The International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians is observed on the first Sunday of November, this year Nov. 2.
As Christians prepare to pray for fellow believers, one man shared stories of persecuted Christians and how his organization seeks to provide relief for them and their families.
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The Voice of the Martyrs is an organization that exists to encourage and serve Christians being persecuted in more than 70 countries around the world. According to the VOM website — www.persecution.com/about — VOM encourages believers to carry out the Great Commission, provides relief and support to families of Christian martyrs and helps Christians rebuild their lives after experiencing oppression.
Todd Nettleton, vice president and radio host for VOM, said he recently visited Central Asia and was impacted by stories of some facing faith-based persecution.
“The purpose of our trip was to interview persecuted Christians, to document their stories and be able to share them,” Nettleton explained. (The stories also are available in VOM’s free monthly magazine.).
He added the organization also encourages American Christians to boldly live out their faith and be inspired by the way persecuted Christians around the world live for Jesus.
“Hopefully that encourages us to be more bold in our faith, to be willing to have an awkward conversation with our neighbors to share Christ with them or invite them to church,” Nettleton said.
Prison alert letters
Nettleton was moved by the story of a widow who told about her pastor-husband’s imprisonment. The pastor was sentenced to four years in prison in one of the former Soviet Union countries in Central Asia.
He ended up only serving two years; but the wife told Nettleton the prison’s custodian told her husband he was getting letters mailed from fellow believers from all around the world. The pastor wasn’t allowed to receive the encouraging letters and they were thrown away, but his wife told Nettleton the thought of them gave her husband hope.
“She talked about what an encouragement those letters were to him,” Nettleton recalled. “He never saw them but they were such an encouragement (that) ‘you’re not alone, you’re not forgotten.’”
Nettleton showed the widow VOM’s Prisoner Alert website that provides guidelines for people to write letters to imprisoned Christians. The site also tracks the amount of mail sent to each prisoner.
“I showed her the entry for her husband and over 1,600 people had written letters through the site,” Nettleton said. “They had mailed government officials in her country over 400 times.”
Brought to tears
The wife was brought to tears when Nettleton showed her where some of the letters of prayer and encouragement came from.
“She looked at us and literally, with tears streaming down her face, she thanked us for the work that the VOM does,” Nettleton recalled.
The widow’s response encouraged him as he came home to urge fellow believers to write to persecuted Christians who are imprisoned.
“Write letters to the Christians who are posted on the site right now, who are imprisoned today,” Nettleton urged, “because you don’t know what a difference those letters are going to make.”
For more information or prisoner names, visit the website, which Nettleton said includes examples of encouraging phrases and passages of Scripture that have already been translated into the native language of the prisoner.
Addresses and correct postage also are provided on the VOM site, noted Nettleton,
“The prisoner may never see it,” he acknowledged. “We’ve heard of multiple cases where they never actually got delivered into the hands of the prisoner, but it still made a difference in how they were treated, and almost always [the prisoners] hear about the letters.”
The mail “sends a message” to the warden and guards that the prisoner’s case is being watched around the world, which impacts the quality of treatment and care, Nettleton said. The guards tend to ensure the inmate receives plenty of food and doesn’t die while imprisoned since the “whole world” is watching the case.
Updated identification card
Nettleton also recalled the story of a man in Malaysia trying to have his identification card updated from “Muslim” to “non-Muslim” since he converted to Christianity. The case has been held up in court since 2018.
When someone converts to Islam in Malaysia, Nettleton noted, the government can issue a new “Muslim” ID card the same day; however, it’s difficult to change the status to “non-Muslim.”
Incorrect ID card status can impact a person’s employment or marital status, Nettleton noted, adding the Malaysian government does not recognize marriage to a non-Muslim or any children’s births.
“It’s illegal for a Muslim to marry a non-Muslim,” he explained.
Hundreds of people in Malaysia are waiting for an ID card that reflects their new status as a Christian; however, no Muslim judge will grant them since changing the status would make the judge an apostate, Nettleton reported.
“We want to pray for our brothers and sisters that are going through persecution, that are enduring frustrating circumstances,” Nettleton encouraged.
He recommended contacting local government officials to make them aware of persecution.
“We care about what the U.S. government is doing or not doing to promote religious freedom and to promote the fair and equal treatment for our Christian brothers and sisters,” Nettleton said.
Faithful in spite of persecution
Persecuted Christians want prayer for their continued faithfulness while serving in hostile countries.
“Our natural thought is that they want us to pray that they won’t be persecuted anymore,” Nettleton said, “but the reality is that their first request is to pray that they will be faithful in spite of the persecution.”
There is a VOM app that provides prayer requests and information to help pray for those who are experiencing persecution.
