Welcome to this special episode of the China Compass Podcast, #29 in the weekly “Prison Pulpit” series! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. You can follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (http://PrayforChina.us). To learn more about our various ministry endeavors and to get any of the missionary biographies I’ve published, visit www.PrayGiveGo.us!
Last week, I shared my heart and told stories about my arrest and interrogation exactly seven years ago… Get my book and other special content @ UNBEATEN.VIP!
I also wanted to remind everyone again why I started this second weekly China Compass podcast. I want to encourage people to pray for Pastor Wang Yi (and others like him, as Hebrews 13:3 teaches us) by sharing from his own words and sermons. (We’ve also looked at sermons from Richard Wurmbrand.)
Sometime soon, we’ll return to Richard Wurmbrand’s collection of Sermons in Solitary Confinement, but today I want to read an excerpt from a newsletter I received last week from Michael Wurmbrand, the now 80+ year old son of Richard Wurmbrand and founder of the Richard Wurmbrand Foundation.
BTW, Michael does NOT recommend the ministry of Voice of the Martyrs, which he helped to found many decades ago. He was fired from the ministry more than ten years ago, when he demanded a more broad inquiry into the travels and contacts of former VOM director, Tom White, who committed suicide in VOM’s Bartlesville, OK, warehouse in 2012, after allegations surfaced of him molesting a ten year old girl. (Read his “Open Letter” about VOM here: https://www.billionbibles.com/michael-wurmbrand-vom.html)
Michael Wurmbrand also runs another parallel ministry, Help For Refugees, focused primarily on his native Romania, and has made all of his father’s books (and formerly unpublished writings) available for free since VOM continues to use his parents’ likeness and writings without his permission.
In contrast, check out one of my favorite ministries, Asia Harvest: https://www.asiaharvest.org/
All that to say that in each month’s ministry newsletter, he includes a formerly unpublished homily or devotional by his late father, Richard Wurmbrand. And that’s what I’m going to share with you now…
https://chinacall.substack.com/p/how-to-see-angels
A Word from Michael Wurmbrand
Also, here is a quote I stumbled across earlier from Michael Wurmbrand, which should challenge us:
“As my father emphasized many times, the head of the serpent needs to be crushed and we need not tickle its belly. Christians have to attack the head of evil. Love of money is the root of all evil. The reason the communists wanted and worked to see us dead, was described by one of the Romanian communist ambassadors in a confidential discussion: ‘because of Wurmbrand, Romania lost preferred-nation status with the United States, 8 years in a row.’ (Isn’t that amazing, that one man did that?!)
While many missions fight [evil with] programs, countless banks and businessmen support evil in the same areas through their financial interest, [doing] business as usual, like [in] China, Vietnam, Moslem countries, etc. How can a Christian in good conscience work and draw a salary in the oil industry in Moslem countries where his fellow Christians are maimed, even killed for their faith? How can Christians while claiming to help persecuted believers in China, encourage trade with the communist Chinese?”
Follow or subscribe to China Compass wherever you are listening. You can also send any comments or questions via DM on X: @chinaadventures. Hebrews 13:3!