Welcome to this weeks Persecution Blog Carnival - I am thrilled that you came! Due to a few unforeseen appointments I had yesterday I wasn't able to get this up, so for those of you who were wondering, never fear - I'm back!

Thank you all for joining us this week for our carnival. We missed last week, but we are back this week with some great entries from our faithful bloggers.

This week we have a few entries for our carnival. Take some time and savor each one of the entries and then please tell a friend. I know these will bless you as you continue to grow in your love for the persecuted church.

This week a woman from Asia shared with us. She and her husband, who are house-church leaders, are often targeted by government officials because of their bold stand for Jesus.

Have you ever noticed that some of the most joyful followers of Christ are those who actually act on what Jesus has told them to do? If you've had any conversations lately with fellow believers, if you're like me, you're most encouraged when you hear your friends telling you about how God has helped them reach out and minister to those in need. Which is why recently when I had the opportunity to go to a The Voice of the Martyr's meeting, I was thrilled to see this body of Christians not merely listening to the words of God - but also ACTING on them by remembering those who are in chains and writing them letters.

For the last few months every Friday we've been highlighting posts that you who are apart of our persecution blog team have written. This week I'd like to ask you to write a post about a person in the bible who was persecuted, and how they overcame the persecution and what you learned about how to deal with persecution.

One of our persecution bloggers is going to be taking on an extraordinaire feat of love for the persecuted church. Blogger Cindy Grayson has gracious considered The Voice of the Martyr's as her ministry of choice to stay up all night blogging for donations. Cindy asked if I could help spread the word, and I told her "Of course!"

It's been two weeks since we've had a Persecution Blog Carnival so let's get right to it! Our first entry is from Tidbits & Treasures who has written an entry titled Chinese Protestant Minister Sentenced to 7.5 years.

Welcome back to the blog after the great holiday we just celebrated! Did you all see the space shuttle launch yesterday - AWESOME! I loved it, and it was totally great to see the first launch of a space shuttle on July 4th. We are truly blessed here in America!

Welcome to our 7th carnival of Christians who are writing and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Once again, our hope and prayer is that you are encouraged by these writings and that you will find new friends and tell a few friends to join us.