Murff was diagnosed with a brain AVM (arterial venous malformation). “You actually are born with it, but because it’s hidden, it’s not seen. And so it was kind of shocking, but God is still faithful,” she explains.

After many doctors hesitated to treat her, Murff met a surgeon from Harvard’s hospital who warned her, “You may have to relearn to walk, you may have to relearn to lift your arms, and this could affect this area of your life or this area.”

Murff replied, “Well, do you mind if I just go before the Lord in prayer and let me get back with you?” Prayer with her community brought peace to move forward.

“It was one of those moments where I had to hand everything over to Jesus, a total surrender and trust in Him, that I’m going to serve Him no matter what,” Murff adds.

Representative photo courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels

Recovery came with unexpected challenges. For someone leading an academic and capacity-building institution in the Christian space, the contrast was striking — having a healthy brain on paper, yet at times struggling with things as simple as remembering a password.

Murff says her faith — and the love of her husband and four daughters —c arried her through the hardest days and into healing. She adds, “My husband’s been fighting for me and walking very close with me through all this journey and always pointing to Jesus”.

The church also walked closely with her family, especially as her daughters needed encouragement.

Murff held onto this promise: “We can genuinely lean in and trust that God is going to work all things out to the good of those who love Him, and that He makes no mistakes”.

One meaningful moment came later, when Murff traveled to Switzerland with her family. She turned around and saw her husband crying. He told her, “I would have never, ever thought that you’d be hiking to the Swiss Alps!”

“And so God,” she adds, “is a Redeemer of all things. All of us have lost something in life, but God is a Redeemer. And this was one of those moments that this understanding of Redemption was completely changed in my life and in my mind!”

Praise God — and pray with hope for what He can do in your life!

Visit MENA Leadership Center to learn how their work is accelerating the spread of the Gospel around the world.

Representative header photo courtesy of Brandi Redd via Unsplash.

Sarani grew up battling serious heart problems that made her very weak and sapped her energy. Life was difficult for Sarani and her parents.

Sarani and her manger coloring scene. (Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Raina Miller with Mission India says, “The family spent every rupee they had on her treatments, and nothing was working. Her mom tried going to temples and praying to their gods, desperate for help — and of course, none of it worked.”

Then Sarani was invited to a Children’s Bible Club run by Mission India. There, she heard stories about Jesus, and especially how He healed the sick. Those stories stayed with her.

“So her Bible Club leader…encouraged her to pray, and Sarani prayed her very first prayer,” says Miller. “It was just the simple words, ‘Please, heal me.’ This time she was praying to the God who hears, not to idols and visiting temples and doing rituals.”

What happened next surprised everyone.

“Within two months, her strength returned — after a lifetime of these heart problems! Her physical heart got stronger, and her heart was also changed by the love of Christ.

“She had joy again, and she was so grateful to Jesus for healing her that she received Him as her Savior.”

Today, Sarani’s faith is spilling over in creative ways. She recently drew a Christmas manger scene — and Mission India turned her artwork into something families around the world can enjoy.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Miller says, “We actually turned it into a coloring page so that kids here in the US and their families can color it together. You can download a copy, print it off, make as many copies as you’d like, and you can color along with Sarani to celebrate with her!”

Download Sarani’s Christmas manger coloring page here!

While Sarani’s story is joyful, it’s also a reminder of the spiritual need in India.

“There are millions more children like Sarani who have never heard of Jesus, and they’re still waiting for hope.”

Mission India is inviting believers to respond through prayer and giving during a year-end matching challenge.

Miller explains, “If you’d like to give toward the matching challenge, you can go to missionindia.org/double, and every gift you give toward 10-Day Bible Clubs will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to December 31.”

Please pray that more children in India would hear the Gospel and experience the hope Sarani found in Christ.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

On a recent trip to Egypt, Erik Ouimette of Uncharted Ministries heard some amazing updates from the team working among the refugee camps there.

Two miracles, two women, 2,000 years between

One of their church planners, *Rahman, shared the story of a Syrian woman named Fatima. During his meeting with this particular woman, he felt Spirit lead him to read Luke 8 to her. It was not a passage he used for sharing the Gospel to refugees, but he read it to her, anyway.

The end of this chapter tells the story of a woman who had a bleeding disorder for 12 years. She sees Jesus moving through the crowd in Capernaum. When she pushes through the crowd and touches his cloak, she is immediately healed.

(Stock photo obtained via Pexels)

At first, Rahman wasn’t sure why God wanted him to share this story with Fatima. But her reaction quickly filled in the blanks.

Ouimette says, “She immediately stands up, leaves this room and goes out to this line of people, grabs five of her friends from the refugee camp, brings them in and tells these women, in front of Rahman, ‘This man just told me a story from his holy book. And that story is my story, except he got the number of years wrong. The woman in the story was bleeding for twelve years. I have only been bleeding for eight years.’”

Rahman told Fatima that he would meet up with her again soon. And then he went on to meet with many other refugees.

“She bursts back into the room six hours later, and she says ‘Rahman, I have stopped bleeding. I have been bleeding for eight years. I have stopped bleeding. You must tell me more stories about this Jesus.’”

“I have stopped bleeding. You must tell me more stories about this Jesus.”

Our powerful God

Ouimette says they get to hear a lot of these miraculous stories taking place in the Middle East. To share these stories, especially to believers in the west, is vital for remembering just how powerful and good our God is.

“What an amazing God we serve that 2,000 years ago when Jesus had his cloak touched on his road to heal someone else […] this woman, in her moment of need, touches his cloak. And the Lord knew that 2,000 years later at a refugee camp in Egypt that this story would touch this woman in a moment of fragility, in a moment of vulnerability where she has no earthly power. She has no access to anything that would heal her.”

Photo by ‪Salah Darwish on Unsplash.

Instead of medical intervention Fatima’s creator healed her through divine means. Now, Fatima is being discipled. The team on the ground hopes she will express her faith in Jesus, soon.

“These refugee areas are the lowest of the low in Egypt. They’re not great places. And for her to have this ailment all the sudden healed by the Lord—this changes, radically, her future. I know we like to think of that in a spiritual sense that a conversion does that, but this literally in a bodily sense, this also changed her life.

“I think the Lord takes great pleasure in the healing of ailments that point us not to ourselves, not to a doctor, but to him.”

Ask God to continue to minister to Fatima. Pray that she would choose to follow Jesus, and that her story would inspire others to learn more about Jesus.

Learn more about Uncharted Ministries, here. 

*Name changed for Security purposes.

Header photo by Jens Aber on Unsplash.

Bibles for China serves to bring God’s Word into the hands of Chinese believers through every legal means possible. They have witnessed that when God’s Word is read, understood and accepted, it brings people to the brink of a life-transforming relationship with Jesus. 

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China shares one story of life transformation from a recent gathering with Chinese church leaders. “One of the pastors pulled me aside and said, ‘Let me tell you how the Word of God was integral to my faith.'”

(Photo courtesy of Bibles for China)

This man we’ll call Philip lost his mother at a young age. His father worked far from home, leaving him with more freedom as a teenager than was good.

“Over the course of time and continued troubles, this young man found himself in a pretty bad way legally,” Rovenstine says. 

“Through a set of miraculous circumstances, he found himself with the New Testament that he felt led by the Holy Spirit to read.”

When Philip read the Bible, he put his faith in Jesus. His story is one of many that encourage Bibles for China in their work.

“Here was a pastor who said, ‘The presence of a Bible, at the right place, at the right time, brought me to faith and called me to ministry. What you do at Bibles for China is an important work and we need to continue to do that,'” Rovenstine says.

Pray for the leaders and pastors in China to boldly endure challenges as they spread God’s Word.

“To continue to pray for endurance, courage and the presence and peace of God in the midst of all the things the enemy throws our way is an important prayer for all of us for one another,” Rovenstine says.

Learn more about Bibles for China’s mission here. 

Header photo courtesy of Bibles for China.

Today, we are sharing Naveen’s* story — a woman who had never heard the Gospel, and went from being a despairing wife to joyfully training as a Church Planter with Mission India!

Bartholomew* with Mission India shares, “Tragedy took place in [Naveen’s] life when her husband became so sick and was anemic. She and her parents took him to several doctors and different temples for healing, but nothing was working. So her husband continued to get sicker and sicker over time.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Everything changed when a pastor came to Naveen’s home. Naveen told him about her husband’s illness and how the doctors and temples could not help him.

The pastor began “sharing the Word of God and praying for her husband, [and] they started to see her husband quickly start to heal. After a few days, her husband was completely healed.”

Naveen began following Jesus after that and dove into God’s Word to understand her new faith.

“The story continues, though,” Bartholomew says. “All of her family members and relatives opposed Jesus. She said to them,… ‘If Jesus gave us a new life, we should glorify His name. So why do you want to do idol worship?’”

In 2018, Naveen felt called to do more to reach her neighbors and community with the Gospel, so she began Church Planter Training with Mission India.

“She has formed house groups and prayer groups in her home, and she’s continued to pray for her family and her ministry. So right now, she is in the midst of being trained to be a Church Planter.

“She’s taking that passion and that love of Jesus and now, herself, becoming a Church Planter to extend what God is doing in India in her local community.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

You can come alongside Church Planters in India like Naveen with critical financial support! Just $2,400 covers their training with Mission India for an entire year.

Bartholomew says, “By investing $2,400, you will enable a church planter to go into a lifetime of ministry after a year of training. So it’s quite a powerful program when you think about it. For just $2,400, you are starting a movement through a new church and a village that may not have a church at all.”

Click here to support Church Planter Training!

*Full names withheld for security.

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

The leader and some team members had arrived to say farewell, pray for her and, at the parents’ request, baptize her, he said.

“When we entered the house, we found a sick girl who was extremely thin, looked very desperate and was just waiting for death,” the leader said. “She was aware that she had a few days left before she would die and had no hope for healing. Although we didn’t know anything about the medical reports of her illness and what it was, I had a feeling that this could be an evil spirit.”

They also didn’t know anything about her faith. Requesting anointing oil, the leader asked for some private time with the young woman, Anila*. As he spoke to her about salvation in Christ, he said, he realized that for a season she had frequently attended his church, but then stopped.

“When I asked her if she was a believer, she said that she was not sure about it.”

“When I asked her if she was a believer, she said that she was not sure about it,” he said. “So I asked her to pray with me to give her life to Jesus, and that baptism should come after being a believer. Then we prayed, and she gave her life to God.”

The team encouraged her with some Bible verses, including a passage from James’ epistle about how the Lord can heal illness, and they prayed and sang worship songs. He anointed her with oil and prayed for healing.

After 15 minutes, he said, her fever shot up, and she began shaking.

“I felt that something was happening, so I asked the team to turn our prayers from asking for healing to giving thanks to the Lord, because healing was happening,” the leader said. “I asked her to sit up in her bed, but the surprise was that she stood up by herself.”

Anila had been unable to move for six months, but suddenly she was able to stand and move with ease, he said. He asked her what had happened.

“She said she didn’t know, but that she felt there was something that happened in her life,” the leader said. “God healed Anila, and after a few days she was able to go outside her house. She came to church and was completely different; she looked healthy and healed. Now she is in the baptism class. Praise the Lord.”

Community Outreach

Anila’s testimony encouraged church members, the leader said, as it reflected the importance of reaching out to the community in the North African country, undisclosed for security reasons.

Visiting homes and handing out Bibles to people on the streets, local missionaries also helped mobilize church members to spread the gospel, he said. One area they targeted was rife with drug use, drunkenness and crime, including rape.

Amid the pandemic and times of insecurity and fear, a local ministry’s hospital provided a refuge of love, peace and healing. Workers carried out two major medical outreaches, restarted an outpatient clinic and offered dental care one day a week.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

“They had heard the gospel many times, but as a church, we didn’t give up,” the leader said. “We were continuing to pray and fast to see change. The challenge was big, but we believed the grace of God was bigger and was working more than what we knew.”

When police recently tried to curtail crime by putting more officers in the slum, workers were reminded that the battle for rehabilitation was essentially spiritual.

“It was an opportunity for us to do our efforts to share the gospel, because we knew that this was spiritual war,” the leader said. “For the first time, I then saw a group of youths coming to the church confessing their sins. As a result of sharing the Bible, 11 young people were baptized, and some of them shared their testimonies of how God transformed them.”

Among those finding new life was a drug addict who attended a church service with his wife, received Christ and now testifies how he was set free from the desperate need to feed his habit.

“There are many examples like him and his wife,” the leader said. “Many people are caring about their lives, coming to church and sharing in the youth services and discussing how to turn to God and submit their lives. Most of those who were baptized were young people.”

‘Greatest Moment’

Despite ministering in a Muslim-majority country where opposition to the gospel is deep-rooted, local missionaries also hold open-air evangelistic events, the leader said.

In spite of persecution, workers continued to proclaim the Lord’s salvation in person and through social media; about 300 people showed interest in learning more after each broadcast of the ministry’s church service.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

At one three-day event, more than 75 people put their faith in Christ, he said. Among them was a woman from a nominally Christian family who had never attended church services; she fell victim to violence, gave in to vice and eventually had children out of wedlock.

She came to the final day of the evangelistic event, the leader said. After hearing the message of eternal life, she thought about going forward to receive Christ but was afraid, she later told him.

“But then she decided and went up to pray,” the leader said. “That night, she gave her life to Jesus as her Savior. When I asked about her first impression at that time, she replied, ‘It was the greatest moment in my life.’ Now she is attending the local church, and she joined in the baptism class to be baptized.”

Workers are sharing the Good News of God’s kingdom throughout North Africa. Help them fulfill Christ’s command to make disciples of all nations.

*Name changed for security reasons

Header and story images courtesy of Christian Aid Mission.

It’s no secret that persecution has been on the rise in Nigeria over the last few years. At the halfway point of 2022, there had already been 23 attacks on churches. That number is more than half of the 31 attacks in 2021, and already higher than the 18 attacks in 2020.

And there’s no sign that the onslaught will slow. In early August, over 20 Christians were killed in the Tariba state region alone. A lawyer was shot in his home. A university student was kidnapped and may be forced into marriage. A group of nuns were captured on their way to mass.

How, in the face of such violence, can Nigeria’s Church find hope? Through the grace of God displayed through stories like Daniel’s.

Daniel’s Miracles

Daniel is a Nigerian believer who survived an attempt on his life. He was living in Maiduguri, a city with a population over 800,000. One night, a group of hooded Boko Haram terrorists charged into their apartment. 

“When they have hoods over their faces, it means that they’re your neighbors, and you likely know them,” Daniel said – as recounted by Emmanuel Ogebe of Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

Daniel, his brothers, and his father all had their throats slit. Miraculously, Daniel and his brothers survived, leaving them with “necklace” scars. Daniel’s father did not.

His family’s troubles weren’t over. Several years later, Daniel’s mother was abducted by Boko Haram. For months, the only way Daniel could see his mother was via YouTube videos posted by her captors showing her surrounded by guns. After almost a year, she was released.

Needless to say, Daniel doesn’t plan on letting her out of his sight. He’s currently studying engineering in college while building a house for his mother and his four siblings. Voice of the Martyrs Canada is helping support the family as they rebuild.

Daniel’s “necklace” may be a reminder of tragedy, but it’s also a reminder of the miraculous healing and saving hand of God. He’s an example of perseverance in a community that does not welcome him. He publicly wears his hope in Christ even while his attackers wear hoods to conceal their own identities.

Pray for Daniel and believers like him who face regular danger. Ask God to protect His people. 

You can support Nigerian Christians directly through Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

Header photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

Resistance groups claim they are drawing closer to victory. But limited information coming out of the country doesn’t paint a clear picture.

Ed Weaver with Spoken Worldwide says, “They’re killing people and burning down villages. COVID-19 was going on at about the same time. You’ve got multiple things that have almost brought Myanmar to a standstill in terms of any engagement with the outside world.”

Out of the news cycle

Why has the crisis in Myanmar dropped out of the headlines? Weaver points to uncertainty. For instance, Ukrainians have hope that they will completely drive out Russian forces. Western governments have remained heavily involved, providing weapons and sanctions.

In Myanmar, things look different. Weaver says, “I think what’s happened is people don’t know the solution to Myanmar. And when no one knows a solution, there’s no activity toward a solution. Everybody kind of throws up their hands.”

Local Christians

But God has not forgotten Myanmar. Weaver says, “Would I be bold enough to pray that God will do a miracle? That somehow there will be freedom for the people of Myanmar, a relief from the oppression they’re under? God heard the cries of the children of Israel in Egypt.”

It starts with the love of the local churches. Ask God to strengthen them. Weaver says, “They’ve turned their hearts toward God, and they love their people. They’re willing to do anything for them. It’s amazing the suffering that they take on themselves.”

“They pray and serve, taking incredible risks just to take care of their fellow countrymen.”

About 90 percent of people in Myanmar practice Buddhism. But local Christians serve all without distinction. Weaver says, “They’re trying to provide clothing, shelter, and food for families whose homes have been burned. And it’s just beautiful to watch them work.”

The header photo shows people protesting the coup in Washington D.C. in March 2021. (Photo courtesy of Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash)

Kenya is a Christian-majority nation, but many of their people groups least-reached with the Gospel are in the eastern part of the country. Global Disciples exists to reach the least-reached with the good news of Jesus and grow disciples.

Global Disciples’ Barbara Gerhart tells the story of Sarah, one of their discipleship trainers from eastern Kenya. Sarah had a group ready to start ministry to the least-reached in their area, but then COVID-19 struck and they had to adjust their outreach plans.

(Photo courtesy of Michael Heuss via Unsplash)

“[Sarah] decided to set up a point where for a couple of hours they would be available,” Gerhart says. “People could come and have prayer with them. Her original intent was just a couple hours maybe once or twice a week.”

One older woman came to them with a cancerous tumor, and even though she was Muslim, she asked for prayer. A few days later, they found out God had completely healed this woman’s tumor.

From there, the word spread about this prayer team and the God they serve.

Gerhart says, “Within about two weeks, they’d had 20 people who had come to the Lord in this Muslim community. A new fellowship was growing and their prayer outreach ministry was turning into a daily, long-term occurrence.

“Sarah’s report is, ‘My Muslim community and the surrounding areas are more open to the Gospel now than ever before. My prayer is that when God intervenes to end the pandemic, we are in a position to reach out to even more Muslims.'”

Gerhart says, “It’s been very exciting to see how God took something that was very small and very limited and has expanded it, and that continues to grow.”

Please pray with Global Disciples that when the pandemic is over, hearts will still be open to God’s goodness and truth in the Muslim communities of eastern Kenya.

Learn more about Global Disciples’ ministry here!

Representational header photo courtesy of Global Disciples.

Agus’ family practices Animism, the belief that souls possess everyday objects and plants . Agus did too, until seven dollars introduced him to the Gospel. Bruce Allen of FMI tells the story.

Unlikely Friends

Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country. Out of more than 263 million people, 229 million are Muslim. Christians do make up the second-largest group, but at only 26 million, Christians are outnumbered nearly 9-to-1. Despite these odds, Agus met and became friends with multiple Christian students at his school.

One Teacher’s Impact

Agus also had a Christian teacher who had conversations with him about the Gospel..

“Agus started to have a conversation with his teacher about who made these things like the rocks and the trees and the rivers. The Christian teacher explained the Christian belief of Creation. And this God who designed the universe, loved his Creation,” Allen says.

The story of creation, rebellion, love, and redemption fascinated Agus and left him wanting to know more.

(Photo courtesy of FMI)

A Bible Shortage

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to get a Bible on Borneo. EvenChristians often do not have a Bible of their own. Believers may only have access to Scripture during church services or as part of small groups of 5-10 built around a single Bible.

FMI just finished a large Scripture delivery this summer, but the need is still there.

“A few days after this campaign, I returned to the US. I’m getting emails, I’m getting phone calls saying, ‘All that you gave us, we have already distributed. We’ve already shared the Gospel with so many people. We need 1000 more Bibles immediately,’”Allen says.

Against all odds, Agus received a Bible from this delivery. It only cost a stranger $7.

Shortly after receiving the Bible, Agus gave his life to Christ. Almost immediately, he went on to share the Gospel with his family. Though his parents did not join him in faith, they were glad to see their son making up his own mind and gave a local pastor permission to baptize Agus.

Thanks to this series of small miracles, Agus is joining Church life. Now, he has Christian friends and a Bible to call his own.

Distributing Bibles in Indonesia (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Miracles don’t need to be flashy or earth-shaking. Conversations, small donations, and friendship can change lives even in the face of persecution.

“We just need to remember that even when we hear these stories of persecution, that there are people that the Lord is drawing to himself. Jesus said, ‘if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all types of people to myself,’ and he’s still in the business of doing that,” Allen says.

Don’t Downplay Your Impact

The Gospel came to Agus through the smallest of sacrifices. Someone donated $7 to have a Bible printed, shipped and delivered through FMI’s Tangible Resources program. Do the same for someone else here.

But it didn’t stop there; someone also prayed for him. Join them in prayer for Agus, his family, and his continued journey of faith.

Pray for believers like the schoolteacher who took a risk and shared the Gospel. Ask that more Bibles and stories of the Gospel will reach the people of Indonesia and overcome the barrier of hundreds of local languages.

Header photo provided by FMI: Agus (left) receives his Bible from Yandi (right).