Using data compiled by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the UN Commission of Inquiry, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center created this infographic to describe the plight of men, women, and children held captive in North Korea’s political prison camps without charges or trial.

Each week VOM staff members and those volunteering with the ministry gather for a time of worship and prayer. We pray for specific requests from our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. We pray for VOM projects to assist these brothers and sisters. And we pray for the requests of VOM readers from around the US who ask us to pray for specific needs in their lives.

The wife of a man in prison for his work at a Christian bookstore told VOM partners that although she and her children miss their husband and father, she and her family haven’t needed anything except prayer. Cai Hong Li, wife of Christian prisoner Wenxi Li, recently spoke with workers from Release International, The Voice of the Martyrs' sister organization in the United Kingdom.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is demanding that the government of Nigeria do everything that it can to locate hundreds of missing teenage girls who were kidnapped in the northern state of Borno from their school on April 15 by Boko Haram militants. Evangelist Matthew Owowjaiye, who is an associate with CAN, is also calling people to fast and pray. “The military may not be able to solve the problem,” he says, “but prayer will.”

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.

It's the time of year when many are planning and thinking about changes they want to make in their lives. Thousands of Americans...maybe even millions...will resolve to excercise more, to eat healthier food or some other change that they want to make in their lives.

Throughout 2013, "Anna" has written posts for the PersecutionBlog about friendship, culture, and Kingdom-living from her home in the Middle East. This Christmas week, as we celebrate a Savior who came to earth to save Muslims (and everyone else), we thought it might be good to review some of the lessons Anna has shared with us throughout the year. Friday we’ll have a brand-new post from Anna, her final post for 2013.