According to one report, an average of 13 Christians dies for their faith every day.  Today, Sunday, November 5, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

“One of the things I find most important about this day is that it wasn’t the idea of The Voice of the Martyrs. It wasn’t the idea of American Christians,” Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says.

“This is what persecuted Christians asked us to do.”

VOM USA serves persecuted Christians in the world’s most difficult and dangerous places. It’s too late to order print resources, but you can get free sermon notes, study guides, bulletin inserts, and more by request.

“Voice of the Martyrs has a plethora of resources for the International Day of Prayer available digitally. Share them with your pastor, whoever leads your small group, and tell him, ‘Hey, this is coming up; I want to make sure our church is involved,’” Nettleton says.

“Pastors like to hear from people in their congregation about things that are important to them. Let your pastor know this is important to you.”

Nettleton says, “The goal of the video is simply to put a name and a face on the people we’re praying for so that we can pray more knowledgeably and effectively, rather than [saying,] ‘God bless persecuted Christians,’ and we don’t know what they’re going through, who they are, or what they look like.”

It’s not too late to involve your church or small group in prayer for persecuted Christians.

“If you’re in leadership at a church, maybe you’ve already planned everything that will happen on November 5 and can’t do it that day.  Okay then, pick November 12 or November 19,” Nettleton says.

“Make sure your church is praying for our persecuted families during November.”

Information courtesy of Mission Network News and Voice of the Martyrs