COLORADO SPRINGS – The Board of the Christian and Missionary Alliance recently published its 2018 Impact Report. The Alliance, founded over 130 years ago by A.B. Simpson, continues to express the love of Jesus Christ by sharing His Gospel with those who have yet to hear the Good News. Dr. John Stumbo, C&MA President describes…
PENANG – During the recent testing of lighting fixtures at a residential high-rise under construction in the city of Penang, a local Muslim mufti complained to local authorities because the resulting pattern was in the shape of a cross. The mufti insisted that the authorities investigate why the lights had been arranged as a cross…
ISLAMABAD – News agencies out of Pakistan reported today that a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court requesting the imposition of Sharia Law as the governing law in Pakistan. Meanwhile, 500 senior Muslim leaders signed the Islamabad Declaration which denounces Islamic terrorism, violence committed in the name of religion, and fatwas issued by…
HENAN PROVINCE – On November 30, 2018, Chinese communist authorities ordered a church in Henan Province to remove its display of the first commandment of the Ten Commandments. The directive came during a regular inspection of a church affiliated with the government-approved Three-Self church movement. Freedom of religion in China has been a consistent and…
CHENGDU – Last week Chinese authorities detained Pastor Wang Yi and 100 members of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, Szechuan, China.Bob Fu, the president of ChinaAid, said that “the massive overnight attack . . . represents a major escalation of religious persecution in China.”Former U.S. Senator and current U.S. Ambassador at Large for…
SINGAPORE – Maintenance of religious harmony. It sounds wonderful. An idea that promotes people getting along together. True freedom of religion. But the artwork of legislative ambiguity is misleading in many countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, the city-state at the southern end of Malaysia. Two men and two women, residents of Finland, were detained…
ISLAMABAD – Christians around the world rejoiced when the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced last week that it had acquitted Asia Bibi of the charges of blasphemy for which she had been held on death row since 2010. Although the court issued an order to do so, she has yet to be released. As expected,…
“The history of missions is the history of answered prayer.” ― Samuel Zwemer, missionary to Muslims
Saudi Arabia has made unprecedented strides toward religious tolerance just a year after its young new ruler pledged to bring more moderate Islam to the Sunni kingdom. After a visit to the capital city of Riyadh last week, US officials reported the country has reformed its religious police—once tasked with enforcing shari’ah law on the…
IRAN – You may have heard a story like this before. It’s a narrative about a man who devoted his life to persecuting Christians. He would have done anything in his power to eliminate them from the face of the earth. He traveled with orders to find, detain, and bring professing Christians before religious courts…
MUMBAI – A recent study conducted by the Azim Premji University (APU) and the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) concluded that “There is a distrust of leaders from outside the community across all classes, and all caste-class intersections.” Put simply, the majority of Indians prefer leaders with whom they identify most. Voter…
WASHINGTON DC – The Pew Research Center has released its comprehensive annual report on religious restrictions around the globe. The report compares restrictions in 2016 with previous years across two distinct categories: government-imposed restrictions and societal hostilities. More than a quarter (28%) of the 198 countries included in the research were identified as having either…
ANKARA – Turkish President Recep Erdoğan said this week that the decision of the Austrian government’s closure of seven mosques and expulsion of 60 Muslim imams may lead to war “between the cross and the crescent.” Erdoğan would have the world believe that Austria’s actions threaten world peace because its actions were “Islamophobic, racist, and…
ABUJA – The country of Nigeria is an enigma. While, on the one hand, the Nigerian Minister of Health announced today that the country’s efforts to eliminate polio within its borders “are beginning to yield results, considering the fact that we have spent 18 months without a case of poliovirus,” the country stands at the…
YANGON – Life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in Myanmar, just as life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in America. Normal is the operative word because what is normal for them is at the extreme opposite of what normal is for us. We often refer to normal as “the…
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania – On 27 April 2018, The National Assembly of Mauritania passed a law that makes the death penalty mandatory for anyone convicted of “blasphemous speech” and acts deemed “sacrilegious.” Human rights experts from the UN, the African Commission of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), and more than 20 NGOs have called upon the…
SOUTH ASIA (May 23, 2018) – Pakistan and India are being afflicted with intensely hot weather that is affecting residents throughout both countries. Unfortunately, the term “hot weather” does not translate into every American English any easier than if we were reading it in Hindi. The subcontinent has been experiencing temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius….
BEIRUT – Horizons International recently introduced its plans for establishing the Middle East Center for World Missions in Beirut. The entire project is expected to take 10 years to complete. The objective is “To build a hub and network that facilitate the mobilization, training, and sending of missionaries from the Middle East and North Africa…
Report revealing more than half of churchgoers don’t know of Jesus’ final directive spotlights importance of International Day for the Unreached call to reach those who have never heard gospel. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A new survey revealing that more than half of churchgoers don’t know of the Great Commission has spotlighted the importance of a…
JERUSALEM – News channels around the globe carried live coverage of the official opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, May 14, 2018. Although the move of the embassy operations is intended to be permanent, the embassy will temporarily use the U.S. Consulate building until another location can be built or acquired and…
CAIRO – On 11 March 2018, Missions Box News reported that Egyptian government officials had granted licenses for 53 churches as a “first block” toward compliance with the legal requirements. The licensing mandate which had been proposed by the Housing Ministry became law in August 2016. Yesterday the Egyptian Cabinet approved the legalization of 166…
ASTANA, Kazakhstan – On March 30, 2018, the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion of the Religious Affairs Department of the West Kazakhstan Region has asked selected churches and religious communities to provide personal information regarding “all underage community members attending your religious association.” The Religious Affairs Department is a division of the…
ISLAMABAD – It has been a rule of law that citizens of Pakistan must self-identify their religion on their passports. Now a judge on the Islamabad High Court has extended the rule to greater lengths. In a ruling delivered on Friday, 09 March 2018, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has ordered that Pakistan citizens must also…
KUCHING, Sarawak, Malaysia – The Malaysian Federal Court failed to rule on an appeal by four Christians who have requested their names and religious faith be changed on their national identification documents. (See “4 Christian Converts in Landmark Case in Malaysia’s Federal Court.”) According to those official IDs, they are “still Muslims on paper.” Malaysia…
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia – The lawyer for four Christian converts will plead their case to be allowed to be Christians under Malaysian law. The case will be heard in Federal Court in Putrajaya on Monday, February 26th. The outcome of this case could become precedent for Malaysians wishing to convert out of Islam in a country…
On Sunday, members of a Russian Orthodox church were celebrating the start of Lent when a gunman opened fire on the congregation. Fox News reports, “The shooting unfolded outside a church in Kizlyar, a town of about 50,000 people on the border with Chechnya. The Russian news agency TASS cited Svetlana Petrenko of the Investigative…
The Rohingya who escaped to Bangladesh to flee violence from the military are being deported and sent back to Myanmar in the next two years. According to BBC, “Myanmar has agreed to accept 1,500 Rohingya each week, Bangladesh says, adding that it aims to return all of them to Myanmar within two years.” The United…
ORLANDO – Pioneers, a global missionary outreach ministry, was established in 1979 by Ted Fletcher, former National Sales Manager for the Wall Street Journal, and his wife, Peggy. That same year, Pioneers supported its first missionary, Ruth Wright, in Nigeria. In 1980 Pioneers sent its first missions team to Papua New Guinea. Along the way,…
PAKISTAN – Earlier this month officials in Abbottabad closed six unregistered house churches within the district for security reasons. Abbottabad is located about 75 miles north of Islamabad, the district captured the attention of Americans when it was discovered that Osama bin Laden had been residing there. The district is home to the Pakistan Military…
QARAQOSH, Iraq – The names of Asian cities are often unknown to most people in the western world. Qaraqosh is one such city. Its connection to Biblical accounts of history dates to hundreds and even thousands of years before Christ as it lies within the Nineveh Governate and close to the ruins of both Nineveh…
ALGIERS, Algeria (Middle Eastern Concern/ SIGHT) – Three believers were arrested in Chlef, 200 km north-west of Algiers, during the third week of December. They were visiting from Tizi Ouzou and had arranged to meet a contact at a café. Police entered the café, found they were in possession of Christian literature, and took them…
On Nov. 24, a mosque in Ismaila, Egypt, was filled with Sufi Muslim worshipers. All the sudden, while they were saying their Friday prayers, an Islamic extremist came in started shooting at people. They didn’t stop until they thought everybody was dead. There were over 300 people who died from the shooting. Abdel Fattah el…
Photo by aflaanta std In March, there was an attack on a boat holding Somali refugees. At least 46 people were killed and 39 were injured. CNN reported, “At least 42 people died and 39 were injured in the Friday incident, the United Nations’ refugee agency said. Some 160 people reportedly were on board, according…
Photo by Firdaus Latif Pope Francis traveled to visit the Rohingya in Myanmar to see the conditions they live in. There he prayed for them and condemned the violence against them. Per CNN, “Pope Francis prayed for Rohingya refugees during a general audience on Wednesday, decrying violence against them ‘simply because they uphold their Muslim…
Photo by Andrew A. Shenouda One man in one of two Coptic Church bombings on Palm Sunday turned himself in. Per Fox News, “A man suspected in one of the two Palm Sunday bombings of Coptic Christian churches in northern Egypt has turned himself in to authorities.” The police got a tip off of where Mahmoud…
Photo by Paolobon140 Over 240 people were taken hostage by ISIS soldiers in the Philippines at the end of May. One priest appealed President Duterte to stop fighting against Islamic extremists. Fox News reports, “A Catholic priest who claims he’s been kidnapped alongside more than 240 hostages by fighters linked to the Islamic State in…
Photo by Samoano One child named Rosmaida Bibi was born in a Rohingya refugee camp. She is malnourished and hasn’t grown like most children her age do. Per Fox News, “Ever since she was born in this squalid camp for displaced members of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya minority, Rosmaida Bibi has struggled to do something most…
At the end of last July, an ISIS soldier came to a Roman Catholic Church in France. There he murdered a priest by stabbing him and then slitting his throat. One of the French nuns fled the scene after seeing the priest was about to be murdered. Per CNN, “Before she fled, she witnessed the…
Photo by By Davidetorino at Italian Wikipedia It was New Years Eve of 2016. People were waiting for the New Year to come at midnight in Istanbul, Turkey. The clock hit midnight and all the sudden people heard a banging noise. They thought it was a fight, but it ended up being a terrorist shooting…
Photo by Roberdan Migrants who are trying to reach Europe are caught and sold into slavery in Libya. Per The Guardian, “The north African nation is a major exit point for refugees from Africa trying to take boats to Europe. But since the overthrow of autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi, the vast, sparsely populated country has…
Photo by SA 3.0 On June 19, a man by the name of Darren Osborne attacked Muslim worshippers as they were coming out of a mosque during Ramadan in London. He is known for becoming angry when he is drunk. New York Times reports, “He was born in Singapore, but his family moved back to Britain…
Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas Last November, a terrorist in Indonesia bombed a church. This was not the first time he had done terrorist activities. In this case, the terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail at the church. Per Time Magazine, “A man formerly convicted of terrorist offenses has been arrested for allegedly throwing a Molotov…
Photo by Eddy bf Gov. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and Chinese ethnic minority in Indonesia has been accused of blasphemy against the Quran. At first the protests were peaceful, but them violence started. According to the BBC, “One elderly man died, the Associated Press reports, citing police. Several other people, including police officers, have…
A muslim lawyer for Aung San Suu Kyi was assassinated on January 29, 2017 while in an international airport. Time Magazine reports, “Many in Myanmar are in mourning this week after the assassination of a prominent Muslim lawyer and peerless symbol of the country’s democracy movement, Ko Ni, who was shot in the head at point-blank range…
The Rohingya of Myanmar is one of the most persecuted group in the world. They have no home. Per Fox News, “Some 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have lived in Bangladesh for decades after fleeing there from neighboring Myanmar in the face of persecution by its military and majority Buddhists.” Many of the Rohingya are forced into…
By Gilbert Bochenek On January 30, a man walked into a mosque in Quebec, Canada and started shooting. Three people were killed in the attack. There were also 19 others who were injured. According to CBC, “Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted…
The Myanmar military is cracking down on Myanmar’s minorities, particularly the Rohingya. Many of them flee into Bangladesh. CNN reports, “Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh said dozens of people have attempted to flee across the border in recent days.” Those in Myanmar think that the Rohingya are Bangladesh citizens and as such are there illegally, even…
By Athanasius 77 In December, just a few weeks before Christmas, a Coptic Church in Cairo was bombed. At first, the authorities had no idea who was responsible for the attacks. According to Fox News, “The Islamic State [ISIS] claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed 25 people. They also alleged that the…
Henry Martyn was a missionary to both India and Arabia between 1806-1812. Through his sharing of the Good News, many people were challenged in their thinking of Jesus. Early Life Henry Martyn was born on February 18, 1781 in Cornwell England. Henry was picked on at school and the teachers had to assign another student…
In mid-October of 2016, 21 Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped were returned to their hometown by Boko Haram. CNN reports, “The 21 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped and released by terrorist group Boko Haram were reunited with their families amid tearful scenes on Sunday.” It was a joyous celebration for many of the parents, yet it was…
