This is a HUGE answer to prayer! Thank you to everyone who wrote to support Sandul Bibi and her father Gulsher Masih and thank you to all of you who PRAYED for them too!!

Today I wanted to ask everyone to please keep our friend Glenn Penner in your prayers. Glenn is suffering with cancer and also has a lot of side effects due to the cancer and various treatments. Right now he is in the hospital still in very severe pain. Glenn's wife Denita has updated his blog with the following. Please pray for Glenn and his whole family.

One of the greatest ministries of The Voice of the Martyrs is the Kids of Courage ministry and this year they have written a great article highlighting the top ten stories from 2009. Here are a few to get you started on the recap.

Pacing around the small room of the church, the Russian captain nodded towards the cross on the wall. “That is a lie, you know,” he said. “It’s just a piece of trickery you ministers use to delude the poor and make it easier for the rich to give you money. Come on now—we’re alone. Admit to me that you’ve never really believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God.”

Diana was only nineteen when her father was sent to prison for his faith. She and her sister Floarea were left in charge of the family, but soon they lost their factory jobs because of their father’s imprisonment.

“Why do you continue these meetings?” the secret policeman asked the Christian. “Do you think your neighbors wouldn’t report you to us?”

The preacher was only making his first point when the prison guards burst into the room, grabbing him and slamming everyone else to the floor.

For days, the Communist guards would beat the imprisoned pastor, help him gain strength with good food, and then beat him again. He was to be systematically beaten to death, but not a quick death. They wanted him to suffer.

“We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:16–18).