Category: News Briefs

Source: International Christian Concern, July 7, 2021

On June 19, Zhejiang Province’s state security officers arrested Chen Wensheng, a Christian from Hengyang City, Hunan province. After transporting him back to Hengyang, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities held Mr. Chen for ten days under residential surveillance at the West Lake Resort.

During his detainment, the Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs leaders and the State Security department interrogated Mr. Chen. They tried to get him to stop preaching the gospel on the streets.

Mr. Chen was released on July 8. Throughout his time detained, CCP security officers communicated with him almost continuously. They told MR. Chen that they knew exactly where he had preached the gospel over the last two decades.

According to China Aid, CCP authorities knew all of the trips Mr. Chen had made in that timeline to different places throughout China, as well as the individuals who had traveled with him. The officers even had documented when Mr. Chen had traveled with four other Christians through numerous countries on their way to Tibet, where they preached the gospel.

In response to this unsettling information, Mr. Chen recently said, “Thank God for the CCP’s thorough knowledge of the fact that I go to different places to preach the gospel. They recounted my record as if they were enumerating the heirlooms of their own family. Authorities also told me that by 2021, I had been to other regions to proclaim the gospel more than 1,000 times.”

Read the full story.

Regarding China, see More Nations Formally Recognizing the Genocide Against Uyghurs in China (Jubilee Campaign), On The Uyghur Genocide (Southern Baptist Convention), Is This China’s Final Solution for the Uyghurs? (Mission Frontiers) and Where Are the Voices of Central Asian and Russian Uyghurs? (Global Voices).

Source: God Reports, June 10, 2021

Every day a “JESUS” film team here begins their ministry with the same prayer. “Holy Spirit, where should we go today?” One day as they walked and prayed, they heard the voices of children. Following the sound, the team entered a compound filled with children and began talking to them about Jesus.

The police heard what they were doing, moved in, and arrested them. Before being hauled away a team member had the presence of mind to quickly turn on a NewLifeBox in his backpack… leaving the backpack behind.

[Later] the team made their way back to the compound to retrieve the backpack. To their amazement hundreds of children were quiet, sitting in groups, eyes fixed on their smartphones, watching something…but what?

As they got closer, their best hope was confirmed: the children were watching the film “JESUS” on their phones. You see, the battery-powered NewLifeBox they left behind creates a Wi-Fi hotspot, inviting anyone looking for a hotspot, and within 150 feet, to watch a film about Jesus.

Later, the team learned that the compound was a training center for the children of wealthy militants.

Read the full story or see the original report from Jesus Film Project.

Showing the JESUS Film to children without their parents knowing may make us squirm, but consider reports that a recent massacre in Burkina Faso was carried out mostly by children, according to the UN and the country’s government. More than 130 people were killed (The Guardian).

Source: Frontiers USA, July 7, 2021

“Do you know anything about Jesus Christ?” asked Ismail, a Muslim stranger standing at Driss’s door.

Ismail explained that Jesus had appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to come to this exact house to learn about Him.

Driss invited him in and told Ismail that he had recently become a follower of Jesus. He wasn’t sure he could answer all of Ismail’s questions. But he would certainly try. Driss felt excited at the chance to try answering Ismail’s questions about Christ.

Then Ismail explained that he was an Islamic scholar, and Driss panicked.

Driss was an uneducated man, and he worried that his answers would sound foolish to the high-status religious leader. The new believer had been studying God’s Word with Joseph, a Frontiers worker. But Driss knew he still had much to learn from the Bible.

“I have a friend who knows more about Jesus than I do,” Driss backpedaled. “He can answer your questions better than I can.” He called Joseph and asked him to come over.

When Joseph arrived, Ismail asked him question after question. Their discussion lasted hours. Ismail kept asking to hear more about Jesus.

Finally, Joseph suggested they finish for the day. Then he said, “But I think you two should meet together and study God’s Word to learn more.”

Again, Driss felt panic rising inside him. “Joseph is sending me to the wolves,” he thought. “I’m a simple man. I’ll certainly fail!”

Read the full story to find out what happened next.

Source: Jeff Frazee, via World Venture, June 26, 2021

The Syenara people of Mali are subsistence farmers and animists. Numbering about 200,000 people, they are one of about 30 dialects of the Senoufo people of West Africa are a subgroup of the Senoufo people of West Africa. The Syenara speak to their idols in their own language, but they speak to Allah only in Arabic, which they don’t understand.

Let us ask God to make himself known as the loving father he is, that he might be worshiped rightly in their language, too.

Read about a visit to the Syenara and watch the short (4.5-minute) video, Syenara Prayer, below.

Source: International Christian Concern, July 3, 2021

On July 3, Christians of all denominations in India [celebrated] the first Indian Christian Day. According to the founders of the event, July 3 was chosen because it is traditionally observed as Saint Thomas Day, the day celebrating Saint Thomas the Apostle who came to India in 52 AD and brought the message of Jesus.

“By marking it in 2021, and every year henceforth, we, as followers of Jesus, can preserve our identity within India’s cultural heritage, while uniting with all those who wish to celebrate it, irrespective of language, custom, creed, region, or religion,” the event’s founders claimed.

Father Babu Joseph, a former spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said the initiative will also help Christianity overcome the false narratives spread by Hindu nationalists.

“This is an important step in making Christianity part of Indian history and ethos,” Father Joseph told Asia News. “In light of attempts by some right-wing organizations to create the impression that Christianity is foreign in India, it is necessary to highlight its antiquity in the country.”

Read the full story and visit the website for Indian Christian Day, which adds that the observance launches a decade of celebration leading up to the 2000th anniversary of the earthly ministry of Jesus.

See also results of a Pew Research Center survey that asked 30,000 Indians from six religions about their attitudes toward other religions.

Finally, intercede for the church in neighboring Nepal as they navigate a leadership crisis. The Nepali church has lost more than 130 pastors to COVID-19 during a second wave of the pandemic (Christianity Today).

Source: Mission Network News, June 29, 2021

Earlier this month, religious minorities in Bangladesh gathered for the annual Black Day protests. They want Islam to no longer be given the status of state religion, which it has held since 1988.

Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists in the country point out the original constitution still calls Bangladesh a secular state, contradicting the amendment [that declares Islam the state religion]. Ultimately, they want the amendment removed from the constitution. In the meantime, they want a minority commission established to help protect against injustice.

Ask God to give Christians in Bangladesh grace and wisdom. Pray that they would know when to speak up for their rights and when to live quietly.

Read the full story.

Bangladesh is also seeing a huge surge of COVID cases (NPR) with migrant workers recently scrambling to leave Dhaka and return to their villages (South China Morning Post).

See also Pray for COVID-19 Hotspot Nations (INcontext Ministries).

Source: Mobile Ministry Forum, June 2021

Pedro is a church planter working among the Yao people. They are an unreached people group with three million people living in Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania.

Recently, the COVID-19 travel lockdowns have made it difficult for Pedro and his team to reach the remote villages where they had seen God moving powerfully.

Pedro knew that one of the major cell companies was offering [US$8] phones, along with cheap phone lines that gave unlimited talk minutes very inexpensively. He also saw that there were now Bluetooth speakers selling for only US$10-15. What could be done if, in the midst of COVID-19 travel restrictions,  he combined the Discovery Bible Study model with pairs of these low cost phones and speakers, if they could be distributed among widespread villages? 

The results have been amazing. Groups gather at a set time in villages, then Pedro calls their mobile phone. Seated around the phone and speaker, the group can hear Pedro and interact, ask questions, and have fellowship. With this method, Pedro has been able to reach people in villages hundreds of kilometers away. Pedro and his trained movement leaders now use this mobile media package to increase their sphere of ministry. Hundreds of new Yao believers have joined the movement since the pandemic hit their country. In two weeks, 300 people came to the Lord.

Read the full story.

You might also be interested in a case study about digital outreach ministry in several countries of Southern Europe (Media to Movements).

Note that media ministry may be difficult or even illegal in some places. Back to Jerusalem reports that North Korea is cracking down on the use of Chinese-made mobile phones, as the authorities equate international phone communication with espionage. You’ll have to read their story (or another from Daily NK) to learn about a surprising connection to the country’s annual “Struggle Against US Imperialism” month observance.

Source: Haggai International, July 2021

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:17

Mongolia boasts some of the highest peaks in the world, and it is also the home of Haggai [ministry] leader Lkhagva-Erdene Namkhaidorj. An extreme mountain climber, Lkhagva-Erdene is no stranger to setting audacious goals and pushing through adversity. When she attended the Haggai Leader Experience in 2017, she realized that her passion for climbing could be woven together with her desire to advance the gospel.

“I have been hiking and climbing mountains since 2012. Before Haggai, I climbed by myself for sheer pleasure. After I came back to Mongolia, I started to contact some mountaineers and hike with them. I wanted to witness through my life and behavior.”

[Now] she has helped equip more than 100 leaders.

Many mountains are considered sacred in Mongolia, and when members of her expedition team asked why Lkhagva-Erdene didn’t participate in their religious rituals, she was able to share the gospel: “As soon as I get to any peak of the mountain, I worship the Creator of the mountain, the living God.”

Read the full story, with pictures.

See also Serving in Rural Mongolia (Pioneers Australia).

Source: World Relief, June 10, 2021

I never expected to be a refugee. I joined a university when I was 18 years old, enrolling in the English department at Basra (the Port of Iraq). At the end of my time there, I graduated second in my department. After graduation, I stayed two more years as a researcher’s assistant and then five more years when I was accepted for my master’s in the linguistics program.

I became a professor in 1987 and moved to Baghdad in 1992 to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students of the English Department at Baghdad University College of Education for Women. Life felt almost perfect.

Then, in 2003, the unexpected happened. The United States invaded Iraq. This is when my life would change forever.

In hopes to rebuild my country, I stayed three years after the US military arrived. However, the targeted people were the Iraqi brains. Doctors, professors, scientists and engineers were receiving life threats daily. I knew it was only a matter of time before they reached me.

The full story describes what life was like for Amira when she and her family arrived in the US. See also 8 Things You Should Know About Refugees (free ebook).