Today is the 400th day Gao Zhisheng has been missing.  And we keep bringing this story to you because we know that sometimes in our daily lives that it's easy to forget the suffering of others because we're not personally involved.

Please remember Gao in your prayers, as well as his wife and children who miss him dearly. 

Also if you haven't taken the time to sign the petition or to write a few letters to the various places we have listed on the FreeGao.com website, please take a few minutes today to do it.  Your words of encouragement and concern truly do make a difference.

Please also take some time to pray for the people who will be reading your emails and comments, that the Lord would burden their hearts to take further action.

Can you imagine the victory the Lord is going to show His people once Gao is found and free.  I look forward to the day when I can share that with you.  Please pray and tell some of your friends to help today.  Thank you!

World Vision worker says militants dragged his colleagues into room and executed them.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 10 (CDN) — Suspected Islamic militants armed with guns and grenades stormed the offices of a Christian relief and development organization in northwest Pakistan today, killing six aid workers and wounding seven others.
 
The gunmen besieged the offices of international humanitarian organization World Vision near Oghi, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Islamabad in Mansehra district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Police and World Vision’s regional spokesman said the Pakistani staff members, including two women, were killed after up to 15 gunmen arrived in pick-up trucks and began firing.
 
“They gathered all of us in one room,” World Vision administration officer Mohammad Sajid, who was in the office at the time, told Compass. “The gunmen, some of whom had their faces covered, also snatched our mobile phones. They dragged people one by one and shifted them to an adjacent room and shot and killed them.”
 

Rienk van Velzen, World Vision’s regional communications director, said from the Netherlands that all staff members in the office were Pakistanis. He said one is missing.

PLEASE READ THE FULL STORY AT COMPASS DIRECT and please keep all involved in your prayers, so that their deaths may not be in vain.

On March 8, Pastor Ravi Chandran was brutally attacked by Hindu extremists in Mysore, Karnataka State, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts.

Pastor Ravi was attacked by more than 10 extremists, who forcibly entered a believer’s home where the pastor was holding a prayer meeting. “The extremists entered the house and began abusing the pastor and the believers gathered there,” VOM contacts said. “They hit the pastor with glass bottles, as well as kicking and punching him mercilessly, after which they disappeared from the venue.” Pastor Ravi suffered severe injuries to his leg and head.

The Voice of the Martyrs encourages you to pray for Pastor Ravi, his church and all believers in India. VOM assists believers in India and Christian workers like Pastor Ravi with Christian literature and Bibles. VOM has also provided motorcycles and bicycles to help Christian workers reach more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 30:5 says, "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him" (NIV)

Today as I was pondering what to share with you, I had the simple question "What Would You Do for a Bible?" come to mind.  I know that you may recall that old commercial what would you do for a Klondike bar, but a Klondike bar isn't nearly as valuable as a holy bible.

Would you sell all of your possessions in order to earn the money for a bible if you didn't have the money and that was the only way you could earn one?

Would you hand copy the bible so that you could have it?

Would you jump up and down and spin in circles and look like a fool on national television if you desired a bible that much?

Seriously, what would you DO for a bible if you didn't have one and you knew that it contained the true answers to life, eternity, salvation and godliness?

I have heard numbers of stories of our persecuted brothers in Christ who have done things that I'm not sure I would do.  But one story that impacted me about the length of how people who understand the value of the scriptures is how they would hand copy meticulously so they could have only ONE page of the bible. 

Most of us in America, if we're honest, wouldn't take the time to hand write out even a small book of the bible if our lives depended on it, but I bet you that if someone told us to copy something that involved a secret code to earn tons of money and the only way to find out the code, we'd do it. 

The persecuted church honestly convicts me, because I know as a Christian in America, I have free access to any and all bibles that I could ever want.  And I know that as a result I don't value the bible as highly as someone who has to pray for years, or even die for the freedom to read the bible.  How about you?

So this is why I wanted to stimulate your thinking a little bit today, and just offer a reminder about The Voice of the Martyrs Bibles Unbound program.  I've told you before that this program is my favorite and I've been apart of it every year it's been going.  And it's amazing to see how the Lord has used this simple program to minister to countless thousands over the past few years.

So if you would like to join and be a member of Bibles Unbound and find out how you can have the blessing to ship bibles in restricted nations every month, please visit the Bibles Unbound page and get started.  The rewards will last for an eternity.

Twenty-five from three people groups talked about what God is doing.

Daapooi has returned to teach God's Word in the Dao village where his friend and fellow evangelist, Wikipai, contracted a fatal illness.

As many as three new NTM mission news articles are written each and every weekday. Go to the web site to see those you may have missed.

Daapooi has returned to teach God's Word in the Dao village where his friend and fellow evangelist, Wikipai, contracted a fatal illness.

Wayne and Gail Chen are learning the ways and language of the Biem people in preparation for planting a church.

You may recall that in January I challenged you all to pick one restricted nation a month to pray for. This month I will be praying for the nation of Turkey, but you may choose from any number of the restricted nations on the Voice of the Martyrs Restricted Nations page to pray for. As we have done in the previous two months, leave us a comment who you'll be praying for and let's make a difference for the kingdom of God for those suffering in restricted nations. Amen!

Turkey DESCRIPTION Turkey has experienced political turmoil caused by the struggle between secular proponents, urban moderates and rural Islamist forces vying for government control. Talks over membership in the European Union have repeatedly faltered. There appears to be no sign that Turkey will embrace true religious freedom. In August 2007, Turkey took a step back toward a religiously controlled state when they elected as president a former proponent of political Islam.

Category: Restricted Nation
Religion: Muslim 99.64%, Christian 0.32%
Ideology: Islam
Head of State: President Abdullah Gul

Despite government claims and a constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, Christians do not enjoy freedom of religion in many areas. Politicians, police and the growing Islamist movement are hostile to anything Christian. Foreign missionaries are not given visas. The media portrays Christians as foreign government agents and spreads rumors that Christians bribe young people with money and sex. The public tends to believe these false accusations. A VOM contact has reported people throwing things at him, spitting at him and verbally abusing him for talking about Christ. He was also interrogated by the police after handing out New Testaments. On Feb. 12, 2009, a Turkish Bible Society bookstore in the city of Adana was vandalized by Muslim extremists for the second time in a week. A court trial continues for two men accused of killing two Turkish Christians and one German Christian in Malatya in 2007.

BEIJING--On Saturday, well-known Christian legal scholar Dr. Fan Yafeng planned to meet with a Spanish press reporter for dinner. He received a call earlier in the week, advising him not to attend the meeting with the foreign reporter. Refusing to be intimidated by the police, Dr. Fan made plans to attend anyway.

Before he could leave for the dinner on Saturday, Dr. Fan heard a knock on his door. The Beijing policemen confronted Dr. Fan with a notice charging him with allegedly "making noise," (due to his lack of cooperation with Chinese officials) and swiftly escorted him from his home. Two guards monitored Dr. Fan's wife in their home, as they detained him in a local police for over 9 hours to prevent his meeting with the reporter.

After his release, Dr. Fan spoke with a reporter from The Australian. "Why can't I speak out and say what I think?" he fumed. Dr. Fan further vowed, "If they stop me, I will sit to protest downstairs. If they arrest me, I will hunger-strike until they free me or I die."

This is the second time Dr. Fan yafeng has been specifically targeted by the Beijing PSB in the past six months. He was summarily dismissed from his senior researcher position at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "for political reasons" in November, 2009.  See the article from 11/03/2010. He has further been instrumental in the legal defense work for the highly sensitive Linfen Case in Shanxi, garnering him increased attention and harassment from Chinese authorities. (Visit www.HelpLinfen.com for more information on the Linfen Case.)

ChinaAid denounces this unjust treatment of Dr. Fan Yafeng by the Beijing authorities. We call on the international community to pray for the end of persecution of Christian faithfuls, and against those who continue to speak out on the abuses by the Chinese government.

Fulani herdsmen strike Christian villages, slaying mainly ethnic Berom with machetes.

LAGOS, Nigeria, March 8 (CDN) — An uneasy calm prevailed in Plateau state, Nigeria today following the killing of hundreds of Christians early yesterday morning in three farming villages near Jos by ethnic Fulani Muslims.

The mostly ethnic Berom victims included many women and children killed with machetes by rampaging Fulani herdsmen. About 75 houses were also burned.

State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong confirmed that about 500 persons were killed in the attacks, which took place mainly in Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Rastat villages.

“We were woken up by gunshots in the middle of the night, and before we knew what was happening, our houses were torched and they started hacking down people” survivor Musa Gyang told media.

The assailants reportedly came on foot from a neighboring state to beat security forces that had been alerted of a possible attack on the villages but did not act beforehand.

The attack on Sunday is the latest in several religious clashes in the state in recent months that have claimed lives and property. Plateau state is a predominantly Christian state in a country almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. The Muslim minority has been contesting ownership of some parts of the state, leading to frequent clashes.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT COMPASS DIRECT

Twenty-five from three people groups talked about what God is doing.

For those of you who loved Glenn Penner, his wife Denita informed us on Glenn's old blog, that his memorial service was videotaped and posted online at Persecution.tv - I've posted the video here for you. Thank you all again for your prayers for the Penner family. May God bless you richly.