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.

When I prepare to conduct a radio interview on behalf of VOM I often type up “talking points” of the major information I want to share, to help me speak clearly on behalf of the persecuted church and the Christians that VOM serves around the world.

In 2005 I went to Eritrea to meet with Christians there. One of the Christians I met was “Letay,” who spent six months in a military prison camp because of her faith in Christ. The particular camp where she was held was out in the desert. It was miserably hot, and the facilities were primitive.

One of the frustrations of my work at VOM is the seeming indifference of the secular media to the suffering of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Yes, there are times when a story of persecution breaks through into our national conversation—Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran, or the attack on Dogo Nahawa in Nigeria—but for the most part Christian persecution is not a story we see on the evening news or read even in the fine-print sections of the newspaper.

Every other Wednesday, VOM's Todd Nettleton checks in with Moody Radio Quad Cities for a brief update about VOM's ministry and news from the persecuted church around the world.

Last month VOM's Todd Nettleton visited the nation of Nigeria to meet with and interview persecuted Christians, including several who have been treated in the new prosthetics clinic provided by VOMedical. Last week Todd was a guest on Moody Radio's program, “In the Market With Janet Parshall,” and talked about the trip and the people he met with in Nigeria. Listen to the interview below.

VOM's Todd Nettleton was interviewed this week by Mission Network News reporter Ruth Kramer about the release earlier this month of the US State Department's annual report on religious freedom around the world. Here's the article from Mission Network News' web site:

My wife was with me on the trip to China several years ago when we met a house church Christian named Sister Tong, who you see in this picture. At that time, she had been free from prison just a few weeks after serving six months for hosting an “illegal” church meeting in her home.

Recently one of our contacts in Laos was invited to visit a village to minister to three people who’d recently decided to follow Jesus. The small house church in their village had no pastor, and so this brother went to disciple the three new believers and other Christians in the village.

Editor's note: a version of this story appears in VOM's February newsletter. U.S. residents can request a free subscription to the newsletter here.