“Are you not afraid of what we will do to you?” the Communist colonel asked, his tone a combination of mockery and challenge. Young Pastor Kochanga, having preached only one sermon in his career, stood before the colonel, knowing that the man held the power
“Collect some wood!” the soldiers snarled. Young James Jeda assumed that the soldiers were about to cook their dinner. Earlier that day, he had watched, horrified, as the radical Muslim soldiers killed his parents and four siblings in Southern Sudan. They spared James only to
Pastor Florescu couldn’t bear to watch his son being beaten by the Communist officers. He had already been beaten himself, and he had not slept for two weeks for fear of being attacked by the starving rats the Communists had forced into his prison cell.
Sabina Wurmbrand reached over and pinched her husband’s arm. “Richard,” she said fiercely, “stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ. They are spitting on his face!” “If I do so,” Richard Wurmbrand answered, looking intently at his wife, “you will
“My dress,” the young girl murmured, her words slurred through swollen lips. “Please give me my dress. I want to hold it.” The Christians surrounding the girl’s bed were sad. Because of her extensive internal injuries, doctors could do nothing for her. Weeks ago, the
“In Peru, Christians don’t expect to get something for serving Jesus,” said Pastor Zapata. “They expect to give something.” Outside the quiet mountain village, Pastor Zapata showed his guests a row of handmade white crosses, each representing a Christian killed by Communist insurgents. Lying in
After they all had been tried, found guilty, and sentenced to die, twenty-six Christians were marched to the place where crudely made crosses stood. Almost three months earlier, they had been arrested in Kyoto, Japan, and charged with following Christ. One of the convicts was
The ominous red seal at the bottom of the page bore the insignia of the district Communist office for that area of Laos. For local Christians, the words were even more ominous. “If any person, any tribe, any family is deceived to believe in other
It was almost midnight as the women prisoners heard the Communist guards arrive. They quickly gathered around the condemned, a young woman of twenty who had been sentenced to die for her faith in Christ. They whispered hurried good-byes. There were no tears from the
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
I admire Communists.” The words seemed strange from a pastor who spent fourteen years in Communist prisons, but Richard Wurmbrand was sincere when he said them. “Many Communists were willing to die to defend their ‘Utopia.’ They were more committed to their cause than some
They huddled inside the room while hearing the screams of fellow Christians being butchered outside. Pastor Hendrick Pattiwael and his wife were helping to lead the Indonesian youth camp, and they felt responsible for the young people in their care. The camp had been a
“Here is the plan,” said the young Christian leader to the youth group. “At 8:30 you must begin to distribute the meeting invitations at the university. You must give them all out quickly before the secret police come and ask what you are doing. If
“Say it with us,” the soldiers screamed, kicking and punching the boys’ faces and abdomens. “Allah is God, and Mohammed is his prophet. Say it!” The four young Sudanese boys cried and screamed out for their mothers but they refused to repeat the words that
It was getting late, and the Soviet officer had beaten and tortured Paulus for many hours. “We are not going to torture you anymore,” he said, smiling brutally when the Christian looked up. “We will send you instead to Siberia, where the snow never melts.
“If you promise to carry your cross, it will be a life full of thorns, mountains, and difficulties,” the Pakistani teenager said in a firm voice. Saleema, a Christian who lives in Muslim-dominated Pakistan, shared her faith with a schoolmate, Raheela, who later accepted Christ.
In Communist Romania, churches were closed and pastors arrested as part of a seven-year drive to “eliminate the nations of all superstition.” So when Brother Vasile and his wife began holding more church meetings in their little home, they knew it would not escape the
“Will you choose to live or die? What do you say?” The questioner was Henry VIII, the king of England, who had unrestrained power in the land. The “criminal” who stood before him, charged with heresy, was John Lambert, a Greek and Latin tutor. Lambert
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
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
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