Members of India’s Naxalite political group have killed another evangelist in India’s Odisha state. Pastor Saanvi had shared the gospel in villages near his home for the past six years as a bi-vocational minister, even planting house churches in two of the villages. Though members of the local Naxalite group, who subscribe to a Marxist-Leninist political philosophy, had repeatedly warned him to stop his ministry work, he continued to tell his neighbors about Jesus. Then, one evening, the Naxalites appeared at Saanvi’s door and asked him to accompany them. Sensing something was wrong, his wife, Saisha, followed at a distance, carrying their two children. When she saw her husband tied to a tree, she began pleading with them to let Saanvi go. Instead, however, they beheaded him in front of her and their children. Please pray for this young woman, who is grieving the loss of her husband.

A group of displaced Hmong believers joyfully received a gift of Bibles earlier this year. The Christians, who relocated to central Vietnam after facing severe persecution in the Hmong ethnic region of northern Vietnam, are now viewed as squatters and are refused the rights of legal citizens. Earlier this year, VOM contacts provided them with audio bibles on digital music players, enabling those who can’t read to hear God’s Word in their own language. Because of their cooperation with American forces during the Vietnam War, the Hmong are still treated as American spies and are assumed to be opposed to Vietnam’s government. Openly proclaiming faith in Christ adds to their problems. Pray that all Hmong believers will be strengthened by God’s Word.

An underground Bible school for former Muslim women who have come to faith in Christ has experienced significant growth in the past year. The Bible school, founded by three former Muslim women, has grown to several thousand students simply by word of mouth. Some of the women have not told their families they have become Christians, and they fear the reaction of their family members if they are found out. However, the freedom they have found in Christ is worth the sacrifice. Pray for those teaching these women, and pray for the women themselves as they learn to become disciples of Christ.