Persecution Blog

"What is the worth of a selfish faith...?"

Supernatural Things

If you are a US resident, you can request a FREE copy of Pastor Wurmbrand's book, Tortured For Christ. You can also share this photo on Facebook or Twitter.

Richard Wurmbrand Memories

Merv Knight is one of the longest-serving members of VOM’s worldwide family, having met VOM founder Richard Wurmbrand on the first day of August in 1969. Merv, the co-founder of VOM Australia, shares this week stories of the Wurmbrands, how they ministered both under persecution and after coming to the free world, and some of the challenges they faced launching a ministry to serve persecuted believers around the world.

Merv also shares testimonies from some of the many persecuted Christians he’s met during more than 45 years of service to our persecuted family, and the lessons he’s learned from the lives of those willing to suffer and even die rather than deny their faith in Christ.

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Weekend Reminder: Doing God's Work

A brief reminder to pray about and to carry with you into this weekend, from Sabina Wurmbrand, the wife of VOM's founder, Richard Wurmbrand. Sabina spent three years in a labor camp in communist Romania because of her Christian work alongside her husband. Pastor Richard spent 14 years in prison.

Order a copy of Sabina's book, The Pastor's Wife.

Step Carefully

Each month VOM produces "The Jesus Freaks Minute," a daily radio-PSA that shares the stories of the persecuted church with Christian radio listeners all over the United States and around the world. Here's the script for one of the spots that will air this month, a spot entitled, STEP CAREFULLY:

[LYRICS:]  What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak?  What will people do when they find that it’s true? 

[TOBYMAC:]  Hey, this is TobyMac with truth every Jesus Freak should hear from the Voice of the Martyrs.

[VOM:]   Decades ago, Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, watched a new crop of inmates arriving at a prison gate.

A murderer, sentenced-to-life, stood in chains also sizing up the new arrivals.  The criminal recognized one of the recently convicted men.  It was his son.  The younger man glared at his father, “Was it for this that you brought me into the world?”

The hardened criminal dropped his head.  He could not speak.

Wurmbrand summed up the lesson:  “Be careful of your steps. You will not be the only one to walk in them.”  For ways to follow the steps of Christ, go online to persecution.com.

[YOUR TURN:] Are there ways you are intentionally choosing steps that you hope your children will follow? Share how in the comments to this post.

Photo credit: Vintage beauty II - Radio by monogatari via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.

VOM Book Nominated for 2016 Audies

When the Audio Publishers Association announced the nominees for 2016 Audio Book Awards ("Audies"), The Pastor's Wife by Sabina Wurmbrand was one of the nominees. Sabina (1913-2000) was the wife of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and the co-founder of The Voice of the Martyrs.

The audio version of The Pastor’s Wife was narrated by Sadie Alexandru and published by Voice of the Martyrs. The audio version was produced and released by christianaudio. It was nominated in the Inspirational Non-Fiction category.

Cory Verner, President and Publisher of christianaudio offers, “The Pastor's Wife is a gripping account providing background on the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry that serves the persecuted church. It truly is an honor to play a part in publishing these audiobooks and make them known to new audiences. Awards like this speak every bit as much to the underlying content as they do the professional narrators who read them. It is difficult to listen to books like... The Pastor’s Wife and walk away unchanged.”

The Audie Awards are the Audiobook Publishing Association’s highest honors. The Audies gala will be held Wednesday May 11 at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Richard Wurmbrand: A Message for Good Friday

Seeing Beyond Suffering to Resurrection and Glorification

“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. … He will glorify Me. …”

—John 16:13–14

As we approach Good Friday again, let us, who complain about many things, remember how much Jesus endured and how He took suffering.

VOM founders, Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001) and Sabina Wurmbrand (1913–2000)

He entered this world in utter poverty, born in a dark cave fit only for beasts and cradled in a manger. Within months, Herod tried to kill Him. Immediately thereafter, for an unknown period, He was a stranger in a strange land. All His brothers refused to accept Him or acknowledge who He was. In fact, for 30 years He was ignored: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

When He went forth teaching and preaching, His words were warped and twisted to mean the opposite of what He intended. More often than not, His words and actions were met with ingratitude. His good deeds were misapprehended, even maligned. He knew loneliness and sorrow; even His closest friends were insensitive to His needs. He was betrayed with a kiss for a paltry sum….

In His hour of trial, all His close friends forsook Him and fled. Of the three closest, one denied Him vehemently. Condemned to a cruel, agonizing death, He felt deserted even by His Father in heaven. He who came as Savior of the world was mocked and derided for being “unable” to save Himself.

Nevertheless, “He opened not His mouth.” He endured to the end, knowing that beyond the cross and the tomb lay victory.  Through the Spirit of truth, God would glorify Him. Good Friday was followed inevitably by Easter, death by the Resurrection.

Christians who suffer in prisons nurture the same blessed hope. We commend to you, in all your difficulties, the faith that sees beyond suffering to resurrection and glorification.

(Excerpted and edited from the April 1982 VOM newsletter)

About Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand

When communists seized power in Romania and began to control or eliminate Christian activities, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife, Sabina, chose to continue their work as part of the underground church, meeting in the woods, in caves and in other secret locations. Both Richard and Sabina paid dearly for their evangelistic work. Richard served a total of 14 years in prison, enduring severe mental and physical torture, and Sabina was forced into slave labor for several years on the Danube Canal. In December 1965, Christian organizations paid the Romanian government a $10,000 ransom in order to get Richard and Sabina out of the country. Just under two years later, they started the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs with $100 and an old typewriter. Pastor Wurmbrand’s testimony is told in his acclaimed book Tortured for Christ, which is available from The Voice of the Martyrs.

"The First Half of My Life Ended on February 29, 1948..."

Today is leap day, and it also marks the anniversary of Richard Wurmbrand's arrest by communist secret police in Romania. In honor of this date we share two excerpts from Richard's book, In God's Underground:

The first half of my life ended on February 29, 1948. I was walking alone down a street in Bucharest when a black Ford car braked sharply beside me and two men jumped out. They seized my arms and thrust me into the back seat, while a third man beside the driver kept me covered with a pistol. The car sped through the thin traffic of a Sunday evening; then, on a street called Calea Rahova, we turned in through steel gates. I heard them clang behind us.

My kidnappers belonged to the Communist Secret Police. This was their headquarters. Inside, my papers, my belongings, my tie and shoelaces, and finally my name were taken from me. “From now on,” said the official on duty, “you are Vasile Georgescu.”

It was a common name. The authorities did not want even the guards to know whom they were watching, in case questions should be asked abroad, where I was well known. I was to disappear, like so many others, without a trace.

_ _ _ _ _

I knew that I faced questioning, ill-treatment, possibly years of imprisonment and death, and I wondered if my faith was strong enough. I remembered then that in the Bible it is written 366 times—once for every day of the year—“Don’t be afraid!”: 366 times, not merely 365, to account for leap year. And this was February 29—a coincidence that told me I need not fear!

You can order your copy of In God's Underground here.

The Reward of Tenacious Prayer

In Richard Wurmbrand’s book Tortured for Christ he shares the story of an old carpenter whose inner turmoil led him to ask God for a reward; the prize of bringing a Jew to Christ. This carpenter not only knew how to talk to God in prayer — he had the tenacity to ask for a reward.

“My God, I have served you on earth and I wish to have my reward on earth as well as in heaven. And my reward should be that I should not die before I bring a Jew to Christ, because Jesus was from the Jewish people. But I am poor, old, and sick. I cannot go around and seek a Jew. In my village there are none. Bring a Jew into my village and I will do my best to bring him to Christ.” – Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand.

What would happen if we had the tenacity to ask God for a reward like the old carpenter did? When I read the prayer of the carpenter I hear the voices of men of old like Abraham, Jacob, and Moses. Being unafraid to ask; they gave ear to their inner turmoil and allowed it to lead them into conversation with God.

I remember joining a prayer meeting in the Middle East once. In our small group there were men and women from Brazil, Sudan, Libya, South Korea, Egypt, America, and Syria. I watched as a woman prepared the room before we prayed. She knelt and laid upon the floor pieces of paper with the names of Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Sudan written on them. One by one we all stood and stepped forward to surround the nations represented on the floor before us. We joined hands and formed a circle around the pieces of paper. Then we took turns praying for the countries and people represented. The sound of prayer in each native tongue was beautiful beyond description. We prayed passionately for a reward – the hearts of lost people.

Among those in our circle was one of two men who had been imprisoned for their part in delivering Bibles to one of the countries we prayed for. He was imprisoned in a country that was not his own for over one year. He survived the imprisonment and torture inflicted on them while in prison. His friend did not — he died as a result of the beatings he endured. Another one of the men there has barely escaped arrest for his evangelistic activity a number of times. Today he regularly visits mosques in his country and prays quietly for the souls of those he is surrounded by. In countries hostile to the gospel men, women, and children are asking God for the reward of bringing their Muslim neighbors to Christ. The limits to God’s answers to our tenacious prayers are boundless.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns! – Isaiah 52:7 NLT

In 1844 Willem Ten Boom started a weekly prayer service for the Jewish people and the peace of Jerusalem. Later his son Casper continued in prayer for the Jewish people with his own family. The meetings continued for 100 years, until February 28, 1944 when Nazi soldiers arrested Casper and his family for hiding Jews. The Ten Boom home was open to anyone in need and provided — a hiding place for Jews and members of the Dutch underground. The end result was the rescue of 800 Jewish people.

You too can join in one voice with our brothers and sisters in hostile and restricted nations. The Voice of the Martyrs 2016 prayer map  is a great resource to use when praying. Your prayers may be the wings God uses to usher the next Saul to Paul conversion in our times. Perhaps they will be the fabric that sustains a prisoner yet another moment, hour, or day? You may not know the full effects of your prayers this side of heaven — but, be assured they are heard. 

 ³ Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴ And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Revelations 8:3-4 NLT

Order The Voice of The Martyrs free Special Issue and receive the prayer map insert at www.persecution.com.

Tami Yeager was first introduced to the ministry of VOM through a newsletter she was handed in 2003. As she began to read the stories shared within those pages she was confronted with a reality that did not fit into the package she had unknowingly wrapped her knowledge of God in. As she began to learn of the suffering of Christians around the world a desire grew to serve them. Today she serves as volunteer Community Coordinator in the Community Voice ministry of VOM. This post first appeared on her personal blog.

How Richard Wurmbrand Dealt With Betrayal

How would you respond to the person who betrayed you to the authorities, leading to 14 years in prison? Richard Wurmbrand’s response was simple: “We all make mistakes.”

Dale Rhoton, co-founder of Operation Mobilization, joins us again this week on VOM Radio to share about his visits with VOM founders Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, including a walk with Richard when they met the man who had betrayed Richard, leading to his arrest.

Dale also shares thoughts and advice for those sensing a call to missions and talks about his own early days ministering in communist and Muslim nations, and fellowshipping with Christians who faced arrest and persecution for serving the Lord. Even in the worst of human circumstances, Dale testifies, God is able to triumph.

 

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