{"id":5491,"date":"2025-12-19T17:22:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:22:53","slug":"central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"CENTRAL ASIA: Passionate Persecuted Christians Counting the Cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Marcus Fernandez, VOM’s Regional Leader for Central Asia, joins VOM Radio for the first time. He’ll share about the fast-growing church in Iran, the North Caucasus\u2014an area never before discussed on VOM Radio\u2014and how persecution is escalating in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Twenty years ago, Marcus witnessed the growth of the church in China, despite a season of intense persecution. He says he sees the same phenomenon today in Iran, where faithful believers are bold in sharing the gospel and distributing God’s Word\u2014and where there is intense persecution. He’ll share how Iranian Christians are seen as allies to Israel and, when arrested, often charged with espionage, a crime that carries the death penalty.<\/p>\n

The North Caucasus is a predominantly Muslim region of Russia. Marcus will share what it is like to be a Christian there. Listen for the story of Marcus meeting a believer in the region and sharing about the work of The Voice of the Martyrs to help persecuted Christians who sacrifice and suffer in order to follow Christ.<\/p>\n

“Is there any other option besides<\/em> that?” the brother asked. “There is no Christian in Dagestan that didn’t have to pay a price.”<\/p>\n

Marcus will share how a Christian leader says he’s never seen the level of brutality against Christians in Pakistan that he’s seeing now. Marcus will also share how we can pray for persecuted brothers and sisters in Pakistan, T\u00fcrkiye, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The number of believers needing a Bible in Iran and many other nations is increasing. If you’d like to be part of advancing toward the goal of a Bible for every believer, visit www.vomradio.net\/donate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The VOM App<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for your smartphone or tablet will help you pray daily for persecuted Christians in nations like North Korea, Nigeria and Bangladesh, as well as provide\u00a0free<\/u>\u00a0access to e-books, audiobooks, video content and feature films. Download the VOM App for your\u00a0iOS<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Android<\/strong><\/a> device today.<\/p>\n

Listen to this episode on VOMRadio.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Marcus Fernandez, VOM’s Regional Leader for Central Asia, joins VOM Radio for the first time. He’ll share about the fast-growing church in Iran, the North Caucasus\u2014an area never before discussed on VOM Radio\u2014and how persecution is escalating in Pakistan. Twenty years ago, Marcus witnessed the growth of the church in China, despite a season of intense persecution. He says he sees the same phenomenon today in Iran, where faithful believers are bold in sharing the gospel and distributing God’s Word\u2014and where there is intense persecution. He’ll share how Iranian Christians are seen as allies to Israel and, when arrested, often charged with espionage, a crime that carries the death penalty. The North Caucasus is a predominantly Muslim region of Russia. Marcus will share what it is like to be a Christian there. Listen for the story of Marcus meeting a believer in the region and sharing about the work of The Voice of the Martyrs to help persecuted Christians who sacrifice and suffer in order to follow Christ. “Is there any other option besides that?” the brother asked. “There is no Christian in Dagestan that didn’t have to pay a price.” Marcus will share how a Christian leader says he’s never seen the level of brutality against Christians in Pakistan that he’s seeing now. Marcus will also share how we can pray for persecuted brothers and sisters in Pakistan, T\u00fcrkiye, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The number of believers needing a Bible in Iran and many other nations is increasing. If you’d like to be part of advancing toward the goal of a Bible for every believer, visit www.vomradio.net\/donate. The VOM App\u00a0for your smartphone or tablet will help you pray daily for persecuted Christians in nations like North Korea, Nigeria and Bangladesh, as well as provide\u00a0free\u00a0access to e-books, audiobooks, video content and feature films. Download the VOM App for your\u00a0iOS\u00a0or\u00a0Android device today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-5491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vom-radio","tag-central-asia","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nCENTRAL ASIA: Passionate Persecuted Christians Counting the Cost - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CENTRAL ASIA: Passionate Persecuted Christians Counting the Cost - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week, Marcus Fernandez, VOM's Regional Leader for Central Asia, joins VOM Radio for the first time. 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Download the VOM App for your\u00a0iOS\u00a0or\u00a0Android device today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-19T17:22:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"CENTRAL ASIA: Passionate Persecuted Christians Counting the Cost\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-19T17:22:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\"},\"wordCount\":341,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.persecution.com\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/VOM-Stories-VOMRadio-Placeholder.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Central Asia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"VOM Radio\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/central-asia-passionate-persecuted-christians-counting-the-cost\/\",\"name\":\"CENTRAL ASIA: Passionate Persecuted Christians Counting the Cost - 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