Compass Direct is highlighting a story today that honestly just breaks my heart. In fact, any time I read anything about a teacher and students being abused, it just hurts because children in general should never be abused by any authority.

We have covered numerous times on this blog about controversies over prayer. It's happening more and more, in city council meetings, and even in schools for graduation prayer. Here's another story from CBS News. Click here to view the video.

XINJIANG—Separated by the glass wall, Gulinuer and Alimujiang’s two sons stared at their father for the first time in over two years. On April 20, under international pressure thanks to years of legal advocacy and raising public awareness, the Xinjiang Kashgar Prison authorities allowed the Uyghur Christian prisoner to meet with his wife, children, mother, and sister for a brief 15 minute conversation—the first personal contact the family has had with Alim since he was first detained in January 2008.

Reading this story today from our friends at Farsi Christian News Network , just grieves my heart. I know we are to expect persecution as followers of Christ, but to be honest, some days it really grieves my heart. I think today, it's grieving my heart because I see so many Christians not taking their faith seriously, who have freedom and then there are stories like this, where it is evident that a brother and sisters are suffering for their faith in Jesus. Please don't take your faith in Jesus for granted...please read on.

We have good news from China Aid today, as they are reporting that on April 17th, Pastor Dou was released a little bit early from his one year Re-education Through Labor Sentence, which began in June 2009.

As some of you may know, we have been covering some of the prayer battles in the city council meetings across the country. One of the most popular, in recent days, is the battle to keep prayer in Lancaster.

I was going to write about this yesterday but I decided to save it for today because I wanted to raise the question - does this fall into the category of Christian persecution? What do you think?