This week we have another wonderful podcast to encourage you. Todd and Dory share some important updates from the mission field. Click here to listen to this nine minute show.

Thank you all for praying for this weeks prayer requests. Please share them with your friends, family and church. Your prayers do make a difference. God bless you.

This story is courtesy of Mission Network News and highlights a growing trend happening concerning conflicts between what Christian ministries can and cannot do. This specifically deals with a homosexual leader in the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship club, who wanted to stay in the practice of a homosexual relationship, which violates the clubs rules. As a result, the club has now been suspended from campus. Please pray for those involved in Christian ministries on our college campuses.

A few days ago we shared with you that the Voice of the Martyrs is having a sale on our Holiday Heroes Collection of books and one of the books in the Holiday Heroes collection is The Story of Saint Nicholas: More Than Reindeer and a Red Suit.

Yesterday we received a very encouraging email from a reader and supporter of The Voice of the Martyrs and we wanted to share it with you.

The rampage threatens the frail security of Iraq’s dwindling Christian population, sources said. After mullah Mala Ismail Osman Sindi’s sermon claiming there was moral corruption in massage parlors in the northern town of Zakho on Friday (Dec. 2), a group of young men attacked and burned shops in the town, most of them Christian-owned. The businesses included liquor stores, hotels, a beauty salon and a massage parlor, according to Ankawa News. “The interesting thing with this incident is the place where it happened,” Archdeacon Emanuel Youkhana of the Assyrian Church of the East said. “KRG [the Kurdish Regional Government] is, for the most part, safe and secure, and all inhabitants enjoy prosperity and security, until now at least. The future is, by all means, bleak for the Christians and other minorities living there.” Some of the assailants waved banners stating, “There Is No God but Allah,” according to Ankawa News. Sources said local authorities were slow in responding, resulting in heavy financial losses.

Iran (MNN) ? It's been months since Iranian husband and wife Arash Kermajani and Arezoo Teymouri were released from prison, but the couple continues to faces danger and harassment.

In doing some research this morning about what to put here on this blog, I came across a very interesting article on The Christian Post, written by Eryn Sun, titled 'Real' Christian Churches in US Forced to Go Underground Soon?

NEW DELHI, December 5 (CDN) — As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, last week in a show of support for authorities’ ostensible reforms to discuss minority rights, government troops killed civilians and burned houses in a Christian-majority state about 450 miles away. On Wednesday (Nov. 30), the day Clinton arrived, Burmese soldiers killed a woman and injured six other villagers as they fired four rounds of mortar shells at civilians in the Tarlawgyi area of Kachin state’s Waingmaw Township, Kachin News Group reported. Another battalion burned down 10 homes in Nam Wai village and five more in neighboring Hpa Ke village, both in Dawhpumyang sub-township in Bhamo district, the Thailand-based news agency added. The killing and arson followed two explosions that killed a student and injured another the previous night (Nov. 29) in the state’s capital, Myitkyina. Local residents suspected government agents planted the bombs, a Kachin journalist told Compass by phone on condition of anonymity. The twin blasts rocked the state capital days after a powerful explosion killed seven children and three internally displaced Kachin people and injured 16 other children at an orphanage on Nov. 13 in Myitkyina’s Thida Ward. Two sons and a grandson of a Christian couple who run the orphanage in their home were among those killed, but police arrested the family, alleging they had detonated it, the news agency reported. The attacks left civilians in Kachin, where an estimated 90 percent of the 1.2 million people are Christians, “terrified,” the journalist said. About 90 percent of the roughly 56 million people in Burma (also known as Myanmar) are Buddhist, mostly from the Burman ethnic group. Full story here.

For most of last month we highlighted Pastor Behnam Irani and asked you to help reach our goal of writing 1000 letters of encouragement. I am happy to report, as of today, there have been 1045 letters written to Pastor Irani! PTL! Thank you all for taking the time to encourage our brother.