demonstrates the power contained in God’s Word. Oppression does not yield to human effort. It does not soften with feelings of sympathy. It only resists the powerful Word of God—alive and active in the lives of believers. Satan trembles at the power contained in God’s Word. Are we as aware of its power as its adversaries are? If it has been a long time since you experienced awe when reading Scripture, ask God for a second chance. Ask him to show you his power and experience the Word’s effect on your life today.

This is one of the readings from the book, Extreme Devotion, available from VOM’s online bookstore. You can also receive devotional thoughts daily via email. Sign up here.

More Than Half-Way to Bible Goal

191,267 Believers Have Asked for a Bible.

We know them by name.

Praise God! We are over halfway to meeting our goal of helping 191,267 of our persecuted brothers and sisters obtain a Bible of their very own. Thank you to all who have helped and have shared this opportunity with others. Together we can deliver Bibles to all of these believers who have asked for one!

Some believers wait months or even years for a Bible — one woman waited 42 years! We recently received the following report from China:

“Because the house churches in China are facing some persecution from outside, it is not very easy to have a Bible. Some people even sacrificed their lives. Some elders can’t help giving a kiss to the book when they receive the Bibles, and they treated every sentence in it like treasure, and memorized the words in hearts.”

With your help, we can provide Bibles for 191,267 Christians who are currently waiting for a Bible. When you sponsor Bibles, VOM will send you the names of those who will receive them so you can pray for them.

You can send five Bibles to waiting Christians for just $30. Click here to learn more.

For some, the price of a Bible is unaffordable. For many, Bibles are simply unobtainable anywhere nearby. For others, Bibles are unavailable in their restricted nation. When you get the names of those who will receive your sponsored Bibles, you will notice one name left blank. This represents a Christian who will receive a Bible in a very dangerous area (like Iran or North Korea), where even obtaining their name is too dangerous.

Click here to sponsor your Bibles today!

Inevitable Confrontation

Most people are non-confrontational; they don’t like to confront people or be confronted if what needs to be said makes them feel uncomfortable. The great devotional writer, Oswald Chambers, says that the church confronts the world with a message the world craves because it is deliverance, but it is deliverance through the cross of Christ (The Best of Oswald Chambers, Vol. I, 48). They may crave it, but they may resist it and those who deliver the message. This makes it hard for those who are non-confrontational by nature.

In some cases those who deliver the message of love, peace, and reconciliation are considered disturbers of the peace! Jürgen Moltmann, a German theologian, suggested those in places of power think Christians are a threat to the social order because the powerful can over-estimate their own importance and anyone bringing a message from a higher authority (like Christ) is seen as a threat (Crucified God, 25). Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died a martyr in World War II, said that Christians will be seen as persons who cause divisions, undermine family life, mislead the nation, and disturb the peace (Cost of Discipleship, 216).

Today, it is not so much that we are disturbing the peace but that we are considered intolerant because of our witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father and there is salvation in no one else. Such an idea is offensive to people, it is said. Francis Schaeffer once wrote that truth carries with it confrontation. It is a loving, caring confrontation but confrontation nevertheless (The Great Evangelical Disaster, 64). It has been noted that the late Francis Schaeffer could confront the world with a tear in his eye. No doubt he had a deep-felt compassion for the lost and this led him into active ministry to the lost. It is not that we march out into the world seeking trouble but the nature of the truth that we are mandated to speak about will be resisted to some degree since darkness, in the spiritual sense, resists the light.

Today, we hear about ‘caring enough to confront.’ We confront persons with the truth of the gospel, which, if accepted, will benefit them immensely. John MacArthur writes that unless we recognize the truth (and it becomes a conviction for us) that Jesus is the only way to heaven, we will become (or remain) irrelevant and weak (Why One Way?).

In 2012, the leader of Boko Haram in Nigeria, Abubakar  Shekau, wrote a letter to the president of Nigeria and in it he speaks to Christians as well. He said: “You Christians should know that Jesus… is not the son of God.” He has declared war on Christians but in reality he has declared war on Christ. He hates Christ and he hates Christians. “I am the Shekau that does not like Christians, and I don’t like Muslims that relate with Christians.” Boko Haram has publicly announced three choices for Christians in northern Nigeria: become Muslims, leave the area, or die.

Those who love Jesus have a hard time understanding that someone could hate Him so much. It is reality but it is not unexpected. In John 15:18 Jesus says: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

Roy Stults, PhD, is the Online Workshop Coordinator and Educational Services Coordinator for The Voice of the Martyrs. He graduated from Olivet Nazarene University (BA and MA), Nazarene Theological Seminary (M.Div.), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Doctor of Missiology), and The University of Manchester (England) with a PhD (theology). A Vietnam veteran, Dr. Stults served as a missionary for 19 years and pastored U.S. churches for eight years. Prior to joining VOM, he was a Professor of Religion at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.

A Marriage Restored

VOM's May newsletter, arriving in mailboxes over the next few days, includes a story from the front lines of ministry in Iran, the story of "Farahnaz" and her husband sharing the gospel and distributing Bibles in spite of the great risks to do so. The newsletter story shares some of the miraculous ways that God has protected and empowered their ministry.

But before they were in ministry, Farahnaz and "Namdar" were two people planning to divorce because both thought their marriage was irretrievably broken. In a special online add-on to May's newsletter, we share how Jesus reached Farahnaz and her husband and rescued their marriage. Here is an excerpt:

Namdar had been out of town for three weeks on a business trip. When he returned, his wife seemed to be a different person. She was no longer angry. She no longer argued with every word he said. She had read in the Bible that Christians should love their enemies, so she began to show love to her husband.

When she finally told him of her newfound faith in Christ, his response surprised her: “If this God has changed you this much, then I will read this book too.” She gave him a Bible as he left for another extended business trip, and when he returned, he, too, had committed his life to Christ.

Their marriage was restored. Farahnaz says that she used to ask Allah, “Why do I have to be stuck with this man? You could have done better.” But today, she says there is no other man that she could live with and says, “My husband is an amazing man.”

Read the story of how Jesus reached Farahnaz so that her changed life could reach her husband on the May newsletter media page.

 

VOM Featured on Missions Radio

Last week VOM's Todd Nettleton was the featured guest with Kenneth Mitchell on Missions Radio. You can listen to the interview by clicking play in the player below.

 

Good Friday: Christ's Sacrifice

For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;

I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me.

They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.

~Psalm 22:16-18

⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
⁹ And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
¹¹ He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.

~Isaiah 53:5-11

As you remember Christ's sacrifice and celebrate his resurrection, please pray for our persecuted family around the world.

VOM Team in Nigeria

Recently a VOM team visited with persecuted Christians in Nigeria, where they met with and ministered to persecuted Christians, including children and widows. Included in the team was a group of women specially trained to minister to and encourage widows.

Here are some highlights of their trip.

 

Please pray for Christians in Nigeria.

IRAN: A Light in the Darkness

Pastor Behnam Irani has endured a number of trials and suffered during his imprisonment at Ghezel Hesar Prison located in Iran. After nearly two years of suffering from an intestinal disorder and being very ill, Pastor Behnam was finally taken for surgery on Feb. 22 and he is reported to be doing well as he continues to recuperate in his prison cell — where he was taken about four days after the operation. And as he has been in recovery, secret police seized his only Bible as well as other Christian books.

One wonders if the police are trying to seize his hope.

Just a few days ago, we also heard from readers who have reported that the letters they have sent to Pastor Behnam are being returned. Although marked “insufficient address,” our contacts assure us that the address is correct. They implore you to continue to write to the pastor.

But why write if my letters aren’t going to get there?

Even while your letters may be returned, we know from other prisoners like Maryam and Marziyeh, who were held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison, that the guards may report the volume of letters to Pastor Behnam. Though he may not be able to hold the letter and read it for himself, news of your love will encourage him.

The letters also tell officials that Christians are watching how the pastor is being treated. The letters and your prayers may have helped to convince authorities to ensure that Pastor Behnam was treated for his abdominal problems, where medical problems are often overlooked. Prisoners, especially Christians, are treated poorly.  

The pastor has a wife and two young children. His daughter and son both miss their father, who has been in prison since May, 2011. Prisons in Iran are dark places. In a letter to the church dated October 2012, Pastor Behnam wrote, “Here in the jail, most of the prisoners are addicted to many types of illegal drugs, especially crystal meth.”  Very few have hope of any kind.

He goes on in his letter and exhorts the church to remember, “No matter how dark it is around you, it is important for you to keep shining, and to let the light of your love be generously offered.” This light, he says is truly found in Jesus.

Pray that although Pastor Benham’s Bible has been taken he will continue to be a light to those in a very dark place, both his fellow prisoners as well as the guards. Pray that guards would report to him the letters he is getting and would take notice that Christians are watching.

Write a letter today at prisoneralert.com in hopes that he is able to receive encouraging words from you.

“Ann Kay” is a writer for VOM. She learned about VOM five years ago when she read Tortured for Christ and began receiving the newsletter. She is passionate about reaching the world for Christ and sharing stories of the persecuted church.

Things We Don’t Tell Children

Leah’s Daughter

Leah stood among the congregation in the church in South Sudan, singing beautiful praises to God. Christian workers visiting the church noticed her right away. They saw that Leah was blind and sickly, and she wore old clothing.

“Leah is a strong Christian,” the pastor later told the visiting workers.

“Why don’t you help her more?” one worker asked some of the Christians in the congregation. “She’s blind and sick, and she needs clothes!”

“How can we?” asked the local Christians. “There are so many others like her, and we are poor ourselves!”

But God has not left Leah alone. He has given her a very special helper. Leah has a 5-year-old daughter. Leah’s daughter has learned to lead her mother around. She is her mother’s guide.

The visitors saw Leah’s daughter standing faithfully by Leah’s side. The girl held onto her mother with one hand, and she clutched a Bible in her other hand. Close to her mother, she is learning to sing praises to God even in the most difficult circumstances. That can be a hard lesson for any Christian to learn, but God has given Leah’s daughter a very good teacher.

What We Don’t Tell Children

VOM’s Kids of Courage resources have told the story of Leah and her daughter. From the story, children learn that people don’t have to live in comfortable circumstances to joyfully sing praises to the Lord. They learn that God cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), often through others, even children.

When children have already learned about bold believers who suffer, they may not be any less grieved by harsher stories of persecution when they are adults. But they may be less likely to blame God and to have their faith shaken when they encounter the persecution.

After they get older, they can learn more about how Leah’s village was attacked by Muslims from the North about six years before the visiting Christians arrived.

Most of the people in the village fled, but Leah couldn’t see where to run. Her daughter—her guide, her blessing—was the result of the Muslims’ attack on her that day. “Love your enemies” and “Pray for those who persecute you” surely take on new dimensions when you’re forced to bear your enemy’s child.

We don’t tell children that part of the story. But we can help prepare them to hear it later when they can again be reminded that people don’t have to wait until they are in comfortable situations to praise the Lord, and that God cares for us in our struggles.

VOM’s Kids of Courage resources help parents and educators teach children ages 5 to 13 about persecuted Christians around the world, and provide opportunities for children to serve and pray for them. Learn more at www.kidsofcourage.com.