The question came from Sarah Rabinovitch, a Holocaust survivor living in Israel. She lived through the Nazi reign, a harrowing ship journey to Israel, and extreme poverty.

Growing up, Sarah’s main exposure to Christians came through Germans and Russians who claimed the name of Jesus while murdering her people. She was suspicious of Christians and especially of Messianic Jews who followed Christ.

But when Sarah went to a Holocaust Survivor banquet hosted by Uncharted Ministries, her heart stirred when she heard Jesus’s words read from the New Testament.

Israeli flags (Photo courtesy of Cole Keister via Unsplash)

JoAnn with Uncharted Ministries lovingly replied to Sarah’s question:

“Of course you will still be Jewish! Following Jesus is the most Jewish thing you can do! It doesn’t change your ethnicity, but it does trade in religion for a relationship with the Living God.”

As Sarah spoke with JoAnn, she felt the movement of the Holy Spirit. There, Sarah began a relationship with Jesus. Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says their outreach to Holocaust survivors like Sarah is crucial in this generation.

“The Israeli comptroller estimates that all Holocaust survivors will be gone in about eight years. Some are even saying it may be five years and there won’t be any more Holocaust survivors in Israel. They’ll be gone. The average age [of a Holocaust survivor] right now is 88.”

Doyle says most Holocaust survivors today come from an atheist background. Like Sarah, they tend to be wary of those who call themselves Christians.

“Because of what they endured, they can’t fathom there is a God. But through love and reaching out to them and just spending time with them, they see it in people. They start to have that spark again. ‘Okay, maybe there can be a God.’ And then of course, the Father draws them to Jesus.”

Last year, Uncharted Ministries saw over 60 Holocaust survivors begin relationships with Jesus and get baptized.

You can follow more stories with Uncharted Ministries and get involved at their website here!

Meanwhile, Doyle asks, “Pray for Holocaust survivors. It’s a short fuse on this ministry. We don’t have a lot of time left, but they need Jesus.”

Header photo of Jerusalem courtesy of 8thirty8.

“The vast majority of other faiths are headquartered or predominant in these nations,” Joe Handley, President of Asian Access says. “[Christians] are really hungry for a breakthrough of a Christ-centered focus in their nations.”

Asian Access serves in 15 countries across the continent and may expand into seven more countries by 2020.

(Photo courtesy of Asian Access)

With such religious diversity in Asia, there can’t be a “one size fits all” approach for presenting the Gospel.

“Each context we’re in, we have to take those rock-solid principles from the Bible, and yet apply them in a different way.”

Asian Access began ministry in Japan, and each time they move into another country, their staff use different contextualized practices for communicating God’s hope and love.

“This year, in fact, is our 20th anniversary of our first country outside of Japan. In that case, it was also a Buddhist country, but a Buddhist country that had a strong kind of atheist-agnostic core because it was a part of the former Soviet influence world that was Mongolia,” Handley explains.

“Moving from a ministry focused in Japan to one that was also adapting to Mongolia required significant cultural adjustment and adaptation and kind of experimentation. Every country that we’ve gone into now, we’ve had to do some form of adaptation. So when we move from Japan and Mongolia to, say, Sri Lanka or Myanmar or India, we had the shift.”

(Photo courtesy of Asian Access)

Explaining the godhood of Jesus looks different when you are talking to a polytheistic Hindu versus a monotheistic Muslim. And for an atheist in China, faith and biblical truths have different challenges than they would for a Buddhist in Japan.

Handley points out this idea of contextualized practices for ministry is nothing new.

“You think of the Apostle Paul becoming all things in order that he might reach some. Similarly, I think most ministries that are in the Asian sphere have to do this — adapt as you go.”

Asian Access also supports the local Body of Christ in all the countries they minister. Handley says they have a significant need right now for spiritual mentorship and encouragement.

“There are lots of opportunities particularly with Asian Access to come and serve as teachers, faculty members, and mentors. Because the Christian population is so small in most of the Asian continents, most of those who are Christ’s followers are hungry for veteran leaders — people who have had some significant experience behind them that can come in and provide mentoring and coaching.”

“One of our leaders once said, ‘Joe, please send me seasoned veteran leaders. We have no spiritual fathers.’ Let that sink in a little bit. If you’re out there in the West and maybe you’re a retired pastor, maybe you’ve been in business and you’re thinking, ‘What do I do next in life?’ You’re the kind of person that if you have a strong background in your faith in Christ, there are leaders all over Asia that are hungry for people like you to come and just build relationships with them.”

(Photo courtesy of Asian Access)

It can be anything from a weekend visit to a full week trip or longer. Handley says anything to connect believers across borders and continents will be an encouragement to our Christian brothers and sisters in Asia.

Even if you can’t go, something every believer can do is pray.

Handley asks, “Please pray for places like Japan, the second largest unreached people group in the world; or Bangladesh, the number one; or places like China and India and other countries where you have increasing persecution and pressure either from government or religious fanatics.

“In addition to praying for them, I would suggest that one of the things you can do is be a generous giver. The needs of this part of the world for the Gospel are immense. It’s not just Asian Access. It’s all of those of us that are serving in Asia or similar places. We need the resources in order to reach these unreached people groups. So please pray, please come and serve, and please be a generous giver.”

Learn more about Asian Access’s ministry here.

Header photo courtesy of Pixabay

“Over the last several months, there have been some new regulations passed down by the Communist regime, specifically through their new president, Xi Jinping, so we want to be careful not to overstep our bounds.”

Erik Burklin, President of China Partner, says many of these regulations “have been on the books,” but now they’re being more heavily enforced.

“Communism in its core values is anti-God,” Burklin says. “They are very atheistic in their belief system, so obviously they will do whatever they can to control any religious activity in their country.”

These new regulations include pushes for the underground Church to register, censorship of electronic Bibles, and a renewed pressure for Christians to stay apolitical. China Partner has always tried to stay neutral about politics, and because they work primarily with the registered Church, they’re doing everything they can to comply with new regulations.

“Whenever we go, we’re really going there on a tourist visa as a guest of China, but we’re obviously watched because we’re foreigners and strangers to them in a way.”

They’re filing all the right paperwork, telling the government where they’re going to be, and making their intentions as clear as possible. It’s something they’ve always done in the past, but now they’re doing it with renewed intentionality.

“As a result [of our efforts], we’ve had tremendous freedom to go just about anywhere, and we’ve never been curtailed in our teaching or in what we were able to present.”

Still, they want to be cautious, hence the smaller team. They’re also only taking staff and board members. They want to be ready for the unexpected.

Local churches, even registered ones, are also trying to be careful. Though they don’t necessarily condone the government’s actions, many of China Partner’s contacts are working with the new regulations.

Photo and header photo courtesy of China Partner

“Even they don’t know what that means for them practically, so they’re kind of in an unknown state right now,” Burklin says. “They want to be careful, and obviously they don’t want to overstep any bounds, but they don’t know how these regulations are actually going to be enforced, so pray for wisdom for us and for protection.

“They are worried about some of their policies, but they will respect it, and this is something we at China Partner have learned from our Chinese brothers and sisters, so we’ve decided to do the same thing.”

Burklin acknowledges that this doesn’t work for every group. Different organizations work with different local churches and do things in different ways. This is just how China Partner thinks they can best reach their specific partners.

Ministry is important, and it needs to go hand in hand with wisdom. No matter what regulations are put in place, the people of China still need the Gospel. China Partner may be working with the registered church, but there are local congregations that are struggling under the new regulations and Church leaders who are being arrested.

Pray for patience and wisdom as the Church moves forward through this time, and consider supporting China partner as they prepare for October’s trip.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia/Creative Commons)

Bangladesh (MNN) — It seems like no one is safe if you have a difference of opinion on what militant Islam is doing to Bangladesh.

In a story we brought to you yesterday via Asian Access, militants had lists of Muslim-Background Believers and were hunting them down for “apostasy.” Today, we’re finding it’s not limited to Gospel workers. It also includes intellectuals and bloggers who have written critical content about Muslim extremists on social media.

On Thursday, a group of men attacked a law student for his atheistic comments on Facebook. Bruce Allen with Forgotten Missionaries International says, “People do not like when a blogger is saying, ‘Our constitution says we’re a secular society. Let’s have a more democratic forum.'”

The deadly attack on 27-year-old Nazimuddin Samad was eerily similar to a series of attacks on bloggers carried out last year and credited to an al-Qaeda branch going after “blasphemers.” But really, “This graduate student was killed simply because they didn’t like his views.”

Allen adds that the recent High Court decision to keep the status quo of the Constitution may have banked inflamed political tensions for now. “Whatever the Court’s motivation was, they reaffirmed: ‘We’re a secular society, but Islam is the state religion.’ So, people are a little bit bewildered in the streets.”

(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Bangladesh over the past six months, even though the government of Bangladesh claims there is no IS presence in the country. Yet, Allen says, “Ministry certainly still does continue there. We have so many opportunities for Scripture distribution, for evangelism in Bangladesh. When I just recently met with our national leadership team there, they said, ‘Yes, there are hindrances to ministry here, but we’re willing to run this race.'”

What it means is that even though Christianity is growing, it faces more and more restrictions and challenges. Churches, especially house churches where Muslim-background believers meet, prefer not to display any Christian symbols in order to avoid being recognized. While there are no anti-conversion laws on the books in Bangladesh, pressure to recant the Christian faith will be exerted by family, friends, and neighbors. “Paul would write in the New Testament, as he’s penning letters to churches: ‘Pray for me because there’s great opportunity and great opposition.'”

As far as freedom of religion goes in Bangladesh, it’s more than just the freedom of worship; it’s the freedom from the state to impose its own expression of faith in its culture. It’s the freedom to believe differently from the dictates of a government stands as a foundational building block to a free society. But it’s bigger than that.

(Photo courtesy FMI)

It really does boil down to: Pray, Give, Go.  “We’re training our partners how to be savvy, how to understand the generation that they live in, their cultures, and to see the opportunities [and take advantage of them] in creative and godly ways.”

The bigger picture beyond the politics of extremism? Building the kingdom of heaven. Sharing hope that counters the despair in a fallen world. What lies beyond is eternity.

FMI supports pastors and interns and has provided scholarships and university-level theological courses for the training of future church planters and teachers. ”We don’t shrink back from those opportunities, simply because of opposition,” Allen concludes. “Jesus tells His disciples as they’re going out to do ministry, ‘You need to be smart. You need to be savvy: shrewd as snakes, but still, your motivations…need to be harmless as doves.'”

Pray that God will protect the vulnerable Christian minority from radical Islamic groups, especially as some groups are now partly allied with Islamic State (IS) militants.

As a teenager, Andrew Teeuwen with PIONEERS got his first taste of the Albanian culture when his dad, who worked for Open Doors USA at the time, traveled to the communist nation during the Easter Holiday.

(Photo Courtesy Kosovo Future Maker via Flicker)
Albanian Flag

The trip was an opportunity to pray for the small country, find Christians to could connect with, and discover if there were any unregistered churches needing help.

The catch?

Albania had recently declared itself an atheist nation. All religions were outlawed.

But man’s laws don’t trump God’s.

Yet, while his dad was in Albania that Easter Sunday, the ground quaked just as it did when Christ first rose from the dead — conquering death and securing everlasting life for His people. And in the quake, an atheist museum was destroyed.

Ironically, it was the same museum Teeuwen’s father’s tourist group was set to visit the same morning. “[My dad thought] God is just showing us that He is the same today, in this country that denies the existence of God, as He was when Jesus rose from the dead on the first resurrection day,” explains Teeuwen.

“When my father came back and told us about his trip to Albania, I felt a need to pray for this country. I didn’t like it that this small country of three million people could deny God’s existence. So I began to pray for God to work and open up this country for the Gospel, never expecting that I would end up there myself,” Teeuwen says.

Then, when Albania’s communism began to fall in 1989, it opened a door for the Gospel.

“My wife and I, after we got married, joined PIONEERS…. We ended up going to work with a team in the northeast of the country in the mountainous area,” Teeuwen explains.

There, in the mountains, the Teeuwens helped to share Christ and plant churches. The goal for planting churches wasn’t to simply put up a building and invite people to church. No. It was to share God’s igniting Word and help disciple believers to share their own faith with their fellow countrymen, creating an exponential effect.

(Photo Courtesy Peter Fenda via Flickr)
Albanian Mountains

However, communism’s fall also opened a different door for Albanians–who had been kept from knowing the outside world. Before long, many Albanians began fleeing their homeland to their neighboring country, Greece.

After serving in Albania, Andrew and his wife relocated to Europe’s gateway in efforts to better serve Greece’s growing Albanian population. After all, the couple had the advantage of knowing the Albanian culture and its language.

Today, they’re still serving in Greece and planting churches for the Albanian believers there. And they’re reminding Albanians how loved and cherished they are by God. Learn more about the Teeuwens’ Greek story here.

Please pray for the Teeuwens and their ministry. Pray that God will move and guide them to best serve the Albanian people. And pray for Albanians everywhere to continue to come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Edmond Shkrivani is a church planter in Albania helped by Christian Aid Mission, your link to indigenous missions. His ministry is growing, with a church currently being planted in Lezhë and several upcoming community outreach projects.

"It's a good time for us in Albania to preach the Gospel freely," Shkrivani says.

But they're a small fish in a big pond. Albania is one of Europe's only Muslim-majority nations. Islam gained a foothold when Communism and national atheism fell in 1990.

And yet, Shkrivani is committed to seeing his nation come to Christ. Along with planting churches, he and his wife have community outreaches, Bible studies, prison ministry, and youth camps.

"My desire is to preach the Gospel; to save others," says Shkrivani. "Everywhere, every person that I meet, I use the time to preach the Gospel."

Shkrivani came to Christ in 1993 when an Italian couple built a church in his hometown of Shkodër and shared the Good News.

"For me [it was] very difficult to accept Jesus," Shkrivani recalls. When he first heard the Gospel being preached, he was hesitant to accept Jesus as his Savior.

The indigenous missionary was born and raised in Albania when it was a proudly atheistic nation under Enver Hoxha's dictatorship. His government did its best to stamp out any trace of religion, and by mid-1967, a year before Shkrivani's birth, all religious institutions had been closed.

However, with the fall of Communism came a rebirth of religion in Albania. Bektashi, a form of Shi'ite Islam, put down roots and has become one of Albania's three dominant religions. Foreign Christian missionaries also began sowing Gospel seeds in the soil of formally atheistic hearts.

One seed reached Shkrivani through the Italian missionary couple and was watered by the Word of God.

"When I read the Bible, I understood that only Jesus is my Savior," he says. "So I kneeled, and I accepted Him as my Savior.

"I say to Jesus that you are my Lord. Take my life; I want to be Your disciple."

He took his first steps as a new believer in his hometown of Shkodër.

"I started to proclaim the Gospel in my town, to go door-to-door to preach the Gospel to save others," Shkrivani says. "After that, my desire [was] to go into other places and proclaim the Gospel."

Thus, Shkrivani was sent forth from Shkodër to Pukë in northern Albania, Lezhë and Rrëshen. In each town, he boldly shared the Truth and discipled new believers.

A few new believers began meeting in Lezhë. Now, that group has grown to 30 members and Shkrivani is planting a church in the town. Until the church has a building of its own, believers are paying $400 each month to rent a facility.

But they need help in order to keep meeting here. You can support the ministry through Christian Aid by clicking here.

Shkrivani's vision for 2013 is to have new believers join their church in Lezhë, strengthen new Christian families, and for Christ-followers to grow in their knowledge of God's Word. Pray for strength and perseverance for this believer and his mission.

"Pray for me to finish the work," says Shkrivani. He also asks you to pray for more opportunities to share the Gospel, and that elders would be elected to run the church in Lezhë.