Many American churches have abandoned the practice of "Prayer Meetings," weekly gatherings of believers to seek the Lord and lift up the needs of their congregation and the world. But prayer meetings to lift up persecuted Christians are still happening every week among believers from all over the world—online.

Today we re-post a blog from last year's "MOVING TOWARD MUSLIMS" series of posts by "Anna," a Christian living and working among Muslims in the Middle East.

I recently read a deeply thought provoking blog written by Pastor Eric Foley, the CEO and Co-Founder of Seoul USA. As I read what he wrote, I was reminded of a chapter in Corrie Ten Boom’s book The Hiding Place. It is in this part of her story that she tells of a night when she and her family stayed up late into the evening to listen to a live radio address from the Prime Minister of Holland. Her family listened intently as the Dutch people were told they need not worry about war. He announced to the nation that both sides had agreed to accept the neutral stance of Holland. Upon hearing this, Casper Ten Boom rose to his feet, and abruptly turned off the radio. He knew that war was imminent, and he was deeply disturbed by the false hope being given to the people.

Last week in our VOM staff chapel service Cole Richards, the leader of our international work, talked about how we, as followers of Christ, should think about and respond to radical terrorist groups like the Islamic State (IS), which is dominating the news cycle yet again this week with the videotaped beheading of another American journalist, Steven Sotloff.

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).

Listening to the news about Iraq brought a different response from me than before. I had just finished reading The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins and my response was—“They’re still at it.” In a phrase attributed to Yogi Berra, “It’s déjà vu all over again!” The book is about how the great churches of the Middle East in the first few centuries of Christianity essentially collapsed, and many totally disappeared after decades of invasions, persecution, coercion to convert to Islam, and massacres. Churches, clergy, institutions, libraries, whole villages destroyed. Those that still exist (and have survived under the most severe difficulties) periodically face severe pressures unknown to us in the West.