Additionally, Poland says it will help repatriate Ukrainian men who are subject to the draft, which could be up to 371,000 men in Poland alone.

Kristi Mock with Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) says she was recently talking with pastors’ wives in Ukraine who are worried about the new law taking effect.

“Now, they don’t know if at one point, even maybe tomorrow, their husbands are going to end up on the front lines or be taken away and they’re going to be doing all of this on their own. So I think that there’s a lot of fear in that.”

(Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

SGA supports pastors in Ukraine who are doing critical Gospel relief work in churches and communities, even in dangerous areas. Fewer pastors would limit ministry capabilities and put more strain on pastors’ wives and other church workers.

One pastor’s wife, Natalie, described to Mock seeing her husband put on armor every day and go to the frontlines to deliver food and evacuate people.

Mock says, “She shared just how fearful she is when her husband puts on armor every day and goes to the frontlines to evacuate people or deliver food and aid to them.

“She said that every day, he’s supposed to call her at nine o’clock and to say, ‘I’m okay.’

“One day she didn’t hear from him and so she was getting worried. So she waited for that phone call. When she finally got that phone call coming through, it wasn’t him,” says Mock.

“The person on the other end of the line said that he was in the hospital because he had a mortar shell hit his car.”

Natalie couldn’t get to her husband. She could barely even pray, she was so overwhelmed. So she met up with her Bible study, and the Bible study ladies prayed for her.

The Orthodox church building in Chernihiv, Ukraine was destroyed by an aerial bomb in March 2022. (Photo, caption courtesy of Anzhela Bets/Unsplash)

Thankfully, Natalie’s husband survived. But it is the risk these pastors face.

After his recovery, Natalie and her husband have continued faithful ministry with SGA’s support. They recently attended an SGA retreat for pastors and their wives.

Mock says Natalie shared, “She asked [her husband] one day if it was possible for him to stop [front line ministry]. He said, ‘If I don’t do it, who will go?'”

Pray for the safety of SGA-supported Ukrainian pastors who remain in harm’s way to share the Gospel.

“The faithfulness that they have and the trust and reliance on God is what I saw over and over again.”

Please also pray for ministry doors to remain open in Ukraine so the Church may continue being Jesus’s hands and feet to suffering communities.

You can support Ukrainian pastors with SGA here!

Header photo depicts a burnt Russian tank near Kyiv. (Photo, caption courtesy of Alex Fedorenko/Unsplash)

“The judge denied them access to their attorney. This means Iran wants to make examples of these converts,” Heart4Iran’s Mike Ansari says.

See our full Iran coverage here.

“These are the first Christians sentenced to prison under the new law in Iran, specifically during the presidency of Ibrahim Raisi, who is known for his intolerance towards anyone who deviates from revolutionary Islamic values,” Ansari continues.

Left to right: Milad Goodarzi, Amin Khaki, and Alireza Nourmohammadi.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Article18)

“The outcome of this case will set the tone for future harassment, arrest, and persecution of any Muslim who may convert to Christianity.”

Passed in February, the new law allows police to target religious minorities in-person and online. Plus, it makes the punishment for so-called “crimes” even more severe.

“What used to be a six-month jail sentence for converts from Islam to Christianity can now be a maximum jail term of five years, coupled with mandatory Islamic reeducation,” Ansari says.

“The other thing to consider is that the Iranian intelligence is actively offering bribes to detained converts to become an informant. The Church will be going through a challenging time.”

Find your place in the story

Ask the Lord to strengthen and encourage persecuted believers. Pray God will turn what man intends for evil into blessing and favor.

“Up until February, the Christian converts living in Iran were charged with propaganda against the state. With the implementation of these new amendments, an individual or group that deviates from Twelver Shiism, including converts from Islam to Christianity, are considered a cult guilty of actions against state security,” Ansari says.

“Many agree that Iran will be cracking down on Christians more than before.”

Pray the Holy Spirit will continue drawing disillusioned Muslims to Jesus Christ.

“Iran used to be a free country… After the Islamic Revolution, conservative Iranian rulers began a methodic and a gradual purge of anything that stood in contrast to their Islamic values,” Ansari says.

“After 40 years, Iran is ranked the eighth-most dangerous country to be a follower of Jesus.”

Header image depicts Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi, who was elected president of Iran in June 2021. Heart4Iran’s Mike Ansari says Raisi is known for his intolerance towards anyone who deviates from revolutionary Islamic values.  (Photo courtesy of Maryam Kamyab/MEHR News/Wikimedia Commons)

But if you’re like most of the world, you already know all of that. What you might not know is that a new law in Iran could prevent the Church from spreading the Gospel online. And you wouldn’t be alone; Mike Ansari with Heart4Iran says the law has flown under the radar even for local Iranians.

Iran is not exactly known for its religious freedom. “Traditionally, Iran has had a very strict law on anybody who is a Muslim and becomes a Christian,” Ansari says. “They frown on that and the punishments are very severe: imprisonment or even death.”

Recently, those strict laws have stepped up another level.

“Iran is [accusing] our ministries and others of introducing deviant psychological manipulation or propaganda contrary to Islam, whether in real or virtual space. They are now labeled as sects and punishable with imprisonment, flogging, fines, or even death sentence.”

The new law means not only ministries but counseling services, churches, advice groups, or any teaching contrary to Islam could be labeled “deviant” and “manipulative.” Want to share a Bible verse in response to a friend’s social media? Offer to pray to Jesus during a video call? Create a video series explaining the problems of Islam? In Iran, any of these could feasibly earn you a death sentence.

Digital ministry can now earn you criminal charges (Representative photo courtesy of Unsplash)

What’s surprising, Ansari says, is how many people don’t know about the new law. It’s not like this is out of nowhere; a pattern of persecution has existed in Iran for some time now.

“This did not happen overnight. Many people believe that this kind of amendment was part of a greater plan that was put in place by the Iranian supreme leader and his team.”

And yet this new development has largely gone unnoticed. Locals still see Iran as a free country, largely because for majority Muslims, it is. “Sadly, the reality is that the average Iranian that is in Iran is not focusing on minority groups,” Ansari says.

“It’s like an old example; when you put the frog in boiling water, the frog jumps out, but if you put a frog into cold water and slowly increase the temperature, the frog is going to sit through it.”

So what do we do? Ansari is worried that the global Church isn’t going to notice the plight of the Iranian Church. Do not let this story pass silently by.

“When we are quiet towards atrocities and brutalities that we see done in the name of law, in the name of God, many times… there’s a danger of us becoming numb to what is going on,” Ansari says. “Yes, there is a lot of ugliness in the world. But what can we do?”

Join Iranian believers in prayer for the future (Photo courtesy of Heart4Iran)

You can share this crisis. You can support groups like Heart4Iran. You can pray for peace, wisdom, and justice in Iran.

“We want to work with every single one of you guys to bring more awareness to your church. Members need to know about this.”

Use these tools to learn more about the situation in Iran and share the information with your local body of believers. Help advocate for Iranian believers.

“God is speaking to you stand up and be a part of this global movement.”

Learn more from Heart4Iran directly right here.

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Over 10,000 orphaned children are institutionalized in Peru. (Photo by Buckner International)

Peru (MNN) — The Bible urges us to take care of the sojourner and widow, and to treat them justly. Along with those two groups, the Bible spends a lot of time urging for justice to be done for the orphans and fatherless.

Right now in Peru, there are over 10,000 kids in government care institutions.

Many of the orphaned children, once at an institution, stay there for years until they age out at 18. After that, the children either have to return to the dangerous setting that they were rescued out of, or go to the streets. Until recently, foster care was not an option.

Since 2007, Buckner International has been fighting for a foster care system in Peru. The first group of children was put into their pilot program in March of 2008. The results in the children’s lives since then have been tremendous.

The children were able to fully develop in a healthy family setting. Foster care was the appropriate solution.

Yet one problem remained: no legal support existed for foster care. The director of Buckner Peru Director, Claudia Leon Vergara, says, “Having a law is really important for us because so far, getting each child in foster families has been such hard work.” What Buckner really wanted to do was change the entire support system for vulnerable children in Peru to protect them from being underdeveloped and having to go back to dangerous conditions.

On December 5^, Peru’s legislators voted unanimously to add foster care to their official legal code. The law will take hold in January.

The new law will help secure all of the work that Buckner has been doing the last several years. The potential for a child to get into a foster family will improve, and the children’s rights will be better protected.

It’s been a long road to get to this point, but Leon has already been reminded why she is doing it: “The families are really lovely ones, [and] they really care for the kids. It’s amazing when you see the changes when [the children] join the program and where they are right now. It’s amazing. It makes me feel like everything we do is more than worth it.”

So far, 44 kids have gone through the program, and around 20 are in the program right now. Thanks to Buckner, they were able to spend Christmas with family instead of in the institution.

To prove to the government that foster care was needed was the first problem Buckner encountered when they began their work. “In Peru, we didn’t have foster care at all. So it’s been really hard for us because, here you are, trying to offer something that is a better way to care for the children, but the government doesn’t even see the problem of sending kids to the institution,” says Leon.

Buckner had to get the attention and approval of the government so that they would no longer ignore the absence of a foster care program. “The first thing I will say we have managed is to put the rights of the children to live in families in the public agenda.” They did this by beginning their pilot program. It was obvious how different it was for the children in families as opposed to those in institutional care.

Before Leon began promoting foster care, Latin America was not familiar with the concept, and many assumed that foster care would not work with the various cultures. But in 2007, the attitudes began shifting. Since then, Leon has done training for foster care in Argentina, Honduras, Guatemala, Guyana, and most recently, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Mexico.

If you’re wondering how you might get involved in speeding up the process, click here. As for prayer, Leon says, “We would love you to pray that we can keep growing with the program, [and] that we can find lovely families that want to join the program.” She hopes that the program will continue to progress so that they will begin to make a dent in the 10,000 children who are yet institutionalized.

Late last week, a new law passed through India's Parliament. It makes stalking, voyeurism, and acid attacks a crime, and also allows judges to issue the death penalty to repeat offenders or rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.

According to officials, it's the harshest legal action to come against sexual violence in India so far.

"These new reports that we're hearing and these new laws are one more indicator that God is at work, changing India for the better," says Dave Stravers, President of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Mission India.

"For the first time, there seems to be an outcry against this, whereas in years past, the situation was just accepted by everyone that that's just the way it is and nothing can really change."

Early last month, we spoke with Stravers following India's presidential approval of the law. Now that the decree has passed through Parliament, the only thing keeping it from becoming official is President Pranab Mukherjee's signature.

Pray that the new law will protect women from sexual attacks.

"It's positive that India is trying to bring their criminal laws into a place where the rights of women are protected and the abuse of women is punished," says Stravers.

However, "There is a negative side to this, from my perspective."

He notes the legal push only came after the Dec. 16 attack hit global headlines and India received tremendous pressure from the international community. Stravers says it'll take more than a law to change culture.

"Women are just summarily abused without any consequences for people. That's a worldview," he explains. "The culture of India is based on some value systems that are very far-removed from the Judeo-Christian ethic–the Scriptural foundation that we have in the West.

"Women in the Bible are recognized as [being] created in the image of God, having their own dignity and their own place in creation. In India and many other places of the world, this simply is not the case."

Stravers says worthlessness and feeling "sub-human" dominates the self-image of most Indian women. Lives change as a result of introducing women to Christ's love through Adult Literacy Classes, he says.

"When a woman learns to read and write, she suddenly is empowered," explains Stravers. "She can read the contract that she's asked to sign to borrow money, she can read the sign on the bus that tells where she's going, and she can make change in the marketplace to know if someone is cheating her."

Moms who graduate from Mission India's literacy courses pass along a sense of self-worth and Scriptural value to their daughters. They also enroll their girls in school–an atypical action for most parents in India.

"They're not considered worthy of it, so we're teaching those values, even as we teach people that the Lord Jesus Christ loves them," Stravers says.

As women young and old find new identity and purpose, they start carrying themselves with dignity. Families and neighbors see the change and pretty soon, entire villages are transformed.

"This is the way God changes a country: not through laws, but through people's hearts," says Stravers.

Pray that more lives will be transformed through this literacy program. You can bring a woman from 0 to a 5th grade reading level with a one-time $30 investment.

"Pray that people will continue to value literacy," requests Stravers. "Learning to read is a door-opener into villages that otherwise would be closed to Gospel witness."

Pray that many people will come to Christ as the Gospel spreads in India.

"India's very open to the Good News right now," says Stravers. "People all over India, for the first time, are open to this message.

"For centuries this nation, which is soon to be the most-populous nation on Earth, has been very closed to the Gospel. And now, within our lifetime, the Holy Spirit is working in all the different villages and cities of India to bring about change."