Month: June 2023

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.

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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).