Category: News Briefs

Source: Mission Network News, June 29, 2023

In some parts of Laos, pastors have been imprisoned for their faith or even killed. Patrick Klein of Vision Beyond Borders recently had a conversation with Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs Canada. According to believers Klein has spoken with, China is pushing the Laos government to mirror China’s clampdown on Christian churches.

The goal of many officials in Laos: intimidation. Believers are cut off from hospitals, schools, and churches. They might be denied access to government IDs, which often means less access to even more services.

That’s not to say the church in Laos isn’t growing. “There are real believers inside the government-run churches. They’re trying to help get the gospel out. But they also have to be very wise in what they do, because if they go too far, and they are really evangelistic, they can get in trouble.”

But for the believers in Laos, even persecution provides opportunity. One pastor reported to Klein that while he is well aware of spies within his congregation, “they need to hear the gospel too.” In fact, some of these spies have even found Christ while on assignment. “The gospel keeps going forth in the midst of persecution and opposition,” Klein says.

Read the full story or listen to the 36-minute podcast episode that inspired it. That aired in February. You might also check out Steve Addison’s recent podcast interview in Thailand with Ying, a lady from Laos (19 minutes; Movements Podcast).

Source: Morning Star News, June 22, 2023

On June 16 [Islamic militants] killed at least 37 students, most of them Christians, at the dormitories of a private high school in Uganda, and kidnapped six others, sources said.

Shouting “Allahu akbar [God is greater],” according to the BBC, the assailants killed the students at Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, Kasese District, hacking the girls with machetes and burning the boys to death by setting their dormitory on fire. Five non-students at the school were also killed, Ugandan officials said, and four students were wounded.

A survivor, student Edgard Mumbere, told Morning Star News that armed assailants shouted for the boys to open their dormitory door, with one attacker saying, “This school is propagating Christianity in Uganda and getting support from Christians in the West—Islam should be the dominant religion in Uganda.”

Read the full story.

Also read about Kahambu Kahindo, a student in Uganda who has hopes of returning home to the Democratic Republic of Congo to help children orphaned by continuing sectarian violence in the area (International Christian Concern). Uganda, which hosts more refugees than any other African country, is also on the brink of a massive food crisis (MAF).

Another heartbreaking story comes from Somalia, where some mothers are poisoning their children in order to get much-needed resources (Toronto Star, h/t Justin Long).

Source: God Reports, June 9, 2023

This Argentinian is no Hell’s Angel. In fact, he’s just the opposite, an angel, a messenger sent from heaven. His ride is bringing new life in Christ to tribal people lost in the jungle.

The native missionary—whose story is documented by Christian Aid Mission anonymously for his safety—rides his motorcycle into the most remote, dense jungle of Argentina to bring the gospel to native peoples largely cut off from civilization.

While the journey is daunting, the results have been spectacular.

“They worship Christ regardless of whether the heat or the cold hits them,” he is quoted as saying. “Many people, broken and crying, received Christ in their hearts after the message and evangelistic materials were delivered.”

See the full story with pictures.

In this edition:

1. World: Millions of Refugees and Displaced People
2. Nigeria: 16 Christians Released from Captivity, Aided by Muslim Community
3. Middle East: “I Think We’re Seeing the Collapse of Islam”
4. Muslim World: Your Name Is Freedom
5. Mali: Gospel Melts Inmates and Prison Official

Read or share the email edition.

Greetings!

June 20 was World Refugee Day… and a quick look at the numbers (see below) reminds us how many more are displaced within their own countries, as well. Let’s pray for them too, and places like northeast India, where more than 40,000 people have been displaced.

In the Northern Hemisphere, this is also the time of the summer solstice—something we all may experience but more emphasized by those in some pagan groups. Does anyone know of a Christian guide to praying for Wiccans? I found some good fuel for prayer on Wikipedia and a Religion News Service story about a new religious group in the U.S.

Today would be a great day to pray for the light of Christ to overcome the darkness experienced by many in our world (John 1:5).

Pat

Source: Lausanne and Operation World June 19, 2023 (email)

68.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes worldwide.

• 40 million have fled somewhere else in their own country.
• 25.4 million have left their country as refugees.
• 3.1 million are seeking asylum and argue they can never return home.

Of the 25 million who have left their homeland, around two-thirds have come from just five countries: South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, and Somalia. Peace and good government in these lands would solve most of the global refugee crisis.

85% of the world’s displaced people are hosted in developing countries. The top refugee-hosting countries—and rarely praised by the global community for this—are Turkey, Uganda, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Iran. In Lebanon, one in six of the population is a refugee.

Migrant flows today are nothing unusual in historical terms. Their numbers, as a proportion of the world, have not changed much in half a century.

• Pray for the protection of the lives and dignity of all those who leave their homes as migrants or refugees. The path they take is blighted by exploitation, illegal border crossings, rape, torture, and imprisonment.
• The presence of large numbers of migrants usually creates tensions and strains in receiving countries; pray for a balance between compassionate care for local people in need as well as refugees.
• Fair sharing between nations would ease the pressure on receiving countries. International cooperation could relieve great evil; pray for justice!
• The Christian faith has often taken root among refugees and in refugee camps. Pray for all who seek to serve refugees in Christ’s name. Pray that Christ will build his Church among those who have lost everything, turning ashes into beauty.

Sign up for daily emails from Operation World. Daily updates are also available on the Operation World website or through their app.

Note: We notice that some sources list the number of refugees and displaced people as much higher. See also numbers from the UNHCR.

Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, June 6, 2023

Sixteen members of Bege Baptist Church [in] central Nigeria, who were abducted in May, were released on June 4 after spending almost a month in captivity.

Around 40 members of the congregation were abducted on May 7 by armed assailants of Fulani ethnicity who attacked the church’s Sunday service. The majority managed to escape; however, 16 of them remained in the hands of their captors for almost a month.

The Kaduna State Chair of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, informed CSW that members of the local Muslim community had contributed funds towards the ransom, and had also purchased a motorcycle requested by the abductors as part of the payment: “I confirm and give thanks that all 16 are now back home. We are grateful to the local Muslims who contributed towards the ransom, and pray that from now [on] the two religious communities will work together to bring this painful era of kidnapping, violence, and killings to an end.”

Read the full story with includes additional background and commentary on the current political climate.

Source: Mission Network News, June 19, 2023

A senior cleric made waves in Iran earlier this month by saying Islam was weak. Roughly two-thirds of Iran’s mosques have closed, he said—a “worrying admission” for a state built around the principles of Islam.

Tom Doyle of Uncharted Ministries says it’s part of a broader trend. “There’s just not that general excitement, that fervency to spread Islam that we saw when we started going to the Middle East 25 years ago,” he explains.

“We see tolerance for it. In places like the Gaza Strip, people are forced to make that the issue. For at least ten years, we’ve seen attendance [declining] in mosques, and many Muslims, especially young ones, becoming agnostic.”

Additionally, “we’ve been privileged to go into Iran a couple of times, and [in] the mosques that we visited, we didn’t see any young people; just a bunch of old people, and there weren’t that many of them. We saw the same thing in Syria, in Iraq,” Doyle says.

“I think we’re seeing the collapse of Islam.”

You could say the same about Christianity in America. Church attendance is down across denominations. However, Muslims in the Middle East are not only turning away from Islam. Many are turning to Jesus.

Read the full story.

Editor’s note: We think it’s too soon to predict Islam’s collapse, but see another opinion piece about Christianity growing in unexpected places and describing why the author thinks it’s happening now (World).

Source: Frontiers USA, June 14, 2023

Shah gripped the peeling seat of the old Toyota as he and Tony, a Frontiers field worker, rattled down the bumpy road to Shah’s home village.

He pointed to the left. “Turn here and you’ll be at my uncle’s home.” The weathered house came into view between the thick vegetation that crowded the road.

Shah’s extended family still lived in the area, although he and his parents had moved to a nearby town. Shah and his father had begun working with Tony three years earlier, and since then Tony’s prayers in Jesus’ name had led to the inexplicable healing of his mother’s leukemia and his father’s liver failure.

Shah wished he could follow Jesus, who seemed to heal the most impossible of illnesses, but he knew his family could be hurt or killed if they left Islam. Still, he hoped the prayers of his foreign friend would drive out the evil spirit that had plagued his uncle for a decade. If Jesus couldn’t help, then nothing would.

Read the full story. It’s powerful.

Source: Christian Aid Mission, June 14, 2023

A crowd of murderers, thieves, and other violent men, women, and minors in Mali were incarcerated uneasily in the same prison when guards called them into the courtyard.

An officer told the inmates that Christians had come from hundreds of kilometers away to give them advice, and to please listen to them.

The hardened faces softened as the native Christian worker spoke of disobedience, sin, and salvation. The worker knew this might be the only chance the criminals from different tribes had of hearing the gospel, the ministry leader said.

Within minutes, a voice cried out, “I am guilty—this man is telling the truth. God help me.”

“You could see each of them whispering similar things to themselves; others had reddened eyes and tears,” the leader said. “As if a light had just burst forth in the midst of darkness, we saw some faces unraveling—certainly the power of God was there.”

As a spirit of repentance dissolved the prior atmosphere of misery, the prison officer also confessed to the inmates: “This word concerns me—I am guilty towards God. May God help me.”

“As he spoke, tears could be seen rolling down the cheeks of many,” the leader said, adding that the officer and inmates pleaded for the workers to pray for them.

Read the full story to see how this encounter changed the prisoners, according to the warden.