The house of a pastor in the Donetsk region of Eastern Ukraine was destroyed by a February 15 rocket strike, but the church building attached to the house remained intact and the pastor and his family are safe and eager to continue their ministry, reports Voice of the Martyrs Korea.
The remains of the home of Vladimir Semenov, pastor of the Registered Baptist Church in Selidovo. The home was destroyed by a rocket strike on February 15. (Credit: ECB Telegram Channel.)
According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, the home of the pastor of the ECB (Registered Baptist) church in Selidovo, Vladimir Semenov, was destroyed on the night of February 15 as a result of a rocket attack by the Russian Armed Forces. “Pastor Semenov and his family were spending the night away from home that night, so they were unharmed, though they lost all of their worldly goods,” says Representative Foley. “The church building—or house of prayer, as they call it—which is separated from the pastor’s home by a long, thick brick wall, remained intact except for a few broken windows and a burned-out electrical meter and wiring. The windows were covered with boards by members of the congregation, and the church’s meetings have continued on as normal.”
The homes of all ten Christian families in a village in the South of Laos (name withheld for security reasons) were torn down one by one by fellow villagers over an eight-month period last year. According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley, a building the families were using for church gathering was also destroyed, and the pulpit was burned.
Lao Christians stand amidst the remains of their homes and church building which were destroyed by their fellow villagers last year.
“These families had to leave their village and have been wandering for more than six months, but they have not left the faith,” says Representative Foley.
According to Representative Foley, the ten families had all become Christian within the past five years and were the only Christians in their remote village. “The tiny village where they lived is not accessible by car or foreign missionaries, but it is reachable by ordinary Lao people who share their faith with other ordinary Lao people, and that’s how they came to know Christ,” says Representative Foley. “In 1994 there were 400 Christians in Laos, but by 2020 there were over 250,000, and today Lao Christians believe there may be over 400,000.”
But Representative Foley says that sharp increase has led to challenges for the Lao Christian, especially those who like the ten families live in remote areas where they are the only believers.
“Most of the tribal people are animists. They also worship their ancestors, like their deceased fathers or mothers,” says Representative Foley. “When families in their village become Christian, other villagers claim to experience things like sickness as a result of the local spirits being offended. So they believe that the Christian families have to renounce their faith or leave the village in order to fix the problem.”
She says that after these ten families became believers, other people in their village destroyed their homes and church building one by one because the Christian families refused to renounce their faith.
Burning pulpit from a church recently destroyed by villagers in a remote Lao community.
According to Representative Foley, the ten Christian families left their village last year and are still trying to find places to resettle, such as in rice fields or in the jungle.
“But even as they wander, they are still worshipping God, and they are evangelizing those they meet,” says Representative Foley. “Now their fellowship has increased to more than 100 people from across the region, and more people are continuing to come to Christ through them.”
She says a Voice of the Martyrs Korea field worker visits them often and is in regular communication with them.
“Our worker himself also donated some land for them to stay on as long as they need, and another believer donated land on which they can build permanent homes,” says Representative Foley. She noted that some of the families have found places to build homes in another village.
According to Representative Foley, the experience of these ten Christian families is not unique in Laos.
“One of our Voice of the Martyrs Korea field workers is assisting Christian members of a non-Christian family in the north of Laos. The father passed away, and the mother, son, and daughters were left. The mother and son are animists, but the two daughters became Christians and kept attending worship services. Their brother tried to chase them out of their family due to their faith.”
Another small rural church in Laos faced a violent attack from neighbors last month, according to Representative Foley. During the morning worship service, villagers and relatives of the believers came and destroyed the church, though further details cannot yet be shared due to safety concerns for the church members, says Representative Foley.
Still, though persecutions like these against Lao Christians are not uncommon, Representative Foley says she sees a common response from Lao Christians to their persecutors: forgiveness.
Lao Christians gather at a recent worship service.
“They are not angry with their persecutors because as Jesus says from the cross, the persecutors ‘know not what they do’,” says Representative Foley. “The persecuted Christians see their persecutors are sinners who don’t know Christ and don’t have the light of the gospel in their hearts. So, the families are quite sincerely not angry with the persecutors, and they are still praying for them.”
Representative Foley says that the suffering of the Lao believers is not causing them to abandon their faith. “They believe that God allowed these things to happen in order to make their faith strong so they in the future they will be able to endure and also to encourage those who will be persecuted like them,” she says. “Voice of the Martyrs Korea will continue to stand with them in their persecutions, replacing their burned Bibles, helping them to rebuild their homes and churches, and also equipping them to share their faith wherever the Lord leads them.”
A ribbon cutting ceremony marked the opening of Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s new regional office in the Seomyeon neighborhood of Busan on Saturday, January 20. But unlike most ribbon cutting ceremonies, the ribbon cutters were not local dignitaries, board members, or megachurch pastors.
Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley (far left) and Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley (far right)
“It was important to us to have our regular Busan volunteers, donors, and newsletter subscribers be the ones to cut the ribbon, because this office is for them,” said Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley. She says the purpose of the ministry’s regional offices is to give local Christians and churches the opportunity to directly serve and learn from underground Christians in North Korea and the 70 other countries around the world where Christians are persecuted for their faith. “Hebrews 13:3 commands all Christians to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters as though we ourselves were in prison,” says Representative Foley. “That means serving the persecuted is the responsibility of every church and Christian in the Busan area. So our new office in Busan is designed to be a place where ordinary Busan believers can come together regularly to carry out that biblical command.”
More than 40 volunteers crowded around the small doorway to jointly cut the red, green, and white ribbon officially opening the Busan office, which joins Seoul, Daejeon, and Jeju as Voice of the Martyrs office locations. Representative Foley says the red, white, and green colors represent the historical colors the early Christian church used to designate the three kinds of martyrdom described in the Bible: dying to self (green martyrdom), dying to the world (white martyrdom), and the formal martyrdom of death due to faithful Christian witness (red martyrdom).
Representative Foley and her husband, Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley, welcomed the more than 50 guests with a special worship service focused on serving and learning from persecuted Christians in North Korea and other countries. Ministry staff braved the rainy conditions to grill American style outdoor barbeque for guests.
Voice of the Martyrs Korea Busan Site Leader Pastor Tim Dillmuth braves the rain to grill American style barbeque for guests at the ministry’s grand opening event in Seomyeon.
Representative Foley says that Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s volunteers serve in a wide variety of ministry tasks including editing and recording the ministry’s daily radio broadcasts to North Korea and China, writing letters to Christians imprisoned for their faith, preparing audio and digital Bibles for distribution to North Koreans wherever they are found, printing the ministry’s books, translating materials, helping with office administration, hosting overseas visitors, and assisting in the operation of the ministry’s extensive media operation, which includes monthly newsletter design and printing in multiple languages, as well as operation of its Korean, Chinese, Russian, and English language social media channels.
Representative Foley says that each of the 15 Voice of the Martyrs organizations around the world is independent but shares a common history, including a strong reliance on volunteers for much of the organizations’ ministry.
“Since it was founded worldwide in 1967, Voice of the Martyrs has always been a volunteer-driven organization, even though our work can be quite complex and dangerous,” says Representative Foley. “Bible smuggling, getting aid to families of Christian martyrs and prisoners, supporting underground Christian ministry—VOM volunteers have always been involved in these efforts. Voice of the Martyrs does not use or work with professional missionaries but instead connects directly with ordinary local Christians who are being persecuted for their faith. This gives volunteers amazing opportunities to learn firsthand how to remain faithful witnesses to Christ under the most difficult circumstances.”
Representative Foley says her organization’s use of volunteers also keeps operating costs low. “We decided not to have a headquarters building and not to hire many staff,” says Representative Foley. “Instead, we operate small regional offices in a growing number of locations around Korea, with most of the ministry done by volunteers. This keeps our overhead costs below 5 percent and enables us to efficiently use our donations to serve as many persecuted believers as possible.” Representative Foley says the ministry is currently hiring a few staff for the Busan office, including an office coordinator, media manager, and translator.
Guests at Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Busan office grand opening event enjoy an American style barbeque lunch prepared by the ministry.
For some of the guests at the open house, this was their first encounter with Voice of the Martyrs Korea, but other Busan Christians have engaged with the ministry for years, subscribing to the newsletter, donating to the ministry’s projects, and participating in the “Preparing for the Underground Church” camping seminars the ministry has offered quarterly in Busan over the past year.
“I’ve attended three Voice of the Martyrs’ Korea training events in Busan with my husband,” said Yeo Ju Young Samonim. “The first was a camping seminar where I discovered that we should learn from North Korean underground Christians, not just help them or pity them. The second was also a camping seminar, where I learned about how to make household worship the center of my family’s daily spiritual growth. The third was in the new office here this week, where we learned about the apostolic proclamation as the content of Christian evangelism. I look forward to recording volunteering here to record the radio sermons for broadcast to North Korea.”
Individuals interested in volunteering or applying for employment at Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s regional offices in Seoul, Daejeon, Busan, and Jeju can contact Voice of the Martyrs Korea for more information at 02-2065-0703 or by email at [email protected].
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