Persecution Blog

"Plundering His Own Best Instruments?"

I have been moved this week by the story of the South African Christian family attacked in Afghanistan last weekend. The father, Werner Groenewald, and his two teen-aged children were killed. The mother, Hannelie, is a doctor and was serving in a clinic when the attack happened, sparing her life. I cannot even imagine the grief and loss that this dear sister is enduring.

Today I was reviewing some notes on a book I read some time ago, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. The book quotes from a letter Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to tell a group of his former ordinands about the death of some of their colleagues during World War II. His words might also apply to the memory of Werner, Jean-Pierre and Rodé Groenewald:

They have gone before us on the path that we shall all have to take at some point. In a particularly gracious way, God reminds those of you who are out on the front to remain prepared…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.

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. 

I hope you’ll join in lifting Hannelie Groenwald to the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3) as she grieves.

Todd Nettleton has served the persecuted church and VOM more than 16 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.

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

Christian Humanitarian Workers Killed in Afghanistan

South African Christian Werner Groenewald and his two teen-aged children, Jean-Pierre and Rodé, were killed Saturday in an attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Please pray for Hannelie Groenewald, a doctor who also served the people of Afghanistan, as she grieves the loss of her husband and children. She also lost her home and possessions as the family’s house was burned in the attack. Werner Groenewald had been helping Afghans through education and development projects since 2002.

"We only die once, so it might as well be for Jesus."

Media reports on the attack quote one blogger who knew Groenewald, writing about the last time Werner spoke to a group of Christian coworkers: “In Werner’s last message to the international group of co-workers he spoke on ‘counting the cost of following Jesus.’ His words will remain in our hearts forever as he closed the session with these words: ‘We only die once, so it might as well be for Jesus.’”

Refiner’s Fire: Christians in the Kilns

Set within Pakistan’s Punjab province about 40 miles southwest of Lahore, Chak 59 is a rural village where most people work as day laborers. Like many other families here, Christians Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife, Shama Bibi were compelled to work long days at the brick kiln. Their 6-year-old son and two daughters, 4 and 1 ½, will also be expected to work when they are older.

Brick kiln where Shehzad and Shama worked.

Already outcasts in society, believers in Pakistan are often without work or property. They are marginalized and pushed to the edges of town where factories like brick kilns operate and need laborers. Nearly all of those who work in the brick kilns are bonded servants – essentially slaves to the owner because of the debt that they owe him. Though the practice was outlawed decades ago, an estimated eight million Pakistanis work as bonded servants. Shahzad Masih and his five older brothers had worked at the brick kiln for the last seventeen years. Though he started working around age 13 helping to repay his father’s debt, Shahzad owed the brick kiln owner an estimated 100,000 Rupees or $970.

Virtually all bonded servants are from minority groups: Christians, those from the lowest castes, and people from indigenous tribes. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that thirteen out of nineteen brick-kiln workers in Punjab district are Christians. In addition to Shahzad Masih’s family, there were ten other Christian families working for the brick kiln in Chak 59.

Brick kiln work is one of the harshest forms of servitude in Pakistan. Workers – which often include children – endure physical strain and hazardous working conditions. Those who are injured are often forced to continue their work in spite of painful bruises, burns, cuts, sprains, or broken bones.

A Christian lawyer in Lahore stated, “Christian bonded laborers suffer double exploitation as religious minorities and bonded laborers.” Often, they are forced to work harder and punished more brutally and more frequently than Muslim bonded laborers. In spite of laws against forced labor, local government officials rarely protect Christian citizens and often discriminate against them.

One Christian worker at a brick kiln tried to leave after constant mistreatment. He was caught by local police and held for three weeks under a false theft charge. While imprisoned, he was beaten by police officers and his wife was sexually harassed by the brick kiln foreman. After his release, police forced him to return to the brick kiln.

Even where officials try to protect Christians, locals can depend on Muslim sects to carry out extreme violence against perceived offenses. When Chak 59’s brick kiln owner Muhammad Yousaf became concerned that Shahzad Masih and Shama Bibi were going to leave before their debt was paid, a rumor was spread that Shama Bibi had violated Pakistan’s longstanding blasphemy law by burning a Quran.

It is not likely that Shama Bibi or anyone in her extended Christian family would have had the means to own a Quran. But with logic pushed aside, a loudspeaker at the local mosque made an announcement on Nov. 4 that Shama Bibi had burned a Quran, and the terror began.

When the mob descended, the Christian families fled the brick kiln. Shama and Shahzad locked themselves in a room, but Muslim radicals climbed on top of the thatched roof and pulled them out. The couple was mercilessly beaten with sticks and shovels. The couple was then tied to a tractor that dragged their beaten bodies around in circles.

The graves where Shehzad and Shama are buried.

As some of their horrified relatives cried for the Muslim radicals to stop, the tractor suddenly turned towards the brick kiln furnaces. The couple frantically begged for their lives. The couple was placed inside the circular holes situated in rows used for stoking the fire pits. Afterward, only their bones remained.

Though the owner, Muhammad Yousaf, along with the brick kiln clerk and 43 others were arrested for their part in the mob attack, it’s not likely they’ll ever face justice.

And today, millions of Christians continue their work at brick kilns throughout Pakistan. They are our brothers and sisters being refined like gold and silver. They need encouragement and prayers.

Sources: VOM sources, International Dalit Solidarity Network, Human Rights Watch

North Korea Balloon Launch Leads to Gunfire

For decades, The Voice of the Martyrs has launched balloons printed with the Scriptures into North Korea. In recent years we’ve even been able to attach entire New Testaments to balloons, and to track their flight and delivery via GPS signals. In this way we know we have landed New Testaments into the capital region of Pyongyang.

While many American Christians are fascinated by this creative gospel distribution, the North Korean government is NOT a fan. Last week North Korean soldiers fired on balloons launched by human rights activists in South Korea, and South Korean troops returned fire across the border.

The balloons launched on that particular day were NOT a part of VOM’s balloon project; reportedly they contained pro-democracy messages and other items rather than Scriptures or Christian materials.

VOM contacts working in South Korea said that the reason for gunfire in this case is that the North Koreans took particular exception to launching balloons on Friday, which was the anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s “Workers Party,” which rules the country. This is a national holiday in North Korea.

North Korea—famous for its bluster in talking about its enemies—called the launching of the leaflet balloons “little short of a declaration of war,” and promised that “the provokers will be wholly accountable for it.”

South Korea’s government says it cannot stop the balloon launches because of its constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.

Please continue to pray for VOM efforts to launch balloons into North Korea, and especially for the safety of our contacts who are undertaking this work.

Read how North Korea controls and uses its “churches.”

The Persistence of Persecution

Listening to the news about Iraq brought a different response from me than before. I had just finished reading The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins and my response was—“They’re still at it.” In a phrase attributed to Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again!” The book is about how the great churches of the Middle East in the first few centuries of Christianity essentially collapsed, and many totally disappeared after decades of invasions, persecution, coercion to convert to Islam, and massacres. Churches, clergy, institutions, libraries, whole villages destroyed. Those that still exist (and have survived under the most severe difficulties) periodically face severe pressures unknown to us in the West.

Much of the world thinks of Christianity as Western. The Western church became predominant by default—it was the last one standing after the collapse of the great churches of the Middle East. The attempt to decimate the church and to push it into extinction is not a new tactic—Satan has been raging a long time and periodically we get a glimpse of the ugliness of his evil. He doesn’t appear to be losing interest in destroying God’s people.

Jenkins writes that the ancient church in Iraq had reached a high level of development by AD 800, one that the Latin Church in the West would not reach until the 1300s. Cities like Basra, Mosul, and Kirkuk, as well as Tikrit—the hometown of Saddam Hussain—were important Christian centers even into the Middle Ages. Eventually they were, in essence, beaten down, some to death, by invaders and Islam. Present-day radical Muslims want to finish the job but wish to carry on their program of eradication around the world, including and especially in the West.

We have misunderstood the passage in Matthew 16:18 where it says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. The church will ultimately prevail but in certain locales, it is being beaten out of existence. We need to embrace this fact and deal with it realistically and with maturity. We need to be careful of false “triumphalism,” which is what we easily fall prey to when we don’t have the whole picture. While Christianity is seeing great success in some places, it is being systematically decimated in others. VOM and others like us are not always appreciated for bringing up this fact. Many Christians wish to ignore it with the hope that it will go away. Bad news—it will not go away until Jesus comes again. Most likely it will get worse.

In the meantime, what we don’t want to see can hurt us. It is already hurting us. Presently it is hurting others far more than us in the West, and to ignore this robs us of the opportunity to pray for and encourage those who are going through persecution at this very moment. To shun those who are suffering for Christ is to shun Christ himself. That is certainly not the wise way to deal with the problem. 

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.

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

Cuba and the Church Today

A few days ago, I spent several hours sitting and talking with Cuban Christians. Some of them lead registered, above-ground churches, others lead unregistered churches and others are simply active church members. All of them talked about the suffering they’ve experienced under communism since 1959 when Cuba became a communist nation.

Specifically, they were denied jobs, income, government help, schooling, homes and more, simply because they were known as Christians. One man even spent two years in a forced labor camp in the 1960s, when he was 20 years old. But when he got out, within months, he was leading another house church. He said he left the prison camp with a clearer vision for following God and with a stronger calling for serving him.

He was one of a few of the group who were born pre-communism, who saw the revolution and have experienced its whole cycle in Cuba thus far. This brother referred to himself as part of the “historic faithful generation.”

Some of the middle-aged men and women in the group were born in communism’s heyday in Cuba. They were the few who were not allowed to wear the scarf of the communist party membership in schools, because they were Christians. They were the ones denied entry into Cuba’s many prestigious universities. They were the ones who became adults in the 70s and 80s, when Cuba was an avowed atheistic state. 

When they left secular jobs to shepherd churches, several of these men and women told of living in very tough times. For one family, breakfast might be a cup of water with a tablespoon of sugar. For another, breakfast was boiled yucca (a starchy tuber plant) and dinner was the water their yucca had been boiled in.

This middle generation and the historic generation faithfully continued to preach the gospel and disciple believers under communism and in spite of decades of pressure from the government. Their legacy now is the young people: young believers now living in a Cuba that is gradually growing more economically open to the world, but where Christians still face enormous pressure.

One member of the group, a woman in her 20s, told of her university experience. Though a believer, she was able to enter university, unlike Christians her parent’s age or even the 22-year-old son of a prominent pastor. (All universities are state-sponsored.)

This young woman and the other Christians in the university, about 40 people, met every day for worship in the afternoon. When the university would sponsor parties featuring alcohol and promiscuity, the Christians would meet together for their own parties.

The group hid in a basement for their meetings. However, they were soon reported to the principal, who threatened to expel them all if they didn’t renounce Christianity and stop meeting. Instead, the group wisely broke into smaller groups and continues to fellowship together.

This young woman is now a professional in her field, where she says Christians are highly respected for their honesty and good work. She and a few Christian colleagues pray openly together when they are faced with difficult work situations. While non-believing colleagues don’t join in, they hear the words of the prayer.

Three generations of Christians who have remained faithful to Christ despite constant pressure. One pastor’s wife told me, “We do pray and ask God to give us a different life.” But while they pray, they continue to serve God and reach out to those who need to experience his hope.

These men and women have suffered for decades, but the overwhelming sense I got from them was one of joy. Over and over they said that God had sustained them through every difficult moment.

While Cuba is in a season of increasing openness to the rest of the world, Christians there are still suffering for their faith, whether through bulldozing an unregistered church building, denying Christians the right to education, or sending faithful party members to infiltrate churches and report on church activities. Christian Solidarity Worldwide recently reported that there were as many religious freedom violations in the first half of 2014 as there were in all of 2013. Even so, the Church in Cuba is growing.

In 55 years of communist rule, the face of communism in Cuba has changed. But what hasn’t changed is God’s faithfulness. He is preserving and growing a remnant that will continue to testify to his goodness despite outside circumstances.

Dory P. grew up the daughter of missionaries in Ecuador, met her husband while working with another mission organization, and now lives in Oklahoma. Their family of four shares seven passports. Dory helps tell the stories of the persecuted through VOM's newsletter, and her husband serves with VOM's international department.

MNN: Libya Update

Last week VOM's Todd Nettleton was interviewed by Mission Network News about the upheaval that is currently rocking Libya, and what it might mean for Christians there. Here is the resulting story:

Libya (MNN) — A failed state is a state perceived as having failed at some of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a self-determining government.

Somalia comes to mind when using that terminology, and now, another country comes to mind. Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, says, “You have a very weak government. You have different militant groups that are controlling different parts of the country. There’s fighting between them for power and for control of territory. In that sense, Libya and Somalia look a lot alike.”

What’s happening?

Libya is being torn apart by its deadliest fighting since the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. His removal created a power vacuum, and without a democratically-elected government to replace the dictator, pushed the country to the brink of becoming a “failed state,” explains Nettleton. “What is happening is a huge power struggle between different militant groups, militia groups inside Libya. The fighting is ongoing. It has now forced the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy as well as some other Western embassies.” Newly-elected lawmakers struggled to find a safe location for their first sitting of the House of Representatives, held on 28 July.

He says a big difference between Somalia and Libya are the resources. However, violence in the oil-rich country threatens to destabilize the region. “We’re looking at a situation where nobody is really in control, and there are a lot of people who are fighting for control or for power. It’s running down into becoming a war zone.” Of the militias filling the void, only some have Islamist ideologies, adds Nettleton. “The good news is: right now the different groups are focusing more on each other and trying to gain control of the country. They’re not focused specifically on persecuting Christians or persecuting minority groups or stopping evangelism from happening.”

Persecution of the Church

This is one of the most difficult North African countries in which to be a Christian, notes Open Doors. In an absence of the rule of law, violence against Christians has increased. Nettleton observes, “One of the impacts is simply that a lot of the Gospel workers from outside the country have had to leave or will have to leave if this instability and violence continues.” Among Libyan believers, he says, “Just living becomes a challenge, let alone the issue of ‘how are we to reach out to our neighbors?’ Or, ‘How am I going to share the gospel with my Muslim friends/my Muslim family?’”

Most Christians are afraid to meet with other believers, as any kind of non-Islamic religious gathering for Libyans is forbidden. Ex-pats can have their own churches, but Libyans are not allowed to attend.

Nettleton urges you to stand with the remnant Church in Libya. “Pray for the protection of the believers there, that God would sustain them, that He would protect them and watch over them. Pray for opportunities to witness because there is upheaval, there is violence. That can be an opportunity to say, ‘Let’s talk about eternity.’”

Hard Choices for Christians in Mosul, Iraq

The eyes of the world’s media turned last month to the northern plains of Iraq, and to the city where Jonah first delivered Jehovah’s message thousands of years ago. Today the story isn’t of a messenger of Jehovah going into Nineveh (now called Mosul), but thousands of Jehovah’s followers being forced out of the city. The alternatives given to Christians by IS (Islamic State) if they don’t leave Mosul are subjugation to Islam or being forced to follow a different god—Allah. Or they will be killed.

Those Christians that fled the city—it is reported that the last 200 Christian families left prior to an IS-imposed deadline on July 19^th—left behind all of their possessions, as demanded by the radical Muslims of IS. Many of those that tried to carry more than the clothes on their backs were robbed at IS checkpoints on their way out of the city.

The cross on the Cathedral of Mar Afram in Mosul—the Archbisopric of the Syriac Orthodox Church—was pulled down and replaced by loudspeakers to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer.

Middle East Concern, a VOM partner ministry, reports that: “A few Christians remain in Mosul, including some elderly or infirm who were not able to leave. In some cases Christians are being shielded by Muslim neighbors. There are credible reports that some have been compelled by the IS to convert to Islam by reciting the Islamic declaration of faith before a Sharia court.”

It is important to recognize that the Christians included in these sad news reports are almost all part of the traditional Christian community in Northern Iraq, primarily Syriac Orthodox or Catholic people who are considered by Muslims to be “Christian” because they were born in Christian families.

There is another group of Christians in Northern Iraq too: those that were born into Muslim families but have consciously made the choice to reject Islam and follow Jesus. It is important for American  Christians to understand that these believers do NOT have a choice to pay a tax and save their lives. These converts are, in the eyes of IS, apostates. IS fighters would give these believers only two choices: return to Islam or be killed.

VOM is ministering to both of these groups of believers. Already we are caring for 2,000 displaced Christians who have fled Mosul; it is likely that number will increase in the days to come. We are also working with Christian converts in the region who risk their very lives to witness of the love of Jesus to Muslims—even radical and violent ones.

As we look through the eyes of TV cameras into this volatile region, may we be reminded daily to pray for our brothers and sisters suffering such hardship and violence. And as we pray for them, let us also pray for their persecutors, that some of those hunting believers today will become believers themselves in the days and months to come. 

Video: What Does ISIS Control Mean for Christians?

The world is watching as ISIS (which now simply calls itself IS, for "Islamic State") takes control of more and more territory in Iraq and Syria. But what does the growth of this radical Islamic group mean for Christians in that region?

In this video from last month, author Raymond Ibrahim discusses with CBN News the ideology that lies behind ISIS  and their goals to dominate the region, and what it means for Christians who live in areas where ISIS is in control.

We share this video today in the hopes that it will increase your understanding of ISIS and radical Islam, and drive you to prayer for our brothers and sisters living in the Middle East.

 

Washing Bottles

It’s 9:59 p.m., and I’m still in the kitchen, washing baby bottles. I have just cleaned up dinner and packed lunches for the next day after getting my two little ones to bed.  A basketful of laundry, needing to be folded, waits for me in the living room.

I look at the clock and sigh. I wish I were already in bed. If my husband were here, I’d already be done, because he would be sharing half the work. But he’s not. He’s in the middle of a two week-trip to the Middle East, where he’s meeting with persecuted Christians and some of our partners who help us meet the needs of suffering believers.  He’s not up late cleaning the kitchen, but he’s usually up late on these nights, crying, praying and just listening to people.

Most people assume that his life as an international worker for The Voice of the Martyrs is glamorous, jetting from place to place. He and any of our workers would tell you it’s not. It’s about being perpetually tired, with missed nights of sleep due to travel, then an 8-, 10- or 12-hour time difference adjustment on arrival and having to adjust backwards just after finding your rhythm in the new time when you get home. It’s missed family time, missed milestones in the kids’ lives, having to say no to service opportunities at church knowing you’ll be gone.

But he relishes sitting with people and listening to their stories, working with local believers and helping them think through how VOM can best help them to reach others for Christ. When he gets home and I pick him up from the airport, he often spends the entire hour-long drive sharing the things he’s learned and been challenged by through our brothers and sisters there. And as soon as he gets home, he puts priority on spending time with me and the kids.

As for me and the other wives of our international workers (who all happen to be men right now), sometimes people around the office refer to us as the VOM widows. We go to parties and Bible studies alone. We single parent. We figure out how to fix the water heater when it breaks—or at least figure out who can help us fix it.

I stay up late managing our household, but I can’t really let myself entertain the idea of complaining. I spent the day working on a story about Meriam Ibrahim, a mom of two young children, like me. Except she’s not able to wash her dishes late at night, or anytime, because she’s in prison. Up until the time she gave birth, she was shackled in her prison cell. Can you imagine how good that felt on pregnancy-swollen ankles, while chasing after your toddler? When given the opportunity to get out of prison, she told the judge she could never deny Jesus.

I’m not shackled in some Sudanese prison cell. Nor am I rejected by my family members, like so many of our brothers and sisters who choose to follow Christ. So this is my act of service: to wash bottles late at night, giving thanks that I’m counted worthy to be a daughter of Jesus Christ.

While I wash, I think about the many who are suffering, and I pray for them. I think about the people who my husband is meeting, and I pray for them. And I pray for my kids, hoping that they’ll see the choices of their parents and learn the stories of their persecuted family members far away and that by these examples, they’ll chose to follow the One for whom all these sacrifices, large and small, are worthy.

Dory P. has worked with VOM for seven years. She grew up in Ecuador, met her husband while working with another mission organization, and now lives in Oklahoma. Between Dory, her husband, three-year-old son and infant daughter, the family shares seven passports. Dory helps tell the stories of the persecuted through VOM's newsletter, and her husband serves with VOM's international department.