On December 5, 2013, Ronnie Smith was shot and killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi. In this second half of our interview with Anita Smith, Ronnie’s widow, she talks about the legacy her husband left and the faith she continues to exercise in raising their son without his earthly father around. Shortly after Ronnie’s death, Anita spoke in media interviews about her love for the Libyan people and about forgiving her husband’s murderers—including interviews in Arabic with Middle East broadcasters. Anita will share some of the things she wants their son to know about his earthly father, and ways God has encouraged and sustained her in the eight years since Ronnie’s murder. She’ll also talk about how the testimonies of other Christians facing persecution and hardship encouraged her faith. If you missed the first half of the conversation with Anita, listen here. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast.
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The lives of the Khab family changed dramatically when they placed their faith in Christ. They no longer feared the gods and evil spirits that others in their small Laotian village tried to appease, and their newfound freedom was obvious to the other Hmong villagers. Soon, two other families turned to faith in Christ. Village leaders, however, were nervous about the “foreign religion” taking root among them. They worried that it would anger their gods, causing crops to fail or bringing other calamities on the village. After agreeing that they had to take action, the leaders demanded that the three Christian families renounce their faith. When the families refused, they were expelled from the village and forced to move into tarp tents in a rice field. When three other families witnessed their strong faith, they, too, placed their trust in Christ, bringing the Christian community in the rice field to a total of six families composed of 32 individuals. They are not permitted to leave the field unless a leader from another village allows them into their village. One day, a family from the Khmu tribe noticed their tent camp and asked them why they were living in a rice
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Following the military coup that occurred earlier this year in Myanmar, authorities have been searching for local church leader Maung, seeking to detain him for his faithful Christian witness and leadership among congregants.
Read MoreA Christian brother is facing hardship after leaving Islam to follow Christ. This brother came to faith in Christ just weeks ago. After his girlfriend found out about his newfound faith, she reported him to his Muslim family, who locked him in a room for more than 24 hours to try to force him to recant his faith.
Read MoreIran’s house church network faces challenges as a result of the country’s struggling economy. With limited access to food and fuel and a job shortage, believers face increasing difficulty in opening their homes to share the gospel with friends and family or disciple new believers.
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While Christian converts from Islam in the West Bank and Gaza are threatened by government authorities and extremist groups, Christian converts in Israel are more often threatened by family members. Amal, a Palestinian Arab from Jerusalem, was 13 the first time she heard about Jesus, and it took two more years of study and consideration before she accepted Christ. “I started to get real lost, and I reached a point where I was at a junction,” Amal said. One night she prayed, “Okay, God, I want to ask you if you are the God of Islam. Just tell me that you are and I will wear the hijab [head covering], and I will do all the prayers that you want. But if you are the God of Christians, even if this will lead me to be killed, I will still believe in you.” She knew the stakes were high; her school teacher had told her that according to the Quran, Muslims who convert to another religion should be killed. That night, Amal had a dream. “In my dream, I woke up and there was a lot of light and I couldn’t look at it,” she said. “The light told me
Read MoreOn December 5, 2013, Ronnie Smith was shot and killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Within days, Ronnie’s wife, Anita, spoke on national TV in the US about her love for the Libyan people and about forgiving her husband’s murderers. She also did interviews—in Arabic—that were broadcast all over the Middle East. Listen to Anita Smith share the story—the story of her grief, but also the story of how God was present in those days, and in the years since. She’ll talk about how God inspired her and Ronnie to pursue overseas gospel work—and how they prayed as they moved to Benghazi just months after the US consulate was overrun by Islamist fighters. She’ll tell how their neighbors welcomed and adopted them—and about the day she received the terrible phone call that Ronnie had been killed. Listen next week for Part 2 of our conversation with Anita Smith. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast.
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In 2014, the world was reminded of the threat posed by Islamic extremists when the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group overtook Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in a matter of hours. Within a few weeks, ISIS had also claimed areas surrounding Mosul — areas that have been historically home to Christian populations. The ISIS terrorists gave Christians a choice: they could convert to Islam, pay a high tax, leave or be killed. Most Christians fled the area within days. When ISIS declared a caliphate over regions of Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram declared its own caliphate in Nigeria after seizing the mostly-Christian city of Gwoza on Aug. 24, 2014. Between 2010 and 2014, an estimated 11,500 Christians were killed, 3,500 injured and thousands more displaced as Boko Haram has advanced through Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states in northern Nigeria. Throughout this time, VOM has worked to meet the needs of injured and displaced Nigerian Christians. After each attack, medical workers are dispatched to document the needs of the injured and help get them the best possible medical care. One Nigerian Christian we helped in 2014 is John Yakubu. After surviving multiple attacks by Boko Haram in the Gwoza area of
Read MoreOn the morning of Nov. 1, government authorities detained Dai Zhichao along with his wife and their two sons. Dai, a practicing preacher of Early Rain Covenant Church and the leader of a small group, was about to take his family to another province for a vacation.
Read MoreAn unregistered church in Oral was fined after a police raid in January, and officials continue to monitor the congregation regularly. On Jan. 8, police and officials from the Religious Affairs Department raided the church’s Christmas service, taking several members of the congregation to the police station.
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