GOD'S PROVISION IN PERSECUTION - 4

Dear brothers and sisters,

In persecution, we have the opportunity to depend on God alone and in response, He provides for us. God provides His presence and leading. He promises to go through persecution with us and give us peace. He promises to fill our mouths with His words when we are put on trial: "When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit," Mark 13:11.

This provision may not look like what we expect. For Vek Huong and Samoeun Taing, abandoned by the Khmer Rouge in the jungles of Cambodia, the answer to their prayer for a "special meal" on their anniversary appalls us. But after two months of starvation, with nothing to eat but bark and grass, they thanked God for the "feast" He provided: the heads and skins of four dead rats. Part of God's gracious provision was certainly the ability to see His love in a dead rat. Part of this provision was certainly the perspective which produced gratitude.

God provides protection. On April 17, 1975, the entire population of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was forced out of the city by the Khmer Rouge (Communists), including doctors, nurses, hospital patients. Women died giving birth by the side of the road. Everyone was evacuated except those who were shot. Altogether, two million "enemies of the state" were murdered at the command of Pol Pot, up to one-third of the population of Cambodia. This included not only those who had worked in the previous government but the rich, the religious and those considered well-educated-- teachers and college students, anyone who spoke a foreign language, even people who wore glasses. Vek Huong and Samoeun Taing were well-educated, Christian, spoke English and were on staff with a foreign Christian organization, Campus Crusade for Christ. Yet God protected their lives.

God provides direction. God directed the Taings (with their infant son) to go to Battambang, a city on the border of Thailand. At the train station in Pursat, solders were rounding people up and putting them on a train for Battambang. Vek Huong wrote afterward, "A Khmer Rouge soldier said to me quietly, 'For some reason, I feel concerned about you and want to warn you not to take the train to Battambang. You are being lied to. They'll drop you off in the jungle, and you'll die of starvation. Why don't you stay with me?' I knew I had to follow what I believed to be God's will. I thanked the soldier profusely for his kindness, but said that I felt we must go on. As Samoeun and I stepped aboard the train, the soldier shook his head, and as his eyes followed me, they were filled with sadness, communicating fear of what might lie ahead for us. Eighteen miles before Battambang the Khmer Rouge ordered everyone off the train--and told us we were to be left there, just as my soldier friend had predicted. The area was thick jungle. . ."

God provides food: In the jungle, Vek Huong and Samoeun "became concerned over the lack of nutrition (6-month old) Wiphousana was receiving, since our small daily portions of rice could be supplemented only by boiled leaves and grass. So we prayed. One day I thought, 'Why not try fishing for Wiphousana in the paddies?' It was really a laughable idea, because the largest fish ever seen in the shallow waters was two to three inches long at the most. But the first day I tried it, I caught a fish that was 8-10 inches in length. And every day for the next two months, God provided a fish about that size--just one fish every day.'"

God provides allies: (After two months of near starvation, the Taings escaped to the train station to try to press on to Battambang.) "A guard at the station reminded us that those traveling without a Khmer Rouge permission slip were often killed on sight. I replied to the guard that we didn't have permission but if we stayed in the jungle we would die anyway. A train pulled into the station but it was filled entirely with Khmer Rouge soldiers! Suddenly a soldier jumped off one of the cars and ran over to us. It was the soldier who in Pursat had warned us about taking the train to Battambang! As he ran toward us, he called out to Samoeun, 'Sister, sister! Where have you been?' He told the guard we were his relatives. He gave us his ID and a permission slip, and we climbed on the train with him. We rode to Battambang in safety--and wonder."

Four years after the fall of Phnom Penh, the Taings made it across the border from Battambang to a refugee camp in Thailand from which they could let CCC know they were alive. Subsequently Vek Huong Taing became Founder and National Director of Cambodia Campus Crusade for Christ for twenty years. (Excerpts from Taing, Ordeal in Cambodia.) Since this book was written, Taing and his wife have directed New Life Missions, conducting major evangelistic meetings, leadership conferences, symposiums, and seminars across the provinces and boundaries of Cambodia. They have trained national pastors, staffs, evangelists, teachers, church workers, and dynamic leaders that now share their faith across Cambodia.

God provides healing: Dorothy Sun of China wrote, "I loved singing. My mother was a Western-style opera singer so I dreamed I would be a soprano soloist. During my imprisonment in the early 60s the police compelled us to praise the Communists and Mao Ze Dong with songs. I disliked those songs and disagreed that Mao is the savior. I have my savior Jesus. Instead of singing I was just shouting. The guard forced me to drink half a cup of pure vinegar with a mixture of grayish and red pepper powder. I vomited it out but two inmates pushed me down and opened my mouth with their hands, forcing me to swallow. They did this every night. After one month my voice became very hoarse. I almost totally lost my ability to speak, let alone being able to sing. At nights I said to my Lord, 'The only thing I had was my voice, which I dedicated to You since I was little but now that has also been taken away by Satan.' My voice was hoarse for over twenty years. In October, 1984 [after her release], the rehearsals of the 'Messiah' began (at church). . . my favorite opera. . . Whenever the choir had rehearsals I went there to listen. During the final rehearsals when the congregation joined with the choir, I could not control myself. I began to sing with them. It seemed that angels and a heavenly army also joined in singing with us. My tears tumbled down. I didn't care about my hoarse voice. But, suddenly I felt something eased and opened my throat so that I could sing notes higher and higher without difficulty. I could even hear my own voice and it wasn't hoarse anymore! Ever since then I have been singing hymns with my revived voice in my ministry to serve, praise and glorify the Lord!" Excerpted from Sun, Clay in the Potter's Hands.

Persecution is sometimes every bit as hard on the families of those sentenced to prison or slave labor camps  for their faith. When Brother Yun was imprisoned for four years his wife and mother were rejected by their neighbors. But God fed them. With Yun's son, born three months after Yun's sentencing, the two women were left to run a farm by themselves. Deling, Yun's wife, writes, "Things were desperate! We had no clue what we were doing. We decided to plant sweet potatoes, but didn't know how to do it. I found out later that we should have planted the roots about two feet apart. I had planted them just a few inches apart! All summer long our neighbors mocked us and made fun of us! I was the butt of many jokes. Then in autumn, they started cursing because their sweet potatoes were only the size of tennis balls. Ours were almost the size of basketballs! It was a great miracle and everyone knew God had taken care of us. Our neighbors respected us more and didn't view my husband as a cursed criminal any more. They saw 'the distinction between the righteous and the wicked.' Malachi 3:18.

She continues, "Just a week before wheat harvest, a severe hailstorm struck. Ice the size of tennis balls fell from the sky. I rushed outside when the hail started and some of our neighbors' wheat fields had been completely flattened. Yun's mother and I fell to our knees and cried out, 'God, have mercy on us!' A great miracle happened. Our field was the only one protected by the Lord. All our wheat was standing upright, untouched by the hail. Everyone else's fields had been obliterated. People came out of their homes after the storm subsided and saw how the Lord Jesus Christ had protected us. It was another powerful testimony to them." Yun, The Heavenly Man.

God takes care of His people who have been widowed or orphaned for their faith. In 2001, Martin and Gracia Burnham, missionaries to the Philippines with New Tribes Mission, were kidnapped at gunpoint by the Abu Sayyhaf, a terrorist group with ties to Osama ben Laden. They spent a year on the run with the terrorists in the jungle, facing near-starvation, constant exhaustion, frequent gun battles and cold-hearted murder. Gracia was freed a year later and returned to "normal" life back in Kansas with their three children--and a gaping hole where her husband had been. He had been shot in the attempt to free them both. But God provided through individuals, church groups and merchants who built and furnished a home for them, bought them a van and "the Lord continues to meet our needs." Burnham, In the Presence of My Enemies, 2004.

We do not need to fear what we or our loved ones may experience. Casper ten Boom and his middle-aged daughters Corrie and Betsie helped Jews escape the Holocaust in Holland during World War 2. For this, the sisters would be sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany. Betsie would be taken Home from there in September, 1944. Corrie would be released three months later, on Christmas Day, and would survive until her 91st birthday, ministering around the world. In The Hiding Place (later made into a movie), Corrie records her memory of an event when she was six which gives us a perspective on our loving heavenly Father's promised provision:

     "At last we heard Father's footsteps winding up the stairs. It was the best moment in every day, when he came up to tuck us in. We never fell asleep until he had arranged the blankets in his special way and laid his hand for a moment on each head. Then we tried not to move even a toe.
     "But that night as he stepped through the door I burst into tears. 'I need you!' I sobbed.  'You can't die! You can't!'
     "Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. 'Corrie,' he began gently, 'when you and I go to Amsterdam--when do I give you your ticket?'
     "I sniffed a few times, considering this.
     "'Why, just before we get on the train.'
     "'Exactly. And our wise Father knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need--just in time.'"
     Nearly fifty years later, her father was imprisoned and God took him Home ten days later. Corrie and her sister Betsie were in the same prison he was (although they hadn't known it) when they got the news. I'm sure her father's words came back to Corrie at that time, to comfort her in her loss.

God will provide everything we need--when we need it.

And God provides JOY in Persecution! (See next letter, 5th of 5)


"We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is 'good,' because it is good, if 'bad' because it works in us patience, humility, and the hope of our eternal country," C.S. Lewis to his good friend Don Giovanni Calabria, 10 August 1948.