Persecution Blog

Update: Pray for Danjuma’s Eye Surgery

When I traveled to Nigeria last May, I knew I would encounter stories that were both horrific and hopeful, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened to then 13-year-old Danjuma Shakuru — or how he responded to it.

On Jan. 28, 2015, Islamic militants attacked Danjuma’s village, burning homes and killing 23 people. One insurgent attacked Danjuma with a machete, slicing through the left side of his head. The boy lost consciousness, but the attackers weren’t done. Among other gruesome injuries he sustained, they also cut out his right eye. The trauma from the attack left Danjuma unable to distinguish any light in his left eye.

What Danjuma endured was so brutal that villagers dug a grave for him. But his grave is empty, because Danjuma survived.

As he shared his few memories of the attack with me in May 2015, Danjuma constantly smiled. The joy, he said, comes from the Lord, who has also helped him forgive his attackers.

“I forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing,” he said, echoing the words of Christ on the cross. “If they had love, they wouldn’t behave that way.”

We published Danjuma’s story in our August 2015 newsletter and many readers were moved by his faith and ability to forgive those who horribly mutilated his body. Using cards that were included with the newsletter, readers had the opportunity to write letters of encouragement to our persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria. Many of you chose to write letters specifically to Danjuma, which a VOM worker then hand delivered to him. Though he’s unable to see the cards, Danjuma’s constant smile grew even bigger knowing those who have read his story are continuing to pray for him.

Since the attack, VOM has worked to ensure that Danjuma’s life is as whole as it can be, helping with medical costs and assisting his mother with care.

Today, Danjuma is learning to use a walking stick and he’ll soon be attending a school for the blind to learn Braille. In the near future, he’ll undergo a surgery for his left eye, but it is unclear whether he will regain any vision.

Please pray that the surgery is successful and that some of Danjuma’s sight will be restored. Also, continue to pray for his education and for his adjustment to his new way of life. Of course, continue to pray for his main concern: that he would have “strength to serve the Lord.”

Darren Sanders is a writer on staff with VOM. He learned about VOM as a teenager after reading Jesus Freaks and began receiving the newsletter. He continues to be inspired by those living out their faith despite persecution.

Tibet: "I Could Only Rely on Jesus"

"Sister Amber" spent more than a decade in Tibet, providing vocational training to the people and sharing the gospel message of Christ’s love. She felt God's call especially to work among Tibet's nomadic tribal people, who jokingly call themselves "the roof on the roof of the world."

Amber watched as God brought about a great ministry breakthrough: people who'd been totally closed to her message were now asking to learn more about Jesus. But just days after the breakthrough Amber experienced persecution as police came pounding on her door.

Listen to VOM Radio this week as she tells the story. You'll hear how the Holy Spirit strengthened and spoke to her, and how God brought Amber from a place of terror to the point of being able to express Christ's love, even to the men violently persecuting her.

 

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast.

Remembering Bonhoeffer: "Only at the Hour that God Has Chosen"

On this date in 1945, German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung by order of Adolf Hitler in a Nazi concentration camp. The following is excerpted from a letter Bonhoeffer had written which was circulated to a hundred or so of his former students during World War II:

...To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God’s hand alone, we shall all be protected even in greatest danger, and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call.

 

Bonhoeffer is honored on The Martyrs Wall at VOM headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Who can comprehend how those whom God takes so early are chosen? Does not the early death of young Christians always appear to us as if God were plundering his own best instruments in a time in which they are most needed? Yet the Lord makes no mistakes. Might God need our brothers for some hidden service on our behalf in the heavenly world? We should put an end to our human thoughts, which always wish to know more than they can, and cling to that which is certain. Whomever God calls home is someone God has loved. “For their souls were pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took them quickly from the midst of wickedness” (Wisdom of Solomon 4.)

...Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death.

...Only in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ has death been drawn into God’s power, and it must now serve God’s own aims. It is not some fatalistic surrender but rather a living faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us, that is able to cope profoundly with death.

In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one’s own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner ding grows to meet that death from without.  Christians receive their own death in this way and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, “It is finished.”

 

You can learn more about Bonhoeffer's life, ministry and death, read BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

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

Pray for Former Muslim Sent to Labor Camp

Six weeks after a judge in Kazakhstan sentenced Yklas Kabduakasov to seven years’ house arrest for his Christian activities, he was rearrested and sent to a labor camp. Yklas, a former Muslim, was first arrested in August 2015; he spent 12 weeks in prison before receiving a sentence of seven years under house arrest.

The 54-year-old father of eight sought a full acquittal, stating that he had not insulted Islam nor “incited religious hatred.” But on Dec. 28, 2015, a court changed his sentence to two years’ imprisonment in a labor camp nearly 280 miles from his home.

Please pray for Yklas as he prepares to lodge a final appeal.

You can join with others online to pray for Yklas and other persecuted Christians at www.iCommitToPray.com. By registering at the site you can also receive new prayer requests by email each week.

 

 

Step Carefully

Each month VOM produces "The Jesus Freaks Minute," a daily radio-PSA that shares the stories of the persecuted church with Christian radio listeners all over the United States and around the world. Here's the script for one of the spots that will air this month, a spot entitled, STEP CAREFULLY:

[LYRICS:]  What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak?  What will people do when they find that it’s true? 

[TOBYMAC:]  Hey, this is TobyMac with truth every Jesus Freak should hear from the Voice of the Martyrs.

[VOM:]   Decades ago, Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, watched a new crop of inmates arriving at a prison gate.

A murderer, sentenced-to-life, stood in chains also sizing up the new arrivals.  The criminal recognized one of the recently convicted men.  It was his son.  The younger man glared at his father, “Was it for this that you brought me into the world?”

The hardened criminal dropped his head.  He could not speak.

Wurmbrand summed up the lesson:  “Be careful of your steps. You will not be the only one to walk in them.”  For ways to follow the steps of Christ, go online to persecution.com.

[YOUR TURN:] Are there ways you are intentionally choosing steps that you hope your children will follow? Share how in the comments to this post.

Photo credit: Vintage beauty II - Radio by monogatari via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.

VOM Guest on Leon Show

Recently VOM's vice president of connection, Dr. Jason Peters, appeared as a guest on The Leon Show to talk about the release of VOM's new book, I Am N, and the challenges that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are currently facing.

Watch his interview below: 

 

Peters also shared recently on VOM Radio. Listen to the interview here.

Churches to Pray for Persecuted April 17

Thousands of churches in the US have been asked to set aside time in their services April 17 in order to pray for persecuted Christians around the world. The Voice of the Martyrs is one of the ministries behind this effort, called “Stand With the Persecuted Sunday.”

The first request of persecuted Christians, when VOM staff meet with them around the world, is that American Christians will pray for them. What is challenging to us is that they are not asking us to pray that they will be released from their suffering or that persecution will end; instead they ask us to pray that they will be FAITHFUL TO CHRIST in spite of what it costs them.

The Voice of the Martyrs has numerous resources to help your church be inspired to pray more fervently for our persecuted family. One video that speaks specifically to what Christians in the Middle East are facing is called Leina’s Prayer:

 

The Voice of the Martyrs also provides ways for your church to participate in practical ministries to help persecuted believers, including the new Family Med Packs initiative, as well as Action Packs and Bibles.

We are thankful that more US ministries are taking up the call to remember our persecuted family (Heb. 13:3), and we look forward to an army of prayer warriors joining the battle on April 17, as well as the first Sunday in November, The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

VOM Radio: The Insanity of God

“The Insanity of God” by The Voice of the Martyrs | Free Listening on SoundCloud Nik and Ruth Ripken went to Africa as missionaries. They experienced great works of God, and also great hardship and loss. Malaria almost killed them. Four Christian friends were killed on one day in Somalia. Their 16-year-old son died suddenly. Amidst such loss and suffering, they wondered, “Is Jesus for the tough places?”

Seeking an answer, Nik and Ruth travelled the world to sit down with Christians faithfully enduring persecution. They went not as teachers but as students, asking simply to sit at the feet of persecuted believers and learn from them.

Your faith will be challenged as Nik and Ruth share some of the faith lessons they learned from the examples of our persecuted family.

 

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast.

 

"Supernatural Interventions"

Recently Dr. Jason Peters, VOM’s Associate Vice President for Connection and one of the executive editors for VOM’s new book, I Am N, sat down with Billy Hallowell of The Blaze to talk about the book, about the examples of our persecuted brothers and sisters, and about how God is at work even in places with the most intense opposition to the church.

Click below to listen to their interview, which aired on The Church Boys podcast.

 

You can also listen to Dr. Peters discussing his visit earlier this year to Iraq on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio.