Category: News Briefs

Source: Alliance for the Unreached

On  June 8, 2025, we invite you to stand with us on the  International Day for the Unreached, a day to raise awareness, pray, and take action so that every person on Earth has the opportunity to hear the gospel.

With 3 billion people still waiting to hear the gospel, the Alliance for the Unreached provides free, practical resources to equip you for global missions, right where you are.

Explore resources. Some of the resources they mention in their promotions have been hard to find on their website. We will keep looking and may highlight a few later.

Source: The Christian Post, June 1, 2025

Has the final directive of Jesus become undoable? This commandment was given by Jesus in a context far different from ours. The modern world is now characterized by progressive ideals, by emphases on scientific knowledge, and by lifestyles far advanced from antiquity. So, how could this command now be fulfilled by his followers?

I believe Christian discipleship remains a fulfilling component of human existence, and learning about Jesus isn’t anachronistic. If you are truly in Christ, you know assuredly what I’m talking about. 

Nevertheless, our cultural context cannot be ignored as we seek to make disciples. Historically, Western thought and culture have gone from being developed by Christian faith, to being intellectually enriched by it, and to now believing it’s useless. In a world of scientific advancement, it’s now [considered] uncultured to be associated with a 2,000-year-old teaching.

Read the whole article and another that argues, even after 2,000 years, Jesus is as relevant as ever.

The tensions are not the same all over. A new infographic compares Christian demographics from A.D. 325 and 2025—1,700 years later (Center for the Study of Global Christianity). Once again, the Church is more global than Western.

And on that note: In April, 1,600 people from 25 countries gathered in Panama for the 2025 COMIBAM Conference. One theme of the event was the truth that the Great Commission remains a timely, urgent, and global calling (Evangelical Focus).

Source: Justin Long’s Weekly Roundup, May 30, 2025

Two political trends are slamming into American universities, and ministries to international students will feel the shock.

The first is the geopolitics of China and the USA. Chinese students, in particular, are being targeted for visa revocation. The second is the political dustup between the administration and “elite” universities over DEI, campus speech, and the like.

International students may, as a result, be sent home (or elsewhere). The implication for missiological strategies in the USA: for a long time, there has been a strategy of “reaching the nations [that] are coming here.”

It is now perhaps time for international student ministry’s turn to feel what refugee ministry already did. This trend will also affect many Christian colleges that likewise rely on international students as a significant portion of their revenue stream. All of this might be reversed in another three years—given current patterns, it might reverse in another three months. But I wouldn’t count on it. I suspect that people who have student visas are living on borrowed time, and many may end up moving to universities in other countries.

Read the rest of this commentary.

Note that an annual event for people who work with international students takes place this week (June 5-7), and it’s all online (Association of Christians Ministering Among Internationals).

Source: Mission Network News, May 20, 2025

Reports of insurgency continue in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, despite the government’s efforts to quell it.

A string of attacks starting on March 31 and leading into April displaced 15,000 people, according to one report. For some people, it was their third or fourth displacement.

“Paolo,” a partner with MegaVoice, explains that the insurgency started small in 2017 after the discovery of massive natural gas reserves. It has now become a seven-year-old conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people and displaced 800,000.

“Anyone in front of them, they were killing. They were burning house[s],” Paolo says. “[It] was not necessarily a religion conflict. [It] was because there’s a financial possibility in the region. But definitely these affect a lot of the [religious] work, especially because many missionaries moved from there because of security issues.”

But MegaVoice’s local partners have stayed. Paolo says these people are essential for distributing audio Bibles.

The full story explains the receptivity the ministry has found for audio Bibles in the local language.

The deaths and displacement are the tip of the iceberg, it seems. The United Nations has reported that nearly 5.2 million people in Mozambique need assistance due to a “triple crisis” stemming from “armed conflict, recurring extreme weather events, and months of post-electoral unrest” (quoted by multiple sources).

News about human suffering is never hard to find, is it? ReliefWeb reports that thousands of children in Myanmar’s earthquake zone face a new school year without schools.

Source: Morningstar News, May 27, 2025

Muslim parents in southern Somalia were overjoyed to see their missing 20-year-old son, a drug addict, return home free of substance abuse this month.

When they discovered that his transformation sprang from putting his faith in Christ, however, they drove him from their home in Hararoba, near Afmadow in Lower Juba Region, on May 19.

The young man had come to Christ on April 20 after an underground Somali pastor shared the gospel with him.

To understand what life is like for Christians in this region, read Serving the Hidden Church in Somalia. It describes a network of safe houses set up to shelter believers in similar situations (International Christian Concern).

INcontext recently published an infographic about how to pray for Somalia. The nation seems marked by deepening instability.

Source: Christian Today, May 30, 2025

The “quiet revival” in Britain, especially among younger men, may well be occurring in the Republic of Ireland as well, with new research suggesting increasingly favorable attitudes towards Christianity in the country, albeit with a fair amount of suspicion towards the Roman Catholic Church.

A poll of 1,000 people commissioned by The Iona Institute and conducted by Amarach Research found that Gen Z (18-24 years old) is more open to faith than Millennials (25-34 years old). A majority of people in Ireland (61%) described themselves as religious or spiritual in some way. The vast majority of the Irish population still identifies as Roman Catholic. However, only about 16% said they attend Mass regularly.

Half said their attitude towards Christianity was positive, compared to only 28% who said the same about the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, one in five (21%) had a negative attitude towards Christianity, while over a quarter (29%) were ambivalent.

Read the full story.

Also from Christian Today, read Ireland Sees Rise in New Age Weddings.

1. Iran: Three Christian Converts Summoned to Serve Prison Sentences
2. Southeast Asia: Shan Church Planting, a Story of Growth
3. South Asia: Are High-Caste Hindus Resistant to the Gospel?
4. World: Don’t Forget the Seafarers
5. Indonesia: A Celebration Six Decades in the Making

Read or share email edition.

Source: Article 18, May 8, 2025

Three Christian converts, including a woman pregnant with her first child, have been summoned to begin prison sentences totaling over 40 years on charges related to their religious beliefs and worship meetings.

Narges Nasri, Abbas Soori, and Mehran Shamloui were sentenced in March, and their appeals were rejected in April, meaning they could be summoned to begin their sentences at any time.

Yesterday, the three were told they had five days to submit themselves to Evin Prison to begin their sentences. Failure to do so would mean forfeiting bail equivalent to more than $20,000 each, and sources suggest they may now be out of the country.

The three Christians were arrested in November last year during concurrent raids by intelligence agents on their homes in Tehran.

Read the full story. A related story from Middle East Concern adds some prayer points. Please pray that:

• God will strengthen and guide these converts in the decisions they will have to make,
• Narges and her unborn baby will be protected through the stress they have endured, and
• Those involved in the harassment and persecution of Christians will repent and come to faith in Jesus Christ themselves.

On another and more encouraging note, see also Two Thousand Iranians Turning to Jesus Every Day (Bible Society via God Reports).

Another article from Article 18 reports that a religious freedom group in Belarus has been added to a list of extremist organizations. Police also visited a leader’s relatives and took DNA samples to help them track him.

Source: OMF International, May 9, 2025

For five or six years, missionaries working with the Shan have said, “We are on the cusp of seeing a movement to Christ taking place amongst the Shan.” When considering church planting among the Shan, it’s crucial to remember those who shared the gospel in challenging times when the Shan people were less receptive.

From 1863 to 1965, expat missionaries worked with Karen missionaries to reach the Shan and Shan-speaking minority groups in Burma. The Shan work in Thailand began much later, in 1953. [During these decades], between 0.05 and 0.1 percent of Shan people have believed in Christ. Only since the late 1990s have the Shan people responded in groups instead of as individuals.

In 2024, an OMF missionary with decades of experience wrote a paper that described the early Shan believers as “one in a thousand” — those who persisted in faith despite persecution, discouragement, and isolation, with little or no support from other believers.

How did it change? Read the full story. It’s a long one, but a reminder that breakthroughs may be preceded by decades of prayer and effort.

Readers might also be interested in a new book coming out on May 28. Check out What Actually Starts Movements: Partnering with God for Kingdom Multiplication, by Emanuel Prinz (100 Movements Publishing).

In another story from East Asia, ministry leaders respond to China’s recent restrictions on foreign missionary activity (Christianity Today).

Source: Beyond, May 15, 2025

Sanjay and his brother recently traveled to Haryana to meet with some key leaders, gathering at Laksha’s home. Laksha, who is from a high caste, has been an active disciple-maker within the movement for about six years. She and her team are witnessing remarkable growth, particularly among high caste individuals and women. In her district, there are around 36 house churches.

During the meeting, Laksha shared that it’s easy to assume that people from high castes are proud and resistant to the gospel. However, when she encounters those who have become disciples of Jesus, she sees how deeply God has transformed their lives.

Read more.

See also an article asking, “How many Muslims convert to Christianity each year?” (Global Christian Relief).