“O most merciful Christ,” John Huss wrote while awaiting his execution, “give us a courageous spirit, so that it may be ready. And if the flesh is weak, may your grace go before it, for without you we can do nothing, and above all, without you we cannot face a cruel death. Give us a bold courage and upright faith, a firm hope, and perfect charity, that we may give our life for you in all patience and all joy. Amen.”

After they all had been tried, found guilty, and sentenced to die, twenty-six Christians were marched to the place where crudely made crosses stood. Almost three months earlier, they had been arrested in Kyoto, Japan, and charged with following Christ. One of the convicts was named Ibaragi Kun.

“I admire Communists.” The words seemed strange from a pastor who spent fourteen years in Communist prisons, but Richard Wurmbrand was sincere when he said them.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy.

A VOM worker recently met secretly with two Palestinian Christians, encouraging them and providing some practical assistance. Without knowing who he was meeting with, one brought a book that had greatly encouraged him: an Arabic version of Tortured for Christ.

“What is it?” Soviet captain Marco snarled at the young boy. “What do you want?” The boy, only twelve, swallowed his fear as he stood before the Communist officer. “Captain, you are the man who put my parents in prison. Today is my mother’s birthday, and I always buy her a flower for her birthday.”

“I lost all my friends at school. Now that I’ve begun to ‘walk my talk,’ they make fun of me.” Rachel’s journal entries showed her disappointment that the very people to whom she wanted to show Christ’s love turned away from her. But she wouldn’t give in.

Brother Ho was sick and running a fever when he and his friend stepped into the icy waters of the Mekong River. They were Bible students in Laos before the Communist soldiers overran their college.