Persecution

The Real Story of Valentines Day

This week we celebrate Valentine’s Day, a day when Americans focus on love and romance. But most of those celebrating don’t know that the man for whom this day is named was a Christian persecuted because of his Christian actions.

The following is adapted from the “Note to Parents and Educators” included in VALENTINE: God’s Courageous Evangelist, a book published by VOM as part of The Courageous Series for children that tells the true stories of heroes of the Christian faith such as St. Valentine.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on Feb. 14, but why?

Read more here!

 

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The Persecuted Family

As friends and family of Sola Fide Digital Ministries, you probably know that one of our key missions is to bring awareness to the persecution of Christians around the world. One of the ministries we strongly support and believe in is the Voice of Martyrs Ministry.

This organization does amazing work around the world. If you would like to learn more about our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters and are interested in getting involved, please visit VOM and sign up for their Free newsletter.

You can do so here:  https://www.persecution.com/subscribe/

We also ask that you keep those persecuted for their Christian faith in your prayers. Hebrews 13:3,  “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”

http://www.icommittopray.com/

Thank you!

Genocide Against Christians

As a ministry who strives to raise the level of awareness and education of persecuted Christians around the world, we need your help.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines “genocide” as killing and certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Extensive and irrefutable evidence supports a finding that the so-called Islamic State’s mistreatment of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, as well as Yazidis and other vulnerable minorities, meets this definition. This evidence includes:

  • assassinations of Church leaders
  • mass murders and deportations
  • torture
  • kidnapping for ransom
  • sexual enslavement and systematic rape of girls and women
  • forcible conversions to Islam
  • destruction of Christian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and artifacts

ISIS’s own public statements take “credit” for the murder of Christians precisely because they are Christian and express its intent to wholly eradicate Christian and other minority communities from its “Islamic State.” Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill noted in their historic joint statement that “whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated.”

The European Parliament, prominent members of both political parties in the United States, including presidential candidates on both sides, Pope Francis, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, groups such as Genocide Watch, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and American Christian leaders of a broad array of faith traditions, along with the Christian leaders of Iraq and Syria themselves, and many others, have called ISIS’s actions against Christians in Iraq and Syria genocide.

We humbly ask that you sign the petition organized by the Knights of Columbus and the Defense of Christians to help force the United States Department of State and Secretary of State John Kerry to designate the Islamic State’s (ISIS or ISIL) systematic killing of Christians and members of other religious minority groups in the Middle East as “genocide” and pray for persecuted Christians around the world.

Please click here to learn more and sign the petition. 

Humbly in Christ, we thank you.

Remember Our Persecuted Family This Christmas

Sponsor Christmas Care Packs and Village Outreach Kits through our brothers and sisters at Voice of the Martyrs.

Send a gift to persecuted Christians in one of the nations where VOM serves. Bless a child with a Christmas Care Pack full of items to use at school and home, including Christian literature such as a children’s Bible. Provide Christian workers with a Village Outreach Kit that includes tools to help them effectively reach others with the gospel. This year, packs will be distributed among the more than 60 nations where VOM works.

Please click here to learn more or sponsor a care pack.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit,inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting our persecuted family worldwide. VOM was founded in 1967 by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania for his faith in Christ. His wife, Sabina, was imprisoned for three years. In the 1960s, Richard, Sabina, and their son, Mihai, were ransomed out of Romania and came to the United States. Through their travels, the Wurmbrands spread the message of the atrocities that Christians face in restricted nations, while establishing a network of offices dedicated to assisting the persecuted church. The Voice of the Martyrs continues in this mission around the world today through the following main purposes:

Pray for the Persecuted

“For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off” (Psalm 37:28)

During this Holy week we ask that you pray for the persecuted Christian. From the U.S. to Kenya. From China to Cuba. From Russia to Libya. The are many types of persecution. From the soft persecution of Christians in the United States to horrific persecution of Christians in the Middle East, North Korea and more.

As you celebrate the magnificent resurrection or our Lord this week, please pray for those who are still suffering for their love of the Lord.

God Bless

PRAYER REQUEST ALERT: Egypt – Pray for Naglaa el-Emam, Detained for Contempt of Islam

Naglaa el-Emam, a well-known human rights lawyer and Christian convert from Islam, was detained on Feb. 24 by State Security on charges of “insulting Islam” in Egypt. Following her conversion to Christianity in 2010, she was fired from her job and disowned by her Muslim family. The outspoken activist, who has shared her faith publicly, has been repeatedly harassed by government officials and slandered by Muslim extremist groups.

Pray for the 200 Christians Abducted by Islamic State

As many as 200 Assyrian Christians, mostly women and children, were kidnapped in Syria on Feb. 24 in an overnight raid by Islamic State. Reports indicate that IS may have executed some Christians and destroyed several churches during an attack on villages near the town of Tel Tmar, close to the Kurdish held city of Hassaka.

It is feared that the men will be executed and the women and children abused, sold or used as human shields. Voice Of Martyrs contacts in Syria ask that we pray for the encouragement and protection of Christians in Syria so that they can be a living testimony in the midst of war.

Prayer for the persecuted church

We would like to invite you to pray for the persecuted church. The most common request of persecuted Christians is “PRAY FOR US.”  We want EVERY CHURCH to “Remember them that are in bonds …”  (Heb. 13:3). We also want Christians worldwide to pray throughout the year for those who suffer because of their Christian witness.

You can do so here:

http://www.icommittopray.com/

I Commit To Pray is a place to gather and pray for the persecuted church. Read prayer requests from around the world and post your own prayers specifically for your brothers and sisters who are being persecuted. We urge you to join and pray for your fellow Christians.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

We invite you to learn more about the upcoming International Day of Prayer for the persecuted Church. Nov. 2, 2014, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. VOM would like to offer you our free IDOP DVD, Liena’s Prayer, to share with your church.Request your free copy here.

Your free IDOP DVD comes with a special “Syria” edition of the VOM newsletter as well as one Syrian Outreach Pack that you can fill for distribution to Syrian refugees.

DVDs will ship on or before October 7, 2014, to arrive in time for IDOP Sunday on Nov. 2, 2014. The complete video wil be available for preview after Sept. 15, 2014. One free DVD per household; U.S. residents only.

OVERVIEW

Liena and her family turned down offers of asylum in Western countries after civil war broke out in Syria. They knew the cost that might be required, but they chose to remain as witnesses to their Muslim neighbors and as an encouragement to other Christians.

Liena was a dedicated Christian, faithful wife and mother of two. In her prayers, she asked God to use her to reach more people. And then God asked her to make one more commitment.

Watch the dramatic testimony of Liena’s Prayer, as she struggles with the difficult decision of how much she can offer God.

You may never pray the same again.

Please consider visiting VOM and learn more.

– SFDM