Category: News Briefs

Source: International Christian Concern, May 18, 2021

Algerian government restrictions on Christians in 2018 began with the closure of 13 churches. Now, all Protestant churches remain closed and individual Christians are bearing the brunt of government persecution.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Algeria, Protestant churches have remained closed under “safety” guidelines, although mosques and the Catholic Church have been allowed to restart their worship gatherings inside. The Ministry of Religious Affairs informed the EPA that it was not their responsibility to address the reopening of the churches, but did not indicate another party responsible, and the UN Algerian ambassador commented that it was, in fact, their duty.

[Currently] the Algerian Protestant Church operates almost entirely online with two services per week, active social media, and virtual prayer meetings and training.

Read the full story and lift up Algeria.

According to Middle East Concern, Algerian Christians are celebrating the return of an appropriated church building but asking for continued prayer for their situation.

Source: Morning Star News, April 28, 2021

In a ploy to revoke the registration of Christian organizations and shrink their influence, Hindu extremists in Nepal have forged a document as if from Christian groups portraying them as seeking ethnic divisions to gain converts, sources said.

The document falsely attributed to the Nepal Christian Society and the National Churches Fellowship of Nepal asserts that unless they can cause divisions in the upper-caste Brahmin and Chhetri communities, conversions to Christianity are not possible, said Mukunda Sharma, executive secretary of Nepal Christian Society.

After the fabricated document went viral on social media, members of the Hindu nationalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) used it to demand that registrations of Christian charities be canceled, Sharma said.

Reportedly appearing first on Hindu nationalist leaders’ Facebook accounts on April 5, the fake document soon went viral.

The full story goes into more detail on how and why this happened.

Source: Assemblies of God Missions, May 6, 2021

Civil Air Patrol Capt. Leia Eisenhower says her father’s church planting efforts led to her own innovative spiritual path: an online Instagram discipleship ministry reaching over 100,000 people with the gospel.

Eisenhower, 47, grew up in Bahia, Brazil. Her father, Eugenio Felix, launched more than 30 churches and also served as an Assemblies of God presbyter in South America’s largest nation.

“My father taught me that I couldn’t just read the Bible. I needed to explain it,” she says. Eisenhower says God answered her father’s prayers for her by calling her to ministry at the age of 14. She went on to attend Assemblies of God Brazilian Theological Seminary and served as a Brazilian missionary before coming to the United States in 2002 [and eventually became a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol, currently based in New York].

Eisenhower wrote a book in 2019 called My Neighbors: The Theology of Relationships. The book, available in Spanish, Bemba, and English, uses the parable of the Good Samaritan to discuss relationships.

After [a] pandemic lock down, Eisenhower looked for the best way to teach classes based on her book. She chose Instagram’s platform for its worldwide reach and accessibility of communication through direct messages.

“I started to record a class with the Bible as my foundation, and the discipleship part began growing so fast I had to assign people to do things,” she says. “I began recording the class in different languages and having it translated. Every night I would get on Instagram and do a midnight prayer live.”

Within a year, she says over 100,000 people followed her discipleship messages and more than 100 have accepted Christ as Savior.

Read the full story.

For more on the ministry of military chaplains, see Burkina Faso’s Seven Army Chaplains Struggle Amid Jihadist Attacks (Christianity Today).

Source: The Alliance for the Unreached, May 14, 2021

On May 23, 2021, the Alliance for the Unreached, a nonprofit collective made up of 50+ organizations, is inviting people across the US to join a Facebook Live event at 1:11 pm (in each US time zone). This event will kick off the 1:11 Prayer Challenge, which is part of the “A Third of Us” movement. A Third of Us raises awareness for the one third of all people still without access to the Bible, the Church, and other believers.

Throughout the day on May 23, the Alliance will release exclusive video chats with David Platt, Francis Chan, and others, offering a more personal look at this issue.

During the 1:11 Prayer Challenge, participants will be asked to pause at 1:11 pm each day for 33 days to pray for the “third of us” who have no access to the message of Jesus. The Alliance for the Unreached chose May 23 to kick off the challenge because it is the International Day for the Unreached, recognized each year on Pentecost Sunday.

Learn more or download prayer materials and an action guide. You can also follow A Third of Us on social media e.g., instagram.com/athirdofus.

Source: ASSIST News Service, May 18, 2021

Since lockdown began last year Calvary Temple Church in Hyderabad, with more than 330,000 members, has distributed 700 tons of food supplies to families in desperate need. Now, as India is in the grip of a devastating second wave, their church building has been converted into a 300-bed COVID Care Center.

“We admit anyone who knock on our door regardless of caste, creed, race and religion we admit them,” Calvary Temple Pastor Dr. P. Satish Kumar told the Global News Alliance (click link for video).

“And we try to provide needed treatment. The response has been tremendous. They believe they are in God’s presence, in God’s temple. Most of the people pray here and then seek God’s help and encourage each other. And it has been a wonderful experience in showing the love of Christ to all these needy ones.”

“God is love and God is expecting us to show His love in action. We don’t convert people but we direct people to the One who created them so that they will find a way and find peace and happiness.”

Read the full story.

See also an inspiring story from Haiti about servant leaders changing their nation, working through churches (Development Associates International).

Source: International Mission Board, May 12, 2021

[Jay and Kathy] Shafto are reaching seven people groups in the Congo Basin without Scripture through the Kikwit Oral Bible Storying Project. Among these people groups are the Ngongo. There are approximately 200,000 Ngongo language speakers and no written Bible in their language. The Kikwit Oral Bible Storying Project is a two-to-three-year project with the end goal of equipping believers with the ability to share Bible stories in their heart language.

The Shaftos and their partners in the Congo Basin will host three to four workshops each year for the Kikwit Project. Each workshop is two weeks long and ends with believers from each specific people group professionally recording the 35-40 Bible stories they learned in their heart language. The believers then share these stories with others.

Orality is key in sharing the gospel, said the Shaftos. They have witnessed the impact of people in the Congo Basin hearing the gospel in story form in their own language.

“While there are churches in the Ngongo region, many of the Ngongo haven’t heard the gospel in their own language,” said Jay. “We are seeing phenomenal results within the Ngongo churches and among the Ngongo simply because they are able to hear the gospel in their own language and context.”

The full story includes a short video.

From another part of Africa, read about a Ugandan pastor killed after leading 14 people to Christ following a public debate on Islam and Christianity (Morning Star News).

Source: Open Doors, May 5, 2021

Growing up as a strict Muslim in Iran, Taher always felt like there was something more—something he was missing in his life. But it wasn’t until his youngest daughter, Farah, became deathly ill with stomach issues that things dramatically changed.

Taher and Donya took Farah to many Muslim leaders for prayer and healing, but nothing helped. Desperate to see their 10-year-old daughter survive, Donya asked some Christian friends she knew to pray for Farah. They met together, and these believers put their hands on her daughter as they prayed. Shortly after this special gathering, God miraculously healed Farah. After this moment, Donya left Islam to follow Jesus, but Taher still wasn’t convinced. “I was looking for mistakes to prove to my wife that the path she took was wrong,” Taher shares.

As time went on, Taher let other Christians into their home. “After a while, I decided to participate in one of their services in order to find mistakes in their beliefs. I wanted to find flaws in their character and point them out to my wife and forbid her to go to these gatherings,” Taher says.

But during one of these unique worship times in his home, something surprising happened. Taher said a small prayer before he confronted the believers in the room. “I said to myself: ‘Jesus, if you are real, you should touch me today.’”

A few moments later, one of the Christians asked Taher if they could pray for him. He agreed and they gathered around him.

That moment forever changed his life.

Read the full story and watch the nine-minute video “I Surrender All: A Family’s Impossible Choice in Iran” to learn more.

Source: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, May 11, 2021

On April 25, armed rebels in Papua’s Puncak Regency shot and killed a leading Indonesian Intelligence official. Indonesian President Joko Widodo immediately called for retaliation and had Papuan armed criminal groups (KKB) designated “terrorists,” a label used to justify extreme measures. Among the hundreds of extra troops being deployed to Papua is the 400-strong elite Infantry 315/Garuda Battalion which earned its nickname “Satan’s Forces” while fighting in East Timor.

Internet and telecommunication services have been disrupted and the region’s indigenous, predominately Christian Papuans are fleeing into the jungle and bracing yet again for a new wave of state terror designed to silence dissent and crush hope. Please pray.

The full report includes lots of links and analysis as well as prayer points.

Source: Pioneers USA, May 15, 2021

A group of Christians and Muslims drops down into one of the longest slot canyons in the world, at the start of a week-long, 50-mile hike together. They eat, sleep, climb, laugh and argue, all while hiking through an ice-cold river in a 1,000-foot canyon. The goal: to survive, build relationships and seek God together.

Watch the video.