Glenn Penner Passes on to Glory

Subject: Glenn Penner Passes on to Glory

After a seven year struggle with cancer, Glenn Penner of The Voice of the Martyrs Canada went home to be with the Lord on the evening of January 26, 2010 at the age of 48.

Glenn first joined VOM-Canada in 1997. Klaas Brobbel, the Director of the mission at the time, recalls, "Looking back to August 1997 when we interviewed Glenn for the position of Development Director for The Voice of the Martyrs, I marvel at God's goodness and timing to send Glenn our way. The mission was floundering and we needed help. Little could we have known the great work that Glenn would be able to pack into the nearly 12½ years of service to the Persecuted Church."

Barely five years after joining VOM-Canada, Glenn was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. After undergoing chemotherapy, radiation treatment and a stem cell transplant, Glenn, his wife Denita, and their family decided not to pursue further treatment when the cancer returned. With confidence in God's provision, Glenn bravely continued to serve the Persecuted Church and strove to utilize the time God gave him to its fullest potential.

Merv Knight, Ambassador-at-Large with International Christian Association, of which VOM-Canada is an affiliate, reflected, "It is my privilege to have had a close association with VOM-Canada from its formative days. I have seen it move through various stages of change and growth. One of those positive changes came with the appointment in 2007 of Glenn Penner as C.E.O. Glenn was God's man for the time."

Glenn had a particular passion for helping suffering believers to understand the biblical basis for their trials. His book, In the Shadow of the Cross, is an intensive study of the theology of persecution and discipleship which continues to be an invaluable resource to Christians worldwide who are suffering for Christ's sake. A gifted teacher, Glenn was blessed to be able to share his study with Christian leaders in religiously restricted and hostile nations in South America, Africa and Asia, as well as in seminaries and colleges in Europe and North America.

In January 2010, Glenn stepped down from the position of C.E.O. to allow him to serve more in line with the limitations and challenges of his condition. Corey Odden, who served for 10 years with VOM-USA, assumed the role of C.E.O. while Glenn became VOMC's Scholar-in-Residence/Executive Advisor.

Glenn's faithful dedication has inspired many – his family, the staff and supporters of VOM-Canada, international partners, and the many suffering Christians worldwide who have been touched by his service to them. As the mission moves forward into a new chapter, the staff is profoundly thankful to God for Glenn's example.

Greg Musselman, VOM-Canada's Chief Communications Officer, said, "I've known Glenn for the past 10 years and we worked together at VOM-Canada for seven. We travelled together overseas several times and worked on many video projects and newsletter articles about the Persecuted Church. I learned so much from him in the area of theology and church history and for that I will always be grateful. The rest of the team and I at VOM-Canada will strive to carry on his legacy as we serve the Persecuted Church."

VOM-Canada's Chief Operations Officer, Floyd Brobbel, added, "Words can never completely convey what Glenn meant to me and over the years ahead I will cherish the memories of my time with Glenn. The meetings, the travel, the laughter, the tears, the heated discussions, the planning, the practical jokes, and the list goes on to form a wonderful tapestry Glenn wove into my life. I would not change a thing because it all narrows to one word for me, and that is 'friend.'"

Friends and family of Glenn Penner are invited to celebrate his life and express condolences to his loved ones on Friday, January 29 at City Centre Baptist Church. The viewing will be held, the Lord willing, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with the funeral beginning at 1:00 p.m. City Centre Baptist Church is located at 1075 Eglinton Avenue West in Mississauga, Ontario. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, February 6 at 1:00 p.m. at the Zion Evangelical Missionary Church in Didsbury, Alberta. Directions are available at www.zemc.org. For more information, please phone 1.888.298.6423.

Christians Still Die And there IS Religious Persecution in Mexico

On October 13th, I had the honor and privilege of presenting information about Religious Persecution in Mexico at the VOM/USA office in Oklahoma, for the first time representing our own office, VOM en Mexico. Actually getting there was the battle... on the way to the border in San Luis Colorado, where I planned on visiting my daughter Jaimee and grandson Lonney Ray (pictured here with the Lion), my wallet will all my money and documents was stolen... just before I arrived. I found out when we went to Mac Donalds and ordered, only to find that my wallet was gone! Passport, Maine ID, credit card, prison visitation ID, checks, immigration permission... EVERTHING. No money... no phone to contact people... no way to get on a plane from Yuma to Tulsa without passport or picture ID. Now if you know me, you have heard about my wild travel by bus stories of things that have happened to me that shouldn't. I have actually some VOM fame in Oklahoma that I shouldn't deserve. Why, when anyone mentions traveling by bus, does everyone who knows me or has heard of me, start laughing? It's a toss up of being known for my "strong" personality (who: sweet and kind little ole me?) or the infamous bus trips I've experienced. And actually, without apologies, I'll say that now British owned Greyhound bus service in the States could learn alot from the luxury, and reasonably priced buslines in Mexico and Central America, where one can ride in comfort, and be treated politely! Since I couldn't get to OK on time, I set about doing what I needed todo to get my report written and sent in, with the help of a young man I'd never met before, who was visiting at La Sombra Baptist Church in San Luis, Sonora, Mexico. And on Sunday morning, after church, this "strange" young man told me that the Lord had told him that I should get to that conference. So when nothing else was feasible, he offered to drive me in his car and pay the costs for the 30 hour straight trip to Bartlesville. Well, at that rate, Jaime asked if she could tag along, and bring her son, Lonney. So off we went, on a journey made a bit longer by my grandson's tendency to carsickness, but with Allan and his fiancee, Hayley showing patience and kindness all the way. We arrived at 1:30 am... and were received with typical VOM love and graciousness. I believe that the information from our office was rather different, and that many heard for the first time, or at least explained in a clearer manner, what is the actual situation relating to religious discrimination and persecution in Mexico, now even recognized by the US State Department last week. I'd say that the higher indices of persecution are a result of several issues... and not until the August Supreme Court release of 20 Acteal Massacre Prisoners, due to increased resentment or hatred for evangelical believers by those of the majority church. Those two causes would be: 1. increased activism in reporting cases as they happen, and 2. workshops taught since 2007, teaching the indigena believers that they have guarenteed religious liberty under Article 24 of the Mexican constitution. That due to people like Oscar Moha, journalist/human rights defender in Mexico City and Esdras Alonso, leader & human rights defender in Chiapas. We would attribute the persecution in general to: the 1. disinterest of the Mexican federal government to promote religious equality and to stand by the laws that guarantee it, and the 2.position of the majority church as a favored body, loathe to give up its political and spiritual influence, and the increasing loss of its followers to the evangelical movement, and 3. indigena groups or traditional rural communities who believe they are legitimately defending the Religious, Traditional,Economic and Cultural Identity of their communities... VOM en Mexico has been able, through the documentation and strong advocacy efforts of Oscar Moha to call attention to these issues... both inside and outside Mexico. Now to work more closely with those who have been on the front line, suffering for their evangelical faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Above in the photo, you will see my grandson, who has already made his first missionary trip to Chiapas, and feels a connection with it's indigena peoples. He says his best friend is Brother Tom White. He certainly is in good comapny! God bless, Tom White and all the others like him, who love and sacrifice to be a Voice for those who don't have one!

Why can't Christians unite to change America's ways?

Why can't Christians unite to change America's ways? Shared via AddThis

A Miracle for the Innocent Evangelical Prisoners from Chiapas Highlands

Praise God for His Mercy and Faithfulness to His most Forgotten Children! 20 Tzotzil Indigenas detained illegally and sentenced on the basis of falsified and maliciously manufactured evidence have finally been heard by the Mexican Supreme Court, which stopping short of declaring them innocent, decided in favor of their release after almost 12 years because of patently falsified evidence by the government investigators and attorney general's office. 20 more remain from the same list of appeals, and 56 more who will have their cases re-evaluated. The decision by the judges is an unheard of reverse by the Court, and although merited because of the many irregularities through out the investigation and trials, many thought the judges would not have the courage to make the decision they did. Although 9 suspects had confessed, and stated that the evangelicals had nothing to do with the Acteal Massacre in '97 of 45, mostly women and children, the police and judges consistently had willfully ignored the confessions and the alibis for the majority. The majority of the detained were evangelicals not in agreement with the rebel Zapatistas that had taken possession and control of their region. Their lands have been taken over, homes lost, families denied government aid due them, families broken up, and destroyed. Their families have suffered rejection and condemnation, malnutrition and loss of all dear to them. Apparently the men have remained firm in their faith, even winning to Christ some of the other prisoners who were not evangelicals at the time of the arrests. (Evangelical believers still suffer religious intolerance and persecution in the highlands and surrounding areas of Chiapas, Mexico.) The prisoners have been abandoned in the past by the Mexican people who believed the calumny against them, still do, and even by the Body of Christ in Mexican and around the world. We praise the Lord for the teams of lawyers who have come to their defense, and those in the Body of Christ, including children, who have supported them in their years of suffering in the name of Christ, and treated them as political prisoners by their own government, who allowed them to be framed. Praise the Lord for His Mercy and Faithfulness, to us, and tho those who need it most! Lord have Mercy on those who presented false testimony and evidence to promote their own causes, and develop a propaganda machine that has made millions of dollars from the misfortune of the victims, the survivors, and the falsely accused!

Justice is Mine, says the Lord! /Prayer Campaign for Acteal Prisoners and Families

To The Acteal Families And Prisoners, From Buffalo, New York Sunday School Kids, DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE! JESUS LOVES "TU"...WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU! This is one of the dozen or so cards that arrived just in time this week in Mexico City, to be presented to Estela Luna Perez, spokesperson for the Acteal Prisoners Families. She was surprised, and very touched by the interest and Christian love showed by this group of young American kids for her and her people. Please keep our brothers and sisters in Christ in your prayers, and before the Lord...for in the end, "Justice is Mine," says the Lord!