Sundays 5th and 12th of November have been set apart to advocate and pray for the Persecuted Church. This year’s motto is “From ashes to glory”.

“It is a well-planned conspiracy against the Christian community”, pastor Johnson Sathyanathan, president of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches of Coimbator, says.

Since 2012, Sudan has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed dozens of church buildings on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese.

Other shipments of Bibles at Port Sudan have also been detained over the past two years. “It is difficult to get Bibles in the country”, a church leader says.

More than 300 participated in the first conference on Christian persecution held in Budapest.

Rebeca, a Nigerian Christian, was kidnapped for 2 years, raped and got pregnant with the son of a terrorist. Her faith made her strong to endure the terror.

“It is very important to communicate with those we are going to defend, otherwise, we can hurt them, or put them in jeopardy”, says Hans Gravaas of the Stefanus Alliance International. 

Salama Baptist Church in Ancha lost 19 of its members in the massacre, nine children. “We found that those killed were from three households”, a survivor said.

Laden Nouri (Iran) first learned about Christianity through her newly converted cousin. After becoming a follower of Jesus, she helped start house churches and ended up in jail. Watch her story.

Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them.

The UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting. “Dialogue and understanding is the right and moral way forward”, says World Evangelical Alliance.

Conversions are growing especially among the youth. Religious leaders have slammed government officials "for their negligence to stop the spread of Christianity."

According to the US State Department annual report, "almost 80% of the global population live with restrictions to limit their freedom of religion.”

There has been 410 reported incidents, while there were 441 in total in 2016. “Attackers know they will not be punished”, Open Doors says.

She was arrested in January 2013. Since 2016, a dozen Christians have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges related to house-church activities.

Government of the Henan province orders 20,000 registered house church members to join the Three-Self Church, and ban foreign students from practising their religious beliefs.

Hard-line Muslims have been fighting construction of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God building since 2009, having demolished the partially built structure twice before then.

Three months ago, Hinduist activists videotaped pastor Sultan Masih as they accused him of paying people to convert to Christianity. Family receives support of police and government. 

The government often uses this accusation against converts instead of the charge of apostasy, in an attempt to avoid international scrutiny.

One minor was held for 25 days, another is  still in custody, along with five adult volunteers.

Between eight and ten gunmen attack a bus carrying Coptic Christian to a monastery in Minya. Egyptian Christians have been violently persecuted in the last months.

Hassan Taour and Abdulmonem Abdumawla had been accused of espionage. Czech aid worker Petr Jasek received a presidential pardon in Februrary.

‘Ahok’ is sentenced to two years of prison. The judges say the Christian politician “has caused anxiety, hurt Islam and divided Muslims.” Islamic radicals increase pressure on Christians.

The man and his wife were selling girls for over 10 years.

We spoke with Protestant Christians who had had their electricity and water cut off, who had been removed from the local population registers, whose children had been prevented from attending school.