VOM Radio

After serving many years as a gospel worker in Turkey (now called Türkiye), Pastor Andrew Brunson spent two years in Turkish prison. He was accused, among other “crimes,” of helping plot a coup against President Erdogan’s government and being a leader in the CIA. The reality is that Andrew was in Turkey as a missionary and pastor, working to spread the gospel. Brunson recounts how God was teaching...

Pastor Andrew Brunson, author of the book God’s Hostage, was imprisoned two years for his Christian work in Turkey (now called Türkiye). He says every single day was a battle to overcome fear, grief and anxiety. One who inspired him in these battles was Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs. Brunson explains how Wurmbrand inspired him to dance inside his priso...

Pastor Matthew is a long-time pastor in the communist nation of Vietnam. Since coming to faith in Christ he’s been persecuted by family, neighbors and by police. Matthew came to Christ through the witness of an American missionary mentor. He heard the gospel message, but he also saw the life she lived and the love she showed to the people around her. He couldn’t know, at the time, the high cost he...

“When people are not discipled, they are frail. Their faith is not strong.” Dr. David Kasali, founder and president of , is determined to disciple more Christians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a place where they are being specifically targeted for persecution by terrorist groups and radical Islamists. Listen as David tells about recent attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), incl...

Seventy percent of Sri Lanka’s people are Buddhists, and Buddhism is given “foremost place” in the nation’s constitution and laws. Officially, there is religious freedom for people of other faiths, including Christians. Yet new believers in Christ often face pressure and persecution from family members or their local community. Mayukha Perera, managing director of , joins VOM Radio this week to sh...

Pastor Nouh Yattara was born into a nomadic Muslim family. He became a believer through the work of missionaries in his home country of Mali—and through his desire to own a ball-point pen. After living in fear of superstitions, demons and death, Nouh found new life, and an end to fear, in Christ. “I knew if I accepted Jesus that he has the power against all of that,” Pastor Nouh says. It wasn’t an...

“By God’s grace, I endured a few years in prison in exchange for an eternity with Him.” Ebrahim Firouzi, a Christian convert from Islam, spent seven years in prison in Iran. Now he is enjoying eternity with the Lord, experiencing the fulfillment of that promise following his death in February.   This interview was recorded about four years ago—after Ebrahim’s release from prison while he was...

Luke and Kate, medical gospel workers who’ve served in Myanmar, shared how God called them to Myanmar to share the hope of Christ. This week, in Part 2 of our conversation, they reveal the loss and devastation their family experienced as they were forced to leave the place God had so clearly called them to. “It was devastating,” Kate says, “and we still sometimes have to process through that again...

Luke and Kate had both felt God’s call to missions. But they were still waiting to know where that call would take them. They went through training. They travelled to serve in different countries. And all the while, they asked God where he wanted to send them long-term. His answer finally arrived after a 12-hour bus ride to a rural village in Myanmar where there were no other foreigners. Kate and...

Brother Job thought it would be just another day. He was walking to work at a church in North Africa when he was accosted by four men with knives. The terrorists forced him into a vehicle and drove him away. “It’s my last day on this earth,” Job thought to himself. Growing up in a Muslim family in North Africa, Job knew there would be persecution when he left Islam to follow Jesus. He came to fait...

There are 500,000 evangelical churches in Latin America, but only 6% of Latino congregations are involved in missions. As executive director of , and in his previous work with Operation Mobilization Latin America, Brother Julio wants to increase that percentage! He desires to bring about collaboration between churches and missionary organizations to equip and send out Latino missionaries. Listen f...

A Christian and pastor from Central Asia, Brother Silas constantly interacts with Muslims. He says many are seeking truth and looking for answers to their deepest spiritual questions. Brother Silas and Tom Houser, executive director for , share this week what new Christians in Central Asian nations—including Muslim background believers—experience when they become followers of Jesus. “The moment yo...

Many Muslims are ready to hear the gospel and experience the love of Jesus Christ. For more than two decades Peter Smith has prayed for the nation of Iran and connected with ministries reaching people and supporting persecuted Christians in the nation he and his wife “adopted.” Seeing the gospel go forth in the Middle East reminds Peter of the good soil that produced 30, 60 and 100-fold harvests i...

Last week, Brother Kevin shared how he came to Christ and how God gave him a passion to reach the 13 million Hui people in China. For members of this people group, to be Hui is to be Muslim. Those who become Christians are considered traitors, bringing shame to their family. Hui Christians face social, psychological, and sometimes financial persecution, typically enforced by members of their own f...

Within two months of Brother Kevin and his wife beginning gospel work in India, more than a thousand people had come to Christ! The fruit of the gospel was immediate. Local missions leaders asked them to stay on and help disciple these new believers. They saw the opportunity, and the incredible growth of the ministry. But Kevin couldn’t dismiss an urge to visit China before agreeing to stay and mi...

“For us, it’s not AWANA, it’s ‘Can we disciple one more child?’” Gajendra Tamang is the Regional Director of AWANA in South Asia, coming alongside pastors and local churches to help reach and disciple children from many different religious backgrounds. Gajendra knows first-hand how a life can be changed through a simple invitation to a Christian activity. He came to faith while attending college i...

Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba’s communist revolution, died in 2016. But has Castro’s death changed the level of Christian persecution in Cuba? “No difference at all,” Pastor Mateo, a church leader in Cuba, says emphatically. The Cuban government attempts to restrain the gospel in many ways. Yet despite persecution, the church in Cuba is growing—stretching beyond buildings and homes and gathering on...

It was four in the morning when Els Woodke answered the phone to hear the words she’d been praying for and waiting on for six-and-a-half years: “Jeff has been recovered!” The last two weeks we’ve shared , American gospel worker in West Africa captured by Islamists and held hostage for more than six years. Now, Jeff’s wife, Els, shares her side of the story of waiting and wondering and praying thro...

“Hope is the first thing to go” Jeffery Woodke says, speaking about his six-and-a-half years as a hostage held by radical Islamist terror groups. He says he started out, after being kidnapped, praying eight hours a day. But over the years his hopelessness increased and his prayer time faded to twenty minutes daily. Suicidal, he beseeched his persecutors numerous times to take his life, knowing hea...

“It’s better to be dead than taken hostage.” When Jeff Woodke said those words, he didn’t know that he would be taken hostage from his home in Niger in 2016. But Woodke, a long-term relief and gospel worker in West Africa, did know there were risks. Risk wasn’t such a big issue in the early years of the ministry of Jeff and his wife, Els, in Niger with Youth With a Mission (YWAM). They worked in c...

David Paul fell in love with Muslims as a college student visiting Turkey (now Türkiye) to share the gospel. After getting married, he and his wife thought they’d go where Muslims are — the Middle East. God changed their plans, reminding them that millions of Muslims live in South Asia, yet very few mission workers go there. They knew God was calling them, and without ever visiting, they moved to...

Last week, Brother Philip, a field minister for The Voice of the Martyrs in West Africa, shared how witnessing stories of trauma from persecuted Christians and addressing their spiritual needs is a gift. He shared the characteristics of resilient individuals who coped well after persecution and how scripture can bring healing to their hearts and minds. This week, you’ll hear how Christians may exh...

This episode will be a little different than most as we have two conversations instead of one. First, we’ll hear from Steve Lisby about a group of pastors and church leaders imprisoned in Nicaragua after being part of a large-scale evangelism effort. Next we’ll hear from Brother Philip, who helps The Voice of the Martyrs provide trauma care for persecuted Christians in Africa. Steve Lisby is the r...

Paul Dangtoumda, a part of the global eldership counsel for (YWAM) and the leader for YWAM’s work in Nigeria, comes from a family with a history of Christian persecution. In fact, he bears the scar of persecution his parents faced even before he was born. Listen as he shares the amazing testimony of God’s protection over him and his parents—and how their example inspires his ministry even today. H...

Choosing the cross comes with risk. Carter Gates, The Voice of the Martyrs’ Asia Pacific Regional Leader, says he is always humbled as he observes and fellowships with persecuted Christians who regularly take up their cross joyfully despite that risk. They know walking with Christ is worth the risk. Listen this week as Carter shares what the church is experiencing in Brunei, China, Laos, and Myanm...