Persecution Blog

Being a True Vessel for God's Use

“Brother Matthew” is a pastor and church planter in South Asia, working among Muslims to share the gospel.

After threats against his life and an attack on his brother, he was encouraged by family members to leave his country. He fled to a safe place, but God clearly called him to go back to his home country, in spite of the danger. Matthew obeyed, and since his return he’s seen explosive growth in his church planting work.

Matthew says persecution is something God uses to purify and unify the church, and further it’s something that every Christian should be ready to experience. Let Matthew’s story inspire you to walk boldly with Christ, and remember this week to pray for Christians in South Asia.

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VOM Radio in Central Asia

"Tanya" is a Christian worker in Central Asia, living and ministering in a country where she must always be cautious about what she says openly and who she says it around. Listen to hear how Christians in the former Soviet Union are carefully sharing the gospel, and are willing to endure persecution if that’s what it takes to see God’s love spread to their countrymen.

As a mom and a pastor’s wife, Tanya shares how the threat of persecution impacts the way Christians raise their children to follow Christ. You’ll be inspired as Tanya shares how Christians living under persecution need and are blessed by Christians in free nations who pray for them and fellowship with them. Finally, you’ll learn ways to pray as Dr. Jason Peters guest-hosts this week’s episode of VOM Radio.

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast on iTunes or Google Play Music.

VOM Radio: Meet A House Church Pastor in China

“Enfu” is the Chinese word for “blessing.” When we went to China to secretly interview a Chinese house church pastor, he suggested Enfu as his pseudonym.

Every time Pastor Enfu and his congregation meet together, it is illegal. Listen this week as he shares the challenges of being a pastor in a nation cracking down on the church. Some of the challenges will seem obvious. Others will be ones that Christians in free nations may have never thought of, like handling church finances when the church doesn’t legally exist. How does his church train new leaders? How do they prepare Christians to stand strong in the face of persecution? We’ll hear answers to those questions, and Enfu will share with us specific ways to pray for Chinese Christians—and encourage us with the fact that they are praying for the church in America as well. You’ll be encouraged as you come with us to China this week to meet “Pastor Blessing.”

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We're Fighting for Petr's Life

Petr Jasek has been unjustly jailed for his faith. He needs your help today.

Christian aid worker Petr Jasek has been wrongfully imprisoned in Sudan for 293 days, and his family is asking you to help save his life.

Facing espionage charges that could lead to a death sentence, Petr is being held captive in the squalor of a Sudanese prison, but his faith is strong. VOM knows Petr as a kindhearted man who has assisted VOM in providing care to persecuted Christians in Sudan and Nigeria, including medical care for Christians attacked by Boko Haram.

He was arrested in December 2015 in Khartoum, along with two Sudanese pastors whose stories have been widely reported. The trial for these men began on Sunday, Aug. 21, after more than nine months of wrongful imprisonment because of their Christian faith. Petr’s family has asked The Voice of the Martyrs to bring his situation to the attention of American Christians, asking for prayer and advocacy as the trial continues.

VOM has stood with Petr’s family since the day of his arrest, meeting their immediate needs and providing for Petr’s legal defense, just as we do for many others around the world who are imprisoned for their faith. Petr’s faith is strong, and he knows we are lifting him up in prayer. In the first letter he sent to his family after his arrest last December, Petr stated that “God holds the key to my cell. He will open the door in His timing.”

The Voice of the Martyrs provides help to the families of imprisoned Christians through the Families of Martyrs Fund, and you can help today.

Help Petr and the Sudanese Pastors now.

Front Line Workers Need Your Prayer

“When you face persecution day in and day out, you get discouraged and you can withdraw. There is nowhere where it is easy to preach the gospel.”

–“Rajul,” a VOM-supported front-line worker

Front-line workers accept persecution as part of sharing about Jesus and planting churches. Many have been beaten and arrested for showing the Jesus film or distributing Christian literature.

You can encourage them in God’s work through prayer. Adopting a front-line worker is a promise to pray. You will receive a card with a worker’s name and photo. Your daily prayers will encourage and empower their local ministry.

Rajul oversees a network of more than 5,700 pastors who have shared the gospel in more than 20,000 villages across India. With your support, VOM provides training, evangelistic materials and transportation to better equip many dedicated to advancing God’s kingdom.

“To know so many people are praying for us, and that The Voice of the Martyrs gives us Bibles and support to help us advance the gospel, we are enormously encouraged.”

–“Rajul”

Sign up online to adopt a front-line worker by committing to pray for them for one year.

Pastor Held During Obama Visit to Cuba

Seeing news images of President Obama doing “the wave” at a baseball game in Cuba, it would be easy to think that this small communist country is now completely free and open to the gospel of Christ.


But while President Obama was watching baseball, Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso was sitting in a police station. Barroso, a Baptist pastor, blogger and friend of VOM, was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and detained at his home (which also serves as his church) just hours before Air Force One landed in Havana. A few hours after the president left Cuba, Pastor Barroso was set free and returned to his family. He was tired and weak, having fasted throughout his detention, but happy to be home.

Pastor Barroso is a bold pastor and outspoken advocate for religious freedom in his nation, and as such he is seen as a threat to the communist government of Fidel and Raul Castro. The Cuban government decided to make sure there would be no “distractions” during President Obama’s visit, so Barroso and dozens of other dissidents were detained by police in the days leading up to the president’s arrival.

Pastor Barroso’s name is already familiar to many American Christians who have committed to pray each week for persecuted believers at iCommitToPray.com. More than 400 people in 27 nations have already prayed for the pastor and his wife, who was threatened with imprisonment in 2014.

Each week, VOM posts a specific prayer request on iCommitToPray.com and invites Christians around the world to join in prayer for that request and to type their prayers on the website. Other believers — even believers in hostile and restricted nations — can then be blessed by and join in agreement with those prayers.

Please pray for Pastor Barroso and his wife, Yoaxis, as the pastor recovers from his recent detention.

Sign up on iCommitToPray.com to receive a new prayer request like this one via email each week.

Sign up on iCommitToPray.com

Colombia Pastors Find Blessing at VOM Conference

One of the ways The Voice of the Martyrs ministers to pastors in hostile and restricted nations is providing opportunities for fellowship, encouragement and training at Pastors Conferences. Our staff filed this video report of a recent pastors conference held for pastors working in the "Red Zones" of Colombia.

 

You can give online to help VOM serve pastors and other front-line workers in hostile and restricted nations.

VOM Radio: "Heaven is Rejoicing!"

When a fully veiled woman came to his church and asked to be baptized, this pastor from Iraq wasn’t sure how to respond. But the woman had been reading and memorizing the New Testament, and her faith in Christ was genuine. After the pastor and another church leader met her and asked many questions, she was baptized in their church.

In spite of terrorism and radical Islam, God is moving in Iraq. Listen this week to hear an Iraqi pastor's first-hand account of how God is working, how the church is growing and how the Islamic State is pushing Muslims toward Christ. You'll also hear specific ways that you can pray for our brothers and sisters in Iraq.

 

You can also access every episode of VOM Radio as a podcast.

SUDAN: The Shrapnel Pulpit

What does the pulpit look like at your church?

In many European cathedrals, pulpits are placed high above the floor. Other churches use a glass or metal pulpit. Some churches use a music stand, or may not use any pulpit at all.

In my office, I have a simple wooden pulpit from a church in England given to me as a gift years ago. I display it to remind me of the primacy of scripture and of the specific calling God has given me as a minister.

I have also seen a wide variety of pulpits in use around the world. In grass huts, simple concrete buildings, or even while worshiping outside, ministers often use pulpits as they proclaim the good news about Jesus.

But the most stunning pulpit that I have ever seen was in Sudan’s Nuba mountains a few weeks ago.

This pulpit was from a church that was bombed by the Khartoum government. The church was destroyed, and shrapnel shredded the pulpit.

When I interviewed the pastor of this church, he shared that when their church building was bombed, his people fled to the mountains. Now many of them live in caves.

But one thing that they couldn’t bear to leave behind was the pulpit from their church building. Now it stands as a reminder to them, and to us, that the Church will never be destroyed.

We may have scars, to be sure, but “the gates of hell will not prevail” against Christ’s Church!

Watch this short video and celebrate with the church that uses a shrapnel-ridden pulpit each week as they worship under a thatched roof.

 

Next time you gather at your church, please remember to pray for our Sudanese sisters and brothers. May the pulpit at your church remind you that we are part of the larger community of believers around the world.

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.

Suffering Well

How can a pastor continue leading a church that keeps getting attacked? How can he protect other people after he’s been assaulted multiple times?

These are some of the questions that ran through my mind as 48-year-old Rev. Yakubu D’zarai recently shared his story with me at VOM’s office in Nigeria.

Since 1993, Yakubu has pastored churches in Borno state – where terrorist group Boko Haram is based and Shariah (Islamic law) is rule. Two of his church buildings have been bombed. The first, home to 276 worshipers, was bombed on Dec. 18, 2012. The second, home to 278 worshipers, was bombed on July 1, 2014. In each attack, four people died, many others were injured and everyone lost a sense of security.

During the first attack, Boko Haram members hacked at Yakubu’s head, leg and back with a machete. Fortunately, he didn’t lose any limbs.

So how can any pastor continue his work after experiencing persecution? It helps to expect it.

“The Bible said definitely, ‘in this life there will be persecution, you will be killed for My sake,’” Yakubu said, referencing Matthew 24:9. “I was really comforted in this.”

Most would consider Yakubu to be a rare leader. How many pastors are willing to continue risking their life after they’ve nearly lost it?

The truth is he’s one of many. A growing number of pastors, in fact, are receiving training in how to stand firm in their faith following persecution. Why? These pastors know the power of the gospel and the need for Nigerians in the Muslim-dominated north to hear it.

In March, VOM workers from Nigeria drove through multiple military checkpoints and past numerous burned vehicles along the road – attacked by the same extremists that Yakubu experienced – to get to Borno state. Once there, they trained 50 pastors in how to deal with depression, trauma reduction and stress management. They also further examined what faith looks like in the face of danger. They’re learning to expect persecution.

“We are very optimistic that these pastors were transformed to these several days of fellowship, prayers and interaction in the training, and are therefore returning with new hope and spirit to train others,” a VOM worker said.

These pastors are now charged with training at least 10 other pastors in neighboring villages, bringing the total number of newly trained pastors in Nigeria’s most difficult region to 500 by the end of 2015.

Additional training sessions took place in Yobe and Gombe states, which border Borno to the west, and Adamawa state to the south.

These pastors are truly on the front lines, both physically and spiritually. They’re willing to risk everything because they know it all means nothing in light of eternity.

So what do these pastors pray for? Of course, they ask God for protection, peace and the courage to continue. After all, they’re human. They’re also thoughtful. If you ask Yakubu what he prays for, he’ll tell you he’s praying for you.

Yes, you.

“I am praying that God will keep protecting you people and keep you because the Boko Haram members are not happy with how you people are sending help to the Christians,” he said.

“Kelvin Varnsen” is a writer for 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.