Year: 2025

Pastor “AZ” saw his church in Kazakhstan grow the fastest during a season of intense Christian persecution. The church began with AZ, his wife and one other believer. Two years later there were 250 believers! AZ knew that reaching Kazakh people required communicating and demonstrating the gospel in their heart language. The church also needs to be ready to assist new believers when persecution comes. AZ became a believer in 1992, just as the Soviet Union was collapsing. Soon after repenting of sin and believing in Christ for salvation, AZ experienced persecution from his family. His own experiences help him prepare church members to face persecution, which he teaches them to expect. AZ will share three things needed to prepare a church to advance the gospel no matter the cost. The biggest challenge for church planting in Kazakhstan—the 9th largest country in the world by territory—is distance. The greatest encouragement for AZ is discipling new believers. “Disciples are our crowns;” AZ says, “that’s the greatest reward.” Pray for unity in the Kazakh church and for pastors to be strengthened and encouraged to endure for Christ despite persecution. Pastor AZ encourages us to pray for the next generation of believers as they take on leadership in the Kazakh church. September 2024 marks the ten-year anniversary of VOM Radio. Please share how you’ve been encouraged and inspired by the testimonies and stories of our persecuted Christian family on VOM Radio over the past 10 years. Never miss an episode! Subscribe to the podcast.

How do we start gospel conversations with Hindu or Buddhist friends, neighbors and coworkers? Tim and Dawn have a simple answer: ask questions! Tim and Dawn serve as gospel workers in South Asia, leading an effort to plant gospel seeds in countries like India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and the Maldives—countries where Christian persecution is a common occurrence. Listen as Tim shares about Buddhism and Hinduism—including how followers of those religions may respond to or resist the message of Christ and the gospel. Tim encourages each of us that the best foundation for sharing the gospel is narrowing the gap between the scripture we read and the life we live. You’ll hear how God is at work in the Maldives and Bhutan as gospel workers begin to see the first fruits from those who’ve gone before and Bible translation efforts. Tim will share just how difficult Bible translation has been in getting the gospel to the Maldivian people, and how sections of scripture are now available in the islands. Tim and Dawn ask that we pray for thousands of gospel workers to be raised up to heed the call to go to difficult nations to reach the unreached or least reached there. “Just because a place is difficult,” says Tim, “it does not negate God’s call to go.” Listen to past conversations with Tim & Dawn on VOM Radio and learn how you can pray for Buddhists and Hindus at Change The Map. Learn more about specific ways you can pray for South Asia and other restricted nations and hostile areas by using The Voice of the Martyr’s Global Prayer Guide. September 2024 marks the ten-year anniversary of VOM Radio. We’d like to know how you’ve been encouraged and inspired by the testimonies and stories of our persecuted Christian family on VOM Radio over the past 10 years. Never miss an episode! Subscribe to the podcast.

Brooks Buser, President of Radius International, says the best missionaries smell like the local people they have gone to serve. They focus not just on learning a language but understanding and living the culture, eating local food and joining in the things that fuel human interaction in that place. Buser says just as Christ came as a human baby into this world, missionaries that last become like those they are trying to reach for the sake of the gospel. Before leading Radius, Brooks was a missionary kid in Papua New Guinea. As an adult he went back to PNG as a missionary to the YembiYembi people with New Tribes Mission (now Ethnos360). Listen as he shares the hardest challenges of missions and his own experience immersing himself in the culture of the Yembi people. With the goal of teaching them the Bible, his team first had to learn their language, culture, and integrate into their new clan families. Watch a video here that tells the story of Brooks and his family’s mission work in Papua New Guinea. One of the things new YembiYembi Christians faced early in their faith journey was persecution. But Brooks sees that Christian persecution as a blessing rather than a curse. Today, Brooks leads Radius International as they train mission workers—in multiple languages, to be sent by multiple mission agencies—to go with the gospel to the ends of the earth. Part of that training is a language learning methodology that immerses future missionaries in a local language like Spanish, giving them tools and training to quickly learn the language of the place where God will call them to serve as missionaries. Brooks will also describe the qualities he looks for that point to successful long-term mission service and how he prays for those who commit to gospel work. Pray for future missionaries and Radius International’s training schools as they prepare students to share the gospel in the heart language of the people God calls them to serve. Brooks will be one of the speakers for The Missionary Conference, to be held October 16-18th in Jacksonville, Florida. September 2024 will mark the ten-year anniversary of VOM Radio. Let us know how you’ve been encouraged and inspired by the testimonies and stories of our persecuted Christian family over the past 10 years. And never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the podcast.