As anyone will know who reads my monthly columns in the Christian Voice newsletter, the Lord has given me a burden for persecuted Christians. In America and England it is easy to take our freedoms for granted, but there are many nations where Christians are arrested and sometimes even killed for their faith in Christ. God has not put me in a position to smuggle Bibles into these countries or to visit them and minister to the believers there, but I do have a small part to play in disseminating information about the terrible conditions that exist in many of these nations.
This year I've been doing some volunteer research for Open Doors Ministries, to help them get updated country profiles on their new website, which has just been launched. Open Door Ministries was started by Brother Andrew and does a lot of hands-on work with the persecuted church. So far I have written the following profiles which are available for viewing on the new website:I would particularly like to draw my readers' attention to the article on North Korea. In first position on the 2010 World Watch List, North Korea has the deadliest level of Christian persecution in the world. The only worship that is allowed is that of the “dear leader” Kim Jong-Il and his father Kim Il-Sung.
In North Korea, every other religious activity is labeled an act of insurrection against North Korean socialist principles. Christians are routinely beaten, tortured, imprisoned for life, mutilated, murdered, and used in the testing of biological or chemical weapons. Punishment for being a Christian can also include the imprisonment or death of ones mother, father, sisters, brothers, children and grandchildren.
The communist Police stop at nothing to search out and punish Christians, including pretending to be Christians to infiltrate underground prayer meetings. The information they obtain is then used to identify and arrest Christians, who are taken to prison camps where they face slave labor and starvation as well as the inhuman treatment mentioned above.
In North Korea, every other religious activity is labeled an act of insurrection against North Korean socialist principles. Christians are routinely beaten, tortured, imprisoned for life, mutilated, murdered, and used in the testing of biological or chemical weapons. Punishment for being a Christian can also include the imprisonment or death of ones mother, father, sisters, brothers, children and grandchildren.
The communist Police stop at nothing to search out and punish Christians, including pretending to be Christians to infiltrate underground prayer meetings. The information they obtain is then used to identify and arrest Christians, who are taken to prison camps where they face slave labor and starvation as well as the inhuman treatment mentioned above.
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