Tulu Mosisa was just a simple farm laborer who loved the Lord.He worked in the remote village of Nensebo Chebi in southernEthiopia in order to support his wife and five children, whoremained at home in another village. He also worshiped at a Protestantchurch there: Kale Hiwot Baptist Church. During the regular Sunday morning worship service, as Mosisa andhis Christian brothers and sisters were in the middle of prayer, menarmed with knives and machetes stormed into the church building. Atthe same time, about a half hour’s walk away at Birhane Wongel BaptistChurch, more armed men interrupted the service. They were militantMuslims, charged by their religious beliefs to cleanse the Muslim-dominated area of Christians. Mosisa had come to church that morning alone—his family was notwith him—but the congregation was composed of people of all ages,including women and children. The believers looked on helplessly as theirattackers barred all the church doors and windows, and then came atthem with their weapons. “Allahu Akbar!” (“Allah is great!”) the attackers shouted as theyswung their knives and machetes. The people were defenseless; theyscreamed and ran in all directions to avoid their assailants, but at leasttwenty-three were injured, two even losing their hands. Mosisa was killedwhen an attacker
Read MoreUndoubtedly with his brother Simon’s permission, Andrew temporarily left the fishing nets behind and journeyed to hear a man called John the Baptist. John was the talk of the town and wharf. He urged people to get right with God because the long-awaited Savior was coming. Andrew saw and heard something in John that he liked. This wild man was not only a scathing critic of society’s flaws, but he also offered people hope through repentance. He had a knack for making people feel very bad before he showed them how they could be forgiven. So Andrew became a follower of John the Baptist. Eventually, he was likely joined by his friend John, the son of Zebedee, who recorded the initial steps Jesus took in choosing a group of disciples to train. At some point, at least five of the original apostles were in the area where John the Baptist was carrying out his ministry. According to the biblical account, Andrew was the first of theapostolic band to discover Jesus in his unique role as Lamb of God whotakes away the sin of the world. Andrew was standing beside John theBaptist when the fiery prophet pointed out Jesus as the
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Christians—especially pastors—are being targeted by an Islamist insurgent group in Northern Mozambique, a group that already pledged allegiance to ISIS. A VOM worker recently visited the area and met with Christians who are among 800,000 displaced people. He heard horrible stories of violence and persecution, but also saw persecuted Christians continuing to serve and advance the gospel in spite of their suffering and loss. Sean Paton will tell us how the church in Mozambique is responding, as well as give an update to listeners on current persecution in Ethiopia and Uganda. Paton is Africa Regional Director for VOM. Sean will also encourage prayer for Eritrean Christians who fled for refuge into Ethiopia, but now face Eritrean troops who crossed the border during conflict in the Tigray region. He’ll share specific ways to pray for Christians in each nation discussed. Listen here to learn more about the situation in Mozambique from a previous VOM Radio guest, Will Hart. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio. Subscribe to the podcast!
Read MoreMaurice Tornay was the seventh of eight children born to aCatholic family who lived high in the Swiss mountainsnear Valais. The family was united in the work required tolive and the faith they lived by. Tornay recalled his mother at the fireside telling the story of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr. “You are virgins,” she told her children, “but to be martyrs, that’s more difficult.You must love God more than anything else, and be ready to give yourlife, to shed the last drop of blood for Him.” Young Tornay never forgot his mother’s lesson. After secondary school, Tornay joined the Canons Regular ofGrand St. Bernard, best known for their rescue work in the Alps andthe famous Saint Bernard dogs they breed and train as “assistants.” AsTornay progressed, the Canons were asked by the church to send missionaries accustomed to living at higher elevations to begin evangelizing people in the Himalayas, or “the Asian Alps,” as they were called in Europe. Tornay volunteered, but he was kept back until surgery cured an ulcer. In 1936 he arrived in Weixi Province near the Tibetan border, where he finished theological studies, learned Chinese, and wasordained a priest. Tornay wrote: “And now I’ve almost
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Hanifah is 40 years old. She was born into a Muslim family, and she married a Muslim man. But her faith in Islam was shaken when her children became terribly sick. Her husband called imams and sheikhs to pray for the children, but they never got better. Finally, Hanifah felt compelled to take the children to a Christian church.
Read MoreOn May 4, three families in one village accepted Christ, for a total of 13 new believers. The three families, who are related, decided to follow Jesus after one of the relatives experienced a miraculous healing following prayer from a pastor.
Read MoreA VOM-distributed micro-SD card loaded with a digital Bible was recently received by a Kurdish fighter in the mountains of Kurdistan.
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The Fugitive Pastor in Vietnam After leading his Hmong congregation in prayer one Sunday morning in the fall of 2002, Pastor Foom Chao opened his eyes to the alarming sight of several Vietnamese police officers waiting to arrest him. Foom had been detained more than 10 times for bringing Bibles to the Hmong people in the jungles of Vietnam, but authorities had never before interrupted a church service to arrest him. As the officers handcuffed Foom and led him away, they told him this would be the last time. “We will never let you be free anymore,” the arresting officer said. Foom realized he might never see his wife and three children again, and he considered the possibility that the authorities might even kill him. So as the officers escorted the handcuffed pastor across a stony path in the middle of a river, he suddenly turned and ran toward nearby mountains. The police officers chased Foom into the jungle but lost him in the thick green foliage. As the sun began to set, Foom hid quietly on the mountain and prayed to God. “The Bible says You help the one whom You love,” he prayed. “Please, if You want to
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Prison Fixed HIS theology When 36-year-old Reza placed his faith in Christ 12 years ago, after comparing the Jesus of the Bible with the Jesus he had read about in the Quran, he began to live out his new faith with abandon. He worked with other Christians to get God’s Word into the hands of Muslims throughout Iran, which decades earlier had adopted Shiite Islam as its official state religion. And he and a friend even duplicated and distributed thousands of CDs and DVDs containing the gospel message. Reza wanted to lead people to Jesus and help build God’s kingdom, but his motives became increasingly confused. He grew more concerned with the number of people he was reaching than the people themselves. Then, one day, he was arrested and imprisoned for his evangelism. “When I look at that now, I am grateful to the Lord for going through that because it really built my Christian character,” Reza said. “I knew there were so many things in my Christian theology that needed to be fixed. I think God used that point to fix that.” Misplaced Hope One summer day in 2011, Reza and a Christian friend rode a motorcycle through a
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A Fulani Muslim’s decision to follow Christ led him from experiencing persecution to helping new Christians grow in faith. “Turn away from Islam and follow me,” the man in white told him. When Abel awoke the next morning at his home in Nigeria, he had no idea what the dream meant. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not forget the man in his dream. “The next day, again, it happened to me,” Abel said. “I had that same dream for three days.” Abel shared the details of the dream with his father and mother, who called it demonic and urged the 28-year-old to recite Muslim prayers to cleanse his mind. He followed their advice, but the dream persisted. Seeking relief from his anxiety and confusion, Abel decided to tell a Christian friend about the dream. His friend then arranged for Abel to meet a pastor, who told Abel he believed the man in the dream was Jesus. After explaining that Jesus is more than the prophet that Muslims portray him to be, the pastor shared the gospel with Abel. The pastor’s explanation of the dream angered Abel, who had always been taught that the Bible had been
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