The Front Line Report

Brother James followed the Lord’s leading to serve in the Middle East. He arrived for what he expected to be one year of service knowing almost nothing about Islam or the culture in which he would be serving. He remembers being startled awake the very first morning by the Muslim call to prayer, wondering who was screaming at 4:30 in the morning! Soon he would understand that he was serving in a cu...

On September 11, 2012, Islamist fighters attacked a United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were killed in that attack. Just a few months later Ronnie and Anita Smith, a young American couple, moved to Benghazi with their infant son. Their goal was to live out their faith in Christ and have opportunities to introduce Libyan people to Christ. “We wanted to live our live...

Highly restrictive religious laws. Surveillance cameras lurking around every corner. Police knocking on doors and raiding church gatherings. These are a few among the many challenges our persecuted family in China face each week. Yet despite the communist government’s many attempts to control Christians, the church in China is still growing! Brother Enfu, pastor of an unregistered church, shares o...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently welcomed to the White House by US President Joe Biden. In addition to a State Dinner held in his honor, Modi was given opportunity to address a joint session of Congress. Noticeably absent from American leaders’ public remarks surrounding Modi’s visit: the rapid rise of Christian persecution and other religious freedom violations in India since Modi...

The first time he went to a Christian church, during the time of the Islamic revolution in Iran, Mansour Khajehpour was a teenager. He went only to determine the best way to burn down the church building. But the woman who opened to door was caring and kind—and her Christlike kindness altered the direction of Mansour’s life. The woman pointed Mansour to a Farsi-speaking pastor. Over the months to...

Islamist jihadists are moving southward across the continent of Africa. Their goal: the eradication Christianity. In the Central African Republic (CAR) and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a new addition to VOM’s 2023 Global Prayer map, persecuted Christians have been deeply affected. Believers have been forced to flee their villages. Pastors have been killed. Many Christians have lost fami...

Children develop attitudes and opinions about the Bible from an early age. Awana has been discipling children for more than 70 years. Today Awana is active in more than 130 countries—including places where Christian persecution is common—helping 5.6 million children to know Jesus as Savior, belong to a church that supports them and become all that God wants them to be. Steve Cahoon is a leader at...

In 1997, Warren and Donna Pett sold their 96-year-old family farm in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, after sensing God’s call to the mission field. In 2002, they moved to serve in Uganda’s Yumbe district, one of Uganda’s poorest districts and the only majority-Muslim district in the country. Warren and Donna provided agricultural training and spiritual discipleship at the Evangelical School of Technology in...

It’s been more than a month since fighting broke out in the capital city of Sudan. Christians and non-Christians alike are dealing with extreme hardship, difficulty, and terror as the battle between two warring Islamist factions continues. For our Christian brothers and sisters in Sudan, war has made life even more difficult than usual as they try to survive the fighting, find food and shelter and...

As the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, many Afghan Christians—especially those widely known to be followers of Christ—had to flee the country. Today, many of those Christians grieve the loss of their homeland, especially as they watch the suffering of their countrymen under Taliban rule. Some desire to return but while they wait are still faithfully reaching Afghans through a variet...

While in prison the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, “pray for us, that God may open a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ.” In this edition of Release International’s Voice podcast, we continue our current focus on Nigeria. We speak to Mark Mukan, who oversees one of the projects Release International is supporting in that country – a project which seeks to take the...

Twenty months into the second Taliban rule of Afghanistan, all Afghans—but especially Afghan Christians—face great challenges. What pressures do our persecuted brothers and sisters face living in Afghanistan today, and how has their life changed under the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban? Listen as John Weaver, author of Inside Afghanistan, A Flame on the Frontline, and Najiba: A Love Story from...

It is illegal to bring a Bible into North Korea, and illegal to possess one inside the country. But VOM continues to find ways to get God’s Word into the hands of North Koreans. Dr. Eric Foley, CEO of VOM Korea in Seoul, says everything changes every day in North Korea, bringing new challenges and requiring new responses to continue bringing the gospel to desperate people in “the hermit kingdom.”...

Born and raised in a Muslim family, Brother Maksud says it’s a miracle he is now a follower of Jesus Christ. Maksud’s first years of life were under communist rule as his country was part of the Soviet Union, but it became independent, and more Islamic, after the fall of the USSR. As different factions battled for post-Soviet control, civil war broke out, a difficult time for Maksud and all of his...

One night, TK, extremely sick, found himself in his room praying, “I am ill and if you are the one true God then I will commit my life to you.” TK slept through the night and woke up completely healed! From that moment, he was committed to following Christ. His father—a former drug dealer who met Christ in prison for his crimes—encouraged TK to learn more about the one true God. With passion for f...

For the past two decades, northern and central Nigeria Christians have endured horrendous violent persecution. Thousands have been killed and many more forced to flee, in the face of Islamist extremist attacks. This month, Release International has launched a three-month campaign called Out of these Ashes to focus on Nigeria's situation and call Christians to committed prayer. In this edition of R...

This week we complete our conversation with Richard and Jeanette, an American couple who had served 10 years in China when police came knocking on their apartment door and they knew their gospel service in China was over. When we left off last week, Richard was being interrogated at a Chinese police station while Jeanette, his wife, prayed and was ministered to by their local church pastor and oth...

We left off last week as Richard and Jeanette’s apartment was raided by 25 Chinese policemen. The couple knew that their time in China was over after 10 years of ministry, but they didn’t know how long it might be before they were allowed to leave. Listen now as Jeanette recalls exactly what happened when she returned to their apartment to find police searching through their bookshelves and closet...

Richard and Jeanette had served in China for several years when—around 2018—they began hearing stories of foreign Christians forced to leave the country. “Everyone knows it happens, but no one thinks it’s going to happen to them,” Richard says. The couple decided to stay in China as long as God kept the door open—even when Covid put the entire country under lockdown. They were prepared to be kicke...

One million to one. One million lost people for every one gospel worker. When Brother David heard the million-to-one ratio of population to gospel workers in the Arab world, he and his wife knew that was where God needed them to serve in missions. Today, Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East are more open to asking questions and seeking information about Jesus, the Bible and Christianity—esp...

On this episode, hear Pastor Jihad, who is the leader of the True Vine Baptist Church in Zahle, Lebanon, share his personal testimony and how God prepared him to help those fleeing the war in Syria. As a child, he was himself displaced from his home by the Syrian army, but God is now using him to reach Syrian refugees – those who were once seen as his enemy. We'll hear how the church is overcoming...

Twen had been a Christian for only 2 years when she was arrested and imprisoned in Eritrea at the age of 21. She had no idea she would spend the next 16 years locked away in the Eritrean prison system for choosing to follow Jesus. Over the years she suffered intense persecution, but by the grace of God, she survived violent beatings, isolation in scorching-hot shipping containers, deprivation of w...

Iran is a country with a long history going back to the Old Testament. Oppression, frustration and a lack of hope have characterised life for many of its citizens since the establishment of an Islamic Republic in 1979. Christians, there have faced persecution for their faith but the church has continued to grow. This episode is from our sister mission Release International UK. Hear from Simon from...

How can I share Christ with Muslims when I don’t know more about Islam? What if I can’t answer all their questions? What can I do to overcome my fear of sharing the gospel? Fouad Masri, founder and president of Crescent Project, answers these questions and more in his new book Sharing Jesus with Muslims: A Step-By-Step Guide (affiliate link). For more than 30 years, Masri has been training Christi...

Just before Covid shut down the Peoples Republic of China, Pastor Pan Yongguang and members of his congregation, known today as the Mayflower Church, made the difficult decision to leave their country. After 16 families from the congregation arrived in South Korea in 2019, relatives and other family members still in China faced increasing pressure from the communist government, especially when mem...