In the past 30 years, evangelical Christians in Ethiopia have grown from 1% of the population to more than 20%. Allan Sherer, the Horn of Africa Director for Front Line Mission, calls that church growth "one of the great gospel stories of our generation."

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

In a message recorded at a recent VOM conference (www.VOMEvents.com), VOM Radio host Todd Nettleton shares stories of some of the witnesses (Acts 1:8) for Christ that he’s met during 17 years of service with The Voice of the Martyrs.

Editor's note: this post was originally written and posted after the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State in the summer of 2014. But after recent attacks in Paris it is worthy of being reminded of these truths:

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship I doubt that he realized that he would actually live out what he wrote. He had profound insight and foresight into what true discipleship actually meant. He was personally and theologically ready to pay the price for obedience to Christ and that was required of him. Perhaps no theologian has so faithfully lived out the premises of a theology of suffering, persecution, and martyrdom as did Bonhoeffer.

A couple weeks ago, I went horseback riding for the first time in nearly 10 years. My parents own a horse, and when I was younger, I’d ride pretty frequently – until one day when I fell off the horse. Getting back up was hard and, to be honest, two weeks ago was the first time I’d ridden a horse for more than a couple minutes since I’d fallen.

Before Patrick Klein leaves on a trip to deliver Bibles into hostile and restricted nations, he asks God to show him His plan for that trip.

Each month VOM produces "The Jesus Freaks Minute," a daily radio-PSA that shares the stories of the persecuted church with Christian radio listeners all over the United States and around the world. Here's the script for one of the spots that will air next month, a spot entitled Bad For Good.

“Flor” still misses her father every day.

In a recent video produced by ISIS and posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project (MemriTV), the extremist group announced that it has captured the Syrian town of Qaryatayn. Christians there were forced to flee, convert to Islam or sign a dhimma contract agreeing to live under Islamic law and pay jizya, an Islamic tax.