P&PA - Feb. 25

VOM - P&PA for February 25th

P&PA - Feb. 11

The Persecution & Prayer Alert for February 11th

P&PA - Nov. 5

Here's this week's P&PA :)

P&PA - Oct. 29

Persecution & Prayer Alert for October 29th is here

Perpetua and Felicitas

Perpetua and Felicitas

“Think of your mother, your brother, your aunt. Please, Perpetua, think of me, your aging father. But most of all, think of your little baby!”
Perpetua agonized over the pain she was causing her father. She and four others, including her slave girl Felicitas, were in jail in Carthage in North Africa. The charge against them: They were Christians.
It was around the year 200 A.D. The Roman emperor Septimus Severus was cracking down on traitors. And those Christians showed a dangerous lack of loyalty. They wouldn’t offer incense to the Roman gods – even under threat of death.
The Romans really didn’t want martyrs. It was all so simple, as they saw it, only a sacrifice to the official gods, a patriotic gesture, kind of like a salute to the flag. Surely this young woman, from a well-respected family, would see the sense of it and comply. But Perpetua held firm. As a Christian, she felt that offering the required sacrifice was the same as denying that Jesus was the one and only Lord.
Perpetua was about 22 years old and had recently given birth to a son. Apparently, she was a relatively new Christian, too – she was actually baptized while in prison. Felicitas, her slave girl, was like a sister to her. And she too was a new mother, giving birth shortly after her arrest.
Three times Perpetua’s father was allowed in to beg her to change her mind. No decent daughter in this patriarchal society would deny her father’s pleas and cause him to public disgrace.
The resolve of the two young women and their friends was unshakable. To deny Christ was worse than death. To follow him was their first loyalty, no matter what the cost.
When the fatal day came, Perpetua and Felicitas left the prison for the arena “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven,” as the eyewitness account puts it. Before a raging crowd, the Christians were thrown to the wild beasts. A mad heifer charged the women and tossed them, but Perpetua rose and helped Felicitas to her feet. She was ready, even eager, to die for the Lord.
“You must all stand fast in the faith and love one another,” she called to the other martyrs, “and do not be weakened by what we have gone through!” When the beasts failed to kill the women, soldiers came to finish them off. But the soldier who came to Perpetua was trembling so much that she had to guide the sword to her throat, indicating that she was giving her life willingly.
These two young women, new in the faith, quickly became heroines, examples for Christians everywhere. Even today, we can be inspired by their uncompromising faithfulness to the Lord.

Further Notes:

Pioneer Writer?
Perpetua was an educated woman, fluent in Latin and Greek. Our knowledge of her prison experience comes from a diary that she kept. (Other believers added the details of her execution.) Hers is thought to be the first writing that we have done by a Christian woman.

Still a Lady
After she was thrown to the ground by the heifer, her clothing ripped. Perpetua modestly covered herself and asked if she could have a hairpin. She fixed her hair to avoid an unkempt appearance that might suggest she was in mourning.

What’s in a Name?
Two centuries later, Augustine pointed out the significance of the names of these two martyrs. Joined together, perpetua felicitas means “everlasting happiness,” which is exactly what they received.

What About Now?
Although we think of the first 300 years of the church as a time of extreme persecution, there have actually been more martyrs for Christ in the last 50 years than in the first 300 years of the church.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang

For the year of 2008, The Voice of the Martyrs Canada made a commitment to pray for the political leadership of North Korea – in particular, its Premier Kim Jong Il. Not knowing all that much in particular about North Korea or its Premier I immediately read all of the resources available through VOMC so that I could get a better idea of who and what I was praying for. Then, quite recently, I saw in their resource catalogue a book entitled Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag: The Aquariums of Pyongyang. Intrigued, I ordered it in hopes to learn even more about North Korea. What I learned from it was hard to stomach at times – but it has given me a whole new understanding of North Korea and what its people suffer under Kim Jong Il’s rule.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a memoir of the author’s life, giving a detailed testimony of what life is really like in North Korea. Kang Chol-hwan survived imprisonment in a concentration camp while in North Korea under the rule of Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il. It is the first account to emerge from North Korea, and Chol-hwan felt compelled to share his story “seeing it as his moral duty to shed light on the horrors of the Pyongyang regime and, above all, its system of concentration camps.” He explains that “North Koreans know about the country’s network of camps. What people don’t know is the number of camps there are, how many people they hold, or what happens to people when they get there.” Through his accounts, we are shown North Korea in a disturbing light… a Nation that has “a particular contempt for human rights,” “the planet’s last Stalinist regime, a regime that incarcerates between 150,000 and 200,000 people in concentration camps,” and “is ubuesque; which is to say grotesque and bloody.”

Chol-hwan’s memoir begins as he recalls his happy childhood in Pyongyang… days when he looked at Kim Il Sung as a god. Coming from a well-to-do and well-liked family, he had nothing but good things to recollect. His grandmother was an active and loyal supporter of the Communist Party and his grandfather gave very generously to the Party. However, that didn’t stop his grandfather from suddenly going missing, and as a result of his grandfather’s arrest, the rest of the family – grandmother, father, uncle, sister and himself – was sent to the notorious labour camp Yodok (a camp described as being “no place for humans”) simply because of their relational ties. At this time Chol-hwan was nine years old, and his sister only seven.
Besides a few rather humorous stories of the children’s revenge on much-despised teachers, the details of goings-on in this camp are horrendous to read. In the beginning, Chol-hwan was forced to go to school for half a day under the “teachings” of brutal men and women who regularly beat and humiliated the children, and he then did manual labour for the rest of the day where the people were “working like animals.” This routine continued until he was 15 (and therefore considered an adult) and was forced to labour all day.
Recalling the hunger, malnourishment, sickness, extreme cold in winter, filth, incalculable death tolls, and the observation of horrific public executions, the reader is given a deep insight into what life was like for Chol-hwan for the ten years he was at Yodok. One of the biggest aspects of a prisoner’s time at Yodok was the emphasis on reeducation, which had the opposite affect intended, as “the propaganda was so grotesque, the teaching method so crude, we were bound to reject it… our disdain spread like gangrene, beginning with the guards, then slowly, inexorably, making its way up to the great leaders.”
After these ten years Chol-hwan and his family were suddenly released… “one day the nightmare was over.” The day that should have given a time of nothing but rejoicing was actually very bittersweet for Chol-hwan. Suddenly being outside of the camp felt like entering a different universe, although it was one where he was still under constant surveillance for years to come, and one in which he was strictly forbidden to make even mention of the camp and what went on there.
In those years following, he was ultimately saved from poverty thanks to gifts received from family in Japan, and then upon threat of being taken back to Yodok, he and a friend made the dangerous decision to escape – first making it to China, where they stayed many months, until they could finally make it into South Korea where they began a new life.
Chol-hwan ends his story telling of his dedication to help “the unfortunate souls attempting to flee repression and famine” and with a plea for others to no longer turn a blind eye to those that are “dying of hunger without the right to utter a word of protest, crushed by a system that walks all over their fundamental human rights.”

Suffice it to say, this book was a huge eye-opener. Although it is not labelled a “Christian” book (though Chol-hwan does mention in the preface that he became a Christian in South Korea, professes that “[his] God is, after all, a living God,” and in the book mentions his baptism and attending a Protestant church), I believe, as a Christian, that it is very valuable to read. Of further note, there is one point in the book where Chol-hwan talks about the fact that there are much tougher camps in North Korea, and in any camp there are those separated from the rest, under much harsher conditions, called “irredeemables” who serve life sentences. Included in the category of “irredeemables” are Christians, whose fates are even worse than others as they face the unimaginable cruelties Chol-hwan described, and on top of that have no hope of ever being freed. In all, Christians or not, the people of North Korea need much prayer – as does its Premier and other leaders.
VOMC has a kit available for those interested in learning about North Korea and Kim Jong Il. It is part of the Praying for a Revelation in North Korea commitment afore mentioned. The online kit provides a complete profile of Kim Jong Il, specific things to pray for, a testimony of a North Korean woman, a detailed map of the Republic of Korea, and an overview of other leaders to pray for as well. I highly recommend downloading this kit, available here – and very highly recommend reading this book, which will give even further understanding and empathy for the people of North Korea.

P&PA - Oct. 22

Here is this week's Persecution & Prayer Alert information... please take the time to read these stories and pray for those who are suffering.

Salt of the Earth

Here are some more quotes from Brother Andrew:

“The real calling of God is not to a certain place or career, but to everyday obedience.”

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“It’s important that we not despise our own life experiences. We can look back and know that God will use them all for His service.”

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“Jesus Christ has given us the awesome responsibility of feeding His church and sharing His message with the world. Unfortunately, I see few Christians who take His challenge seriously. To live as a true member of Christ’s church is not a hobby or something to do in spare time. It is very life!”

~~*~~

“God has called us to make a difference, to be the salt of the earth.”

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“Let us focus on backing up our words with the kind of life that others recognize as belonging to Jesus Christ.”

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“When we proclaim the lordship of Christ, the forces of evil around us leap into action, and the spiritual battle intensifies. Yet we need not be afraid. Why? Because we already know the outcome of the battle. It was decided two thousand years ago when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead.”

~~*~~

“We must walk closely with God and stay grounded in His Word.”
“In spite of the intense spiritual warfare – or perhaps because of it – I believe God will give us opportunities to proclaim the good news of Christ to people we never thought would be interested.”

Be There

One of my favourite things to read about and study is the Persecuted Church and its servants. Although the stories can be gut-wrenching to read (or see) there is so much inspiration to be found in them. When I think of my brothers and sisters suffering for their faith it makes me really think about my own faith and how I would react in various situations.
There are a lot of organizations and people that really focus on the Persecuted Church. The Voice of the Martyrs is one of them, and I support their work as much as I can, however I can. There's also Open Doors, which was founded by the well-known Brother Andrew.
I've read a lot about Brother Andrew and about the work he has done/does, and I recently started reading yet another book written by him. I thought I'd jot down some of my favourite quotes from it that I found to be particularly special. So I want to share some of them with you today!

“When God calls, or when His people are in need, be there.”

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“Today we can look to His written Word to know Him and His will for us. As we saturate ourselves in the Scriptures and in prayer, our relationship with Christ deepens. And through the Bible He will begin to impress upon us just how and where He wants us to share His message.”

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“God has given us in Scripture a full revelation of His nature and His character. And He has given us an unmistakably clear mandate to share Him and His Word with those who have not heard. What more do we need? If we focus on obeying Him on a daily basis – wherever we are – He will lead us where He wants us to go and to the people He wants us to reach.”

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“God is waiting for us to walk forward in obedience so He can open the door for us to serve Him.”

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“Total, absolute dependence on God is the only way we can accomplish anything for Him.”

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“Iron, Bamboo, and Sugarcane Curtains, closed borders, dictators, terrorists – these are not the real obstacles that keep us from serving our suffering sisters and brothers. The biggest obstacles lie in our own hearts – fear, doubt, selfishness, and a host of other excuses.”

~~*~~

“When, instead of worrying about the obstacles, we trust God to take care of them, our Christian life becomes much more effective… then, as problems arise, we can view them as part of the process in which God is teaching us to walk in faith.”

October Persecution Report

The Voice of the Martyrs Persecution Report for October: view it here

Dying to be Faithful

I always feel a great burden to pray for the Persecuted Church... for our brothers and sisters who endure things we can't even imagine, for the sake of the gospel and their committment and love for the Lord. A recent booklet I received gave an outline of the beginning of the persecution of Christians, and had some very interesting facts and information throughout it. I thought it would be a good source to share. It's hard to imagine that persecution like this ever existed - the thought of a human being doing these things to another human being is sickening. But it all did happen, and it still happens today. Please check out the Voice of the Martyrs website for information about the Persecuted Church today. :)

Dying to Be Faithful

“Come fire, cross, battling with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs, crushing of my whole body, cruel tortures of the devil – only let me get to Jesus Christ!”
Hardly the stuff of Sunday morning conversation in the 21st century. Ignatius, a bishop in Antioch, wrote these words in a letter to the Roman church in the early second century. He had been arrested for being a Christian and knew that a grisly death probably lay before him. Yet he looked forward to it almost joyfully. Why?
Ignatius and many other believers in his time were dealing with dilemmas most American (/Canadian) Christians will never have to face: “Should I go to the local executioner and volunteer to die for my faith, or should I try to avoid being arrested at all costs? Is it okay to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods just once, if it means staying alive? Does martyrdom bring me closer to the sufferings of Christ? Are martyrs more special than the rest of us?” Questions like these shaped early Christianity.

Despite what many people imagine, the early church was not constantly on the run from wild beasts, torture chambers, and fiery deaths. For the first three centuries of its existence, Christianity was an illegal religion in the Roman Empire. But at first it was only a tiny sect, hardly worth the notice of the emperors.
This began to change with the emperor Nero. In A.D. 64, a fire destroyed 10 of the 14 city wards in Rome. Though Nero probably wasn’t playing fiddle at the time, as the legend goes, he was unspeakably cruel and perhaps even insane. To deflect public suspicion that he had ordered the fire to be set, Nero blamed the Christians.
The historian Tacitus (who called Christianity a “deadly superstition”) said Nero had believers killed in a kind of circus in his public gardens: “Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to flames. These served to illuminate the night when daylight failed.” The apostles Peter and Paul probably died during this time.
Fortunately, torturing Christians for amusement wasn’t the usual practice among Roman authorities. Persecution happened from time to time in various places, but there were also periods of relative peace and toleration. Some officials tried to make sure Christians were treated fairly.
But the suspicions Nero aroused damaged the Christians’ reputation. Public hostility towards Christians grew. Rumors spread about their secret practices. They were seen as superstitious, anti-social, and disloyal to the emperor. They undermined Roman society, in which pagan religion played a crucial role. They became scapegoats. The early Christian writer Tertullian complained, “If the Tiber floods the city, or the Nile refuses to rise, or the sky withholds its rains, if there is an earthquake, famine, or pestilence, at once the cry is raised: ‘Christians to the lions!’”

Around the year 155, persecution broke out against the Christians in Smyrna in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Believers were being fed to the wild beasts in the arena and burned alive. The crowd began to call for the Christians’ leader, so the authorities brought in Polycarp.
Polycarp had been a disciple of the apostle John and was a revered elderly leader of the church. The proconsul pled with him: “Curse Christ and I will release you.” Polycarp’s reply is classic: “Eighty-six years I have served Him. He has never done me wrong. How then can I blaspheme my king who has saved me?”
The church in Smyrna wrote an account of Polycarp’s death and sent it to believers throughout the region. This was the first Christian martyr story, and it influenced how Christians thought about martyrdom ever afterward.
“If you suffer as a Christian,” the apostle Peter had said, “do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name” (1 Peter 4:16). Indeed, in the first centuries of the church, Christians often suffered not for any particular accusations but because they bore the name. When pagan sacrifices were demanded of them, martyrs responded (like Polycarp) with a simple statement: “I am a Christian.”

This was no time for lukewarm, half-hearted believers. Becoming a Christian was deadly serious. Two of the most famous martyrs of the early church, young women named Perpetua and Felicitas, were new converts during a period when conversion to Judaism or Christianity was against the law.
Christians held those who stood firm in the face of death in the highest honour, because they were literally imitating Christ’s death. Churches celebrated these deaths annually as the martyrs’ “birthdays.” Some believed that martyrs went straight to heaven, while the rest of the church had to wait until the final resurrection. And some Christians wanted so badly to achieve this highest honour that they deliberately sought death. When the future theologian Origen was a boy, he was so eager to be martyred that his mother hid his clothes in order to keep him from going to the authorities. It worked. He wouldn’t turn himself in naked.

It’s difficult for us to understand this attitude today when we read about the horrific sufferings some martyrs underwent. In 177 in Lyons, Gaul (modern France), the Christian community faced mob beatings and prison conditions so horrible that many died before they could be thrown to the beasts. Some were chained to a hot-iron seat where their flesh was burned – making them literally a human barbecue.
Blandina, a young female slave, inspired others with her courage: “After the scourging, after the wild beasts, after the roasting seat, she was finally enclosed in a net, and thrown before a bull. And having been tossed about by the animal, but feeling none of the things which were happening to her, on account of her hope and firm hold upon what had been entrusted to her and her communion with Christ, she also was sacrificed.”
Unlike Blandina, those who volunteered for martyrdom were often the very ones to buckle under pressure, bringing shame upon the church. And as the persecutions grew more intense, many Christians surrendered their Scriptures and sacrificed to the pagan gods.
So the martyr stories had to get a across a very important message: Don’t go seeking wild beasts and torture chairs! But if you are forced to suffer for your faith, here is how to act and what to say – be like these brothers and sisters in Christ who did not give in when persecuted, but trusted God.
And Christians leaders like Clement of Alexandria reminded believers that it is not only those who literally die for their faith who are “martyrs/” The word means “witness,” and being a faithful witness to the gospel is something every Christian is called to do, in every circumstance.


Additional Notes:

• During the “Great Persecution” from A.D. 303 to 313 under the emperors Diocletian and Galerius, around 3000-3500 Christians were killed.


• The official end of persecutions finally came when the emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313. This did not establish Christianity as the state religion, but simply made it legal to practice Christianity (as it was legal to practice other religions in the empire).
  
• It is estimated that more Christians have died for their faith in the last century than in all of the previous centuries put together.

“Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity, and may he give to you a share and a place among his saints, and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.”
- Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians