In this edition of News Briefs:
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Source: Pioneers-USA, January 27, 2024
It was 2018 when Hanedi’s husband, Mahdi, told her he wouldn’t be fasting during Ramadan with her that year. And that was only the beginning. She found things on his phone she didn’t like. And, as she realized what had happened, she felt as if the sky had come crashing down on her. Mahdi had become a different person. He wasn’t the man she knew. Her response was to become more devout, going to the mosque with her son to pray. After all, somebody had to. Otherwise, what would happen to their family?
In a new video, Hanedi, a refugee from Sudan, shares the story in her own words. Hear about the new things she saw in her husband and how she eventually responded. Mahdi and Hanedi now live in France.
Read the full story and watch the short video. Note that the war in Sudan has displaced more than 10.7 million people (Mission Network News).
Have you heard about the International Migration Bible? Launched at the United Bible Societies World Assembly in October, it includes articles from many migrants highlighting migration and related themes in Scripture. It could be a good resource for you if you minister to people on the move.
Source: East-West blog, February 5, 2024
The Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year and the Spring Festival, is a prominent holiday in East and Southeast Asian countries, including China, Vietnam, Korea, and Singapore.
Lunar New Year begins with the new moon closest to the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. While the Lunar New Year is largely a secular holiday, many traditions originated from Buddhism and Taoism. Believers should understand the significance of the Lunar New Year and know how to share the love of Christ with friends who celebrate this holiday.
The holiday also celebrates new beginnings and ushering in good luck for the new year. Before the new year, people will clean their homes to symbolize ridding the house of the previous year’s bad luck and making room for good luck to enter. Families will also gather for a large dinner and serve dishes representing abundance and fortune.
Read the full story and consider ways you might pray for or connect with friends observing this holiday on Saturday, February 10 (and over a period of several weeks).
Millions travel home in “the world’s largest migration,” but read about the Chinese millennials who shun Lunar New Year travel (BBC).
Source: Religion News Service, February 1, 2024
[On Sunday, January 28], more than 120,000 Sikhs of all ages and occupations took part in a historic referendum in San Francisco on the creation of an autonomous homeland in northwestern India. They braved hours-long lines after already long commutes, in many cases from neighboring states, to reach the polling place in the City by the Bay.
These Sikhs, almost all of them U.S. citizens and residents, were voting aspirationally for the creation of Khalistan—a hoped-for but nonexistent “land of the pure” that would stand separate from the nation of India.
Organized by Sikhs for Justice, an activist group banned in India, the vote was aimed at raising the profile of Sikh efforts to convince the government of India to allow Punjab, the state where the Sikh faith was born, to secede.
Learn more about the Khalistan Movement and how it is connected with tensions between India and Canada (Al Jazeera).
Source: International Christian Concern, January 24, 2024
Religion is a vital part of a person’s identity in Indonesia. On each citizen’s official National Identity Card, people can identify with one of the six religions recognized in the Constitution—Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
A seventh religious category—kepercayaan (belief)—was introduced for identity cards in 2016. But since then, there have been legal and religious challenges to this change, including the Indonesian Ulama Council (an influential national Muslim organization) that opposed this new category.
Indonesia has strict anti-Islam blasphemy laws. Yet Indonesians who are part of minor religions may now openly include their religion in this seventh new category. Government figures show that nearly 140,000 Indonesians have used this new kepercayaan category since its start.
Read the full story or read A Step for Freedom of Religion and Belief in Indonesia (Human Rights Watch).
In other religious liberty commentary, see Islamic Studies No Longer Required for Religious Minority Students in Pakistan; Christians Rejoice (The Christian Post) and A Year of Bumpy Ups and Downs for Religious Liberty in Vietnam (Morning Star News).
Finally, in case you missed it, last week’s Missions Catalyst also highlighted a short video on The Top Ten Countries Where Christians Face Extreme Persecution (Open Doors).
Source: OneWay, January 31, 2024
Throughout history, God has used human weakness for his glory. That was the case for a OneWay staff member when God took his struggle with bad handwriting and used it to prepare him for international ministry.
When he was a child, “Sparrow” had such poor handwriting that his teachers couldn’t grade his assignments. To help with this, Sparrow’s parents bought him a laptop to use for school, making him among the first people in his community to have one. As he grew in his skills, Sparrow developed a passion for technology, but he didn’t know how to channel it into his passion for missions.
Today, Sparrow works with a large network of missionaries and ministries all over the Arab world as a digital evangelist. He uses Facebook and Google ads to reach out to people in the Middle East who are questioning their faith and connect them with local believers who can answer their questions about Christianity.
Read Digital Evangelism Making an Impact in the Middle East.
See also an article about United Hive, a social media platform designed for Christians to share inspiring “God moments” (Back to Jerusalem).
Greetings!
Did you catch the live stream of the big temple dedication? It was celebrated globally. More than a billion people around the world watched and 8,000 were present.
No, it wasn’t the temple in Israel. It was India’s new temple of Ram, built on the site of a former mosque and dedicated last Monday in what some see as a symbol of the nation’s turn away from the secular, multicultural vision of its founders.
As you take it in, ask the Lord to guide you in praying for India and the watching world.
You might also be interested in news about a mosque destroyed last month in Gaza. Previously, it was the site of the Dagon temple we read about Samson destroying in Judges 16:25-30 (perhaps the sort of thing described in Isaiah 42:8) and after that a Byzantine church and a Catholic cathedral (Religion News).
Thanks for praying,
Pat Noble
Source: Beyond, January 10, 2024
Wayan was known as a “wise man” or shaman. He was accustomed to using his dark arts to harm others. In the neighborhood where he lived, he was highly respected and feared because people believed he possessed great “knowledge.” Many people sought his guidance, advice, and help with mystical matters.
One day, Wayan’s wife asked him to pick some coconuts from the backyard. He agreed without giving it much thought and immediately climbed the 30-foot-high coconut tree.
Suddenly, his wife heard a loud shout from behind the house. Wayan had fallen out of the coconut tree! For the next three months, he needed assistance from his wife or someone else to carry out his daily activities.
One day, he remembered someone who had come to their village a few years before he fell ill. Ketut, a disciple of Jesus in the region, had tried to share the gospel with Wayan at that time. However, on Wayan’s orders, he had been rejected and expelled from the village. Now Wayan asked his wife to find Ketut’s address and invite him to come and pray for him.
Read what happened next. Today, Wayan is one of the leaders of a movement on his island in SE Asia. His ministry has birthed more than 2,000 disciples, 285 small groups, and 28 small group leaders.
See also a short article and video about the continuing revival in war-torn Myanmar, where one church movement has grown from 2,000 people to 7,000 in the last year (Asia Harvest)
Source: The Christian Post, January 20, 2024
The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has reclassified India as a “restricted nation” in its 2024 Global Prayer Guide, citing the escalating radical Hindu extremism and the persecution of Christians under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government.
The restricted nation designation is typically reserved for countries with federal laws explicitly restricting Christian worship and evangelism. The group contends that India’s situation is unique due to the ideological shift under the current government.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014 and his subsequent reelection in 2019, Christians in India have faced increasing opposition and violent attacks in spite of constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, VOM said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.
The Christian ministry claims Modi’s administration has fostered an ideology known as Hindutva, or Hindu purity, which aims to establish a “pure” Hindu nation, explaining that this ideology has led to heightened persecution of religious minorities.
Notably, 12 Indian states have implemented laws banning what they claim are “forced” religious conversions, posing severe penalties for Christian evangelists, including lengthy prison sentences for activities as basic as sharing a Bible or praying with someone, VOM said.
The anti-conversion laws claim that Christians “force” or give money or material items to Hindus to persuade them to convert to Christianity. They typically state that no one can use the “threat” of “divine displeasure,” which means Christians can’t talk about Heaven or Hell since it would be seen as luring someone to convert.
Also from this news source, read about a new animated series on Amazon Prime getting backlash for its positive portrayal of Lucifer. Though, as another article points out, “People have been grinding out remakes of this particular fanfic since the days when they had to do it on papyrus.”
