The Voice of the Martyrs has received photographs of police officers interrogating believers in and around a church in Qarshi (“Karshy”), Uzbekistan. According to VOM sources police burst into the service on February 25, 2007, confiscated literature and demanded to know who was funding the church.

Two of my favorite people in the whole entire world talked today about Christian persecution. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, then you know that I'm referring to Todd Nettleton, Director of News Services for The Voice of the Martyrs, and Janet Parshall of Janet Parshall's America.

Welcome to another week here at our blog. This week I wanted to start with another Extreme Devotion and then also let you know that we will be posting our persecution blog carnival later in the day. So until then, please enjoy this devotion about the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs.

If you read persecutionblog.com often, you know that in recent weeks there have been numerous reports of increased persecution in India. In the past three weeks, two Christian leaders were martyred because they were courageous to preach the gospel despite threats against their lives. The death of these precious brothers shows us, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances; Christians are making a difference, even if it costs their lives.

Today we have a very special treat for you, as we have a special podcast with Glenn Penner who is the CEO of The Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

A few days ago I received a copy of the One Year Book of Christian History and all I can say is that if you love Christian history this is definitely a devotional book you will want to purchase.

This is a very special edition taken from Extreme Devotion.

UPDATE: Earlier this week I cited that this information was from Mission Network News, however, today I found out the original source of the story was from our friends at Compass Direct. We apologize to Compass Direct for not realizing this was originally their story. To read the Compass Direct story online, please click here.

I wanted to let you all know that there will not be a persecution blog round up this week. I'm flying to Portland, Oregon very early tomorrow morning for a conference and will not be in the office until Monday morning. Please send your entries for next week and we will resume the round up then.

This week VOM is asking that we all remember those in prayer who are being persecuted in Laos. The following was taken from the weekly VOM prayer email.