Last Dec. 19, Chinese officials arrested two men involved in setting up a new Christian bookstore in Taiyuan, China. Wenxi Li, a bookstore worker from Beijing, traveled to Shanxi province in 2012 to help local Christians, including Lacheng Ren, stock, set up and open a new bookstore. He brought several hundred Christian books with him from Beijing. But police raided the bookstore and confiscated all the books Wenxi brought.

There was good news from Iran last week as Pastor Robert Asseriyan, one of the leaders of the Assembly of God Church in Tehran, was released from prison. He had been arrested during a worship service at the church on May 21.

Earlier this month Asia Bibi’s husband, Ashiq, was able to visit her in jail. At the time of his visit Asia was sick and receiving treatment from the jail doctor. She complained of a lot of pain in her legs, shoulders and arms.

How valuable is God’s word to a Christian in prison? More valuable than gold!

This is Part 3 in a three-part series of blog posts about the case of Eva Abdallah, accused of blasphemy last year in Tanzania. Click to read Part 1 and Part 2.

This is Part 2 in a three-part series of blog posts about the case of Eva Abdallah, accused of blasphemy last year in Tanzania. Click here to read Part 1.

Sometimes the full story is not what we’d want it to be.

In prisons around the world Christians are suffering today because of their Christian faith. Farshid Fathi in Iran. Chhedar Bhote in Nepal. Asia Bibi in Pakistan. They are praying and dreaming of the day they’ll be released; the sweet moment they’ll be reunited with their families.

One of the things The Voice of the Martyrs has consistently encouraged readers to do is to write letters to Christians in prison. In the museum space in our headquarters building is a list of prisoners in Soviet prisons in the early 1970s, as well as a poster of prisoners from that era that was sent out to US readers and churches to encourage them to write letters. Today VOM offers a letter writing kit for people who prefer writing with pen and paper and an online tool for those who prefer electronic tools in their communication.

Pastor Shi Weihan, now also known by his English name, John Stone, was arrested in China on Nov. 29, 2007. As a bookstore owner, he sold books with the government’s permission, but Pastor Shi also printed and freely distributed Bibles and other Christian books on the side. On June 10, 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison on a charge of violating “the regulations of the state in printing illegal publications,” according to the official indictment.