Christian Converts Sentenced In Iran
Seven people who turned from Islam to Christianity have received prison terms, fines, or work restrictions in Iran for “propaganda against the state,” trial observers confirmed Wednesday.
Missionaries
Messianic congregation wins decisive legal victory against anti-missionary organization
After suffering many years of sustained harassment by anti-missionary group Yad l’Achim, the Beit Hallel Messianic congregation in Ashdod has just won a lawsuit against the organization, Kehila News Israel (KNI) reports. In a resounding victory for believers in Israel, a local court issued a restraining order against Yad l’Achim activists that prevents them, among other things, from coming within 100 meters of Beit Hallel property and congregants’ private homes.
Wycliffe Associates Looks to Collaborative Translation Methodology to Finish Decades-Old Bible Translation Projects
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has recently identified 10 language groups that don’t yet have complete Bibles, although translation projects began decades ago.
US Pastor Home After 7-months Detention In India
An American pastor has arrived home after more than seven months of detention in India on controversial charges of tax evasion.
Church in North Korea Exists but Deeply Underground
There are Christians in North Korea but congregations are typically made up of two or three people from the same family, Fox News reports. The North Korean church exists, but it has had to go deeply underground: under the Kim Jong Un regime, believers – and their families – may face the death penalty or detention if their faith is discovered.
US Mission Pilot Dies In Indonesia Crash
An American mission pilot flying much-needed coronavirus test kits to a remote village in Indonesia has died in a plane crash, her Christian aviation organization confirmed.
Dutch Pentecostal Preacher Ben Hoekendijk Dies At 81
Ben Hoekendijk, the Dutch evangelist who became the face of the Netherlands’ post-war Pentecostal movement, has died. He was 81, friends confirmed to Worthy News. Hoekendijk, who was in frail health after suffering a stroke, died last week in his hometown of Harderwijk.
Israel Threatens To Ban Evangelical TV Channel
Israel’s government has threatened to close down an evangelical television channel broadcasting in Hebrew if it violates laws on proselytizing and missionary activities. Tuesday’s announcement came after global network GOD TV launched Shelanu (“Ours”) to spread “the gospel of Jesus Christ into the homes and lives and hearts of the Jewish people.”
Christians in India berated and falsely charged by police for handing out food to the poor
A pastor and a team of youth missionaries from his church were abused and falsely charged in India earlier this month for providing food and clothing to the poor, in another instance of police complicity with the radical Hindu nationalist agenda.
Christians in India scapegoated for Catholic child trafficking scandal and Muslim forced marriages
In a tragic misunderstanding, the leader of a Hindu nationalist organization in India is vowing to prevent the spread of Christian faith across his country because of alleged child trafficking activities of the charity founded by Mother Theresa and purported forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls by Muslim men.
Wycliffe Associates Aims to Help Underground Churches Translate the Bible for Themselves and Millions Living in Oppressed Regions
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, aims to launch Bible translations for 600 new language groups in places of oppression and persecution for Christians.
Gospel Spreads as Coronavirus in Indonesia’s Jungle Villages
They suggest their faith in Christ spreads as fast as the new coronavirus. Pentecostal pastors of several Muslim dominated jungle villages in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province report church growth. That’s despite local protests, poverty, and occultism. ‘I even received one hundred boxes of tiles from the village chief to complete our church building,’ explains Pastor Frani Pondaag.
New Generation of Missionaries Floods the Earth with Gospel: ‘Now is the Season for Revival’
Last month in Brazil, 140,000 people met in three stadiums pledging to make the Great Commission their main ambition.
African Christians fulfill ‘blessed reflex’ prayed for by European missionaries
A professor of African Christianity at a University in England says that the prayers of European missionaries to Africa centuries ago are being answered by a wave of Christian immigrants to the increasingly secular European continent.
China cracking down on providential relationship between North Koreans and South Koreans within its borders
China is cracking down on a phenomenon that has allowed North Korean defectors to receive Bible teaching across the border in the communist superpower to the south.
‘Avowed Contempt for Human Rights’ Leads Philippine Government to Scrutinize, Harass Christian Aid Workers
Christians in the Philippines are coming under increasing pressure from the Rodrigo Duterte administration for their involvement in human rights work.
‘The situation in North Korea is absolutely dire’: Panel Highlights Number 1 Persecutor of Christians, Once Christian Itself
The situation for Christians in North Korea was highlighted recently by a panel that spoke before the debut of the documentary Humanity Denied: Religious Freedom in North Korea held just down the road from the State Department’s summit on religious freedom Thursday.
Man on Motorcycle Appears From Nowhere to Rescue Missionaries from Gun-Toting Crowd
A group of missionaries was spared from a gun-wielding mob of protesters in Haiti following a visitation by a man on a motorcycle who told them “it’s going to be okay.”
Wycliffe Associates Looking Toward Launch of 100 New Bible Translations for Millions in the Dayak People of Borneo
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation, intends to launch 100 new Bible translations this year among the most populous people on the island of Borneo. More than three million Dayak people on Borneo, representing 287 languages, are without the Scriptures.
Evangelical group says Laos deports 3 American missionaries
A U.S.-based Christian evangelical organization says three of its American volunteers who were detained in Laos more than a week ago for proselytizing have been freed and deported.