A young Christian in Togo was severely beaten recently by local sorcerers who were angry that he had become a follower of Christ. Abraham, who lives in a village where sorcery and human sacrifice are practiced, is currently hospitalized for wounds he suffered in the attack. Pray for his physical recovery as well as his healing from mental and emotional trauma.
Read MoreAfter a woman in Jordan became a Christian, her Muslim husband began to beat her frequently. Ghazal, who left Islam to follow Christ, was beaten so severely recently that she had to be hospitalized. “He knocked her front teeth out,” a front-line worker said, “yet she is holding fast to her faith.”
Read MoreLocal Hindus vandalized a church in an isolated area of Nepal recently and threatened its pastor, but the church continues to meet for worship and fellowship. When a group of Hindus busted the church’s windows with rocks in the middle of the night, the pastor, Amrit Mahara, began sleeping in the church to protect it from further damage. A short time later, the Hindus interrupted a worship service to demand that the church stop meeting.
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The nation is called The Islamic Republic of Iran, but a recent study shows less than a third of Iranians still believe in Islam! Iranians are looking elsewhere to find answers to their spiritual questions. Dr. Hormoz Shariat tells us why, sharing from his own experiences ministering to people in Iran, evangelizing and answering their questions. “More and more I see people of Iran say, ‘To have a future for Iran, we have to get rid of Islam,’” Hormoz explains. Hormoz is the president of Iran Alive Ministries and the author of Iran’s Great Awakening. He has broadcast the gospel into Iran via satellite television for 23 years. Iran has been led by Islamic clergy for more than forty years, imposing Islamic laws that control every area of life. The last few years, the numbers of Iranians finding salvation through Jesus have surged. Iran’s people desire change. They find Christian TV programs or online information, see changed lives and actions among Christian friends or hear the gospel in another way. Recently the battle in Iran has been over women’s head coverings following the death of Mahsa Amini. But Hormoz says the real issue is much deeper than clothing choices. As protestors on the streets of Iran chanted, “Women! Life! Freedom!” Dr. Hormoz broadcasts a series of sermons showing how Christ valued women, how He came to bring eternal life, and how true freedom is found only in Him. Hormoz encourages Iranians that if they want their nation to be transformed, individual people must be willing to be transformed first. Listen as Hormoz shares how our Christian brothers and sisters are being salt and light even amidst recent protests. “The greatest weapon we have against Islam is love,” he says. Hormoz shares testimonies from Iranians transformed by the gospel message, including one family reached through their son, who didn’t say a word but became a different person after finding Christ. “I didn’t get in television to be famous, to be admired. I wanted to love people and have influence in their lives and by God’s grace, He has given me that.” You can hear more of Dr. Hormoz and his wife’s testimony of God’s call on their lives and marriage in this VOM Radio episode: Part 1 and Part 2. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast. Or listen each week—and get daily prayer reminders—in the VOM App for your smartphone or tablet.
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For Fawzy, police interrogations have become such a common part of his ministry work that he hardly notices them. As an evangelist and church planter in North Africa, he spends his time meeting with new Christian converts and others interested in learning more about Jesus. But his activities are viewed as a threat by Islamic leaders and government officials afraid of civil unrest. His first visit with government authorities was in the late 1980s, just three months after he had become a believer. After police arrested Fawzy, then 17, at his home, they took him to the police station and interrogated him for more than six hours, asking him if he had become a Christian. Although frightened, his faith held strong. “l felt like there was a power or a hope in my heart,” Fawzy said. He boldly told the police that he had left Islam for Christianity after studying the Bible through a correspondence course. Three months later, the authorities returned for another lengthy interrogation, telling Fawzy the only reason they didn’t arrest him was that he was still 17. They warned him that if he remained a Christian after turning 18, he would spend the next two years
Read MoreFemke was married to a village witch doctor for 33 years and was terrorized by demons. The spirits would drive her mad and tell her information her husband would use in his fortune-telling. When he died suddenly, she sought spiritual freedom. A pastor prayed for her, and she was healed of all demonic oppression.
Read MoreTon, 18, and Tan, 16, are teenage sisters who became Christians and have been harassed repeatedly for this decision. Recently, their mother said that she will sell her daughters to any men who make an offer. Their older sister has also begun trying to bribe them into a life of prostitution with offers of phones and jewelry. The mother pressures the girls to prostitute themselves and regularly mocks their faith.
Read MoreAjay, 24, has been pressured by his community and the police to return to Hinduism. The police arrested him and brought a false charge against him in an attempt to make him recant his faith. He was jailed for 9 days. Despite the ongoing pressure, Ajay has persevered in his faith.
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Tied to a chair in a small room, struggling to breathe after a severe beating, Pastor Dharala Francis awaited his death. For nearly 30 years, he had faithfully led a ministry that served the disadvantaged in India, but on July 9, 2015, his reputation for sharing the gospel caught up with him. That day, an angry mob beat him severely and conspired to burn him to death. “I didn’t have fear,” he recalled eight months later, sitting with his wife and daughter at a guest house in India. “I was ready to die that day. I said, ‘If this is the last day for me, I want to go to heaven directly.’” Instead of dying, however, Pastor Dharala saw a surprising work of God. A Threatening Love The pastor and his family had spent the first six months of 2015 building relationships with villagers in western India, praying for those who were sick, serving the poor and distributing Christian literature. Gradually, Hindus — and even some Muslims — started following Christ. “Every Sunday we would go to that village and share the Word of God, and day by day the number was increasing because of many miracles taking place there,”
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Richard Wurmbrand had a comfortable life as a pastor in Communist Romania. He had a salary that supported his family and a congregation that loved and trusted him. But as he watched other Christians suffer for their faith while a tyrannical dictatorship destroyed everything around them, Richard was not at peace. Why, he wondered, had God spared him from persecution and trial? Desiring to answer Christ’s call to take up his cross and follow him, Richard and his wife, Sabina, began to pray that God would give them a cross to bear. And on Feb. 29, 1948, their prayers were answered. As Richard walked to church that winter morning in Bucharest, members of the secret police abducted him, taking away not only the comfortable life he had known but also his identity. “From now on,” they told him, “you are Vasile Georgescu,” labeling him with a generic Romanian name to conceal his true identity. He disappeared without a trace, and Sabina had no information beyond the outrageous rumors she had heard: One said he had been taken to Russia, while another claimed he had died under interrogation. Though overwhelmed with worry from not knowing where Richard was or if he
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