Problems of Conscience

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

While I was in Romanian prison (and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, "How many in this cell?"

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered "Sixteen" rather than "Fifteen," we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, "I am so-and-so" in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say "Thank you" after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, "We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you!" Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, "We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses." they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They "surround" us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.


Number of Christians Triples

Shanghai is the second largest city of China. In the last ten years, the number of Christians there more than tripled. Among its seven and a half million inhabitants, 127,000 are Evangelical Christians. They gather in 111 registered churches, but there are also many house churches. These latter are persecuted.

Three house church leaders were beaten to death by the Chinese police. One is Sister Zhang Xiuju, 36 years old.

The Christian Li Moxi, 90, wrote thirty letters in his own blood to government officials explaining to them that Christians love the Communists but cannot compromise their beliefs to curry favor with them.


Mission to Armenia

"You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves"
(Ps. 80:6).

These words could have been written for the Armenian people. Since the third century they have been Christians and have consequently left behind them a history of continuous persecution. The last holocaust of Armenians was perpetrated by the Turks in 1915.

Our Geman mission has printed Armenian language Bibles, Tortured for Christ, The Other Face of Marx, and What Christians Believe. These have been brought into the country and distributed freely. We have also created a Stephen Center in Armenia, as in several other countries. Cleansed through long suffering, Armenian Christians have a high spiritual tenor. The fire of love still burns in their hearts.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !

Yours in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Message for the mission

Dear friends and benefactors,

The Lord compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, like leaven, a farmer and a hidden treasure in the earth. This suggests that the list of objects with which we can compare the kingdom of God is actually infinite.

We can therefore say that the kingdom of God is like this mission "Aid to the Martyr Churches", which made its entry onto the screen of your computer thru "http://brotherlyhelp.blogspot.com/". It gives you the fruit of the hard work of volunteers who carry out apostolic spirit in the countries of atrocious persecution, in groups or humiliated human where suffering is imposed, research, needs analysis, project assistance to the sick, the persecuted, the marginalized, for the elderly in danger...

The Kingdom of God is similar to anonymous men and women who create missions of aid for the development of ruined villages, for the development of national and religious heritages that were dilapidated, for helping printing and publishing books that can nurture moral to thirsty nations for the Word of God.

The Kingdom of God is within you, because thanks to you all this could happen, thanks to your prayers, through your gifts that you offer to our brothers and sisters here and elsewhere oppressed, suffering ill, to die by the wicked actions of the powerful and evil spirits that sometimes govern them.

To give is to grow the kingdom of God, to spread it with your own contributions. Be generous, help according to your means through our projects. Your reward will be multiplied a hundredfold.

My neighbour is also the one who makes me feel uncomfortable by the intensity of distress. «I was a stranger and you welcomed me,» «The Lord protects the stranger» ...

The theme of the alien is not in the Bible, in Psalms, in the Gospel. How many times «you shall love the alien» is in the Bible? Thirty-six times, and perhaps forty-six or fifty-six? Whatever, after all, because the key is there: to try every moment to invent the living relationship with our neighbour that he is no more to us "he who wants to deceive us" is not, our neighbour is a person beloved by God, rich in its history, its culture, its conscience, its faith, that we want to meet, know, act.

In this economic crisis, think of our neighbour. Let us make a generous donation to help feed, clothe him, and treat him if he is sick, to console him if he is languishing in prison. Our mission is there to receive your donations in order to transmit relief to those who are more suffering than another.

Help right now by giving them a gift by calling 450-967-7792. Have your credit card with you.

We are all concerned about the difficulties of the brothers and sisters of the regions of the Caribbean (Mexico, Ecuador, Haiti), and also from Romanian country, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia...

Your gifts can create once again, more joy. An illustrated Gospel for children costs $5; the average salary is of $40 a month; a prayer book costs $5; a car costs $5,000 and people cannot pay it.

It is now the privileged moment for us to be ready to help, to bring the joy in the homes and the communities where faith is so low, after so long and so much suffering.

We send our gifts exclusively to the persons in charge of the communities that we know, to the families in suffering and in scarcity of everything, that distribute the gifts. More than a million youth await our gifts and our books. Help us to distribute good to them!

And pray for the success of our apostolate, for we need your prayers! In the expectation of your contribution that we hope will be generous, please receive the thanks of God that awaits your gifts.


Yours, in the service of our Lord,
S. Prodan, Director of the Mission
Rev. Radu Roscanu, Missionary

Double Doses of Love

"...they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword..." - Job 1:15.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Job lived in a very great country. In his country, people were free to do the most amazing things.

We read in chapter one of his book, verse 15, about some people -- the Sabeans. The Sabeans fell upon the asses and oxen of Job, and took them away. They slew the servants with the edge of the sword. One alone escaped.

We read in verse 17, the Chaldeans formed three bands and fell upon the cattle and carried them away. Yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword.

People were free, even as they are free in America or Australia, to commit crimes: robberies, murder, assault and rape. That is what was considered freedom in the time of Job.

Not everybody was a bandit or a robber at that time. There were very honest people like the friends of Job. But these friends of Job came only after all the catastrophes had happened to Job.

They did not do anything to prevent such terrible crimes from happening. They were not with him while he suffered. They were unconcerned. They came after Job had lost everything, and instead of words of comfort, they upbraided him.

The loneliness in suffering

In suffering, men usually have no friends. I know that not only in communist countries people are suffering, they are suffering here in America, too.

When the heart is most burdened, usually you are alone. Rarely you will find somebody to understand you, to be ready to listen to you. We Americans cannot listen to somebody's suffering because the problem on the color television is much too interesting. We see there people weeping, being shot, being wounded. There are many weeping next door to us. We have no time for them because we watch the picture.

In all our dramas, we are alone, we have no earthly friend. This problem can be solved only one way. You become a friend. Don't ask others to be your friends.

All men are one and we are meant to cooperate as kidneys, lungs, liver, legs and brain. As organs cooperate for the health of the body, so we all should feel that we are one and we should care for one another.

The great commandment which our Lord has given to us is found in John 13:34. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have given My life for you... that ye also love one another."

The radiant flower of love

Because it so happens that I passed 14 years in communist prisons and also some time in Nazi prisons, everybody expects from me to speak out against communism. I prefer rather to speak out for Christ. Instead of speaking about the ugly things of the devil, I prefer to speak about the beautiful commandment of love which Christ gave us and about His beautiful example.

It is said about the Emperor of Japan that he heard about one of his nobility who had a splendid garden with orchids. No one else had such beautiful flowers. He said to this nobleman, "I will come on such and such a day. I wish to see the garden."

On that day, the man waited outside his palace. The emperor's carriage arrived and he said to the ruler, "Your highness, let us go first to the garden." They entered the garden. It was ploughed. Not a single flower could be seen in the garden. The emperor wondered, but did not say a word. Then the nobleman said to the emperor, "Let us have tea." They entered into the tea room.

There in a jar was just one flower, but a flower of radiant beauty, overwhelming beauty. The nobleman told the emperor, "I have kept the most beautiful flower for the best of emperors. The other flowers were not worthy to live."

I believe that for our emperor, Jesus Christ, we have to keep in our hears just one flower -- the flower of love. All the other flowers are not worthy to live.

Jesus Christ is embodied love. He gave his life for us. Every one of us should offer Him our self sacrificing, our burning love.

I am happy to tell you about the Christians behind the Iron Curtain that in spite of unspeakable persecution, have kept this love. The communists could kill bodies of Christians. They could maim them. They could torture them. They could slay Christians. But they cannot slay the love of Christians, neither their faith.

How the church in China grew

I imagine that many of you must have heard the name of Watchman Nee, the renowned Chinese evangelical writer. He passed away some 20 years ago after having spent 26 years in communist prisons. We have been told about what happened to him in prison.

They arrested him, Wang Min-Dao, and so many other Christian leaders. Samuel Lamb and Allen Yuan, with whom we continue to work today, were arrested at the same time and each suffered more than 20 years in prison.

The communists had closed all the churches. Red China is a country with 1.2 billion inhabitants. Every fifth man in the world is Chinese. God loves the Chinese very much. Proof is He has made so many of them: 1.2 billion. For such a population not one single church was left open. Everything had been destroyed.

The underground church, however, was blooming: hundreds came to Christ and were baptized although the church was underground. The communists were very alarmed about this and asked themselves how this was possible. Then they found out.

Watchman Nee himself had smuggled letters to the Christians outside the prison and his letters were of such beauty and such Christian depth that the Christians outside were strengthened in their faith. They became full of zeal and they won new souls for Christ.

So the communists said, "We can outsmart Watchman Nee. Henceforth, the guard in front of his cell will be changed every 6 hours and never will the same guard be twice on duty because he converts the guards, and persuades them to smuggle out the letters. If we change the guards every 6 hours, he will have no time to convert them and no letters will be smuggled out any more."

They multiplied the guards. More guards were converted and more letters were smuggled out. The church in China grew even faster.

We smuggle into China and other countries Bibles and other Christian books. We broadcast the Gospel in a number of languages, and we help the families of Christians who are in prisons. Thousands are in prison. Our couriers go and bring the news of what is happening where Christians are persecuted.

There are underground churches all over Red China. Also in Vietnam, Laos, and other communist and Muslim countries.

Overcoming hatred with double doses of love

When you meet hatred, don't reproach the perpetrators with "Why do you hate?" He hates because I don't love enough. If I would double the doses of love, it might overcome his hatred.

Once there was a a great fire in a town and a man came with a cup of water, and threw it onto the fire. The fire continued to blaze. He came back and said, "What stupidity. People believe that water quenches fire. You have seen, I threw water onto the fire and it was not quenched."

He did not know the truth -- a cup of water does not quench fire but many hoses with water quench fire. Christian love, as much as we have it today, does not quench the fire of anti God hatred. So we have to increase our love.

Christ has given us an example of love. He forsook heaven for us, was born in a stable, led a whole life of sorrows, allowed himself to be flogged, spat upon and crucified because He loved. He has given us the freedom, not the freedom to commit wicked things, but the freedom to spend our lives in love.

A torturer repents

I don't have much time to tell you all the beauties of the underground church. I should perhaps tell you just one episode which I have lived. We were in a prison cell; some 30 or 40 prisoners. The door was unlocked and the guards and pushed in a new prisoner. He was dirty like we were. We had not washed ourselves in 3 years. So he was dirty, and we were dirty. He was shorn and had the striped uniform of a prisoner. In the half darkness of the cell we did not recognize him, but at a certain moment, one of us exclaimed, "This is Captain Popescu, I recognize him!"

Captain Popescu had been one of the worst torturers of Christians. He had beaten and tortured even some of us who were now in the same cell with him. We wondered how he had become a prisoner of the communists and how he had been put in a prison cell reserved for Christians. So we surrounded him and asked him his story.

With tears in his eyes, he told us that a few months ago he sat in his office. The soldier on duty knocked at the door and said, "Outside is a boy of 12 or 13 who has a flower for your wife." The captain scratched his head. He did not remember that it was his wife's birthday, but in any case, he allowed the boy to enter.

The boy entered with the flower in his hand, very shy, but very decided, and said, "Comrade Captain, you are the one who has put my father and mother in prison. Today is my mother's birthday. I have the habit every year on this day, out of my little pocket money, to buy a flower for her. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today. But my mother is a Christian and she taught me since I was a little child to love my enemies and to reward evil with good. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today, I thought to give joy to the mother of your children. Please take this flower to your wife and tell her about my love and about the love of Christ."

It was too much even for a communist torturer. He was also a creature of God. He also has been enlightened with the light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. He embraced this child. He could not beat any more. He could not torture anymore. He was no longer useful as an officer of the communist secret police. He came to suffer together with the children of God and was happy for this new state.

Believe in love

We have all experienced the love of Christ towards us. Now this Christ, who died and resurrected for us, lives in our hearts and imparts in us this love. The enemies of God can kill us. They cannot kill love. If you tramp on a flower with your boots, the flower rewards you with its perfume.

Let us have before our eyes the love of Christ who saved us. Let us have before our eyes also the love of our brethren who have heavy burdens, thousands of times heavier than our burdens. Continue to simply believe in love.

Let us follow their heroic example. Let a new Christian life start with every one of us. You must not be shallow Christians. You must not be lukewarm Christians. Our love towards Christ can be a full, overflowing one. Amen.

Warmly yours in Christ Jesus,

Richard Wurmbrand

Sponsorship Project

Once again we insist close to you, to help the needy caned abandoned children from Romania.

It’s absolutely necessary to continue with the founds raising. This project offers to 500 abandoned children the possibility to live a decent life. To Valenii-de-Munte, a priest had created a protection system for the helpless kids, abandoned by their own mothers who gave up the idea of abortion, but who lake the possibility to raise their children. Like this, the life of 40 orphan children is assured in 6 existing houses in Valea Plopului. Other houses have to be established for other 60 children. We want to help the families who accepted 4,5 even 6 children.

Would you accept to sponsorship one or more children-depending on your possibilities?
The proposed monthly rate is of 30$ for one child, which you have to sent to: Aid of the Martyr Churches—14, Avenue du Crochet, Laval, H7N-3Z2, with the specification; for the sponsorship project of Romanian children. Entrust us with your donation, it’s urgent.

For those who want to ârticipate to the of new houses in the village where children will be sheltered, we propose you 1000 dollars donation for one built shelter. The regular donations on a monthly base will be very welcome. In the name of the kids which you will help, thank you in the name of our Lord.