International Christian Concern, October 28th, 2024

Pastor Ravi lives in a quiet village in Madhya Pradesh, India. He was raised in a devout Hindu family and immersed in the practice of idol worship. His life revolved around materialistic pursuits and although he seemed content, he was plagued by a sense of emptiness and a yearning for something more.

Ravi’s family’s encounter with God took place during a period of immense distress when his mother fell gravely ill. Desperate for a solution, Ravi’s father and other family members turned to various forms of witchcraft to restore her health. They visited countless temples, hoping for a miraculous recovery. Unfortunately, his mother’s condition only worsened.

Amid their struggle, a pastor visited the family and prayed for Ravi’s mother’s healing. By the grace of God, his mother experienced a complete recovery. This experience compelled Ravi’s whole family, including Ravi, to embrace Jesus Christ as their saviour.

During the last nine years, Ravi, now a pastor, has served as a devoted servant of the Lord. He has worked primarily in tribal areas, spreading the message of God’s love and salvation. Alongside his ministry, he actively participates in his home church, passionately sharing the word of God with others. As an independent minister, Pastor Ravi is now facing financial challenges because of persecution he’s endured.

ICC has come alongside Pastor Ravi to help him launch a new clothing store. By working during the day and continuing his ministry in the evenings, he hopes to generate income for his family and ministry.

Aid to the Church in Need, October 21^st, 2024 (excerpts)

A Mozambican bishop has given a harrowing account of the killings, mass displacement and hunger that have afflicted the country over the last seven years, since the outbreak of the ongoing Islamist insurgency.

The local community has faced “seven years of displacement; seven years of death; seven years during which people have lived with great suffering; of hunger, because they cannot farm their land due to insecurity; of disease, because there is no access to medication, or because the closest clinic has been destroyed.”

About 5,000 people have been killed and one million displaced as a result of the violent clashes between insurgents seeking to establish a hard-line Islamic state and the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces.

The fighting has been concentrated around Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique.

Extremist groups have tended to target civilian and state-owned institutions, but attacks focused on Christian communities have also been reported.

The bishop said: “The Church continues to do what is in its nature, to be with the people, to help those we can help, and to offer what aid we receive.”

ACN’s support in Mozambique has included emergency aid, pastoral assistance and counselling for displaced people, as well as vehicles for missionaries and the construction of homes and community centres.

Voice of the Martyrs, October 24th, 2024

Goma Kunwar in Nepal has suffered repeated beatings and mistreatment at the hands of her Hindu husband since putting her faith in Christ in 2022. More than once, his attacks have been life-threatening.

On Jan. 2, 2024, Goma’s husband beat her badly and attacked her with a sickle, cutting her head so that she required medical treatment. Despite the abuse, Goma does not want to leave the Lord.

Pray that she will receive the physical and emotional care she needs; that her husband, Tek Bahadur, will come to faith in Jesus Christ; and that her faithfulness to the Lord will be a testimony to the friends and neighbours who are urging her to give up her faith.

The government of Nepal is taking an increasingly strong stand against religious conversion. Despite the 2015 constitution that guaranteed religious freedom, Parliament criminalized converting someone to another religion. Christian communities are small, but they boldly witness for Christ despite harassment and risk.

Nepal is a collectivist culture in which significant decisions are made by the head of the family or the community leader; decisions by other individuals are unacceptable and opposed.

Families, communities, Marxist groups and Hindu groups pressure Christians, who also experience some government interference. Muslims and Buddhists also persecute Christians, especially in response to evangelism and conversions in rural areas.

Joshua Project, October 27^th, 2024

The Shihuh are fishermen and herdsmen and are probably descended from the original inhabitants of northern Oman, pushed into the mountains by successive Muslim and Portuguese invasions. The land in which they live is rocky and arid, with very little vegetation. Their stone houses are called bayt al qufl, which means “cave house”, since they are partly underground.

Until about the early 1970s, the tribe was isolated from the outside world. They did not trust outsiders, and it was common for visitors at that time to have stones thrown at them by tribesmen. Nowadays, the Shihu are no longer hostile to outsiders, but neither are they particularly friendly.

Much of the region is not hospitable to Christian outreach.

Much sustained prayer is needed to prepare hearts and to create desire to search for the peace found in Christ.  

Pray for righteous character for those who find the Lord among this people group.

1. There are no known Christian believers among this people at this time. Pray for hearts to begin to hunger for the forgiveness of sin found only in trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Pray for sufficient rainfall to provide for livestock and to grow grain needed for food.

Voice of the Martyrs, October 10th, 2024

Hawa is a Christian convert from Islam who maintains a farm in a rural area of Somalia. Though raised as a Muslim, Hawa became a follower of Christ through her son’s witness. Hawa’s Muslim husband divorced her and kicked her out of the house when he learned of her newfound faith.

Through another Christian woman, Hawa came to help work and maintain the farm, which also houses 19 Christian widows whose husbands had been killed by al-Shabab, a terrorist group active in Somalia and Kenya. Hawa disciples the widows and actively shares her faith with other women who work on neighbouring farms.

In March 2024, fighting broke out between al-Shabab and the Somali government, destroying some of the crops, displacing Hawa and the widows, and killing one of the women. VOM helped provide food and shelter for the displaced Christians until they could return to the farm and begin replanting crops.

After years of drought and civil war, more Somalis live outside Somalia than within its borders, and Somalis often take their Islamist cultural norms with them wherever they go. Therefore, those who faithfully serve Christ or convert from Islam in Somali communities throughout the world face severe persecution regardless of national laws.

Even so, the dispersion of Somali people has also created unique opportunities to reach them with the gospel. Somalis are more reachable and open than ever before, and many have chosen to follow Christ, including some who are willing to reach out to other Somalis at any cost.

International Christian Concern, October 11th, 2024

Jacob, a young man from northeastern Syria, was born into a committed Christian family and served his church for years.

After moving to western Syria to study engineering, he commuted weekly to his home city to see his family, meet up with friends, and continue serving in his church.

As he travelled to visit his family in 2014, a group of armed, masked Islamic extremists stopped his bus and kidnapped every Christian on board. Desperate to save his life, Jacob tried to deny his Christian faith, but the cross necklace hanging from his neck gave him away.

The gunmen beat Jacob and the other believers, ordering them to denounce their faith in Christ. Jacob, ashamed for attempting to deny Jesus earlier, chose to remain firm. The gunmen sentenced him and the other believers to hard work till they decided when to execute them.

One day, the gunmen told Jacob to dig his own grave with his hands. They ordered him to kneel at the edge of the grave for hours, saying they would kill him if he didn’t deny Christ.

Jacob considered denying his faith to escape, but something surprising happened: the police arrived. As the kidnappers exchanged gunfire with the officers, Jacob escaped.

Free from captivity, he felt God’s presence and was filled with gratitude toward Jesus. He knew Christ saved him from the Islamic extremists despite his attempts to deny Him.

Jacob felt a new sense of purpose. His relationship with Christ deepened, and he shared his testimony with everyone he could. Although countless martyrs have died during more than 13 years of conflict in Syria, many Syrian Christians have seen their faith renewed, and one of them is Jacob.

barnabasaid, October 8th, 2024

At least ten Christians were killed by Islamists in several attacks at the end of September in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Eight were killed in two armed assaults on Lubero, in the north-eastern province of North Kivu, on Sunday 22 September.

Both incidents were announced on the social media channels of Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP, also known as the Allied Democratic Forces).

“The soldiers of the Caliphate attacked the Christian village of Bandolo in the Lubero region,” stated one of the social media posts, “and slaughtered five Christians, praise be to God.”

The other described Islamist fighters attacking a position of the DRC military near the village of Medidi, then killing three Christians in the village as well as burning homes and shops.

On the same Sunday another Christian was captured and killed by ISCAP in the neighbouring province of Ituri.

Four days later, also in Ituri, the Islamists announced that they had ambushed “Christians who were riding motorcycles”, killing one and injuring two others.

ISCAP has been responsible for dozens of deaths in just the last two months. It is estimated that they have killed more than 5,500 Christians in north-eastern DRC since 2017.