The following news is from Mission Network News.

We’re back! After trips and schedules and…well, life got in the way Mark, Todd and Mary Sue are back for a new installment of Persecution Podcast. This week we update you on Indonesia and Turkmenistan. Also there is an update about the VOM flagship website www.persecution.com.

NEW DELHI, May 21 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in India are heaving a sigh of relief after the rout of a Hindu nationalist party in national and state assembly elections in Orissa state, a scene of anti-Christian arson and carnage last year. The ruling centrist party won a second term, but concerns over persecution of minorities remain. A local centrist party, the Biju Janata Dal, took charge of the government of the eastern state of Orissa today, and tomorrow the new federal government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be sworn in, representing a second term for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the left-of-center Indian National Congress, commonly known as the Congress Party. The embarrassing defeat for the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came as a surprise. Hoping to gain from its hardcore Hindu nationalist image, the BJP had made leader Narendra Modi, accused of organizing an anti-Muslim pogrom in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, its star campaigner. More...

Okay, I have to admit that I really HATE shopping. I know, I know, I'm a woman, and so I'm supposed to LOVE to shop, but the truth is, I really don't. My husband loves me for it too!

Today I found this story, written at Justin and Rebekah's blog, about how they are using the Action Packs that The Voice of the Martyrs has created to donate clothes to the persecuted.

Imagine with me for a minute that you, as a Christian, ran for office here in America, and you won fair and square, and then after you won, you are threatened by the Muslim community saying that you had better convert to Islam or you're going to lose your seat. Right now, it's hard to imagine that happening in America, but sadly, it is happening in Indonesia. Read on about this happening and then please pray for Dominikus who is mentioned in the story.

Today is day 104 of Gao Zhisheng's imprisonment and I wanted to just remind you to say a prayer for him and his family today. If you know ANYONE who hasn't signed the petition yet, please direct them to http://www.freegao.com so they can sign it, watch the great video VOM put together and write a letter using Prisoner Alert.