Category: News Briefs

Source: Open Doors, November 2021

Nine months after Myanmar’s military staged a coup and took over the civilian government, the violence continues as the Tatmadaw (Burmese local army) leaves traumatized civilians and destruction in their wake.

Yet like so many situations where God’s people are pressed on every side (2 Corinthians 4:8), faith continues to survive in the devastation. Our local partners report that increasing numbers of people are turning to Jesus for their hope.

Our local partners are aware of 544 people giving their lives to Jesus this year in Myanmar, with 166 of them making decisions to be baptized.

Of that number, 50 new believers were children who have dedicated their lives to Jesus in an Open Doors training last month.

The full story includes pictures and prayer points.

See also Army Attacks Continue in Myanmar’s Most Christian State and Why I Pray for Myanmar with Hope (Christianity Today).

Source: Mission Network News, November 15, 2021

On October 25 the United Nations said Afghanistan is on the brink of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, worse even than Yemen or Syria. Out of 38 million people in the country, 23 million won’t have enough food to last the winter without more aid.

But the Taliban continues hunting down civilians who oppose their ideologies, including activists and Christians. Greg Kelley spoke to contacts of World Mission inside the country. He says, “Not only that, but they’re identifying communities. Because where there’s one Christian, in most cases there tend to be several Christians.”

Kelley heard a remarkable story from his contacts about a group of Taliban fighters that went out searching for a Christian community. “They went to this community and they killed them all. Now on their way back, they had an encounter with an angel, and this angel rebuked these men and gave them instructions on where to go. Now this someone (they would have no idea who this individual was) happened to be a leader of the underground church movement.”

Kelley says the Taliban fighters laid down their weapons before this church leader, who then proclaimed Jesus to them. Now, Christians have taken them in as disciples in the way of Jesus.

Kelley compares this story to what the Apostle Paul experienced while hunting for Christians. His encounter with the risen Jesus and subsequent conversion is recorded in Acts 9. He says this story should encourage Christians everywhere. “I think it just needs to be a reminder to all of us that we can’t put God in a box, even as we look at the horrors and tragedies of Afghanistan.”

Read the full story and see also Despairing Afghan Refugees Find Aid and Hope and Not All Christians Are Fleeing the Taliban.

Source: Lausanne Global Analysis, November 2021

Korea and Japan are called, “the closest but the farthest nations.” Yonhap News reports that only 16.7 percent of Koreans have positive feelings toward Japan, while 20.2 percent [of] Japanese have positive feelings for Korea. The Japanese prohibition of hate speech has not extinguished the discriminatory actions against Koreans, and the anti-Japan campaigns in Korea seem to be a political strategy for more support from citizens. A deep gulf still exists between the two nations.

The Christian population in Korea is 19 percent of the total population, while in Japan it is about 0.8 percent. Korea often identifies herself as the “Israel in East Asia.” Japan, to the contrary, is known as the “graveyard of missionaries.”

In the midst of such contrast, learn how a Korean church reached across the divide and contextualized its efforts to share the gospel in Japan.

You might be interested in another (brief) article from Lausanne, Friendship Is Part of Our Gospel.

Source: International Mission Board, November 17, 2021

On October 29 in Kenya, IMB missionaries serving in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Asian Pacific Rim signed a memorandum of understanding solidifying the sending of missionaries from Asia to serve in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Daren Davis, the IMB leader for missionaries serving in Africa, said the signing of the memorandum is a historic step toward seeing Asians engage those in need of the gospel in Africa. Davis [also] acknowledged the decades of missions’ investment in Asian countries.

“We stand here today on the shoulders of those who went before us, people who labored in places where the name of Jesus was not known, and now, from those very places, rise up believers who are going to the nations for the sake of the gospel,” Davis said.

Jeff Singerman, who serves in Africa, said the brutal fact is that there are multitudes of unreached people on the African continent. He sees the signing of the memorandum as an answer to prayer. It is a building block to understanding that Christians from other nations can join the task of seeing African churches sending African missionaries.

Singerman said they will host multicultural training to enable missionaries from Asia to be fruitful and successful in the mission and in the calling that God has given them.

“This collaboration might be the greatest contribution the IMB can make in this generation of missionaries. In other words, facilitating connections with those [with] whom we work, so that they can understand their fulfilling and calling to the missionary task,” Singerman said.

Read full story.

Source: Baptist News, November 24, 2021

New research on American beliefs about some of faith’s hardest questions highlights both the nation’s biblical illiteracy and the chasm between what various Christian traditions teach. And it holds a few surprises about how people in the pew actually believe things contrary to their own church’s doctrine.

Pew Research in September dug into Americans’ views on theodicy (why do bad things happen to good people?), as well as their views on the reality of heaven and hell and how one gets to either destination. (See Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic, Other Tragedies).

While most of the questions produced clear majority views within the American populace, the detailed analysis among various iterations of Christianity reveals deep differences. And it turns out that the majority view on some questions may part ways with orthodox Christian teaching.

For example, 33% of American adults—including 30% of those who identify as Christian—believe in reincarnation. No major branch of Christianity teaches reincarnation, which also has no support in the biblical text.

Read the full story.

See also Bible App Installs and Use Show Global Bible Engagement Is on the Rise (Christian Newswire).

Source: Baptist Center for World Evangelism, November 5, 2021

According to Christian Schmidt, the international high representative in Bosnia, the nation is in turmoil and a real possibility exists that it will fracture. The Serb separatists want to recreate their own army, which would split the national force. There is a presence of international forces that have remained in Bosnia due to the Bosnian War, which ended in 1995. Should the Serbs withdraw their men from the national army, Schmidt warns that more international forces would be required within the country to prevent a descent into conflict.

During the Bosnian War in 1992-1995, it is estimated that 100,000 people were killed. The Bosnian genocide, which targeted Muslim men, killed over 8,000 in just three days. Should Bosnia again split in warring factions, many other people will die without a relationship with God. There is a great need for missionaries to take the message of the Prince of Peace to this nation so split by religious differences.

Read the full article with prayer points. See also Pray4Bosnia.com.

For more background and analysis, read In Bosnia, Fears of State Collapse and the Return of Violence (The New Statesman).

Unfortunately, Bosnia is not the only nation under such pressure. Need help keeping up? Justin Long’s Roundup is a good place to turn. He curates news with an eye for events that affect the unreached and ministry among them.

Source: Lausanne Movement, November 3, 2021

A disturbing analysis of 4.5 million tweets shows that falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to get shared. This shows it’s not only an inability to decipher what is true that makes fake news so prolific—we also find it alluring, sensational.

Despite being the bearers of good news, Christians are not immune to fake news. For example, in the days leading up to the 2020 election in the U.S., the most popular Christian pages on Facebook were being run by troll farms in Eastern Europe. These groups, which work cooperatively to produce and publish provocative and often angering content to social networks, reached nearly half of all Americans.

Our propensity for fake news reflects our propensity for fake forms of the gospel. A 2020 survey by Ligonier Ministries showed that a significant number of evangelicals have a profound misunderstanding about God. “Overall, U.S. adults appear to have a superficial attachment to well-known Christian beliefs,” stated the ministry.

Read more. The complete article includes other links and resources. You might want to watch their recent webinar featuring a panel of international ministry leaders talking about The Good News in a Fake World.

Also read The Five False Worldviews That Ensnare Your Church (Mission Frontiers) and Challenges for Mission in the Future (Kouyanet).

Source: Mission Network News, November 4, 2021

A Deaf girl born into a Muslim family found true community in a Deaf school nearby.

Her family didn’t know sign language, so she felt very alone at home. Rob Myers [of DOOR International] says, “A vast majority of them have grown up in homes where they can’t communicate well with their own parents. It’s very common for Deaf people to have an everyday experience where they’re sitting around the dinner table, and there’s talking and laughing and information being exchanged. And those Deaf kids are cut off from all of that information.”

One day, a DOOR International 2×2 church-planting team visited her school, and she learned the story of Jesus. Her family didn’t take well to her becoming a Christian. They kicked her out, but a Deaf church welcomed her in.

Eventually, her father, a devout Muslim, got sick. The Deaf church paid his medical expenses. Moved by their love, he too embraced Jesus.

Myer says, “In a lot of communities, deaf people are looked down upon, and they’re not thought of as even being capable of having faith or being involved in a faith community of any kind. So when a young Deaf person comes to faith, it actually can transform the entire family.”

Pray the rest of this girl’s family would also encounter the love of Jesus.

Read the full article. Note that less than 2% of the world’s 70 million Deaf know Christ. Learn more.

Source: Morning Star News, November 2, 2021

Two Christians were killed in an attack on a church service in southern Kaduna state on Sunday, October 31, with eight others slain in earlier assaults on predominantly Christian villages, sources said.

The lethal attack on Baptist worshipers in Kakau Daji village, Chikun County, also resulted in the kidnapping of dozens of Christians from the Sunday service, church leaders said.

“Two Christians were killed in the church during the morning worship service, and many others were taken away at gunpoint by the armed Fulani herdsmen,” Ishaya Jangado, president of the Kaduna Baptist Convention, said in a text message to Morning Star News.

Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), lamented that the Nigerian government has been incapable of stopping such atrocities after years of attacks.

The full story also describes other recent attacks in the area. We looked for an update on this one (were the captives released?) but did not find one.

A related story adds, “To compound matters, a shutdown of state telecom services to help combat bandit activity is understood to have exacerbated the attack. The church was unable to call for help, whilst the bandits have reportedly asked for a higher ransom because they had to travel further for network service to contact the victims’ relations” (Open Doors).

For something more encouraging, read Elite Runner Uses Life Experiences to Establish Teen Challenge in Nigeria (Assemblies of God News) or, from elsewhere in Africa, An Imam Encourages His People to Read the Bible (World Venture).