Category: News Briefs

Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance, December 2020

Recent years have seen a dramatic and steady increase in the number of Scripture translations available digitally via websites and smartphone apps. In October 2020 YouVersion reached a new milestone, with Scriptures now available in a total of 1,500 languages. Globally, digital Scriptures in a total of 1,968 languages became available on various sites and apps.

Faith Comes By Hearing has made similar progress, currently providing Scripture in about 1,500 languages. While their primary focus has been on audio recordings of Scriptures, in the last few years they have added videos, first in partnership with the JESUS film and now also with the Lumo partnership, through which they have committed to creating at least one gospel film in every recorded language.

We are quickly approaching 2,000 languages in which Scripture will be available digitally. This rises even higher if we include JESUS films in languages which do not (yet) have any other Scripture online.

» Read full story.

» See also the annual numbers on global Bible translation efforts and scripture access (updated in October).

Source: Open Doors, January 13, 2021

For the 20th consecutive year, North Korea ranks as the No. 1 most dangerous country for Christians. For three generations, everything in this isolated land has focused on idolizing the ruling Kim family. Christians are seen as hostile elements in society that must be eradicated.

North Korean President Kim Jong-un is reported to have expanded the system of prison camps, in which an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians are currently imprisoned.

Yet behind the news headlines, a massive underground church of an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 believers is growing in North Korea.

» Full story provides a glimpse of life in Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, and India. See the 2021 World Watch List Report for the 50 countries most difficult for Christians. Let’s pray for believers in these places, as well as praying for their countries and communities.

Source: Mobile Ministry Forum, January 7, 2021

Beyond being the year of COVID-19, we all know that 2020 was also a breakout year for TikTok video shorts and Zoom teleconferencing. After some research, we now know that this was as much the case in least-reached countries as nations where the gospel has spread.

We reviewed daily data on the top-ten free Android apps downloads for 32 less and least-reached countries, so we are sharing the top 20 apps they downloaded during 2020. We hope this data will help you plan media ministry initiatives because you can now see your audience’s interests and mobile and social media platforms/habits.

» The list of apps leads with TikTok, WhatsApp, Likee (a video platform), Zoom, and Instagram, but includes others you might find surprising. Take a look, especially if you’re considering a media outreach campaign.

Source: SAT-7, January 11, 2021

While 2020 was an extraordinarily hard year for many, it was also a year in which God was on the move in extraordinary ways. Soaring audience engagement (up to 30% overall growth) with SAT-7 channels showed that amid COVID-19, the hope of Christ shared through television touched more people than ever in the Middle East and North Africa.

The growth in engagement was especially marked for the channels that serve Arabic-speaking children and Turkish viewers, as well as SAT-7 ACADEMY education programs.

• Audience engagement for SAT-7 KIDS climbed by 90 percent.
• Contacts for the Turkish channel, SAT-7 TÜRK, rose 120 percent.
• Audience engagement for SAT-7 ACADEMY soared by 328 percent.
• Between January and September 2020, SAT-7 received 310,000 audience engagements in total, almost a third more than during the same period in 2019.

» Read full story. We’re hearing reports like this from other media ministries, too. Praise God.

» Also read Hymn Database Sees Spike as Christians Worship at Home in 2020 (Religion News Service, via Christian Headlines).

Source: Mission Network News, January 6, 2021

Seven years ago, Hindu leader Rajeshwar Singh made a controversial promise to rid India of its Muslim and Christian populations [by the end of 2021]. Party officials soon forced Singh out of the public eye, but videos of his [speech] resurfaced in 2019—the same year Prime Minister Narendra Modi gained a second term in office.

Attacks on Christians have risen annually since 2014 when Hindu nationalists first came to power under Prime Minister Modi and the BJP (see our coverage). As the countdown to December 31 begins, Christians brace for a challenging year.

“There is a group called the RSS, a Hindu nationalist group [that is] very militant. The RSS has been able to flex its muscle under the BJP government,” John Pudaite of Bibles For The World explains.

“They’ve stated on the national media that they intend to make India free of Christians and Muslims by December 31, 2021. They want to make India entirely Hindu.”

Even if this deadline is extended to 2024, as a national worker reports, a clear threat remains.

» Read full story.

» Viral Fundamentals: Riding the Corona Waves in India says Hindu nationalism has strengthened during the pandemic (Religion Compass).

Source: Tearfund, December 2020

At Tearfund, we have seen our partners around the world step up and respond to crisis after crisis during 2020. But in a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, Tearfund’s News Editor, Andrew Horton, rounds up some important events that didn’t get much time in the news.

From locusts, floods, and hurricanes to positive stories of change, here are seven stories you may have missed in 2020.

» Read the article with links and pictures.

» OMF’s Andy Smith calls 2020 the Year of the Eraser. If you canceled much this last year, you can relate. See also Seven Heartfelt Prayers by Pastors for Their Churches in 2021 (Thom Rainer, Church Answers).

Source: Jubilee Campaign, December 31, 2020

On December 29, it was revealed that lawyers and government officials of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have approved The Freedom of Religion Bill of 2020 which has raised many concerns among the nation’s religious minorities. This new legislation, according to Reuters, “would make pressuring a woman to convert to their husband’s religion a crime punishable with imprisonment.”

Just a month prior, the Indian state Uttar Pradesh passed a similar law, the Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance. In both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, officials claim that the legislation is aimed at “curb[ing] religious conversions using misrepresentation, allurement, force, threat, undue influence, coercion, marriage or any other ‘fraudulent means.’”

However, though there is no specific religion mentioned in the bill, critics believe it may indiscriminately target the nation’s Muslim and Christian communities. For some time, radical Hindu nationalists have accused—without credible evidence—India’s Muslims of engaging in a “Love Jihad” campaign by which they coerce Hindu women to convert to Islam with the promise of marriage. Similarly, politicians in Madhya Pradesh have repeatedly criticized and condemned Christian missionaries, who they claim make promises of education and financial support to Hindu women in exchange for their conversion to Christianity.

» Read the full story.

» Morning Star News reports the arrest of a Korean Christian and several other suspects under the new anti-conversion law in Uttar Pradesh.

Source: OMF International, January 4, 2021

I had a quiet and peaceful upbringing in Cambodia, but the Khmer Rouge changed everything. When I was 21 years old, my city came under attack. My family was rushed out of Phnom Penh into the countryside. The journey was difficult. My mother died on the side of the road, but we had to continue on.

Eventually, separated from my father and sisters, I was forced into a labor camp. I was beaten, tortured, and starved. On multiple occasions, I thought I would be executed.

In the midst of my suffering, God touched my heart. I was harvesting rice and glanced up at a mango tree. I began wondering who created the first crop. Though I claimed to be Buddhist like my mother, I began believing there must be a Creator God.

When the war ended, I escaped and was reunited with my family. We stayed in refugee camps in Thailand, where I met some missionaries. One woman shared the Bible with me and told me about Jesus. When I heard how Jesus had forgiven those who had mistreated him, I was deeply moved. I accepted him as my Savior right away.

In 1992, while living in Canada, I got connected to a ministry that shared the gospel with Cambodians through radio. I harbored bitterness toward Cambodia and never wanted to return. But God made it clear he had plans for me there.

I’ve been living in Cambodia and serving in gospel radio ministry for 20 years. The Lord has given me strength not only to forgive my persecutors but also to love my country. After all, God has done for me, I consider it a privilege to spend my life serving him here.

» Article includes two more testimonies from Cambodia.

» See IMB Commemorates the Service of Single Female Missionaries (Southern Baptist Convention).

Source: Mission Network News, December 30, 2020

On Christmas morning in Lahore, Pakistan, a group of 50-60 Muslim men attacked a Christian church during their Christmas service. They aimed to kidnap and assault the women in attendance.

The security guards and other men at the church fought back with bare hands against the staff-wielding intruders, giving the women time to escape. Many Christian men suffered blunt trauma injuries and fractures in the fight.

Things got worse when the police arrived. Authorities helped the defeated Muslims escape, and blamed Christians for fighting back. Nehemiah from FMI (Forgotten Missionaries International) says, “They scolded and threatened the Christian community, the Christian church, saying it’s illegal to have their own security. [This] is truly an unjustified and illegal action by the police, because it was announced by the government of Pakistan two years ago, that every church must have its own security. They must have their own CCTV cameras, barbed wires, and medical equipment.”

To make things worse, the police have now arrested security guards who beat back the mob, saying they broke the law.

» Read the full story and one with a different ending, Pakistan Officials Stop Christmas Day Terrorist Attack.

» See also Boko Haram Kills Villagers in Christmas Eve Attack (BBC).