What are you doing New Years Eve? Persecuted Christians are sharing their prayer requests with us in a 24 hour Facebook event

Posted on December 21, 2019 by Pastor Foley

May I challenge you to ring in the New Year by praying for urgent prayer requests from actual persecuted Christians in 24 countries that will be posted on our VOMK Korean language, Chinese language, and Russian language Facebook pages hourly beginning at 6PM Korea time on New Year’s Eve?

From 6PM on December 31 to 6PM on January 1, we will post a new prayer request at the top of every hour from a Christian in one of 24 countries where Christianity is either banned or heavily restricted.

This prayer campaign is unprecedented because we will be praying for specific persecuted Christians by name, using their specific prayer requests, and we will be providing actual photos from these Christians to help us pray. These are not general prayer requests for Christians in hostile and restricted nations. These are specific requests from specific brothers and sisters whose stories we know and have verified. They are partners with us and with our sister Voice of the Martyrs organizations around the world.

Preparations for the 24-hour prayer campaign began in early fall. First, our sister mission Voice of the Martyrs US had to identify persecuted Christians who were willing to share. Then they had to gather their prayer requests and related photos, carefully sanitizing them by changing names and blocking out details that could put them in danger. Then we at VOMK translated the requests into Korean, Chinese, and Russian for each of our Voice of the Martyrs Korea Facebook pages.

A partial list of the 24 countries from which we will be sharing prayer requests includes Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, China, Syria, and Cameroon. As I write this, Dr. Foley and I are in Cameroon, which makes the sharing of the prayer requests from here deeply personal to us. We are here providing trauma counseling and persecution training to church leaders who are caught in the crossfire between government and separatists but who are faithfully shepherding the flock of God at great personal cost. The thing the Cameroon pastors asked us for again and again was for Christians in other countries to remember them in our prayers. By doing this 24-hour Facebook New Year’s Campaign, we can begin to fulfill the promise we have made to them this week.

The campaign will begin at 6PM December 31 on our VOMK Korean language, Chinese language, and Russian language Facebook pages, with a new prayer request being posted every hour until 6PM January 1. You may not speak Korean, Chinese, or Russian, but Facebook’s own translation function along with the photos accompanying the prayer requests should make things just fine for you–a little bit of linguistic suffering to empathize with the far greater suffering of our brothers and sisters in chains.

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Could church closures be a blessing for Chinese Christians?

Posted on December 11, 2019 by Pastor Foley

Christians from a church in Shanghai asking not to be identified held their Sunday worship service on the street last week after authorities closed their church building. A video clip shows the church members singing in front of their building.

The closure of the church building is part of an accelerating trend across China since the implementation of new religious laws in January 2018. But even though that trend is concerning, Christians in China are responding with their own trend: Returning to old-time house church ways of meeting that are keeping the faith alive.

When you listen to the Christians in Shanghai singing outside of their closed church building, you can hear that they are not afraid of the authorities. Instead, they and the other Christians of China see the present moment as God redirecting the Chinese church away from modern “megachurch” models and back to the past where Christians met anywhere they could, anytime they could, using whatever Bibles and discipleship resources they had, to keep their faith and even to spread it.

Some of the Chinese churches that Voice of the Martyrs Korea works with are shifting their worship away from the central church building into members’ homes, while others are meeting in public parks or even while walking. The goal is to decentralize church activities and to shift as much of the ministry as possible from pastors and trained professionals to congregation members.

Now the greatest need is to equip all these new lay-lead and non-church building meetings with resources for healthy worship and discipleship.

Leaders from several hundred churches in 30 provinces of China have approached Voice of the Martyrs Korea and our US partner China Aid to supply 5,000 Sunday School in a Box packages over the next 12 months. The package consists of materials designed to equip parents of all educational levels to teach the full scope of the Christian faith to their own children and relatives outside of church buildings.

So far VOM Korea and China Aid have raised funds for 2,500 boxes, which will begin to be distributed over the holidays. That means we still have 2,500 boxes left to supply.

The contents of the box were determined by the participating Chinese churches. They consist of materials that are still legal in some locations in China but not readily available: the leading legal children’s Bible in China, a compact video player, and a comprehensive curriculum of digital resources for parents and children. Because there is no underground printing operation involved and no central purchasing or distribution hub, it make the cost higher than past centralized efforts. But it also makes the project much more difficult for Chinese authorities to stop or to oppose on legal grounds.

Each Sunday School in a Box is designed to reach an average of seven to ten children and to be used by parents and lay leaders, not ordained pastors or professional Christian educators. For many years the Chinese church followed the Korean mega-church model. Now Chinese Christians are realizing it is much easier to close one mega-church of 3,000 members than it is to stop 3,000 Christian parents from teaching their children and their neighbors’ children in hundreds of homes. This requires a shift in strategy and resources, but Voice of the Martyrs Korea and China Aid have committed to help provide Chinese Christians the tools to make this shift.

The cost for one Sunday School in a Box is 75,000 KRW, or $75 USD. Voice of the Martyrs Korea is challenging Korean churches and Christians, as well as our champions around the world, to sponsor one or more boxes this holiday season. China Aid has issued a similar challenge to American churches, as have other Voice of the Martyrs organizations in Canada, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Finland, and Holland.

Korean churches and VOMK champions interested in making a donation to the Sunday School in a Box project can do so at https://vomkorea.com/en/campaign/ssib/ or via electronic transfer to

국민은행 463501-01-243303

예금주: (사)순교자의소리

Please include the phrase “SSIB” (for Sunday School in a Box) on the transfer.

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Sign our petition to help discover “Where is Raymond Koh?”

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Pastor Foley

On February 13, 2017, Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was murdered in the Kuala Lumpur airport. Within five days, Malaysian police were able to identify and apprehend the culprits. They credited CCTV footage for the quick capture.

Also on February 13, 2017 in Malaysia, a car driven by Pastor Raymond Koh was surrounded by at least 15 masked men driving black 4×4 vehicles, and Pastor Koh was kidnapped. The kidnapping happened on public streets, and CCTV footage from both sides of the street recorded the event.

Almost three years later, Malaysian authorities still claim they have no information about the suspicious disappearance of Malaysian Pastor Raymond Koh.

That is why Voice of the Martyrs Korea is encouraging Korean Christians and Christians around the world to support his family by signing our petition to pressure the Malaysian government to uncover the truth.

When Pastor Koh’s wife, Susanna, went to file a report about her missing husband, they focused their questions on whether he had encouraged Muslims to convert to Christianity. Although Malaysia works to portray itself as a ‘moderate’ Muslim nation, converting from Islam to Christianity has become especially controversial in recent years, with many politicians advocating for stronger adherence to Islamic law. Authorities seem to be more concerned about Pastor Koh’s Christian faith than his kidnapping.

Mrs. Koh had to go door-to-door around the area where witnesses last saw Pastor Koh, asking if anyone had CCTV footage of what had happened. Eventually, she found the footage. The first time she watched, Mrs. Koh was shocked.

“It was very professionally done. I couldn’t believe it. I think someone powerful must have ordered my husband’s kidnapping,” Mrs. Koh says.

It is believed that Pastor Koh’s kidnapping may be related to several prior threats he received. Pastor Koh ran a charity organization called Harapan Komuniti (Hope Community) which cared for impoverished single mothers, children, drug addicts, and those who were diagnosed with AIDS.

Some Muslims were upset by the program, viewing it as a trick to convert people to Christianity.

During a dinner the charity hosted in 2011, thirty officers from the Selangor Islamic department stormed in and took photographs of everyone in attendance. Shortly afterwards, the couple began receiving death threats.

The couple also received an envelope labeled “ANTHRAX” and filled with white powder. They also received a parcel containing bullets. Despite this, Pastor Koh continued his ministry.

After Pastor Koh’s disappearance, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) began an independent investigation. In May 2018, a police whistleblower named Sergeant Shamzaini Mohamed Daud came forward, claiming that the Malaysian Special Branch (Cawangan Khas) was involved in Koh’s disappearance. Within that same month, Sergeant Daud lodged a police report denying he had made such claims.

The Kohs continue to follow the judicial process in Malaysia, but there is little hope that it will yield meaningful information or action on its own.

That’s where you can help.

Here is your opportunity to stand together with the wife and family of a truly dedicated servant of God who disappeared nearly three years ago without a trace. Christians around the world are signing a petition urging the Malaysian government to reveal what they know. Voice of the Martyrs Korea is calling on Korean Christians to join their brothers and sisters globally in calling for the whole truth to be revealed.

The online petition is available for signature from now through the end of 2019 at https://vomkorea.com/en/freepastorkoh/. (The petition is also available in Korean, Russian, and Chinese by clicking the flags in the upper right hand corner, so if you have friends in any of those language groups, please share the link with them so that they can sign–and encourage their friends to sign–also.)

Dr. Foley and I plan to deliver the petition to the Malaysian Embassy in Seoul early in the New Year, as the Lord permits.

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