Surrounded by violence, Grace had never known much about love, joy, or forgiveness. Her community in Uganda, was hostile both to outsiders and those living in the village. Most people had grown up believing in dark, spiritual forces that could only be remedied by a witch doctor’s magic.

While VOM staff consistently work with Christian media outlets to tell the stories of persecuted believers around the world, it is sometimes frustrating that secular media outlets rarely delve into such stories.

On Monday Christians around the world celebrated the appeals-court victory for Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a Sudanese wife and mother who had been sentenced to death for apostasy. But the joy of her release from prison on Monday quickly turned on Tuesday when she was detained at the airport in Khartoum as she and her husband and children were about to leave Sudan.

Wonderful news from Sudan this morning: an appeals court overturned the death-penalty conviction of Meriam Ibrahim and she has been released from prison, along with son Martin and baby daughter Maya.

Have you ever experienced a good Oklahoma thunderstorm? I’ve lived all over the U.S. and different parts of the world, but I’ve never experienced anything like the thunderstorms here. Each clap of thunder reverberates through the house and in your chest. It’s like a mini earthquake with pyrotechnics (the flash of lightening before each rumble) and a short stint at a concert when you’re right next to the speaker and the drums are booming.

I picked up a recent copy of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research. I like to read through the whole issue to keep informed about missions, so I read an article that I thought I would not relate to me or to anything that I do. I was wrong! The article was about East Syrian Monasteries in the Ninth Century! It turned out to be a great article that related to just about everything I do and love. It was about love for God and love for learning. I was struck by one of the author’s statements (Steve Cochrane): “The East Syrian school movement…integrated a passion for learning with a passion for God and making him known. These passions were a key source for the continued renewal of the church across hundreds of years, even in environments often hostile to the Christian faith.”

We recently recieved this report from Ted, a Christian worker serving in Nepal who connected with one of our VOM workers and participated in a day of VOM ministry outreach:

Using data compiled by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the UN Commission of Inquiry, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center created this infographic to describe the plight of men, women, and children held captive in North Korea’s political prison camps without charges or trial.

Today we repost one of the most-read posts of the first half of 2014, a post on the truth behind the growth of Islam: