BURKINA FASO: CHRISTIAN CHILDREN RETURN TO SCHOOL YEARS AFTER TERRORIST ATTACKS

Posted on March 2, 2021 by Pastor Foley

The Coronavirus delayed the return to school of many children around the world this year, but for Christian children in Burkina Faso, their return comes after a much longer wait. Jihadist groups attacking Christian villages have forced 40,000 Christians out of their homes over the past three years. Those attacks have turned thousands of school-age Christian children into refugees and kept them out of the classroom. Now, a special Voice of the Martyrs Korea program, in partnership with Voice of the Martyrs Poland and other VOMs, has enabled 1,104 of those children, some who are 19 or even older, to return to the classroom and complete their grade school educations. A plan to drill three wells to ensure their access to clean drinking water is currently underway.

Our focus has been on three groups of children. First, 350 Christian orphans who lost their parents in the terrorist attacks. Second, 500 pastors’ children who have been unable to attend school due to the violence. And third, 254 children from Christian families who lost everything due to persecution.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea contributed 15,000 USD of the schooling project’s 73,000 USD total budget, with the remainder of the funds coming from Voice of the Martyrs Poland and other Voice of the Martyrs organizations worldwide.

The main objective of the project has been to get the children of persecuted Burkina Faso Christians back in school as quickly as possible. Most of these children have been out of school for one year, and many have been out for as long as three years, due to the jihadist attacks that forced them from their homes. Their parents have had to prioritize other needs like food and shelter. Local churches across Burkina Faso have been helping them as much as possible, opening their homes and sharing their food. But providing education to these Christian refugee children was simply beyond their capacity.

That is one of the seldom-noted long-term results of persecution: Children of Christians in situations like this are unable to complete even grade school levels of education, and this causes them to fall to the lowest level of society, while the children of their persecutors rise to the top. It becomes a vicious cycle. That should not happen, especially when the Christians are families of martyrs who died because of their faithful witness to Jesus Christ.

Consider Christine, a widow. Christine’s husband was a pastor in Burkina Faso who was killed by a group of jihadists immediately after he finished leading Sunday worship at his church. Christine wrote, “From that moment, we were refugees in our own country. We couldn’t take anything with us. We lost everything.” Now, we have been able to get all eight of Christine’s children back in school to complete their grade school education. The eldest is 23, the youngest is 6. Christine wrote, “Our life has changed. We received your gift for our children, and they can go to school. We stopped crying; we have hope.”

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, a total of 339,909 students nationwide in Burkina Faso were deprived of education, with 2,512 schools closed. Schools re-opened in November 2020, enabling most students to return to the classroom. But the improvement of the COVID-19 situation generally in Burkina Faso did not mean improvement of the situation of the persecuted Christian families. They still cannot return to their home villages, and they have numerous needs, including access to clean water. Sending their children to school significantly reduces the demands on them as parents and caregivers. This is because in our Voice of the Martyrs program we have been able to cover each of the 1,104 children’s school costs, which includes an enrollment fee, a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) fee, a school uniform, and one meal per day for the whole school year. That means one meal less each day that these Christian refugee parents have to find some way to provide. We also equipped each of the children with school supplies–a backpack, notebooks, books, pens, and crayons.

The situation facing Christians in Burkina Faso remains unstable and extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, the jihadists continue their attacks in new places, especially in the Christian villages close to the Mali border. But with many of these Christian refugee children having been out of school for as long as three years, we agreed with the local believers that we had to get the children back into school now. We couldn’t wait any longer for the situation to improve. If we did, a whole generation of Christians in Burkina Faso could lose out on education and slide further into poverty and social disadvantage.

While funding for the Burkina Faso schooling project is now complete for this year, Voice of the Martyrs Korea is currently seeking to raise 36,000,000 KRW (roughly $36,000 USD) to drill three clean drinking water wells in the locations in Burkina Faso with the most severe water shortage and the highest number of Christian refugees.

In one of the cities where we will be drilling a well, there are more than 80,000 refugees. When information spreads that help is coming, everyone runs to line up. Unfortunately, the local officials that distribute the help are mainly non-Christians. Every refugee must provide an ID card. That card allows officials to know who is Christian. The officials do not openly turn away Christians, but they say things like, “Oh, I need to confirm more information about your situation.” In this way, Christians are moved to the end of the line and often receive nothing. So the Voice of the Martyrs coalition has arranged to drill wells administered by local churches where Christian refugees will not be turned away.

The well-drilling project is an expansion of one that Voice of the Martyrs Poland began for Christian refugees in Burkina Faso in 2020.  

To help the Christians refugees most effectively, our goal is to drill the wells before May, which is the hottest and driest month in Burkina Faso. Voice of the Martyrs Korea is designating donations made to its Families of Martyrs and Prisoners fund in March to the Burkina Faso well-drilling project. Individuals interested in donating can visit www.vomkorea.com/en/donate or give via electronic transfer to Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s Families of Martyrs and Prisoners fund.

국민은행 463501-01-243303

예금주: (사)순교자의소리

Please include the phrase “FOM/FOP” on the donation.

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NORTHERN ETHIOPIA: TIGRAY CHURCH STAYS AND SERVES AS CITIZENS FLEE WAR ZONE

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Pastor Foley

Pastor “T” (name withheld for security reasons) conducted a wedding at his church yesterday. While Ethiopian weddings normally require Pastor T to coordinate many details, this one required more coordination than most.

Pastor T’s church is currently located in one of the hottest war zones on earth.

Simmering conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian government forces broke out in early November. An estimated two million people in the region, roughly a third of Tigray’s population, are currently displaced. Roads in and out of the region have been barricaded, according to international observers. 

“There is currently no Internet and no banks, but we got lights (electricity) this week, praise God,” Pastor T told me. “To our people the problem is deep. Many elderly people and children are hungry and dying. In my church one child died. Because of the war, young women are being raped by the troops. Many buildings are destroyed. Still the war continues around us, now 10 km from my city.”

Pastor T and his church have been long-term partners with us in serving Eritrean underground Christians who fled across the border to the Tigray region as the result of persecution in their homeland. Eritrea has long been called the “North Korea of Africa” due to its severe persecution of Christians and political dissidents.

For years we have worked with Pastor T to provide trauma counseling and spiritual and physical care to the large Eritrean Christian population that spills continuously across the Eritrean/Ethiopian border into the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia. But now the Tigray region has been reduced to a state of refugees. Many people have fled, but Pastor T and his church are staying out of concern for the Eritrean Christians who rely on the church as their only source of help now that UN and Ethiopian aid agencies have been blocked from accessing two of the many Eritrean refugee camps in the region.

We are currently following up on multiple reports that Eritrean Christian refugees in Tigray are being rounded up by Eritrean government forces and repatriated amidst the chaos in the region. The refugees regard the camps as no longer safe, and certainly no longer able to supply basic living necessities. Pastor T and his church are presently providing care for these Eritrean Christians despite being unable to care for themselves.

Pastor T wrote us, “You taught us to serve our people by whatever we have: our body, our blood, our food. Even though we don’t have enough food even for ourselves, we are using the opportunity of the hunger to share our love.”

Voice of the Martyrs Korea has found a way to transit funds into the region and has pledged to send the equivalent of 10,000,000 KRW to Pastor T this month, for his church and the Eritrean Christian refugees they are supporting.

Other NGOs are meeting the needs of those who are fleeing Tigray to safety, but at Voice of the Martyrs Korea our role is always to aid Christians who choose to stay and share the love of Christ—especially those like Pastor T who remain behind to care for the families of Christians who have been martyred or imprisoned because of their witness for Christ.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea is designating donations made this month to our Voice of the Martyrs Korea Families of Martyrs and Prisoners fund to this emergency.

Donation to VOMK’s Families of Martyrs and Prisoners (FOM/FOP) fund can be made at www.vomkorea.com/en/donate or via electronic transfer to

국민은행 463501-01-243303

예금주: (사)순교자의소리

Please include the name “FOM/FOP” on the donation. If we receive donations in excess of the amount of the emergency pledge, we will allocate them to its regular monthly financial support of the families of other Eritrean martyrs and prisoners, in Eritrea and the surrounding regions.

For more information on Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s partnership with Eritrean underground Christians, please visit www.vomkorea.com/en/eritrea.

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VOMK sent 23,000 Bibles to North Korea in 2020, projects 30% more for 2021

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Pastor Foley

Voice of the Martyrs Korea announced today that it sent a total of 22,847 Bibles to North Korea in 2020, in addition to airing daily Bible recordings on its 5 shortwave and medium wave broadcasts into North Korea.

According to Voice of the Martyrs CEO the Rev. Dr. Eric Foley, the number includes mass distributions and individual hand-to-hand distributions in both print and electronic formats. Foley says the ministry does not provide breakdowns by Bible format or distribution method or location in order to protect the safety and security of recipients and couriers, as well as to keep its methods and technology private.

Foley says that mass distribution numbers were down for the ministry this year compared to previous years, but that individual hand-to-hand distributions had more than doubled. “On the one hand, the efforts of South Korean authorities to halt all balloon launches, including our Bible launches, decreased mass distribution. On the other hand, demand for Bibles from individual North Koreans was higher than in any prior year.” Foley attributes the increased interest in the Bible by North Koreans to fear and uncertainty arising from concerns about the Coronavirus pandemic. “Regardless of culture, thoughts turn to God anytime life is threatened and the future appears bleak,” says Foley. “North Koreans, like people everywhere, turned to the Bible for hope in 2020, and they found it there.”

Foley noted that government balloon launch bans and Coronavirus travel restrictions had less of an impact on the ministry’s Bible distribution efforts than people might think. “Voice of the Martyrs Korea is not a mission agency producing Bibles in South Korea and then trying to figure out some way to sneak them into North Korea,” says Foley. “We are a multinational network of Christians, including North Korean Christians, using a wide variety of technologies and resources to help North Korean Christians share the Bible with other North Koreans wherever North Koreans are found. Underground North Korean Christians say, ‘Give us the tools, and we’ll complete the work.’ Christians around the world all play a part in that supply chain, whether through finances, prayer, technology, sharing ideas, or gradually, patiently moving Bibles step by step into the hands of North Koreans who want them. Every year there are new challenges and new obstacles, but we plan years in advance, anticipating difficulties and working together with Christians in North and South Korea and around the world to develop new technologies and strategies to identify and overcome possible problems. We believe the adversity makes more creative and ultimately more effective. The Lord always finds a way, even in a pandemic.”

Foley says these new methods and technologies, as well as the strengthening and expansion of its own network, are part of the reason why Voice of the Martyrs Korea is projecting a 30% increase in its Bible distribution numbers for 2021. He also points to the addition of a fifth radio broadcast in 2020 as a positive outcome of South Korean government efforts to ban balloon launching. “Through the cooperation of our funding partners, we were able to reallocate some of the funds we would normally have used for Bible balloon launching to add another 30-minute daily radio broadcast, which includes Bible readings.” Foley said the ministry was also able to complete a new dramatized recording of the Bible in 2020 for use on its radio broadcast and other electronic distribution media.

Foley says it is too early to determine how new legislation in South Korea related to balloon launching will impact the ministry’s Bible balloon launch efforts for 2021. “The wind and the weather always prohibit balloon launching in January, even if laws were favorable. Thus, our focus this time of year is completely on the many unique Bible distribution opportunities that are only possible in the winter. When summer comes and the winds blow north, we will do what we do every summer: evaluate the legal situation, make the best decisions we can, and act transparently.” Foley also faces charges under the Inter-Korean Exchange Act and the National Safety Law for the ministry’s past balloon launch activities, but he says he is not concerned. “If I worried about tomorrow, I would never have gotten into North Korean ministry. Today is all God gives to us. My focus is fully on keeping our North Korean Bible supply chain operational today. If tomorrow it is determined that this is a criminal act, then I will joyfully and willingly submit to the consequences.”

Foley points to the 2020 White Paper on Religious Freedom by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights as proof of the impact that Bible distribution by groups like Voice of the Martyrs Korea is having inside North Korea. “At the time we started Voice of the Martyrs Korea 20 years ago, the Center estimates that essentially zero percent of people inside North Korea had seen a Bible with their own eyes. When the Center did its 2016 report, they reported that that number of those inside North Korea who had seen a Bible had jumped to nearly 8 percent. In the 2020 report, the Center says that number has continued to increase at a rate of 4 percent a year. Our experience is that the more Bibles we distribute to North Koreans, the more North Koreans want to read the Bible.”

Foley says what motivates him most are the notes the ministry receives from individual North Korean Bible recipients. “We received a note today that says in part, ‘Through MP3 we have all come to know that God created the world and that God is a living God and is protecting us. We never knew this until we received the words on the MP3 along with warm gifts. I am not of course able to understand it perfectly, but I will keep listening one time, ten times, and a hundred time to keep his words.’ What sacrifice would be too great to get a Bible in the hands of someone who treasures it that much? I can’t think of any sacrifice I’d rather be a part of.”

More information about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s North Korea ministry and Bible distribution efforts is available at https://vomkorea.com/en/project/northkorea/.

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