VOM workers met “Michael,” a Christian convert from Islam, during a recent VOM-sponsored event. He was very well known as a Muslim, and after accepting Christ and beginning to challenge other Muslims about their faith, his father repeatedly threatened him. During the event, Michael stood at the podium for about 20 minutes, “singing to God and testifying of His goodness.” On the day of the event, Michael’s wife also placed her faith in Christ. Pray for Michael and other Christian converts from Islam who face persecution for their faith.

"Brother Jay" has just returned from Central Asia, where he shared fellowship with Christians facing persecution while trying to reach Muslims with the gospel message. Jay shares the challenges these believers face--including the challenge of connecting with other believers and even just meeting together for worship. Jay tells us how the example of these believers challenges his own faith, and how he prepares to travel into dangerous places where Christians are laying down their lives for Christ.

One of the ways The Voice of the Martyrs ministers to pastors in hostile and restricted nations is providing opportunities for fellowship, encouragement and training at Pastors Conferences. Our staff filed this video report of a recent pastors conference held for pastors working in the "Red Zones" of Colombia.

The Voice of the Martyrs media spokesman Todd Nettleton was recently interviewed by Mission Network News for a story about persecution of Christians in Eritrea:

Jesus told his disciples to "Go into all the world." He didn’t say it would be easy.

There was a time when Christians would complain that we were ignored or misrepresented by mainstream media. That is no longer entirely true. The events in this world are so explicitly clear regarding the persecution of Christians that it is nearly impossible to ignore it, mainstream or backwater media. The idea, I suppose, was that in the past Christianity was so dominant in our culture that it was getting a lot of attention and now it is time to turn our attention to other religions, cults, and bizarre organizations in order to be equitable. But world events have not cooperated with this new attitude and mainstream media is forced to report the targeting of Christians for violence in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, it is taking radical acts of violence against Christians to get Christianity back into the news.

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.