Demonstrations broke out after the Nepali government blocked several social media platforms. The platforms had allegedly failed to register with the government.

“Gen Z [is] just frustrated with corruption. It started with an anti-corruption movement,” Joe Handley with A3 says. “Their main means of communication with each other and with the world is social media. So they’re protesting against [corruption], but you add to it that their communication channels are shut down. So the tension rises within them.”

Clashes on Monday between protesters and police killed at least 19 people. On Monday night, the government lifted the social media ban, but that did not stop the riots.

Photo in the Ason Bazar, Kathmandu, Nepal (Photo courtesy of Aayush Lama Tamang via Unsplash)

“This is the generation, at least there in Nepal, [that is] looking for a better future. They feel like this government has not provided that for them,” says Handley. 

Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday over the unrest, but young demonstrators still set the parliament building and other structures in Kathmandu on fire.

Handley says that after the ban lifted on Monday, reports from their partners began to increase. “If you’re on social media, you’re seeing smoke rising in Kathmandu, all over different parts of the town.” (See a collection of pictures here.) 

The government is calling for restraint and dialogue. A3’s network of alumni is calling for prayer. 

“They’re trying to be agents of peace in the midst of the chaos — and having to be careful too, because there [are] guns being shot and fire billowing in the capital,” Handley says. 

“My colleagues are begging the global Church to pray for peace, to pray that they could be agents of hope and good news, and that the gospel would shine.”

Header photo courtesy of Samrat Khadka via Unsplash.

“The Muslim Brotherhood, for a long, long time, [has] been a recognized [political] party in Jordan,” says Samuel* with Redemptive Stories.

Emblem of the Muslim Brotherhood
(Wikimedia Commons)

After Jordan’s 2024 elections, nearly one fourth of the nation’s parliamentary seats went to the Islamic Action Front, political party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Samuel believes this shift toward Islamic leadership comes from Jordanians’ frustration over the war in Gaza.

But things changed in April when security forces sniffed out a Muslim Brotherhood cell that had been building short-range rockets for unstated purposes. The group denied ties to the alleged plot, but the government still banned it and stripped all its assets. It is basically eliminated as a legitimate organization in Jordan, says Samuel.

“It’s been a long time coming that the king and others have wanted to get rid of the Muslim Brotherhood here in Jordan, and then this recent planning of the terrorist activity on its own soil has given them the impetus to be able to do that. They view them as an extremist organization, which they are.” 

Even though the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer a legitimate political entity, Samuel doesn’t expect there will be significant changes in what gospel ministry looks like in Jordan. “There’s one less player on the table to fight against the work of the gospel in the region, but many of those people that still had leanings that direction are still here,” he says. 

With that in mind, please pray for God’s mercy on those aligned with radical Islam. (Learn how to pray specifically for the Muslim Brotherhood here.)

“[Pray] that people will be put in their path to be able to share with them what the true picture of the Kingdom of God looks like, and ultimately that this would create more space for boldness, bold sharing, and bold testimony for the gospel in our region,” Samuel says. 

*Name changed for security

Header photo of boy walking on street in Jordan. (Photo courtesy of Craig Boudreaux/Unsplash)

“It doesn’t slam the door closed; it just makes it a whole lot more difficult to keep open. There’s more steps in the process, more scrutiny in the process,” he says. 

New restrictions are part of the administration’s strategy to maintain sole influence on the Chinese people, as they deal solely with foreigners.

 “It doesn’t talk about what a Chinese church can do in relation to their Chinese neighbors,” Rovenstine says. 

Expats could also be affected. 

“Their own ministry in and amongst themselves is even potentially highly scrutinized.” 

Perhaps ironically to Western nations, Chinese officials are proud of religious freedom in their country. 

“They say, ‘We’ll allow it but within this context,’ and the net effect is that the religious freedom they tout is not much of a freedom at all,” Rovenstine says. 

Rather than an overt push to remove foreigners, Rovenstine sees this as a quieter closing of heavy doors resulting from anti-foreigner sentiment. 

“Restrictions are such that the result will be, ‘It’s just too hard.’ There’s no way to get past all the things you have to go through,” he says. 

BFC already works in the country and has a strong relationship with the local church. Because of this, the new regulations won’t immediately impede their work. 

“And I praise God for that,” Rovenstine says. 

What will suffer is Americans’ ability to visit, meet with pastors, and take an active role on the ground in China. Foreign funding may also present challenges, with much yet to play out as the restrictions are interpreted and applied. 

Please pray for missionaries to China facing new hurdles with this legislation. Pray that God would continue to open doors for ministry, and pray that the Holy Spirit would help believers discern appropriate actions in the midst of sweeping changes. 

Images in this article courtesy of Bibles for China

This latest ban is due to the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Sharia law, pushing women further into the shadows of Afghan society.

(Photo courtesy of FMI)

Nehemiah with FMI says, “For many Afghan women, nursing and midwifery have historically offered great opportunities for professional development and community service. Training women in this field is not only practical, but essential for ensuring access to healthcare for Afghan women and children.

“The suspension of education in these critical areas further undermines the country’s ability to address its healthcare challenges, putting countless lives at risk.”

The United Nations Population Fund released a report in August revealing that Afghanistan already lacks 18,000 midwives to meet national healthcare needs. This gap in numbers would only grow with women removed from the educational pool.

“The shortage is aggravated by the nation’s alarming, high maternal mortality rate – one of the worst globally,” Nehemiah points out.

“In 2023 last year, the World Health Organization reported 620 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This is a strange and very sad statistic reflecting the urgent need for skilled [nursing and midwivery] care.”

Ask God to comfort Afghan women and restore their freedoms.

Also, Nehemiah asks, “Pray for the Taliban, that God will soften their hearts and open their eyes to the harm caused by this action. May they come to repentance and recognize that only Jehovah God is the God who cares for everyone.”

Header photo courtesy of Leslie Reagan Bodin/Unsplash.

The ruling came down in a set of new laws approved by the supreme leader at the end of August.

Denise Godwin with International Media Ministries (IMM) says the increasing censorship of Afghan women stands in stark contrast with examples in the Bible.

(Photo courtesy of IMM)

“When the Taliban says to women, ‘You have no voice. When you leave your home, you can’t even speak. We don’t want to see your face,’ and then you open the Bible, and you find out that an Iranian queen who had Jewish blood (Esther) stood up and spoke for all her people – that’s a pretty dramatic thing. God rescued people through that.”

IMM has been working on a television project called Women of the Bible, and several stories are complete in multiple languages.

“We had a lot of people who are working in the Middle East and North Africa who said, ‘Can you do some more for women? We need more products for women. We’d love dramas,'” says Godwin. “We discussed how about women from the Bible? Because that’s something we had done a lot of projects on.”

Click here to watch IMM’s Women from the Bible.

Please pray for Afghan women to find their voices and worth in the love of Christ Jesus. Ask God to open doors for these women to meet Christians and be exposed to Gospel resources like IMM videos.

Godwin adds, “We can all be…praying for the ministries that are inside these countries, for the ministries that are working secretly underground in the countries around them as people are able to get in and out.

“We can pray for the Christians that are under persecution in these places because we are their voice. They don’t have a voice. And we can pray for government changes because these regimes are extremely oppressive and these are not what these people want.”

Header photo courtesy of Mohamed Nohassi/Unsplash.

Russia, meanwhile, denies accusations of trying to overthrow the Moldovan government. After all, the Kremlin already has its hands full in Ukraine.

Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association says, “The advancement of the Russian troops in the south has not truly reached towards the borders of Moldova yet. For Russia, Moldova would create a land bridge that would allow them access to the west, so there is a strategic value to the country. Because of that, there is a question of how they’ll respond to Moldova. There have been reports that have been coming up of destabilization within the country.”

The Metropolitan Cathedral in Chișinău, Moldova (Photo courtesy of Dorin Seremet via Unsplash)

Moldova says Russia’s interest in toppling their government is to prevent the country from joining the European Union and, instead, be at the Kremlin’s disposal.

Mock explains, “Moldova itself is one of the poorest countries in Europe. It’s a little bit of a competition between Moldova and Ukraine as to the poorest countries in Europe. So Moldova is struggling and they realize that they’re in the crosshairs.”

It paints a precarious picture. But like their Ukrainian neighbors, Moldova has a faithful network of evangelical churches. Mock says local Moldovan Christians are standing firm in their faith and persisting in outreach.

“In fact, Moldova has been working as an entry point for various aid organizations to get aid across the border into Ukraine and into the southern areas of conflict inside Ukraine. So God has already raised up the churches.”

Mock explains, “What SGA is doing is faithfully preparing itself, much like we’ve done in Ukraine, to do what we can to help the churches in Moldova. We are not active in Moldova, but we see the need to be able to help the churches there and we’ve been in contact with them.”

“These are the churches that God has raised up to be witnesses and ambassadors of hope if things start falling apart.”

(Photo courtesy of Ivan Borinschi via Unsplash)

You can support SGA’s ministry through their Heat and Hope campaign.

Mock also asks for intentional prayers at this time! “Simply be praying for peace to remain in Moldova, that God’s hand of protection allows the churches there to be strong, to be faithful in the absence of such terrible destruction like the people of Ukraine are facing. But pray that if terrible destruction comes, that the churches will be found faithful.”

Header photo depicting Moldovan flag, courtesy of Sasha Pleshco via Unsplash.

MNN spoke to a Great Commission worker with connections to Turkey. He says the Turkish government is using the 2016 coup attempt as an excuse to root out the opposition.

The coup

In July of 2016, a segment of the Turkish military launched a coup to topple President Erdogan’s government. Fighter jets attacked the parliament buildings, and tanks took to the streets.

But then, thousands of ordinary citizens too to the streets, opposing the coup. Soldiers and police loyal to the sitting government joined them and squashed the coup. Hundreds of people were killed during the violence.

People most affected

The Great Commission worker says being banned is especially complicated for married expats. “Especially Turkish believers married to a foreigner. The foreigner will be accused of being, supposedly, a threat to national security. And then the family will face a difficult decision. Do they try to fight in court and stay because one of them is a citizen and the other one isn’t? Or do they move to the country of the other spouse?”

The Turkish government associates Christianity with foreign governments and views them with suspicion. Churches often have to register as a legal entity rather than a religious one.

Pray the Turkish church can grow and thrive despite this atmosphere of nationalism. The Great Commission worker says, “[Losing leaders] is both an opportunity and a challenge for Turkish leadership to develop and to grow and to be able to lead the Church. They need to continue to grow the church and disciple new followers of Christ themselves.”

The header photo shows civilians protesting the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. (Photo courtesy of Pivox, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Who’s affected?

In September, the revised ban was revealed. This time, Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Chad, and North Korea are on the list along with some government officials from Venezuela. The specifics of each country is different, but the majority of civilians from the first seven nations will not be allowed to enter the US at this time.

Bethany Christian Services has been following the travel ban saga over the last year. We spoke with Kristine Van Noord regarding this latest update.

“We were not surprised by this development based on other decisions that have been made recently. We were expecting that it probably would be upheld,” she says.

A segment of Bethany’s work has been devoted to settling refugees in the United States, something that this Christian ministry sees as an important part of living out the Christian faith.

(Logo courtesy of Bethany Christian Services)

“Our biggest concern as a ministry is that we really want to be able to love and serve the orphan and the stranger and the widow. And this newest development, it’s really focusing on those that have some of the greatest needs—so like the refugees coming out of Syria. And so, what it means is that there are many people that we will not be able to welcome here.”

The other problem is that the new ban leaves a lot of people in limbo, including the churches and groups ready to help with resettlement, and those who have been separated from family.

“We have a lot of family members that are currently here. They’re waiting for their family members to come and join them. And those families will continue to remain separated. And so that’s an area of great concern for us.”

Compassion versus Security

At the heart of the dispute on this travel ban are two ideas: compassion for people in desperate need, and national security. And while the discussion has even been hotly debated within the Church, Bethany believes there are ways to accomplish both.

“I think one of the biggest concerns here is security and really ensuring our nation’s security. We are completely committed to that and believe that it is very possible to have the highest security screening measures which the US refugee resettlement program has had and continues to have, and also to be able to be welcoming to those that are the most vulnerable, that really need this opportunity of resettlement. So it is possible to do both and to able to fulfill that calling that we have as Christians to care for those that have been greatly persecuted.”

Continuing to serve

Whether this ban is here to stay or not, Bethany will still serve those who have fled unstable conditions in their home country and are able to come to the United States. That means there are still plenty of opportunities for you to get involved.

(Photo courtesy of Bethany Christian Services)

Van Noord says, “We have refugees that are already currently here, even from those countries that definitely continue to need services—that need volunteers and English tutors and American friends to come alongside of them and support them. And we do have new arrivals still continuing to come. Primarily we’re receiving people from Bhutan, Burma, and the Congo.”

They also are in need of churches and small groups and individuals who can come alongside these people and welcome them. To learn more, click here.

“Thankfully we are able to continue to welcome other refugees into the area, and so we will continue to do that. But there’s this large population of people that are just really needing this opportunity and a hope and a future here in the United States that we will not be able to offer that to.”

With that in mind, would you pray?

“I think we can be praying for our leaders to have wisdom and understanding of how to balance the need for security but also for that humanitarian aid heart that America and the Church has had for so long. I think we can be praying for the refugees whose families are separated and for those that are coming here that they would be able to start their life off well here in the United States.”

“The US has a long, beautiful history of welcoming refugees and we pray that that will be able to continue.”

Header photo courtesy of Geoff Livingston via Flickr.

(Learning and rhetoric image courtesy of Freepic.com)

Some people are merely reacting to headlines, while others are looking for credible sources of information and trying to fact check.  What doesn’t seem to be happening is much listening.  From an educator’s perspective, Tent Schools International’s Dale Dieleman asked this question: “How can we help communities and individuals look over the issues, and also come to some conclusions on their own, without necessarily being influenced by political parties, friends, family or whatever, but looking at it logically from an educational perspective?”

Education, he says, is really about the examination of the facts.  Study the facts from a variety of sources, he suggests.  Compare notes.  Read articles from opposing points of view.  Check the historical facts.  Find people off which to bounce ideas.  Analyze.

“Begin to enter into some healthy dialogue.  Be actively listening — in other words, feed back to them, ‘I hear you saying this, is this what you really mean?  Could you please explain this further to me?’, rather than these short ‘sound bite’ kinds of things that we hear and we repeat, and repeat, and repeat.”  This communication model looks a lot like the Imago dialogue 101 used for conflict resolution between married couples.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Conflict often arises from underlying emotional discontentment felt.  It is expressed through criticism, anger, and dissatisfaction.  By listening carefully to an opposing viewpoint and asking questions, says Dieleman, “We can learn about each others’ points of view; we have an opportunity to voice our views on this subject.”  Essentially, after forming a hypothesis and doing research, “…test your views and your conclusions, because a lot of information changes…and then finally, keep a critical ear open for what might challenge your current views.”

Why this particular discussion from Tent Schools?  Displaced people groups exist on every continent around the globe, and half of displaced people are children.  Tent Schools International comes alongside Christian leaders in refugee camps and other transitional areas to establish effective schools for displaced children.

As such, they’ve been following the decisions of the Trump Administration and the explosion of reaction closely.  It’s an understatement to say the issues of refugee resettlement and immigration are hot button topics on which everyone seems to have an opinion.

“There are marches in the street about it.  There are communications coming from the White House about it, all over the capitals of various countries that are hosting or sending refugees — and the people caught in the middle are the refugees,” he says.

Somewhere along the way, in the bitterness of exchanges, the Body of Christ seems to have lost track of the goal.  “We really need to keep our focus on that through the eyes of Jesus.”

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International)

Dieleman recognizes the dilemma of those who are torn between the issues of national security, terrorism, and the plight of the displaced.  “We have empathy for that.  We’re human beings.  As Christians, we also look through the eyes of Jesus and have compassion.  It’s understandable that our blood pressure goes up real fast when we hear opposing views.  But we have to step back and look at how then are we going to proceed in a compassionate way?”

He suggests one way to do that is to be grounded in the truth in Scripture, and ask, “What would God have us to do?”  Citing Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Noting that humility is not one of the more common elements of this issue, Dieleman offers a concluding thought:  “This is my interpretation of this, my understanding, as we look at immigration and refugee issues: the Christian Church needs to stand up and be a beacon of hope, a light unto the world, in terms of how to treat people.  How would God want us to treat people?”

It sounds like it could be a new religion law in Central Asia. It could be a story from the former Soviet Union. But this story comes from Egypt.

Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton explains the new ban. “They’re basically saying, ‘If you want to have a protest, if you want to have a gathering, you need to come to a government office three days before that, and somebody in the government needs to sign off of you having that gathering.” The law imposes hefty fines and prison terms for violators.

Like the religion laws in Central Asia, the purpose behind the law was to restore order. In this case, it was to put a lid on the violent protests plaguing Egypt. Nettleton observes, “I don’t think the purpose is to close down churches, but if you go to a particular area of Egypt where the local officials are opposed to the church, they can now use this law and come against the church.”

The trouble is that one of the points of the law targets gatherings at places of worship. Again, it’s understandable when you come at it from the perspective of a government trying to quell the uprisings of the last two years, notes Nettleton. “A lot of the protests that have happened over the last few months have started at a mosque, and then they’ve gone out from the mosque. So I think that is why it specifically says that in the law. But, obviously, a church is a place of worship, too, so we don’t know what that’s going to mean for churches in Egypt.”

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak also tried to ban gatherings, but in the wake of his ouster in 2011, it was pushed aside. The new ban is considered more restrictive, and rights groups are denouncing it already.

The law requires three-day prior notice for protests. Officials have the right to bar any protest or gathering considered a threat to public safety and order. Nettleton goes on to say that nobody knows what this means for churches preparing for the Advent and Christmas season. “Are they going to say if a church is established, if a church has officially documentation of their existence, then they’re exempt from the law? Are they going to have to come one time and say, ‘We gather for worship every week,’ and the government signs off on it, or are they going to have to come every single week?”

Nettleton adds that throughout this three-year period of stress on the Church, new people are still turning to Christ. As the Church figures out its response to the new edict, he urges you to “pray for justice in the country, for the Christians there. We can pray for wisdom for them, and again we can pray for protection for our Christian brothers and sisters living in Muslim countries.”