Laos: As China’s influence looms, VOMK workers quietly fulfill 2,100 individual requests for Bibles

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Pastor Foley

Discrete, personal deliveries of Bibles to Laos Christians have replaced large scale Bible distribution campaigns, due to growing Chinese influence on the Laos government’s religious enforcement policies.

That’s what we’ve learned at Voice of the Martyrs Korea as we’ve been working with local Christian workers in Laos recently to quietly fulfill individual requests for Bibles from 500 church leaders and 1,600 church members in that communist country. 660 requests for hymnals were also fulfilled.

“Laos not only shares a border with China. It shares a communist ideology, and that includes strong restrictions on religion,” says Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley. She points to the July 28 arrest in Laos of Chinese human rights attorney Lu Siwei as he was on his way to the United States as a sign of China’s influence on the Laos government. “We should not be surprised to see Laos adopt China-style religious restrictions to attempt to control its rapidly-growing Christian population,” she says.

“In 1994 there were 400 Christians in Laos, but by 2020 there were over 250,000, and by the end of 2023, Lao Christians believe there will be over 400,000,” says Representative Foley. She says that sharp increase has led to challenges for the Lao Christian community.

A Lao believer is thrilled to receive a new Bible.

“Persecution and restrictions are the main external challenges,” says Representative Foley. “Most persecution of Christians in Laos is done by family members or village authorities who are concerned that Christianity offends the spirits.”

But Representative Foley notes that it is not only the spirits who villagers worry about offending. Lao government authorities also watch the growth of unregistered Christian congregations with concern.

“Similar to China, there is a clear expectation and growing pressure by the government for all churches to officially register their existence and fully comply with all religious regulations,” she says. Those regulations also govern access to Bibles. “Bibles are not sold in bookstores in Laos,” she says. “The registered churches sell Bibles, and some foreign groups have sought legal permission to bring Bibles in for mass distributions.”

But according to Representative Foley, buying a Bible from a registered church or receiving a Bible from a government-permitted distribution can expose church leaders and local believers to pressure from their fellow villagers or from government authorities. “Public acquisition of a Bible can be like a trail leading suspicious villagers or government authorities right to the door of an unregistered pastor or believer,” says Representative Foley.

In 1994 there were 400 Christians in Laos, but by 2020 there were over 250,000, and by the end of 2023, Lao Christians believe there will be over 400,000.

She says this is why Voice of the Martyrs Korea has been partnering with local Christian workers to enable Lao church leaders and individual believers to request Bibles privately. Voice of the Martyrs Korea recently received requests from 500 church leaders and 1,600 church members in Laos, along with requests for 660 hymnals. “By quietly providing individual Bibles to the Christians who requested them, we have been able to meet the need while keeping identities confidential and thus keeping Christians safe,” she says.

Representative Foley notes that due to the massive growth of Christianity in Laos, the majority of congregations do not have a trained pastor. “Most pastors have little schooling, and many do not have Bibles,” says Representative Foley. “The church leader is typically the oldest or wealthiest person in the community. In most villages, no church buildings are allowed. If village leaders notice that a house church is growing, they will try to stop it. Christians have difficulty providing for themselves and their family. They may be unable to get jobs, most of which are through the government. Christians may be denied medical treatment, education and other social services. There are no open Bible schools in the country.” Representative Foley says that the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC) is the only government-recognized church.

But Representative Foley says Voice of the Martyrs Korea believes that the best way to address the challenges facing the growing Lao Christian community is privately and quietly, through fulfilling individual requests for Bibles, rather than through large-scale efforts that require centralized coordination with the official church’s structures, as well as government permission.

“Early Korean Christian history shows the power of individual Bible distribution,” says Representative Foley. “15,000 copies of the Ross Bible were secretly distributed hand-to-hand before the first missionaries arrived, even with the government actively trying to stop the spread of the faith.”

Most Lao pastors have little schooling, and many do not have Bibles.

She says that just as the Lao government often follows the Chinese government’s religious policies, the Lao church can learn from the Chinese underground church.

“The Chinese government has been able to confiscate the buildings of Chinese megachurches, drive all Bible purchases to official channels, and cut off the large-scale initiatives of American and Korean missionaries seeking to help the Chinese church,” she says. “But it has been much harder for the Chinese government to stop the house-to-house spread of Christianity in the countryside. For the past several years that has been our focus in China: privately supplying Bibles and Bible study materials to individual believers who request them. That approach the Chinese government still can’t stop. The time has come for us to take the same approach in Laos.”

Representative Foley says Voice of the Martyrs Korea is now working on a plan to quietly get audio Bibles to Lao believers who request them. “There are many Lao Christians who are unable to read or write, especially in the countryside,” she says. “Local workers are compiling a growing list of believers who want to receive those audio Bibles, and we will be working to fulfill those requests in the coming months.”

Individuals interested in learning more about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work in partnership with Laotian Christians can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/country-profile/laos/. Donations can be made to www.vomkorea.com/en/donate or via electronic transfer to

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Russia: New reports about religious freedom violations “only scratch the surface”

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Pastor Foley

Religious freedom is continuing to decline sharply across the Russian Federation and occupied Ukraine, as authorities apply vague laws targeting extremism, terrorism, missionary activity, and undesirable organizations to ban various religious activities by Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and other groups. That is the conclusion of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan government commission tasked with making policy recommendations to US officials on religious freedom violations internationally. USCIRF published two new Russia Updates in July, following its 2023 Annual Report released in April which lists Russia as one of 17 countries it recommends the United States State Department should designate as “Countries of Particular Concern” due to the number and severity of religious freedom violations.

The special reports also call attention to religious freedom violations associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including Russian government prosecution of protestors opposing the war on religious grounds, as well as mistreatment of religious minorities in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

Dr Hyun Sook Foley, President of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, says her organization welcomes the international attention the USCIRF reports bring to religious freedom violations by Russian authorities but says the reports “only scratch the surface”. “The reports by USCIRF and others highlight the high profile cases of religious discrimination involving government allegations of extremism, terrorism, and anti-state activity against religious groups,” says Representative Foley. “But far more common—and in our opinion, far more concerning—are the surging number of much less well-known cases where ordinary Russian Christians who are doing ordinary Christian activities end up fined or imprisoned by ordinary police and judges applying ordinary Russian laws to stop them.”

Representative Foley says those cases are typically too low-profile to appear in religious freedom reports by USCIRF and other watchdog groups but are in her organization’s view more representative of the day-to-day discrimination being faced by an increasing number of Protestant Christians in Russia.

This year, Voice of the Martyrs Korea has profiled the following cases:

  • In separate cases in May, courts in Russia’s far northeast Chukotka Autonomous Okrug fined two Christians, Ryshkov Mikhail Ivanovich and Kovtun Nikolai Alekseevich, for personally distributing Bibles and Christian books, ruling that the distributions constituted illegal church recruitment and not personal evangelism.
  • Pastor Andrey Shirokov and a group of Moscow pastors were carrying humanitarian aid intended for fellow believers in the Luhansk region when Pastor Shirokov was detained on April 21 at the Dovzhanka checkpoint southeast of the city of Luhansk. He pled not guilty to the charge of petty hooliganism but was sentenced to 12 days of detention by the court in Novoshakhtinsk.
Pastor Andrey Shirokov with his wife following his release (photo from Telegram channel Mirt)  
  • Vyacheslav Koldiaev was released from prison in Arkhangelsk, Russia on March 3 after serving a two-year sentence on a charge of alleged “use of violence dangerous to life or health against a representative of the authorities”. The case gained widespread attention among Christians around the world when video evidence exonerating Koldiaev was apparently ignored by the court, leading to Koldiaev’s conviction on May 13, 2021. Koldiaev had been part of a human chain of supporters surrounding the Baptist Church in Archangelsk, Russia on September 24, 2020 in an effort by the church to prevent a court-ordered demolition crew from tearing down a portion of the church’s building.
Vyacheslav Koldiaev receives flowers from children at the Baptist church in Arkhangelsk, Russia, following his release from prison (Source: Портал Верность) 
  • On September 1, 2022 in Armavir, authorities came to the workplace of a Christian, Maslenik Stanislav, and accused him carrying out missionary work by distributing copies of the newspaper “Do You Believe?” to participants in a key-making workshop he led. They searched the premises and seized eight newspapers. The Armavir city court found him guilty and fined him 5,000 rubles (approx. 90,000KRW).
The “Do You Believe” newspaper that Stefan Valery, Pastor Vladimir Kharchenko and Maslenik Stanislav were accused of distributing. 

Representative Foley says that the reason stories like these are not included in religious freedom reports is that the Christians involved do not seek to publicize their plight but instead focus on continuing their ministry. “No matter what the Russian government does, these ordinary Christians simply continue their service to the Lord,” says Representative Foley. She says that is why her organization tells the stories of these ordinary Christians. “Our primary goal isn’t to get governments to pressure other governments. Our primary goal is to tell these stories in order to encourage Christians in Russia, Ukraine, and around the world to remember that true freedom—freedom in Christ—can’t be given by governments, and it can’t be taken away by them either.”

Representative Foley says that the ordinary Christians facing persecution in Russia and Occupied Ukraine should be regarded by Christians around the world not as victims but as models of the ordinary Christian life to be emulated by other believers. “The USCIRF reports on persecution are recommendations to the US government,” says Representative Foley. “Our reports on persecution are recommendations to Christians around the world. Our recommendation is: Imitate these persecuted brothers and sisters! No matter what restrictions your government or your workplace or your family tries to place on the practice of your faith, the Lord Jesus is greater still. He will equip you for faithful witness even under the harshest circumstances. The Christians in Russia and occupied Ukraine are examples of the Lord’s care even in the valley of the shadow of death. So don’t be afraid!”

Individuals interested in learning more about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work with evangelical Christians in Russia and occupied Ukraine can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/project/russia-ministry/.

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Wife, son of Chinese human rights attorney who died suspiciously escape to the US

Posted on July 18, 2023 by Pastor Foley

The wife and son of Dr. Li Baiguang, the Chinese human rights attorney who died under suspicious circumstances in 2018, have escaped to the United States, according to the Christian nonprofit groups ChinaAid and Voice of the Martyrs Korea.

Hanmei “Hannah” Xu and Qingxin “Pure Heart” Li arrived in the United States last month and are presently seeking asylum, according to representatives of the two groups.

Hanmei “Hannah” Xu (third from right) and Qingxin “Pure Heart” Li (second from left) holding signs as they are surrounded by volunteers from China Aid upon their arrival in the US.

Dr. Li Baiguang, known for his self-described “ant strategy” of traveling around China to take up hundreds of individual cases defending the religious freedom and human rights of ordinary citizens, rose to prominence internationally after receiving an award from the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy in 2008 and being invited for three visits with then-U.S. President George W. Bush. Both his wife and young son were summoned to the police station for interrogation by Chinese authorities in Summer 2015. In October 2017, Dr. Li reported to international observers that he had been abducted, beaten, and threatened with dismemberment by Chinese officials in Zhejiang province for defending farmers whose land had been seized by the government. Then on February 25, 2018, Dr. Li was pronounced dead at a Chinese government military hospital in Nanjing, hours after allegedly checking in for a stomach complaint. The hospital said he had bled to death due to a liver condition. But Dr. Li, who was 49 at the time of his death, was reported by friends and colleagues to have been in good health immediately prior to the announcement of his death.

“Since Dr. Li’s sudden death in early 2018, his wife, Hanmei Xu, has been closely controlled and monitored without freedom of movement by agents arranged by the Communist Party of China in order to prevent her from having contact with anyone overseas,” says the Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, the founder and President of US-based ChinaAid and a long-time friend of the family.

Dr. Li Baiguang (right), Chinese human rights attorney known for his “little ant” strategy of traveling across China to defend the human rights and religious freedoms of ordinary citizens, died under suspicious circumstances at a military hospital in eastern Jiangsu province, China, on February 26, 2018.

Hanmei Xu released the following statement: “After much suffering in China, with the help of ChinaAid and Voice of the Martyrs Korea, we are glad to finally arrive in the USA, land of freedom. We thank all brothers, sisters, and other friends of the international community who have been praying and caring about Li Baiguang and our whole family.”

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea co-founder and President Dr. Hyun Sook Foley, ChinaAid arranged for the departure of Dr. Li’s family from China and is coordinating their resettlement and asylum process in the US while Voice of the Martyrs Korea is providing the finances and assisting in trauma care.

“Our focus at this point is on providing comfort, support, and stability for the family,” says Foley, who teaches Bible-based trauma recovery strategies to Christians who have experienced persecution for their faith. “We had the privilege of teaching persecution recovery strategies to Dr. Li, and now we have the privilege and heavy responsibility of putting those same strategies into practice with his wife and son.”

Dr. Li was born in 1968 in a mountain village in Hunan Province in south central China as the youngest of seven children. After graduating from Beijing University with a Ph.D on constitutional law, he taught at Hainan University for a year before being arrested for his growing involvement in dissident circles promoting democracy. He subsequently started a publishing business envisioning public education in democracy through the introduction to Chinese readers of books translated from the western liberal democratic tradition. However, he reported that his life was drastically changed by reading and translating a book about the persecution and perseverance of the French Protestant Huguenots in the 17th century.

“He publicly professed his faith in Christ in 2005 and gave up his ‘grand ideas’ about government reform and constitutional change in favor of what he called an ‘ant strategy’”, says ChinaAid’s President Bob Fu.

In his papers and presentations, Dr. Li wrote, “Recently I’ve had a realization: I’m willing to become an ant. I want to take the rights and freedoms in the books and, through case after case, bring them into the real world bit by bit. This is my personal stance. The path to this is legal procedure. In summer, the ant gathers food. Today, I’m also transporting food under the framework of rights defense, and in doing so accumulating experience and results for the arrival of the day.”

Dr. Li Baiguang (second from left) during one of three invitations to visit then-U.S. President George W. Bush.

He patiently and methodically followed each and every step of the legal procedure according to the letter of the law, according to Fu.

In a speech at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 2017, Dr. Li anticipated a major crackdown on human rights and religious freedom was looming. “From this point forward, human rights in China will enter its darkest period,” he said. Fu reported that Dr. Li remained optimistic due to his Christian faith. “He quoted Romans 13,” says Fu, “declaring ‘The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.’”

Though he died a few months later under suspicious circumstances, Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Dr. Hyun Sook Foley says the safe arrival of Dr. Li’s wife and son in the US is a divine sign that his optimism will be vindicated. “Psalm 146:9 says, ‘The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin’,” says Representative Foley. “The Lord has upheld Hannah and Pure Heart since February 2018. In the end, the little ant’s patient, persistent fight against wickedness will be upheld by the Lord as well.”

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