At the end of the 1980s, communism began to collapse all over Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Before the collapse, communist governments had tried to destroy Christianity. They tore down churches, burned Bibles, made laws against teaching children about Jesus, and jailed Christians.

In communist Romania, brave Christian heroes found ways to spread the gospel to communists who did not believe in God. Some Christians threw Gospel booklets through the windows of moving trains carrying communist soldiers. Soldiers seeking the truth grabbed the Gospels and quickly hid them under their uniforms before their leaders caught them.

Many Romanian Christians were put in prison for sharing the gospel. Two of them, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, later escaped Romania and started The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). VOM helped, and still helps, Christians in the communist countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Shortly after the collapse of communism in those countries, VOM began getting phone calls. The callers asked if VOM would continue its work. “After all,” the callers said, “communism is dead.”

But communism is far from dead! Today millions of people in the world still live in places where communists try to control the spread of the gospel. Christians continue to suffer persecution in China, Tibet, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and parts of Colombia.

The stories below are from North Korea and Colombia, where Christians are still persecuted by communists. As you read them, please pray for your Christian brothers and sisters living in all communist lands around the world.

North Korea: Secret Christians and Hidden Safe Houses
Most people in communist North Korea are very poor. Many children there never have enough to eat. Some children escape starvation by walking from North Korea into China.

It is very dangerous to try such an escape. The North Korean government punishes people who are caught trying to leave the country.

Christians in China secretly care for the children. They protect them from people who might want to send them back to North Korea. The Christians feed the children and tell them about Jesus. In communist North Korea many people have never seen a Bible or heard the good news of Jesus.

When North Korean children and adults hear how Jesus offers eternal life to those who believe in Him, they want to tell the news to their families back home in North Korea.

A Christian from the U.S. visited North Korean children in a secret safe house in China.

The visitor talked to two of the children. “How old are you?” he asked one boy.

“Five years old,” the boy answered. “Do you miss your home?” asked the visitor.

Suddenly the boy stood up and declared: “I’m going back! I need to tell my grandparents about Jesus before they die, so I will see them when I go to heaven!”

The visitor asked another boy at the safe house, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The boy answered, “An evangelist.”

“Why?” asked the man. The boy replied, “So I can go back to North Korea and tell them about Jesus!”

“You will be hungry and cold in North Korea,” said the visitor. “You might even die.”

“That’s okay!” said the boy. “If I die, I will be with my God!”

Some of the young people from the safe houses manage to get back to their homes and tell their families about Jesus. One girl who later escaped North Korea told workers from The Voice of the Martyrs that she had heard about Jesus from her brother when he returned to North Korea from China.

Others who go back to North Korea are never heard from again. If they are caught, especially with a Bible, they can go to prison for many years. It is sad when they go to prison for their faith. But for North Korean Christians, “it is sadder that 21 million North Koreans are living and dying without Christ,” said the visitor to the safe house.

Please ask God to take care of the North Korean children in and outside of North Korea. Pray all North Koreans will hear the good news of Jesus.

Colombia: Miguel and Maria
Names have been changed for their protection.
Miguel’s father was a pastor in Colombia, a country in South America. (The children in the photo above are from Colombia.)

One Sunday, Miguel was sitting in the front row at the church where his father was preaching. His 7-year-old sister, Maria, was holding him on her lap.

A man was sitting in the congregation secretly hiding a gun. The man was part of a guerrilla group. Guerrillas are groups of armed soldiers who are operating outside the law. Many of the guerrillas in Colombia are communists, and they don’t like Christians.

Suddenly the guerrilla shot Miguel and Maria’s father. The children and their mother miss him very much. Their lives are very difficult without a father and husband to support them, but they are glad that he is in heaven with Jesus.

At first Maria was so sad that she didn’t sleep well or want to go to school. “We have to fight to keep her moving in her studies and her life,” said Miguel and Maria’s mother. “But we know that someday we’ll all be in heaven together.”

Please pray Miguel and his mother, and especially Maria, will continue to experience God’s comforting touch in their lives.