Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 18 that they were to forgive those who sinned against them 70 times seven, an excessive number with which he meant that forgiveness should be unlimited. The issue of offering forgiveness to our persecutors has been central to VOM’s ministry since the beginning. VOM’s founder, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, often spoke of forgiving our enemies to reach them with the gospel, and he exemplified this approach in his own life.

In January, 2007, the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, publisher of the political weekly newspaper Agos, was shot to death on the street in Istanbul. The murder was the work of extremist Turkish nationalists. Hrant Dink was no evangelist. For a long time he had lived pretty aloof of the faith of his Christian Armenian people. When he died, it became known that his wife Rachel Dink was a believing Christian and that Hrant Dink had also personally accepted Christ in the last years of his life.