Iran’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.
Read More
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 More
On 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.
Read More
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.
Read MoreSheikh Ashim Hussein, 41 and father to nine children, grew up as a devout Muslim. Zealous for Islamic teachings, he sought to destroy Christianity and once mobilized his students to set fire to a church. But when the church members gathered at the sight of their burned church and prayed aloud for the forgiveness of those responsible, their witness bewildered Sheikh Ashim and shook his spiritual foundations.
Read MoreAaron Miller leads VOM’s work in the Middle East. Recently he spoke in a college chapel, including telling the story of an experience of persecution he endured in India. Aaron says even though the Bible promises Christians will face persecution, in that moment of suffering as he was punched and kicked he was surprised. But something else happened as well: he experienced God’s presence and grace in a significant and sacred way. “In a way that I never dreamed of, I had a fellowship with Christ that I did not have before,” he says of that day. Aaron also shares stories of persecuted Christians in Colombia, Bangladesh and the Middle East. Aaron Miller has previously appeared on VOM Radio; you can hear some of those conversations here, here and here. Our thanks to Reformation Bible College for permission to share Aaron’s chapel presentation with VOM Radio listeners. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio. Subscribe to the podcast.
Read More
Rebekah and her family climbed into the small vehicle that VOM had given her two years earlier after her husband was martyred for his Christian witness. Under cover of darkness, the family turned their backs on their home and began driving up the road to Kurdistan. Thousands of others had fled along that same road, many walking for 10 to 14 hours to escape the horrors of the Islamist militia known as the Islamic State (ISIS). After capturing the city of Mosul, Iraq, in June 2014, the militants gave all Christians until July 19 to convert to Islam, pay a high tax, leave the city or be killed. Thousands chose to flee, leaving everything they owned behind. Along the way, families encountered roadblock after roadblock of ISIS soldiers guarding their recently conquered territory. The soldiers robbed them of everything, taking wedding rings and ripping passports in half before the horrified owners’ eyes. In some cases, soldiers told people to strip, and then robbed them of even their clothing. Flight from Mosul By God’s grace, Rebekah’s family made the journey safely. They had fled to Erbil, in Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous region of Iraq that ISIS had not yet penetrated. But Rebekah
Read MoreNine Christian leaders caring for and serving persecuted believers in Uganda recently received new motorbikes to increase the effectiveness of their ministry outreach. Some of these workers faced difficult terrain on foot in order to minister, and their range had been limited because of traveling challenges.
Read More