Raina Miller with Mission India says, “His parents were fighting at home all the time. His dad was really busy with work, and his mom was busy performing rituals to their gods because she was very superstitious. His parents had differing belief systems and it caused a lot of arguments between them.”

A friend had invited Akil to the 10-Day Bible Club run by Mission India. What started as a simple invitation turned into something life-changing.

“He was just surrounded by love and joy like he hadn’t experienced before — and stability that he definitely didn’t have at home,” says Miller. “As he was at the Bible Club each day, he felt relaxed in a way that he didn’t feel at home.”

Akil played games with other kids, sang songs, and most importantly, heard about Jesus for the first time.

Miller says, “He noticed that the Bible stories he was hearing contradicted what his parents believed, but he believed in them, and he believed in Jesus. He was moved and received Jesus as his Savior!”

Akil, a boy who first learned about Jesus at a 10-Day Children’s Bible Club. (Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Akil returned home transformed and he began sharing the Bible stories he learned with his family. His mother, moved by the change in her son, left behind her superstitious practices. By God’s grace, there is more peace now in Akil’s home.

While Akil’s parents haven’t yet made decisions to follow Jesus, they are open and curious — and continuing to explore the Gospel because of their son’s testimony.

Miller says stories like Akil’s aren’t uncommon. “We see kids all the time leading others to Christ…. Kids come to a Bible Club for the first day and love it so much that they want to bring their brothers and sisters and friends the next day. So the impact just grows from there.”

With 356 million children under the age of 15, India holds one of the greatest opportunities to reach the next generation for Jesus.

This Easter, Mission India is inviting believers to get involved in a simple but powerful way.

Through April 21, donations to the 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs are being matched dollar for dollar, up to $350,000. That means every $1 sends two children like Akil to a Bible Club where they’ll hear about Jesus — and potentially change their families from the inside out.

“I don’t know what better Easter gift you could give than introducing a child to Jesus,” says Miller.

Donate to Mission India’s Easter Matching Challenge!

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

“This past week in Cape Town, 10 people were killed,” says Jason Woolford with Mission Cry. “Gun violence is on [the] rise. From what the reports that we have of now, it’s not by one group. It’s just an overall chaos.”

Even first responders could be attacked when answering an emergency call.

Distribution in Cape Town, South Africa (Photo courtesy of Mission Cry)

Woolford says Mission Cry works closely with a pastor in South Africa to resource the church. This partner “has a ministry to Bible colleges, evangelism, and then to school children,” he says. 

“His request was, ‘We need Bibles and Christian books and seminary materials. Could you send us one container?’”

The conversation with the pastor turned into a partnership. Mission Cry is now sending South Africa three shipping containers packed full of Bibles and Christian books every year. Some resources will reach kids in their pre-teens who are in danger of being drawn into groups and gangs. 

“If we can see the Word of God into them and stop that from happening, it encourages me. So that’s a big push from them reaching these kids while we’re doing teaching, training, and equipping Christians at a Bible seminary,” Woolford says.

Find your place in the story! 

Pray for discernment and provision as Mission Cry decides where to send more resources. 

Pray for God to bring the resources to the right people at the right time. 

Pray for peace in South Africa, leading to more people hearing the good news about Jesus. 

Header photo of distribution in Cape Town, South Africa (Photo courtesy of Mission Cry).

Photo shows Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Photo by Robin Canfield on Unsplash)

It’s part of an increasingly grim outlook for Haiti. More than 700,000 Haitians are internally displaced, more than 110,000 from the ongoing violence this year alone. What’s more, authorities estimate 30 percent of gang members in Haiti are actually children, recruited for combat, cooking, housekeeping or worse. Many kids join gangs because they need food. Others have no family and no other options.

Dierf* serves with Every Man a Warrior, a discipleship ministry of Trans World Radio. When necessary, he has made the risky journey into Port-au-Prince, which continues to be nearly 80 percent controlled by gangs.

“The only way to cross the road [to Port-au-Prince] is to meet them on the road [with them carrying] heavy guns,” says Dierf. “They ask you to pay a fee in order to be able to cross and if drivers do not want to pay that fee, they may be killed or kidnapped.”

(Photo courtesy of Every Man a Warrior, a ministry of Trans World Radio.)

One pastor connected with Every Man a Warrior was kidnapped last week while traveling to a ministry event. There’s been no word of him since then. 

Haiti has been in an increasing spiral since February, when a series of jailbreaks led to a surge of gang domination. Today, nearly 400 Kenyan troops are stationed in Haiti, ostensibly on a mission to restore order. Six hundred additional troops from Kenya are preparing to join them next month. But Dierf says the soldiers have been ineffective. 

“What the population is looking for is basically for them to engage in a fight against the gang members. But we don’t see that happening,” Dierf explains.

“We hope for that, because that’s the only way we can have a solution with the gang violence here in Haiti.”

In the midst of this national unrest, Every Man a Warrior disciples Haitian men on how to have personal time with God, lead their wives and children well, endure suffering and be sexually pure. The two men who lead the ministry in Haiti and the men they serve need your prayers.

“Pray for protection and safety as we travel across Haiti,” Dierf says. “Second, for God to raise up a new generation of men who would embrace the idea of going and [making] disciples and [understanding] the Great Commission.”

Pray also for Pastor Alix, who went missing last week. 

This article has been corrected to indicate that gangs attacked Arcahaie October 9, not October 10. 

Header photo of Haitians is a representative stock photo courtesy of TopSphere Media via Unsplash.

In Hezbollah’s “biggest security breach” in its nearly year-long conflict with Israel, thousands of handheld pagers used by Hezbollah were sabotaged. The resulting explosions that began Tuesday afternoon injured over 2,700 people, critically wounded 200 and killed at least nine.

“They (Hezbollah) use these pagers to communicate with one another to meet together without being spied on, but they had been compromised,” Houssney says.

Hezbollah has accused Israel of being behind the attack, but Israel did not immediately respond. 

Houssney confirms that Israeli leaders will open the Lebanese front of the war, potentially escalating the conflict.

“They’re going to be trying to return the people that have fled from northern Israel and have been living in hotels ever since October 2023,” Houssney says.

Ministry center in southern Lebanon (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Israel’s security cabinet stated the resettlement goal Tuesday morning, just hours before the pager explosions began.

Houssney says the impact of Tuesday’s events on the Horizons ministry team has been a chaotic environment and a future that’s even more uncertain.

“We have a church in Tyre, Lebanon. Even though there have been all kinds of shelling and missile attacks since October, we have continued to hold worship services. That is all in doubt right now,” Houssney says.

“Our staff have reported to me [on Tuesday] afternoon that it’s chaos in the streets down there. If there is a war, we’re not sure whether it would reach up to Tyre, whether our staff and church members would have to evacuate.”

Prayer is the most effective critical response right now.

“I would ask for boldness for the believers, and then also for open hearts among the people. We all know that when humans lose hope in worldly things, that’s when they turn to God,” Houssney says. 

“We can pray that people would put more of their hope into Christ and that we would hear, decades from now, that the Lord used these events to bring many people into His kingdom.”

Header image of war-weary flag of Lebanon generated by R.B. Klama using NightCafe.

Kate Michel with Radio 4VEH, a Trans World Radio partner, says, “Over the last few weeks and days, especially, tensions have been getting worse in Haiti as gang leaders have been calling for the resignation of the prime minister.”

Regional leaders call for a transitionary council to appoint Henry’s temporary replacement and organize elections, but the ‘who’s’ and ‘when’s’ of these arrangements remain unclear. Gang leaders are now pushing to be part of any power-sharing deal.

(Photo courtesy of Radio 4VEH)

“There’s a lot of chaos in Port au Prince, and people have been suffering from it. The gangs have gained a lot of control over the last couple of years; the police don’t have much authority,” Michel says.

The fact “that the Prime Minister has agreed to resign is a whisper of change. But much more needs to be done for law and order to be re-established, for people to go about their lives safely and freely and take care of their families.”

Based in northern Haiti, 4VEH continues to broadcast the hope of Christ into Haiti’s despair.

“We are continuing to ask people to pray for Haiti. This is a long and complicated situation; the headlines can’t cover all the issues,” Michel says.

“We’re thankful for the relative calm that we’ve experienced in Cap Haitiën where 4Veh is based,” she continues.

“We’ve been able to stay on the air every day, broadcasting the Gospel, helping people understand that God is still on the throne and sovereign.”

Thousands have fled the ongoing violence in Port au Prince, adding pressure to remote communities like Cap Haitiën. Their arrival “puts extra pressure on people struggling to survive there. Then, some people are turning up with no family connections, needing to start building their lives from scratch,” Michel says.

“There are a lot of needs all over the country.”

Consider adding Haiti to your daily prayer list. “Pray that this new transition will be peaceful; that the gangs will give control to those in authority who can lead Haiti well,” Michel requests.

Ask the Lord to intervene and bring peace as only He can. “He’s got a plan and a purpose, not just for Haiti the country, but for every Haitian,” Michel says.

“Keep praying and standing by and expressing concern and love for friends in Haiti.”

Header and story images courtesy of Radio 4VEH.

“Nearly 20 projects have, in one way or another, been impacted” by the current unrest, Wycliffe Associates’ Sam Todd says.

“Between natural disasters or other tragedies, virtually everyone [connected to our work] is affected.”

Chaos began in this country in mid-April and hasn’t stopped since. When disasters like this strike, “teams get scattered about; translators living in the same town are now separate,” Todd says.

“Normal life stops in those instances, and you go into pure survival mode – ‘Are we safe? What do we eat? Where are we going to sleep? Are my kids okay? Where are my siblings or my extended family?’”

Pray for courage and strength as Murugo believers care for needy people.

Churches often function as makeshift hospitals or care centers in war-like situations. “They become community sanctuaries where people know they can go to be loved, protected, [and] to be cared for,” Todd says.

“When humanity is at its worst, the Church is at its best. [Christians in Murugo] talk about love, grace, hope, and kindness. These are the moments where they get to live that out to people around them.”

Pray the Lord will give wisdom to Wycliffe Associates and its partners as they decide the future of translation work in this country.

“There’s no guarantee that life will be what it was. There’s a lot of difficulty and tension in moving forward because [there are] so many unknowns,” Todd says.

“People are just in this survival mentality, which is a very difficult place to be.”

*Pseudonym

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Ninno JackJr/Unsplash.

Brad Prizer, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications with e3 Partners attends the church. He says they take one Sunday each year to serve in the community. Congregants split off into groups to work with different ministries in the city.

This year, Prizer’s group worked with a ministry called Grace to Go. He says, “Grace to Go takes food donated by different organizations, gathers it together, takes it to a government-subsidized housing apartment complex, and disperses food to the people who live there.”

“Because many times it’s very hard for them to feed their families with the limited incomes that they have.”

During the barbeque, about 60 people from the church sat down and shared the story of Jesus and His work in the world. All of them had gone through a brief e3 Partners training course about how to share their faith.

During the training, people were taught to communicate using a simple circle drawing. It shows God’s creation of the world, humans bringing chaos, and God bringing redemption through Jesus.

They also get prayer requests from people and talk about their lives. Prizer says, “We know of at least three Gospel conversations during that time. So we praise the Lord for that. Now, in the future, we’re going to change the way we’re doing Serve Sunday in our church.”

Want to do something similar at your church? Connect to e3 Partners training and resources here.

(Header photo courtesy of moerschy from Pixabay)

On Friday, a confidential United Nations report confirmed Taliban fighters were hunting for anyone who collaborated with Western forces “and were threatening to kill or harm their relatives if they do not surrender.”

Please pray for the most vulnerable members of Afghan society, including women, children, and members of minorities.
(Photo, caption courtesy of SAT-7)

Christians in Afghanistan fear torture and execution. They’re asking believers like you to be their voice. “It’s dire. We’ve seen the Taliban in the past, we know what they do,” says Rex Rogers of SAT-7 USA, a satellite TV ministry to the Middle East and North Africa.

“We know what their values and worldview drives them to do. They’ll likely get even more violent.”

United States President Joe Biden faces increasing criticism at home and abroad over his handling of the crisis. Last week, the president and his team admitted surprise over the Taliban blitz.

For others, concern began with April’s announcement of a full U.S. troop withdrawal. Taliban forces gained significant territory by the end of June and didn’t stop there. Insurgents controlled roughly half of Afghanistan’s districts by July, seizing provincial capitals and the national capital city in a matter of days.

Pray for Afghan Christians

Afghanistan is one of the most difficult places in the world to follow Christ. Yet the Holy Spirit is moving; “significant Christian growth has occurred among the Hazara people,” Voice of the Martyrs USA reports. Reports of brutal Hazara massacres at the hands of Taliban fighters surfaced last week. It’s unknown whether these individuals were believers or not.

Amnesty International’s Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said:

“The cold-blooded brutality of these killings is a reminder of the Taliban’s past record, and a horrifying indicator of what Taliban rule may bring. These targeted killings are proof that ethnic and religious minorities remain at particular risk under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.”

As described here, some Afghan Christians are reaching out to SAT-7 on social media, while others call in to receive encouragement and prayer. Many have tried to flee the country but cannot. Some have received multiple death threats.

“Please be our voice; please help us to be heard so that we can flee from this hell as soon as possible.”
(Graphic courtesy of SAT-7)

“They are connecting; our Dari-speaking Christian counselors are responding to them as best they can. Sometimes they’re asking us for information and help, [asking questions like] ‘how do I get out of here?’,” Rogers says.

Afghan believers often watch SAT-7 PARS because their language, Dari, is similar to Farsi, the language spoken throughout Iran. The channel provides critical updates and spiritual encouragement. Today, a special live broadcast on SAT-7 PARS will address the situation, amplify Christian voices from Afghanistan, and lead viewers in prayer. Will you join in, too? Use the prompts listed alongside this article to guide your intercession.

“We may not know why [certain] things that happened to us, or in the world, but we know the God who knows why. We trust the sovereign God of the universe, who’s also our Heavenly Father,” Rogers says.

“God is not surprised. He’s not perplexed. He can turn evil to good. We’ve seen it in Iran. We could see it just as quickly in Afghanistan.”

“People are terrified, everyone is afraid. I am only 16 years old and cannot take what is happening around me. I’m crying out to God right now.” – A Christian girl in Afghanistan (Header graphic and quote courtesy of SAT-7)

Then, over this weekend, Iraq got a new Prime Minister. Mohammed Allawi, former communications minister, has already voiced his support for protestors and promises reform. The coming months will tell how realistic that mission is.

But if he brings about the change he promises, it will be just in time. Protests condemning a corrupt government have raged for months now. According to Daniel Hoffman of Middle East Concern, “The protesters continue to be critically disappointed in their governments. They tend to be very corrupt, and not to deliver even the most basic services to their people.”

In short, protestors want something to change. Hopefully, Mohammed Allawi can bring that change, because “they say the current government is corrupt and has had the opportunity for many years to show that they’re interested in the good of society and in providing what the people of Iraq need, but they have utterly failed to do so,” Hoffman says.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

And in the midst of the chaos, the Church is vulnerable. Many Iraqis suffer from the effects of corruption and a lack of basic services, but other communities have their own armed militias; most Christian groups do not have that kind of protection.

That means that as unrest increases and various militia groups expand their territory, vulnerable and unarmed groups like the Iraqi Church face more and more pressure.

That’s why they need your prayer. Ask God to remind them that they are not alone. Pray that governments move to protect Iraq’s vulnerable communities.

“[Pray] for their protection and for hope for the future. As people see more and more Christians see more and more instability, they are more and more encouraged to leave the country. And the more Christians leave, the more vulnerable the remaining Christians become.”

Follow the situation in Iraq and elsewhere with Middle East Concern.

Photo courtesy of flickr user Marco Verch.

Denise Godwin of International Media Ministries says the answer to the upheaval is Gospel peace. “A lot of the people in this region, in the Middle East and North Africa and in many parts of the world, are not accustomed to freedom being automatic,” she says. “I imagine their hope is based in Christ in a different way as the Body of Christ all around the world.”

Inspiring Middle Eastern believers means spotlighting local exemplars of faith. For one, they’re bringing Iranian believers into their studio to share Christ with the Middle Eastern Church.

Photo courtesy of International Media Ministries

Next, they’re spotlighting ancient believers indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. This year, International Media Ministries will work to translate stories of significant historical Christians from the area. By sharing their stories and the impact their work has to this day, they hope to inspire the global Church to take heart in the face of persecution and tension.

“We want people to know truth, and the truth of Christ is supreme and brings hope when there seems to be no hope in circumstances, and it’s just so important to continue sending that message,” she says.

Consider digging into the stories of famous historical Christians for yourself for a plethora of inspirational reminders of God’s faithfulness. These stories can also act as conversation-starters so believers can introduce their neighbors to Christianity in action.

Godwin points out that these stories often transcend cultural differences, and that’s especially true with International Media Ministries resources. Thanks to English and Arabic translations and subtitles, you can show others examples of Christians following God with their hearts, souls, and minds, all in your neighbor’s heart language.

But the most important tool for Middle Eastern believers in 2020? Prayer.

“As we start hearing wars and rumors of wars and challenges to people around the world, it’s an important time to pray for the body of Christ,” Godwin says. “We pray for them to be faithful and to honor Christ no matter what is happening in their lives. What a marvelous theme to take into this new year as we… face things that are uncertain.”

Photo courtesy of International Media Ministries

Pray also for wisdom. “When is the time to stand up and when is the time to hide or escape? That is something only they can answer. Pray for those people in the parts of the world that are in war and persecution, that they have wisdom from the Holy Spirit to know when to change their location [and] their circumstances and pray that their faith would stand strong and that they would hear the voice of God in all their circumstances.

“Let’s be faithful no matter what occurs in our world and our lives and our personal lives.”

Find out more about International Media Ministries and their work right here.

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.