Category: News Briefs

Source: The Christian Post, September 5, 2024

An annual event designed to encourage students to share their faith is opening up to adults this year.

Bring Your Bible Day, a project of Focus on the Family, is scheduled to take place on October 3. In the past, the event has been known as “Bring Your Bible to School Day” and called on students to proudly proclaim their Christian faith at school by, as the name of the day suggests, bringing their Bibles to school.

“With political tension and economic [uncertainty] in the air, Bring Your Bible Day not only serves as an important reminder of the values through which this country was founded but also an encouragement to Christ-followers everywhere to be active and open about our faith in the public space,” [said Emerson Collins, the project manager organizing the annual event].

Noting that there were “over one million student participants in last year’s National Bring Your Bible to School Day,” Collins said, “this year is shaping up to be the biggest one yet,” adding, “It couldn’t come at a better time.”

As the full story explains, this is part of the Live It Challenge, which equips students and families to live out their faith in fun and practical ways. You might want to check it out.

In other Bible news: For the first time in history, the list of languages that still need Bible translation to begin is less than 1,000 (Wycliffe Global Alliance, reporting data from ProgressBible). The goal is within reach.

Source: Voice of the Martyrs, October 2024

[November 3] is set aside as a global prayer meeting on behalf of persecuted Christians who stand as a bold witness to Christ on the world’s most dangerous mission frontiers. The earnest prayers of the global body of believers testify to the unity found only in Christ. May God inspire us as we enter into fellowship with our persecuted Christian family.

VOM’s 2024 IDOP short feature film, The Martinez Family: Colombia, will inspire viewers to pray for front-line workers who are sent by God to share the gospel and advance God’s kingdom in some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous places to follow Christ.

Watch the video and order free IDOP resources.

Sources: Various

Farshid Fathi of Iran shared his stirring testimony at last week’s Lausanne Congress. The event also included a contingent of Chinese believers who had been blocked from attending the previous congress (Evangelical Focus).

In Pakistan, a Christian mother of four was convicted of blasphemy and received the mandatory death sentence for passing what was seen as inflammatory content in a WhatsApp group (Morning Star News).

For a bigger picture on violence in Pakistan and how it affects Christian ministry, read or watch the report Pakistan Church Under Fire: A Call to Anguish (INcontext).

Speaking at an event in the U.S. on Korean reunification, a Canadian pastor who received a life sentence of hard labor in North Korea said he witnessed the hearts of his captors soften after they heard his sermons and says this miracle gave him hope that the country will one day embrace the Lord (The Christian Post).

Finally, you might be inspired by a new episode on the Relentless Pursuit podcast in which a cross-cultural worker shares how a harrowing experience of detention by authorities in his host country motivated him to start memorizing the New Testament (Pioneers-USA). How much would you have in your heart if it was suddenly all you had?

1. Editor’s Note: Glimpses of Global Christian Work & Worship
2. Global: The Explosion of the Gospel in the Majority World
3. Afghanistan: Banned from Speaking in Public, Women Find Their Voice in Christ
4. China: American Pastor Released After Nearly 20 Years in Prison
5. North Korea: A Daring Rescue
6. USA: “With One Word, I Can Catch a Thousand”

Read or share the email edition or scroll down for more.

Recently, we reported on a revival inspired by the Ohio State University football team’s Christian witness.

Let’s turn our eyes and ears toward the Fiji rugby team, who will face Japan this Saturday in the Pacific Nations Cup. Check out Fiji Hymns Popular at Rugby Matches (Global Christian Worship). I think this practice beats the Haka tradition of other Pacific Islanders. Pray the Fijians might be used to spread the good news to other nations. For more, see Yes, Fiji Olympians Are Singing Hymns (Christianity Today).

I also found inspiration watching this music video from Hyderabad, India, with thanks again to Global Christian Worship. Enjoy!

Blessings,
Pat

Source: Evangelical Focus, September 9, 2024

We are privileged to be witnessing the greatest transition in world mission ever in history. The gospel is exploding in the Majority World. Missionaries from countries closed to the gospel when I was born are going to the least, the last and the lost in every corner of the world.

YWAM Together 2024 convened 4,500 [people] from 110 nations in Manila [September 2-6] united in worshiping Jesus in many different languages—Maori, Mongolian, Portuguese, Russian, and more.

We rubbed shoulders with Nepalis working in Sao Paolo; Indians working in Istanbul; Brazilians working in Central Asia; Papua New Guineans, Chinese, Koreans, Moroccans, Ugandans, Russians, Ukrainians, Mongolians, Fijians, Belarusians, South Africans, Kenyans, Pakistanis, Argentinians, and many, many more nationalities engaged in integral missions on all continents. Those Mongolians had traveled by bus and boat for five days to join the gathering in Manila.

The Nepalis present reminded me of the YWAM team imprisoned for proselytism in the Himalayan state some three decades ago. Even today, conversions are still officially illegal. Despite these restrictions, the Nepali church is reported to be the fastest-growing in the world. Some estimate the church to be three million strong, engaging one in ten Nepalis—a thirty-fold increase since 2000.

Read the rest of the story with thoughts from Jeff Fountain and rejoice in what God is doing through YWAM and brothers and sisters from all over.

See also two stories with research and reflection about emerging generations in the Global South, Global Insight of the Next Generation (Haggai International) and The Future of Faith: Reaching a New Generation around the World (The Christian Post).

Source: Mission Network News, September 13, 2024

Afghanistan’s Taliban regime is taking its oppression of women one step further. Now, women across the country are forbidden from baring their faces or speaking in public. The ruling came down in a set of new laws approved by the supreme leader at the end of August.

Denise Godwin with International Media Ministries (IMM) says the increasing censorship of Afghan women stands in stark contrast with examples in the Bible.

IMM has been working on a television project called Women of the Bible, and several stories are complete in multiple languages. Please pray for Afghan women to find their voices and worth in the love of Christ Jesus.

Read the full story or watch IMM’s Women from the Bible series, which includes short videos about Bathsheba, Tamar, and Rahab.

Praise God for setting men free, too. Read a story from Nigeria, Son of Hezbollah Chosen to Follow a Different Path (God Reports).

Source: The Christian Post, September 16, 2024

California Pastor David Lin has been released from a Chinese prison after nearly two decades and has returned to the United States, ending a case that sparked an international outcry from free speech advocates and U.S. officials who say he was wrongfully detained.

Lin’s daughter, Alice Lin, told the outlet that the State Department notified her on Saturday that Chinese authorities had released her father from prison and that he would arrive in San Antonio, Texas, on Sunday.

“No words can express the joy we have—we have a lot of time to make up for,” she said.

Lin was active in China’s underground house church movement, which involves discreet religious gatherings often held in private homes and not connected to state-sponsored religious organizations. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has noted that this movement “has long faced hostility from Chinese authorities,” and participants often face “intimidation, harassment, arrest, and harsh sentences.”

Although Lin has staunchly maintained his innocence, he did not raise the attention of his case because he felt his imprisonment was a God-ordained mission field, his daughter said.

Read the full story.

Source: Christian Freedom International, September 11, 2024

The call came from an old acquaintance. He requested help for five people who had escaped from North Korea. They were hiding in a hut in the mountains and were unable to enter a village due to China’s severe security.

So, I collected clothes, daily necessities, and 15 solar audio Bibles, with the determination to be martyred if I was captured.

By the time we reached them, the five people were in the worst condition. For a long time, they had not even washed their faces, let alone showered. They were just waiting to die.

One who had tuberculosis held my hand and apologized, saying that she is thankful for being treated as a human being and wanted to hug me but would not because she was contagious.

We discovered a way to disguise them to move to another area, and then after showering and changing clothes they were sent to different locations.

The trip was a trial from the beginning. As I was leaving one area, police opened my bag. They confiscated ten audio Bibles. They did not find five [enough so each refugee could have one]. Then they let me go.

Read the full story and (from the same source) Getting God’s Word to North Koreans.

Source: Global Gates, September 10, 2024

While out evangelizing in Houston, a group met a local Imam (a devout leader of a Muslim mosque) named Mohammed. Someone from the group began to share the gospel with him, and to their amazement, he came to faith in Christ! What shocked them even more was what this new brother said next.

Mohammed had heard the gospel many times before from one Christian after another. This time, however, after his eyes were opened, he couldn’t wait to tell those in his community about Jesus. The difference being instead of a group of Americans sharing the good news, Mohammed himself would go and tell his community in their language. He looked at the group and said,

“It took about a thousand of you, with a thousand of your words…to ‘catch me.’ But with one word, I can go and catch a thousand.”

That “thousand” people Mohammed referred to live in North America’s global gateway cities and abroad in the unreached people group’s country of origin. Through the means of technology, Mohammed continues to have frequent conversations with friends and family from his homeland.

The gospel conversion that began in North America is traveling to and through families on the other side of the world! The result will repeat for generations to come. It’s a full-circle strategy.

Read the full story (on Facebook) and pray for more men and women like Mohammad, who, once reached, can catch a thousand with a word.

See also a short video from Global Gates on Reaching the Ends of the Earth through Los Angeles (YouTube).