Category: News Briefs

Source: The Christian Post, September 11, 2021

Two elderly pastors are being held in Eritrea’s maximum-security interrogation center as one of the world’s most repressive and closed countries continues to persecute Christians.

“Pastor Girmay Araya, 75, and Pastor Samuel Okbamichael, 74, were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and brought to an unknown location,” the news agency Church in Chains reported, according to the US-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern [though it later emerged that they were taken to the maximum-security Wengel Mermera Central Criminal Investigation interrogation center].

When arrested, Eritrea’s persecuted Christians often disappear without a trace, leaving their loved ones with no information on their whereabouts or safety. Prison conditions are some of the harshest in the world, with inmates kept in shipping containers and believers often tortured in an attempt to get them to renounce their faith.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki is a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church in Asmara—belonging to the largest among the only three Christian denominations allowed to function in the country. Afewerki [also] has a reputation of being an alcoholic and a ruthless autocrat. Afewerki’s policy of restrictions is more about his fear that religion will mobilize people as a political force than religion itself.

Read the full story. Note: Evidently these arrests happened in late July but the men have yet to be released.

Church in Chains details other recent arrests in the country.

Source: ASSIST News Service, October 11, 2021

COVID-19 has triggered a “shadow pandemic” of sexual abuse, violence, and exploitation against girls, a shocking new report reveals on International Day of the Girl Child, October 11.

More than ever, girls face multiple threats to their safety, including sexual predators online, sex trafficking, and forced child marriage, says the report Young Victims Remain Hidden in the Pandemic’s Shadow by mission organization GFA World (also known as Gospel for Asia). International Day of the Girl Child is an annual awareness event.

In more than 130 countries—including the US—it’s legal for girls to marry under the age of 18. In North Carolina and Alaska, a girl can marry at 14 if she’s pregnant. In North Carolina, a 57-year-old man applied to marry a 17-year-old girl, the report says.

Worldwide, COVID-19 is accelerating a “global crisis for girls,” with surging joblessness and poverty putting pressure on struggling parents to marry off their daughters in their mid-teens or younger, the report says.

Globally, national lockdowns have disrupted schooling for millions of girls and left them exposed to exploitation and a greater risk of getting pregnant.

Read the full story.

Sources: Various

“COVID-19 and its many ripple effects have done great harm to families worldwide. This tragedy brings both an immense challenge and an immense opportunity. The local church in every nation has both the calling and the community capable of making a world of difference—restoring broken families, strengthening struggling families, and welcoming children into new families whenever needed.” – Jedd Medefind, Christian Alliance for Orphans

• Maybe you read the recent CDC report Children: The Hidden Pandemic 2021 or saw it cited in news stories.
• Maybe you saw the press release from earlier this month reporting that more than 140,000 US children (1 in 500) had lost a parent or caregiver to the pandemic by the end of June. The numbers have only gone up since then, both in the US and globally.

Several ministries we know are offering ways to learn more or respond.

• The Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) has a great blog and both conducts and curates research. CAFO invites us to participate in the 20th annual, international Orphan and Stand Sunday on November 7. Is this something you or your church would want to be part of?
• Crisis Care Training International is offering their course Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children online starting soon (October 24 to December 17). They also offer the downloadable curriculum materials.
• The Chalmers Center is offering a three-week online course called Helping Without Hurting in International Orphan Care (October 25 to November 9). Worth checking out.

1. World: Starlink Satellite Internet Will Expedite Bible Translation
2. World: YouVersion Partners for Greater Scripture Access by 2033
3. Iran: Deaf Get Access to JESUS Film in Persian Sign Language
4. Middle East: Eight Barriers to the Gospel
5. Chad: The Multiplication Process at Work
6. India: Healing Leads to Religious Conversion Scandal

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

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, September 10, 2021

One of the most important things needed to complete Bible translation projects is something many people take for granted: internet access.

As more and more people around the world translate the Bible for their own communities, a strong and reliable internet connection provides training and consulting opportunities to keep the work moving forward.

Learn how satellite internet technology like Starlink is helping deliver Scripture to people faster than ever before.

Watch the two-minute video (also on the Wycliffe website).

See also the Seed Company video, History of Bible Translation, which does an impressive job at summarizing 2,300 years of history in less than seven minutes.

Source: The Christian Post, September 9, 2021

The popular mobile Bible app YouVersion has partnered with an alliance of 10 leading Bible translation organizations to help reach the goal of making the gospel available to 95% of the world’s population by 2033.

The collaboration plan, which some initially deemed impossible in this lifetime, will also aim to see the New Testament available in 99.96% of the languages available.

Ideas for the illumiNations partnership have been brewing since 2010 at an organized launch gathering. The association was created as 3,732 languages of the world’s over 7,000 languages have little or no translated Scripture.

“The Bible transforms lives, and we want to give back and bring awareness,” YouVersion Founder Bobby Gruenewald told The Christian Post. “It’s important that people know that God speaks their languages too.”

Read the full story.

See also Adopting a Collaboration Mindset (Catalyst Services).

Source: Mission Network News, September 23, 2021

Jesus Film Project recently released a new translation of the “JESUS” film. But it’s not a spoken translation. It’s in Persian Sign Language!

Persian, also known as Farsi, is the nation of Iran’s official language. And there are over 400,000 Deaf in Iran. The “JESUS” film has been available in Farsi for a while. But now, Iranian Deaf communities also have access to the movie and its powerful representation of the gospel.

Jesus Film Project was connected with a woman in Dallas, Texas who helped with the Persian Sign Language in the film. Now the next step is to get the word out!

But that can be easier said than done, especially in a closed country like Iran.

A friend of Jesus Film Project is getting micro SD cards into Iran with the “JESUS” film in Persian Sign Language. And it is also available on Jesus Film Project’s website.

[A spokesperson named] Brian says, “We’re connecting with other ministries who do Deaf ministry, and so we try to network with them,…letting people know this is out there.”

The Persian Sign Language translation is part of Jesus Film Project’s initiative, Mission 865. The ministry hopes to complete 865 translations of the “JESUS” film in minority languages by 2025.

The full story includes prayer points.

More good news from Iran: an imprisoned convert who had gone missing has been found  (Middle East Concern).

Source: Arab World Media, September 28, 2021

We are acutely aware of the many barriers Muslims face on their journey to faith. The parable Jesus told of the sower and the seed (Mark 4) resonates deeply with where we are in our ministry in the Middle East. Some places are as resistant as hardened pathways. Others are unreceptive, like rocky ground, while others are choked with thorns. But the seed of God’s Word is falling into good soil and yielding a harvest as many are choosing to follow Jesus.

Download a prayer guide about eight barriers to the gospel in the Middle East. Consider joining AWM members, friends, and supporters who will be praying through this guide on October 8.

Source: Partners International, September 1, 2021

In the lowlands of Chad, the Lord is moving among the unreached Bua people. The Bua are a nomadic group that follows a blend of Islam and animism.

One of our local leaders, Abdu, served this people group for the past few years, sharing the gospel with them. During that time, he discipled new believers and planted three house churches. But a few months ago, Abdu had to flee the area because of intense persecution.

Mwamba was one of Abdu’s disciples. He participated in the church work and spent many hours learning about Jesus, asking questions about the Bible and helping Abdu serve the Bua people. But, after Abdu left, Mwamba moved to the city to do business.

One night in the city, he had a dream where the Lord told him, “Mwamba, Mwamba, get up and cross the river. Go back and feed my flocks.” When he woke up the next morning, he committed to go back and serve the three house churches he left behind.

God blessed Mwamba’s obedience. One month after moving back among the Bua, he planted seven house churches, baptized seven men and ten women, and saw the Lord move in mighty ways in the community.

Read the full story.

Source: Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, September 14, 2021

In July this year, Gaya District in the north Indian state of Bihar found itself at the center of a religious conversion scandal after it was reported that hundreds of Mahadalits had left Hinduism and converted to Christianity. Indian mainstream media reported the story as a case of exploitation of superstitious villagers. “Reports claim the rampant conversions are being carried out under the pretext of curing maladies.” But, reading further, one can only conclude that the Spirit of God is moving in that place.

The story begins with Kewla Devi, a Mahadalit village woman whose chronically ill son was not responding to medical treatment. When someone urged Kewla to seek the help of Christians in adjoining Wajidpur village, Kewla—with nothing to lose—did. The Christians prayed and her son recovered.

So remarkable was this miraculous healing that, not only did Kewla and her whole family become followers of Jesus but so too did around 135 Mahadalit families in Belwadih village. The new Christians—who no longer use vermilion to mark their foreheads, nor pray to Hindu gods or goddesses—all insist they converted freely of their own will, without any inducement.

Read the full story. It includes links to Indian news sources as well as prayer points.