One of VOM's ongoing projects to reach North Korea with the gospel, in cooperation with our sister mission in Seoul, South Korea, is the launch of "Scripture Balloons," which float across the border and drop gospel leaflets and whole New Testaments into North Korea.

I find the nation of North Korea almost endlessly fascinating. There seems to be no way that anyone born and raised in a free nation can understand the level of control and paranoia that exists inside “The Hermit Kingdom.” And very few of us will ever be allowed to visit.

Last summer VOM asked our readers to send a letter to Kim Jong Un, the brutal dictator of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Not just any letter, either, but a letter of confession. Each letter began with the words, “I am a Christian.”

This week, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we will be looking back on the most-read posts on the Persecution Blog this year. Today we look back on the #4 most-read post. We will continue to count down until we unveil number 1 on Friday. Come back each day this week to learn which posts drew the most attention, readers and shares over the course of 2014.

Yesterday CBS News aired an interview with James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, who recently returned from North Korea along with two American citizens who had been imprisoned there.

If you understand how completely closed North Korea is, you will find this video truly amazing!

For decades, The Voice of the Martyrs has launched balloons printed with the Scriptures into North Korea. In recent years we’ve even been able to attach entire New Testaments to balloons, and to track their flight and delivery via GPS signals. In this way we know we have landed New Testaments into the capital region of Pyongyang.

Today we share an excerpt from a post by Pastor Eric Foley, VOM’s project partner for North Korea, the CEO of Seoul-USA, and a regular speaker at VOM Regional Conferences. In his post Pastor Foley provides a careful and thoughtful exegesis of Hebrews 13:3 in light of the current situation that Christians are facing in Mosul under the domination or Islamic State (IS).

Recently Pastor Eric Foley, President of Seoul-USA and a key coordinator for VOM’s work to support the church in North Korea, recommended a couple of books to help me better understand life in North Korea. I finished the first book this week, and was blown away by the story of a top-level North Korean who lost faith in the Kim family and chose to flee his nation.