Christians Living in Extremist Hotspots Need Your Prayers

This week on the Persecution Blog we’ll be looking back at the top six most-read stories of 2015, based on the posts that created the most traffic throughout the year.

In a recent video produced by ISIS and posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project (MemriTV), the extremist group announced that it has captured the Syrian town of Qaryatayn. Christians there were forced to flee, convert to Islam or sign a dhimma contract agreeing to live under Islamic law and pay jizya, an Islamic tax.

On a rooftop in Cairo recently, I sat down with Dick Brogden to learn more about how God is at work in the Middle East. Dick oversees workers in many countries in the region and has unique insights into the miraculous, history-shaping wave of ministry happening there now.

Brother Harold has served for the past 15 years as a gospel worker in Central Asia, sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the Muslim people of the nations of that region. Recently he visited VOM and sat down in the studio with Todd Nettleton, host of VOM's weekly, half-hour radio show and podcast. Here is a part of their conversation:

The house church pastor had been arrested and tortured by the Iranian police.

Editor's note: Sat-7 partnered with VOM in the translation and/or broadcasting of JESUS: He Lived Among Us in Arabic, Farsi and Turkish. We received the following report and prayer request this week from our friends at Middle East Concern. Please pray for the staff and leadership of Sat-7 as they face this pressure.

The people of Central Asia are caught between their Islamic culture and the authoritarian remnants of 70 years of communist domination. Statistically, many of the region’s people have a zero-percent probability of meeting a follower of Christ or hearing the gospel message of Jesus' love.

Muslim women face oppression in society and even in their own families, sometimes forced to hide even their very faces from the world. JoAnn Doyle leads an outreach to share the truth with Muslim women that they are Not Forgotten, that Jesus Christ loved them so much He even gave His life for them. Listen in as JoAnn shares how we can reach out to Muslim women, even through simple acts of kindness and conversation, and even right here in the United States.