“On a Sunday morning, I walked towards my church and mused about the sermon, which I would have to deliver…while I was debating with Jesus the sermon, which I had to deliver after half an hour, at once a car of the secret police stopped near me, four men rushed out of the car, in a minute’s time, I was in the car, I was handcuffed, I was blindfolded. And now, I was under arrest.”

Pastors in the "red zone" areas of Colombia--areas controlled by FARC guerillas--are targets. The FARC resents the gospel message which makes it harder to recruit the population to support the guerilla movement. Pastors in such areas face danger and threats. This week on VOM Radio we'll discuss how The Voice of the Martyrs provides such pastors with training and encouragement and how these encounters bless them, as well as the VOM workers involved.

When his wife, Cheng Jie, was sent to prison because the kindergarten she managed used Christian materials to teach the children, Pastor Du Hong Bo was left alone to raise the couple’s two children.

I stepped into the simple office from the dark hallway. As my eyes adjusted, I saw a man sitting against the far wall, quietly. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to meet Mohammed Hegazy, one of the most infamous converts to Christianity in Egypt.

Last week the BBC broadcast an interview with the husband and daughters of Asia Bibi, the Chrisitan wife and mother sentenced to death in Pakistan under that nation's harsh and unjust blasphemy laws.

This week on the Persecution Blog we’re sharing excerpts from At The Foot of the Snows: A Journey of Faith and Words Among the Kham-Speaking People of Nepal by David E. Watters with Steve and Daniel Watters. (Read more about the book in Tuesday’s post.)

Last week, Pakistan’s High Court rejected the appeal of a Christian woman sentenced to death for the crime of blasphemy. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, Asia Bibi will be put to death.

If you've been to a VOM regional conference this year, you may have heard one of the members of the Hovsepian family speak or sing. This family is an amazing part of the legacy of Pastor Haik Hovsepian, the leader of the Assembly of God church in Iran who was martyred for his faith and his outspoken call for religious freedom in his country. It's now been more than 20 years since Pastor Haik was killed, yet the ministry of his family into Iran continues each week via satellite television.

A court hearing for Asia Bibi was postponed again last week (Sept. 9, 2014), but this time reportedly at the request of her husband, Ashiq Masih.