A voodoo practitioner in Benin built an altar directly across the street from a church. He regularly kills animals and places occult items he believes are infused with mystical powers on the altar, often on Sunday mornings. He also puts voodoo powder on the church’s steps, hoping to scare church members away, and plays music at a high volume on Sunday mornings to disrupt church services. In response, the church bought a sound system to drown out the music.
Read MoreSamal suffered a head wound and impaired movement in one arm after her drunken relative, Arman, attacked her with a shovel. Kazakh police arrested Arman and said he could face seven years in prison for the assault. While meeting with police, Samal, a new Christian, said she experienced an angelic vision during which she was encouraged to forgive Arman. Though she initially resisted, Samal eventually forgave her relative. When she did, her pain vanished, and her arm was healed.
Read MoreWhen Kashvi was visiting her Hindu sister-in-law in the hospital, sharing the gospel and praying with her, another person in the hospital heard her and called the police. Kashvi was arrested under state anti-conversion laws and spent three days in jail. While in jail, she said, she had no fear or worry. She had an opportunity to minister to a girl who had been in prison for two years. Many of the Hindu prisoners and some of the police officials also asked her to pray for them, and she was able to share the gospel with the police superintendent, who had asked her to pray for him after noticing her character and honesty.
Read MoreDuy and Sua are a minority couple in Vietnam. When Sua decided to place her trust in Christ in 2016, her marriage nearly collapsed because Duy didn’t want his wife to follow this “foreign faith.” God miraculously intervened, however, and Duy became not just a believer but a committed evangelist. His family kicked them out, and their village would not let them have good land for building, so they built a house at the foot of a hill outside town. On August 5, 2023, a rockslide destroyed part of their house, killing their 2-year-old and 2-month-old daughters and injuring Sua and their 6-year-old daughter.
Read MoreFazal, a displaced Afghan Christian, was recently arrested in Central Asia for his Christian activities. Police eventually released him after he paid a significant fine. Front-line workers say Fazal has been very active in sharing his faith with other displaced Afghans. Since his arrest, Fazal has moved from house to house to avoid authorities, and he fears being returned to the Taliban. “If I go to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill me,” he said. “There is no clear future right now … but I know Jesus is always with me.”
Read MoreAs Musa was serving as an imam in his village in East Africa, he kept hearing about his son, Saad, preaching the gospel throughout the village. Saad’s bold witness angered other local Muslim leaders, who warned Musa to stop Saad from evangelizing. Though Musa didn’t find any fault with his son’s evangelistic activities, he decided to confront Saad about them. But when Musa went to Saad, something surprising happened. Saad was studying the Bible with his pastor, and Musa watched and listened as Saad and the pastor discussed different verses. “He was so impressed at what he was hearing,” a front-line worker said.
Read MorePakistan’s blasphemy laws continue to be a tool for persecution of our Pakistan Christian family members. “Every week we have at least one case of Christians being wrongly accused,” a front-line worker said. Two 18-year-old boys, Tabish and Kalu, were accused of cutting up parts of the Quran and using the fragments as confetti during a festival in August. The boys are now in hiding. A pastor’s son was also accused of participating and was arrested, but police released him after realizing he wasn’t at the event. Two Christian sisters, Sonia and Samia, were also charged with blasphemy in August for allegedly throwing parts of the Quran into the trash.
Read MorePastor John Cao served as a missionary in Myanmar’s Wa State, transforming lives by building schools and working to fight poverty and drug addiction. On March 5, 2017, Chinese authorities intercepted Cao, resulting in a seven-year prison sentence. He was released on March 4, 2024. Cao continues to face restrictions on his freedom and movement by Chinese authorities, including video monitoring, forced “re-education,” and refusal to issue him an ID card, which prevents him from medical care, even when he suffered a life-threatening bout of coronavirus.
Read MoreMarc, 21, battled a chronic illness and could not find a cure. He visited doctors and voodoo practitioners, but nothing seemed to help. Then a friend urged him to come to church. When Marc heard the gospel, he became a follower of Christ and was physically healed, later deciding to receive baptism. When he returned home from the baptismal service, his voodooist father had hired people to beat him. His father was upset that Marc, his oldest son, would forsake his duties to the family’s voodoo rituals and told him to leave. Marc stayed at a relative’s house, but some family members locked him in a room and tried to force him to return to pagan practices.
Read MoreIn the summer of 2022, Tien received a call and was told her father had been seriously beaten. He had been evangelizing and then returned home with her younger brother, Thanh. Some men, including one of her uncles, came into the house and beat him in front of Thanh. By the time Tien got home, her father had already died. Thanh has been mute since that day. Tien’s mother, who had a heart condition, was so shocked that she never recovered, dying two months later.
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