Missions Catalyst

Source: Mission Network News, March 5, 2024

Senior U.S. and Israeli leaders are meeting in Washington this week to discuss the Gaza crisis. The U.S. began humanitarian aid drops this weekend in the latest attempt to alleviate suffering.

Hamas officials have not agreed to a temporary ceasefire that Israel signed off on, so the war rages on, sending ripple effects throughout the region.

“Remember that whatever is happening in Gaza is affecting not only the surrounding countries but also the whole Middle East—Yemen, Dubai, Jordan, Egypt,” Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says.

“All over the Arab world, people are feeling it.”

The timing of Israel’s potential expansion into Rafah has some Middle Eastern leaders on edge. Ramadan—the Islamic month of fasting—begins the same day Israel vows to begin its assault on Rafah.

Read the full story. Other sources are also reporting uneasiness across the region.

Please take a minute to watch this video from INcontext and pray.

Source: Evangelical Focus, February 27, 2024

A Christian ministry lost 11 of its members in a traffic accident in Tanzania (Africa) on Saturday, November 24.

“Leaders and students” taking part of a masters program of YWAM were “on a field trip with other local YWAMers” near the city of Arusha. “One mini-bus was struck and overrun by a large truck with failing brakes,” YWAM Ships Kona said.

“Five injured individuals are still hospitalized and two more people in critical condition to be rallied around in prayer,” an update the day after the incident said.

Other media, citing official sources in the country, confirm that a total of 25 people died: one girl, 10 women, and 14 men. Among the dead were an American, a South African, and a Kenyan. The injured included people from Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Switzerland, the U.K., and Mali.

Local and international leaders of YWAM were trying to respond to the tragedy on the ground with details of repatriation, medical evacuation, family support, and funeral arrangements.

YWAM has opened a link for donations to help pay for expenses that are expected to rise to US$350,000.

Read the full story with prayer points.

In a February 26 letter, YWAM Cofounder Darlene Cunningham said, “We have not seen a tragedy of this magnitude in all of YWAM’s history and we are all devastated.”

Source: Middle East Concern, March 5, 2024

Pastor Ourahmane is a senior pastor overseeing a number of churches and Bible schools in several areas of [Algeria], in addition to his responsibility as vice president of an association of more than 45 Protestant churches.

In March 2023, he was investigated by the authorities, after a small number of Christian families spent three days during a school holiday in a church compound under his supervision. The compound has a small church, which had been sealed in 2019 by an order from the governor of the province.

Pastor Ourahmane was not informed of the court hearing or the verdict (two years in prison and a fine) until mid-September 2023. He was charged with holding an unauthorized religious assembly (worship) and holding worship in a building not permitted for worship. The charges are based on two articles of the Ordinance to Regulate non-Muslim Worship, enacted in 2006.

On November 19, there was hearing appealing the verdict [but] the sentence was upheld. Pastor Ourahmane has filed a further appeal.

Prosecuting the vice president of the EPA is an escalation of a campaign, started in 2017, to close Protestant churches and harass leaders. Only a handful of churches are still open. Several Christians, especially church leaders, have faced court cases on different charges.

Read the full story.

See also Africa’s Largest Mosque Inaugurated in Algeria After Years of Delays (The Guardian). It features the world’s tallest minaret and its prayer room can accommodate 120,000 people.

Source: Radio Free Europe, February 25, 2024

Exorcism is a key source of income for Sabohiddin Shodiev, a popular cleric in his rural community on the outskirts of Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Shodiev—not his real name—says that every week he treats about 15 clients who ask him to expel what they believe is an evil spirit, or jinni, possessing them, or to rid them [of] “an evil eye.”

The 53-year-old cleric has been practicing exorcisms—which he learned to do from his father—for more than two decades. Most of Shodiev’s clients come from Dushanbe and nearby districts, but some travel from faraway regions to seek his help.

Three Tajik clerics who spoke to RFE/RL claimed the demand for exorcisms is on the rise in the predominately Muslim country.

There are no official statistics in Tajikistan on exorcisms or the number of people performing the centuries-old practice, which survived decades of religious crackdowns during the atheistic Soviet era and most recently the Tajik government’s attempts to restrict exorcisms.

Some Tajiks see the ongoing efforts by the secular government as a way to keep a tab on “all things religious.” As part of that campaign, Islamic hijabs have been banned in schools and offices, while growing a long or bushy beard is frowned upon for young men.

Read the full story.

(Copyright © 2024 RFE/RL, Inc. Used with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).

Also from Tajikistan, some there are speaking out about local popstars wearing immodest clothing (Eurasianet).