First, the praise. In 2019, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) investigated the 2017 forced disappearances or abductions of Koh and Shia convert Amri Che Mat.

Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs USA says, “There was a special task force report about the two abductions” released after the investigation, but the government withheld this report from Koh’s wife, Susanna, and her lawyers.

“The government said, ‘No, that’s a top secret report. We can’t show that to you,’ and there was a lot of back and forth during the court case,” Nettleton continues.

Last week, “The government was ordered by the judge [to] turn over the report to Susanna (Koh) and her attorneys.”

This report should help Susanna Koh understand, at least in part, what happened to her husband when he was abducted by police in broad daylight nearly ten years ago. You can see our coverage of the Raymond Koh case here.

Roadblocks remain

Susanna Koh is suing the Malaysian government in search of answers, and she had a huge win last fall. “The victory that she won in November was very remarkable. It was a milestone victory,” Nettleton says.

“The judge said that it was the police who abducted Raymond Koh and ordered the government to pay damages and compensation to the Koh family until Raymond Koh was located. That dollar amount is going up every day until Raymond Koh is found or there’s an explanation of what happened to him.”

Pastor Raymond Koh, center, with his wife Susanna and their family. (Photo courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA)

Now, the reminder to pray: “The government immediately went into court and appealed that ruling, including the ruling that the police had to reopen the investigation, and the government was issued a stay,” Nettleton says.

“Essentially, the whole thing is on hold while that stay is in place. Susanna told me it could be two to five years while that works its way through the legal system.”

How to pray

Pray for strength and endurance for the Koh family. “Pray for Susanna and her attorneys. This is a long, hard road,” Nettleton says.

“This was a years-long legal process to get to that verdict, and now she’s facing another years-long legal process to fight the appeal and get through to hopefully confirming the verdict. It would be easy to grow weary and discouraged.”

Pray for courage and faith for persecuted Christians throughout Malaysia. Nettleton says, “The Raymond Koh case really is kind of a warning to Malaysian Christians: ‘We can find you. We can punish you.’”

Header image courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs USA. 

The coordinated attacks targeted churches and luxury hotels, carried out by Islamist extremists during Easter services. The bombings deeply traumatized the nation and exposed security failures, leaving lasting concerns for the country’s Christian minority.

Kandy, Sri Lanka (Photo courtesy of Antonio Cogo/Unsplash)

Although it was seven years ago, Rajeeve Sathianathan, Sri Lanka director of Christian World Outreach (CWO), says the government is taking steps to help restore Christians’ confidence and protect their freedom to worship this Easter.

“In big cities, they are sending security forces to guard the big churches so that incidents like what happened a few years ago won’t happen again,” says Sathianathan. “But that protection is there only in big cities. In remote villages, that’s a challenge.”

Christians make up a small minority in Sri Lanka, where the majority of people are Buddhist, along with significant Hindu and Muslim populations. This can lead to persecution, especially in rural areas.

A woman in Sri Lanka. (Photo courtesy of Gemmmm/Unsplash)

On top of less security in Sri Lanka’s villages, rural Christians often face opposition from their neighbors.

Sathianathan says, “Most of them are like house churches. So the landlords tell them, ‘Hey, we need to kick them out of this place because we don’t want them to use this property to invite people in.’”

Easter is just around the corner this coming Sunday. Pray for Sri Lankan Christians and CWO partners.

“Pray for them, for strength, because sometimes the fear comes when you experience this kind of restriction,” Sathianathan asks. “That’s what I continue [to pray] for protection and also pray for wisdom.”

Learn more about CWO’s Sri Lanka ministry at cwomissions.org/srilanka/.

Header photo courtesy of Vinnath Satharasinghe/Unsplash.

India’s Constitution protects religious freedom in Articles 25 to 28. It gives every person the right to believe, practice, and share their faith, and it defines India as a secular country. However, there has been a rise in persecution against believers.

John Pudaite with Bibles For The World shares a recent story of a pastor attacked during a worship service. “They dragged him outside, and they forced him to chant Hindu chants, praising one of their gods, and then they forced him to eat cow dung,” he says.

Preamble to the Constitution of India (picture courtesy of Beohar Rammanohar Sinha\Prem Behari Narain Raizada via Wikimedia Commons)

Christians report similar incidents from different regions. It is happening across the entire country, adds Pudaite, especially in the 12 states that have passed anti-conversion laws. These laws are one reason many of these attacks go unpunished.

Still, Christians believe a higher law, the Constitution, is on their side.

The National Council of Churches, representing approximately 14 million Christians through its network of 32 member churches in India, has backed a petition. The goal is to challenge whether these laws are constitutional.

“There is what they call a public interest litigation in India that has taken the case all the way up to the Supreme Court,” explains Pudaite.

Now, the responsibility falls on the states to prove their laws follow the Constitution. But the process keeps getting delayed. In the meantime, pressure continues.

“They [Christians] get arrested. They have to pay bail. They have to go to court,” says Pudaite. And on top of that, many attackers feel unpunished.

While waiting for a decision, Christians are finding other ways to speak out. Thousands of Christians marched with torches on March 22 in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, to protest the state’s new anti-conversion law.

Believers in West Bengal, India (courtesy of Pexels)

Even so, Pudaite says the deeper battle is spiritual: “Along the way the enemy is just going to make it difficult for those who follow Jesus to continue to follow Him.”

Pray for a legal breakthrough in India, and for the protection of Christians’ rights.

Visit Bibles For The World to learn more about the work they do helping communities worldwide have access to Scripture.

Header photo: Central Wing of the Supreme Court of India (photo courtesy of Subhashish Panigrahi via Wikimedia Commons).

Yet a critical question remains: will the US government take that report and turn it into effective policies to help the persecuted? 

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA explains that USCIRF’s annual report was meant to be “step one” in a process established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

(Logo courtesy United States Commission on International Religious Freedom)

“That [report] goes to the State Department, and the State Department ultimately makes the determinations of Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List, [etc],” Nettleton says. 

However, the US State Department has not issued an International Religious Freedom Report (IRF) for two years.

“It’s like, okay, is this [USCIRF report] all we’re going to get? Is this the end of the process? Or is this as it was designed, ‘step one’ and now we’ll see what the State Department does with that?” Nettleton says. 

The IRF report from the State Department provides practical tools for the US to support religious freedom around the world. (More on that here.) Among other outcomes that respect human rights, this freedom can remove barriers to the gospel spreading. 

“I want to express appreciation for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the work that they do throughout the year, to identify, to document, to shine a light on violations of religious freedom around the world,” says Nettleton. 

“It helps us here at Voice of the Martyrs, when sort of the government is saying the same things that we’re saying about, in our case, only about Christians being persecuted.”

Nicaragua (Photo courtesy of Hermes Rivera via Unsplash)

For example, the Commission has recommended that the US redesignate Nicaragua as a Country of Particular Concern. Nicaragua is also a country that VOM USA has designated as “Restricted” this year for its intensifying persecution of Christians. 

“It is a country where pastors have been arrested. Pastors have been kicked out of the country. The government is using technology purchased from China to monitor people digitally — monitor where they are, monitor what they’re doing,” says Nettleton. “Most of us don’t know that that’s happening.”

If you’re a US citizen, consider contacting your government representatives and expressing your interest in seeing this State report issued. But no matter where home is for you, you can respond in prayer as you consider the Commission’s annual report findings. Access the report here.

“There are 29 countries, so you could literally pray through that list every month and use this as a sort of government-issued prayer guide on behalf of our persecuted brothers and sisters,” says Nettleton.

Learn more at VOM USA’s website, persecution.com. 

Header photo is a stock image courtesy of Kevin Lanceplaine via Unsplash.

The FCRA is the law governing any donations or charitable contributions sent into India from outside the country. Organizations must be registered with the FCRA in order to receive such funds. In the past, this registration did not need  to be renewed. However, in 2021, the rules were changed to require renewal every five years. All organizations were asked to reapply at that time.

About 45,000 organizations submitted applications to have their registration renewed back in 2021. At the last count, 3,500-4,000 organizations were still waiting for their applications to be reviewed.

“So the Indian government under this current ruling party has been seeing this is a way that perhaps they can stop the flow of funds into the country,” says John Pudaite of Bibles For The World. “They have been going through these and canceling registrations as they see fit.” He notes the changes have been used to scrutinize Christian and Muslim organizations. 

Some large organizations, including World Vision and Compassion, as well as some social service organizations well known within India, have already been denied. Bibles For The World recently received news that one of their key partners had lost its registration.

“It’s a long standing partner—probably have partnered with them for over 50 years,” says Pudaite, “and by God’s grace, they’re a very strong organization, and our contribution only makes up seven to eight percent of their annual budget. So they can continue the work of the Lord that they’re doing there without us, praise God—but at the same time, it’s a tough blow for them to be on that black list of organizations that lost their FCRA.”

Bibles For the World’s other primary partner has received their FCRA registration.

“We still have all of these Christian organizations and people who have been serving the Lord. They’ve been trying to build the body of Christ there in India, and now one of their sources of funding might have been cut off because they are not able to receive donations properly, through the proper channels, and so we need to keep lifting them up in prayer.”

Pray God will continue to provide for the needs of these organizations, that they will use this time to sharpen and refine the their mission, and that they will not be subjected to unnecessary oppression or pressure from government authorities.

Header photo courtesy of Bibles For The World.

(Photo courtesy of A Third Of Us)

David Bogosian with the Alliance for the Unreached says, “Missiologists are now talking about what they call polycentric mission.” 

Polycentric missions are when missionaries are not just sent from Europe and North America in the “West-to-the-rest” approach, but from everywhere to everywhere.

Despite the incredible progress that has been made in the last century, Bogosian says, “Many of the places today that are unreached are unreached in part because they are resisting the gospel as a form of westernization.” 

An example of this is in India, where the BJP persecutes the Christian church because Christianity was associated with the British colonial power. 

“Things are beginning to change in an amazing way because of the globalization of the missions movements. The face of the missionary has changed. It’s no longer a white person necessarily showing up someplace, but you have African missionaries, you have Asian missionaries,” Bogosian says.

This globalization of missions can lessen resistance to the gospel. 

Today, most of the world’s unreached people groups live in restricted-access countries or places where traditional missionaries cannot go. Because of this, the church is rethinking how it engages in global mission.

“The good news is that God does have people in all of these contexts, the Open Doors produce a map every year of the places that have the highest level of persecution in the world, and if you were to overlay on top of that map the location of all the world’s unreached people groups, you would see that 80% of them live in these persecuted, restricted access contexts,” Bogosian says. 

Three billion people in these difficult-to-reach places. But Bogosian says, “Here’s the amazing thing. One third of the world’s evangelical Christians live in those contexts.”

Believers in places like China and India live in close proximity to the unreached. 

It is very difficult for people to evangelize in these contexts with radical and surveillance groups that seek to shut down any preaching of the gospel. 

“It’s not easy for them to do that, but they are there, and so it’s our job as Christians to pray for them, to encourage them, to help them in the task that God has given them within their own country,” Bogosian says. 

(Graphic courtesy of A Third of Us)

In the Western church, it is important to be careful to recognize when helping hurts and how the desire to help can cause more harm than good. 

Though blessed with incredible financial resources, Bogosian says Western Christians need to get involved wisely and carefully, listening to the Holy Spirit and connecting with organizations that specialize in things.

“I would encourage anyone who wants to help, if you want to connect with the persecuted church and with those that are working in this restricted context, connect with those organizations that God’s raised up for His purpose,” Bogosian says.

The future of missions will require further collaboration and dialogue with Christians across the Global church. 

“We need to learn from one another,” Bogosian says. “What’s happening today is a challenge for everybody. You’re seeing the world in meltdown mode right now. We need to lock arms.” 

Bogosian says God is building his kingdom and wants His people to be united. This will require approaching the future with humility as learners. 

Bogosian says, “Mission brings us to that place of humility before God and before one another where we realize we can’t do this ourselves. It brings interdependency within the body and dependence upon Christ.” 

Please pray that in areas where house church movements are, God will work through these churches and regions, reaching whole countries and even neighboring ones. 

Pray that God will unleash that church and that those around the world will reach people for Christ.

(Photo courtesy of Chuttersnap/Unsplash)

That’s the update from persecution watchdog Voice of the Martyrs Korea, which has been advocating for the release of Missionary Park since her arrest on January 15, one week before she was scheduled to return home to Korea to retire at age 70. The missionary continues to be held at an immigration detention center.

According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley, authorities have also seized Missionary Park’s house in Russia and fined the missionary for overstaying her visa, despite the overstay being due to her detainment by Russian authorities. Pastor Foley calls these actions “serious violations of the law that demand remedy by the court and the action of Christians around the world on Missionary Park’s behalf.”

(Photo courtesy VOMK)

Voice of the Martyrs Korea has posted a petition online at https://vomkorea.com/en/petition-2026 calling for Missionary Park’s immediate release.

Pastor Foley says that so far more than 3,700 people in Korea have added their names to the petition, along with 750 people from the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Africa, and Finland. Pastor Foley says he and Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley will deliver the petition to the Russian Embassy in Seoul once 5,000 signatures are secured.

“We need to let Russian authorities know that the world is watching to see how they will treat this 70-year old single woman who for more than 30 years said she was ‘married to Russia’, serving Russian people—especially children—with her whole heart, with not even a single complaint against her during that time,” says Pastor Foley. He says that more than a dozen people in Russia and Korea have stepped forward to provide official character references to submit to the court on Missionary Park’s behalf.

Pastor Foley says that the three charges against Missionary Park are all immigration-related and deal with assistance Missionary Park allegedly provided to Koreans to enter Russia. Two of the charges carry maximum 5-year sentences, and the third carries a maximum 7-year sentence, leading to a possible maximum 17-year sentence between the three charges.

He says that although the charges are explicitly immigration-related, Voice of the Martyrs Korea remains concerned that the motivation for the charges is religious.

“Voice of the Martyrs Korea obtained copies of a notification sent out in January by the Khabarovsk Department of Education to educational and other child care institutions in the area. The notification says in part, ‘In the capital of the region, a citizen of South Korea, an agent of an American organization Park Tae-Yeon’s Child Evangelism Fellowship set up a brainwashing machine for children, instilling values alien to our society and drawing them into the practice of the Korean-American form of Protestantism.’ The statement continues: ‘Russian children were set against the family and the state, and Park Tae-yong herself was presented to them as the main life guide. The camp was carefully conspiratorial.’ The notification concludes: ‘Park Tae-Yeon intended to take Russian children to South Korea for final zombification, but did not have time. Now Park Tae-Yeon has been detained, a criminal case has been opened for organizing illegal migration.’”

Park Tae-yong
(Photo courtesy VOMK)

Pastor Foley says that similar reports appeared in state-affiliated Russian media in late January.

“The criminal charges and media campaign against Missionary Park reflect the continued decline in religious freedom across the Russian Federation, particularly as it relates to Protestant Evangelicals,” says Pastor Foley. “The 2025 US Commission on International Religious Freedom report on Russia says, ‘Russia criminalizes the activities of several peaceful religious groups by designating them as “terrorist,” “extremist,” or “undesirable,” despite no evidence of their promotion of or participation in violence.’ That’s exactly what we see in the case of Missionary Park. Her activity hasn’t changed for more than 30 years. The only thing that has changed is that now Russian authorities calls people like her ‘extremists’, ‘brainwashers’, and ‘conspirators against Russia’, despite all common-sense evidence to the contrary.”

Since 2021, the United States has designated Russia as one of 12 ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ for religious freedom violations, along with countries including China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Cuba.

Individuals interested in signing the petition on behalf of Missionary Park can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/petition-2026.

Header image is a screenshot from a video of missionary Park’s arrest posted on the Биржа политиков – Хабаровский край (Political Marketplace – Khabarovsk Krai Telegram Channel)

In a ruling publicly released February 2, the high court over Utter Pradesh, India’s most populous state, stated that permission is not required for religious prayer gatherings held on private premises. The ruling came after petitions were filed by two Christian organizations, in response to frequent police disruptions of prayer meetings on private property.

“There was an act by a couple of states to try to even illegalize, basically, prayer in the home. They’re trying to attack the house churches and small groups or fellowships that are meeting in homes,” says John Pudaite of Bibles for the World. “It’s a tough situation there for the body of Christ when they can be dragged out of a church or a worship.”

The court ruling was based on the Indian Constitution, which states individuals have the freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion. This decision offers hope to Christians in India in the face of anti-conversion laws, which have been used to unjustly arrest religious leaders and have fueled persecution against Christ.

“We have anti-conversion laws in 12 states. Many have been arrested under those laws,” notes Pudaite. “To date, no one has been convicted under those anti-conversion laws in any of those states, so that’s a victory on one side, knowing that when the body of Christ is practicing, professing their faith, meeting for worship, things like this, they are protected by the Indian constitution, and it’s still being upheld by the by the courts, whether state High Court, Supreme Court. But at the same time, those conversion laws still give them that opportunity to harass the body of Christ, harass believers, harass pastors in that way.”

How to pray for India:

• Pray that the courts in India would continue to show impartiality and hold firm in their reading and interpretation of the Indian Constitution, as they did in this recent ruling.
• Pray for strength and encouragement for believers in India, that they would continue to trust in Jesus as Lord.

“We know how the story ends, but along the way, the enemy is just going to make it difficult for those who follow Jesus to continue to follow Him, and so he’s going to try to do anything he can to discourage us,” says Pudaite, reminding believers, “Christ has paid the price. He is the victor. The story is going to end up with a happy ending.”

Header photo is a representative stock image courtesy of Naveed Ahmed via Unsplash.

Christians don’t escape these realities; instead, they endure persecution on top of it. Myanmar is among the top 15 countries where it’s hardest to be a follower of Jesus. Consequences for following Christ are often violent and community-based. 

Mike* with Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM) offers a glimpse of a resilient Church. 

Hard pressed but not crushed

“They’re human. You know, we’re all human,” says Mike. “We think of the underground church as these super soldiers, super-human people.”

He tells the story of one Christian in Myanmar and his driver who were stopped by soldiers. There was a scuffle, and a military man executed the driver on the spot. Then he put his gun at the Christian’s head. 

The Christian began going into shock, which included mumbling incoherently. 

“[The soldier] was like, ‘Oh, he’s just mentally handicapped,’ and he walked away,” says Mike. 

“So it’s like, it wasn’t his faith and his strength in the Lord that got him out of that situation. Even in fear, even in this shock moment, God still protects and still moves.

“It’s messy and it’s nuanced, but it’s so inspiring to see, even in the midst of such massive persecution and loss, that they still move forward at all costs.”

Persecuted but not abandoned

Yet the years of devastation and struggle in Myanmar can make believers feel closed off from the global Church. 

“There’s so much trauma, there’s so much death, there’s so [many] issues and survival and stress and PTSD,” says Mike. “When you’re up against it and feeling pressure, you get frustrated at times and feel like no one cares.”

(Photo courtesy of Jesse Schoff via Unsplash)

But he says feelings of abandonment are often met with the truth that God is with the Church in Myanmar and is their strength. 

“It’s this constant kind of adjustment as the emotions rise up,” he says. 

Pray for the believers in Christ in Myanmar. Learn how you can support and stand with them alongside GCM at catalyticministries.com.

“We support them as much as we can, but we’re still so much under what they should be receiving,” says Mike. 

“It’s truly a beauty from ashes. I would just love for people to understand or even taste a little bit of what they have to go through, and maybe sacrifice a little bit to help support them. There’s so many other things that I can’t get into when it comes to how they have to operate.” 

*Pseudonym

Header photo of Bagan, Myanmar courtesy of Ajay Karpur via Unsplash.

Within Yemen, persecution of Christians also occurs, whether or not the rest of the world hears about it. Floyd Brobbel with Voice of the Martyrs Canada says, “We don’t always hear about these things because the information is not easy to leave the country.” 

Yet a February 9 news report from Human Rights Watch says more than 20 Christians have been arbitrarily detained by Houthi authorities in recent months. Enforced disappearances can look like this, says Brobbel: “Their relatives don’t know where they are. They can’t communicate with anybody. The officials who arrest won’t even give any indication that they have these Christians.”

(Photo courtesy of Lara Jameson/Pexels)

Brobbel says the detentions point to broader issues in Yemen — issues that merit advocacy and which other governments should be aware of. “Religious freedom is virtually non-existent in the region,” he says. “There’s been violence and tortures. There have been martyrdoms of pastors in the past. Christians are forced to hide.” 

Yemen once had 41,000 believers, according to the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. But today, there are estimated to be only a few thousand. Brobbel says years of civil war, not just persecution, have also contributed to the drop. 

“A lot of Christians and religious minorities have left, but you’re always having those that stay,” he says. “Despite all these things that we’ve talked about, there is an underground church that is expanding despite the dangers that they’re facing on a daily basis.” 

Pray for strength for Christians in Yemen to share the gospel in the midst of hostile and, in many cases, unknown circumstances. 

“Pray that they would be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Pray that they would be effective in reaching their enemies for Christ,” says Brobbel. “You know, with opposition comes opportunity.”

Then ask yourself, what are you doing to share the gospel in your own nation and community? Ask God to help you see and take the opportunities all around you.

Learn how you can help Voice of the Martyrs Canada serve persecuted Christians at www.vomcanada.com.

Header photo is a representative stock photo of a boy in Yemen courtesy of Nazar Alareqe via Pexels.