Category: News Briefs

Source: Bible Access Initiative, October 1, 2026

In Afghanistan, God’s Word is the most dangerous book any Afghan can possess, and discovery can cost them their life. In Haiti, the Bible is available, and the church is free, yet extreme poverty makes a Bible too expensive for many families. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, some printed Bibles are available, and Scripture can also be accessed online; yet limited internet coverage and poor road access mean most communities cannot access or use a Bible.

These very different barriers point to the same reality: Availability does not necessarily mean access. The Bible is available in more translations and formats than ever: printed editions, audio, video, and mobile apps. That progress is significant and worth celebrating. But for millions of people, having Scripture available does not mean they can obtain or safely use it.

The Bible Access List asks that deeper question: For those who want a Bible, can they actually get one?

Learn more about the project and read the report, the result of a survey of more than 100 nations. No registration required. Read a related article (Baptist Press).

Did you know this year is the 500th anniversary of the printing of Tyndale’s complete New Testament? Read From Tyndale to today: the enduring hunger for the Bible (Christian Today).

Source: Back to Jerusalem, September 18, 2026

The BTJ team in Bhutan desperately needs prayers as they work on Bible translation for a remote tribe living deep in the mountains of the Himalayas.

No Christians are currently no known among the Chochangachakha people of Bhutan. They are 100% unreached. There is also no Bible in the native language of the Chochangachakha tribe. That is why, last year, BTJ committed to translating [the] Bible into their language.

Bible translation is not a task that BTJ missionaries often tackle, but the need is great in the eastern mountains of Bhutan. There are over 20,000 people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own mother tongue.

“We are working all day every day,” wrote one BTJ missionary from Bhutan. “We have just started on the book of Leviticus, and we do not even have a dictionary.”

The goal is to have the Bible ready by 2027 and deliver it to every member of the tribe in Bhutan.

The full story describes how dangerous this task is. Evidently this is an endangered language (Bhutan Wiki). As you may know, Bible translation has made a significant impact on preserving languages (and cultures) that were on the verge of extinction.

Source: Middle East Concern, September 21, 2026

Christians in Algeria are asking for prayer for 12 Christians, women and men, who were detained [during a special forces police raid on September 4] and interrogated by the police, and will probably face charges.

The police had a search warrant and confiscated the individuals’ identity documents, personal phones, and all Christian literature found at the premises.

The men were kept at the police station until the early morning hours of the following day and were intensively interrogated. The women were allowed to return home and were asked to come back the next day for interrogation. They were told that they would face charges and appear before a court.

Based on similar cases, the charges could be brought under [an ordinance] that regulates the worship of non-Muslims. If convicted, those charged could face imprisonment of 2–5 years and heavy fines.

A systematic campaign targeting Protestant Christians and churches in Algeria, which began at the end of 2017, continues to intensify. More than 50 Christians, especially church leaders, have faced legal prosecution on religion-related charges and have had to close their churches because of threats and intimidation.

Read the full story with prayer points.

For more detail, see Police in Algeria Arrest 12 Christians during Worship (Morning Star News). We looked for an update but have not found one.

Readers might also be interested in a series of new articles on the disappearing Christian church in the Middle East (International Christian Concern).

Source: Christian Today, October 1, 2026

Churches are being urged to take the contributions of older members seriously or run the risk of facing a “silver uprising” of discontent from seniors in their congregations.

The warning comes as the United Nations marks Thursday, October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons, dedicated to recognizing the role of older people across the world. In the UK, the US, and other Western countries, populations are aging, with many more people reaching retirement age and beyond.

Now Chris Spicer, a UK-based preacher and teacher with more than 50 years of experience working with Christian communities and learning centers throughout Europe and North America, has written of the dangers of churches not making use of older people in their congregations.

In [a 2025 book] Living Life in the Last Lane, Spicer warns, “As long as church leaders equate age with ability, they run the risk of fueling a silver riot.”

“Not that an army of placard-waving grey-haired protestors is about to picket church buildings. But rather than suffer in silence, maybe it’s time for those old warhorses tired of being hitched to an ageist agenda to respectfully air their grievances and speak out against those entrenched ideologies and their unfulfilled aspirations regarding life in the last lane.”

As an example of ageism, Spicer, who has lived in Portland, Oregon and Peoria, Illinois, explains, “When middle-aged worship leaders are ‘encouraged’ to step aside so as to be replaced by their young counterparts for no other reason than to look ‘relevant’ and ‘cool,’ then the future is flawed. When being cool overtakes being Christlike, Christianity has stepped onto a downward spiral of no possibility.”

Read the full story.

Just for fun, may I introduce you to my favorite old guy still encouraging all ages? Check out Rodney Norman, self-styled comedian, philosopher, joy-sparker, and friend.

In this issue:

1. Jewish World: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement
2. Why the African Church Is Positioned to Reach Its Own Frontier Within a Decade
3. India: Hindus Attack Christian Family Who Refuse to Reconvert
4. Brazil: Census Confirms One in Four Are Evangelical Christians
5. Syria: Persecution Tests Growing Kurdish Church Movement

… plus links to more

Click or scroll, or read or share the email edition.

Sources: Various

This coming Monday is Yom Kippur, considered the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Will you pray for those observing it?

Here are a few gospel-focused takes you can explore:

• Read Understanding Your Jewish Neighbor (Lausanne Movement).
• Watch Yom Kippur: Why Do We Need a Mediator? (One for Israel).
• Listen to What Is the Day of Atonement? (Bible Project).
• Read and pray through an online prayer guide for the 10 Days of Awe, September 12-21 (Beyond).

If this draws your heart to the Middle East, see pages 7-8 of the Global Overview section in the September issue of INcontext Monthly. You will find a succinct summary of some big issues in the region.

Source: Clarity for the Nations, August 11, 2026

If you want to understand the future of missions in Africa, start with two numbers.

The first number is 5,413. That is Joshua Project’s estimate of the cross-cultural workers needed to reach every frontier people group on the continent.

The second number is 123 million. That is the estimate of evangelical believers already living in just four countries: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Ghana.

Set those side by side, and it comes to roughly one worker for every 23,000 African evangelicals. The African church does not lack people. It lacks awareness, mobilization, and equipping at scale. That is a solvable problem, and the timeline is years, not generations.

Read the full article by Joshua Project’s Bud Houston. It also points out that more than a third of Africa’s frontier people groups, 178 of them, are found in just two countries, Sudan and Chad.

Source: International Christian Concern, September 2, 2026

A radical Hindu mob recently attacked a Christian family in Chhattisgarh after they refused to participate in a Hindu reconversion ceremony called Ghar Wapsi.

The mob tore down the roof of the family’s home, leaving seven people exposed to heavy monsoon rains and unable to live safely in the structure.

According to local sources, on July 2, a group of nearly 100 anti-Christian activists, led by Bisahu Dhruv, Mansa Gawde, and Phoolsingh Gawde, surrounded the home of “Kamal Sinha” to force him to undergo Ghar Wapsi. When Sinha refused, tensions escalated, and the mob climbed onto the roof and ripped it apart.

“All of our harvested crops were drenched in the rainwater after the roof was destroyed,” Sinha said.

“By becoming Christians, you have polluted the village and defiled our gods and goddesses,” Dhruv told Sinha. “You should not live here. You do not worship our deities, do not offer coconuts or other offerings, and do not accept the prasad given to our gods. And you follow another religion and another God. Therefore, leave the village. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to live here. We will stop your farming, demolish your house, and drive your entire family out.”

As a result of the attack and ongoing pressure, Sinha’s family was forced to shut down their small grocery shop. The water and electricity connections were also cut off to Sinha’s house.

The full story states that hundreds of families have been evicted this year in Chhattisgarh, one of 13 Indian states with anti-conversion laws. Many are living in makeshift housing in the forests. Please pray for them.

For a more encouraging story from this country, read Women in India Fearlessly Sharing the Gospel (Beyond).

Also read about missionary women in Southeast Asia who are using digital strategies to minister to Muslim women, who may otherwise be much harder to reach (International Mission Board).

Source: Evangelical Focus, September 8, 2026

For 56 million evangelicals—the majority of whom are Pentecostals—their central role in the country’s public life is being reinforced.

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) has published microdata from the 2022 census, revealing, for the first time, a detailed map of religious affiliation in Brazil, a country of 210 million people.

While over 80% of the population remains Christian (including Catholics and evangelicals), there have been significant internal shifts within the various denominations.

The data show a sharp increase in the number of people with no religious affiliation, while evangelical groups as a whole represent 26.9% of the population (around 56 million people).

For evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, the report confirms their key role in the social and political life of the country, but also shows the need for more detailed measurements to understand the true extent of their growth.

Read the full story for more detail.

You may know that Brazil is sending a record number of cross-cultural missionaries. Read or watch a 2025 report, Brazilian Christians Are Blazing a Bi-vocational, Global Missionary Revolution (Christian Broadcasting Network).

In case you missed it, here’s another story from Latin America: A Catholic bishop was recently released after more than five years in a Venezuelan prison. You may appreciate his testimony of God’s faithfulness (Christian Solidarity Worldwide).

Source: Mission Network News, September 1, 2026

Police arrested Pastor Nihad, the director of Kurdish ministry for Horizons International, while he visited northern Syria in late July.

“Our vision was to go and gather [Kurdish believers] together, see what the Lord is doing among them, see how open their friends and family are, and start to pull them together in gatherings,” says Horizons’ Executive Director Pierre Houssney.

“But Pastor Nihad wasn’t there long before some people stirred up trouble for him. They incited the government based on the internet crimes laws in Syria, which are very strict but usually unenforced.”

As the Lord often does, He turned a troublesome time into a gospel opportunity.

“Pastor Nihad was able to share his faith in jail. He was surrounded by people who were actually protecting him and treating him with dignity,” Houssney says.

“In the prisons, there are a lot of extremist factions, and so it’s a miracle that God protected him throughout that time.”

Quick legal action secured Pastor Nihad’s release, and he returned to his young family roughly two weeks after his arrest. However, questions now surround the future of church planting efforts among the Syrian Kurds.

Horizons International has ministered among Syrian Kurds for several years, combining humanitarian aid, evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. By 2021, entire churches in Lebanon were made up of Syrian Kurds who had come to faith through ministry among the displaced.

The full story includes photos and links to related news along with questions about what is next for the Kurdish church in Syria.

From East Asia: Please take a moment to pray for several believers in China’s Yunnan Province who were to be on trial today (September 16) for organizing illegal (house church) gatherings (Back to Jerusalem).

See also a short but sweeping article on the broader topic, The History of Christian Persecution (Global Christian Relief).

Another sweeping article explores The Modern-Day Prayer Movement, how God is orchestrating a historic phenomenon of worship and prayer on the earth in our generation (Presence Pioneers Media).