‘Solitary Refinement’ is a one-man live stage show depicting the imprisonment of Richard Wurmbrand. (Screen capture courtesy of VOM Canada)

VOM Canada’s CEO Doug Mckenzie says, “We’re taking enquiries now from churches all over Canada, and at this point, we believe we’re going to be able to assemble a tour in Manitoba possibly starting in September. And then we’re looking at a tour in Alberta, and we are also looking at a GTA tour — the Greater Toronto Area tour…. Also, we’re looking down East.

“Ultimately, what we want to do is take this right across the country and try to hit every reasonable-sized region which can support this kind of a presentation. The venues we’re looking for are typically church venues, and we’re not charging the church anything for the performance. We simply take a free-will offering. We’re trying to make this as much about the message and the ministry which comes from the Wurmbrand story as we possibly can.”

Mckenzie says the inspiration for the production came from something he saw when he first joined VOM Canada nearly five years ago.

A performance of ‘Solitary Refinement’. (Screen capture courtesy of VOM Canada)

“I saw an old black-and-white film from the Wurmbrand archives, and it was a depiction of Richard Wurmbrand in his solitary cell speaking to angels and preaching to people who were in adjoining cells and so on. The instant I saw it, I said, ‘This is an ideal topic and setting for a one-man stage show, a live stage show featuring an actor who would be depicting Richard.’”

Mckenzie hopes that sharing Wurmbrand’s story on stage will spiritually challenge and encourage the Church, just as Wurmbrand’s story in print did. After Wurmbrand’s freedom was ransomed by the Lutheran Church, he went to the United States and wrote ‘Tortured for Christ’.

“In 1967…you might say, a revolution took place in the Christian Church in North America which resulted in the selling of, ultimately by now, 10 million books of ‘Tortured for Christ’. It was something everybody was talking about and everybody was moved by, and the Church was electrified by this story,” says Mckenzie.

“I realized that perhaps this would be an opportunity to bring about the kind of enthusiasm and conviction that occurred in 1967. We decided to do that by effectively bringing Richard back to life on stage and then giving him a platform to speak to today’s generation and to re-tell his story.”

So why does Wurmbrand’s testimony of suffering and faithfulness to Christ still strike a chord with Christians decades later?

This moving story of Richard Wurmbrand’s imprisonment and faithfulness to Christ in ‘Solitary Refinement’ still strikes a chord with the Church today. (Screen capture courtesy of VOM Canada)

“The telling of this story, in particular, causes the Church to ask a very important, fundamental question. And the question is simply, ‘Am I willing to die for my faith?’ The stark reality there is that even as we ask that question, there are people today all over the world who are, in fact, dying for their faith.”

Mckenzie goes on to say, “We don’t typically ask ourselves that kind of a question in North America because we don’t think of it in those terms and we’re not confronted by that kind of reality. But if we can turn their heads and their hearts toward that reality, we believe that can be transformative, because that — coming up against the modern day realities of materialism and other things which distract us in the Church — takes us right to the heart of the matter and right to the heart of God who provided His only Son so we might have everlasting life. But there had to be a death and a resurrection for that to happen. And all of those truths are embodied in this particular story.”

Click here to learn more about ‘Solitary Refinement’, or here if you’d like to submit a booking enquiry and invite the production to come to your church in Canada!

One of the speakers is Dr. Eric Foley the founder and CEO of Voice of the Martyrs, Korea.

“The purpose of Voice of the Martyrs is so people can come to hear persecuted Christians speak in their own voice,” says Dr. Foley. “We often hear reports from countries, we’ll hear news updates from countries, but we don’t often get to hear the Christians from those countries speak and share on those experiences.”

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

Dr. Foley also serves as the North Korea specialist with Voice of the Martyrs, Canada. He says their overall approach to North Korean believers has an important distinction — to encourage and support them as stewards of their own ministry.

“With Voice of the Martyrs, Canada and believers around the world, it becomes really important the way this North Korea work is done. Voice of the Martyrs was founded on the idea that Pastor Richard Wurmbrand said: ‘Give us the tools,’ meaning, give persecuted Christians the tools, and we (the persecuted Christians) will complete the work. So Voice of the Martyrs, Canada approaches things, not from the standpoint of pitying North Korean Christians, but listening to them and asking the question, ‘What tools do you need? How can we support you?’”

‘Sincere’ Over ‘Sensational’

At the Momentum Conference, Dr. Foley will speak on the experience of the North Korean Church. While we often hear sensational persecution stories from North Korea, Dr. Foley says false accounts can often distract from the true faith stories of North Korean believers.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Photo courtesy of Secret Church)

“We hear about North Korean Christians being strung up on crosses and steamrolled over by steamrollers. So people get the idea that is what life is like for North Korean Christians, but those stories, unfortunately, turn out to not be credible.”

Dr. Foley explains, “What is true about life in North Korea is that North Korean Christians face more restrictions, and in fact, there’s no such thing as persecution of Christians. There is only execution…. North Korea is too smart to hold public executions, giving North Korean Christians the chance to say their last words and final goodbyes, or opportunities to sing songs together and so forth. North Korea typically executes Christians in private. They do so to avoid the spread of Christianity.

“Anybody who is found to have any connection to Christians would be rounded up and shipped away from a town overnight. People wake up in the morning and find out their neighbors are gone. And in North Korea, you get really good about not asking questions because you know your life depends upon not meddling. So, most of the stories about North Korean Christians go untold because they’re not sensational….. They’re about Christians who suffer in extended periods of time in labor camps and concentration camps and die agonizingly slow deaths, but they do so in a way that brings great glory to God because of the way they reflect His character in those situations.”

A Church in a Growth-Spurt

Is there any hope for the spread of the Gospel in North Korea then, if belief is so dangerous? The answer may surprise you.

“Interestingly, the Church in North Korea is growing much faster than the Church in South Korea and in most countries around the world. In South Korea, we’ve had a decline every year since 1991 in the number of Christians, even though we have 10 of the 11 largest churches in the world here in Seoul. But in North Korea, the Church continues to grow — and this is testimony to the fact that Christianity can endure, not just almost anything, but truly everything, because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

Dr. Foley estimates there are about 100,000 believers in North Korea today. One-third are in concentration camps, and the other nearly 70,000 have learned ways to avoid detection.

“They continue to share the Word of God, they continue to pray, they continue to disciple and evangelize, and they do it according to ways that are really unique from the whole world.”

If you’d like to learn more about the true details of life as a believer in North Korea, you can check out Dr. Foley’s book, These Are The Generations.

The Verbiage of Prayer

Coming from the International Day of Prayer yesterday, the importance of prayer for the persecuted Church is still fresh in our minds. We asked Dr. Foley how our North Korean brothers and sisters could use our prayers.

“My wife and I started this work about 15 years ago. When we met our first underground believers and I said, ‘How can we pray for you?’ The underground believers from North Korea responded, ‘You pray for us? We pray for you!’ I said, ‘Well, why would you pray for us? We have money and freedom,’” shares Dr. Foley.

“The North Korean underground believers said to me, ‘That’s the problem. You have so much money and so much freedom, you end up putting your faith in your money and your freedom. We have neither money nor freedom, but we have found that Jesus is sufficient.’

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

“That’s why it’s so important to them. When we pray, we should not pray as if they are somehow left without the resources to be able to live the Christian life. God draws close to them in ways we in the rest of the world cannot even imagine. As an underground Christian pointed out to me, Romans 8:28 works just as well inside a concentration camp as it does outside.”

So the answer to Dr. Foley’s question of how we can pray for Christians in North Korea? “They said, ‘Pray that God would find us each faithful in the settings in which He has placed us.’”

And really, as we pray for believers in North Korea, it should also lead to self-examination in our own walk with the Lord.

“That means for us in the West, we have to pray that we would not rely on our money and our power as the means by which we continue to be Christians. We have to ask ourselves, would we still be Christian if our religion was outlawed? If we couldn’t gather together? If we were not permitted to have a Bible? If we couldn’t listen to Christian radio? If all those things were true, would we still maintain our faith? Would we carry on if it cost us everything?”

Dr. Foley encourages, “The Gospel is already in North Korea. It has been stewarded well and spread well by Christians who understand North Korea better than anybody, and that’s the North Korean Christians.”

Click here to register for the Momentum Conference with Voice of the Martyrs, Canada!

"I cannot thank God enough for
bringing to us Corey Odden, who is, in my humble opinion, uniquely qualified to
step into the C.E.O.'s office," said Rev. Peter Jardine, chairman of the Board
of Directors. "We remain in God's hands,
secure in the knowledge that He is guiding us, sustaining us and loving us
through this difficult but rewarding work."

Odden
assumed the responsibilities of CEO from Rev. Glenn Penner on January 4,
2010. Penner has been battling Chronic
Lymphocytic Leukemia since 2002 and will continue serving VOMC in a more
specialized role suitable for his health limitations. He has been with VOMC since 1997. Since then, Penner has not only ministered to
persecuted believers around the world but authored an extensive work on the
theology of persecution and discipleship. 

"Glenn Penner took the mission to
a level of excellence, which leaves me both thankful to be part of it and
humbled by the extent of it," Jardine said. "I am profoundly thankful that Glenn will
continue to be involved, spending time on his great work on the theology of
persecution and remaining as an invaluable resource to the leadership."

The Voice
of the Martyrs Inc., a registered non-profit charitable organization
founded in Canada in 1971 by Klaas and Nellie Brobbel, has been ministering to
persecuted Christians worldwide for nearly 40 years in more than 50 countries.
The Voice of the Martyrs, which has multiple missions around the world, was
founded by Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor who was imprisoned and tortured
for 14 years for professing his faith in Christ. Odden is looking forward to the opportunity to
serve the organization as CEO.

"I am deeply grateful for the testimony of my
friends, the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, and their son, Mihai, who
stirred the hearts of Klaas and Nellie Brobbel to establish VOM's mission in
Canada nearly 40 years ago," he said. "In
addition, Glenn Penner has assembled a highly qualified and dedicated team. It
is an honour to serve alongside the staff and volunteers as we raise the voice
of such Christians who would otherwise be forgotten."

Pray
for VOM-Canada in this time of transition, as it serves the persecuted church
for the sake of the Gospel.