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Header image from Nigeria from Unknown Nations, via Mission Network News.
Greetings!
This story might make Heaven’s headlines: “Cancelled” Welsh hymns on mental illness and addiction resurrected by singer (The Guardian). Lleuwen Steffan is performing these lost Welsh hymns—which also speak to concerns of our day—in chapels throughout Wales. I am fascinated and can’t wait for the English translations! Learn more.
Also, thanks to Global Christian Worship for highlighting the multi-cultural, Jesus-centered worshiping community Proskuneo Ministries, which gets its name from the Greek word for worship. The timing of the discovery was God’s gift to me as I plan for Pentecost Sunday (also International Day for the Unreached) this Sunday, May 19. Watch some of them perform The Blessing in English, Spanish, and Korean below and scroll through the playlist for more great worship.
Pat Noble
Source: Mission Network News, May 9, 2024
Only [days] remain until the International Day for the Unreached! A third of the world’s population is still waiting to hear the good news about Jesus, but you can help change that.
Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley, a member of the Alliance for the Unreached, says awareness is the first step.
For example, “We need to become more aware of India and Nigeria because of how strategic they are from the Kingdom standpoint,” Kelley says. “You can make a case that India and Nigeria are representative—more so than any other country in Asia and Africa—for the ends of the earth. Yet most Christians don’t think that way.”
Why start with these two countries? First of all, “There’s no country in the continent of Asia that has more people groups than India, and more unreached people groups, just like Nigeria is to Africa,” Kelley says.
Read the full story and learn about Alliance for the Unreached. You can access more IDU materials from their website.
See also Why Are the Unreached Unreached? (The Mission Podcast).
Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators, May 3, 2024
[Translation consultant] Olivia Razafinjatoniary was asked to lead door-to-door evangelism efforts in a Tsimihety community in Madagascar, sharing the gospel with people there [at the time the newly translated Tsimihety Bible was dedicated]. But there was one issue: Olivia was from another region and didn’t speak any Tsimihety.
As Olivia knocked on the door to a house, she encountered a woman who was initially resistant to the gospel message. But neither the woman nor Olivia had any idea that God was about to do something incredible.
Read the story and watch a three-minute video (also below).
You might also be encouraged to hear about a church born in a camp for the displaced in Myanmar after audio Bibles were distributed there (Unknown Nations).
Source: Haggai International, May 9, 2024
Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean in the north and the Caribbean Sea in the south, the Dominican Republic is known for its beaches, historic sites, and merengue music. Also called the Cradle of the Americas, this region hosted one of the earliest known Mesoamerican civilizations, the Olmecs. But a lesser-known fact is that the Dominican Republic is the only country with a Bible on its flag.
With this heritage of faith evident in his country, Haggai leader Roberto Peña is committed to continue sharing the gospel through preaching, teaching, and equipping new leaders. As the senior pastor of a church in Santo Domingo, he says, “We have reached hundreds of people in the last year through different evangelical campaigns. …This is a great time when the church of Jesus needs to be prepared for the great revival that is coming.”
The full story briefly mentions ways this ministry is reaching people beyond the Dominican Republic (in the Middle East!)
You might also be interested in a story from neighboring Haiti, where a young man has become MAF’s first Haitian pilot/mechanic (Mission Network News).
Source: Back to Jerusalem, April 3, 2024
“One of our brothers has been thrown in prison,” Pastor Anil (not his real name) reported on Monday. “Please pray for him. His family has no other way to get support.”
Bhutan’s ruling Drukpa people are 100% unreached and strictly enforce the Buddhist religion. “The government does not want to say that they put him in jail for being a Christian, so they made up charges against him,” Pastor Anil said. Pastor Anil is one of the few Drukpa Christians in Bhutan and is in charge of a nationwide fellowship.
The pastor has a daughter who is currently in school. With her father in prison, she has no way to pay for tuition.
Read the full story. BTJ has a scholarship fund to help the children of persecuted pastors.
Did you know? Many Buddhists observe Buddha’s birthday today (May 15). Learn how Buddhists in different countries celebrate and why they do so on different days (AP/RNS) and, to join Christians who want to see the Buddhist world transformed, watch or listen to the Change the Map podcast.
