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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Walid hated his Christian co-worker so much that he planned to kill him. But a bold act of love set him on a new course – directly to Christ. After listening to his co-worker, Haytham, sing Christian worship songs for several days as they painted a house in Cairo, Walid had finally had enough. His ultraconservative Muslim father, who had five wives and 32 children, had taught him early in life that he should hate all Christians. That deep-seated hatred had already led him to beat Haytham with a wooden stick for singing along with the Christian songs playing in his earbuds. And since that hadn’t stopped the singing, Walid decided to silence him permanently. One night after work, Walid grabbed a knife and followed Haytham into the streets. After making sure they were alone, he attacked Haytham from behind, stabbing him in the side. Haytham turned to look at his attacker as he fell to the ground writhing in pain, and Walid made eye contact with him before fleeing the scene. Expecting a visit from the police, Walid hid anxiously at his aunt’s house. “I tried calling some of my friends to see if [Haytham] was alive or dead,”
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Duhra was born into unhappiness. When her older sister was born, her father named her “Enough” because he did not want more daughters. Then, when Duhra was born, he abandoned the family altogether. Duhra’s mother, who blamed her for the breakup of her marriage, left Duhra in Cairo with her grandmother while she worked abroad. Although Duhra’s mother was a non-practicing Muslim, her grandmother was devout, forcing her to cover her head and to pray regularly. Feeling the loss of her parents deeply, Duhra prayed to Allah for help: “I need a mother; I need a father. Why did you create me with no parents?” Then one night, Duhra dreamed of a large white building like a mosque, but it had a cross on top instead of a minaret. Although she had never seen the building before, she recognized the cross from the tattoos she had seen on her Coptic Christian classmates. Coptic Christians, who practice a form of Orthodox Christianity, compose only about 10 percent of Egypt’s population. But they are proud of their Christian heritage, and many boldly display cross tattoos on their wrists or hands. The dream had brought Duhra such comfort that she began drawing a
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Cecelia’s Costly Choice Cecilia was still grieving her husband’s death when Habib Kabunda started visiting her small village in Uganda. Although he was a Muslim and she was a Christian, Habib had been a friend of Cecilia’s husband. So when he proposed marriage, Cecilia’s tribe voted that she should marry him, and Cecilia accepted. Her children needed a father, and she had no means of supporting her family. After their marriage, which required Cecilia to convert to Islam, Habib moved into Cecilia’s mud-walled house, where they had children together and eventually became a family of nine. Habib worked, Cecilia managed the household and life seemed to return to normal. As the years passed, however, Cecilia became increasingly uneasy with her adopted Islamic faith. She felt empty and depressed, and the words of the clerics at the mosque meant nothing to her. Recognizing that the problem was spiritual, she knew she had a decision to make. “I realized I had to stop right there and return to Christ,” she said. Cecilia left the mosque and returned to church, even though she and Habib often fought about it. Her Christian faith became more central to her life, and she knew she would
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Every weekend, Linh and her husband travel five hours by motorcycle to take the gospel to a village Linh once feared. The village, known as a “Communist hero village,” was home to a number of soldiers who died fighting against the United States in the Vietnam War. The villagers take great pride in the fallen heroes from their community and deeply treasure their communist way of life. Many of the villagers lived there during the war and remember those who died. In a country where most of the population practices ancestor worship, the veneration of those who fought and died for communism is considered a sacred duty. The fallen heroes are viewed by some to be guardian spirits of the village, and their memory is invoked to promote nationalism and communist pride. Initially, Linh’s husband didn’t want her to work in the village; he was afraid she would be arrested. Over time, however, he felt compelled to support her, and he continues to pray for her success. Although he travels to the village with her each time, he stays with the motorbike as Linh shares the gospel. Not just anyone can enter the Communist hero village Linh visits. She gained
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In July 1998, Pastor “Bike” cycled 17,000 kilometers (over 10,000 miles) across China, sharing the gospel in 24 provinces. Police often threatened his Beijing house church, and Pastor Bike was detained repeatedly. Now based in Qingdao, Shandong province, Pastor Bike still ministers actively throughout China, continuing to lead an average of two to three people to Christ every day. He and his wife are planting a church for migrants, and they baptized hundreds of new believers in 2018. Pastor Bike faces ongoing pressure and persecution, as well as some health challenges.
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Growing up in Pakistan, Abdul lived under strict Islamic law within an oppressive shame culture. His uncle, the head of his extended family, was an Islamic leader in the community, and the Quran was the source of ultimate authority over his life. As Abdul grew older, however, he began to worry about where he would spend eternity. He often thought of heaven and discussed the afterlife with his uncle, but his uncle simply assured him that he would get there. “You know you are doing a good job,” he told Abdul. “You will go to heaven.” Instead of providing comfort, his uncle’s words offended him. He knew he had not lived a good life, even by his own standards. And surely heaven’s standards were higher than his own, he thought. The Islamic view of heaven suddenly felt cheap to Abdul. After further conversations about Islam with family members, Abdul’s disgust with his life grew so intense that he wanted to commit suicide. Distraught, he shared his feelings and dark intentions with a friend. To Abdul’s surprise, his Muslim friend challenged him to take a Bible correspondence course that he had been taking. Abdul signed up for the course and soon
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At 9 p.m. on Feb. 7, 2016, Pastor Kabir finished leading a prayer service at Savior’s Church in the heart of one of India’s slums. He then left his congregation of 40 believers and boarded a bus to travel home to his wife, Ishita, and their two daughters, just as he did every other Sunday evening. This time, however, four men followed the 37-year-old pastor home. The men, all members of a youth militia called Hindu Yuva Vahini, stopped the bus three miles from Kabir’s home, dragged him off the bus and kidnapped him. They took him to an old, empty building, where they planned to force him to deny Jesus on video. Like other Hindu nationalist groups, such as the prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Hindu Yuva Vahini seeks to forcibly reconvert those who leave Hinduism. The men surrounded the pastor, brutally kicking and punching him for 15 minutes. One of them repeatedly hit him on the head with the handle of a knife, and with each blow Kabir pleaded with God to spare his life. He pledged to serve Him more zealously if he survived. As the pastor lay on the floor bleeding and writhing in pain, one
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Hearing God’s Word Through Audio Bibles in Nigeria Sitting with nearly 60 other former Muslims in a room connected to a VOM safe house, Isaac waited eagerly to hear his name called. Before coming to the safe house in early 2017, his brothers had tied his hands to his ankles, whipped him with wires until his back bled and beat him until one eye swelled shut. That was his punishment for expressing a desire to grow in his new Christian faith. After Isaac’s sister found him and untied his hands and ankles, he eventually made his way to the VOM safe house, with an increased yearning to know Jesus. But spiritual growth came slowly for Isaac because he didn’t have access to a Bible in Fulfulde, the Fulani language he spoke. Everything changed the day Isaac heard his name called at the safe house and walked up to joyfully receive his own audio Bible in the Fulfulde language. He finally had everything he needed to grow closer to Christ. “I am very happy,” he said with a smile after receiving his audio Bible. “This is a very good thing.” In Nigeria, where 40 percent of the population can’t read, audio
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Dr. Berhane spent 11 months in prison in Eritrea because of his Christian witness. The following is edited and excerpted from an interview with Dr. Berhane by VOM Radio host Todd Nettleton. I was working in hospital when one day the secret police came and arrested me and sent me to prison, and I stayed there for 11 months. So, at that time [I was arrested] I was a new believer, but still I believed that my future is in God’s hand. I wanted to use the opportunity to share God’s love to the prison guards, the fellow prisoners, the inmates, and God opened this opportunity. Every day I was clapping my hands and prisoners would come forward and I shared the gospel. When you are in prison, what you see is harassment; everybody screams at you, the prisoners fight each other, and the prison guards are not nice to you. But, you can keep this inner peace; it is because of Jesus. You wanted to share that peace to the guards and to the prisoners. Sometimes you see people being touched by that and they want to hear more about it. So this encourages me to do more and
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