Changing the Atmosphere

Jill Payne-Holman with Prisoners for Christ says the first project they began in Nigeria in 2018 had such success that they have since opened another one in Nigeria, two in Ethiopia, one in Mozambique and one in Pakistan. So far, IBIs have graduated 260 men. These programs have radically impacted the students and also are changing the atmosphere in participating prisons.

(Photo courtesy of Prisoners for Christ)

“What turned out is the officers in the prison started to notice a difference, not only in the inmates taking our Bible school, but in the whole entire prison. The atmosphere changed. The population behavior changed, because these students, they were having such an influence on everyone else that the officers were like, ‘Wow, this is really great! We need to keep this going.’ And it got to where prisons in the surrounding area heard about it and said, ‘Can we get that in our prison?’”

Local church leaders and qualified volunteers teach the classes. The first year covers basics of the faith. The next nine months feature curriculum split between evangelism in general and evangelism specifically within a prison. The final six-month session covers church planting as well as chaplaincy skills.

Promoting Confidence in Sharing Their Faith

For many men, this is the first time they’ve participated in higher education. It may be the first time they’ve really felt like someone believed in them or their capabilities. They may feel a deep desire to share their faith, but face reservations about their abilities.

Payne-Holman says this training and degree helps take away those fears. “They are not going to be afraid to share their faith, because they have been so steeped in it. They’re so grounded. They know the fundamentals. They can explain what is redemption and why we need it, why we all need it. And because they’ve been an inmate now, they’ve got a little more credibility, right? They can actually look at someone, say, ‘Jesus changed my life. Come follow Him. He can change yours too. If He saved me from my destructive behavior, He can do anything for you.’”

Get Involved

Each new graduate provides credibility and stirs excitement for the program. It is growing and encouraging many. However, Payne-Holman says they need prayer.

(Photo courtesy of Prisoners for Christ)

“Pray that we would have open doors in the prisons, that we will get approved to go into more prisons, that they will continue to see what a positive effect this has on their inmate population and their community around them. We would pray for open hearts, the inmates to want to join these programs.”

Additionally, as with any ministry, operating costs are always a need. They provide stipends to the teachers to help keep the program from becoming a financial burden on people already operating with few resources. Each class also needs school supplies like paper, pens, and books.

While the costs are a crucial piece of the puzzle, Payne-Holman says it is clear that God is at work. “I have been surprised at how open as many of the African countries have been to us, especially again, like Nigeria, Pakistan, Mozambique – these all have very large Muslim populations, and that’s just always not well received as a Christian ministry. So, I think the Lord has really divinely touched these schools and allowed them to open and function as well as they have, and that no one has shut us down yet.”

Please pray that God would continue to open doors for the International Bible Institutes and their students and provide for their needs. If you’d like to help provide resources for IBIs, click here.

Payne-Holman says that in addition to prayer and monetary support, Prisoners for Christ recommends going on a trip to share the Gospel firsthand. They provide the training and facilitate trips to prisons where people are hungry for the Word of God. If you want to learn more about those opportunities, click here.

Representative header image courtesy of Orlando Allo via Pexels.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making it one of the most critical chokepoints for global energy. Even the threat of disruption can send ripple effects worldwide — including ministry operations.

Strait of Hormuz (By MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC – Image by Goddard Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: 2018-12-10., Public Domain)

Stan Unruh, Vice President of Aviation for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), says, “MAF’s vision is to reach isolated people. So it makes sense, of course, that our aircraft and crews are positioned in remote regions…to reach isolated people. That means that, by default, we’re exposed to fragile supply lines for our fuel products.”

Those vulnerabilities are now being tested. For example, Unruh explains, “Africa gets 80% of their crude and refined products through the Strait of Hormuz, so we’re quite concerned about the potential supply disruptions because of the conflict there.”

While fuel supply isn’t suffering yet, the price tag for jet fuel is already up and MAF is feeling it.

In East Congo, MAF has a team based in Bunia where they use aircraft to support humanitarian and missionary efforts.

(Photo courtesy of MAF Guinea)

Unruh says, “At the end of the day, supply disruptions and cost increases have an impact on Gospel ministries that we’re supporting. So it’ll have a direct impact on [Bible] translation work, on famine relief work, some conflict mitigation that our teams are involved with there in East Africa, and medical work.”

Despite the uncertainty, Unruh encourages believers to remain prayerful.

“My prayer would be that the effects of this crisis in the Middle East…is mitigated, and that we come to a peaceful conclusion soon,” Unruh asks. “But also, [pray] that the long-term effects of that are mitigated for the people that we serve.”

Pray for MAF’s Gospel work to continue without interruption, and for stability in a region whose impact reaches far beyond its borders.

Learn more about MAF’s ministry work and ways to come alongside at maf.org.

Header photo courtesy of MAF.

“FARM’s basic and fundamental goal is to strengthen the global church, and we want to do that by focusing on our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in, you know, places of physical poverty,” explains Scott Clifton.

(Photo courtesy of FARMS International)

FARMS works through local churches to provide loans, technical support for income generating projects, and spiritual training for families. Loans are repaid to a revolving fund, and recipients agree to tithe to their local church. However, there are three criteria that need to be met in order for an organization to qualify for a loan:

• Global church—There must be a spiritual emphasis and biblical principles, acknowledging individuals’ roles as a stewards, not owners, and upholding the value of a local community that is seeking God together.
• Local ownership—The project must be sustainable and genuinely desired by the local leaders and participants. It is their program; FARMS is just helping them to create it.
• Livelihood development—The project must include humanitarian elements.

“We can see, if we remove any one of them, how that has the potential to negatively impact our ultimate goal,” says Clifton. “If we took out the church and we had a great organization focused on local ownership and really helping people develop their livelihoods, then that could be great in a lot of ways, but we have to wrestle with, you know, what does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul? So then you think about if there isn’t local ownership, we have to be really careful, because we might be contributing to harmful dependency, which is actually going to increase the need later on. And the third thing, if you take livelihood development out of the picture, we have to wrestle with the words of James, and he says faith without works is dead. What good does it do to pray for someone without taking any sort of action to help them, you know, overcome their physical barriers that they’re experiencing? So when those three things intersect, that’s really where FARMS sees ourself participating in the context of development and ministry around the world.”

This can mean saying no to organizations, like it did for an opportunity FARMS was pursuing in Honduras.

“We had an initial trip last November, and we went in with some ideas. When we highlight local ownership, the idea is that we’re not forcing a solution, but it’s actually desired by people who are there, and it fits within livelihood development as well,” describes Clifton. “So when we went there, we had an idea of ‘We’re going to start a loan program for a group of farmers.’ But then we gathered farmers around and we listened—we just asked some basic questions and got some answers, and realized that if we were to start a revolving loan program, they were not ready for it. We would have been setting them up for failure, because they wouldn’t have ever been able to repay those loans. Yet it would have been really hard to say no to, you know, a source of funds. And so we realized that it wasn’t the right time for that, but we could do an agricultural training where we could introduce them to some methods, like farming God’s way.”

Joe & Pat Richter with one of the FARMS project holders in Thailand. (Photo, caption courtesy of FARMS International)

FARMS partnered with Equipping Farmers International to conduct the training this month. FARMS is also developing a new program in Southeast Asia, based around a program they’ve seen success with in Thailand.

“This program in Thailand has been going for about 30 years, and they’ve been asking the last year to start another one in this neighboring country, and so we have the opportunity to do that. We’re actually doing that as a matching fund, where we provide some of the funds, and that program in Thailand is also going to provide some of the funds.”

Meanwhile, they’ve hired a regional coordinator based out of Zambia, with experience in agricultural and small business training, to help FARMS expand their work in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also have relationships and programs in the Caribbean, throughout central-eastern Africa, in the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka, among other countries.

You can support FARM’s mission by partnering with them financially. Go to farmsinternational.com to learn more.

Header photo courtesy of FARMS International.

Jeyakaran “Jakes” Emmanuel with A3 says that in the next decade, ministries in Africa will need to invest strategically, as Christians on the continent are poised to do gospel work for several reasons. 

First, Africa has the youngest median age of any continent at just 19 years old.

(Image courtesy of A3)

Second, Africa has the fastest church growth of any continent in the world. Emmanuel says that it is projected that 40% of the world’s Church will live in Africa by 2050.

Third, Africa has shifted from being a mission field to becoming a mission force, with the continent already sending out thousands of cross-cultural missionaries.

Despite these blessings, there remains a critical leadership gap in the African church.

With the African church growing so fast and with regional issues of conflict and poverty, resources for theological training are spread thin.

“One of the greatest needs in the African church is church health and for the purity of the gospel to be preserved, because we are seeing rampant growth of the prosperity gospel and a whole lot of cults emerging all across Africa,” Emmanuel says.

Due to rampant false gospel start-up churches in Rwanda, last year, the president of Rwanda shut down churches across the country, including about 9,000 churches, because of the emergence of the false gospel and scammers in start-up churches, as well as the lack of theological education for the pastors.

“The false gospels, prosperity gospel being one of them, and a whole lot of heretical teachings that are rapidly gaining ground…” Emmanuel says. “There is again, the huge need for training of pastors and leaders and theological education, leadership development, and all of them become very critical needs for the continent.”

Emmanuel says doors are opening and church denominations are coming together to welcome A3 into lead church leadership in discipleship and training.

“A3 is poised to impact all of Africa, but the needs are great, and we pray that the Lord of the harvest will provide the needs for us to take his kingdom into this continent,” Emmanuel says. 

Please pray that God will provide the financial and human resources needed to do this coming work.

(Photo courtesy of Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke/Pixabay)

Satan offers false hope through Zimbabwe’s popular religion, and thousands fall prey to this deception.

“The population is considered Christian, but it’s often mixed, and there is false teaching. These sects blend elements of Christianity with animism,” Williams says.

WMP partners with Every Home for Christ to introduce the Gospel truth. “They visited 690,000 homes last year, distributed over 2.1 million pieces of Gospel literature – most of that was our booklets – and more than half a million people responded positively to the Gospel,” Williams says.

“They are equipping churches to take the mission into their own hands, and it’s transforming Zimbabwe one home at a time.”

World Missionary Press Scripture booklets make God’s Word accessible in every language. Dr. Grace – WMP’s primary distribution contact in Zimbabwe – has translated WMP material into several languages.

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)

“We sent several containers to her, and she wants more of our titles available because they have found that the literature stays with people, and it gives her teams the opportunity to reach more people,” Williams says.

“A lot of people are not comfortable approaching someone about their need for Christ. But most people are willing to smile and hand the Scripture booklet, which is God’s Word, and then let the Spirit do the work.”

With your support, WMP can send Gospel hope to the darkest corners of Zimbabwe and beyond. Learn more here. A gift of $6 helps WMP send 100 booklets to believers in need, while a gift of $30 sends one box or 500 Scripture booklets.

“One pastor recalls a time when his community was overshadowed by fear and spiritual oppression,” Williams shares.

“The EHC team was able to come in and work with him, and then he said, ‘We have seen what happens when people take the Gospel seriously. Our community is no longer the same.’”

Another pastor says WMP’s Gospel literature “spoke to their issues. It began to provide solutions to the challenges. It was a godsend,” Williams says.

Header and story images courtesy of World Missionary Press. 

Today is day two of unfoldingWord’s Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, a gathering aimed at strengthening global collaboration in Scripture translation. The event brings together nearly 100 leaders from 18 countries and 28 language groups in Nairobi. Read about last year’s CCBT Forum here.

“Some of them work in countries that have religious opposition, all the way up to death threats and assassinations,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Kenya provides the neutral territory needed to facilitate a meeting of this size. Dane says, “We chose Kenya because it’s a very welcoming country, and it seems much easier for many of our global partners to get visas to Kenya than other parts of the world.”

unfoldingWord supports church-planting work among every people group by equipping believers with open-licensed biblical resources and training to translate God’s Word into their heart language.

“If we tried to do all of this translation work ourselves, we would immediately exceed our capacity. That’s why we are equipping an [independent] network of church planters and disciple-making ministries across the world with church-centric Bible translation tools, technology, and training,” Dane says.

“That network continues to expand, and as a result, hundreds and hundreds of new languages are being engaged in a formative process for them, individually and for their people.”

Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

“We’re not alone”: building a global family

The Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum builds upon unfoldingWord’s global church planting network, connecting believers near and far. The four-day meeting is comprehensive, offering education, training, and opportunities for collaboration and networking.

“Almost half of the people coming are new, and so it will be an introduction to how church-centric Bible translation works,” Dane says.

In addition, “They’ll have testimonies, and breakout sessions on overcoming barriers, security, funding, technology, and all of those kinds of things.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Believers gain more than practical skills at the forum. “What they tell us is, ‘It’s very difficult what we do, but when we meet brothers and sisters from other parts of the world who do this with us, we realize we’re not alone,’” Dane says.

“When they get to meet each other for the first time, face-to-face, it’s like this family that they didn’t know they had.”

Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill all the presenters and breakout leaders. Pray for the work that God is doing and is about to do through church planters and Bible translators.

Believers in Benin tell unfoldingWord, “We see Muslims giving themselves to Christ, imams giving themselves to Christ, kings giving themselves to Christ. Give us more. We want to keep going.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to support this work. A $45,000 matching grant will double every gift made through December 31.

*Name withheld for security purposes. 

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

Mali’s capital, Bamako, has been without fuel imports since September. Surrounding cities and communities are suffering too, as insurgents use a favorite strategy. 

“They are avoiding direct confrontation by attacking many cities. By imposing a blockade, it is another way to put high pressure on the government or security forces,” says Illia Djadi with Open Doors International. He serves as the senior analyst for freedom of religion and belief in sub-Saharan Africa.

The central Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are some of the poorest in the world, Djadi explains. Though their governments are willing to fight, they have little capacity to oppose well-equipped insurgents. They are also the only countries where both an al-Qaeda-linked group and an Islamic State-affiliated group are active.

“That’s why this region —central Sahel — has become now the new epicenter of international jihad, or international terrorism,” Djadi says. “The Islamists are putting a lot of pressure on the countries and the population living there. It is a very fragile context. That’s why the pressure on the Christian minority is also high.”

Whether tied to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, these insurgents share the same ideology and goal: to establish a caliphate and impose Sharia law. As they gain control, they are scattering the local church. 

“Their primary target is Christians. When they first attacked Mali in 2012, they attacked and destroyed churches. They killed Christians, and many of them fled northern Mali to elsewhere, to become internally displaced, or refugees in neighboring countries,” says Djadi.

Flag of Mali (Stock photo courtesy of Aboodi Vesakaran via Pexels)

They will tell Christians, “This is the deal: convert to Islam, or be killed.” Many believers who have the choice will escape to another region, often arriving empty-handed and having witnessed terrible violence. Christians who can’t escape either lose their lives or live under heavy restrictions and taxation.

Ask God to strengthen believers in Mali with resilience and faithfulness to the end. Pray for global support for Mali’s leaders, that they may be able to fulfill their responsibility to protect their citizens.

“This is a forgotten crisis, but it’s a major crisis which has displaced millions in the Sahel and elsewhere,” says Djadi.

“Let’s continue to pray, but let’s continue also to provide support, because they are in need of support. At Open Doors, we are working closely with partner churches locally: how to provide the basics for the Christians living there, how to provide trauma care, and how to provide food for them to feel like they are not alone in these difficult circumstances.”

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Alfred Dena via Pexels.

“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” — James 5:16

Over 310 million Christians globally face severe persecution. Todd Nettleton from The Voice of the Martyrs USA says this day of united prayer deeply matters to those suffering for their faith: “Every time we ask, ‘Hey, how can we help you?’ the first thing they say is, ‘Pray for us.’”

World from space (photo courtesy of NASA via Unsplash)

Across the globe, churches will gather to lift up the persecuted believers.

“They are lifting up our brothers and sisters and our Christian family in hostile and restricted nations. They [persecuted Christians] know they’re being prayed for, and it is an encouragement to them,” added Nettleton.

Each year, the International Day of Prayer highlights a specific nation or situation to help believers intercede more personally and fervently.

This year’s focus is on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where believers face relentless violence from armed groups.

“There are over a hundred armed rebel groups active in DRC. Many of them are motivated by Islamist ideology that says Christians are the enemy. [They say] ‘We want to create a caliphate.’ And so the level of violence of some of these attacks is just mind-blowing,” shares Nettleton.

These brutal attacks leave Congolese communities grieving and struggling to heal. Yet the story of God’s presence and restoration shines through.

Photo courtesy of VOM USA

The VOM USA promotional video focuses on how God is helping persecuted Christians recover from trauma.

“He is using Christians to come alongside our brothers and sisters in DRC, to listen to them, pray with them, and affirm them. Help them realize that even in suffering — even in violent suffering — God is still present, and God still has a plan,” adds Nettleton.

Free digital resources are available on the Voice of the Martyrs USA website for churches and Bible studies. Pray for persecuted Christians around the world — and remember the Congolese believers.

“It is a prayer for faithfulness in the face of persecution, in the face of suffering,” adds Nettleton.

Join this year’s global intercession for persecuted believers! Visit Voice of the Martyrs USA
to access resources.

Header photo: Prayer slide from downloadable materials, courtesy of VOM USA.

“According to local sources, three armed men kidnapped him [Rideout], and since then, we haven’t heard about that more,” says Illia Djadi. He serves with Open Doors International as the Senior Analyst for Freedom of Religion and Belief in Africa. “So far, no group has claimed the kidnapping.”

Portrait of a Songhai chief of a village in southwestern Niger. (Photo courtesy of IMB)

But there are ways to make an educated guess. Niger endures rising unrest and Islamic insurgencies. 

“Niger is part of this group of countries [that are] the most affected by Islamic insurgency active in the Sahel or West African region,” says Djadi, who is himself from Niger.  

“That’s the area [Central Sahel] now all analysts and observers agree has become the new epicenter of jihad or terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa, because that’s the only area where we have al-Qaeda affiliate and Islamic State affiliates operating.” 

Authorities believe that Rideout’s kidnappers took him toward western Niger, “the area where an al-Qaeda affiliate is mainly active,” says Djadi.

The U.S. State Department is aware of these events. In a statement to Fox News, a State Department spokesperson said, “It is a top priority for the Trump Administration to look after the safety of every American, and we are seeing efforts from across the U.S. Government to support the recovery and safe return of this U.S. citizen.”

It’s now the business of Christians to pray. Ask God for a miraculous release but also for endurance and faithful witness for Rideout in unimaginable circumstances. Pray for Niger’s security as well. Rideout is one of at least eight foreign nationals kidnapped there this year. 

“We pray for an urgent and safe release. We pray for his family. We pray for the community of missionary and expat [persons] in Niger,” says Djadi. 

Pray also for strength for the Church in Niger, which is deeply affected by Islamic insurgency.

(Photo courtesy of Alek Burley/Unsplash)

“The church in Niger is a tiny minority. It’s only 1 percent of the population. In the western part of the country, hundreds of Christians have been displaced because the predominantly Christian community in that area has been attacked. They got the warning to convert [to Islam] or to go, so they prefer to go,” says Djadi.

“Continue to pray and to pay attention [to] what is happening in Niger, in central Sahel, and particularly also in sub-Saharan Africa.”

Header image: Close-up of a world map highlighting a section of the Sahel region. (Stock photo courtesy of MART PRODUCTION via Pexels)

One ministry taking that danger seriously is ZimZam Global, a church-planter training organization that approaches children’s discipleship first.

“With the rise of terror groups in Africa, you would realize that the most affected people are children,” says Francis Kataka Kubondo with ZimZam Global. “Wherever there is an attack, definitely the children suffer most.” 

Children’s school attendance and church and family life all come under threat when terrorists strike. Some may be exploited in the worst of ways.

Children are also vulnerable to accepting Islamic State jihadism themselves. Kubondo explains that extremists will sometimes enter communities the same way that Christians do. They might offer humanitarian aid or school sponsorship, gaining influence.

(Photo courtesy of Fatima Yusuf via Unsplash)

“They target areas where people are poor, [they] target area[s] where there is some form of instability, and then they present themselves as a solution,” he says. 

Yet there is a crucial difference: “For Christianity, we are driven by love, as opposed to the Islamists, who are driven by fear.” 

ZimZam Global’s vision is a church for every child. Today, they serve in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, and their reach is expanding.

“Most [other] church planting trainings focus on adults, but for us, we do it the other way around. We first of all reach out to children, and then through children, the church planter can gain access to family and then through family, now a church can be birthed,” says Kubondo.

The next generations in Africa are on the line, so please pray! Pray that instead of being exposed to Islamic extremism, many more children in Africa will accept Christ, join God’s family and serve His good Kingdom purposes. Pray for more believers to join the work to reach children for Christ in Africa. Pray for resources ZimZam Global needs to carry this mission forward. 

“Our biggest cry in Africa is for God to provide opportunities in His own ways so that we can move up to the northern part of Africa and share the goodness of Christ in those areas,” says Kubondo. “As of now, the engagement is very low.” 

Header photo is a representative stock photo courtesy of Michael Ali via Unsplash.