There are 500,000 evangelical churches in Latin America, but only 6% of Latino congregations are involved in missions. As executive director of COMHINA, 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 for the story of Julio’s own call to missions while living and working in Japan, and how...

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 People International, share this week what new Christians in Central Asian nations—including Muslim background believers—experience when they become followers of Jesus. “The moment you make that decision,” says Silas, “you will be oppressed on every side.” ...

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 in Jesus’ Matthew 13 parable. Persecution is rising in restricted nations across the Middle East;...

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 family. They may lose their job, be kicked out of the family home, and even renounced as a member...

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 minister in India. It was on that first visit to China that Kevin was asked a question which would...

“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 in India, where a Christian classmate invited Gajendra to come to church with him every Sunday...

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 the streets and in open fields to pray and worship and share the gospel. Listen as Pastor Mateo...

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 the story of Jeffery Woodke, 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 through that long ordeal—and how God helped her never to hate Jeff’s...

“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 heaven would be much better than his existence as a hostage chained to a tree. Despite his doubts,...

“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 church planting, discipleship, and evangelism among the Wodaabe people. Niger was an open...

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 South Asia more than a decade ago. Their focus is on reaching Urdu speaking Muslims with the...

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 exhibit more resilience than non-believers, stories of persecuted Christians and how The Voice of...

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 risk management director with Mountain Gateway, a ministry helping train and send gospel workers....

Paul Dangtoumda, a part of the global eldership counsel for Youth With a Mission (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. Hear how Paul began working in Nigeria and how today he and YWAM are helping...

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 Myanmar, including looking ahead to serving our Christian brothers and sisters in these restricted...

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Loren Cunningham, with his wife Darlene, founded Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in 1960 with a vision to equip and send young people out all over the world to fulfill this God-given command to go and proclaim. Loren passionately continued God’s work even into his final days on earth, preaching and discipling even with lung cancer. When he died last October, he left an amazing, inspired legacy for YWAM. Paul Childers, a long...

“I’ve been with you, and I have to leave now, but as I go I am still with you.” Aaron Miller, Vice President of International Ministry at The Voice of the Martyrs, learned this concept from brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They have a word for the concept in their language: tukopamuja. As Aaron and his team sit with persecuted Christians across the world, the stories they hear and prayers they pray together stay with them forever. As 2024 begins, we pray...

Join this week as we continue to look back on some of the most moving moments of 2023 on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio: Brother Maksud became a Christian as a young man but was afraid to tell his parents. He expected his father might disown him but was shocked at his father’s response. Pastor Hanna remembers when he learned that a member of his church, Rami Ayyad, had been martyred. He says our faith won’t be tested when everything is going fine, but in difficult times. After Sister Jane’s...

Join this week in looking back on some of the most moving moments on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio in 2023: Brother James, interrogated in the Middle East, shares how he overcomes fear and gives an example of God’s deliverance. Richard and Jeannette remember the day 25 Chinese police raided their apartment, and how the Lord was with them through their suffering. Carter Gates tells the story of a pastor who was martyred in Laos. A pastor in the Arabian Peninsula tells his congregation to...

“We are ready and prepared to be imprisoned. We are not afraid of being imprisoned. But we are afraid of losing the fear of the Lord.” —House Church leaders in China Bob Fu, founder, and president of ChinaAid, is regularly in contact with Christians all over China. He says that, in an era of harsh government restrictions and a complete lack of religious freedom, churches are still being planted and leaders continue to baptize new believers in China. Author of God’s Double Agent, Bob sheds...

As Christian persecution increases across China, Myanmar and other hostile and restricted nations around the world, Christian brothers and sisters are finding new ways to gather for worship, fellowship and Bible study under the radar of police or hostile government authorities. Dr. Joe Handley, president and CEO of A3, shares just how unique some of these new church meetings are, from pop-up coffee carts to whole congregations working out together in a public park. A3, formerly Asian Access,...

For ten years, Shakir heard his Christian friend and his Muslim friend discuss, debate and argue about their different faiths. Shakir tried to ignore their discussion; he didn’t want to get involved. After all those years, Shakir was shocked when his Muslim friend told him that he had become a Christian. Shakir urged him to reconsider and return to Islam—but as his friend shared about the things that led him to follow Christ, Shakir himself began to consider that Jesus might indeed be the...

Pastor Raymond Koh was forcibly abducted on February 13th, 2017 in a military-style operation that took less than 40 seconds. Almost seven years later, he’s still missing. His car has never been located. Raymond’s wife, Susanna, has filed a lawsuit to force the Malaysian government and leaders of the police to release all information about what happened, and hopefully hold the kidnappers accountable for their actions. Listen this week to an interview with Susanna recorded two years after...

Susi Childers has served with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for more than two decades, using her photography skills to open doors to communicate the love of Christ to people all over the world. Listen this week as Susi describes the impact of Loren Cunningham, YWAM’s founder who recently graduated to heaven, on her life and on encouraging her to use her gifts more fully to further the gospel. She’ll also share some of the personal qualities that made Loren such an impactful and visionary...