Dr. Carl Moeller, president/CEO of Open Doors USA, will be one of the guests on the Frank Pastore Show on KKLA (99.5 FM) on Monday, Nov. 9 at 5 pm California time.

He will talk about persecution worldwide the day after the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. He will be joined by Andre Hovsepian from Iran and Bishop Wilson Garang of Sudan. To listen to the interview go to www.kkla.com.

Please comment on this blog to let us what you thought of the interview and anything new you learned! Please pray that this would be an effective and blessed interview.

If you have a minute, please check this out. It is an awesome article talking about Open Doors and IDOP. Good reminder as to why this day is so important! Don’t forget IDOP is this Sunday. Thank you for your prayers!!!

On August 9 two Christian women appeared before an Iranian judge who asked them to deny their faith and return to Islam. The women have been held in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran since March 5. When both women refused to recant their faith, the judge sent them back to their prison cells “to think about it.”

The women re-appeared in court on Oct. 7. The anti-state charge was dropped but they still face “apostasy” and “propagation of the Christian faith” charges. Also, the women have undergone intense interrogations which have reportedly included sleep deprivation and other psychological pressure. They share a cell with over 20 other women and both have deteriorating health. Marzieh suffers from spinal pain, an infected tooth and intense headaches and is especially in need of medical attention, which has not been provided. Evin prison has received criticism for its human rights violations and executions in recent years.

On Oct. 26, the U.S. State Department designated Iran, along with seven other countries, as “Countries of Particular Concern” for their religious repression. The Islamic Republic reportedly imprisoned, harassed and intimidated people based on their religious beliefs, while government-controlled broadcast and print media intensified negative campaigns against religious minorities, the report said. Iran is ranked No. 3 on Open Doors’ World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most severe persecution.

The Open Doors USA advocacy department is launching a campaign asking people to send a respectful message to Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee, who is Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York City. The email messages will be sent to the government in Iran as well. The letters will ask for the immediate release of Maryam and Marzieh.

A sample email letter to send is located at the Open Doors USA website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org. Please do not refer to Open Doors in your email.

Thank you for helping in this way.

Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors USA, will be one of three panelists on the Saddleback Civil Forum on Sunday, Nov. 8, from 5-7 p.m. at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.

The Civil Forum will focus on persecuted Christians worldwide. Nov. 8 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP), which is one of the largest prayer events in the world. The prime purposes of the Civic Forum on the Persecuted Church are to raise awareness of how many believers are suffering persecution and atrocities around the world because of their faith and to emphasize Christians’ responsibility to support them, especially through the power of prayer.

The Civil Forum on the Persecuted Church will be moderated by Dr. Rick Warren, founder and pastor of Saddleback Church, best-selling author and global strategist. Other participants will be Michael Cromartie, vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and Rev. Dishan Wickramaratne, senior pastor of People’s Church Assembly of God, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Civil Forum is designed to promote personal responsibility, social civility and spiritual maturity. The Civil Forum is held several times a year and is hosted by Saddleback Church. For more information on the Civil Forum, click here.

Carl Moeller states that “This is a wonderful opportunity to focus on the state of religious freedom around the world”. He went on to say “But also to inform those attending the Civil Forum about our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ and what we in the West can do to support them. Of course, there will be a time of prayer for persecuted Christians – something that is always their No. 1 request when I visit them in restricted countries worldwide.”

Moeller will also be one of the guests on the Frank Pastore Show on KKLA Radio in Los Angeles (99.5 FM) on Monday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m. California time. He will talk about persecution worldwide He will be joined by Andre Hovsepian, whose father was martyred in Iran, and Bishop Wilson Garang of Sudan. To listen to the interview go to www.kkla.com.

After more than ten years of severe persecution, India’s Christian minority is becoming more and more concerned over the growth of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups.

It used to be that Christians had to watch out only for the World Hindu Council and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, which are linked with the Hindu extremist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The new groups have even more extreme ideology are surfacing. The Pride of India, the National Revival Forum, the Army of god Rama, the Hindu Army for Hindu Religion and the Eternal Organization have launched numerous violent attacks on Christian and Muslim minorities.

Please pray for the Christian minorities, as well as the Muslim minorities. Pray that this would be a time to show Muslims Christ’s love and for all of their protection.

Do you have a heart to volunteer for Open Doors? Well here is a way you can: blogging. Open Doors has recently launched a blog network. When you sign up, you can blog about news, prayer requests and other info about persecution. For a list of guidelines and to sign up please click here. Thank you!!!

Open Doors helps persecuted Christians in many different countries….which countries would you like to hear more about on this blog? Would you like more prayer requests? News updates? Let us know! Thank you for helping persecuted Christians!

Do you ever wonder what heaven will be like? What it will be like to be with Christ and believers from all over? We will be able to be with those we pray for, who are being persecuted right now. I wonder what it will be like to worship together in the presence of the King.

What do you think it will be like?

In Gojra, Pakistan, two Christians allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death in August. The two men were tortured after police arrested them.

From his jail cell, one of the men told Compass Direct that they were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days and were tortured “in so many ways ruthlessly and in inhumane ways.”

“Sometimes we were not given anything to eat or drink except one time, and sometimes we were hung in a dark well while our faces were covered with a cloth,” he said. “They beat me with cane sticks on the back of my hands and sometimes hung me upside down and then brutally beat me.”

Police kept them hungry for days, he said; when they asked for food, officers told them to confess that they had fired, he added. He said police tortured them to try to force them to say they had links with terrorist organizations that provided arms and ammunition to them.

They were forbidden to sleep; they were awoken whenever they dozed off.

This is so devastating to hear. Please pray for these believers in this region. Thank you!!!

What would be the most difficult part about being a persecuted Christian? Do you think you would be able to stand strong? Why or why not?