Category: News Briefs

Source: Mission Network News, March 15, 2022

In Niger, God is working among the Fulani and Tuareg tribes, predominantly Muslim groups.

Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says, “There are converts, people who are following Christ, out of those tribes that are then literally going village to village. They are sharing the gospel and finding great fertile soil for the seeds of the gospel that are being planted.”

Nettleton says we need to remember this when we hear about attacks against Christians by these groups. “Don’t fail to remember that God is at work among the Fulani. I’ve seen some amazing pictures of Fulani in their full tribal regalia, with their headcovers, being baptized into the kingdom of God.”

These groups have often been used as pawns by outside political forces who want to promote radical Islam. Other attacks stem from the differing needs of farmers and herdsmen or different tribal disputes.

Praise God for the work he is doing among the Fulani and the Tuareg. Nettleton says, “The book of Revelation promises people of every tribe and tongue and nation will worship Jesus. We’re seeing that happen in our day, so we celebrate the work of God.”

Read the full story.

See also a Voice of the Martyrs Facebook post about a creative Taureg baptism.

Editor’s Note: What a joy to read news like this! Years ago I picked up a bunch of books at the Dollar Store for 25 cents each, including one that helped my Sunday school class learn about the Taureg and pray for them. Check out One Night by Cristina Kessler.

Source: God Reports, March 25, 2022

On February 25, Russian tanks rolled into her Ukrainian village, Orlovsky, in the Donetsk region, abducting Valentina Naumovich, 61, a trusted missionary affiliated with Far Reaching Ministries and CBN’s Orphan’s Promise.

Eyewitnesses saw the soldiers throw a black bag over her head as they abducted her. “A woman who knew Valentina reportedly betrayed her to the Russian troops when they arrived in town, telling them that Valentina was helping the Ukrainians,” according to CBN.

Valentina had been helping with the distribution of food to people hiding in bomb shelters, as well as Ukrainian soldiers.

“She was the keeper of the village, the main philanthropist, who knew about the pain and need of every resident, and every adult, respectively, knew her… She gave love and light. She distributed food and bread to the hungry, and preached the gospel to the desperate,” according to a spokesperson affiliated with Far Reaching Ministries.

See the full story with photos. Evidently, Valentina was able to make a phone call two weeks after she was captured but we have not found a more recent update. Another report said she had been serving as an aid worker in this region for eight years. Please pray.

See also Franklin Graham Writes to Putin, Zelenskyy to Ask for a Ceasefire During Holy Week (Religion News Service).

Source: The Christian Post, April 4, 2022

A few years ago, a missionary decided to do a small and seemingly inconsequential experiment in El Zonte, a beach town in El Salvador. The plan was to get the community to adopt Bitcoin so that they wouldn’t have to rely so much on the cash economy. What he started would change the country in a remarkably short amount of time.

Until recently, El Salvador was known for two things: murder and fleeing immigrants. Known to many as the murder capital of the world, the endemic gang violence meant that it became the most dangerous country in the world that was not at war.

Like many developing countries, El Salvador was dependent on foreign aid. Specifically, the International Monetary Fund, or the IMF. The IMF is an organization that gives loans to countries as they need them. This is usually in dollars, and like all fiat currency, is created for the sake of the borrower.

In 2019, a missionary living in El Salvador for several years decided to try something different. Mike Peterson started working with the community of El Zonte to adopt Bitcoin. He introduced Bitcoin to El Zonte so that residents could have more convenience, privacy, and security for their money. They got banking services without the need for a bank and the benefits versus cash were obvious. There’s no need to physically hand over cash and the transaction can be done via phone, which most Salvadorans have.

The results were fantastic for all involved. There is, for instance, a mortgage program by a Christian charity in El Salvador that uses Bitcoin for payment services. This is a far more efficient system than cash. [And] how could anyone build up a credit score if transactions are all done in cash?

A more subtle change is the ability for people in El Zonte to save. The ability to be your own bank and the ability to save without fear of theft made all the difference. Kids started thinking about the future and education and living for the long term. Gang membership went down. Kids stopped dropping out of school.

The full story includes more about the problems with IMF aid and the benefits of Bitcoin. Seems like an editorial as much as a news story, but quite interesting. Watch a video podcast about what happened in El Zonte and beyond (Bitcoin Fixes This podcast).

Russia: Witches Gather to Cast Spells on Putin’s Enemies

Source: Back to Jerusalem, March 2022

If you think that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t spiritual warfare, then you haven’t been paying attention.

In a gathering of Russia’s most well-known witches and seers, spells were cast on the enemies of President Vladimir Putin. In one of the most important ceremonies, known as “the circle of power,” the witches cast spells and chant incantations.

According to the Russian Ministry of Health in 2017, Russia had around 800,000 people who were listed as practicing some type of spiritual magic as their profession.

The Bible teaches us with the example of Moses and Pharaoh’s magicians, as well as Elijah and Baal’s prophets, that the sorcery of the enemy is no match for the prayers of the saints. Christians around the world have been praying for both the people of Russia and Ukraine and with this information, it is clear that Christians are involved in very real spiritual warfare.

Read the full story.

In this edition:

1. World: The Status of Global Bible Translation
2. China: Rewriting the Bible to Align with Communist Values
3. Egypt: President Affirms Building Churches in Every New City
4. Ukraine: 48 Hours and a Journey to a New Life
5. Philippines: The Blessing of the Pandemic—God’s Deconstruction of My Ministry

View or share the email edition or scroll down for individual stories.

Source: Missio Nexus, March 8, 2022

Imagine your life if you didn’t know the truth of God’s Word. Didn’t know the unconditional love of Jesus. Didn’t know God’s plan for you. Because it didn’t exist in your language. That’s the grim reality for over one billion people around the world.

Today there are more than 3,000 language groups with little or no access to Scripture, and about 2,000 of those don’t have a single verse of Scripture in the language they best understand. Many of these language groups include followers of Christ and even established churches. But with their only access to Scripture being in another language, the deep truths of God’s Word are difficult, if not impossible, to access.

But there is hope! Unprecedented advances in technology, innovation, and collaboration among the global church are accelerating the pace of Bible translation like never before.

See the full story with an infographic.

Visit illumiNations.bible to learn how you can help. Visit progress.bible for more data on the state of Bible translation.

Of course, not every Bible translation is good news. See next item…

Source: Christian Headlines, February 18, 2022

A spokesperson for the Christian persecution watchdog group The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) warned that the Chinese government is currently attempting to rewrite the Word of God in accordance with communist values.

“This is a project that the Chinese Communist Party announced in 2019. At the time, they said it would be about a 10-year process … to release a new translation of the Bible,” VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton told Faithwire in a recent interview.

He noted that the reimagined Scriptures would include a variety of principles, including Confucianism and Buddhism.

“This new translation … would really support the Communist Party,” Nettleton added.

Read the full story or watch the 10-minute interview with Nettleton. (Though the American flag in the background is a bit distracting.)

See also Dangers of Openly Worshiping Jesus in China: One Man’s Harrowing Story (The Christian Post).

Read on for another story about government and faith.

Source: International Christian Concern, March 14, 2022

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi confirmed Egypt’s initiative for constructing a church in every newly built city, saying, “Where there is a mosque, there must also be a church. And if the church to be built will be attended by even only 100 people, it must be built anyway.” The country’s urban development program includes regulations that a church must be constructed as part of city planning.

These churches are not subject to the 2016 law that regulates non-Muslim worship and mandates that all churches receive permission for renovations, building, and demolition. Though the presidential announcement and commitment to church building was celebrated by the Orthodox and evangelical communities across the country, the new church construction has one major downfall.

Whether intended or not, the new regulation severely limits and poses threats to Egypt’s Muslim-background believers (MBBs). Al-Sisi continued his statements above adding, “so no one will have to meet in an apartment and present that private house as a church.”

MBBs are generally unable to enter clearly identified churches for fear of persecution from their Muslim community or families. Instead, MBBs and those seeking to share the gospel with their Muslim neighbors utilize house churches, meeting in homes.

Read the full story.

See also a story about combating persecution in Niger which explains some of the challenges and strategies for overcoming them in another majority-Muslim country (Words of Hope).

Shifting our eyes to Europe, the next story reminds us that the refugees from Ukraine may have a variety backgrounds and beliefs.

Source: WorldVenture, March 5, 2022

Donna and Mark McDonnel are WorldVenture global workers to Ukraine temporarily evacuated to Poland. And they just spent 48 hours straight helping Ukrainian refugees. Because sometimes, that’s what it means to serve.

Donna received a call from her friend and Arabic-language teacher, a Jordanian man teaching in Kyiv.

Donna’s teacher managed to escape with his Ukrainian wife—who was very distressed—and their two kids in their car. “That little suburb, across the street from Kyiv Christian Academy was home to a good-sized Tatar community, and he was teaching Quranic Arabic at a school there,” [she says]. It was recently shelled by the Russian military.

This man and his family traveled with different caravans of people of different nationalities and spent over 48 hours waiting to cross the border into Poland. Donna and the teacher spoke throughout this time of escape, and she helped him think through where to find a new home.

Donna [and others] arranged for lodging to house them on their trip through Poland—an adventure all its own. Eventually, the teacher and his large group made their way to Berlin, Germany, en route to their hoped-for destination of Switzerland. But the start of their new lives has begun with a new challenge: All 11 have tested positive for COVID-19. They are now quarantined. It’s a rough way to start a new life after a harrowing experience fleeing their former lives.

“They are not going back to Ukraine,” Donna reports of her friends. “He sees this as starting a whole new life. His biggest concerns were being received as a Muslim and the rumors of prejudice.”

Read the full story with prayer points.

See also Russian Evangelical Leader Apologizes to Ukrainian Christians and The Wartime Prayers of Ukraine’s Evangelicals (Christianity Today) as well as How the Ukraine War Is Dividing Orthodox Christians (The Conversation).

As the man in the next article found, sometimes having your life turned upside down can be a tremendous blessing.

Source: Asian Access, March 8, 2022

God has used the pandemic to dismantle the ministry construct under which I had been working. The pandemic forced me to embrace undoing ministry. I had no choice because pandemic rules and restrictions grounded me at home. Slowly, the restrictions created by the pandemic became God’s instrument to deconstruct my ministry practices and perspective.

Deconstruction made it clear that what I had prioritized and pursued in life and ministry needed radical review and revision. The time and space created by the pandemic provided needed time to lazily linger in Bible reading and reflection, writing, and prayer. I grappled with the truth that ministry is all about participation in the work of God, not performance in the ministry.

God deconstructed my ministry so that he could do the spiritual reconstruction needed to help me to focus on what really matters as defined by the values and vision of the kingdom of God. God let me see that many things I had considered as success were not really significant in the kingdom of God. In the eyes of God, small works of love in the obscurity of the ordinary are significant and rewarded (see Matthew 25:34-40).

Read the full story. The author leads the A2’s ministry in the Philippines.

Asian Access also shared A Call to End the War and Pray for Peace, with prayers and statements about Russia and Ukraine from ministry leaders across Asia.