Persecution Blog

"They Still Have Their Faith"

It is rare to find an American in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.

Especially today.

But there is one who chooses to stay. As a Christian, he cannot ignore years of indiscriminate bombing and genocide. In the context of the most extreme poverty in the world, this believer puts his faith into action every day.

He stays.

He serves.

Ryan Boyette has been featured in the media and befriended by celebrities and world leaders who care about Sudan. New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas Kristof has met with him several times to learn about his work and has written about Ryan since 2011.

Ryan, a Florida native, speaks Otoro and Sudanese Arabic and has served for 13 years alongside his Nuban neighbors in the bush of Sudan. As a first-hand witness to the atrocities there, Ryan has testified before Congress, met with White House officials and documented mass graves.

I met with Ryan in Sudan recently to hear first-hand about how God is at work in the midst of these tragedies.

In this video, Ryan shares that the Sudanese government has destroyed churches and villages. The people have been displaced, many of them hiding in the mountains and inside caves, but they are strong in their faith. 

Despite the fact that their buildings have been destroyed and their lives have been “swept out from under them,” he continues, “They are still praying inside the caves, they are still holding church under trees, they are still praying with each other and trying to encourage one another.”

 

Ryan’s conclusion? “They still have their faith. When you meet with people and you talk to them, they still know God is watching over them. There is no doubt in their mind that God is with them.”

The New York Times recently produced a video entitled, “The Worst Atrocity You’ve Never Heard Of” highlighting Ryan Boyette and Dr. Tom Catena, two incredibly brave workers who refuse to leave the Nubans behind. You can see my recent interview with Dr. Tom Catena here.

VOM, in partnership with Persecution Project Foundation, is standing with Christians in Sudan, providing medicine, humanitarian aid, and much-needed spiritual encouragement and equipping.

We will pray.

We will give.

We will not leave our Nuban sisters and brothers behind!

Listen to Dr. Jason Peters discussing his recent visit to Sudan on VOM Radio.

Dr. Jason Peters oversees Global Partnerships and travels frequently to meet with our persecuted sisters and brothers. He has ministered in 39 countries, as diverse as Cuba, India, Sudan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Burma, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia and Nigeria. Jason ministered as a military chaplain for more than 18 years, with assignments at the Pentagon, the US Air Force Academy and as a faculty member of the Air Force Chaplain Corps College, where he directed Crisis and Trauma training. Jason and his wife Kimberly lived overseas for several years, where two of their five children were born.

Going to Church in North Korea

I find the nation of North Korea almost endlessly fascinating. There seems to be no way that anyone born and raised in a free nation can understand the level of control and paranoia that exists inside “The Hermit Kingdom.” And very few of us will ever be allowed to visit.

Suki Kim was allowed to visit…and even to live in North Korea. She was hired to teach English at a university in Pyongyang. While teaching, she was also collecting material for a book. That book, “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,” was published last year.

It is a fascinating read. Kim does not claim to be a Christian, though those who hired her to teach at the university believed that she was. One of the more fascinating parts, to me, was her report on being taken to “church” in North Korea, a stage-managed experienced designed to convince the foreigners that there were both openly-practicing Christians and religious freedom in North Korea. Here is how she tells the story:

Although we were late because we had been stopped, the entire church had been expecting us and had waited to begin the service.

Inside, about a hundred parishioners and a choir sat in almost perfect silence on the pews. They were mostly women between the ages of thirty and fifty. As we entered they turned toward us and smiled in unison. They looked reasonably well off, although not as affluent as our students, and for a moment I wondered why those people were not at the voting booth. We were directed to front-row seats and given brand-new Bibles and hymn books in Korean and English. Each of us was also given a set of headphones and a device so we could listen to the service with the aid of simultaneous translation. When you turned it on a perky voice said, “Welcome to our church,” as though it were an English conversation lesson. Next to the pastor was a projector screen on which we could see ourselves. I looked around to see who was filming us, but it was impossible to tell. Soon a woman in a shiny hanbok went up to the altar to recite a prayer—really more of a beseeching soliloquy about unification, the sorrow of the Korean people, and the evils of those who had separated us. It sounded as though she had performed it many times before.   

The sermon was much the same. The pastor talked about the evils of the South Korean regime, which, backed by the American imperialists, kept Korea divided. This crime would be punished, he insisted, quoting Romans 6:23—“For the wages of sin is death…”—to underscore his point. At some point we all had to go to the front and sing to our North Korean Christian brothers and sisters, who put on happy and excited faces as if on cue. We were encouraged to take photos throughout.

I kept looking at the faces of the pastor and parishioners, which revealed nothing. It was all theater, and I was part of it. They were pretending to be Christians, and we were pretending to believe them.

…

It was a relief to listen to the choir, which sang so fervently and beautifully that I wondered if they had been selected for their singing talent. This was not such a terrible duty, I thought. They could come here and daydream for an hour and sing. Their friends might even envy them such a cushy assignment.

…

Soon we were ushered out and encouraged to take a Bible and a hymnbook with us as souvenirs. The parishioners smiled and waved and sang, “Let’s meet again,” and the pastor stood outside and posed for pictures with all of us. And we got on the bus, all the parishioners still waving at us, and then we could see them walking away all at once, quickly disappearing into Pyongyang’s streets as though they had dispensed with their morning duty.

Todd Nettleton has served the persecuted church and VOM more than 17 years. He has been interviewed more than 2000 times by various media outlets. He's the author of Restricted Nations: North Korea, and served on the writing team for FOXE, Extreme Devotion, Hearts of Fire and other VOM books. You can read his post about another North Korea book here.

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.

VOM Radio: The Gospel Wildfire

Brother Jonathan, a VOM international ministries worker, says there is a gospel wildfire burning.

Around the world, mission workers and local pastors are seeing the gospel go forward like never before in the history of the church. But what is the air that gives life to this wildfire? What is the fuel, the spark, and the accelerant?

Jonathan shares examples from our persecuted family of how this holy fire is lit and how it burns brightly, even in the midst of persecution and suffering. He also challenges Christians in free nations to pray and boldly work to see this same wildfire burn in our nations as well.

 

God Doesn’t Have Tunnel Vision; He Has a Plan

I like having plans, doesn’t everybody? I like knowing what my next move is and I like being to assume the future. I had a plan. It was a good one (to me), it was simple and dependable.

It took me a year of community college before I decided I would pursue journalism as my career. I started out as a business major thinking it would be stable and safe. With news shifting from print to digital, journalism is definitely not stable or safe. It took a lot of God working in my heart to learn I could lean on Him for that stability and that He would provide for my needs. It’s more important to follow God’s will for my life and that is more freeing than any plan I could dream up.

Even after I started pursuing journalism, I still had tunnel vision. I planned to get my degree and then go work for a daily newspaper or newswire. I would try to gain diverse skills of course, like photography and videography, so that I would be a more versatile journalist, but I could only work for a secular news organization. I initially rejected the idea of working for any Christian organization because I was always taught that it wasn’t “real journalism.” I had a plan and God didn’t get to change that.

Aren’t we funny with our plans?

Someone at a Bible study handed me a VOM newsletter and when I looked at it, I thought: this is a form of journalism. It’s a very different form than I’m used to, but a form nonetheless. A writer had to interview someone and get the story, they had to transcribe the interview and decide the most important parts to write about and then they had to write it.

After seeing the newsletter, it was always in the back of my mind. I could do that, I thought. Wouldn’t it be cool if God used my journalism skillset for something like that? Wait. No, that’s not part of the plan. And there’s no way God would use me in something that cool.

Aren’t we funny with our plans?

I started following VOM on Facebook and one day, they posted about summer internship opportunities. I thought: I have most of those job requirements, that job description looks pretty perfect for me. I should apply just so I won’t kick myself for not applying later on. But, there’s still no way God would use me in something that cool right?

Well, I got the internship and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Oklahoma. I’ve been here for a month and I love working here. During my first few weeks, I was completely ready to stay here if God called me. I love working for an organization that has so many different facets and a clear purpose that everyone is working toward in one way or another using their own gifts. And every time I learned something new about VOM, I loved it even more. But then, through different conversations with my roommate and others, I realized that everyone that works here has something they bring to VOM. They all take their experiences from their lives and past jobs that help them contribute to VOM. Right now, I’m an intern, I’m here to learn and glean from VOM. Right now, I bring very little to the table. Right now, I still have a lot to learn and VOM is helping me learn it.

God has been opening my eyes to the endless possibilities that could be my career path. Every Tuesday we have chapel with a different speaker, each with an amazing story. It’s been at these services where God has opened my eyes the most. I already knew that journalism is not just writing or taking photos. I knew the many other sides of journalism, and I knew how important they all are. But I never saw myself doing any of them. Now I can see God using me in anything with my foundation in journalism. Whether it be in radio or documentary or photography or writing, God can use me for His glory. And that’s exciting.

I see where I need to grow and what I need to learn before I can bring anything significant to the table for any organization. There’s so many areas of skill I should develop and God still has me in school where I can actually do that.

God has a plan for me. Whether it’s to follow a more traditional career path of a journalist or to go work for a Christian organization or something completely different, I should be open and willing to go wherever God leads. The plan for my life is not my own, it’s God’s.

Valerie O. is finishing up her summer internship at The Voice of the Martyrs. This fall she will be a junior at California State University, Long Beach studying journalism. She first heard of VOM through a Bible study when someone handed her a VOM newsletter. Since then, she has felt drawn to VOM and its primary goal and has desired for God to use her skillset to help in reaching that goal. 

What if Ananias Said No?

I have been reading the Book of Acts and read, again, the story of Saul’s conversation in Acts, chapter 9. I am always struck by how soon after Saul met Jesus that people were trying to kill him!

As I have been reading in Acts in recent days the Lord has really drawn my attention to the role that Ananias played in Saul’s conversion. We all remember the story, Saul is on the road to Damascus and he sees a blinding light and hears the voice of Jesus saying, “Why are you persecuting me?” Saul is struck blind and has to be lead into the city by his helpers. That is where Ananias comes in.

God tells Ananias to go to Saul and restore his sight. What does Ananias say? You can read the story in Acts, chapter 9, but basically he tells God, “That is a terrible idea. No, no, no, God! I know about Saul and he is a really bad guy. He has come here to arrest people in the church and now you want me to go see him?” The Lord tells Ananias, “Yes, I want you to go.”

So Ananias is obedient and he goes to see Saul and there are two things that struck me in a new way as I read the story this time. First, Ananias reached out and touched Saul and secondly, he called him Brother Saul, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus sent me to you.” Remember just four verses earlier Ananias was telling God what a terrible guy Saul was and yet now he obeys God, goes to Saul, reaches out to touch him and calls him brother, "Brother Saul.” Then Ananias sort of disappears from the story. We don’t know what happened to him, but we sure know what happened with Saul. He became Paul, the great missionary/evangelist and the author of so much of the New Testament.

How different is that story if Ananias says no to God?

Not too long ago one of our VOM staff was in the Middle East at a meeting of Syrian church leaders. They were talking about this very passage. Some of these believers minister in the city of Damascus. For them it is very easy to see Ananias’ side of the story. They talked about that very situation. What if a guy from ISIS calls and says he wants to meet? What if a fighter from Al-Nusra Front comes in the door of your church? “I have had a vision of Jesus and I need to meet with you to learn more.” What would these Syrian Christians do? What would we do?

Our Syrian brothers and sisters talked about that. Would they go to meet with a sworn enemy of the gospel? One-by-one they shared that it would be difficult, it would be scary, but that if they felt God calling them to go, they would go in spite of the risks. I am thankful for the example of Ananias who was willing to reach out and touch and call “Brother” someone who had been an enemy. And I am thankful for Syrian Christians who are willing to take that risk today. It is thrilling to know that God is reaching into the ranks of terrorists, even ISIS, and calling people to Himself.

We have had the incredible privilege to share some of those stories right here on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. But those new believers, those Sauls, need an Ananias to help connect them to the truth and to a body of believers, and that is not an easy job. There is a lot of risk.

But it isn’t just former ISIS fighters that need an Ananias, it is people coming to Christ where you live, where I live; our neighbors, co-workers, students at our children’s school. I hope that you will pray with me that God will reach more Sauls among radical Muslim groups and also raise up more Ananias’ to disciple and teach them. I hope we will pray that we can be an Ananias for someone who needs a friendly face and a welcoming smile as they choose to follow Jesus Christ.

These comments were a part of a recent VOM Radio episode.

Todd Nettleton has served with The Voice of the Martyrs for 17 years. He’s travelled to more than 20 restricted and hostile nations and interviewed hundreds of believers who’ve faced persecution for their Christian witness. As VOM’s principle media spokesperson, Todd has done more than 2,000 interviews with media outlets ranging from Moody Radio to the BBC and Los Angeles Times. He is the principle author of Restricted Nations: North Korea and was part of the writing team for four other VOM books. He is the host of VOM's weekly half-hour radio program, The Voice of the Martyrs Radio, which you can find online at www.VOMRadio.net. 

CHINA: Would You Give Your Life?

“Are you willing to go to jail for three years in order to keep working with us on this project?” It is an intimidating question, but those who secretly deliver Bibles to China’s Christians know that it is a very real risk.

“Brother Joel” is one of VOM’s Bible distribution partners, helping deliver Bibles into every province of China. Every single year he asks each one of his workers that question: are you ready to go to jail to keep giving away Bibles?

Listen in this week to learn about Joel’s work and how his workers answer that question. They aren’t worried about what their government says or does; they worry instead about what the Bible says and about reaching China for Christ. You’ll be encouraged and challenged as you hear what God is doing in China this week on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio.

 

Listen to all episodes of VOM Radio at www.VOMRadio.net.

Three Misconceptions about Persecuted Christians

As the director of Voice Ministries at VOM, I have the privilege of helping connect believers in the United States with their persecuted family. In my conversations with believers, I have seen some common misconceptions about persecuted Christians.

1. They are Super Hero Christians

This is probably the most common misconception. When we hear powerful testimonies of believers standing with boldness in unthinkable circumstances it’s easy to put them on a pedestal and think they are “super Christians.” The way I hear some people talk about persecuted Christians is almost as though they think something magical happens when you are persecuted and you immediately become an angelic saint, untouched by the worst suffering. This is simply not the case.

The danger with this mindset is that it can be used as an excuse to slack off in our own dedication to Christ. I’ve heard, “Oh well, don’t worry, when the time comes, God will give you to strength to get through anything!” True, there is a special grace in suffering, but that does not negate the fact that we must chose to count to cost to follow Christ and take up our cross and deny ourselves daily. The believers who stand strong in the face of persecution made these decisions about Christ beforehand. You can choose now to build your house on the rock or on the sand.

2. They are a Case Study

While I was representing VOM at an event recently, I was sharing about our persecuted family with an individual who immediately launched into a full rant about how the United States was going down the drain and that the American church was weak and liberal. I’ve seen people use persecuted Christians as a platform to be critical and judgmental. In addition, they can use them to guilt trip others: “How can you complain about your car accident when people are dying for their faith overseas?”

Granted, we absolutely can learn from our persecuted family and be inspired and encouraged in our faith. Viewing persecuted Christians as a case study should never trump who they are first and foremost: our family. They are fellow members of the body of Christ. If your mother was dying of cancer, you wouldn’t go around criticizing others who have it easy or feel guilty that you don’t have cancer too. No, you would first use what you have—your health, your love, your prayers, your resources, to be family to your mother. That is what we are called to do with persecuted believers. The Voice of the Martyrs has lots of ways you can get involved with your persecuted family.

3. They Always Heal Quickly from Traumatic Experiences

This goes back to misconception number one. Our persecuted family are human. They are real people with emotions, hopes, dreams, doubts and weaknesses just like you. Occasionally we meet believers who miraculously are able to instantly forgive and find consistent joy in their lives again. But more often than not, our persecuted family walks through a process of healing. I remember sitting across from a sister in Malaysia who wept as she shared with me how her Muslim parents had thrown her out of her home for being a Christian when she was twelve years old. She was telling me the story 15 years after it happened, and yet she still must choose daily to forgive her parents for things they did to her. VOM is committed to meeting spiritual and practical needs of persecuted Christians and sticking with them on their journey. 

Brooke Parks serves on the staff of VOM as the Director of Voice Ministries. She was first introduced to the ministry of VOM by her parents and grandparents, who received the VOM newsletter, and through the VOM book, Jesus Freaks. She has served in 12 different countries and is passionate about helping expand God’s Kingdom throughout the nations of the world.

Representative Suffering

The idea that someone or something suffers for the benefit or as a representative of another is a theme that runs through the Bible. In the Old Testament, animals were substituted for persons to bear the punishment for human sin. They represented the sinful human, vicariously suffering even though they were innocent because they could not make moral decisions. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 introduces the idea of a person suffering on behalf of others. In the New Testament, Jesus becomes the ultimate sacrifice for our sin and our substitute. He was the Suffering Servant prophesied by Isaiah and suffered vicariously for us. He willfully went to the cross for us.

In talking about the body of Christ in I Corinthians 12:12-26, Paul says that if one part of the body suffers then the whole body suffers. He was drawing attention to the fact that the body of Christ is a unity and that each part needs the other parts. One of the by-products of this unity is that we share blessings and suffering. Our experience is mutual. Our suffering is different than Christ’s in that while we may participate in the sufferings of Christ, we do not have the right or capacity to atone for the sins of others. That is Christ’s prerogative alone. He suffered and died for our sins, once and for all time (see Hebrews 7:27), but we do suffer for Christ’s sake and participate in Christ’s redemptive ministry to the world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is correct in saying that we only share in the suffering of others in a very limited degree. As hard as we may try, we do not really ‘feel their pain.’ We have an idea of what it is like but most likely it is at best a vague idea, unless we truly embrace their pain. When we become aware of the pain of others we are called to real sympathy and action, spawned not by our own sufferings but by the sufferings of those for whom Christ suffered (Letters and Papers from Prison, 14). We must enter into and engage the suffering of others. We must walk alongside them and show our true oneness with them. In that way we are being most Christ-like.

Our suffering may be on behalf of others. In Colossians 1:24, the Apostle Paul speaks of having suffered on behalf of the Colossian church. In a sense, as he ministered across Asia Minor, he represented all those Christians who were in support of and in concert with his ministry. He was there representing them and they were having ministry through him. What he was able to accomplish was also considered their accomplishment.

Those who suffer for Christ are representing the whole body and, for redemptive purposes, become an avenue for grace to those who are doing the persecution. We seek to be a light and a blessing to those who inflict punishment and pain upon us for our witness. As Bob Surge has said, when God wills for us to suffer for a season in a certain manner, God always has a redemptive purpose in it (Pain, Perplexity, and Promotion, 63-65). It is encouraging to know that our suffering is not in vain.

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.

VOM Shares Stories of Muslims Coming to Christ on Moody Radio

Earlier this week, VOM's Todd Nettleton was a guest on In the Market with Janet Parshall, aired nationwide on the Moody Radio Network.

In the 30-minute interview with Parshall, Nettleton shared some good news about what God is doing, including the stories of devout Muslims in the Middle East finding the Good News of Jesus Christ and choosing to follow Him, as well as good news about two imprisoned Christians in Iran.

Please click here to listen to this interview (a new window will open; Nettleton's interview begins about the 28:45 mark). We are thankful to our media friends who help VOM share the stories of our persecuted family.

As Bound With Them

She’s my age.

This thought was just starting to register in my mind as I read about a girl who was tortured by her own father for her faith in Christ.

I was reading a field report from Uganda that had an update on Susan Ithungu and it included recent pictures of her.

When I first saw the pictures, I thought: She must be about 15 now. She looks very young and it never occurred to me that she could be my age until I read a previous VOM article about her:

“Susan was just 13 when an evangelist spoke at her school in Uganda and she turned to Christ for salvation,” the article began. “That year, 2009, marked the beginning of the troubles with her father.”

That was the year she started getting beaten by her father for her conversion. The next year, he locked her in a room for six months without feeding her.

Wait a second. I was around that age in 2009. That means Susan is around my age now. My heart lurched at the thought of what Susan was enduring then. What was I worried about in 2009? School, friends and boys probably sums it up well. What was Susan worried about in 2009? Dying of starvation at the hands of her father for her faith in Christ.

I stared at her glowing face on the screen as I suddenly felt so many different emotions running through me. I felt grieved for Susan. I felt sad for what she had to go through, for what she had to lose to profess her faith in Christ. Yet I felt happy that she counted the costs in the beginning and didn’t give up her faith after facing physical torment for it. It was as if I had seen my own sister go through that.

But Susan is my sister. We are family through Christ. I found myself stopping what I was doing to pray.

I honestly didn’t feel connected to Susan before I had the realization about her age. Why is that? Why does it take little things like that for us to connect emotionally with our persecuted family? I hear it often regarding things like age or other parallels we see in a particular person we read about: we don’t feel connected until we can relate to someone. But these people are Christians. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, shouldn’t that be enough to make us feel connected?

This is what VOM does that I didn’t fully understand until I started working here as an intern this summer. One of the goals of VOM is to inform and inspire American Christians to act. That’s why there’s a newsletter and a website and a blog and tons of other resources that VOM produces: to get us to act! It’s so easy with all the distractions in our own culture to forget about our persecuted family in other countries, let alone feel a connection or burden for them. But to connect motivates us to act and to act starts with prayer.

As believers we are called to “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Hebrews 13:3).

As bound with them. As if I were with them in prison, as if I were with them starving, as if I were beaten with them. Although Susan is free from her father now, she still bears the scars of what he did to her. She bears those scars every day and is probably reminded of it every time she tries to walk. I am to remember Susan as if I am bound with her, as if I am trying to walk with her. To walk with Susan daily is to pray for her daily, to pray for her emotional freedom and freedom from the need to walk with crutches.

As we are reminded of our persecuted family, we need to pray for them like they are our own brother or sister.

Because, well, they are. 

Valerie O. is a summer intern at The Voice of the Martyrs. This fall she will be a junior at California State University, Long Beach studying journalism. She first heard of VOM through a Bible study when someone handed her a VOM newsletter. Since then, she has felt drawn to VOM and its primary goal and has desired for God to use her skillset to help in reaching that goal.