These uncertainties are disrupting ministry as well as family life. One gospel worker with FMI says, “I’m not able to make any solid or concrete plan with our overseas partners.”

He adds that it’s not only international travel in question. “I’m not even sure that I would be able to go and defend my PhD paper to [an]other state next month, because it’s unsure that I would be able to participate in my PhD graduation or not.”

Green card example (Photo courtesy of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

An upcoming FMI conference in Pakistan will likely be impossible for him to attend as originally planned. Meanwhile, his family carries copies of their documentation wherever they go. They are also preparing to give a power of attorney to a colleague in case the unexpected happens.

It’s caused serious conversations around their family dinner table. What country should they go to if they were to be deported? What should their kids do if they were to be stopped by an officer? 

“As a Christian, I have only two commands: you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, and you should love the neighbor as yourself,” he says. “But the question is, as an immigrant in America, who is my neighbor? Because that’s going to be defined ideologically, territorially, nationally, and all these series of divisive elements.

“I think one of the problems we have right now [is] that we have to have an enemy to create a national policy. But as Christians, we do not have — or we cannot have — any enemy.”

For others who are caught in these same uncertainties today, he points to the hope found in Joshua 1:9: “The last part of this verse is ‘for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’” 

Find your place in the story through prayer. Ask God to give FMI and this gospel worker discernment and protection to navigate complex circumstances. Pray with him that his kids will be strong Christian witnesses as they respond to comments and questions from classmates. 

For his ministry, he says, “Pray especially for clarity and favor as I plan ministry-related trips for FMI and to expand the Kingdom.”

Header photo is a stock photo courtesy of stokpic via Pixabay.

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China notes that of course there have been many Chinese missionaries in the past. However, for their organization, the move to helping send national Chinese missionaries is new.

“Our work here at Bibles for China has always focused on helping Christians within China receive a Bible,” Rovenstine says. “In recent years, there has been this move towards partnership. What can we do together to reach not just China, but the world?”

Joining Forces

Two different groups have reached out to Bibles for China to help get Scripture to Chinese missionaries. They work in parts of the world that traditionally have been very restricted for Westerners. However, Chinese national missionaries face less scrutiny than Westerners would, due to political alliances and social norms. This has meant that in places traditionally labeled as restrictive, Chinese missionaries are seeing great gains for the Gospel. People are trusting Christ and getting baptized.

(Image courtesy of Bibles for China)

This has been a huge source of encouragement for Bibles for China.

Rovenstine says, “I just think that’s really cool when a group of people that you’ve been reaching out to for the sake of evangelism says to us, ‘Hey, we want to be evangelistic too. We want to take the Gospel to the world. And would you partner with us in this effort?’”

How to Get Involved

This new dynamic means that Bibles for China will need to work out the best ways to support Chinese missionaries from their platform. Rovenstine asks for prayer as they decide how to most effectively offer funding, networking, Bible locating and delivery. All of those things take time and might look different based on where Bibles for China sends resources.

If you want to join the work of Bibles for China financially as they support Chinese missionaries, click here.

Image courtesy of Bibles for China.

(Photo courtesy of Jesus Film Project)

Legacy meets a new world

“Our vision and passion is to give every person in the world the opportunity to hear Jesus say, ‘I love you’ in their heart language,” says Holly Newell with Jesus Film Project.

The JESUS film is the most watched film of all time. Newell shares that over the past 45 years it has been viewed 11 billion times, and more than 600 million people have given their lives to Christ.

It’s a God-given legacy, but one they aren’t content to sit back on.  

“Not long ago, we took a look at the world and its growing population, and we said, ‘We’re doing what God has called us to do, but we’re not doing it fast enough,’” Newell says. 

Research led them to two important facts about the world today. One is that the majority of the people who have never heard the name of Jesus live in 12 specific countries. The other is that the world is very young.

“The average age of all the people in the world is 30,” says Newell. ” In some of those top 12 countries of unreached people, the average age is only 18.”

(Image courtesy of Jesus Film Project)

The JESUS Film for the next generation

The new animated JESUS will use much of the audio tracks already recorded in more than two thousand languages for the 1979 film. That means when it releases in December 2026, it will quickly become available for people around the world. 

And then? The global Church will step in. 

“We partner with over 1,800 different mission organizations. They’re the ones who are doing the hard work of showing the film, doing the follow up, building the churches,” Newell says.

“So we just want to take this new animated tool, give it to them and say, ‘Go! Go and reach the people that have yet to hear!’” 

Get involved

Even though the animated JESUS film just finished pre-production and is two years away, Newell invites you to get involved with their gospel tools today. Here are two ways to do that:

(Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project via Facebook)

Keep in the loop
Receive updates and prayer requests for the animated JESUS film. Click here to learn more and sign up for email updates or download the insider app. 

Take JESUS with you
By downloading the Jesus Film App, you can carry the film in two thousand languages in your pocket. And it’s easy to share with anyone in their heart language! Simply search their language in the app, then forward the link to that version with a brief message. They’ll be able to open the link and watch without any need to download.

Click here to find the Jesus Film App on Google Play or the App Store. 

Header photo courtesy of Jesus Film Project.

More than 8 million people have been displaced since the outbreak of conflict in April 2023 between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary group called Rapid Support Forces. See our full coverage here.

Amy, a worker in the Bible translation industry, says the chaos has slowed or stopped altogether much of their work in four Sudanese languages and dialects.

Photo of a family in Sudan courtesy of Sudan Envoy/Wikimedia Commons.

“But in some cases, now, we’ve been hearing of the workers returning back to our partner and to the place that they’re doing the work, because they know that they can be safely there,” she says. 

Amy says these partners leading the translation efforts have expertise and experience working in the region. They are prepared to help their returning brothers and sisters work through trauma. 

“I think the fact that people are returning to do the work speaks to that. They know that by going there, they’re going to be cared for not only to make sure that the work is done, but cared for as a person,” Amy says.

Many have lost family, homes and churches and had to flee from everything they have known. At the same time, they are utterly convinced of the value of God’s Word. 

“They want their own people to know Jesus in in a way that’s meaningful to them. They’re committed to doing the work whether that means it’s unsafe or scary for them. They want more and more people to come to know Christ.”

Amy can’t share the details of their translation projects, but that isn’t an obstacle to our prayers. 

Ask God to protect the entire team and provide every resource they need. Pray for peace, and for God’s Word to reach Sudan and transform it. 

Finally, pray for the local partners as they help the returning Sudanese walk through grim wartime realities. 

“To deal with the trauma, (encourage) their faith, keep them uplifted and keep them strong during this time is very difficult. So continue to pray that God would minister to their hearts and speak to them through the Holy Spirit, keeping them strong and firm and grounded in their faith,” Amy says. 

Header photo courtesy of Abdulaziz Mohammed/Unsplash.

And the people of Poland have greeted them with mountains of freely donated coats, strollers, and diapers. Refugees have found shelter in school gymnasiums or people’s homes.

WMP

World Missionary Press has already sent thousands of booklets to the area. Helen Williams says, “First off, we got an email from a ministry in California. They sent humanitarian aid, and they’ve been packing up boxes and putting booklets in. We sent them 4,000 booklets in Ukrainian and Russian.”

“I also got a call from a contact in Canada, who said they have a contact in Poland. They asked us to send them 4,000 booklets and get them to the contact.”

WMP has a contact in Denmark as well, who expects to see about 50,000 refugees in that country. The ministry produces 48-page topical Bible studies in over 350 languages. Williams says they happened to have enough Ukrainian books on hand to be able to ship immediately.

God is at work

Williams has also heard from two major distributors who work with WMP and travel around the world. “One works particularly in Africa and in Southeast Asia. But one is very familiar with Eastern Europe. And they’re just dying to go.”

Despite the horrific situation, God is at work, Williams says. “The Lord is working in hearts, and we’ve got material on the shelf. We’re going to get it there through these partners. This is exciting, and I just believe the Lord has not turned his face away from all of this.”

Pray these booklets will give people hope and point them to the love of Jesus for all people. Support WMP here.

The header photo shows Ukrainian refugees. (Photo courtesy of Mvs.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Nehemiah with FMI talks about the BLA. “This terrorist organization has nothing to do with Islamic ideology. They are Muslim terrorists, but they really just want to control their own land. They want to separate from Pakistan. And they want to establish Islamic law in this region, which they are calling Great Balochistan.”

Motivations

Nehemiah says the BLA doesn’t want cooperation between the Chinese government and Pakistan. They believe the Pakistani government is exploiting Balochistan to further its relationship with China.

The BLA emerged in the summer of 2000 when it carried out bombings against civilians. But the attacks against Chinese infrastructure projects are the largest they have carried out in years.

Nehemiah says, “This area, the whole region, is almost a no-go area. If you want to go there, you need very special permission from Pakistan authorities. And the reason that people do not go there is because of these insurgents and their targets and these killings.”

Danger to Christians

The BLA specifically targets foreigners or minorities. Nehemiah says they have attacked churches, as well as Shia Muslim and Hindu groups.

Ask God to protect FMI partners working in the region. Pray many people in Balochistan will embrace Jesus. Nehemiah says, ‘We have partners there who are serving and helping people to know about Jesus Christ. They’re trying to take the Word of God to these mountains.”

“We were there a few months ago, and we witnessed that serving in this region is extremely difficult.”

The header photo shows the flag of the BLA. (Photo courtesy of HapHaxion, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The attack took place not far from Somalia, which has been a hotbed for Islamic extremism since the 1980s. Al-Shabab itself was established in 2006.

This is one of ten attacks on Kenyan soil since the year began. Nehemiah with FMI says, “The incident occurred just two days after a 14-seater vehicle, traveling in Mandera County from a place called Arabia, ran over an improvised land mine, killing 13 people and injuring scores of others now admitted in the Mandera hospital.”

In late January, the U.S. and several European embassies warned of terrorist threats in Kenya, urging their citizens to avoid public places.

Targeting Christians

Nehemiah says many attacks target Christians who are traveling across the country for work. “We know of buses being stopped and Christian pulled out and killed while Muslims are let go. FMI partners serve in this Muslim-majority area, the northeast counties of Kenya, where Al-Shabab is very active in terrorism. This is an opportunity for the listeners to pray for FMI partners who are sharing the Word of God in these terrible and difficult conditions.”

Al-Shabab wants to unite large areas of East Africa under one Islamic government, eliminating all other religions. Pray the story of Jesus will change many hearts and bring peace.

Ask God to strengthen Kenyan Christian as they live under the threat of attack or starvation if they are captured. Nehemiah says, “May they be strengthened by their faith in Jesus Christ and our communion with them.”

The header photo shows people grieving after an attack against a Kenya FMI partner’s church in 2021. This attack also occurred in a county bordering Somalia. The attack killed 14 and sent 60 to the hospital. (Photo courtesy of FMI)

“A partnership could be as simple as we help your church take mission trips to a particular part of the world that you have a passion or a heart for it could be we train your congregation on how to share the Gospel effectively and confidently and how to make disciples. Or it could be a combination of those things, or it could be we help your church with local evangelism,” Johnston explains.

Need for Training

But Johnston notes there is a lack of evangelism in the U.S. He has heard numbers as drastically low as 10 percent for the number of churchgoers who have shared the Gospel this year. In 2018, a Barna study revealed 51 percent of people attending churches are unaware of the Great Commission. E3 is changing these statistics through church partnerships.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

e3 helps churches share Christ in their communities. The organization also helps churches embrace long-term missions work, too.

e3 church partnerships are available to churches in the U.S. and abroad. While most requests for partnerships come from U.S. churches, Johnston says e3’s training is universal and can be applied in various church contexts. It is all Biblically based and follows the patterns Jesus laid out for his disciples.

“What we tell churches and what we’re really all about is just trying to come alongside the church and serve with them in any way that they see fit,” Johnston says.

“If your church is passionate about Ukraine, then we can help facilitate trips there. We can help send some people long-term there. Whatever it may be. If your church is just really passionate about reaching people in your own community, we can help with that, too.”

Reaching Out With the Gospel

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

Sometimes a person’s first step to knowing Christ is not attending church, but hearing the Gospel at a coffee shop or in a park. It is an opportunity to ask questions and study scripture on a one-on-one basis.

“We need to meet people where they are, and so what I think these church partnerships do is help congregations, help our churches really embrace that and do that and go from inviting people and instead go to those people and seek those people out,” Johnston says.

Are you interested in a church partnership? Then explore what e3 has to offer here!

“There’s a form on that page that you can fill out and that form goes directly to our team that will then reach out to you and figure out the best way that we can come alongside you or your church and just help you accomplish your mission, your goals, your vision,” Johnston says.

Attacks on Churches

Pakistan Church security volunteers (Photo courtesy of FMI)

FMI’s Executive International Director Bruce Allen often hears reports from the field of attacks on Pakistani churches.

“We are seeing an increase in illegal land seizures or attempts at illegal land seizures where radical Muslims in a community will try and seize the Church property from the Christians, even sometimes while the Christians are in the Church worshipping,” Allen says.

When perpetrators successfully carry out their attacks, Christians rarely receive justice due to deep corruption in the police force and the rest of the judicial system.

Preventing Violence

In early 2019, FMI helped fortify partner churches in Pakistan with security updates. This has protected FMI partner churches when scheduled power outages afford attackers an opportunity to cause harm.

CCTV Camera Installation (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Allen says FMI equipped churches with CVT cameras with night vision capabilities and alternative power sources. This has not only protected churches during power outages but provided them with evidence to prove attacks and discover who is attacking the church. However, FMI does not work with every church or every church planter in Pakistan, meaning neighboring churches are still vulnerable.

“In one of the situations, the assailants were known to the police. They already had a rap sheet, we’ll say. They’ve been trouble makers, not just against Christians, but just in general. Well, when the police arrested and detained those assailants. [But] they just slapped them on the wrist and said ‘this church that you’re trying to attack, they obviously have security measures that go beyond what you expected, so don’t both that church again’,” Allen says.

“So, that’s a nice thing to say, but then what the police also said was ‘we know of a church a couple of kilometers away that doesn’t have those security measures. Go attack that one.”

What next?

If intolerance against religious minorities such as Christians continues in society and does not improve, attacks will likely intensify.

“When a culture tolerates or encourages attacks against physical spaces, such as churches or learning centers or even sites like a cemetery that should be sacred, it’s easy for that culture then to take the next step and tolerate attacks against the worshippers themselves,” Allen says.

These attacks are not limited to just Pakistan. FMI’s partners are seeing similar attacks in Bangladesh and Indonesia. In these cases, attacks are less overt. Attacks can look like radicals pressuring Muslim landlords to terminate their lease with Christian tenants or local authorities threatening to cut off water supply for churches or church members unless they stop their Christian activity.

How to Pray

Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Pray for the protection and encouragement of churches in Pakistan. Pray for pastors and other church leaders to have wisdom and understanding in regard to these challenging situations. Pray for healthy relationships between Christians and local authorities before attacks occur and for these relationships to help prevent corruption. Pray for these Christians to respond in love, even to those who attack them, for Christ to go forth in these areas.

To learn more about FMI’s work, click here.

Help financially support FMI’s security work with churches here!

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

(Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash)

“It really stems from 2 Corinthians 6:2, which says ‘Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation’…What it’s saying is that there is no greater time than right now. There’s no greater time to share the Gospel with someone. There’s no greater time to pray for someone or to pray with someone, to tell someone you love them,” Johnston says.

Vision Behind ‘No Greater Time’ Campaign

God has given e3 the vision to see one million new churches planted worldwide by 2025. To help achieve this, the campaign has sub-themes: No Greater Journey; No Greater Story; No Greater Mission. Each theme digs into the supporting elements of the campaign to reach e3’s 2025 vision.

“There’s no greater time to share the story of Jesus. There’s no greater time to go on a journey to spread the hope and love of Christ. There’s no better time to get involved with the mission of spreading the Gospel to every person everywhere,” Johnston says.

Photo Courtesy E3Partners via Facebook

Along with living into the mindset of No Greater Time, the campaign also presents an opportunity for financial impact. Planting one million churches is going to take tangible resources.

These resources help support training that will eqip people to share the Gospel using a variety of strategies. It also means supporting people called to long-term work in ministry, national leaders e3 partners with in-country, and various programs e3 provides.

Currently, e3 is running a $500,000 challenge for current donors through the end of the year. If the ministry reaches the $500,000 mark, a matching grant will double that amount.

E3 is also running a $1.3 million matching grant for new donors. With both of these matching grants, each dollar given is going further now than it would if donors put off their generosity for a different day. Will you consider giving?

To give to support this vision, click here.

But First, Pray

(Photo by Michael Heuss on Unsplash)

Ultimately though, this vision will not become a reality without the Holy Spirit. Every day e3 staff set alarms for prayer at 10:02 am. Johnston encourages others to do the same and pray for more laborers to reap the plentiful harvest.

Will you join us in praying for this vision and the No Greater Time campaign?

“Lord, I ask that you give us the courage and the mindset to believe that there’s truly no greater time than right now that now is the time of your favor. And now is the day of salvation,” Johnston prays.

“And so, Lord, I ask that you put that on our hearts, that you put that on our minds, and that in whatever way that affects us in whatever way that moves us that you would move us in those directions and move us to just do everything that we can to further your kingdom.”

Learn more about the No Greater Time campaign along with ways to join HERE.

“There’s no greater time than right now. There’s no time to waste…Don’t hesitate when you see an opportunity to spread the light of Christ, to share the gospel with someone…That’s really the heart behind the campaign,” Johnston says.

Header photo courtesy of e3 Partners via Facebook.