JAKARTA – The Indonesian island of Lombok was ravaged by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on 05 August. CBS News reported today that the death toll has reached 426 and more than 350,000 people have been displaced. Indonesia’s national disaster agency estimates that the cost to repair the damage to infrastructure and property will exceed $340…
MINSK – Belarus is a land-locked country in Eastern Europe, formerly a part of the now-defunct Soviet Union. Nine and a half million people live in the heavily-forested country of only 80,000 square miles. Belarus is about the size of Kansas, but with three times as many people. Although the majority of the population self-professes…
ATHENS – The Greek coastal cities of Mati and Rafina in the southeastern region of Attica have been devastated by the worst wildfires in decades that have spread into the small urban areas. As of August 12th, the death toll has reached 94, including men, women, and children. Many were trapped in the flames in…
NEW DELHI – India is among the most inefficient agriculture producers in the world – and all major crops – wheat, sugarcane, cotton – consume large quantities of water. Agriculture consumes 83 percent of India’s water resources, leaving only 17 percent for domestic and industrial use, according to a recent report in The Hindu Business…
EDINBURGH – While nearly the whole of Christendom is aware, at least to some extent – of the persecution being wrought upon the followers of Christ in many countries, the same are blissfully unaware of the attacks upon the church by humanism and secularism. These twin threats to the faith once delivered the saints are…
WASHINGTON, DC – Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom open the first meeting of a three-day Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom conference in Washington DC sponsored by the U.S. State Department. In his opening speech on 24 July, he said, ‘ The lack of religious freedom anywhere is a threat everywhere.” His…
NEW DELHI – This year India will celebrate the 72nd anniversary of its independence, following two centuries of being subject to the domination of the British East India Company and, ultimately, the rule of the British Empire in 1857. In the 18th century Indian subcontinent consisted of an array of local kingdoms. As the British…
KINSHASA – The Congo has been at war for a very long time. Most people who live there have never experienced an extended period of peace. The inability to stabilize the government has turned a country with enormous economic resources into a graveyard for more than six million people. While rebels and militia continue to…
I travel at least once a month between where I live and where my parents live. Every once in a while, as I wait in airports, I see people who are foreigners and do not know the God who loves them. It really breaks my heart, because according to God’s Word, they’re heading to hell…
INDIA – South Asia and the Indian subcontinent seem to be facing a perennial water crisis that may be getting worse rather than better. The problem is complex. It is not simply that there is too much or too little. While there is flooding in some regions there is a drought in others. Where there…
HARRISON, AR – Ron Hutchcraft Ministries (RHM) bears a strong similarity to that of Gospel for Asia (GFA) and many other faith-based NGOs in the 21st century. The ministry is a peer-to-peer outreach in which Indian people share the Gospel with other Indian people. By and large, both minister to the poorest of the poor…
WASHINGTON DC – The subject of immigration has become a tinderbox of contention among many Americans as well as Europeans and Australians. The substance of immigration issues is often obscured by a fog of conflicting opinions between personal compassion and the government’s responsibility to ensure the general welfare and domestic tranquility of its current residents….
KATMANDU – The 14th graduating class of the Believers Eastern Church vocational training class in the Diocese of Pokhara, Nepal, completed their work on 14 July 2018. A total of 24 women received their tailoring certificates at the end of the six-month course. A century ago, sewing and tailoring was a necessity for women in…
OLDENBURG, GERMANY – A total of 3,200 attended Operation Mobilisation’s (OM) TeenStreet 2018 during the last week of July and ending on August 4th. The theme of this year’s six-day conference was “Drawing Closer to the Father.” Enthusiastic teens from 19 different countries were led through a different element of Christian living, each of which…
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…
KIGALI – Thousands of churches across Rwanda look like this one. Empty. While government closure of churches has grown all too common in many countries where governments enforce state religions or cultural nationalism, nearly half of the population is Protestant, 43 percent are Catholic, and the remaining seven percent includes all other faiths. The KT…
REDDING, CA – Witnesses to the devastation wrought by the Carr fire in Northern California have been describing the scene as apocalyptic. As of this morning, the fire is about 20 percent contained, but it has already consumed nearly 100,000 acres. Nearly 40,000 people have been evacuated. More than 500 buildings, including at least 300…
ADDIS ABABA – The North African nations of Eritrea and Ethiopia have formally agreed to end the longest-running war on the continent. Christians in Ethiopia are praying that the agreement will present new opportunities to spread the Gospel. “With this new peace agreement, borders will be reopened and trade reinstated between the two countries. The…
DAMASCUS – Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed in the seven-year-long Syrian Civil War. An estimated 11 million people have been displaced from their homes, creating one of the greatest refugee crises in history. Over 270,000 people have fled to southern Syria during the month of July. The single largest displacement of…
JAIPUR – According to a report by IndiaSpend, “Anemia . . . impacts half of Indian women of reproductive age, increases the risk of maternal mortality, infection, preterm delivery, poor fetal and infant health, and puts children at lifelong risk of issues involving cognitive development and physical growth.” The report summarized the results of a…
IZMIR – Despite heightened optimism that a Turkish court might release U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson from prison today, expectations were dealt a blow when the court ordered him to remain in custody. The next hearing, his fourth, is scheduled for 12 October 2018. Brunson, 50, a native of North Carolina, has lived in Turkey for…
In 2017, Gospel for Asia (GFA) and its worldwide affiliates working in 18 Asian nations addressed women’s issues by empowering more than 350,000 women through various ministry efforts and installed 4,673 clean-water wells. Wills Point, Texas, Discussing Women’s Issues in Asia — This month, 39 years ago, Dr. KP Yohannan founded the organization Gospel for…
LONDON – WaterAid, the international NGO that is driving the United Nations sustainable goal to provide clean water for the entire global population by 2030, has just released a shocking new report. Based on current status and progress, the report claims that the goal is unreachable within the allotted time. Using data provided by the…
ABUJA – The militant African group Boko Haram has terrorized Nigerians for nearly 10 years, destroying churches, schools, and homes. The infamously mass murder entire villages of people before burning the villages to the ground. They have taken more than 3,000 women and schoolgirls captive and attempt to convert them to Islam. Those who refuse…
Richard Coleman stepping down as senior director of mobilization and candidacy to serve in Ethiopia NORCROSS, Ga.—A forthcoming leadership transition at missions agency TMS Global comes at a time when it is pursuing a heightened commitment to seeing more non-whites serving in world evangelization. After more than a decade recruiting others for service with the…
BANGKOK – Ardoon Sam-aon is a talented 14-year-old. He plays the piano and the guitar and participates in the youth program and praise team at Mae Sai Grace Church where he accepted Christ in March 2018. He has a 3.94 GPA as an eighth-grader at Ban Wiang Phan School. He is an avid volleyball and…
Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers warn of dangers of tobacco to help demonstrate that ‘God cares for the whole person’ WILLS POINT, Texas—June 2017, residents of a community in northern India pledged to make it tobacco-free following a health awareness drive by Gospel for Asia (GFA)-supported workers. Carrying placards and handing out advisory leaflets about…
BEIJING – Chinese officials successfully closed and barred the doors of Beijing’s largest house church on July 8th, occupying it with ‘thugs’ to prevent members from entering. The closure is yet another in a growing list of moves by agents of the government to either gain oversight of or close Christian churches in China. The…
DHAKA – Imagine it is a rainy Sunday morning. You wake up, you consider the downpour, and you decide that the weather is too bad for anyone to go to church. And you are the pastor! Now imagine that you live in a country like Bangladesh and that it is the monsoon system, which it…
InChrist Communications adds Journity ‘digital engagement’ expertise, enhancing website visitors’ experiences to suite of services CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Christian marketing and public relations agency InChrist Communications (ICC) is partnering with internet engagement expert Journity to help faith-based clients improve the online engagement of website visitors — and their bottomline. ICC is adding Journity’s “digital engagement”…
HAMILTON, MA – The estimated total population in the world is between 7.3 and 7.6 billion people. (It’s hard to keep an exact count. The number keeps changing!) It is probably even more difficult to assess how many Christians there are and where they live. First, by the time a count is determined, it has…
ALGIERS – Idir Hamdad is a native Algerian. He was born into and raised in a Muslim home. In 2002, he and his family converted to Christianity which led to harassment from their neighbors. Islam is the state religion in Algeria, so conversion to any other religion is considered apostasy and is punishable by death….
TEGUCIGALPA – With a total area of 43,433 square miles, it would seem that reaching everyone in a country of that size with the Gospel would be fairly easy. But then, the ability to reach people is not always defined by the square mileage in which they live. The Tolupan people, as seen in the…
HIROSHIMA – The death toll keeps rising by the in Hiroshima Prefecture and seven other prefectures in the south of Japan. More than two million people have been forced to evacuate after record rainfalls have inundated the area. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported that 14.3 inches of rain had fallen within a period of two…
VIENTIANE – The constitution of the nation of Laos guarantees its citizens freedom of religion. Specifically, it recognizes their “right and freedom to believe or not to believe in religion.” In addition, Laos is “a state party” to the seven core international human rights treaties under which they are obligated to “respect, protect, and fulfill…
MUMBAI – India Spend recently inteview Naina Lal Kidwai. Kidwai was the former head of HSBC in India, the first woman in India to become the head of a foreign bank in the country. She is the current vice-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water. She was instrumental in founding the…
GENEVA – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) have collaborated to publish a new manual of guidelines for a “faith-sensitive approach” by faith-based organizations (FBOs). The 88-page document outlines guidelines by the UN-affiliated Inter-Agency Standing Committee for acceptable approaches for FBOs offering humanitarian responses to people in need around the globe….
LONDON – British MP (Member of Parliament), Fiona Bruce tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM 1478) on 03 July 2018 proposing that the UK develop better mechanisms for tracking incidents of religious persecution and that it develop “strategic action plans” to prevent the escalation of those incidents into “mass atrocities.” Further, the motion calls upon…
Troubled teen-turned-medical missionary aims to inspire others to trust God in new book chronicling her adventures in faith COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A reformed rebel with a taste for adventure is looking to inspire others to step out and make a difference in the world. Sharing some hair-raising stories from more than 35 years’ missionary service in…
With an evangelistic message embedded, a cacao tree-raising initiative offers a welcome economic boost to rural communities COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Missionaries in South America have come up with a novel way of encouraging people to respond to the Bible’s invitation to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” They have started a project growing cacao trees—the…
KENYA – Margaret Njuguna is a native of Kenya. She was fortunate to have received training that qualified her to work at the Kenyan and Ugandan offices of World Renew, the global relief ministry of the Christian Reformed Church. When she made it clear that she wanted to do “something more,” a co-worker urged her…
ITANAGAR, ARUNACHAL PRADESH – Pema Khandu, the BJP Chief Minister of India’s northeastern-most state, Arunachal Pradesh, announced on 28 June 2018 that he would move to repeal the state’s Freedom of Religion Act of 1978 when parliament enters into its next session. It is the Freedom of Religion act that contains the ban against “conversion…
JERUSALEM – The Jerusalem Post summed up the relationship between Israel and Syria saying “Jerusalem and Damascus have never had diplomatic relations and have been officially at war since Israel was established in 1948. In 1967 Israel took control of the 1,200 square kilometers of the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six Day War…
COLORADO SPRINGS – You can almost hear his feet as they crunch the pebbles on the dirty street as he passes a man selling a birdcage to a customer. You can almost feel the quiet despair as they go about their daily routine of existence. What is missing in this picture is any appearance of…
HCJB Ecuador, Reach Beyond’s media partner in Ecuador, plays major supporting role in rare theatrical release for faith-based drama challenging viewers to ‘make a change for good’ COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Missionary radio broadcaster HCJB Ecuador, partner of Reach Beyond, has supported efforts to use another medium to share the good news—helping bring a faith-based movie to…
SEOUL – One of the chief ministries of Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is getting Bibles to nations where the Word of God is restricted. The ministry uses innovative means to place Bibles into the hands of people – in their own language – who would otherwise live their lives without ever reading the Good…
New leader arrives from senior executive role at partner Bible Society, inspired by ‘transforming hope of God’s Word’ COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Biblica, The International Bible Society, sponsor and copyright holder of the world’s bestselling English Bible, the New International Version, has announced the appointment of ministry leader Geof Morin as its new CEO. Currently…
GENEVA – “Wars, other violence, and persecution drove worldwide forced displacement to a new high in 2017 for the fifth year in a row, according to UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, released on 19 June 2018. The report showed that 68.5 million people were displaced as of the end of 2017. Overwhelmingly it is developing…
JERUSALEM – Drought and water shortages are plaguing nations all around the world. Blame it on whatever you choose, the need to provide adequate amounts of clean, sweet, potable water must be addressed before the local and regional water crises become a global, life-threatening crisis. Israel faces a potential crisis as the Sea of Galilee,…
Imagine a country where you had to keep your faith silent for fear of being arrested. There are many people living in countries throughout the world that face this threat. Afghanistan is one of them. There are no churches, but mosques can be found on every street corner in the rugged and mountainous terrain of…
