I've edited this based on information from The Bible League, Operation World and other sources. It's intended to help us pray more intelligently for our brothers and sisters.
Randy collected many of his stories from Voice of the Martyrs and The Bible League newsletters. If you don’t subscribe to them, he would recommend you do so.
September 1, 1999 Fresh Words Edition
When John wrote his gospel, Peter had probably already been killed by the Roman emperor, Nero. So when he recorded the words of Jesus about Peter’s coming death he was able to look back and interpret the symbolism Jesus had used. Here’s what Jesus said to Peter, with John’s interpretation.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where ...
By removing eternal risk, Christ calls his people to continual temporal risk. For the followers of Jesus the final risk is gone.
Excerpted from The Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter.
34-year-old Jiang Zongxiu went to her neighboring marketplace last June in Guizhou Province, China. Along with her mother-in-law, Jiang took opportunities to hand out Bibles and Christian literature and tell people about Jesus. Only on this day, they had an encounter with the Chinese police.
The two Christian women were handcuffed together and brought to the police station. They were interrogated throughout the evening of the 17th. The next morning they were sentenced by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) to 15 days incarceration for “suspected spreading of rumor and disturbing the social ...
Warning from Randy Alcorn: Parts of this article are disturbing. We are printing it so you can pray for our suffering brothers and sisters, and to answer those who claim Chinese Christians are no longer persecuted.
In the spring of this year, one of Voice of the Martyr’s most trusted contacts brought the following Chinese interrogation and torture photographs to us with documentation. The names of the policemen and the Christians have been independently verified. The photographer, an “insider,” assured the police that these photos of their work would go to their superiors as record of their “conscientious work ...
Can the gospel spread, and thousands be converted, and churches grow, and love abound where Christianity is continually spoken against?
Dear Randy: You may not remember me, but about 4 years ago you saw me reading a Bible in the Chicago airport on your way home from a conference.
This story opens with “Is this the day, the day I die?” and continues to tell a story that will remain in your mind long after you finish the book. What would you do if your home was taken from you, your spouse swept off to an unknown place—a prison, and you are left to rely on the support of others to live? What if they were sent to jail simply because they were a Christian? And what if situations like this actually existed in the world?
Such a situation is portrayed in Randy Alcorn’s book, Safely Home.
Persecution is the focus as we see Li Quan, a Chinese would be college professor, smuggling in Bibles, meeting secretly in the middle of the night for worship services, and risking his very life to worship Yesu.
Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking.
Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom.
From Jon Pratt —Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking.
Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom.
EPM received many notes from readers telling us they were touched by the article “Not a Soul in This World for Little John” that appeared in the Winter 2009 issue. Below is a letter from Kimberly Smith, president of Make Way Partners, as a follow-up to her article.
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