Zapotylok Veniamin was ordained a pastor in the Unregistered Baptist denomination in December 2021. His first encounter with the law came just six months later. And it hasn’t ended yet. “It all began in June [2022],” he recalls. “Two people came to the house of prayer, a representative of the FSB and a deputy prosecutor. ...
Dai Zhichao, one of the leaders of the embattled Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China, has been under house surveillance since September 2022. Authorities prohibit him from leaving his home, taking out the trash, or even receiving a COVID test. Dai’s response, however, has not been protest or legal action. It has been to ...
As Chinese authorities continue to raid worship services, block Christian websites, and track down and punish Christian book buyers, Christians are returning to a World War II-era technology to spread the gospel: Shortwave radio. “People tend to think of shortwave radio as antiquated technology,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley. ...
In a further crackdown on Christians, the government of Eritrea recently arrested 39 women and 5 men during home gatherings. That brings to 415 the number of Christians currently imprisoned in the small northeast African country that persecution watchdogs call “the North Korea of Africa”. The 44 Christians are currently being held at Mai Serwa ...
International mail service is resuming to many countries following COVID-related interruptions. Persecution ministry Voice of the Martyrs Korea today urged Christians to send letters of encouragement this month to 13 believers currently imprisoned for their faith in China, Eritrea, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. “In Hebrews 13:3, we are commanded to remember those who are ...
North Korea maintained and expanded their efforts to jam broadcasts into North Korea by Christian radio broadcaster Voice of the Martyrs Korea in 2022. But according to Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, the increased jamming activity is a good sign. “Increased jamming means that the broadcast is working,” said Representative ...
Knowledge of the outside world opened the door to despair. Knowledge of God opened the door to hope. That is the conclusion Dr. Hyun Sook Foley draws regarding the current situation of North Koreans working abroad, based on letters released this week by her organization Voice of the Martyrs Korea, an NGO which serves persecuted ...
This December marked the first Christmas for Natalia Saveleva since the death of her husband, Sergei, in March. Sergei was one of five Ukrainian Christians who had been caring for 200 people living in a church basement in war-torn Mariupol since the start of the war in February. He and the other four were killed ...
Evangelical believers paid a “tax on faithfulness” in 2022, and that tax is increasing, according to persecution watchdog Voice of the Martyrs Korea. “Across the Russian Federation in 2022, basic Christian activities—gathering for worship, distributing Bibles and Christian literature, and personal evangelism—were investigated by Russian police and punished as crimes by Russian courts of law,” ...
After turning away from Christ in the early days of Kim Il Sung’s regime, a North Korean woman in China was led back to faith by a single Bible verse uttered by a mysterious voice that she alone heard. Rhee Soon-ja (name changed for security reasons) has vivid memories of her father reading the Bible ...
