After reading some of the comments on the other entry on Rick Warren going to North Korea I decided to see if there was any other news concerning his visit and I found a few interesting things. I'm sharing this because North Korea oppresses and persecutes Christians and I think some of what is being said about Warren's visit is interesting. So I'm not posting this for controversy sake, but purely for more information on the subject.

Pastor Rick Warren is making news again...well kind of. Most of the mainstream media is not telling you that Pastor Warren was invited to go and preach in North Korea this summer.

Last night I was reading a brand new book I received on the Old Testament, and as I was reading through the first chapter the author shared a few profound statements from people who have a very high opinion of the bible. Since the Old Testament reveals the promise of God to his people, and the New Testament reveals that He has kept His promises through the person of Jesus Christ, I think when we consider praying for the persecuted - to the God who hears all of our prayers - we must also consider the book we receive these truths from and remember it can be trusted.

In today's Extreme Devotion you will learn about William Carey and be inspired. If you aren't familar with this great saint, you may be this saying, "Except great things from God; attempt great things for God". Carey is also the founder of the Baptist Missionary Society.

Welcome back to the blog after the great holiday we just celebrated! Did you all see the space shuttle launch yesterday - AWESOME! I loved it, and it was totally great to see the first launch of a space shuttle on July 4th. We are truly blessed here in America!

Welcome to our 7th carnival of Christians who are writing and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Once again, our hope and prayer is that you are encouraged by these writings and that you will find new friends and tell a few friends to join us.

Last week The Voice of the Martyr's had their "Wear the Crown" Conference and one of our faithful persecution bloggers, Jan Fletcher, attended. We asked Jan to share with us her experience at the conference.

Yesterday I was given top secret information from The Voice of the Martyrs that I was told I can now share with you all. So today I wanted to do just that. Did you know that The Voice of the Martyrs recently hosted a bunch of teens who went on a missions trip to Vietnam? Me neither, but when I found out I was very excited to learn that they blogged about their trip and also took video of it.

Blessed are those who are being persecuted for righteousness sake. I always remember these precious words from the living book of life when I hear of how our Chinese brothers and sisters are being arrested for simply printing the Bible and other Christian material.

Imagine with me for a moment if you were sitting at home and minding your own business celebrating Easter with some friends of yours from church, and then out of nowhere the police barged into your home and took your bibles and other Christian materials. How would you feel? What would you do? Unfortunately, this is something we don't have to imagine for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Uzbekistan because it happened to them only a few weeks ago. Here is a shortened version of a report from The Voice of the Martyrs about what happened.