A team from The Voice of the Martyrs traveled to Washington, D.C., in November to make the first delivery of Call For Mercy petitions to the Pakistani Embassy. The team received a courteous response from Pakistani Embassy personnel, who accepted the more than 400,000 signatures that had been collected at that time, including the initial 150,000 from Christians inside Pakistan.

The following is from our friends at China Aid and was posted on November 14th on their blog. Please keep our Chinese brothers and sisters in your daily prayers as they endure ongoing persecution for their faith and relationship with Christ Jesus.

In a story on The Christian Post today titled Burma Christian Persecution: Orphanage Owner Detained in Connection to Deadly Bombing we read that the owner of an orphanage, Dayaung Tangoon, was detained for allegedly throwing a grenade at his orphanage.

On this episode of the Persecution Podcast one of the things that we really wanted to encourage you to do is pray. Pray for those in Afghanistan who are bringing bibles to the Christians in that area, because there is a huge need for bibles.

HANOI, Vietnam, November 16 (CDN) — A gang of men attacked leaders of a Baptist house church network near Hanoi on Sunday (Nov. 13), leaving one pastor unconscious and seriously injuring several others, including women and teenage children. Leaders of the Agape Baptist Church were participating in a spiritual renewal meeting at the home of pastor Nguyen Danh Chau in Lai Tao village, Bot Xuyen commune, My Duc district, when the gang intruded at 9:30 a.m., sources said. Beating people and smashing property, the gang seriously injured more than a dozen participants and warned Nguyen Danh Chau that they would kill him if he continued gathering Christians, the sources in Vietnam said. With the attack underway, the sources said, some gang members ran outside and announced to the neighborhood, “Oh heavens, the Christian pastors are savagely beating up people!” This attracted a large crowd, which the gang hoped would prevent any Christians from escaping. The seriously injured Christians included five male pastors, four female pastors and other church leaders, and several of the leaders’ teenage children. The worst wounded, Nguyen Danh Chau, lay unconscious for many hours, and as of midnight Tuesday (Nov. 15), he was still suffering severe chest, stomach and head pain. One pastor’s wife, Nguyen Thi Lan, was still unable to walk and function normally at press time after she was struck in the stomach and groin. Others remained weak from loss of blood. The Christians were punched in the mouth and face, the chest and the back. Some were savagely kicked as they lay on the floor.

For those of you who are unaware, The Voice of the Martyrs and other persecution ministries has just observed the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church and the video below is the video what we offered to share with your church on the IDOP this year.

South Sudan (MNN) ? Despite several eye-witness reports of Antonov military planes and even direct accusations from various organizations--including the U.S. government, Sudan still refuses to accept responsibility for the release of four bombs on a South Sudanese refugee camp Thursday November 10.

A few weeks ago we introduced you to a new prisoner by the name of Behnam Irani and asked you to write him a letter of encouragement. I want to thank you for writing him and I'm happy to share that 160 more letters were written to Pastor Irani in this past week. I'd still love for us to have over 1000 letters written to him by the end of November. Will you join us this week in writing Behnam and helping us to reach our goal?

Attacks on Christians have continued near the Somalia-Kenya border since Kenya began air strikes and deployed troops last month to deter al-Shabab militants, an extremist Muslim group associated with al-Qaida.