VOM Canada's Weblog
Did you know that the Voice of the Martyrs Canada has an online weblog? Well, I bet you didn't, which is why you come here, so you can learn great things like this!
Glenn Penner, who is the Communications Director for VOM Canada is the main author of the blog and he has some very good thoughts on persecution.
This past week Glenn wrote an entry called Does Letter Writing Really Make a Difference? The answer is yes, of course, but you have to read why.
Few knew of his plight until last spring, when visitors to Mennonite prisoner Le Thi Hong Lien discovered him after learning that he had kindly given the poor suffering girl a Bible. His name was Than Van Truong.
After serving in the North Vietnamese army for 17 years, former communist political cadre Than Van Truong became a pastor with the Baptist General Conference of Vietnam, an unregistered church group. His active Christian witness and house church witness irritated the communist authorities and they arrested him in May 2003, accused of "counterrevolutionary propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." After interrogation, Rev. Troung was placed in a cell with criminals who had committed murder, rape, fraud and robbery.
In January 2004 he was released after 239 days in detention. During this time, seventeen criminal prisoners were converted to Christ. On release from prison, he was placed under house arrest until he was detained the second time on June 3, 2004. He was held in police cells until he was forcibly transferred on September 9, 2004, to the forensic medicine ward, in Center II of the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital for treatment for "hysteria and delirium" because “he believes in God”.
And after you finish reading Glenn's excellent commentary why not drop him a note of encouragement here on the blog to say hi. He reads the comments so he'll see them.