One of the most restricted nations and oppressive nations to live in for Christians is North Korea.

Secret Soviet police documents show that in Butovo, a suburb of Moscow, forty-four thousand people were shot in groups of two hundred and buried secretly. One night during the slaughter, Claudia Vasilevna opened her door to a haggard woman who was supposed to be shot for her Christian faith but managed to escape. She begged Claudia to hide her.

Extremists killed 19 Christians, including two professors, as they worshiped on the grounds of Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria, on Sunday, April 22. An additional 22 people were injured.

Every week we like to highlight a prisoner that you can encourage by writing a letter to them using our Prisoner Alert system.

A few days ago we posted this news on our main The Voice of the Martyrs website and I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to read it, in case you missed it. Full story here.

Over the weekend many of us watched in amazement as the story of a blind Chinese activist, Chen Guangcheng captured headlines and received international attention. Today, CBN News reported the following in a video report concerning what is happening with Chen and his wife, who was reportedly beaten.

Our friends at Compass Direct are reporting today on a horrific attack that took place at a bible school in Sudan.

One of the minstries of The Voice of the Martyrs is the Kids of Courage ministry, which has its own website at www.kidsofcourage.com , and today I was delighted to see a lovely letter from a girl in Virginia. The reason this touches my heart is because if a child can take a moment to write a letter to a ministry that is helping persecuted Christians around the world, how much more so, those of us who are adults take action for our persecuted brothers and sisters.

Every week we like to share with you a person who is in prison because of their faith and stand for Jesus Christ. This week I'd like to remind you about Tohar Haydarov who is currently in a Uzbekistan prison for allegedly "selling narcotic or psychotropic substances in large quantities", however members of the church believe that he has been falsely accused and instead really been put in prison for his faith in Christ. It has been confirmed that he is serving a ten year sentence.