Each week VOM posts a new prayer need at www.iCommitToPray.com, the online prayer meeting for our persecuted brothers and sisters. This week's request is for the family of a young woman brutally killed by radical Muslims in Egypt:

Believers in hostile and restricted nations must often pray and worship in secret. They risk their freedom, their physical and emotional well-being, and even their lives for sharing the gospel message with others in their families and those around them. They trust the words of Jesus when He said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

Last November VOM launched www.iCommitToPray.com, a web site designed to be an online prayer meeting for the persecuted church.

Church leaders in Syria are calling for intercessory prayer as the Geneva II Conference begins on Jan. 22 in Switzerland. Representatives from both the government of President Bashar al-Assad and the Western-backed political opposition are scheduled to meet for the first time in three years. Their goal is to find a peaceful way to end the conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 130,000 people and left millions more displaced.

On Dec. 2, Rasoul Abdollahi, a Christian convert from Islam, was moved to Ward 350 of Evin prison in Iran. While it is unclear whether he was held elsewhere immediately before this or whether he was at home on temporary bail, he is now in Evin serving a three-year sentence for “collusion against the government and evangelism.”

"Every time you kneel down and pray for Vietnam, you are working with us in Vietnam."

With less than two weeks to go before this year’s International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) on November 3, is your church planning to “Remember them that are in bonds” (Hebrews 13:3) on this significant Sunday?

One month from today—November 3—marks the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP). On this special Sunday thousands of churches, literally from around the world, take time to “Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also” (Hebrews 13:3).

We are very familiar with the normal reasons to pray: to worship God, to intercede on behalf of others, and to petition God when we desire something from him. For our prayer to be radical it must go beyond the normal reasons and move into a higher or deeper realm. It needs to be seen as a weapon against evil and for good. It becomes intentionally audacious, going into spiritual battle with powers and forces which we cannot see but whose destructive presence we can sense. When we thrust forward in the power of the Spirit, we will meet opposition of some form in our spiritual lives and perhaps in our work or ministry.