This week we celebrate Valentine's Day, a day Americans focus on love and romance. But most of those celebrating don't know that the man for whom this day is named was a Christian persecuted because of his Christian actions.

Gilbert Hovsepian’s father, Pastor Haik Hovsepian, was a church leader in Iran with an outreach to Muslims and a voice that wouldn’t be silenced. He was threatened many times. Then he disappeared. For 12 days Gilbert and his family searched and worried. Gilbert says those 12 days were the hardest of his life. Then Haik’s body was found, stabbed repeatedly. Listen to VOMRadio this week as Gilbert shares how his family responded, and how the prayers and care of the Body of Christ around the world encouraged and carried them. He’ll also share how God has taken the misery of those days and used it to shape a ministry that still reaches into Iran today, strengthening the church and leading Muslims into fellowship with Jesus.

As I recently watched and listened to the news of the attack and subsequent slaying of those in the office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo, I found my thoughts immediately drawn to a comparable, yet very different story. Both stories share the similarity of bloodshed at the hands of adherents to radical Islam. Each story is painfully tragic. I wondered if any of those slain in France had met their attackers before that fateful day. I thought of the life and deaths of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske, who were murdered in their office at Zirve Publishing in Malatya, Turkey on April 18, 2007.

This week, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we have been looking back on the most-read posts on the Persecution Blog this year. Today we look back on the most-read post of the year.

On December 17, 1912 Bill Borden boarded ship for China via Egypt. His missionary career would be among history’s briefest—and most effective.

Many American children are looking forward to the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, bearing presents for good little boys and girls. But most of those celebrating don't know that there is a real man behind the story of Santa Claus, and that real man was a Christian persecuted because of his faith and actions.

I have been moved this week by the story of the South African Christian family attacked in Afghanistan last weekend. The father, Werner Groenewald, and his two teen-aged children were killed. The mother, Hannelie, is a doctor and was serving in a clinic when the attack happened, sparing her life. I cannot even imagine the grief and loss that this dear sister is enduring.

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Ecclesiastes 3:11

During a staff meeting this morning one of VOM's executives shared a devotional on the life of great missionary C.T. Studd.