Article from: Voice of the Martyrs

"When the Public Security Bureau officer entered the Chinese prison cell, Sister Wong moved away. This heartless man had arrested and persecuted many Christians, and only days earlier had beaten her as he interrogated her.

“Please, Sister Wong, my sister is very ill. She has lost all feeling in her legs. Will you come and pray for her?” Was this the same man who had confiscated hundreds of Bibles and Christian books from her? Now he was asking for prayer? Truly God must have gotten his attention.

Days earlier, as the officer had questioned and abused Sister Wong, he received a phone call that his mother had been hit by a car. When he told his mother what he’d been doing, she told him that his harassment of Christians caused her accident. The officer deemed the warning mere superstition.

The next day, he resumed questioning Sister Wong but got another message that his brother had been injured in an accident. The brother also blamed the officer’s attacks on Christians for the family’s misfortune. But when his sister became ill, he asked Sister Wong for prayers.

Sister Wong saw the opportunity she’d been praying for, the chance to witness to her persecutors. God healed the sister, and through Sister Wong’s actions, he changed the officer’s heart. The officer returned all the Bibles that were confiscated and now supports the church."

"Just as Pastor Li Dexian began his sermon, the doors of the house church burst open. Armed officers of the Chinese Public Security Bureau poured into the room, threatening everyone present and grabbing Li to arrest him.

“Wait, please allow me to grab my bag.” As always, the pastor’s tone with the officers was polite yet firm.
The officers were surprised at the request. “What’s in there?” they demanded, grabbing the black zippered bag Li held and ripping it open. The bag contained a blanket and a spare change of clothes, Li told them, because he had been expecting to be arrested that day.
Pastor Li had been arrested many times. Twice, police had beaten him to the point that he vomited blood, and one time Li’s face was beaten with his own Bible. Li was warned that police were watching the village where he held his Tuesday meetings. He knew if he showed up to preach, he would be imprisoned. Today, Chinese citizens can be sent to labor camps for up to three years without a formal trial.
The risks were great, but Li’s bag was packed. More than having a bag packed, though, he had his mind and heart prepared. He was willing to pay any cost to preach the gospel. He was convinced God would care for him—even in prison."

Dear Bekka,

where do you receive this from? Is it available somewhere on the web?

It's so powerful, I'm silenced as I read how our brothers and sister are willing to suffer for Christ.

Poor us here in the so rich west

_________________
William

Thank you Bekka.

http://www.persecution.com

http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Devotion-Martyrs-Writing-Team/dp/0849917395

http://www.persecutionblog.com/extreme_devotion/index.html

This is a great devotional. I started it at the beginning of the year and have been so blessed by it. It really helps me to refocus and keep life in the right perspective, especially in light of persecution that our brothers and sisters face around the world, and giving that extreme devotion to the Lord right now in every way possible.

Ranavalona I, the queen of Madagascar, hated the Christians in her kingdom. Her complaints against them were many: they despised her idols, they were always praying, They always went to church, and their women were chaste. She sent officers to gather all those suspected of being Christians to bring them to trial.

Sixteen hundred believers, when the charges were read, announced confidently, “Guilty.” They would not deny the charges, for to do so would be to deny Christ. The Queen offered them a second chance to deny Christ and bow to her idols, but each refused. They were thrown into dark, dank dungeons, and many were executed. The Queen was angered more, because for each Christian she had killed, twenty more rose up.
Later, the Queen ordered that fifteen Christians be executed. They were to be thrown over a cliff into a rocky ravine 150 feet below. The Queen’s idols were taken to the top of the cliff, and each Christian was lowered slightly over the edge, tied with ropes.
“Will you worship your Christ or the Queen’s gods?” the soldiers asked each Christian hanging over the precipice.
Each Christian answered, simply, “Christ.” The ropes were cut, and they plunged to the rocks. Some sang as they fell to their deaths. One young girl was spared and declared insane. She later founded a large church.

"We have learned that suffering is not the worst thing in the world—disobedience to
God
is the worst."

A VIETNAMESE CHRISTIAN PASTOR IMPRISONED FOR HIS FAITH

Dr. Robert Bateman gently helped his sister-in-law into the lifeboat. “Don’t be nervous, Annie. This will test our faith. I must stay and help the others. If we never meet again on this earth, we will meet again in heaven.” Bateman dropped his handkerchief to the woman as the boat dropped toward the dark, icy water below. “Put that around your throat, Annie. You’ll catch cold.”

Dr. Bateman then gathered about fifty men at the stern of the ship and told them to prepare for death. Earlier that day, he had conducted the only religious service on the large ship, a service that ended with his favorite hymn, “Nearer My God to Thee.”
Robert Bateman had founded the Central City Mission in Jacksonville, Florida, a spiritual lighthouse in a city regularly full of drunken sailors. He had been called “the man who distributes more human sunshine than any other in Jacksonville.” Bateman went to England to study Christian social work and was returning to the United States to put into practice what he had learned.
However, late on the night of April 14, 1912, Bateman’s ship struck an iceberg. Bateman led the men with him on the stern of the ship in the Lord’s Prayer. As the band played “Nearer My God to Thee,” the great ship Titanic slid under the waves.

------------------------------------------

Reverend Robert James Bateman (October 14, 1860 – April 15, 1912) was born in Bristol, England, and was ordained when he was twenty-one. During his life Bateman served as a pastor in England, Wales, Ireland, and the United States. In the United States he worked as a stone mason for his father before later serving as the superintendent of the Florence Crittendon Mission in Baltimore, Maryland. In the late 1890s Bateman moved to Knoxville, Tennessee where he founded the non-denominational Peoples Tabernacle. Bateman later moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he created the Central City Mission.

After a trip to Bristol, England in 1912 he booked second-class passage on board the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton on April 10 with his sister-in-law Ada E. Balls. On Sunday, April 14 he conducted a church service in second class, just hours before the Titanic hit an iceberg. As the ship was sinking Bateman helped Ada Balls into lifeboat 10. He told Ada Balls "If I don't meet you again in this world, I will in the next" and then tossed his necktie to her.[1]

His body was later recovered by the Mackay-Bennett, identified by his gold watch and chain, a Masonic charm pin, fountain pen, pipe lighter, and gold cuff links. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville.

The unwritten code of the police was clear: If you catch the Khmu or other tribesmen converting to Christianity, arrest them. If you catch anyone evangelizing the tribesmen, kill him.

After “Lu” had been shackled at the hands and feet and shamefully marched through the village, the Communist police threw him in a pit. “We will let you go,” they said, “when one hundred Christians in your village renounce their conversion to Christianity.” But they were unable to find believers willing to turn their backs on Christ.

Then tragedy struck the police. One officer’s son broke both legs in an accident. His other son became critically ill. The officer who had beaten and harassed new Christians suddenly died of a heart attack.

Other officials fearfully pulled “Lu” from the pit and allowed him to return home. Government authorities were too frightened to take action against the Christians in the village after seeing what happened to their leader.

Seeing God’s show of power, more Khmu became believers. Where there had been one hundred Christians, now there were seven hundred. They even sent Christians out to tell other villages about Jesus. While the Laotian authorities were controlled by their fear, the Christians in Southeast Asia overcame theirs.