Category: News Briefs

Source: International Christian Concern, February 4, 2022

Ten Iranian Christian converts previously cleared of all accusations are being forced by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to participate in re-education classes led by Islamic clerics. The ten Christians, eight of whom were cleared in a Dezful court in November of any crime, appeared after being summoned via phone.

The IRGC led the arrest, charges, confiscation of property, and threats against the Christian converts in Dezful. These mandatory Islamic re-education classes directly conflict with the rulings of the Civil and Revolutionary Court of Dezful that said the group “merely converted to a different religion.” The court noted that this apostasy could be punished under Islamic Sharia law but was “not criminalized in the laws of Iran.” The courts also ruled they “didn’t carry out any propaganda against other groups.” The IRGC-mandated classes were presented to the group to “guide them back onto the right path.”

Read the full story.

Also from Iran, read Heart4Iran Delivers Hope to Iran’s Next Generation (Heart4Iran and Mission Network News).

Source: Middle East Concern, February 4, 2022

Christians in Algeria request prayer for church leaders in Ait Atteli, a village in Tizi Ouzou, the province in which most Algerian Christians live, as officials have started proceedings to close their church.

The provincial governor filed a case on February 1 against the pastor and his father who owns the land where the church is located. The case is based on a 2006 ordinance regulating non-Muslim worship. No date has been set for the court to hear the case. The church was established in 2006 and joined the EPA (Église Protestante d’Algérie), the legally recognized umbrella of Protestant churches in Algeria, in 2011. It has more than 90 members.

In recent years several churches have been closed under this ordinance, which requires non-Muslim worship to be held only in buildings licensed for that purpose. The licensing commission established under the 2006 ordinance, has yet to issue a single license.

The government has waged a systematic campaign against Protestant churches since November 2017, leaving 16 church buildings closed and at least four other fellowships ordered to cease their activities.

Read the full story.

In other news, evangelicals are among those signing the country’s first “National Charter for Peaceful Coexistence” in neighboring Tunisia (Evangelical Focus).

Got a heart to pray for the persecuted? See also five ways you can pray for Chinese Christians during the Olympic Games (Voice of the Martyrs).

Source: God Reports, February 3, 2022

In 2013 Caleb Byerly woke up with a start and began to furiously write in his journal everything he saw in a rather unusual dream. For the previous five years, [Caleb] had been engaged in mission outreach to indigenous people and tribal areas in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

“In the dream, I was standing on top of this mountain. I was looking out across the mountain, and I saw a tribe of people,” he told God Reports. He had never seen the tribe before and felt drawn to them, so he asked, “What tribe are you? What people are you?”

“We’re the Tinananon tribe,” they replied. Caleb had never heard of this people group and he began to carefully observe their actions in his dream.

A tribal chief walked to the front carrying a musical instrument.

“He took two small sticks, and he began to play this instrument. As he played the whole tribe started to dance and they started to worship. This kind of sound of worship just filled the place. It was as if heaven and earth just collided. After that, I woke up from the dream.”

God has spoken to Caleb through dreams previously, so he meticulously recorded in his journal the name of the Tinananon tribe. He made detailed drawings of the bowl, its dimensions and materials, a wooden ring that goes around the bowl, the strings connected by wooden pegs, and the two sticks used to play the instrument.

The full story describes how Caleb, an instrument maker by trade, built the instrument he saw in his dream, found the Tinananon tribe, and helped bring them the Bible in their language. It’s pretty amazing!

Hear Caleb tell the story in a 2019 episode on The Unseen Story, a podcast with first-person stories that build faith in God’s power and presence. Actually, Google will help you find this story told in quite a few places.

Note that Caleb Byerly and his wife founded Evergreen Missions, which includes a focus on promoting indigenous music, poetry, and more.

Watch Caleb play the salimbaa in the video below.

Source: Mobilizer Mom, February 2022

Between the Olympic Games in Beijing kicking off at the end of the week and [Tuesday] being the first day of the Chinese New Year, I hope you are taking some time to introduce this holiday to your children!

Need some tips?
Some craft ideas?
Some recipes?
Or to learn about the spiritual needs in China?

Read Travel with Me to… China.

You might use Alicia’s Olympic Games Devotionals this month. She writes, “I want to help your family watch the athletes and countries come together in Beijing with the purpose to see what God is doing in each of those countries and how he loves each person from every nation.”

For more insight on religion in China, see The Church in China: It’s Complicated, a short article Joann Pittman of China Source wrote for the UK mission info service OSCAR.

Source: World Venture, January 21, 2022

On Friday, January 14, 2022, Peter Persson prayed for and interviewed Mark Penner (United Bible Societies), Mary Esther Penner (WorldVenture), and Pastor Matsumoto of Yamagata Christian Deaf Church in Japan on Facebook Live on how the Japanese Deaf are sharing the gospel. They also featured JSL translator from Canada, Justina.

See the full story with a 60-minute video and links.

For more about international collaboration, evangelism, and Bible translation efforts, read Global Evangelism, Bible Translation Seek Common Goals (Wyclifffe Global Alliance).

Source: Christian Aid Mission, January 2022

Since the February 1, 2021 military coup that plunged the country of Myanmar into chaos, hundreds of civilians have been killed in random violence even as COVID-19 raged. Among victims of the virus were many Christian workers. A native ministry leader said that from May to August alone, 413 Christian evangelists and other workers with various ministry organizations died from the pandemic.

One of the native missionaries nearly died from COVID-19 in July, and since then he and his wife have planted a church, the leader said.

“He and his wife brought non-Christians and conducted salvation Bible training at his house five times in October and November,” the leader said. “He baptized 23 people, and they all joined the church.”

Another local missionary who works among devout Buddhists invited non-Christians to his house every weekend for dinner, where he taught them about Christ.

“In the month of November, he reached 48 people with the Good News, and 14 of them accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Halleluiah!” the leader said. “He said that if he’s not telling the Good News, he is not able to sleep or eat.”

Such gospel advance took place at a time when pandemic lockdowns and military conflict made going out of one’s house unthinkable in many areas.

Read the full story.

See also The Tearful Struggle to Heal Battered Burma (also from CAM, via Mission Network News).

Source: Open Doors USA, January 19, 2022

In 2021, even during the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis, persecution against Christians continued at an alarming rate around the globe. Research for the Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List—the most in-depth investigative research and report on Christian persecution available—shows that today, more than 360 million people face high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. That’s an increase of 15 million believers in only one year.

That’s one in seven Christians, worldwide.

Below, we look at the top ten countries where persecution is highest. In many of these countries, life is already difficult, but making the decision to follow Jesus and live as a Christian is a choice that puts one’s life, family, and livelihood in jeopardy. In countries like Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia, faith in Jesus can be a death sentence. And in 2021, we saw a spike in violence, new technologies that threaten the faith of millions—and a new No. 1 for the first time in 20 years.

Read the full article or see the whole list of 50 countries and download a report. Watch a 3.5-minute video about the project, below.

Also see a free, 100-page prayer guide from Voice of the Martyrs.

Source: Dispatches from the Global Village, January 6, 2022

At age 19, Yassir Eric, living in Sudan, was a radicalized Muslim. He had memorized much of the Quran and was militant in his hatred of Christians—indeed, of anything that was not in conformity to the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood.

But then Yassir met a Coptic missionary at a hospital where Yassir was visiting his sick uncle in Sudan. The Coptic missionary had come to pray for a sick child. Yassir asked him why he had bothered to come since the child had little chance of living. Yassir was puzzled. Misled by extremist propaganda, he didn’t think Christians prayed or even believed in God. He watched as the Coptic missionary prayed and then to his astonishment, observed the young boy open his eyes and move his hands as life reappeared.

“In that day, the Lord opened my eyes,” Yassir recalled.

When Yassir’s family learned of his conversion, he was not just ousted—they held a funeral service and a symbolic burial ceremony. To be excluded in this case meant separation from a very large family: his grandfather had six wives and his 69 uncles each had four or five wives each. The entire family turned their back on him.

Yassir was arrested due to his conversion and spent seven weeks in prison. When he could finally visit a church, the people there were unwilling to welcome him because of his reputation and that of his family. Eventually, a Swedish missionary, like first-century Barnabas, welcomed him and over many months, discipled him in the Christian faith.

“What held you together during this time?” I asked Yassir. “As devastating as it was to be forced out of my home,” he noted, “I found strength in the Lord’s Prayer. God was not sitting outside, but he’s the one who came into time [and] space, and I could call him father.”

Five years later, Yassir moved to Kenya, where he studied at Daystar University and met his future wife. The two eventually moved to her home country of Germany, where he completed further studies and pastored a Lutheran church. Today he is part of the leadership of Communio Messianica, a global network of Christians converted from Islam, often referred to as MBBs or Muslim Background Believers.

Though it is hard to verify numbers, reports of growing communities of Christians in Muslim-majority countries surface frequently. Since there is no official registration of membership, Yassir noted, only through friendships and baptisms can even Christians in these countries track the growth.

Read A First-Century Story for the 21st. In it, Yassir proposes five reasons for the movement of MBBs in our world today.

See also another testimony, this one from a woman from a Muslim background. It’s called A Fifty-Year Solo Journey (Frontiers USA).