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.

In early May, Chinese House - Church leader met with the President and then shortly afterwards met with the staff at The Voice of the Martyrs. VOM has exclusive video of Dr. Li Baiguang, (pictured) the Director of the Beijing Qimin Research Center that will encourage your heart.

This week we have some good news for some of our friends who have been serving prison time for crimes they did not commit. The Voice of the Martyrs is reporting that prisoners are now released after seven years for false blasphemy charges.

I would like to thank Paul Chaney, the guy who actually came up with the idea for this blog, for highlighting the Persecution Blog on his new blog called Blogs for Good.

One of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century is the continuing genocide that is taking place in Darfur. This crisis has been a hot topic in the blogosphere for quite some time now, and I'm happy to say that bloggers continue to talk about this vital issue.

Hello Everyone,

Friends, the story we are sharing with you below is heartbreaking, and I want to ask you on behalf of this Pastor and his family to take some time this weekend to write them a letter of encouragement and also to add them to your prayer list. Here is a pastor who is being held in prison for no reason. He has not commited any crime, and yet he's being held as if he has. His health is failing, and he is also away from his family. Please also pray for his wife and daughter, as you can imagine, it must be horrible to be taken away from your loved one for no good reason.

Senator Rick Santorum has a column today over at Townhall.com that I think is worthy of reading. Here are a few snippets from his article titled Spreading the Seeds of Freedom.

I just received this email from Hopegivers International concerning Dr. Samuel Thomas. Thank you all for praying for him. Please continue to pray for him and his family.