Todd Nettleton is on a mission to combat Christian persecution.
Nettleton, chief of media relations and message integration for the Voice of the Martyrs, reflected on the lead-up to the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians, which kicked off Nov. 2 and continues throughout the month.
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“It wasn’t the idea of the Voice of the Martyrs; it’s not a marketing scheme,” Nettleton said. “This is what persecuted Christians ask us to do. The first thing they ask us to do is to pray, and so the International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians is an answer to their number one request that we pray for them.”
VOM encouraged churches to participate in praying for the persecuted church, integrating this into their church activities.
“Different churches will do it differently, but the important thing is every church is praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters,” Nettleton said.
The effort underscores the importance of prayer — something that can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of life or become so routine its power is ignored or forgotten. But the persecuted church understands the weight and power of prayer.
“They understand the power of prayer maybe better than we do,” he said. “They’ve had their backs against the wall when all they can do is pray, and they’ve seen God come through and God answer those prayers.”
Ultimately, Nettleton said prayer must come first and foremost before anything else.
The persecution watchdog noted that he had recently been on a trip where he heard direct stories from Christians who have faced persecution.
“The one that stands out to me is a pastor from India who shared about the time when he was arrested under the anti-conversion law of his state,” he said. “He was put in prison because he had been warned and he kept on evangelizing. He kept on pastoring a church and, for some reason, they wanted to make an example of him. So the first seven days that he was in prison, he was beaten repeatedly.”
Nettleton continued, “They hung him upside down and two guards would beat him literally until they were too tired to continue.”
Despite the horrific beating, he said the pastor didn’t feel the pain — something he believes is miraculous.
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“God intervened and protected him and he didn’t feel the pain of that, which, again, is mind-blowing,” Nettleton said. “But then the story gets even better. So he’s beaten the first seven days of his imprisonment, and then the warden comes to him and says, ‘Hey, you know, I’m an equal opportunity warden, and, in my prison, we celebrate all the different religious festivals.’”
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Reprinted with permission from faithwire.com. Copyright © 2025 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
