Christ dramatically changed the life of “Hussein**,” a former Muslim in Iran. Once he had been a drug addict planning his own death, but now he was an on-fire believer in Christ who quit his job to pursue full-time ministry in the underground church. He was assigned to “shadow” a Christian couple in their ministry work as he learned and grew in his calling.

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:3-6).

While most US churches will “Remember those in bonds” (Heb. 13:3) during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) in November, First Wesleyan Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma chose October 20 for their commemoration. The church’s pastor invited VOM’s Todd Nettleton—a member of the church—to bring the message in the morning services.

Weng Goodluck Tshua was three weeks old in March 2010 when Fulani Muslims attacked his village of Dogo Nahawa and slaughtered 501 Christians. All nine members of his family, including his father and mother, were killed. He was rescued from his burning house, but not before the fire had consumed his feet. As Weng has grown over the past few years, he has been unable to run around or even walk. But a VOM prosthetics team is helping change that.

In yesterday’s post, we told you about two former prisoners in Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. Today we bring word from a current Evin prisoner: Farshid Fathi.

“[We were] trying to appear confident on the outside but [were] petrified with fright on the inside.”

With less than two weeks to go before this year’s International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) on November 3, is your church planning to “Remember them that are in bonds” (Hebrews 13:3) on this significant Sunday?

Last night we had dinner with a Syrian pastor. This man lives and serves full-time in Syria. He hasn’t left the country because of the war, and he’s experienced the full effects of the war, personally and through his congregation.

“Preparation for underground work begins by studying sufferology, martyrology.”

“Wars and rumors of wars.” These words are a painful reality for many. Most of us not in hostile areas are so inundated with the devastation of war and terrorism on television that, after a while, we want to push it away, hoping that it will disappear. Unfortunately, it is our daily dose of reality, and it does not look like it is going to end. Because we care about people, we feel the pain of injured humanity as though we were experiencing it ourselves.