Open Doors released their year end report on persecution worldwide which showed increased persecution of Christians in countries such as North Korea, Indonesia, and Eritrea.

Maybe some American pastors and Christians could learn from these brave priests.

It must be terrible to live in a country, as a Christian, where you are under threat of attack on Christmas. The contrast to America Christianity is amazing to me, because here in America we have large mega churches closing on Christmas for the convenience of the church staff and members who don't think attending church on Christmas is very important, and then in Indonesia we have the church bracing for another possible attack.

I love the Mission Network News service because they always give fresh examples of news from the mission field. Today I received this in an email from them and wanted to share it with you so you can be informed and get involved.

Most of you probably don't know this, but Voice of the Martyrs does not pay me to promote them - my friend Paul does. See - Paul had a vision and this was part of the vision. To see believers get more involved in supporting and loving the persecuted church. So VOM got lucky and got us to promote them FREE. :) Now that's a pretty nice gift to them don't ya think? :)

Today I wanted to begin by saying thank you to those of you who have visited the persecution blog on a consistent basis. I also wanted to thank those of you who link to our blog and also send people here all the time because of your link. Here are a few stats...

The women of Darfur are not safe. The women of Darfur are raped. Some women are killed. Others are taken hostage. They need your help, which is why I wanted to tell you about an Independent Appeal for the women of Darfur this Christmas.

This is an EXCELLENT piece written by Rachel Ehrenfeld who is the director for the American Center for Democracy headquartered in New York. She has also authored a great book called Funding Evil that I actually own and have read, and of course recommend to you if you're interested.

This is the most wonderful time of the year for Christmas miracles, and if the Lord-wills maybe Pastor Tibo and his two friends will not be executed for the crimes they are accused of. Last week we discussed this story here.

Another interesting article about Christian persecution and Christmas persecution around the world this year is from Family News in Focus, a division of Focus on the Family. Kim Trobee writes in her piece titled, Christmas under Siege around the World the following...