Chapter 7

Chapter 7 How Western Christians Can Help I have been called the “Voice of the Underground Church.” I do not feel worthy to be the voice of such an honored part of the Body of Christ. However, in Communist nations, I led for years a part of the Underground Church. By a miracle I survived fourteen years of torture and imprisonment, including two years in a prison “dying room.” By an even greater miracle, God somehow saw fit to reach into the prison and bring me out. It was decided by the Under­ground Church in Romania that I should leave my country and take a message to the free Chris­tians of the world. By a miracle, my family and I were able to leave, and I was able to fulfill the charge given me by those who remained behind laboring, risking, suffering, and dying in dozens of captive nations. I speak on behalf of my brethren who lie in countless nameless graves. I speak on behalf of my brethren who now meet secretly in forests, basements, attics, and other such places. The message I bring from the Underground Church is: “Don’t abandon us!” “Don’t forget us!” “Don’t write us off!” “Give us the tools we need! We will pay the price for using them!” This is the message I have been charged to deliver to the free Church. I speak for the Underground Church, the silenced Church, the “dumb” Church, which has no voice to speak. Hear the cries of your brothers and sisters in captive nations! They do not ask for escape, safety, or an easy life. They ask only for the tools to counteract the poisoning of their youth—the next generation—with atheism. They ask for Bibles to use in spreading the Word of God. How can they spread the Word of God if they do not have it? The Underground Church is like a surgeon who was traveling by train. The train collided with another train and hundreds of people lay on the ground, mangled, injured, dying. The surgeon walked among the dying, crying out: “If only I had my tools! If only I had my tools!” With these surgical instruments he could have saved many lives. He had the willingness...but he did not have the tools. This is where the Under­ground Church stands. It is so willing to give its all. It is so willing to give its martyrs! It is so willing to risk years in prisons! But all of its willingness is of no value if it does not have the tools with which to work. The plea of the faithful, courageous Underground Church to you who are free is: “Give us the tools—the Gospels, the Bibles, the literature, the help—and we will do the rest!” How Christians in the Free World Can Help Every Christian in the free world can help at once in the following ways. Atheists are men who do not acknowledge the invisible sources of their life. They have no sense for what is mystery in the universe and in life. Christians can help them best by walking themselves not by sight, but by faith, leading a life of fellowship with the invisible God. They can help us best by leading the lives of consistent Christians, lives of sacrifice. They can help by protesting publicly as often as Christians are persecuted. Western Christians can help us by praying for the persecutors that they may be saved. Such a prayer may seem naive. We prayed for the Communists and they tortured us the next day even worse than before the prayer. But the prayer of the Lord in Jerusalem was also “naive.” They crucified Him after this prayer. But only a few days later, they beat their breasts and five thousand were converted in one day. For the others, too, the prayer was not lost. Any prayer that is not accepted by the one for whom you intercede returns to you with great blessings. Fulfilling the word of Christ, many other Christians and I always prayed for Hitler and his men. And I am sure that our prayer helped to defeat him as much as the bullets of the allied soldiers. We must love our neighbors as ourselves. Communists and other persecutors are our neighbors as much as anyone else. They are the result of our not making known the words of Christ: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Christians have not yet made this abundant life available to everyone. They have left some on the fringe of everything valuable in life. These individuals have rebelled and constituted the Com­mu­nist Party and other false beliefs. Often the victims of social injustice themselves, they are now bitter and cruel. We have to fight against them. But Chris­tians, even if they fight against an enemy, understand and love him. We are not guiltless of the fact that some live in rebellion. We are guilty at least by neglect of duty. For this we have to atone by loving them—which is something entirely different from liking them—and praying for them. I am not so naive as to believe that love alone can solve these problems. I would not advise the authorities of a state to solve the problem of gangsterism only by love. There must be a police force, judges, and prisons for gangsters—not just pastors. If gangsters do not repent, they must be jailed. I would never use the Christian phrase about “love” to counteract the appropriate political, economic, or cultural fight against Com­munists and other tyrants, who are nothing but gangsters on an inter­na­tional scale. Gangsters steal a purse; they steal whole countries. But the pastor and the individual Christian have to do their best to bring to Christ rebellious nations—whatever crimes they commit—as well as their innocent victims. We have to pray for them with understanding. Bibles Are Urgently Needed Another way free Christians can help is by sending Bibles and Bible portions. Means exist by which they can be safely sent into restricted nations, if only free Christians will provide them for our brothers and sisters of the Underground Church. While still in Romania, I received many Bibles brought in by certain means. There is no question of the ways to send them—only that they must be provided. They are desperately needed. Thousands of Christians have not seen Bibles or Gospels for decades in Communist nations such as China and North Korea. Two very dirty villagers came to my home one day to buy a Bible. They had come from their village to take the job of shoveling the frozen earth all winter long to earn money in the slight hope that they might be able to buy an old, tattered Bible with it and take it back to their village. Because I had received Bibles from America, I was able to hand them a new Bible, not an old tattered one. They could not believe their eyes! They tried to pay me with the money they had earned. I refused their money. They rushed back to their village with the Bible. A few days later I received a letter of unrestrained, ecstat­ic joy thanking me for the Scriptures. It was signed by thirty villagers! They had carefully cut the Bible into thirty parts and exchanged the parts with one another! It was pathetic to hear a Russian begging for one page of the Bible to feed his soul. They were happy to exchange a cow or a goat for a Bible. One man traded his wedding ring for a battered New Testament. Many children have never seen a Christ­mas card. If they had one, all the children of the village would gather around it, and some old man might explain to them about the baby Jesus, his virgin birth, and the story of Christ and salvation. All this—from one Christ­­mas card! We send Bibles, Gospels, and literature to Chris­­tians in these restricted na­tions. This is one way you can do something. We also print and send special literature to counterattack the athe­istic poison being given the youth from kindergarten to college. In the Soviet Union, the Commu­nists prepared The Atheist’s Guide­book, which is the atheist’s “Bible.” Simple versions are taught to kin­der­garten children, with more ad­vanced versions of the same guidebook taught as the children progress. The evil “Bible” follows a child as he grows and advances—poisoning him with atheism all the way. We print and send The Answer to the Atheist’s Handbook as the Christian answer to poisonous, atheistic teachings. Our poisoned youth must have an answer—God’s answer—the Christian answer—our answer! This is another thing you can do, by helping provide special literature to nations where God is “illegal.” Such literature includes illustrated youth literature and children’s Bibles. We also must “join hands” with members of the Under­ground Church and give them the financial means to travel about with the gospel in person-to-person evangelism. So many of them are “chained” to their homes for lack of funds to use for travel tickets, and for food while traveling. Thus they are stranded, unable to move about while villages twenty to thirty miles away vainly call for them to come for secret meetings. By providing funds for them each month, we can “unchain” them to answer those calls and go to distant towns and villages with the Word of God. For example, we purchase motorcycles for Vietnamese and Chinese pastors who go to share the gospel in “forbidden areas” of their nations. We provide bicycles for evangelists in Muslim Bangladesh who witness at great risk. Christian laymen and laywomen must have financial help. Being Chris­tians, they earn barely enough to survive, leaving nothing with which to go from village to village with the gos­pel. This is the “miracle” a few dollars a month will do for them. Pastors of official churches who conduct a secret, parallel ministry at great risk must have funds secretly provided them for such purposes. The willingness of these pastors to risk their freedom by ignoring regulations and preaching the gos­pel to children, youth, and adults in secret meetings is not enough. They must have the means to carry out their fruitful secret ministry. Giving funds for that purpose will help such a member of the Underground Church effectively spread the gospel. Next, we must broadcast the gospel into captive nations by radio. Using stations in the free world, we can spiritually feed the Underground Church, which itself is in great need of the Bread of Life. Because the Communist governments use shortwave radio to disseminate their propaganda to their own people, millions of people in restricted nations have radios that will receive these broadcasts. Doors remain open to broadcast into captive nations by radio, and this work must be ex­tended. The Under­ground Church must have the spiritual food these broadcasts provide. This is another way you can help the Underground Church in these restricted countries. The Tragedy of Families of Christian Martyrs The families of Christian martyrs also need our assistance. Tens of thousands of such families are now suffering in an indescribably tragic way. When a member of the Underground Church is arrested, a terrible tragedy strikes his family. It is usually illegal for anyone to help them. This is very well planned by the governments to increase the suffering of the wife and chil­dren left behind. When a Christian goes to pris­on—and often to torture or death—the suffering only begins. His family suffers endlessly. I can state for a fact that if rank-and-file Chris­tians in the free world had not sent me and my family help, we would never have survived to write these words! More martyrs are being made all the time. Though they go to their graves and to their reward, their families live in horribly tragic conditions. We can and must help them. Of course, we must also help starving Indians and Africans. But who deserves the help of Christians more than the families of those who have died for Christ or who are tortured for their faith in prisons in restricted nations? Since my release, The Voice of the Martyrs has already sent much help to families of Christian martyrs. What has been done is little in comparison to what we could do with your help. My Message to You From the Underground Church As a member of the Underground Church who has survived and escaped, I have brought you a message, an appeal, a plea from my brethren whom I have left behind. They have sent me to deliver this message to you. Mirac­u­lously I have survived to deliver it. I have told you of the urgency of bringing Christ to the Communist world and other captive nations. I have told you of the urgency of helping the families of Christian martyrs. I have told you of practical ways you can help the Underground Church fulfill its mission of spreading the gospel. When I was beaten on the bottom of the feet, my tongue cried. Why did my tongue cry? It was not beaten. It cried be­cause the tongue and feet are both part of the same body. And you free Christians are part of the same Body of Christ that is now beaten in prisons in restricted nations, that even now gives martyrs for Christ. Can you not feel our pain? The Early Church in all of its beauty, sacrifice, and dedication has come alive again in these countries. While our Lord Jesus Christ agonized in prayer in the Gar­den of Gethsemane, Peter, James, and John were a mere stone’s throw away from the greatest drama of history—but they were deep in sleep. How much of your own Christian concern and giving is directed toward the relief of the martyr church? Ask your pastors and church leaders what is being done in your name to help your brothers and sisters in restricted nations around the world. In these countries, the drama, bravery, and martyrdom of the Early Church are happening all over again—now—and the free Church sleeps. Our brethren there, alone and without help, are waging the greatest, most courageous battle of the twentieth century, equal to the heroism, courage, and dedication of the Early Church. And the free Church sleeps on, oblivious of their struggle and agony, just as Peter, James, and John slept in the moment of their Savior’s agony. Will you also sleep while your brethren in Christ suffer and fight for the gospel? Will you hear our message: “Remember us, help us”? “Don’t abandon us!” Now I have delivered the message from the faithful, ­mar­tyred Church—from your broth­ers and sisters suffering in the bonds of atheistic communism, and under attack across the world from Indonesia to Africa. Don’t abandon them.