Poster | Thread | Joyful_Heart Member
Joined: 2009/12/8 Posts: 1795
| Re: | | Please - everyone before anything gets out of hand here lets stop and pray. Please lets not begin to post anything negative about Tom White or VOM. It is hard enough for most, we dont need to read everyone's opinions and links to this or that about negative things, facts or not.
Just please pray for VOM, the family and all who are mourning and a dear sister said we need to pray the Lord puts in just the right person right now in Tom's place.
So, lets be a godly people here and not pick Tom or VOM apart.
Only asking this because I see what some do without thinking or praying.
May the Lord continue to bless VOM and use them and wrap His loving arms around his family, the persecuted and VOM. Lord, in Your infinite ways I pray You will turn what satan has meant for evil You will somehow turn it to good. We love You, Praise You and put all this in Your hands Lord, come and intervene and orchestrate events Lord.
Amen and Amen |
| 2012/4/22 9:49 | Profile | MaryJane Member
Joined: 2006/7/31 Posts: 3057
| Re: | | In this circumstance I do think we need to be in prayer. GOD knows the needs and those affected. Perhaps this is one of those times we can just pray LORD YOUR will be done. That is my prayer for this situation.
God Bless mj |
| 2012/4/22 9:56 | Profile | sermonindex Moderator
Joined: 2002/12/11 Posts: 39795 Canada
Online! | Re: | | I resonate no matter what we think or how we want to judge a man we must pray for Gods mercy on this situation, if a brother who suffered in jail for his faith for 17 months and also suffered for the Gospel all across the world in 100 countries can be trapped in a sin like this, none of us are able free from this possibility also. We must stand by faith in the Son of God and His blood every hour to not be trapped by sins deceitfulness.
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Memories of Voice of the Martyrs' Tom White
Tears. Thats how The Voice of the Martyrs co-founder Sabina Wurmbrand responded when a VOM worker detailed his findings about persecution against Christians in Sudan.
Tears are what many of my friends at VOM and I are shedding because of the sudden death of VOM Executive Director Tom White.
I worked closely with Tom over the yearslaboring with him over the monthly newsletter, discussing Christian persecution in various restricted countries, and strategizing about responses. At times we disagreed, but I could not have asked for a better friend and mentor to help me understand persecution and the suffering church.
Toms passion was to bring about a fellowship of suffering, a connection between Christians in the West and our persecuted family members around the world.
He had a special heart for SE Asian Christian ethnics, like the Hmong of Vietnam and the Khmu of Laos, and a determined interest to highlight persecution against them in VOMs monthly newsletter.
He also traveled extensively to more than 100 countriesrisking his own safety-- to meet with persecuted believers where they lived: in jungles, mountain regions, remote and dangerous locations.
I recall joining him in December 2003 on a trip to Baghdad. Kidnappings and attacks against Westerners were increasing in Iraq as the glow of liberation wore off and the insurgency commenced. Tom was overjoyed to meet several evangelists who were imprisoned under Saddam Hussein.
A Christmas play performed by some Christian house church children left an impression on him. One of the young Iraqi performersa kid wrapped up in toilet paper-- resembled an Egyptian mummy. He portrayed Lazarus brought back to life, emerging from the tomb as Jesus called out, Lazarus come forth!
Tom resembled a proud parent, enthralled by the performance. As the former school teacher snapped some photos, he excitedly announced the play would be spotlighted in a forthcoming VOM newsletter about Iraq.
One day while in Baghdad, we heard the deafening sound of continuous, celebratory gunfire erupt. We initially thought someone had just gotten married, but we learned later that Saddam Hussein had been captured in Tikrit and forcibly removed from a hole in the ground.
It was an historic moment. Tom expressed hoped that the Iraqi church would grow and experience greater religious freedom with Saddam gone, yet he knew Christians were likely to experience greater persecution as various Muslim groups battled for control of the country.
Tom also loved quotable quotes. Once after returning from a trip to Bangladesh, I told him about a former Muslim I had met who had lost everything for his faith in Christ. When I asked the persecuted believer to share his thoughts about what he had endured, he said, They can burn my home and all my possessions, but they cant burn Jesus from my heart!
Toms face lit up as he inquired, Did he really say that?
Yes, I insisted. He brushed aside the clutter on his desk, found a pencil, and then frantically jotted down what I had just told him on a yellow legal pad.
Wow! Thats great. They cant burn Jesus from my heart
Im going to use that in my editorial!
He admired persecuted believers who endured hardship and possessed an eternal perspective about their faith. Tom worked tirelessly to share their experiences with the world. He truly was a voice of the martyrs.
He will be greatly missed not only by those who knew him, but also by many persecuted Christians who never had the opportunity to meet him. I doubt theyll be represented by a more passionate advocate.
Please pray for his dear wife Ofelia, his children, and grandchildren during Toms homecoming.
Well done, good and faithful servant!
_________________ SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
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| 2012/4/22 10:16 | Profile |
| Re: | | I read from the site last night and something just didn't sit right with me. I've seen people 'set up' before. Senators, congressmen, etc. How to destroy a ministry or whatever ... it happens. As far a Catholics go - Richard Wurmbrand, in his books, spent time with a few in prison and he felt the ones he wrote about, died for their bottomline, of devotion to not deny Jesus though tortured as he was. We just don't know until we've been through what he and they went through, just Who or What we're serving ... Not until we're drugged, beaten, excreted on, deprived of food, and so forth. What's truly in us will come out in those EXTREMES. ALL of us. |
| 2012/4/22 11:13 | | ccchhhrrriiisss Member
Joined: 2003/11/23 Posts: 4779
| Re: | | Praying. _________________ Christopher
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| 2012/4/22 12:27 | Profile | pilgrim777 Member
Joined: 2011/9/30 Posts: 1211
| | 2012/4/22 17:10 | Profile | ADisciple Member
Joined: 2007/2/3 Posts: 835 Alberta, Canada
| Re: | | "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
"And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son... The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places; how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not at Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice... I am distressed for thee my brother..." 2 Sam. 1.17-20,26). _________________ Allan Halton
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| 2012/4/22 20:21 | Profile | DEADn Member
Joined: 2011/1/12 Posts: 1395 Lakeland FL
| Re: | | I am in shock to learn of this. When I sit back and think about the ramifications of it one of the things I think of is this thought. Tom spent some time in prison in Cuba for the Gospel and he spent 30 years doing this ministry but these allegations hit home so hard to him that he felt suicide was better than to reap what may have been sown. I find it to be a very powerful lesson personally. I sit back just stunned over it. VOM will continue, I hope, and its message will continue but I also think that what Tom was apparently hiding should serve all of us notice that sin is such a powerful enemy. What we hide is eventually going to come out with a vengeance. _________________ John
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| 2012/4/22 21:25 | Profile |
| Re: | | what grieves me to the quick is, i see no mention of praying for that precious little 10 year old girl, whose soul has been shattered, instead all i see is a litany of what this man has done, and even a closing accolade,
"Well done, good and faithful servant".
???????
is the sun going to rise in the west tommorrow?, brethern, where are our bearings? i know, Mercy not judgement,but The Lord Jesus spoke about such horrors, and QUITE clearly at that:
"but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."
Matthew 18:6 |
| 2012/4/22 22:11 | | MaryJane Member
Joined: 2006/7/31 Posts: 3057
| Re: | | Neil honestly I did not know about the allegations concerning the ten year old girl. Its all very heartbreaking all I can do is pray for the LORD will be done in this circumstance. I don't know what else one can do...
God bless mj |
| 2012/4/22 22:45 | Profile |
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