Author: MC

Source: Morning Star News, June 27, 2024

Village officials in central Laos on Saturday, June 22, arrested a pastor and five other Christians as they prayed in preparation for worship services the next day, according to Sirikoon Prasertsee, director of Human Rights Watcher for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

“The arrests took place on Saturday at [Pastor] Mum’s home while they were meeting for prayer in preparation for Sunday morning worship on the following day,” Prasertsee said. “They are currently being imprisoned in Xaibouathong District prison.”

She identified the other five Lao Christians as Liang, a 40-year-old man; Pa, a 24-year-old man; Laen, a 50-year-old woman; Lan, a 23-year-old woman; and Khoon, a 28-year-old woman.

After Pastor Mum put his faith in Christ in 2019 upon experiencing God’s healing, he established a church that worshiped freely in his home until a new village chief, identified only as Lang, took office in May, she said.

Article 30 of the Lao Constitution recognizes the right and freedom of Lao citizens “to believe or not to believe in religion,” she noted.

Read the full story or a related article from International Christian Concern. Can we pray for these believers? We looked for an update to see if they have been released but did not find one.

Source: United Bible Societies, June 19, 2024

The Bible Society in Botswana recently completed the Shekgalagari New Testament in collaboration with Lutheran Bible Translators, finishing the first translation of the Scriptures in Shekgalagari [spoken by more than 78,000 Bakgalagari people].

Ofentse Collen Maruping, General Secretary and CEO of the Bible Society in Botswana, is excited about this new translation:

“Our hope for the speakers of Shekgalagari is that this newly published New Testament allows them to connect with God’s Word in a way that opens hearts and minds to the gospel. We have already been greatly encouraged by the response to this New Testament and are looking forward to its distribution to Shekgalagari-speaking areas.”

Read the full story, which provides additional context for this accomplishment and adds that in addition to printed Bibles, the group also began distributing audio Bibles and a smartphone app—significant factors in increasing Scripture engagement.

Source: Mission Network News, June 28, 2024

To fully understand God’s Word, some people need to hear Scripture instead of reading it. “The majority of the world is like me in that we are oral learners,” says Darrell Templeton [of MegaVoice, a company that produces audio Bible equipment].

“There’s something about hearing the Word that differs from reading.”

Templeton recently met an Algerian doctor during an overseas trip, and the two started a conversation. Templeton asked the doctor what language he spoke growing up, and when he answered, “Kabyle,” Templeton handed him an audio Bible.

“I had recently gotten the Kabyle New Testament recording [so] I asked him, ‘Would you please listen to this and tell me [if] it is Kabyle, and if it’s a good accent? Is it acceptable?’” Templeton says.

When the doctor put some headphones on and pressed play, everything changed. “When he started listening to it, it was like someone shot him. I mean, he just crumpled to the floor and began sobbing. It was several minutes before he could talk,” Templeton says.

“This doctor spoke eight languages fluently, but for the first time in his life, he heard God’s Word in his heart language.”

Stories like these happen repeatedly as believers introduce people to Scripture in their heart language for the first time.

“The challenge is to get all these languages recorded because most of these remaining languages are small minority languages and don’t even have an orthography. So, for most of these people, it will have to be an audio Bible.”

Read the full story.

See also a report about Australian Aboriginal people hearing God’s Word for the first time (Global Recordings Network).

Source: Back to Jerusalem, June 20, 2024

Since Vietnam became a Communist country, the Christians have lived under some of the most extreme persecution, but today, that is all changing. In the last couple of years, Vietnamese Christians have seen more religious freedom than at any time in recent history.

In March of this year, BTJ hosted a Business as Mission Conference in Vietnam where more than 250 Christian businessmen and women from around the country squeezed into a meeting room at a hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh [City] to learn how to use their businesses to grow the kingdom.

“The church is growing,” said Pastor David, a local Vietnamese pastor who oversees a network of about 10,000 believers. “We are seeing God move in Vietnam like never before.”

After the BTJ business conference, Pastor David invited Chinese underground pastors to speak at several house churches throughout the city. “We have a lot in common with our brothers and sisters in Vietnam,” said one Chinese pastor. “We have been through periods of similar persecution.”

However, the Chinese believers were surprised at the freedom the Vietnamese enjoy today. Pastor David, who [was] on the run from the government only 15 years ago, is now openly preaching, planting churches, baptizing new believers, and even launching registered Bible schools to train pastors for ministry in remote minority areas.

Read the full story. 
 
Editor’s note: BTJ’s headline asserted “massive church growth,” so we had to check it out. By some estimates, the number of Protestant believers in Vietnam has increased by 600 percent over the past ten years, primarily (perhaps almost entirely?) among ethnic minorities. Overall, 8% of the nation identifies as Christian, primarily Catholic.

Yet some populations have very few believers, and the struggle for religious liberty is not over. See reports about recent challenges (Morning Star News).