Niger: US Aid Jeff Woodke Released After Six Years

Source: God Reports, March 22, 2023

After more than six years in captivity in West Africa, longtime American Christian aid worker Jeff Woodke has been released.

His wife, Els Woodke, was told Jeff was “in good condition,” according to a statement on a website campaigning for his release. “She has expressed her profound thanks to the many people in governments and others around the world who have worked so hard to see this result,” the statement said. “She praises God for answering the prayers of Christians everywhere who have prayed for this outcome.”

Jeff Woodke was kidnapped from his home in Abalak, northern Niger, on October 14, 2016. His kidnappers, suspected members of a radical Islamic group called Mujao, reportedly took him toward eastern Mali. Since then it appears he has been taken across borders to other nations.

The Christian aid worker was released outside of Niger, in a border area with Mali and Burkina Faso, a US official told The New York Times. He was then moved to Niger’s capital Niamey for medical checks.

Read the full story which includes several links. See also a more recent article from WorldWatch Monitor following a March 31 press conference in which Woodke described how he was treated during captivity.

See also The Sahel: What Does the Future Hold? (Lausanne Movement).

China: “5 Million Secret Church Meetings Every Week”

Source: Back to Jerusalem, March 2023

Christian leaders in the underground house church in China have recently shared that this is now one of the most challenging times “in the history of the church.”

“China’s control over the population is more extreme and the monitoring is constant,” according to one pastor who spoke with BTJ on condition of anonymity. “The church has been forced back into the 70s and 80s,” he said, even stating that pastors have to hide in the trunks of cars in order to get into different villages in China. This is a method that was commonly used to transport ministers in the 1980s and 1990s. “It [pastors traveling in the trunk of a car] has become so common that it is being called the ‘prayer closet.’”

In the recent months of [COVID-19] restrictions in China, there has been a limit to the number of people allowed to meet together. The underground church has had to adapt. The maximum number of people gathering cannot be more than 20 people in urban areas and 10 people in rural areas. This government-imposed limitation was the very thing that catapulted the underground church in China 20-30 years ago. With over 100 million Christians inside China, there would easily be more than 5 million meeting locations nationwide.

The biggest prayer request coming from the pastors inside of China is to pray for new leaders and shepherds. With the decentralization of meetings, the demand for leaders is extremely high.

Read the full story. As you pray for China, lift up the families of 30 million teenagers reportedly suffering from depression (World of Chinese). Found that story in Justin Long’s The Weekly Roundup. Thanks, Justin!

Praying Through Turkey, New Mission Articles & Upcoming Events

  1. Videos (and More): Praying for and Loving Muslims During Ramadan
  2. Booklet: 30 Days Through Turkey, Partnering in Prayer
  3. Book: Liturgies & Laments for the Sojourner
  4. Resource Roundup: New Mission Articles
  5. Stories From the Field: Celebrating African American Missionaries
  6. Events: Mission Conferences, Training, and More in April

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Image: Istanbul skyline from Flickr/Mike McBey

Videos (and More): Pray for and Loving Muslims During Ramadan

Source: Prayercast and others

It’s Ramadan, and for many Christians, that means it’s time to pray for Muslims. Need a video for your church or small group? Prayercast has got you covered. Their “Love Muslims” collection has more than 130 videos. For the next month, they are sending out daily prayer emails featuring various videos and ways to pray.

Sign up now to join Prayercast’s Ramadan prayer challenge.

You can also browse the collection to find the video you want.

See also Encountering Jesus, a new Ramadan prayer guide from Frontiers (delivered by email), or consider using materials from pray30days.org or 30daysprayer.com. I’m also seeing prayer networks and mission teams set up their own prayer campaigns for this season. Pray4Movements lists more than 70 campaigns seeking 24-hour prayer coverage. Take a look.

Booklet: 30 Days Through Turkey, Partnering in Prayer

Source: International Turkey Network

Turkey—or Türkiye if you prefer—is no longer dominating news headlines. But the people of this country and neighboring Syria have suffered much and could use our prayers as they recover from the massive earthquakes in February.

In 2022, the International Turkey Network published an in-depth, 154-page, 30-day guide to praying for the nation’s seven regions. It’s available both digitally (US$1.99) and in paperback (US$4.99) with bulk discounts available.

Learn more or purchase. See also a related YouTube playlist of Turkish Christian worship songs with subtitles in many languages—a great chance to worship with the Church in Turkey.

Book: Liturgies & Laments for the Sojourner

Source: Liturgies for a Life Abroad

Liturgies and Laments for the Sojourner, Volume 1, by Alicia Boyce, Heather Fallis, and Tamika Rybinski. Vinehouse Publishing, 2023. 106 pages.

Just last month we told you about the social-media-based Liturgies for a Life Abroad, only to learn days later that the author was collaborating with two others on a book of prayers like these.

Liturgy seems to be on the upswing. You may be a fan of Douglas Kaine McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy or Tish Harrison Warren’s Liturgy of the Ordinary. Here, though, you will find prayers about situations common to cross-cultural life, like moving (again), language learning, closed borders, and culture fatigue.

Admittedly, the book may feel a bit whiny to the uninitiated. But if you know, you know. And the Lord meets us where we are. This could be a great resource for mission workers to use for team meetings and retreats.

Purchase the Kindle edition for US$9.99; also available in paperback.

Resource Roundup: New Mission Articles

Sources: Various

Downsizing to Move Overseas (Go.Serve.Love)

Could simplifying now help prepare you to go wherever, whenever God calls? A professional organizer and MK offers practical strategies.

Contextualization Meets Burnout (A Life Overseas)

As we adapt and change our ways, we expect our efforts will open doors for the gospel. Unfortunately, the results do not always meet those expectations, and this is where contextualization meets burnout.

The Importance of Families in Global Missions (Lausanne Movement)

How do you sustain a prayer movement for 100 years? The answer may surprise you: by including children. How would our churches be different if every family believed they were part of God blessing the nations?

Who Needs Missionaries? It’s Not Just the “Unreached” (The Gospel Coalition)

Consider three additional categories of peoples and places that may warrant missionary labors: the mis-reached, the once-reached, and the under-reached.

Want more? These are all pretty quick reads, but if you have some time on your hands, browse and/or subscribe to Mission Hits from Chris Howles, a British seminary professor in Uganda. It’s monthly and more extensive than Mission Catalyst. He even does a quarterly roundup of articles from mission journals. Good stuff.

Stories From the Field: Celebrating African American Missionaries

Source: Civil Righteousness

The booklet Stories From the Field, created for the recent George Liele Missions Summit, celebrates and honors historical and present-day African American missionaries.

“We created it with the intention of offering the booklet as a tool to encourage those who are considering world missions as a vocation. Our prayer is that the words found in this booklet become a holy seed in the hearts of young readers of all ages for God’s end-time harvest.”

May it be so. Download the 20-page booklet. It’s free, with no registration required.

Events: Mission Conferences, Training, and More in April

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

April 5, When Helping Hurts: Myths and Realities (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

April 6 to May 4, Strategic Storytelling for Movements (online). Course from Media Mission U.

April 11-14, Unbound: Support Raising Leaders Conference (Colorado Springs, CO, USA). Provided by Via/Support Raising Solutions.

April 12-13, The Mobilized Church Workshop (Huntsville, AL, USA). From Sixteen:Fifteen.

April 13, Equipping Gen Z: A God-Designed Generation for a God-Given Task (online). A virtual event from Missio Nexus.

April 17, How to Engage With Muslims Where You Are (online). Hour-long webinar from Frontiers USA; join live or watch the replay a week later.

April 17-20, Mission Information Workers Conference (online). Accelerate the development of mission information and the mission information community. Sponsored by the Community of Mission Information Workers, Lausanne Research & Strategic Information Network, and Harvest Information Standards.

April 18, Call to Prayer (online). Virtual prayer gathering from Missio Nexus, this month coinciding with Islam’s Night of Power.

April 24-26, CEO Peer 2 Peer Retreat (Post Falls, ID, USA). An annual event for mission organization CEOs and their spouses, this time focused on internationalization.

April 24 to May 7, Orient Pre-field Training (Joplin, MO, USA). Provided by TRAIN International and offered regularly.

April 25-27, Support Raising Bootcamp (online for Southeast Asia). Provided by Via/Support Raising Solutions.

April 26-27, The Mobilized Church (St. Louis, MO, USA). A workshop for local churches provided by Sixteen:Fifteen.

April 27, BAM Global Summit (online). An annual connecting point for the global business-as-mission movement.

April 27, Honoring and Caring for Missionary Seniors (online). A webinar from Missio Nexus.

April 27-30, Christian Medical and Dental Association National Conference (Covington, KY, USA). An annual event.

April 29, Building Friendships With Hindus (Philadelphia, PA, USA). A one-day equipping seminar sponsored by the Philadelphia Regional Diaspora Network.

View the complete calendar, updated regularly. Submissions welcome.

Baptism on the beach | Hindus only

In this edition:

  1. Pakistan: Former Terrorism Hub Being Transformed by the Gospel
  2. Philippines: Gospel Interest Rises Following Global Pandemic
  3. Muslim World: Baptized on a Beach Vacation
  4. India: “Hindus Only,” Says Village in Andhra Pradesh
  5. Vietnam: Thousands Come to Christ in Two-Day Evangelistic Event

Read or share the email edition or scroll down for more.