After reading the horrific story of this Christian couple who have been beaten, falsely accused and have almost lost their preborn infant, due to merciless beatings, the verse of scripture that comes to mind is Matthew 5:11 - "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me."

Now that Thanksgiving Day is behind us, as well as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I thought I would share with you an absolutely wonderful gift idea from our The Voice of the Martyrs bookstore. Right now we have a wonderful three book collection called our Holiday Heroes Collection.

If you missed our most recent Persecution Podcast, I really wanted to encourage you to check it out and take about 13 minutes to listen to it in its entirety. Todd Nettleton and Dory give updates about what is happening in India, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. Todd also gives a special update about the Call for Mercy petition campaign for Asia Bibi. If you have not yet signed the petition, please visit http://www.callformercy.com and sign it today.

We have tragic news coming from our friends at Compass Direct concerning the slaughter of at least 45 more Christians in Northern Nigeria. Please add Christians in Nigeria to your prayer list and pray for them often. Pray for God's comfort as they grieve and for boldness to continue to stand strong in their faith.

Iran (MNN) ? It seems that Iran's government is finally taking off the gloves.

Tomorrow is the last day of November and we were hoping that we would have 1000 letters of support written to Pastor Irani by the end of the month. We are so close to reaching our goal. Last week we started with 894 letters that had already been written. Today we're at 975 letters which have been written, leaving us only 25 more letters to write! Will you be one of the twenty five people we need to write Pastor Behnam Irani a letter today?

One of my favorite things in the whole world is hearing testimonies from believers that have endured suffering for Christ Jesus. I'm always inspired because I see the power of God working in their lives for His glory and His glory alone. This is why I like to highlight a devotional thought every week from the book Extreme Devotion. As we begin this Monday, let's focus on the awesome love of Jesus who came to save us all from our filthy sin.

A few days ago we shared with you a report from Mission Network News, where Todd Nettleton from The Voice of the Martyrs commented about a recent ban on the name of Jesus Christ in Pakistan. The gist of the commentary was that Pakistan had banned the use of the name of Jesus Christ in their texting, but no one was completely sure what the real reason was, leading to questions speculating about whether it is an issue of religious freedom.

Some of you may have not received the special email that went out yesterday about a new ministry opportunity we have for you to partner in. This is from Tom White who is the Executive Director of The Voice of the Martyrs.

We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with your families. It's always wonderful to be able to spend a day focused on giving thanks to the Lord who gave us all things. Today, will you please remember the following prayer requests as you spend time in prayer. Please also take them to your church and share them and also your Facebook page and Twitter accounts. The more people that pray the better.