NEW YEAR 2026: Encouraging Gatherings, Government Transitions and Praying for Persecuted Christians
VOMRadio
The Voice of the Martyrs
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Aaron Miller, Vice President of International Ministry at The Voice of the Martyrs, looks back to recount changes and transitions he saw during 2025 in places like Syria, Turkmenistan, Tanzania, and Saudi Arabia. He also shares stories of sitting down with fellow believers in hostile areas and restricted nations and how VOM's work expanded in countries such as Benin, Indonesia, Morocco, and western Nepal.
"In times of transition," Aaron says, "our staff sees opportunities." VOM's field staff is excited by the chance to reach new places, which allows them to learn the needs of our persecuted brothers and sisters, pray for them specifically and find the best ways VOM can serve.
You'll hear how VOM is facilitating gatherings where pastors and gospel workers meet brothers and sisters doing similar work in other closed countries. These gatherings are opportunities to hear testimonies, pray together and worship the Lord freely with other persecuted Christians.
Listen as Aaron shares sacred sentences written in a letter from an imprisoned pastor thanking VOM for taking care of his wife and children. "I want to thank you for ministering to orphans of living fathers," the pastor wrote, "ministering to widows of living husbands."
Hear how you can pray for the specific needs of persecuted Christians, and request your free copy of VOM's 2026 Global Prayer Guide to help you know how to pray throughout this year for Christians in India, Venezuela, and many more hostile areas and restricted nations.
The VOM App for your smartphone or tablet will help you pray daily in 2026 for persecuted Christians in nations like North Korea, Nigeria and Bangladesh, as well as provide free access to e-books, audiobooks, video content and feature films. Download the VOM App for your iOS or Android device today.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is one of the things that keeps me awake at night is that when we approve a project for Bible distribution or we approve a project for an evangelist to have a motorcycle or a bicycle or evangelistic materials, gospel materials to go because he's so willing to go into hard places, we understand when we approve that project, it could result in him or her being imprisoned, losing their life, physically being wounded and broken for a long, long time. |
| 0:29.6 | Those things are always weighing on us. |
| 0:32.6 | Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world |
| 0:39.5 | would hate them. He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus' words came true in the |
| 0:45.1 | life of the apostles, and they're still coming true today in the lives of his followers |
| 0:49.3 | around the world. Join host Todd Nettleton as we hear their inspiring stories and learn how how we can help right now on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network. |
| 0:58.0 | Welcome again to The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. |
| 1:00.0 | My name is Todd Nettleton. |
| 1:01.1 | We are starting out a brand new year in our studio in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and our guests this week, as we often do at the start of a new year. Our guest is Aaron Miller. He is the vice president |
| 1:12.5 | for international ministry here at the Voice of the Martyrs, overseeing all of our international |
| 1:17.9 | ministry work in more than 70 countries around the world. Aaron, welcome back to Voice of the Martyrs |
| 1:23.6 | Radio. Todd, thank you. Happy New Year to everybody. Happy new year to you as well. |
| 1:28.9 | Let's start out looking backwards. So we look back on 2025. As far as VOM's IM work, what are some |
| 1:36.9 | highlights, what are some things you'll remember as you look back the last 12 months? |
| 1:41.5 | Yeah, Todd, it was a, it was a great year. I had opportunities to travel. |
| 1:45.7 | Almost every one of my trips took me to a new country for my list. And, you know, Todd, you know, we keep lists, right? I have a list like that. We have a list. So my list of countries is growing, and that's great. That's fun to kind of keep track of. And really what I enjoyed about traveling to these places was |
| 2:01.7 | getting more connected to our brothers and sisters in the global body of Christ. It was amazing. |
| 2:07.2 | The places that God took me and the people that I had the opportunity to meet and fellowship with, |
| 2:12.5 | pray with, laugh with, cry with, talk about scriptures with. It really was a blessing for me. And one of the |
| 2:19.8 | things that happens when I get to do that is often, as we ask the people, hey, how can we pray for |
| 2:26.2 | you? They will then turn that around and say, well, we want to pray for you. So I've had my family, |
| 2:31.7 | in 2025, I had my family prayed for by our persecuted brothers and sisters from around the world. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Voice of the Martyrs, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Voice of the Martyrs and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.