The building of Gaza’s only Protestant church sustained minor damage in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, but the one dozen remaining congregation members are continuing the church’s sizeable outreach ministries despite the risk, according to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley. “The Lord is miraculously preserving a witness for himself in Gaza—that ...
Pastor Yang Hua of Living Stone Church in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province was transported from a local police station to the emergency room of a nearby hospital after being beaten by a government official during a May 23 interrogation regarding his travel plans, according to Voice of the Martyrs Korea. Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, representative of ...
When North Korean authorities caught Mrs. “P” selling South Korean DVDs to earn extra money in 2008, her husband Mr. “K”, fled to China while other family members in government positions bribed those who oversaw the case in order to reduce the sentence. (Names have been abbreviated for security reasons.) When Mr. K returned to ...
A minister from the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China was held in police custody on the weekend of May 8-9, and four church members were questioned with two being beaten while attempting to bring him food. The actions against Early Rain Church were the latest since an April 21 police raid on a tutoring program operated by ...
The administrative detention of two ministers of Beijing’s Zion Church by Chinese authorities earlier this month has prompted a response from Zion’s pastor: A letter to his congregation teaching the spiritual benefits of persecution. “Those in chains for Christ will be completely free in Christ," wrote Pastor “Ezra” Jin Mingri, in an open letter to Zion Church members on May 1, co-signed by the church’s elders ...
On April 21, more than 10 police officers of Chengdu City Wenjiang District entered a residence, seizing four adult members of Early Rain Covenant Church and 12 adolescents who were participating in a tutoring program operated by the church at the location. Three Christians living at the residence were also detained. It is the latest ...
The long-simmering conflict between Russia and Ukraine saw tensions reach their highest levels since 2014 this week, as an estimated 100,000 Russian troops amassed on the Ukraine border in what Russia described as a “snap inspection” of its military readiness in the region. The action drew calls of concern from the United States and the ...
The Netherlands’ Country Trail Band, one of Europe’s most popular country gospel groups, is commemorating the North Korean Bible balloon launches of Korean NGO Voice of the Martyrs with a song. The song, “Straight into the Heart”, which appears on the group’s album of the same name, says in the chorus, “The word of God ...
81-year-old Sister ‘D’ (name withheld for security purposes) lives alone in a tiny hut on a remote mountain field in Tuyen Quang province in northern Vietnam. She previously lived with her family in a nearby village. But last summer when she became a Christian, she was rejected by her family, forced out of their home, ...
In December 2015, Czech-born Christian aid worker Petr Jasek went on a 4-day visit to Sudan to check on burned church buildings and persecuted Christians. But what was intended as a brief stay turned into a life sentence for spying and an eventual 445 days in prison with hardened IS fighters as his cell mates. ...
