Missions Catalyst

1. Brazil: Your Witch Will See You Now
2. Bangladesh: Man Who Killed His Brother Finds Peace in Christ
3. India: Teen Girl Rescued Seconds Before Sacrifice
4. Myanmar: Today’s Prayer Focus, the Paku Karen
5. Japan: Why So Hard to Reach?
6. USA: 400 Follow Christ in Oklahoma Prison Worship Service

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Source: Christian Post, June 23, 2025

If you weren’t aware, Brazil has one of the world’s fastest rising divorce rates [with 76% more divorces in 2022 than 2010]. To tackle the increasing number of marriages ending, heartbroken Brazilians are doing what any sane person would do in hopes of maintaining love, fidelity, and keeping that spark alive in a relationship.

They’re turning to witchcraft.

An [February 2025] article in The Wall Street Journal discussed the trend, which is gathering momentum because, according to those seeing witches to help their love life (just like they would a doctor for health reasons), the success rate of the spells cast by witches is better than expected. Sometimes it’s too good.

Read the full story. I recommend you read it to the very end. Wise words! 

Also from Christian Post: Former medium warns Christians against the occult: “No such thing as a good witch.”

Source: Every Home for Christ, July 5, 2025

About 13 years ago, Mr. C had a quarrel with his brother over land. Mr. C became angry, killed his brother, and served a 12-year jail sentence. He was released just a few months ago.

For 12 years, Mr. C has carried the guilt of his crime and repented, but he didn’t know how to relieve the burden on his heart. Because Mr. C was a devout Hindu, he tried to follow all the rules for atonement of sins according to Hinduism. But he did not find peace of mind.

Last week, Mr. C met one of our volunteers. Mr. C read the gospel literature thoroughly and learned that Jesus died on the cross for his sins. When he understood this truth, he started weeping.

After crying for a long time, he felt at peace in his mind. He realized that only Jesus can free him from this sin. That’s when he gave up everything else in which he had sought peace and accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior. He regularly attends the local church, reads the Bible, prays, and participates in a Christ Group. He testifies loudly to others that he has been born again through the Lord Jesus.

Read the full story and another about a woman who often dreamed about Jesus before learning that his love is for everyone, not just those from Christian backgrounds.

See an account of a high-caste Hindu won to Christ that also illustrates barriers to the gospel and how they can be overcome (Beyond).

Source: Back to Jerusalem, July 10, 2025

A 16-year-old girl was rescued in India after she was almost murdered as a child sacrifice. Working on a tip, the police raided a local home where they found a man, his wife, the victim, and her mother involved in the child sacrifice ritual.

Yavatmal City Police reportedly uncovered a ritual where a 16-year-old girl was to be burned to uncover hidden treasure. The girl told police that she was to be sacrificed on Guru Purnima, according to local reports (The Times of India).

The man who tried to sacrifice her has been identified as 44-year-old Mahadev Palve. He conducted the human sacrificial ritual with two women who offered their daughters. When the police learned what he had tried to do, he slit his throat in an attempted suicide, but was taken to the hospital and is reportedly in stable condition.

The police recovered money, a live turtle, conch shells, and several other items that were used for the ritual.

Mr. Mahadev Palve will be charged under the Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice Act in India.

Read the full story.

Source: Asia Harvest, July 16, 2025

The 7,000 Paku Karen people are spread over three states in eastern Myanmar, with others living in refugee camps across the border in Thailand. There are at least seven dialect groups among the Paku Karen, each wearing different traditional clothing. Some may qualify as distinct people groups.

Paku Karen women hold a respected place in society, probably because of the influence of missionary Ellen Mason, who, along we her husband Francis, first preached the gospel to them in 1853. They found fertile hearts, and by 1931, more than 80% of Paku Karen people were Christians.

Ask God to send Paku Karen believers out as missionaries to the unreached in Myanmar.

Read more. You might also be interested in the story of Ellen Mason.

Asia Harvest is sharing a series of 230 people group profiles leading up to the publication of the book Operation Myanmar. View all completed profiles.

Have a heart to pray that the emerging church would be mobilized for God’s global purposes? In July, the Global Mission Mobilization Initiative calls us to pray for the church in Lebanon, writing, “Today, Lebanon is home to the largest Christian population in the Middle East, predominantly composed of people from Syria.” See prayer points in seven languages and read, What Is Mobilization Prayer?

Source: Radical, July 15, 2025

Why does Japan reject foreign religions like Christianity? Is Christianity doomed to fail in Japan? In Hard to Reach: Japan, Steven Morales travels across one of the most beautiful—and spiritually complex—nations in the world to uncover why Christianity struggles to take root.

The pieces of this 45-minute documentary were released in 2024 and are still available as a playlist of stand-alone videos, but these week Radical released them as a single video. This may be a good example of how effort and impact are not the same.

Source: Crosswalk, July 3, 2025

More than 700 inmates worshiped God, and more than 400 accepted the call for salvation during an Oklahoma prison outreach. The event aimed to reach every prisoner and was facilitated by just 32 volunteers who served 1,000 hot meals, distributed 700 Bibles, and handed out 1,300 Bible study books.

“I was like, man, I really feel like there’s a harvest of people in the prisons that we could reach with God’s love that [only a few] churches in our city [are] really going after,” [Pastor Paul] Daugherty who leads Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told CBN News.

See the full story with pictures.

In case you missed it: Finding God on Death Row describes a movement happening in Texas prisons (Movements.net). 

Multiple recent news stories also ask us to pray for believers in China and other places who have been thrown into prison. For example,  read about leaders arrested at a church founded by Hudson Taylor charged with fraud (China Aid, via ASSIST News).