Category: News Briefs

Source: Christian Today, February 19, 2025

The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has continued to deteriorate, with more than 2,000 people killed since M23 rebels seized the eastern city of Goma.

The ongoing conflict has seen millions of people displaced from their homes and many thousands of people wounded.

M23 is allegedly backed by the DRC’s eastern neighbor, Rwanda. Rwanda is accused of wanting to annex the DRC’s mineral reach eastern territories. In turn, Rwanda has accused the DRC of sponsoring anti-government militias in Rwanda and of harboring fugitives responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

On the ground, Catholic missionary Father Marcelo Oliveira has said the situation is increasingly desperate, with hospitals becoming crowded and even refugee camps becoming targets for attack.

Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity, Father Marcelo said that distributing emergency aid was becoming increasingly difficult as the Goma airport has been closed, its control tower vandalized, and hardware stolen.

The missionary also said that over a hundred female prisoners in Goma’s central prison were raped after male prisoners escaped during the fighting and broke into the women’s wing. He added that many women and children have been killed in the violence.

Despite the horrors he has witnessed, Father Marcelo said that the Church would remain with the people during their time of suffering.

“We keep our eyes set on Jesus, leading his people.”

Read the full story or go to the source, Aid to the Church in Need.

See also Pray for the DRC from INcontext Ministries. It includes a graphic, video, and prayer points.

Source: Forum 18, January 28, 2025

On January 21, President Sadyr Japarov signed two new laws that continue to restrict freedom of religion or belief, the presidential website announced. The new religion law continues to ban all unregistered exercise of freedom of religion or belief, making it impossible for communities with fewer than 500 adult citizen members to gain legal status (up from 200). For the first time, it requires places of worship of registered religious organizations to also register and bans sharing faith in public and from door to door. Among the Violations Code changes are sharply increased fines for violating the Religion Law.

The new Religion Law [came] into force on February 1, 2025.

“The Law is very strict, particularly to Muslims,” a religious expert told Forum 18 in January. “The State has chosen one school of thought and has made it the official version of Islam. The authorities want to control all Muslims through this and especially the growing young generation of Muslims.”

Read the full story. Also from Forum 18, read a more thorough report on the state of religious freedom in Kyrgyzstan. Recently Human Rights Watch described the regime as “relentless in its crackdown on civil and political rights.”

Source: Haggai International, February 20, 2025

Throughout my life, my mother’s harsh criticism and lack of affection, coupled with my severe stutter, led to four suicide attempts. I thought my mother hated me. Only after I was born again at the age of 18 did I understand God’s purpose in my stutter: to inspire others who stutter, raise awareness, and show God’s goodness through my testimony.

Yet, as I neared my fiftieth birthday while caring for my mother, who had been fighting cancer for seven years and was now bedridden, I found the bravery to inquire why she had never shown pride in me.

“I have always been proud of you,” she replied, “You have accomplished so much.”

Her words healed my heart, answering a longstanding question, even though I had forgiven her long ago. God revealed his love and goodness to me in a profound way that I had never felt before.

Read the full story.

Read more about the author and the International Stuttering Association. She is doing SO much!

1. India: A Call for Violent Attacks on Christian Villages on March 1
2. World: Loving Muslims Well During Ramadan
3. Egypt: Yemeni Christian Detained for Three Years, Now Released
4. Afghanistan: Digital Scripture Reaches Marketplace and Beyond
5. Senegal: Circle of Light, the Adama Diouf Story

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Source: Back to Jerusalem, February 8, 2025

I came across a social media post and also saw a video of a man named Aadesh Soni calling 5,000 people to gather on March 1, 2025, to join “Gau Nyay Yatra,” which means “cow justice parade.” He is asking to enter three villages in Chhattisgarh, India—Bishrampur, Janakpur, and Ganeshpur, where the majority of residents are Christians.

He is urging the people to invade homes, violate their daughters and their daughters-in-law, and publicly commit obscene acts. He justifies this by accusing Christians of slaughtering cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism, and claims to have the support of the administration.

In another video, a Hindu priest has called on 1,000 people to kill those accused of cow slaughter, stating that they should kill them first and then get hanged by the government.

Can such incidents happen? Yes, they can.

Please, if you are reading this, take a moment to pray for the protection of these women and our Christian family in this state. What is being threatened is worse than getting arrested or going to jail.

Read the full story and pray for peace in this region.

See also a recent report, Hate Speech Events in India. It states,

“The number of hate speech incidents targeting religious minorities [in India] surged from 668 in 2023 to 1,165 in 2024, marking a staggering 74.4% increase. Dangerous speech—defined as speech that ‘increases the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group’—also saw a significant rise” (Center for the Study of Organized Hate).

Source: Jubilee Campaign, February 12, 2025

Egyptian authorities detained Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo without trial [for three years, including] several months in solitary confinement solely for exercising his freedom of religion and expression. Today, Abdulbaqi is finally free and reunited with his family in Canada, thanks to persistent international and domestic pressure.

Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo is a Yemeni Christian from a Muslim background. After threats from family and community members, he, his wife, and children were preparing to leave the country when his wife was tragically murdered. Abdulbaqi, now a widower, and his four children fled Yemen to Egypt in 2014.

Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo was registered with the UNHCR and later remarried. On December 15, 2021, plainclothes police raided his home at 2:00 am. The authorities confiscated his mobile and laptop and those of his family members. Authorities kept Abdulbaqi under pre-trial detention for more than the two-year limit prescribed by law. This practice has been heavily criticized by human rights experts.

Read the full story.

See also two articles related to religious liberty in other regions from International Christian Concern. 

• The first is from Malaysia: Proposed Guidelines for Muslims Participating in Non-Muslim Celebrations Raise Concerns. 
• The second is from Nepal: Nepalese Government Detains, Questions 17 U.S. Citizens on Proselytizing Charges (Note that they were soon released. Local Christians would face more severe consequences).

Source: Mission Network News, February 14, 2025

In a bustling Afghanistan market, a rug vendor was approached by men whose journey to him had been two years in the making. They spoke with the man, whose hands had woven intricate carpets but whose heart carried deep sorrow. Their mission was to offer him a simple device: an MP3 player loaded with devotional materials and Scripture in his language. As they explained the gift and shared the gospel, tears began streaming down the vendor’s cheeks. He had seen unimaginable pain, including the slaughtering of friends and family who had dared to question Islamic teaching.

For missionaries, handing off the preloaded MP3 players to Afghans marks the completion of the distribution effort. For recipients, it marks the beginning of hope.

After conversing at length with Nehemiah’s partners, the rug vendor, who was also a tribal chief, requested a devotional unit for each family member.

“What began as simple conversation in the marketplace had now become an open door to an entire tribe,” Nehemiah says.

Read the full story and a previous story about creating the recordings: Voice Acting Opportunities Lead Children to Christ in the Middle East.

Source: World Venture, February 7, 2025

[Adama Diouf] was born into a Muslim family among the Serer tribe. And one time when he was a young man, like 13 or 14 years old, he got to see a Christian film in a town near his village.

He thought Jesus was amazing, and he couldn’t understand why Jesus would die on a cross. If he truly was the Son of God, why would he die? And why would God allow that?

So, one night, he and his friends in the village were having a dance party. All of a sudden, he saw a vision on the wall of Jesus on the cross. And Jesus looked at him and said, “I did this for you.”

He was stunned, and they said, “Why aren’t you dancing, Adama? Why, what happened to you?”

And he said, “I just saw Jesus on the wall.”

Read the full story or watch a related video, below. What would your life be like if following Jesus meant being shunned by your family?

1. World: Vision 2025 Accelerates Bible Translation Through Partnership
2. Congo: M23 Fighters Capture Key City and Advance
3. India: Pentecostals on the Rise in Punjab
4. African Sahel: Extremism in the Desert of Danger
5. Israel: Court Case in the “Bomb Shelter Capital of the World”
6. Kenya: New Training Center Prepares African Missionaries to Reach Nations

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Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, January 29, 2025

Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert or inclined to be a lone wolf or team player, the Bible is clear that partnership is an important part of life. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy, of course, but it’s worth the effort.

This is particularly true in the Bible translation movement. Historically, Wycliffe and a few key strategic partners were focused on translation efforts in different communities around the world. These efforts proved successful in many cases, and lives were being transformed through God’s Word.

However, a New Testament translation was taking decades on average to complete.

That’s when we felt like God was calling us to step out boldly in faith and consider what it would look like to see Bible translation start for every language still needing it by the year 2025. We recognized it would require us to rethink our processes, reconsider our partnerships and ask God to raise up his global Church to participate in the work in new ways. And that’s exactly what he’s done.

As of January 1, 2025:

• 131 countries have achieved Vision 2025.
• 43 countries have 1 remaining language.
• 24 countries have 2-5 remaining languages.
• 16 countries have 6 or more remaining languages.

The full story highlights work in Cameroon, Indonesia, and the Americas and reports that, as a direct result of partnership and collaboration, a new translation project is launched about every 14 hours; unprecedented (and encouraging).

Have you seen the new Artificial Intelligence Version of the Bible? Thoughts? Watch the short promo video and/or download the app.