While global deaths from terror have dropped in the last year, Boko Haram in Nigeria and the IS-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in the DRC continue to plague those countries with terrorist activity. 

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says location is not coincidental, as terrorists have a clear strategy.

“They look for vulnerable areas: places where they can create more strongholds with their radical ideology. Northern Nigeria is a representation of that. [Democratic Republic of Congo], because of its instability, is representative of it.”

Kelley says the absence of government response in these areas emboldens the terrorists. 

For the church’s part, many Christians in Nigeria’s south struggle to empathize with or minister to their northern Muslim neighbors. But there, in predominantly Muslim communities, the believers have a different outlook. 

“If you go to the North,” Kelley says, “and you meet someone who came out of Islam who would be a Muslim Background Believer, when they come to faith in Christ, they become infernos for the Gospel.”

He points out that the believers’ insistence on staying in their area mobilizes ministry partners to join the work. 

“We constantly have to move missionaries. The reality is that’s where the mission need is. It’s not in the South. It’s in the North.” 

Meanwhile, in the DRC, ongoing conflict and humanitarian need further expose the vulnerable citizens of that nation. Kelley says where the battleground exists, our mission should follow. 

“Where are the battlelines? Where is the threat coming? That’s where we need to mobilize and deploy our resources, which in this case is Northeast Congo,” he says. “That’s the location that people listening to this, praying for this, need to center their targeted resources: prayer, finances, personnel.” 

The citizens of these countries are suffering, and they represent the least of these Jesus talks about in Matthew 25:40. Without diminishing the call to meet their physical needs, Kelley reminds us of another instruction from Jesus: one in Matthew 28:18 – 20. 

“We need to look at these places and then ask the next question, which is, ‘What is the nation or people group being affected? Have they had a Gospel witness, or have they not?’” Kelley says. “Because you could be responding to a humanitarian need in a place that’s 95% Christian. That’s wonderful. No one is telling you to stop doing that. But that can’t be your only expression of the Great Commission.” 

Please pray for Nigeria and DRC, including the various people groups represented within these countries. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers, and pray for a plentiful harvest as a result. 

Please also pray for the families, communities, and nations affected by global terrorism. Ask the Lord for protection, courage, and resilience as believers live out their faith in the toughest of circumstances. 

Pray also for the terrorists, whose hearts of darkness mirror those of every sinner in need of our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. 

May the Lord be glorified as these souls find hope in Him!

Above image courtesy of Prince Kwembe via Unsplash. Featured image courtesy of Ian Panelo via Pexels.

The Argobba are a traveling people, an unreached Muslim group of no more than 250,000. Farming and trade shape their daily lives. However, external pressures continue to disrupt their stability.

Argobba people in Koremi, Ethiopia (photo courtesy of Ahron de Leeuw via Wikimedia Commons)

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says, “They’re in the middle of a massive tribal conflict between these majority people groups.”

Many of these groups are pastoralists who depend on grazing land, making territory a major source of tension. Conflicts between larger groups, including the Tigray and Amhara, have gone on for years.

“And you’ve got this small group,” Kelley explains, “like the Argobba, who just want to live peacefully and tend their plots of land. But others are coming in, pushing them out, and moving them from place to place. Those are the dynamics that make Gospel witness very challenging.”

As their land and resources are threatened, many Argobba are forced to move.

This is where ministry partners with local believers who know their country. Kelley explains, “They’re distributing our solar-powered Audio Bible in their local dialect, their local language, and listening groups are forming.”

As a result, Argobba people are beginning to know Jesus as they hear the Gospel. “It’s because of the hands and feet of brave Ethiopian nationals who are going into these areas,” says Kelley.

The Gate of Mercy, that served merchants handling trade from Argobba, an Afar region (photo courtesy of Bikoadem via Wikimedia Commons)

It highlights the work of local evangelists answering the call of the Great Commission.

While on earth, Jesus cared for people from many different groups. His ability to focus on the few and reach the many is a model we can follow. The Argobba are one of those “few” we are called to reach.

“It requires great determination from the body of Christ to find people groups like the Argobba — dedicated men and women who love Jesus, who will lean into that apostolic calling to take the Gospel where it’s never been,” adds Kelley.

Pray for the Argobba people of Ethiopia to learn about their Savior. Pray also for the evangelists who pursue them — wherever the road leads them.

Visit Unknown Nations to learn more about unreached people groups and support the mission to bring them hope.

Header photo: A crowded market place in northern Ethiopia (photo courtesy of Lesly Derksen via Unsplash).

Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has been sworn in as the country’s new president, five years after he ousted a government chosen by the people. “It’s essentially a continuation of the old guard,” Greg Kelley of Unknown Nations says.

“Nobody recognized this election as legitimate. Most of the opposition groups were excluded from it. There was no voting in huge swaths of the country because of the ongoing civil war.”

Min Aung Hlaing, Senior General of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, in Tianjin, China on August 31, 2025.
(Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India), GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons)

Fighting shows no signs of slowing as the conflict continues. “The military only [controls] about half of the country,” Kelley says.

“The other half is [controlled by] the various rebel groups that banded together in their common goal of fighting against the military… leading to further displacement of people and deaths,” he continues.

“The hope is that the people can take back their country, so there could be a legitimate election that is a voice of all the people, instead of just people who are in power.”

Christians respond

Myanmar has been engulfed in tragedy since the 2021 military coup. “Over three and a half million people have been displaced [and] nearly 10,000 people have been killed,” Kelley says.

Yet hope remains. “Churches [and] Christians are targeted, but the Gospel is moving forward in Myanmar,” Kelley says.

“There are amazingly brave and courageous men and women of faith who are sharing the Gospel in the midst of this civil war.”

Myanmar is still largely unreached — only about five percent of the population follows Christ, and millions have never heard the Good News. But local believers are taking action.

With help from Unknown Nations, “Burmese are multiplying themselves; they’re raising up healthy disciples,” Kelley says.

How to help

Please pray for peace in Myanmar. Ask the Lord to protect His followers.

“Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers among the Burmese people and help them to understand the truth of Christianity, the love that Jesus represents,” Kelley requests.

Support Unknown Nations’ work among unreached people groups here.

Header image is a representative stock photo depicting the flag of Myanmar. 

According to a March report on the DRC from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, attacks by the ADF such as the April 1 incident in Bafwakoa have escalated in the majority-Christian, resource-rich nation.

Photo of North Kivu and Ituri Provinces courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

“Congo has unfortunately been in this perpetual spiral of instabilities for decades,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. “And you know, the last five years in particular, they see an opportunity, and so they’re trying to move into these areas, which are heavily Christian areas.”

The DRC’s situation is not the same as Nigeria’s. In Nigeria, there is a sharper divide between Muslims and Christians within the country’s north. But in the DRC, that element of antagonism is less prevalent. 

“More of the commonality that the DRC and Nigeria have is the instability, and so it’s opportunities for them to really establish a Muslim beachhead,” says Kelley. “[In northern Nigeria,] it’s had the Boko Haram activity, the Fulani herdsmen. They’re literally trying to eradicate Christianity in the north.”

But Kelley notes that in the DRC, the ADF isn’t targeting only Christians. 

“These are just kind of almost generic brutalities, killing, raiding villages, trying to take ground, trying to get people to just pack up their bags and move on so they can control territory,” Kelley says, “because again, this is some of the wealthiest real estate, not just in Congo, not just in Africa, but in the world.”

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Photo courtesy of Johnnathan Tshibangu via Unsplash)

Yet statistically speaking, believers do endure the brunt of ADF attacks. That’s because 95 percent of the DRC’s population identifies as Christian, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom report. Recent attacks on Christians took place in March and February. There are likely more that have not made it to mainstream media. But the big picture trend is clear: According to a report from International Christian Concern, the ADF claims that it has killed more than 700 Christians since December 2024. 

“It’s spiritual warfare, attacking God’s people in a place where the gospel, in the midst of all the instability, has grown tremendously. It’s a real success story,” says Kelley.

Ask God to raise up more Christians to serve as gospel workers in the DRC.

“It’s not the first place that a missionary is going to want to go. But missionaries are being mobilized in the Congo right now,” says Kelley. 

“We have a training center near Kinshasa that’s mobilizing missionaries to go into French-speaking areas. But when you see these kinds of things happening [attacks on Christian communities], they’ll be able to divert resources and go into that area. So pray for training efforts.”

Header photo: Portrait of a Taabwa Catholic priest at the historic mission in the city of Moba, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Photo courtesy of IMB)

India’s Supreme Court (Photo courtesy of Subhashish Panigrahi via Wikimedia Commons – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The bill is made worse because Maharashtra is the economic center of India and the second-most populous state, says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. “Because of its influence, because of its power, that probably is just going to continue now, the cascading domino effect of additional states coming along [with their own such laws].” 

Twelve Indian states already have anti-conversion laws in place. They are meant to protect people from being coerced into converting through force, fraud, or inducement. However, Kelley says the laws disproportionately target Christians.

“I’m sure there are some bad actors,” he concedes. “And this isn’t just Christians, but it’s also dealing with Hindus marrying Muslims, for example, and forcing them to become Muslim. So there are other dynamics. But Christians, being the minority, are persecuted and targeted by not just Hindus but also Muslims.”

Anti-conversion laws require the accused to prove that any conversion(s) in question was not done through force or allurement. In other words, they must prove themselves innocent. 

Kelley says that although the Maharashtra bill has a few more legal hurdles to jump through, it’s basically certain. “Because of the precedent that’s already been set by 12 other states, this is just going to kind of push through the process. It’s not chartering new ground. This is becoming an established pattern.”

One piece of good news is that India’s Supreme Court is in the process of a landmark review of anti-conversion laws and their constitutionality. Their ruling will affect all of India’s states, including Maharashtra and Bihar States, which are both at different stages with anti-conversion legislation.

In the meantime, don’t miss the bigger picture of the Great Commission in India. 

“What most people don’t realize is that within probably the next 25 years, India will simultaneously be the most populated Hindu country and the most populated Muslim country,” says Kelley.

“So it is ‘ground zero’ for what we call unreached people groups. So the church has to have a missional presence in India. [There are] over 1.2 billion people living there, and most of them without a gospel witness. It has got to be a priority.”

Photo from Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, India (Courtesy of Jannes Jacobs via Unsplash)

Pray for wisdom for gospel workers in Maharashtra State, as they will soon have to navigate the effects of the new law. Pray for innocence and also shrewdness as they pursue the call to share Jesus.

Pray for a stronger Christian presence in India. Pray for India as a whole. Learn how you can partner with gospel workers already there, making Jesus known in India alongside Unknown Nations. 

Header photo is a stock image courtesy of Joe Gratz/Flickr. 

This week, Iranian security forces have arrested at least four members of Iran’s reformist movement. This movement seeks to change the regime from the inside out. A January statement from this group called for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to resign and a transitional government to step in.

The most recent protests in Iran began in Tehran on December 28, 2025 as shopkeepers protested the plummeting value of the Iranian rial. (Stock photo courtesy of Ashkan Forouzani via Unsplash)

“We still can’t say definitively whether [regime change] will happen or not, but there is a resolve inside of the Iranian people that we have not seen in these last 45 years,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says.

Yet the human cost has been high. Eleven days after protests began on December 28, 2025 over economic issues, the government shut down the internet and employed lethal force against demonstrators. The severity has only deepened since then.

“We’re hearing the numbers are so underreported — not people who are just being imprisoned or taken into custody, but people who are being killed, [it] is so underreported,” says Kelley.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Group has verified 6,961 people killed in Iran and is investigating over 11,700 more reports. Others believe that tens of thousands of Iranians may have lost their lives.

The spiritual side

The political and physical realities that Iranians face influence their spiritual realities, too. “The [Iranian] people are searching for truth,” says Kelley. “They’re searching for hope, and that’s what makes Jesus and the gospel so appealing right now.”

You can stand for Iranians by praying that they discover the good news of Christ amid the chaos of today. Consider partnering with Unknown Nations to strengthen believers. Pray for the future of the Iranian church.

“People need to be praying that the Lord would raise up leaders. That’s what we do at Unknown Nations. We train Persian leaders outside of the country of Iran, because doing things inside of Iran is almost impossible,” says Kelley. “As soon as there’s regime change, there’s going to be an enormous wave of Christian leaders who are Persian speakers moving into that country.”

Header photo: Tafresh, Markazi Province, Iran (Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)

Last week Thursday, Boko Haram fighters also struck a town in northern Nigeria and killed at least 25 people.

We spoke with Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley, who was recently in Nigeria, where the ministry supports Gospel outreach efforts.

He says, “What I heard is that a whole lot of these insurgents have scattered into neighboring countries like Chad and Niger to sort of take cover. But we can’t be misguided. They are organized. They wait for their moments. They target very vulnerable targets like schools, hospitals, [and] very remote areas as they’re doing the kidnapping and attacking, and it’s a great frustration.”

(Photo courtesy of Moses Adeyemi/Unsplash)

Ongoing terror attacks in Nigeria can fade in and out of the news cycle. But Kelley encourages the global Body of Christ to remain diligent in praying for and calling attention to these tragedies.

“We’ve just been desensitized to the atrocities that are going on there,” says Kelley. “We’re talking about a country where more people are killed for their faith in Christ than the rest of the world combined, which is a staggering statistic.”

The problem goes deeper than regional and political powers. Kelley says it’s ultimately a spiritual conflict.

Nigeria is a unique country in its religious landscape. The population is roughly split between Christians and Muslims, with most Christians living in the South, and majority Muslims in the North. “All this carnage that’s taking place is largely in the majority Muslim areas where they’re trying to eradicate Christianity.”

“There’s a vibrant, dynamic Church in the South that is largely not engaged in reaching out and taking the Gospel to the North, and that is really a massive issue in Nigeria,” Kelley says.

“We need to see the largely Christian populations — the Igbo people, the Yoruba people that live in the South — mobilizing themselves and going up to the Fulani, the Kanuri, the Hausa — which are the three dominant people groups in the North that are 99% Muslim.”

Kelley believes that, ultimately, this hesitancy from Christians in the South to reach into the North stems from complacency.

(Image courtesy of Unknown Nations)

“I think that they have been convinced that missions among themselves and planting churches in the south is a form of the Great Commission. And I wouldn’t argue that. We always want to have outreach in our communities…. But they have not gotten into their minds that the ends of the earth is the northern part, and [they need to] mobilize resources in that direction, send missionaries in that direction, [and] distribute Bibles in that direction.”

Despite the dangers, our Christian brothers and sisters in northern Nigeria are faithful witnesses for Christ.

“Those Christians are white hot for the Gospel!” Kelley says. “They understand persecution, they understand perseverance, they understand dealing with adversity, and being courageous and bold. They understand all those things. They don’t leave because they know that if they leave, who is going to bring the Gospel into the north?”

Please pray for believers in northern Nigeria to remain steadfast and protected as they follow Christ. Pray for courage and obedience among Christians in southern Nigeria to take the Gospel north. And pray for God to soften hearts among Nigeria’s unreached Muslim communities, drawing many to saving faith in Jesus.

You can learn more about Unknown Nations’ ministry in Nigeria at unknownnations.com.

Header photo: (Photo courtesy of Nnaemeka Ugochukwu/Unsplash)

Starting in the early hours of Saturday, January 31, fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) killed nearly 50 people in coordinated attacks across the province.

Pakistani security forces intervened swiftly, killing 145 fighters from the BLA. The provincial chief minister, Sarfraz Bugti, says this number of fighters killed was the highest in decades.

(Stock photo courtesy of Beebagar Baloch via Unsplash)

Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan in 1948. It has seen multiple separatist movements since then. (More on that here.)

Unrest in Balochistan happens for several reasons, says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. “It happens to be an area that’s very rich in minerals and resources, and the people of Balochistan have forever been frustrated, feeling like the government — the capital of Pakistan, [Islamabad] — are the main benefactors of their wealth,” he explains. 

Of Pakistan’s ten poorest districts, seven are in Balochistan. Kelley describes it as “lack of infrastructure, lack of education, lack of medical opportunities.” As local people see their homeland’s resources being exploited, “there are these sort of ‘freedom fighters’ that have emerged over the years that have gone toe-to-toe with the Pakistani military in opposition,” he says of the BLA. 

Is there any good in unrest? 

“Any time that there’s instability and chaos in majority Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim environments, it creates an opportunity for the gospel,” Kelley says, “because the people are suffering. You begin to question and look at your worldview and say, ‘Is this really all that life has for me? Is this the hope?’”

In a world full of political and national conflicts, it’s tempting to shrug off news that isn’t in our own backyards. But God calls His people to look at the world with the Great Commission in mind.

Quetta, Pakistan (Stock photo courtesy of Syed Aoun Abbas via Unsplash)

“They say about 100% of the population is considered unreached. These are exclusively Muslim areas,” says Kelley about Balochistan Province. “The main people groups there are the Pashtun and Baloch people.”

Frontiers like this are exactly where the church needs to engage, he says. “We need to mobilize the Christian church in Pakistan into this area more strategically and intentionally. I believe that there’s going to be a gospel movement in Balochistan.”

You can be part of that push by praying for more gospel workers and partnering with Unknown Nations to help them support local believers on mission.

“Pray that the Lord raises up harvesters, laborers that will go into these areas — Pakistani nationals who can go into Balochistan and speak the languages,” says Kelley. 

Header photo: Ras Koh Hills, Kharan District, Balochistan Province, Pakistan (Stock photo courtesy of Muhammad Irfan Baloch)

With few safety measures previously required, the work of cleaning out old infrastructure has resulted in the deaths of many workers.

In Pakistan, Christians make up just 1% of the population. Because they face discrimination and lack opportunities, these dangerous sanitation jobs have largely fallen to Christians, who are seen as lower class.

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says the ruling is significant because it counters the common stigmas against Christians in Pakistan.

“These are incredibly vulnerable jobs, very dangerous jobs, and when you just exclusively make Christians do it, it’s just a terrible situation,” Kelley says. “Opening it up for everybody to have access to it makes a statement. It’s not sort of targeting or discriminating against Christians.”

Despite common hostility to the gospel, the Church in Pakistan is growing.

“In places like Pakistan, you don’t find lukewarm Christians,” Kelley says. “The people who are coming to know Christ in Pakistan, the second most populated Muslim country in the world, are white-hot for the gospel. They’re incredibly serious, devoted to their faith, and they’re multiplying.”

Unknown Nations is working to train Pakistani believers in reaching others, supplying resources like audio Bibles, and completing humanitarian projects that can open doors for the gospel.

Veiled women hold Treasures, the solar-powered audio Bibles distributed by Unknown Nations. (Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations)

“As we lift up these believers (in prayer), we need to be reminded that Jesus said to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers,” Kelley says.

Please pray not only for the safety of Pakistani believers, but also for them to be bold and courageous in their gospel witness. Pray that the discernment and wisdom of the Lord will be with them in the face of adversity.

Pakistan flag (Photo courtesy of Abuzar Xheikh/Unsplash)

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations explains that M23 is essentially a proxy army supported by Rwanda. However, “the M23 group also has an independent power structure,” he says. “And this peace agreement that was signed, M23 is saying, ‘Well, we’re not bound by that. That was between the DRC and Rwanda, so we can operate independently.’”

As if to underscore this, less than a week after the peace accord, M23 captured the strategic city of Uvira in the DRC’s South Kivu province. They allegedly abandoned it a week later after international condemnation of the move. However, this past New Year’s weekend, M23 clashed with the Congolese army again, just a few miles away from Uvira. 

The cost of these latest militant operations is high. The Congolese government has accused the Rwandan-backed rebels of killing more than 1,500 civilians in eastern DRC since early December. More than 84,000 people have fled the DRC into neighboring Burundi since early December, too, according to the UN. Tens of thousands more have been displaced within the DRC. That’s on top of millions already forced from their homes in the past decades of conflict.

Treasure audio Bible distribution in DRC. (Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations)

“Anytime you have that kind of displacement of mass humanity, it’s going to complicate gospel inroads, because people are leaving everything behind,” says Kelley. 

Near the heart of the decades of conflict in the DRC are the country’s rich resources. 

“These other countries — like Uganda, like Rwanda — they have been occupying the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the name of national security, while they’re conveniently extracting some of these natural resources,” says Kelley. 

Please ask God to raise more gospel workers to bring the hope of Christ to people trapped in this conflict.

“We can pray that there ultimately becomes peace in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and that leaders would emerge who would come alongside these displaced people and encourage them in this time of difficulty,” says Kelley. “Because from an earthly perspective, they’re living in hell. Things are incredibly difficult and challenging. But they can find refuge in the message of the gospel.”

Learn more here about how Unknown Nations partners with indigenous believers for gospel ministry. 

Header photo is a representative 2015 image depicting Congolese soldiers on patrol in the Ituri district. (Wikimedia Commons, CC by SA 2.0)