“Last year our VOMK supporters made it possible for us to send more than 700 Christmas Care Packages to children of Christian families facing persecution in Colombia and Algeria,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley. “This year our goal is to see a tenfold increase in the number of Christmas Care Packages as we send them to the children of Christian families facing persecution in ten countries or regions: Nigeria, the Philippines, Malaysia, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Myanmar, Egypt, Cameroon, Vietnam, and Palestine.”  

Representative Foley says the contents for each Christmas Care Package are sourced locally, with the contents tailored to the needs and preferences of local believers. The packs are then distributed in late 2021 and early 2022 by VOM frontline workers, who also identify children eligible to receive the gifts. Representative Foley says that in some of the countries a small number of the packages are used by local believers and VOM frontline workers for outreach events reaching non-Christian children.  

Representative Foley says that a donation of 35,000 KRW can send one Christmas Care Package. Donations for the Christmas Care Package program must be received no later than December 31. 

Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea tries to select different countries for the project each year in order to highlight for the Christian public the specific conditions that persecuted Christians and their children are facing in each country. “The Christian public generally knows about Christian persecution in places like China and North Korea. But the Christmas Care Package program gives us the opportunity to share what it’s like to be a Christian child in a country like Malaysia, or Pakistan, or Nigeria. In each place Christian children face different kinds of challenges due to their faith.”   

Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea cooperates with its Voice of the Martyrs sister missions around the world in order to ensure that the packages reach the children of Christians who are facing persecution. She provided testimonies from Christians in this year’s target countries who received Christmas Care Packages from Voice of the Martyrs sister missions last year: 

 Myanmar: “In 2020, Voice of the Martyrs delivered Christmas Care Packages of food, supplies and Christian literature, including New Testaments, adolescent ministry material and the Story of Jesus to eight different locations near and around Yangon, as well as the rural areas,” says Representative Foley. “One local pastor wrote, ‘Our family would like to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation on behalf of our church for your gifts. Through your generosity and support, we were able to place a Bible in the hands of each of the children. They have never had a Bible and they wanted it badly. Your gift and generosity was a perfect provision for every one of them. Thank you so much again.’”  

Egypt: “The beneficiaries of the 2020 Christmas Care Packages were children living in the outskirts of Alexandria, where Christians are facing persecution from the Salafist and fanatical Muslims. The children received a backpack, school stationery, a towel, toothbrush and toothpaste, a Holy Bible in Arabic and return transport to a meeting place for a celebration. One child wrote, ‘I just want to say that God is very sweet for taking care of me, I feel neglected at home but today God is saying to me that I am valuable to Him!’” 

Pakistan: “The 2020 Christmas Care Packages for children included clothing, dried fruit, biscuits, sweets, storybooks, coloring pencils and coloring books. Bibles were given to those who could read. These gifts were mainly distributed among Sunday school children, brick kiln children, and poor and needy Christian families. They were distributed in the slum areas of Lahore and adjacent areas. The mother of one of the children who received a Christmas Care Package wrote, ‘There are no words to express my gratitude that you have shown my children the love of God through your willingness to provide a gift for them. Otherwise, my children might not have had anything to open this Christmas.’” 

Donations for 2021 Christmas Care Packages can be made until December 31 at www.vomkorea.com/en/donation or via electronic transfer to:  

국민은행 (KB Bank) 463501-01-243303  

예금주 (Account Holder): (사)순교자의소리   

Please include the phrase “Christmas” on the donation.