Through it all, the Lebanese Society for Educational & Social Development (LSESD) has worked through a coalition of ministries to be the hands and feet of Jesus across the Arab world.

(Image courtesy of LSESD)

This week, from September 26 to October 1, LSESD is hosting an event called Loving God & Neighbor Together — celebrating what God has done in their 25 years of ministry and looking to the next 25 years!

Wissam Nasrallah, the COO of LSESD, says, “Whether through theological education, academic or spiritual resources, through training for special needs, or through camps [for] children or medical camps, or through relief and development — our purpose is to enable the local Church to be fruitful, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus on the ground, and bring about positive Christian witness wherever the local Church is.”

When talking about the future of LSESD and its ministries, Nasrallah says, “Our region is going through major changes. One of the biggest changes is the disappearance of historical Christian communities. Whether they are Catholic, Orthodox, or Evangelical, the historical Church has been struggling.

“When we look around us and we see all these major changes, we realize that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. There are so many things that we would like to do, but we have limited capacities and resources. So we want to be good stewards of what God has given us and do the right thing.

(Image courtesy of LSESD)

“Our posture is to be listening to God’s voice. Where does He want this to be? How does He want our ministries to evolve? We’re really open to let Him shape the the type of ministry, the size of the ministry, and the form of ministry in the next 25 years.”

Ministries housed under LSESD include The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Salt & Light, The Beirut Baptist School, and others.

Click here to learn more about LSESD!

During the Loving God & Neighbor Together event this week, Nasrallah asks, “Please be praying for wisdom for our leaders, for our participants, but also for the church leaders as they navigate this complex time. As they see their churches shrink in some areas or even [are] persecuted, this needs lots of patience, lots of faith, and lots of discernment.”

Header photo courtesy of LSESD.

South Korean missionaries contributed much to the recent Gospel growth. Bibles For The World partners in Nepal wish to continue the upward trend.

(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World)

“Post-COVID, [believers have] come out of lockdowns and quarantines with an urgency, saying ‘We’ve got to get the Gospel out!” President/CEO John Pudaite says.

The pandemic served as a grim reminder of what’s at stake. Believers in every community lost someone they knew. More often than not, “people died without even hearing the name of Jesus,” he adds.

Earlier this year, Bibles For The World leaders and Nepali partners met in person for the first time since 2019. Believers accomplished more in personal collaboration than they could over Zoom.

“Being able to see them face to face and spend time together in prayer and fellowship has been so important,” Pudaite says.

“[We said,] ‘Let’s regroup here; these are the things we planned to do; what are the new opportunities we’ve seen emerge?’”

Today, Nepali partners are putting the plans into action. Pray for favor as believers carry out the projects God placed on their hearts.

“Everybody’s coming out of this (pandemic) on fire and sharing, ‘Hey, there’s a new opportunity; there’s a new village that opened up to us.’

“It [inspires us] as we look to equip them and come alongside them.”

Help dreams become a reality by partnering with Bibles For The World here.

Header and story images courtesy of Bibles For The World.

“When COVID broke out three years ago, it started in Wuhan, spreading quickly to the rest of the world. China was the first country that shut travel down,” China Partner’s Erik Burklin says.

A laboratory worker takes a swab test for COVID-19.
(Photo courtesy of Mufid Majnun/Unsplash)

While many countries eventually eased lockdowns and opened up, China remained closed. At one point during the pandemic, “we [wondered] if we would have to shut our doors because our main focus has always been serving the Church inside of China,” Burklin says.

“If the government is no longer allowing foreigners to come in, you’re kind of stuck.”

China Partner supports local churches with training, resources, and more. In the past three years, “we’ve done [many] trainings through the Zoom platform, but that’s not sustainable over the long haul,” Burklins says.

“There’s only so much you can do online.”

Thankfully, China eased its restrictions and reopened to foreign tourists last month. Burklin says, “Christians who have been praying for us and China felt like, ‘oh! Our prayers have been answered; this is amazing!’”

Better yet, the tourist visas that Gospel workers obtained before the pandemic can still be used today. Praise God for His faithfulness. “Everything is in God’s hands. We [only] have to wait upon Him and trust Him,” Burklin says.

“He’s sovereign over everything, including China.”

Header image depicts Wuhan citizens buying masks in February 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

Pre-Covid, North Korea would allow a select few of its citizens to travel outside the country for work.

However, on a podcast with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, VOM Korea’s Eric Foley explained, “North Korea has closed its borders since the beginning of the Coronavirus. They haven’t allowed their workers to return.

“That means that for now three years, workers have been stuck in Mongolia, China, Southeast Asia, even Eastern Europe — bad for them on the one hand, good for them from an eternal perspective because it’s given us three years of time to share the Gospel with them and do discipleship and evangelism.”

VOM Korea’s radio broadcasts are produced by North Korean Underground University students. In the broadcasts, students share Scripture — both in its pure form and in North Korean-style dramas.
(Photo, caption courtesy of VOM Korea)

VOM Korea is seeing ministry growth and new Gospel doors are opening to reach North Koreans.

Foley says, “Many workers are at home so they’re more interested in listening to the Christian radio broadcasts. We had to add another radio broadcast in. The number of Bibles that we’ve distributed to North Koreans, wherever they’re found, has doubled each year of the pandemic.”

When North Korean workers find new faith in Christ and then go home, they are able to reach their own people with the Gospel.

North Korean Human Rights Database every year does studies on human rights and religious freedom, gathering information from inside North Korea, from North Koreans abroad, and from defectors.

“In the year 2000, they found that for all intents and purposes, 0% of North Koreans inside of North Korea had seen a Bible with their own eyes. It’s actually like .0006% at that time,” Foley says.

“But…as of December 2021, about 8% of North Koreans had seen a Bible with their own eyes. That’s a staggering number. That’s upwards of 2 million in a country where to see a Bible with your own eyes is to court execution.”

Whether in-country or abroad, ask the Holy Spirit to continue moving among North Koreans. Pray for new North Korean believers to grow deep roots of faith before they potentially go home to reach others with the Gospel.

Header photo of North Korean flags, courtesy of Micha Brandli via Unsplash.

The report goes up to 2019 and doesn’t yet cover pandemic numbers, but Anne Hamming with Crossroads Prison Ministries says COVID made things even harder for prisoners’ mental health.

“Through the pandemic, especially when the lockdowns were in every facility, [we saw] just despair and loneliness,” says Hamming. “‘I don’t get to leave my cell. I don’t get to have visitors. I can only communicate via mail with my family, and sometimes not even that.’ There were staffing issues, so a lot of inmates didn’t even get their mail through parts of the pandemic because COVID created staffing issues. It was just a huge compounding of issues that added to the isolation, and it was prolonged.

(Photo courtesy of Karsten Winegeart via Unsplash)

“Now, we’re three years into the pandemic and things have opened up, of course, and returned much more to normal. But there still are these conditions that create isolation over and above conditions that already contributed to risks of falling into mental illness.”

Crossroads pairs prisoners with Christian mentors to write letters and go through mailed Bible studies together.

Hamming says, “First of all, we are eyes and ears. So if a student in a Bible study or in a letter conveys some suicidal ideation or some thoughts that cause us concern, our staff immediately contacts the facility where the student resides to make sure that appropriate interventions happen.”

The biggest part Crossroads mentors can play is to provide emotional support and spiritual encouragement.

“That’s the role of our mentors — to pray for the students, to offer them encouragement, and to write them a letter with every lesson. The impact of that is students know they aren’t forgotten. That’s the single largest concern for inmates because the vast majority of them do not receive any mail. A fair number of them receive no visitors, and they do feel absolutely forgotten.

“Time after time, they say, ‘Thank you for remembering me, and letting me know I’m not forgotten. Thank you for letting me know that God loves me. Thank you for letting me know and showing me that God has a purpose for me and that incarceration is just one period of my life. I am not my crimes. I am the person I am now in Christ.’”

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Hamming emphasizes, “We are not mental health professionals at Crossroads, yet we are able to provide some things that would complement mental health services for students.”

If you know someone behind bars who would benefit from participating in the Crossroads program, refer them to Crossroads here!

You can also become a Crossroads mentor yourself. Hamming says, “The beauty of Crossroads is that you can do it anywhere. People who are mentors say, ‘Man, I don’t have to go travel miles and miles and go into a prison. I can have this connection.’ And they’re always surprised at the connections that they make simply by writing a letter and walking through a Bible study with a student.”

Finally, pray for men and women in prisons both in the US and around the world to know the hope they have in Jesus Christ.

Header photo courtesy of Ye Jinghan via Unsplash.

Undaunted as they visit homes with the gospel, provide food and medical care or educate children whose teachers the pandemic has driven away, workers from Mexico to Argentina are exposed to patches where the pandemic still rages.

“One of our missionaries was struck hard by COVID-19 because she suffers from other health problems as well,” the leader of a ministry based in Mexico said. “Despite that, she continues in her call to serve Christ among the ethnic groups.”

Several of the ministry’s workers in southern Mexico have been infected with the virus – including members of the leader’s own family.

“On several occasions, the police wanted to kill our missionary, but the Lord guarded him from all harm.”

“However, none of our missionaries has been discouraged, and they continue forward in the work that God has entrusted to us,” he said. “In some cases, rural towns have been closed and do not allow home visits of the families that our missionaries are reaching, but we continue to manage to visit all these families who need the Lord so much.”

As the pandemic closed schools, schoolteachers left for other areas, leaving rural areas already suffering from low levels of education without a way for children to escape the cycle of poverty. Local missionaries have stepped up.

“One of the areas that God has opened in rural towns is the education of children,” the leader said. “The support provided by Christian Aid Mission has been key to purchasing materials that are necessary to equip the missionaries so they can teach the children. This is definitely an area in which we must invest more, because it is a door that God is opening to bring the gospel to indigenous peoples.”

Bullets and Opposition

Persecution from followers of traditional religions remains a force; the ministry has helped two widows whose husbands were killed for sharing the gospel, the leader said.

Some workers are bringing the Gospel to four unreached villages, while others are digging water wells for 10 communities that have no safe drinking water. Others are helping destitute children whose parents died from Ebola, COVID-19 or other natural disasters.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

One of the widows is leading the congregation her husband once pastored.

“We are looking at a way to give her more help since she has three children,” the leader said. “She is very brave, and despite the threats that have been made to her, she is still willing to move forward.”

The ministry is also helping a couple whose home was burned.

“Another of the cases that we have supported in these past months has been a sister who took charge of the church in an ethnic Mixtec community and suffers constant beatings for her faith in Christ,” the leader said. “Recently we helped her to build a greenhouse, and from there she can obtain income for support.”

Amid the hostilities, workers have carried out dental/medical outreaches in different ethnic communities that have been a great help to people, including alleviation of COVID-19 symptoms, he said.

“The truth is, we are surprised in the way that God is supporting us to bring relief to the families of the poorest ethnic regions of Mexico,” he said. “In most rural towns, the brethren have continued to meet weekly, and the medical outreach has served as a testimony of compassion to the inhabitants of the community, in addition to being used to share the gospel, especially in these moments when several are afraid of COVID-19.”

At the same time, the pandemic has increased resistance as villagers fear workers visiting from nearby areas could bring infections.

“People in many cases have become more distrustful, and in some cases, they only let outsiders in for a short time,” the leader said. “Spiritual warfare is very strong; witchcraft and ancient traditions are daily practiced. Armed conflicts in the towns are also a problem for the mobility and security of our missionaries – some bullets have even hit houses, and this reduces visits to families and contacts they have.”

Voice for the Oppressed

In another Latin American country where coronavirus restrictions were still in place in some areas, local missionaries found ways to bring aid, the gospel and social justice, but not without risks of infection and opposition.

Gospel workers are discipling new Christians one-on-one, in small group meetings and through WhatsApp. Native missionaries throughout Latin America need funding for such evangelism and discipleship work.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

“It is forbidden to go out to the streets to preach, but our missionary with his motorbike has traveled several kilometers, entering the jungle hills, carrying the gospel and food supplies,” said the leader of the ministry based in the country, undisclosed for security reasons.

In response to pandemic-related joblessness in a village of about 20 families, a worker began teaching young people how to make cement bricks and build their homes.

“These ventures generated favorable changes in the inhabitants,” the leader said. “After their conversion to Christ, this village has a better way of life, not only spiritually, but in all areas of their lives.”

With assistance from Christian Aid Mission, the ministry also has been able to attend to COVID-19 health emergencies and provide masks and hygiene items, along with feeding the hungry in poor communities.

One area ministry leader pursued social justice by exposing an illegal government practice of putting women, children, and elderly men who had no medical indication of COVID-19 infection into isolation centers.

The revelation led to the discovery of corruption in the province, the leader said.

“On several occasions, because of this the police wanted to kill our missionary, but the Lord guarded him from all harm,” he said. “The missionary shared the gospel with doctors and lawyers who were accompanying him. On those days his life was at risk, but God allowed nothing to go wrong. After a while, this type of persecution stopped; we give glory to God for this.”

Help Gospel workers bring the Gospel and aid to unreached people throughout the region.

Header and story images courtesy of Christian Aid Mission.

“Our people in China are incredibly frustrated with this process. They wish it would be over,” Kurt Rovenstine of Bibles for China says.

New outbreaks raised concerns about a new round of coronavirus restrictions. Hundreds of students in Beijing held a rare protest as officials tried to seal them in their dorms.

A worker cleans the sidewalk in Shanghai.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Sam Balye/Unsplash)

Shanghai has been under lockdown for seven weeks, and there’s no end in sight. For the first time in nearly two months, authorities allowed some residents to leave their homes to buy groceries last week.

Despite these trials, the Lord is working all things together for good. “I’m now sensing an increased spiritual fervor amongst the people we’re communicating with in China,” Rovenstine says.

“It’s almost as if the spiritual temperature is rising because of their challenges.”

Pray the Lord will give Chinese Christians His wisdom and boldness. Learn more about Bibles for China here.

“We have a long list of distributions that we’ve committed to. [Church partners are] ready to receive Bibles, and Bibles are available, but [it’s] an incredible struggle for the churches to gather.”

“This [test] between obedience to God and submission to the state is a huge challenge for our friends in China.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Eric Lin/Unsplash.

Since the end of March, tens of millions of people have been cooped up in their homes when infection rates surged in Shanghai. New cases rose again in areas outside the quarantine zone, so authorities say restrictions will remain.

Believers are struggling throughout the country. “It’s a real challenge for the churches; some churches have not met for quite some time,” Kurt Rovenstine of Bibles for China says.

“One of our folks said they haven’t been able to take communion in the church for over two years.”

Nearly half of the cities responsible for China’s GDP are under lockdown. Experts warn that prolonged closures could deal a considerable blow to supply chains for the automotive and tech industries.

Lockdowns also prevent church gatherings and keep believers in rural China from getting a Bible. So, Bibles for China is exploring alternative options.

Before the pandemic started, rural churches held celebration gatherings for believers receiving their very own Bible.
(Photo courtesy of Bibles for China)

“The Church is requesting audio players for elderly [people], illiterate [people, and] the sight-impaired, so that they can hear the Word of God,” Rovenstine says.

“[Audio players] can be put into the mail and delivered from the Provincial Office or dropped off at someone’s house. Our first batch will be delivered this month; kind of [like] a test to see how well they work and if they’re well-received.”

Another type of audio Bible is perfect in a small group setting. Both devices can be “loaded with content beyond Scripture – some preaching from the provincial leaders, and those kinds of things,” Rovenstine says.

“We’re excited about that [opportunity]. It’s a bit different for us, but the leaders are asking for it and think it will make a difference.”

Learn more about Bibles for China here. Pray for endurance for Chinese believers. Pray God’s Word, whether in print or audio, provides encouragement and hope.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Jida Li / Unsplash.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and local believers began this discipleship program just before the world shut down in 2020. Now, the program can restart, and not a moment too soon!

We spoke with Jeremy Toews, a pilot mechanic with MAF in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Normally, MAF focuses on supporting the local Church, medical work, and reaching isolated communities with essential services in the name of Christ.

(Photo courtesy of Jeremy Toews with MAF)

But Toews says the idea for a discipleship program started in the summer of 2019. “Another one of our pilots and I were having a conversation and just really wanted to pursue additional opportunities to come alongside the local church and serve them in the most effective ways possible. So we sought out a couple of the local church leaders that we felt would be in a good position to analyze the needs that the church was experiencing.”

They eventually connected with Pastor Moses, head pastor over 16 churches in the Long Pujungan area of North Kalimantan, and Esther who leads children and youth ministry for the Indonesian CMA Church in North Kalimantan.

North Kalimantan has a strong history of Christianity. Missionaries came in the 1930s and 1940s, and whole people groups embraced relationships with Jesus Christ!

“Over the last few generations, a major challenge that the Church has been facing there is passing on their faith to the next generation,” Toews says.

“They’ll come to church on a Sunday morning. But do they really honestly understand what Christianity even is? What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? And how does that impact my day-to-day life in my marriage, raising my children?

“They’re dealing with some really significant societal issues with substance abuse, with sexual abuse and physical abuse, marriages that are just really falling apart, and children that are growing up with maybe one parent or, in some cases, no parents in the home.”

(Photo courtesy of Jeremy Toews with MAF)

What the churches in Long Pujungan need is spiritual support for growth — and the idea of a discipleship program was born.

The discipleship program team had just formed. Then, Toews says, “Of course, 2020 hits and the pandemic hits and everything shut down. We ended up in a situation where we could not fly passengers for some time. The communities interior didn’t want people from outside coming in. They wanted to kind of hermetically seal their own communities and protect their own people from what was going on in the rest of the world. So we ended up in a situation where we were forced to put that on hold for the better part of two years.”

Now that the communities in North Kalimantan are loosening restrictions, MAF and local believers are excited about restarting the discipleship program. MAF will fly teams in and work with the remote churches in Long Pujungan.

“Starting in March, we’re planning to start back up on those regular trips,” Toews says. “Our target is 12 trips into Long Pujungan this year. We’re just thrilled that the doors seem to be open again for us to step back in and pick up where we left off.”

They use a holistic curriculum that encourages Scripture memorization and deals with spiritual questions and practical issues.

(Photo courtesy of Jeremy Toews with MAF)

Toews explains, “It was a lot of work on the front end. You need to be really careful when you’re going in and doing something like this to make sure you go about it in a way that’s very respectful and make sure that you have the invitation of the community right from the get-go.

“Thankfully, as MAF, we’re the only Westerners. Everyone else we’re working with there is Indonesian. So they understand that [culture] a whole lot better than we do and we let them do all the talking. We let them negotiate all of that and figure out the most culturally appropriate way to step into a community in that sort of context.”

Please pray for MAF and the rest of the discipleship program team as they serve the local community. Ask God to raise up more Gospel workers in Indonesia and soften hearts to His transformative truth.

You can support MAF’s ministry in Indonesia here!

Header photo courtesy of Jeremy Toews with MAF.

Helen Williams of World Missionary Press says a doctor who runs mobile medical clinics wrote this in her latest update:

“We have an emergency. In early 2021, the government of Eswatini asked us to play a major role in the COVID vaccination program. We’ve been working at high volume [and] recently, the team sent a message that we were completely out of WMP booklets. I cannot believe it! We’ve not run out in probably a decade.

“I know this is not good at all because of the lead time needed to prepare a container. I’m so sorry for the late notice. We’ve been so occupied this year taking care of critical care COVID patients, building an oxygen plant, and deeply serving during a very difficult season. Please do what you can.”

The believer and her husband are both doctors, and they’ve been partnering with WMP since 2006. “The work has grown so much, and they are almost throughout the whole country,” Williams says.

“Ever since the beginning of World Missionary Press, our goal has been to get the Word out to all nations, and we’ve trusted the Lord to provide day in and day out. And for the past 60 years, He’s provided everything we need to accomplish this mission.”
(Graphic, caption courtesy of World Missionary Press)

Many rural communities in Eswatini are completely cut off from healthcare. Pray the Lord gives WMP’s partner extra strength to keep the clinics going.

The doctors give WMP Scripture booklets to every patient they see. The last order contained nearly a million booklets, Williams says. Help WMP send resources to Eswatini here.

“They like the Bible studies because people sit and wait to be seen by the doctors. They have teams go out into the areas where these people are waiting, hand out the material, [and] go through it with them. So, a great part of this [next order] will be our study books,” Williams says.

Next month’s newsletter will feature work in Eswatini, she adds. Join WMP’s email list here to see how the Lord is working through His people.

Kids in Eswatini hold up Scripture booklets from World Missionary Press. (Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)