Part of my responsibility as being a follower of Christ is to pray for those brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for the faith. A tool that I use to be informed of how to better pray and engage on this issue is The Voice of the Martyrs magezine.

A Christian missionary jailed in North Korea has done what many prisoners in the communist state never do – he has emerged alive to tell about his horrific experience. The testimony of a Korean-Chinese man referred to only as “Lee” to protect his identity recently was obtained by The Voice of the Martyrs.

The missionary says a woman in his Chinese church gave him an ID number to use in traveling to North Korea, saying it belonged to her cousin. When authorities saw the ID number, they immediately arrested Lee, who later discovered the woman was a North Korean spy. He had been set up.

Wrote Lee of his prison experience:

“Between March 5 and 19, I was interrogated daily. Because of the beatings I began to have severe pains in my liver and kidney.”

Lee says at one point the authorities believed he was near death, so they transferred him to another location and fed him well to make sure he stayed alive.

“Within two weeks I had recovered, so they brought me back to the interrogation center where I was again beaten and tortured for another 54 days.”

Why torture a man for weeks on end? Lee said:

“My No. 1 crime against the People’s Republic of Korea is that for the past eight years I have been spreading the gospel in North Korea and bringing people to Christ.”

Lee says his heroes are those Christians who have endured hardship, torture and the loss of their lives – but who never denounced their faith:

“They truly live and die for the Gospel, and they are my heroes. Though their lives were short, what they’ve done will forever shine with Christ.”

I encourage you to consider using this tool as a way to stay informed.