Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:21, 22).
They meet in secret at night. They don’t meet in the same place too often. They don’t tell their families about these meetings. They draw the curtains to keep the world out. They speak in whispers. Every day they meet, it is a gamble. At any moment, they could be discovered. The risk is great. They live in fear of being arrested, tortured or killed. Is it worth it? To the members of the underground churches, it is. They risk everything for their belief.
Life for Christians is terrible in places like North Korea, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. It is ironic that it was to Egypt that Joseph fled with Mary and Jesus to escape Herod’s murderous rampage yet today, Christians are under great pressure. Secret believers like In Syria, Christians had to flee their homes.
Those of us who are living in the West, we can worship openly in church buildings. We don’t have to speak in whispers. We can sing and pray out loud. We enjoy religious liberty. Some of us may face opposition from our families. Jesus warned us of this. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and a ‘man’s enemies will be those of his own household’” (Matthew 10:34-36).
Just recently, I read a story of a father who forbad his daughter from going to church. Her family was from an Orthodox background so they had a problem with her wanting to attend a Protestant church. She resorted to sneaking off and going to church. There are other stories of men and women persecuted, beaten, ostracized and even murdered by family members because of their faith.
It’s hard to believe that Christians persecute other Christians. However, this is prevalent in Ethiopia. Christians from the Orthodox churches who leave to find more vibrant churches are pressured to return. In the days prior to the Reformation, many believers were forced to hide. Such groups were the Waldensians who were forced underground because they were declared heretics by the Roman Catholic Church. They rejected the teachings of the church and what they believed to be the idolatry of the church and considered the Papacy as the Antichrist of Rome.
Many were driven from their homes and into the mountains when in January 1655, the Duke of Savoy commanded them to attend Mass or sell their lands and go to the upper valleys of their homeland. It was in the middle of winter. The Duke didn’t expect them to choose to leave their homes and lands in the lower valleys. Yet, they did and it was written that the old men, women and the sick “waded through the icy waters, climbed the frozen peaks and at length reached the homes for their impoverished brethren of the Upper Valleys where they were warmly received” Sadly, the horrors of persecution were about to be unleashed.
When the Duke realized that his efforts to get the people to conform to Catholicism, he tried another approach. Under the guise of false reports of uprisings, he sent the troops to the people. It was a ruse to gain them easy access. Then, on April 24, 1655 at 4am when the people would have been sleeping, the troops were given the command to go and massacre them. They didn’t just slaughter the people but they looted, raped, tortured and murdered. Peter Liegé reported the following:
Little children were torn from the arms of their mothers, clasped by their tiny feet, and their heads dashed against the rocks; or were held between two soldiers and their quivering limbs torn up by main force. Their mangled bodies were then thrown on the highways or fields, to be devoured by beasts. The sick and the aged were burned alive in their dwellings. Some had their hands and arms and legs lopped off, and fire applied to the severed parts to staunch the bleeding and prolong their suffering. Some were flayed alive, some were roasted alive, some disemboweled; or tied to trees in their own orchards, and their hearts cut out. Some were horribly mutilated, and of others the brains were boiled and eaten by these cannibals. Some were fastened down into the furrows of their own fields, and ploughed into the soil as men plough manure into it. Others were buried alive. Fathers were marched to death with the heads of their sons suspended round their necks. Parents were compelled to look on while their children were first outraged [raped], then massacred, before being themselves permitted to die (Wikipedia).
Print illustrating the 1655 massacre in La Torre, from Samuel Moreland’s “History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont” published in London in 1658.
The Piedmont massacre happened during Easter. In fact, it became known as the Piedmont Easter and it was estimated that about 1,700 Waldensians were slaughtered. Its brutality aroused the indignation of the European nations and sanctuary was offered to the remaining Waldensians.
Today, many Christians face the same kind of brutality for their faith. Women have been attacked, beaten or murdered because they converted to Christianity. Girls have been brutally raped for their faith or their parents’ faith. According to a report in the New York Times: “Christians in areas of Egypt that are largely dominated by Muslim militants continue to suffer from violence and humiliation. These believers are under constant threat of their houses and other properties being burned down, or possibly being mugged while walking along the streets. Even church buildings are not spared as they are desecrated and marred with hate graffiti written on the walls.” Christians are living in fear. Some of them are secret believers like Femi* and Alim*
November 6 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I encourage you to watch the moving video, Pray With Them from Open Doors and try to imagine what it would be like to live in a country where you have to go underground in order to worship or face prison, persecution, torture or death.
Keep the fires of faith burning. Do not let anyone or anything extinguish them. Hold fast until our blessed Lord Jesus Christ comes and you receive your crown.
This is the latest Persecution and Prayer alert from The Voice of the Martyrs Canada. Sadly, a grandmother and two of her grandchildren were among those who lost their lives. Please read this story and then visit the Prayer Wall and pray for her surviving granddaughter and the other survivors who have lost their loved ones. Jesus warned that in the last days, there will be persecution (Luke 21:16-18). As His disciples, we will be persecuted just as He was (John 15:20). The Bible says, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Lift up our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ in prayer. We are encouraged to, “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3). But, we have a hope that no one can take away. “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19). May these words bring joy and comfort to our hearts and the hearts of those who are going through much tribulation.
NIGERIA: Villagers Fatally Wounded by Gunmen
Sources: Morning Star News, Release International
Rose died trying to save her grandchildren.
Photo: Morning Star News
Last month, Fulani herdsmen attacked two homes in the predominantly Christian village of Hwak Kwata-Zawan, located near the city of Jos. The militants also raided a nearby compound consisting of Nigerians who had been initially displaced by violence elsewhere in the country’s Plateau state. The total number of fatalities resulting from the raids has reached 15, leaving many more in the community grief-stricken and emotionally wounded.
In one of the village homes, 57-year-old Rose Monday was killed while trying to protect her three young grandchildren from the gunmen. Two of the three children had unfortunately succumbed to their injuries. Their elder sister, five-year-old Anna, who miraculously survived, is receiving treatment in hospital for gunshot wounds. Rose’s daughter (the children’s aunt) added that their remaining relatives are consoled to know that one day they will all be reunited as a family with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The other Christian home that was attacked belonged to Gyang Christopher Choji who managed to escape the raid uninjured. The 58-year-old believer explains that his family members had retired to their rooms when they suddenly heard gunshots at about 8:30 p.m. “When the shooting became intense, and we were under siege, I advised my family that we run out to save our lives,” he further testifies. “I was able to escape, but five members of my family were brutally killed by these gunmen.” The seven other victims that were killed during the raids were from the nearby compound housing.
The gunmen had apparently visited the area earlier that day to survey the village while most of the residents were at church. The militants even had the audacity to ask local children for water while planning their vicious attacks. The resulting raids have left an entire village in a terrible state of shock and greatly traumatized. Church leaders say the attacks of the Fulani herdsmen on their communities constitute a war “by Islam to eliminate Christianity” in Nigeria. Additional reports and informative video documentaries are available at the Nigeria Country Report.
In an area of Nigeria that has experienced so much chaos and pain, may the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit bring the surviving villagers and family members greatly needed peace, healing and hope — along with the assurance that the martyred Christians so dear to them have merely been transported spiritually to their true home in heaven where they are now enjoying the glorious presence of our Lord Jesus in all fullness (2 Cor. 5:8; Luke 23:43). May this truth be especially real for little Anna, as she recovers not only from the physical wounds she sustained as a result of the attacks but, even more importantly, from the emotional and spiritual trauma of witnessing the horrific loss of her loving grandmother and young siblings. Also pray that the calloused hearts of the Fulani herdsmen be radically transformed by the power of the Living God, helping them to realize the seriousness of their crimes against His beloved people prior to that time of reckoning — when they must stand face-to-face before Him on Judgement Day.
To post a prayer on behalf of Christians who are suffering terrible abuses and injustices for their faith, visit our prayer wall.
I heard about this but couldn’t believe that this could actually happen. For me having twins would be a double blessing. I would be so thankful to God for giving me double the joy. Growing up I always found twins fascinating. My Dad had twin brothers and I had school friends who were twins. Having twins was something I considered–preferably a boy and girl like Brendan and Brenda in 90210 but it didn’t happen for me. God blessed me with a boy and for that I am eternally grateful and thankful.
How could anyone think that twins are a curse and want to kill them? Imagine babies being left at the back of a compound to starve to death because they are twins or parents having to give their babies away or else they would be killed if they kept them. Thankfully, there is Orphan’s Promise, a Christian organization which is saving these children from their horrible fate. In the video, the couple was helped by the organization. Their twin girls are happy and well cared for.
Killing of twins is nothing new. It was happening centuries ago during the time of Mary Slessor. She was a Scottish woman and Sunday School teacher who became a missionary in Calabar, Nigeria. Un- deterred by constant bouts of illness or the danger around her, she lived with the tribes, learned their language, and traditions and earned their respect, She even put an end to some barbaric practises, such as the killing of twins. She adopted many Nigerian children (particularly twins) who had been left to die.
The birth of twins was considered a particularly evil curse. Natives feared that the father of one of the infants was an evil spirit, and that the mother had been guilty of a great sin. Unable to determine which twin was fathered by the evil spirit, the natives often abandoned both babies in the bush. Slessor adopted every child she found abandoned, and sent out twins missioners to find, protect and care for them at the Mission House. Some mission compounds were alive with babies.[4] Slessor once saved a pair of twins, a boy and a girl, but the boy did not survive. Mary took the girl as her daughter and called her Janie.
After they are delivered, twins were poisoned or strangulated after being forcefully taken from their mother by masquerades that the women were not allowed to see. The twins are killed and then offered as a sacrifice on an altar to the spirits and to ward off the twins from returning.
This practice was supposed to have been abolished however, just last year, The Current broadcasted a story of missionaries in a remote village who saved twins from being sacrificed. You can listen to it here. I must caution you that the content is very disturbing.
Let us pray that this barbaric practice of killing twins is abolished. God created them too and they deserve a chance to live. Pray that the government will do more to protect innocent lives and to stop this practice.
I was appalled when I learned of the Nigerian women who were gunned down because they were giving out polio vaccines. They were killed by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine as they took part part in a polio vaccination drive in northern Nigeria on Friday, February 8, 2013. Residents of Kano, Nigeria’s largest city, predominantly Muslim were shocked. This area is where women usually went from house to house to carry out the polio vaccination drives since families felt safer having them in their homes instead of men. This attack is a result based on the belief fueled by clerics that the vaccines were part of a Western plot to sterilize young girls.
Washington’s State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the killing and injuring of health workers in Nigeria. “They were engaged in life-saving work, trying to vaccinate children,” she told reporters. “Any violence that prevents children from receiving basic life-saving vaccines is absolutely unacceptable wherever it happens.” It is suspected that Boko Haram had been behind the shootings. Witnesses spoke in anonymity out of fear of angering the sect whose name means “Western education is sacrilege”.
The suspicion surrounding polio vaccinations in Nigeria was kindled in 2003 when a Kano physician heading the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria said the vaccines were “corrupted and tainted by evildoers from America and their Western allies.” This remark led to hundreds of new infections in children in Nigeria’s north where beggars on locally made wooden skateboards dragged their withered legs back and forth in traffic, begging for alms. The 2003 disease outbreak in Nigeria eventually spread throughout the world, even causing infections in Indonesia. Nigeria is one of three countries where polio remains endemic. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the other two. Imagine last year Nigeria registered 121 new cases of polio infections. This is more than half of all cases reported around the world, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Attacks on health workers giving out polio vaccines are not limited to Nigeria. The National Post did an article on how the polio vaccine program in Pakistan was proving to be lethal for health workers. Last year in December, eight of them, mostly young, female and poorly paid were murdered in Karachi and northwestern Pakistan. Militants in Pakistan have accused health workers of acting as spies for the U.S., alleging that the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. This accusation comes after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down and kill al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. The UN has suspended the vaccine program until it’s safe enough to restart. This may be indefinite unless the government steps in and does something to curb the escalating violence. In the meantime, foreign aid workers are either being killed or abducted for ransom and teenage girls volunteering to prevent the spread of polio are being killed. The World Health Organization (WHO) suspended its polio vaccination programme in Karachi following the murders of five members of polio vaccination teams. All were women and the youngest was 14 years old. They were all Pakistani nationals working on behalf of WHO and its local partners.
Polio (poliomyelitis) is a contagious disease that can be prevented by vaccination. It is spread from person to person and through contaminated food and water. Polio can attack the central nervous system and destroy the nerve cells that activate muscles. It is heartbreaking to know that children are are going to suffer from this viral disease which can affect their nerves and lead to partial or full paralysis because certain local populations are refusing to allow their children to receive the vaccine. The communities are worried about sterilization but what about paralysis or in some cases, death? Why don’t they educate themselves and learn more about how the vaccine works before they flat out refuse to have it administered to their children?
The poliomyelitis ( polio ) vaccine protects against poliovirus infections. The vaccine helps the body produce antibodies (protective substances) that will prevent an individual from contracting polio. This protects both both individual vaccine recipients and the wider community. There are two types of vaccine that protect against polio: inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV). IPV, used in the United States since 2000, is given as an injection in the leg or arm, depending on patient’s age. Most people should get polio vaccine when they are children. OPV has not been used in the United States since 2000 but is still used in many parts of the world.
A global effort to eradicate polio, led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and The Rotary Foundation, began in 1988 and has relied largely on the oral polio vaccine developed by Albert Sabin. The disease was entirely eradicated in the Americas by 1994. Polio was officially eradicated in 36 Western Pacific countries, including China and Australia in 2000. Europe was declared polio-free in 2002. Since January 2011, there were no reported cases of the disease in India, and hence in February 2012, the country was taken off the WHO list of polio endemic countries. It is reported that if there are no cases of polio in the country for two more years, it will be declared as a polio-free country.
It is high time that Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan be declared as polio-free countries. The government needs to protect the health workers who are risking their lives to protect the communities. It’s time the governments of these countries got serious about eradicating polio so that children are not condemned to living the rest of their lives in wheelchairs or on crutches. The people need to be educated. They need information that would counter the tales that polio vaccination is a ploy of the West to spread infidel practices.
It’s time for the governments of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan to stand up and do what is best for their young and vulnerable. And if nothing is done to stop the spread of this virus, these nations will become crippled and sick. It’s time to take action. It’s time to put aside your fears and protect your children and their future.
His parents fear OPV will render his son impotent and that he will never be able to produce children in case of vaccination. Despite repeated attempts, they didn’t understand the significance of the vaccine. As a result, their child is disabled for entire life.SOURCE: Rantburg 2013-02-10 05:25:00
They were engaged in lifesaving work, trying to vaccinate children … Any violence that prevents children from receiving basic life-saving vaccines is absolutely unacceptable, wherever it happens..SOURCE: Arkansas Online 2013-02-09 11:11:00
Having children made us look differently at all these things that we take for granted, like taking your child to get a vaccine against measles or polio.
Melinda Gates
When I was about 9, I had polio, and people were very frightened for their children, so you tended to be isolated. I was paralyzed for a while, so I watched television.
Francis Ford Coppola
