Missions Catalyst

Missions Catalyst News Briefs 2025.01.15

1. India, China, Tibet… Praying for Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims
2. World: Digital Nomads as Global Marketplace Multipliers
3. Colombia: Pastor and His Family Killed in Heartbreaking Loss
4. Bhutan: God Answers Prayers on a College Campus
5. USA: A Taste of Heaven Right There on Death Row

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It started this week—the Kumbh Mela, a massive Hindu festival touted as the world’s largest religious gathering. Between now and February 26, at least 400 million people are expected to visit the confluence of three holy rivers. Many of these pilgrims are spiritually hungry. Pray they will have dreams and visions of Jesus that will lead them to the Good News.

As we mentioned in last week’s Missions Catalyst, some are also taking time this month to pray for the Buddhist world. Check out 21 Days of Prayer for the Buddhist World, January 9-29 and consider joining prayer events for the Buddhist world on January 29 (Chinese New Year). Pray for the gospel to spread in Tibet, where an earthquake in a sacred city killed more than 126 people, displacing many more (BBC).

The 30 days of prayer for the Muslim world sneaks up on us earlier every year due to the lunar calendar. This year, it’s February 28 to March 29. Will you pray for Muslims during Ramadan? Consider ordering a prayer guide booklet or PDF such as those from World Prayer Guides.

Source: Global Partners, January 1, 2025

A digital nomad is a location-independent worker who leverages mobile technology to live and work remotely from somewhere in the world that has sufficient internet and travel options for them to do their job.

Why should those who care about increasing access to the gospel be interested in the idea of digital nomads? Well, the answer is simple: many of the more unreached places in the world are also places that are hard to get a job in. Being a digital nomad gives someone another way in.

Read the full story.

A recent article in Mission Frontiers asserts, “Millions of ordinary Christians from Majority World churches are finding employment around the globe [and] have access to millions from unreached lands who are also in the economic diaspora, as well as to the people of the host countries.” The whole edition is on mission and migration.

Speaking of ways the gospel can cross new frontiers, read YouVersion Bible App Hits Record 798K Installations in Single Day. January 5, 2025 was their best day ever, and the largest increases were in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East (The Christian Post).

Source: Crosswalk, January 2, 2025

An evangelical pastor and his family were killed [December 29] in Colombia after a gunman on a motorcycle shot them as they were eating outside a restaurant after a church service. As reported by The Christian Post, the gunman killed Pastor Marlon Lora of the Prince of Peace Villaparaguay Church, his wife, Yorley Rincon, and 24-year-old daughter, Angela Lora Rincón, in the municipality of Aguachica. Meanwhile, their 21-year-old son, Santiago Lora Rincón, was injured in the shooting.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Lora and his church belonged to the Missionaries Biblical Churches denomination, in which he visited and managed nearly three dozen congregations in various parts of the country.

The full story reports that discrimination and threats against religious leaders have been on the rise in Colombia. Let’s pray for Colombia.

Source: God Reports, December 31, 2025

Evangelizing is prohibited in Bhutan. Being a Christian is also illegal in the Buddhist nation. But Pastor Rajiv, who lives outside the country in a border town, has been reaching Bhutanese for Christ for over 10 years.

“Christianity is not a permitted religion,” Pastor Rajiv explained on a Voice of the Martyrs radio show. “In a way, it is illegal to be a Christian.”

[One of his strategies has been] to enter the country as a tourist and, visiting different colleges and schools, consistently praying for a Bible study at each. And God answered; Bible studies have been initiated at all 15 universities.

To launch a Bible study at a certain prestigious science and technology university, Rajiv was “praying and wondering” when the fruit would appear.

He was holding a food and volleyball fellowship at his home one evening and a first-time visitor, a freshman, enjoyed himself so much that he pledged to start a Bible study in his senior year.

It came faster than that. In his sophomore year, he was playing Christian music in his room to see if anybody would come to him identifying as a Christian. A freshman came in his room and said, “I like this music.”

“So, you are a Christian?” he asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

Next, the freshman gathered all his courage to kneel and pray before turning in for the night. After he prayed, to his surprise he saw the three other roommates were praying and kneeling—they, too, were believers. The Bible study was born.

Read the full story or click on the link above to listen to the related podcast episode.

Source: Movements, January 13, 2025

They’d run out of protective vests, so our visit to death row was limited to one unit.

Usually, the prisoners were locked up in the individual cells 23 hours a day. They aren’t allowed to socialize. Each one would take one hour of exercise alone. All that had changed in response to what God was doing.

When we arrived, there were eight men waiting for us in their day room. We stood a meter away behind a yellow line. They stood behind a barred wall.

They were full of the love and life of God—white, black, Hispanic, Asian. It was a taste of heaven right there on death row. God’s glory was shining out from these men’s lives. I wanted to cross that yellow line, put my hands through the bars, and embrace these brothers.

They wanted to tell us what God was doing. “We don’t call this death row; we call it life row. This is where we found Jesus.”

In three years, 24 men have been executed on death row, 20 of them were disciples.

Read the full story and/or listen to the related podcast episode. Poignant. And it sounds like a book of stories about what God is doing in prisons worldwide is in the works. A different kind of insider movements? Stay tuned.

Readers might also be interested an article about youth ministry in the U.S. asking, “Is America experiencing a revival?” Spoiler alert: not yet, but there are encouraging signs (Greg Stier, via Outreach Magazine).