Rob Myers with DOOR says the ministry began as an idea from a young woman in 1984. “She grew up watching her father, who was an incredibly skilled Deaf leader, a wonderful teacher. [He] wanted to become a missionary to other Deaf people in other countries.”

Her father applied to around 50 different missions agencies and was denied by them all. The reason given by every agency? He was Deaf.

“This young woman felt that was wrong, that every person in God’s Kingdom has been given skills, and Deaf people shouldn’t be limited by their deafness to be able to be trained and reach other Deaf communities with the gospel,” says Myers.

“She, alongside several deaf leaders, began a ministry that was originally based in Texas and was focused on the U.S.”

Throughout the following ten plus years, God led the young ministry to realize that the need for the gospel among Deaf people worldwide was massive. DOOR International was founded in 1999. It focuses on Bible translation, church planting and evangelism by the Deaf to Deaf around the world.

“While our organization itself officially will be celebrating the 25th anniversary, we like to say that we have ministry legacy that goes all the way back to 40 years,” says Meyers.

(Photo courtesy of DOOR International)

DOOR is planning celebrations in Nairobi, Kenya in August and the U.S. in October, in addition to several smaller, regional gatherings.

“[We have] around 230 staff globally, so we’re looking for as many ways both online and in-person that we can leverage opportunities to celebrate what God has done, but also look forward into the future of what God’s going to do through the seeds that have been planted over the last 40 years,” says Myers.

“We would love for as many people to be able to celebrate this great milestone with us. If you like and follow our page, then as we begin to put out information about our celebrations, you’ll be some of the first to know about what’s happening.”

Learn more at doorinternational.org and connect with them on social media to celebrate God’s faithfulness together.

Header photo courtesy of DOOR International.

But Burklin says that although Christmas is a commercial event for many people in China, it’s an opportunity for local Christians. “The beautiful thing that that we have noticed, since we partner with many, many churches, pastors, and Christian leaders in China, they use that opportunity to explain to their friends. People that come to their churches use that month as a way of witnessing to their neighbors, to their friends, to their family members, and so forth.”

In other words, it’s an unmissable opportunity for outreach. Churches host Christmas celebrations featuring baptisms, choirs singing carols, and the Christmas story. “It’s a phenomenal month for new believers coming into the faith […] they’re very intentional in trying to reach their people for Jesus Christ during December.”

There are some official restrictions on these celebrations. Most notably, Christian Christmas events must be held within church facilities, meaning church buildings or auditoriums. Even under those rules, however, registered house churches are allowed to host their Christmas parties at home without interference.

“I think the government also respects the fact that this is one of the largest Christian celebrations that Christians do every year – the birth of Christ – so they allow them to celebrate that,” Burklin says. “Again, you can’t do this in the open area. You can’t go to downtown Beijing or Tiananmen Square and do this. But as long as you have these events inside the church building, then it’s possible.”

Christians seizing these opportunities are seeing God move in the hearts of people curious about Christmas. Burklin recalls the story of a Christian woman who acts as a church leader in her local church. Her husband, however, was a member of the Communist party and worked with the local government.

“So I asked her, ‘Well, how do you manage being married to a husband who is working for the government?’ And then she smiled. I asked her, ‘Does he also believe?’ and she smiled and said ‘Yes, in his heart.’ So these people who get exposed to the Gospel, many of them who do choose to follow Jesus, they will do that very privately.”

Remember that God is not limited by borders, laws, or people. “His spirit is everywhere,” Burklin says. “That is a good reminder for us as Christians who live in freedom, who have a privilege of going to a church service and not have to worry about whether or not to police is going to check me out or not.”

How can you pray for China’s Christians around Christmas?

Pray “that the Holy Spirit would draw people to himself during Christmas time. Pray for faithfulness for the pastors, especially those pastors who are working in unregistered situations […] Rejoice that Jesus is not limited and that his message gets communicated and gets declared no matter where we are.”

Support China Partner directly from their website.

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

For many believers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), that risk during Christmastime is very real. Muslim extremists often see the Christian holy day as an ideal time to attack believers.

Tom Doyle with Uncharted Ministries says, “We think about [Christmas] in the States: ‘Oh, it’s a time to reflect and be with our family….’ We praise God that we live in a country where we have the freedom to worship Jesus, but many do not.

(Photo courtesy of 8thirty8)

“These are hot times for believers that live in a context of being surrounded by Muslims that are not open to their faith and probably don’t want them expressing their joy and happiness during this time.”

Uncharted is taking the Gospel to Jews and Muslims in the Middle East as well as supporting persecuted Christians there.

“We just got stories out of Egypt about leaders that were shot. And [there is] difficulty in Pakistan and in Africa, cases that just happened this week of overt persecution. Some were killed for their faith.”

Unfortunately, Christian persecution is not isolated to the Christmas season either. Doyle says, “This is normal.”

Uncharted’s national teams stay updated on security concerns and, at times, need to pull believers out of dangerous situations.

Niger Christians worshiping in their church after it was attacked and burned. (Photo, caption courtesy of 8thirty8)

“Our national leaders will pray with those that are targeted, and if they feel like that person really wants to go and leave the country or get out of the area, they help them go. If…that person says, ‘No, God’s calling me to stay and I realize that the end might be martyrdom. I’m staying,’ they honor that request too.”

However, Doyle says when it comes to persecution, most Christians in the MENA region value Gospel declaration at the expense of self-preservation.

“I think it’s just easy for us in the West to [say,] ‘Okay, where’s the escape hatch? How do I get out of this?’ It’s not so in the Middle East. They look at the situation [and] they pray, ‘Is God calling me to stay and this could cost me my life?’”

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus today with loved ones, please also pray for the global Church family who may not be able to celebrate openly or freely today. Ask God to protect persecuted believers around the world and ultimately use their faithful Advent witness to proclaim His glory.

Learn more about Uncharted here!

Header photo courtesy of Dan Kiefer via Unsplash.

To celebrate the occasion, China Partner hosted an anniversary banquet in Florida. But it’s not just about 30 years of China Partner, President Erik Burklin says; it’s about 30 years of trusting God. “We don’t want to just celebrate 30 years of China Partner, but we want to celebrate 30 years of God’s faithfulness and His work in China,” Burklin says.

Erik Burklin may be the current President of China Partner, but he’s part of a longer legacy. His father founded China Partner 30 years ago, and his grandparents spent much of their lives as missionaries in China in some of the same places China Partner still serves.

“For me as his son, and as a grandson of my grandparents, it was a great honor to celebrate 30 years of God’s faithfulness,” he says.

(Photo courtesy of China Partner)

With so many generations of ministry, the Burklin family has seen the Chinese context change in drastic ways, “but what is constant is the word of God. What is constant is the love of God. What is constant is that Jesus Christ is still on the throne, no matter what happens.”

To China Partner, that’s what matters. After all, their work has never been about themselves; it’s all about furthering God’s kingdom. “That’s what we put our hope in, because we trust Him to be the head of the Church, and that’s exactly what we seeing in China.”

So where do they go from here? Burklin says he hopes China Partner continues to build a legacy of faithfulness to God and to their on-the-ground partners. If you’ve been following the news, you know China is shaky ground for some ministries; that’s why Burklin and others have learned to practice trust and patience.

“We don’t know what the next 30 years will bring,” he says. “It’s up to God to guide and direct us there. We have no real huge goals in mind. We understand that we could be gone tomorrow. But yet, when all is said and done, I would hope and pray that believers in China would be stronger, that there would be more pastors trained and equipped to pastor their local churches wherever they are found, and that as a result of our mission, more people would come to faith in Jesus Christ.”

(Photo courtesy of China Partner)

Want to help? You can support China Partner directly right here and read up on their work so far.

You can also pray. Since “the current political climate being very tense and with restrictions that have come down the pipe all over the place,” China Partner is going to need wisdom and faith as they decide how to respond. That’s what makes prayer so crucial for the next few decades of China Partner.

“We, as an organization, want to let the Chinese Christian Leadership know that we’re behind you. We stand with you. We believe in you, and we want to pray for you and we want to bless you. And so that’s going to be our focus over the next year and a half for sure, that as they’re going through these changes, they know they can rely on a ministry like China Partner to stand with them and to stand behind them, and to stay in the gap, so to speak with them.”

Header photo courtesy of China Partner.

The market bombing appeared to target a neighborhood with a strong Hazaras population, who are known as a Shi’a Muslim ethnic group. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned the attack.

Since December 2018 the U.S. Department of State has designated Pakistan as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) because of the nation’s continuous violations of religious freedom. To put it simply, religious minorities are perpetually in the crosshairs of extremists.

Attacks During Holy Week

Our sources report that last Saturday, one day after the market bombing, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi made comments in Islamabad claiming terrorism had been defeated in the country while speaking to Islamic scholars at a conference. As Christians in the country celebrate Holy Week and prepare for Easter services, extremists are no doubt ramping up their campaign against religious minorities. While police presence in certain areas has increased, the increases are due to the attacks in the area, not protection for said minorities.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay)

Furthermore, Bruce Allen with FMI says the government has conducted media blackouts to prevent word of terror attacks from spreading. Unless the event happens locally, most Pakistanis are unaware of what is happening in their own country. However, FMI-supported churches are kept informed through various contacts.

“I’ve made sure that we’ve had constant communication with our partners in those areas. They’re all safe…They’re moving ahead with their ministry activities. They already know that they have to be discreet, careful, in terms of how they do ministry on a regular basis. Now that’s just heightened a little bit for them. But they’re preparing to celebrate a victorious Easter Sunday coming up,” Allen says.

Preparing for Worship

In preparation for Holy Week, FMI-supported pastors in Pakistan met together on Monday to discuss how best to protect their churches and congregations moving forward this week. On this Good Friday, as we move towards celebrating the victory of the cross, Allen asks for prayers.

“It’s during this very week, what we call Holy Week today, that Jesus instructed [the] first disciples about terrorism, injustice, and imminent persecution, and yet he encourages them with the conclusion that they should be at peace and be of good cheer because he is greater than any evil in the world…We want to pray for the Christians in Pakistan, that they would be filled with that peace, that courage, that hope,” Allen says.

Pray for government leaders in Pakistan and for God’s wisdom in their decisions for the country. Also, pray for FMI-supported Christian leaders in Pakistan to utilize their recent training regarding managing risk and security. Pray these leaders would have opportunities to share what they have learned with non-FMI-supported Christian leaders so that the Pakistani Church is prepared to engage with its culture with wisdom and hope.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

A 65-Year History

TWR’s first-ever broadcast aired from Tangier in Northern Africa on February 22, 1954. In a press release, TWR says this first broadcast reached across “the Strait of Gibraltar to Span, where Protestants were a vanishingly small minority” facing governmental bans on evangelism and even discrimination.

Paul Freed and Burt Reed in the studio in Tangier, 1957 (Photo courtesy of TWR)

Then, when Morocco gained its independence and Tangier was reunited with the country, TWR was asked to leave. The organization moved to Monte Carlo and shared a facility with Radio Monte Carlo. During the day, Radio Monte Carlo when to work, and at night TWR took over. It was here where TWR really began to have a global influence.

Ten years after the first broadcast, TWR was reaching most of Europe and expanding further into the world. Through radio, the ministry slipped into areas no Christian worker could, like the Iron Curtain. Radio has a way of providing information regardless of governmental regulations. It has been key in TWR sharing God’s Word across the globe, expanding to the ends of the earth.

TWR Today

“We’re still in broadcast. We have 21 transmitting locations around the globe, high power transmitters of anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 to a million wats. We talk [to] a potential listening audience on the air of 4.2 billion people each and every day. Then globally, digitally, we talk to about 40,000-50,000 people on our app, TWR 360, every day,” President and CEO of TWR, Lauren Libby says.

TWR broadcasts in 230 languages in 190 countries with an average audience age of 16 to 18-year-olds and up. This means the organization is reaching every country on this planet apart from six. Plus, it’s reaching multiple generations through cross-platform promoting via radio, social media, print, digital media, apps, and more.

Experiencing God

Even with the vast reach TWR has today, what continues to lead the ministry to say, “this is God” is not the number of people reached, but the individual stories of these people.

(Photo courtesy of TWR via Facebook)

“I was with a young couple in Northern Syria about a year and a half ago who had just come into a relationship with Jesus Christ as a result of listening on the radio and listening to some children’s drama that had been distributed into the refugee camps. And then you begin to look at others…it’s an individual life, one at a time,” Libby says.

“People don’t come into the Kingdom in groups. They come in one at a time and they’re affected and our goal’s to help them meet the closest friend they’ve ever had, when they finally meet Jesus face to face.”

Libby says as technology shifts and morphs, the ministry is trying to adjust, too. For example, TWR is experimenting in what it could look like to broadcast via short-wave or medium-wave via digital means transmitting into a receiver. Plus, as technology shifts, more opportunities tend to open.

Get Involved

However, TWR’s 65-year journey has not been traveled alone. Many people have come alongside this work over the years.

“We’d just like to say thank you to everyone who’s co-labored with TWR with your time, talent, and treasure for the last 65 years. From one little tiny radio station in Tangier to touching 4.2 billion people every day. That is an absolute miracle and God has used hundreds of thousands of people to be involved in making that happen,” Libby says.

“It hasn’t happened because of one person, two people, it’s been a group effort of the body of Christ and we’re so grateful to everyone who’s had a part in that.”

Pray for TWR’s continued ability to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Pray TWR’s work helps disciple and grow believers across the world, that the ministry’s content would impact hearts and glorify God.

Tangibly support TWR here!

A Bit of History

Tom Lin speaks at Urbana 2015. (Photo courtesy InterVarsity Christian Fellowship)

Tom Lin, InterVarsity’s president shares a bit of the ministry’s history as part of its celebration. Spoiler alert, the ministry didn’t get its start in America.

“The official beginning [was] when we were incorporated in November of 1941, but the roots of the movement were really with students at the University of Cambridge in England,” Lin shares.

“So, in 1877 there was a group of Christian students who wanted to meet together to pray, to study the Bible, to share the Gospel with fellow students.”

These students formed a group called the “British InterVarsity.” For those who’ve wondered where InterVarsity gets the “varsity” in its name, it’s the British term for college level students.

“And from the very beginning, that group had the concern to take the Gospel all over the world. So evangelism and discipleship and mission were present even at the very beginning of this campus ministry.”

Onward From England

Eventually, the British InterVarsity sent a medical school graduate and a vice chairman of the British group to Canada. Thus, was the beginning of the Canadian movement.

“A year later in 1938, Stacey Woods, who was the Canadian InterVarsity director, met with students at the University of Michigan and started the first InterVarsity chapter there,” Lin says.

Then, in 1947 the InterVarsity press was founded to help supply books and other literature to enrich the college ministries. The InterVarsity press was just one other way to help students grow in Christ through reading.

Today, the United States movement has flourished and has over 1,000 chapters on over 600 campuses. Furthermore, the ministry has also grown to have 1,600 staff serving on campuses across the company.

“It’s a wonderful history that I think we’re proud of, and it does speak to partnership across different movements, you know, with different countries involved,” Lin shares.

So this week, as many celebrate this ministry’s milestone, will you pray? Pray for InterVarsity’s discernment in the changing context it faces on the ever-changing college campuses. Also pray for wisdom in how it can engage the university with its hallmarks of evangelism, discipleship, and mission.

Finally, pray for the ministry’s next 75 years as they will no doubt look different than its past 75 years.

To find out how InterVarsity is celebrating its anniversary, check out the rest of InterVarsity’s story this Wednesday!

Dave Stravers with Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India says Christians in India celebrate the birth of Christ openly. Believers hold "special worship services, musical programs, special evangelistic events, and television will have these events. Radio stations will have them. Many Hindus realize that this is something special."

In recent years, Hindus have attacked Christians on Christmas Day. The Orissa massacre is just one example.

In Ecuador, Maria Atiaga, our Spanish translator, says Christmas programs are important there. She says the celebration spreads over nine days. "Every day there is a little part of the story of Christmas. You start with the census, and then the last day you end with the nativity."

Atiaga says it's a great opportunity to remind Ecuadorians that they're not worshiping figures in the nativity: they're worshiping Christ alone.

A year later, in October 2002, the Laskar Jihad announced
that they were disbanding and many of its members left the Maluku area.
However, it is believed that the group merely went underground and may be
responsible for the attacks that have threatened the peace accord since.

Although the vast majority of Indonesia's 220 million
citizens are Muslim, there are large numbers of Christians in regions such as
Central Sulawesi. AMG International's Paul Jenks says that trend appears
likely to continue. 

He explains, "The government of Indonesia is following
the longtime bias in Malaysia to have anti-proselytism laws which would in some
ways jeopardize any Christian ministries in that country.  It's a time of renewed focus for us. We're
going into come alongside our co-workers to encourage them and revitalize that
work."

The government requires all citizens to carry an
identification card which includes their religion. The government promotes a
belief called Pancasila – meaning that all may choose to follow Christianity,
Islam, Buddhism, or Hinduism – but in reality, Muslims receive preferential
treatment. Christian groups continually face the brunt of this special status.

Voice of the Martyrs' Canada reports that two years ago, militant
groups in West Java started trying to force the closure of churches in the
area.  Dozens of churches have been forced to close while the authorities
have done little to protect the Christians.

In pockets, there is religious freedom for believers to both
practice and share their faith.  However,
the path may not be clear for long.  It
is that sense of urgency that has AMG and other groups working to hand over
ministry projects to the nationals.

Having just marked 65 years of ministry, Jenks says AMG will
be strengthening their work in countries like Indonesia.  "We're going to see movements against
conversion and we're called to win and seek and save the lost, even as our
Savior was.  We're going to encourage our
co-workers to remain faithful, even in the face of persecution, we're going to
stand firm and be faithful."

The mark of their work has been
seen in the transformation of the individually impacted communities. Where there are no schools in the area or
families can't afford to send their children to school, there is no way to
affect change in their communities or societies.

WCS' Scott Vanderkooy says they're
now focusing on the next phase in building this evangelistic work–"the establishment of a field office in ten selected countries.
It's pretty key for our vision because each office will be responsible for
taking ownership of the Worldwide vision for their own country."

They're building their future
growth on the Asian model. Vanderkooy
says right now, China and India are wide
open. "We're currently in the process of establishing an office in Singapore for
the purpose of increasing impact within that Asian region. What this means is,
the day is coming when Christ-centered schools in Asia
will be developed by Asians with Asian resources. This simply did not seem
possible five years ago."

To see this ministry continue to
succeed means economic and physical barriers need to be eliminated. It
also means WCS needs to deliver Christian education in new ways. They do this through partnerships and by
working through indigenous organizations. Ministry leaders work to identify the key visionaries and Christian
leaders within each community to empower them so that they can carry the work
forward.

How does WCS measure success? They track progress toward their
vision by watching the number of people with access to Christian
education, by watching and encouraging
staffers toward their teacher/leadership continuing education target, and by
monitoring the cost of operations versus the money sent to the field. If you can help sponsor a student or help with a school, click here.