Three-quarters of all refugees in Egypt come from Sudan, which has tripled the total refugee population in just two years. Bonita, with the Nuba Mountains Bible Institute in Cairo (NBIC), says that most of the refugees they encounter are single mothers with children.

“The husbands didn’t come with them, either to protect our land back in Sudan, or maybe they were killed in the war,” she explains.

Learn more about NBIC here.

Single moms struggle to survive

(Photo courtesy Speak Media Uganda/Pexels)

Legal barriers make it hard for refugee moms to secure gainful employment in Egypt. “[Companies] have to have 10 Egyptian employees for every foreigner that they want to hire, so it’s hard to keep that ratio,” Bonita says.

With hungry mouths to feed, many refugee moms find work wherever they can. “Most of them work under the table and just get cash in hand,” Bonita says.

“They’ll work cleaning somebody’s house or they’ll work cleaning somebody’s business, or making tea for them, or running errands.”

This kind of work often reinforces harmful stereotypes. “There’s a lot of racism in Egypt,” Bonita says.

“In all the old movies, all of the servants in the homes were dark skinned, so anybody dark skinned is looked at as ‘less than’ and lower. Every day, they’re traumatized by racism in the streets.”

To meet these needs, NBIC and its partners offer purpose and the hope of Christ through an intensive, year-long women’s program that meets weekly.

“It focuses on psychological awareness, spiritual and theological training, and leadership training, so it’s quite a broad program and covers different aspects of their lives,” Bonita says.

The women’s program also “equips them to train others and to serve their community,” she adds.

In addition to the women’s program, NBIC offers a three-year refugee assistance program that meets twice a week, as well as an intensive annual program that meets four days a week.

Restoring dignity

NBIC also meets the unique needs of Sudanese women. In 2024, “a lady came from the [U.S.] and did a series of workshops on women’s health [and] that really empowered women to have a little bit more control over their bodies and their health,” Bonita says.

(Photo courtesy nomso obiano/Pexels)

Rape and sexual assault are frequently used weapons of war in Sudan. Last year’s workshops “encouraged the community to support and embrace women, even if they’ve conceived because of rape… instead of the community rejecting them,” Bonita says.

“Women are coming that are pregnant, but not because they want to get pregnant at all.”

The workshops helped Sudanese women realize their unique value in God’s eyes.

“She (the presenter) really integrated the Gospel into that, and how Jesus gave us life through His water and His blood, and women have an opportunity to be like God in also giving life through water and blood,” Bonita says.

“That really gave dignity to the women and helped them to see that, ‘I am made in the image of God, and I get to be like God in a way that men don’t.’”

How to help

Ask the Lord to surround refugee moms with His comfort and peace. “A lot of them have families still in Sudan that are suffering, and they get news of relatives that have been killed and things, so it’s really challenging,” Bonita says.

“Pray for all the (refugee) women who are single moms in Cairo. They have three, four, or five kids, and they’re trying to make a go of it on their own.”

Pray that Sudanese refugee moms can find strength in the Lord. Bonita says, “All of our students have a real heart to serve their community, and yet they have to work really hard just to provide for their family and for their kids.”

Header image is a representative photo depicting Sudanese refugee women and children. (Wikimedia Commons)

The latest headlines are desperate. Mothers and young children face death by starvation as the lean season approaches. Both sides of the ongoing civil war target hospitals and displacement camps as they fight to control the last capital in Darfur.

Refugees fleeing to neighboring countries arrive with tales of unimaginable horror.

“Some refugees, their loved ones were murdered in [front of] their eyes. Some of them were raped at gunpoint,” says unfoldingWord partner Reverend Joseph*, whose ministry carries out biblical trauma healing efforts in the camps.

Sexual assault is commonly used as a weapon of war in Sudan, with both women and men falling victim. One man couldn’t look anyone in the eye when he met the believers who offered trauma healing. He was raped at gunpoint by four militants before fleeing his home city.

(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA)

“We counseled him, [saying,] ‘This is not your fault’ [and] he went through our training, so the shame [left him,]” Reverend Joseph says.

“He feels like he can start again, and he was healed.”

Sudanese church planters partnering with unfoldingWord offer biblical trauma healing in several locations. More about that here. Some teams also work in church-centric Bible translation, bringing God’s Word to 11 minority languages.

Muslim refugees encounter the Gospel when Bible translators test out portions of Scripture in refugee languages.

“It changes the narrative they were raised in, that you cannot pray in your language, God will not hear you. You have to pray in Arabic,” Reverend Joseph says.

“Some of the tribes who were totally Muslim [have now been introduced] to Christianity, and they learn that they can pray in their language. They feel like God is regarding them [and] they have value in the eyes of God.”

Pray Muslim refugees will turn to Christ as they understand His truth. Support Bible translation in Sudan here through unfoldingWord.

*Pseudonym

Header image courtesy of unfoldingWord.

The junta has promised to hold free elections in the future, but they say they now need more time to stabilize the country. The military seized power from the elected government in a February 2021 coup.

Atrocities

Meanwhile, numerous soldiers are having changes of heart. Brian Dennett with AMG International says, “AMG staff work in several refugee camps along the Myanmar border. They were able to confirm the stories that we’ve all been reading that soldiers are admitting, even with tremendous guilt, to killing, torturing, and raping innocent citizens as they carried out orders from the military leaders.”

“Even the elderly and children have been targets.”

It’s not a small number either, Dennett says. “We’re hearing that a significant number of soldiers, after learning that they were not just going to be serving as guards, are indeed defecting.”

At the camps, AMG cares for people fleeing the violence by crossing into Thailand. Many children are unaccompanied, either losing their parents or being separated from them. Dennett says, “Some of the children we are serving were found scavenging to survive. Now they depend on the support that we’re offering.”

Get involved

All this work is being done in the name of Jesus. You can support these refugees at amghelps.org. Dennett says, “We have just been so blessed to be able to serve them, and also share the hope of Christ with them and many families there.”

Please pray for the AMG team on the field as well. Ask God to give them strength and endless love.

The header photo shows the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Myanmar can be seen on the opposite bank. (Photo courtesy of Manop, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons) 

“We’ve [heard about] men who sold their wives to other men for money. We’ve [talked to] young girls raped by their own fathers, by their brothers,” says Nazanin Baghestani, who oversees the follow-up component of Heart4Iran’s trauma counseling program.

“Muslim men treat women as an object; they don’t care about their lives.”

Heart4Iran operates a call center alongside its satellite TV broadcast, Mohabat TV. Trauma counselors speak to approximately 1,000 callers each month, offering compassion and hope.

“It takes time, but I would say 95-percent [of the callers] open up to us and tell all their secrets. That’s the first step of healing because they acknowledge what they have gone through,” Baghestani says.

“In severe cases, we try to connect [callers] to a home leader inside the country that will get them connected to actual help.”

(Photo courtesy of Afsane Bz/Unsplash)

Healing and hope

Along with listening, trauma counselors help each caller work through grim questions.

“What do I do? I cannot divorce’,” Baghestani says, describing one of the questions callers and counselors discuss.

“I cannot leave this house because that’s my source of income. If I go, where do I go? My reputation is going to be ruined. Nobody’s going to marry me again, and I will end up on the streets.”

Most importantly, the counselors point callers to Jesus, the Great Physician.

“They hear the Gospel, and they cannot resist. I haven’t known anyone who will not give their heart to Jesus,” Baghestani says.

“We’ve had women (callers) who’ve been raped, and once they encountered Jesus, that [trauma was] completely healed.”

Pray for Heart4Iran’s trauma counselors; secondary trauma is a genuine threat. Pray callers who place their faith in Christ find healing and forgiveness, as well as a new purpose.

Help keep the call center open by donating to Heart4Iran. Your gift provides light and hope in a dark society.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Fakurian Design/Unsplash.

Sexual violence

Forces aligned with the Ethiopian government have carried out mass sexual violence against women and girls in Tigray. One local pastor talked about it with Eric Foley of The Voice of the Martyrs Korea. He says soldiers asked him the whereabouts of a certain woman in order to attack her. He has also visited hospitals and seen a special wing designated for rape victims.

The pastor says this kind of violence is being used as psychological warfare. One daughter was raped in front of her father as a way of punishing him for supporting the Tigray side of the war.

Foley says the number of these crimes has even been underreported. “Crimes related to rape in these kinds of honor and shame cultures often go unreported. In these cultures, a woman who admits that she’s been raped brings shame to her family and also jeopardizes her possible future as a woman. She can’t get married. She can’t be considered an honorable or honest woman. These are issues which we as Christians should be especially sensitive to.”

Famine

As Tigray edge closer to famine, hunger is being used as a weapon against the region as well. The Ethiopian government has been accused of obstructing aid to the region, which has remained largely cut off from the rest of the world since the initial invasion. Officials say food warehouses are nearly empty.

But the conflict, which began in November of 2020, continues unabated. Tigray forces recaptured the Tigray capital Mekelle in July. The Ethiopian government declared a ceasefire, but the fighting continued. Ethiopia’s prime minister recently urged all Ethiopian citizens to take up arms and join the fight as well.

The work of the Church

Regardless of how the war ends, countless lives have been affected by the violence. Foley says people have flocked to the church during this time. “They’re bringing their dead to the church. They’re mourning at the church. I think what happens in these long-term, protracted conflicts is people lose hope that politics can solve the problem.”

Ask God to comfort and protect the victims of sexual violence in Tigray. Pray Christians would demonstrate Jesus’ love.

The header photo shows a destroyed military vehicle in the Tigray region. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

However, there is one ministry — supported by a diverse group of Christians and led by Native believers — that says to Native young men and women, ‘You are not forgotten.’

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

That ministry is On Eagles’ Wings, a branch of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, and their annual Warrior Leadership Summit is coming up July 1-6! Warrior Leadership Summit is a special week for Native young people to gather in a safe space, have fun, play games, enjoy good food, and learn about the hope of Jesus.

The Native team leaders with On Eagles’ Wings and the Native young people who go on outreach trips with them are really at the heart of the ministry.

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

Brad Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says, “Story-after-story, it is about these individuals. It’s not about On Eagles’ Wings. It’s not about me. It’s not about any certain name. It is about these warriors who are making the hard choices day-in and day-out to stand firm for Jesus.

“I have to tell you that they’re standing firm for Jesus in some of the hardest places to do that — just really facing lots of family pressures and pressure from friends and everything, but unlike [what] most people would have ever seen.”

In Native communities, Jesus is often viewed as the “white man’s God”. Because of this narrative, they don’t want anything to do with Jesus and ridicule those who follow Him.

Hutchcraft says, “What’s encouraging me is to see that these young leaders, we know that they come from a lot of brokenness — whether it’s broken homes or having come through addiction or drug abuse. One of our team members who is an amazing young leader, she almost took her own life. And another one of our leaders has a similar story…. God has protected them through the years and brought them to make a decision for Jesus, but then not to leave it there — to get more training, to get discipleship.”

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

Warrior Leadership Summit is a turning point for many Native young people who are drowning in hopelessness.

“There are some who have come [to Warrior Leadership Summit] who have told us they came either planning to take their life right before or right after…. God has changed their lives and brought them through that and then…we get to pour into them year-round. But also, our ministry partners who bring them to Warrior Leadership Summit then get to disciple them year-round as well. So the stories just keep going and going.”

Hutchcraft has been involved in outreach to Native Americans since he graduated high school. His father, Ron Hutchcraft, was involved in cross-cultural youth ministry and became passionate about reaching Native young people for Christ. Brad Hutchcraft felt personally called to join Native American ministry after he went on a missions trip and led a Native kid to the Lord.

“This kid came up to me and said, ‘I know you have some events coming up later in the week. If I come to them, will you tell me more about Jesus?’

“It was the simplest question and forever (and very gratefully) altered the course of my life.”

(Photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings)

If you would like to learn more about On Eagles’ Wings and Warrior Leadership Summit, click here to visit their website!

You can also sponsor a warrior who would like to attend Warrior Leadership Summit! Sponsorship is often the only way many Native young men and women can afford to go.

Finally, please be a prayer warrior for the team as Warrior Leadership Summit approaches. Ask God to strengthen On Eagles’ Wings leaders as they prepare to share His hope and love. Pray for the hearts of Native young people to be softened and opened to meet Jesus that week.

“The stories really are becoming greater, deeper, [and] more endless as far as the numbers we’re hearing,” says Hutchcraft. “And I think that is because God is on the move in Native America.”

Header photo courtesy of On Eagles’ Wings.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the DRC are displaced because of terrible violence in the east. Some of it is tribal, some of it is political, but either way, the outcome is the same.

John Cadd of MAF visits a refugee camp in Bunia, eastern DRC, in March 2018. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Petersen with MAF)

In the city of Bunia, thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) live in tarp tents with little to go home to. Most have lost their homes, livelihoods, and even loved ones in the fighting.

Jon Cadd, program manager with Christian organization Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in eastern DRC, says, “There was a lot of violence between a couple of tribal groups to the north of us about 50 miles. Really, really violent things. People had their arms cut off and hacked with machetes across the back of the neck and across the face. Numerous people [were] killed and it just sparked a refugee crisis. Everybody… ran out of that area and thousands of people ended up in Bunia in various refugee camps.”

MAF provides aviation services to ministries and organizations in remote and isolated areas. According to Cadd, providing food, tarps, and relief supplies to refugees isn’t necessarily in the direct scope of what MAF does as an aviation ministry in the DRC. But they had to do something.

(Photo courtesy of MAF)

“This is in our backyard and we just can’t let it go. People are really hungry and have been without shelter. So over the last couple of months, we’ve given tarps for makeshift tents to keep them out of the rain and sun and [have] been supplying food, rice, beans, soap for cleanliness and just all kinds of supplies for keeping the people alive there.”

Cadd says when he visits the refugee camp, “I’ve got a trail of kids following me when I walk through there. I try to go weekly and see what the real, most necessary items are that we can try to help with. Generally, it’s food items, but sometimes it’s blankets and material for shelter, that kind of thing.”

A local pastor who serves as a chaplain with MAF goes to the refugee camp and finds opportunities to share the Gospel. He even recently showed the JESUS film in the camp.

“I ask him questions like, ‘Okay, how many people went there this last night?’ and he said, ‘Ah, it’s hard to count. The entire camp came!’”

(Photo courtesy of Jon Cadd with Mission Aviation Fellowship)

The MAF team also recently gave out 150 Swahili Bibles. According to Cadd, “It was a very wonderful time of praying that the Word of God would go into people’s hearts and that He would reveal Himself to them through His word.” When MAF staff visited the camp later on August 20, they saw people reading those very Bibles!

“It’s amazing the response that we’re getting from that and people giving their life to the Lord,” Cadd shares. “Also, in conjunction with that, people are telling their stories about what has happened to them. We’re finding a lot of rape victims there, a bunch of girls telling the story of what happened to them.”

The chaplain asked MAF if there was something that could be done to help these girls and women. They ended up bringing in some women who also worked at a local orphanage and who were willing to teach refugee women how to sew.

When the sewing group started to meet, 37 women and girls who were rape and violence victims attended. The group’s purpose was to minister to these ladies and help heal their wounds.

But they had no idea how much the group would grow. “We started the class…and within the first week there were 150 women there just really wanting to take part in that and really excited about what was going on.”

(Photo courtesy of Jon Cadd with Mission Aviation Fellowship)

As MAF continues working in eastern DRC, their pilots and staff members seek to be the hands and feet of Christ to those they serve.

Cadd reflects, “We were just reading in our time with our national staff today when we were studying the Bible in the morning about Peter and John. After Jesus had died, they went into the temple and there was a guy who was lame from birth. They said, ‘We don’t have any money, but what we have, we will give to you. In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk.’… They took a lot of flak from the religious leaders but they stood up boldly to them.

“At the end of that, [Acts 4:13] said, ‘When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.’

“You just see people’s lives changed radically when they encounter Christ. So we’re really trying to be like that and let them see Christ in us and hopefully make changes like that as well. It’s not us. It’s Christ in us.”

The refugee crisis in the DRC may seem far removed to those of us who are outside the country or maybe even on the other side of the ocean. But, as the Body of Christ, we have an opportunity to come alongside fellow believers with MAF and extend God’s love to suffering Congolese people.

First, we can pray. “Prayer is a powerful thing and we want to be part of what Christ is doing in all of this and pray for healing.”

We can also give financially. Cadd says, “If people want to give to the DR (Disaster Response) Fund through MAF and we can direct some of that to help people, we’re really happy to do that.”

To give, click here to visit MAF’s donation page, click “search for a different fund”, and you can give to the fund titled 4039-EDRC IDP Refugee Response.

(Header photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

One way you can observe International Women’s Day is to come alongside ministries like Trans World Radio who are working to bring healing and lift up women who are hurting all over the world.

Trans World Radio (TWR) empowers women and girls through their “Women of Hope” radio programs and prayer groups. These efforts are touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of women around the world.

“We continue to hear stories from our listeners about ways our radio program, Women of Hope, is touching their lives,” TWR’s Dr. Peggy Banks says. “Not only the radio program, but we have a prayer movement that has more than 65-thousand intercessors praying through our prayer calendar in more than four thousand prayer groups globally.”

Healing through Prayer

One of these incredible stories of hope and healing took place in Zanzibar where Banks recently went.

Zanzibar is about 99 percent Muslim, but Banks met a Christian family who had started a Church in their Muslim village several years ago and was helping to strengthen others in their community.

Banks started speaking with the pastor’s wife, her daughter, Elizabeth, and several other women who were part of their TWR prayer group.

“Elizabeth started to tell us her story,” Banks shares. “Her story is one that is pretty amazing what God has done because when she was 15, she was gang-raped by a group of Muslim boys in that village, beaten very badly, and left, really, to die out there. She was filled with anger, of course, and shame, and didn’t want to tell her pastor father and her mother what had happened– until she found out that she was pregnant.”

(Photo courtesy of TWR)

Elizabeth then told her mother what had happened and her mother brought her into the TWR Women of Hope prayer group.

“The women started praying with her, started praying over her. They started praying through the prayer calendar. They were seeking God for wisdom on what to do. They were afraid too that she was pregnant with this child from these Muslim boys.”

Through this prayer and the support of these women, Elizabeth began to find healing and hope in God. She eventually gave her life to Christ, “and knew that God had a plan for her and this child was going to be a gift.”

Banks had the privilege to meet Elizabeth’s four-year-old daughter, Grace, who is being taught about Jesus so she will one day love and know Him as her Savior, too.

Seeing how Elizabeth has been influenced, Banks knows just how much prayer groups are touching the lives of women around the world.

Helping Women become Spiritual Leaders

“The impact that our prayer groups, first of all, are doing where women are seeking God together,” she says. “They’re seeking prayer warriors when situations happen in their families. They’re helping each other. They’re walking alongside each other during these difficult times.”

These prayer groups have led women, including Elizabeth, to also begin listening groups, where they tune into TWR’s Women of Hope radio programs. These programs are broadcasted more than 500 hours each week and cover physical issues, such as being pregnant, loving their husbands, and even how to grow a garden. Most importantly, the programs share about Jesus, His goodness, love, and mercy.

These programs further encourage women to reach out to their communities and share about Jesus.

“A prayer group will turn into a listening group, and now they’re listening to programs of hope, and … then a radio home group,” Banks says. “They start to look outside of their group and say, ‘How can we help our community?’… They become a group that then reaches out to their community and starts more prayer groups, which turn into listening groups, which turn into community groups.”

Act with TWR

(Photo courtesy of TWR via Facebook)

TWR is excited to embolden women around the world to act as leaders in sharing the Word of God with their communities. They invite you to help women like Elizabeth to heal through a relationship with Jesus.

You can join or start a prayer group in your Church and pray for women around the globe.

“It helps us to remember that there are others in other parts of the world that are going through things that sometimes we can’t even identify with.” Your prayer will support women and girls and help them grow in their walk with God.

You can also support TWR financially to help broadcast messages of the Lord’s hope to women who desperately need it.

International Women’s Day is about celebrating women’s achievements. Let’s celebrate the achievement of mobilizing hope and healing through Jesus in the lives of women everywhere.

Ron Hutchcraft Ministries (RHM) estimates suicide rates among Native teens are nearly 10 times higher than the rest of America.

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)

“Something is horribly wrong there,” says RHM’s Ron Hutchcraft. “If in any of our communities we had the serial suicides going on that go on in a reservation unnoticed, we would have the national news and every agency possible descending on our town. But they continue to die off the radar and silently.”

The Native American community is in desperate need of hope and a reason for life. RHM shares the deepest hope possible; hope in Jesus Christ.

Warrior Leadership Summit

Yesterday, the Warrior Leadership Summit kicked off for hundreds of Native American young people from over 100 Indian nations across the US and Canada. The conference goes from June 27-July 3.

The Warrior Leadership Summit is essentially a discipleship conference for Native teens, but each year they also see around one-fourth of the attendants commit their lives to Christ.

“The messages and what we call The Battle Councils, which are smaller sessions, many of them will be taught by Native leaders. These will address the unique issues of trying to follow Christ in the very toxic environment of a reservation or Native community within a city. This is targeted specifically for them, and that’s what makes it so powerful.”

Pain and Addiction

There are many unique challenges and hurts facing Native American youth, says Hutchcraft.

The Warrior Leadership Summit runs from June 27-July 3 this week. (Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)

“One time I asked this question in a large group in the main session. I said, ‘How many of you have either attempted suicide, know someone else who’s attempted suicide, or lost someone to suicide?’ Almost every hand in the whole auditorium went up. Is there any youth conference anywhere where that would be the truth; where it would be almost everyone there? That’s why we really have to address the issues underlying this hopelessness.

“There is [also] a massive amount of sexual abuse. One out of three Native American women will be raped in their lifetime. Now for me and for us on our team, these are not statistics. These are people we know. These are names and faces of precious young men and women, and the issues of sexual abuse and sexual violence have left tremendous scars on Native young people.

“There are rates of suicide, alcohol addiction, [and] drug addiction because of the pain of all that has been lost by Native Americans over the years and even in their lifetime. That’s their pain reliever. There are horrendous, almost epidemic levels of addiction.”

Hutchcraft says, in many ways, Christians in North America have been very focused on overseas missions while missing the Native American mission field in our backyard. Today, only four percent of Native Americans know Christ.

“I think Satan has created a double-blindness. He has blinded the first people of this nation to Jesus by convincing them that He is the white man’s God. And Satan has blinded the rest of North American Christians to Native Americans. We don’t even think about them. But God does.”

Summit Theme: Hope Rising

This year’s Warrior Leadership Summit with RHM has a powerful theme: Hope Rising. The worship band, the breakout sessions, and the messages are lead and taught mostly by other Native leaders.

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)

“This conference, it’s about a Jesus who walks into that kind of a world and can heal a wounded heart, restore a broken life, forgive a lifetime of sinful choices, and give people who never thought they had a future…to give them a hope,” says Hutchcraft.

“One of the great nights will be the night we call them to the cross of Jesus Christ, literally. And if it’s like most years, there will be somewhere between one-fourth to one-third of the young people there who will choose Christ to be the driver of their life and, as we say, the Chief of all Chiefs.”

Funds Needed for Support Goal

Many teens attending the Warrior Leadership Summit are only able to go through donations to RHM’s Summer of Hope Outreach. Currently, the Summer of Hope Outreach only has 72 percent of their $575,000 goal funded.

(Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries via Facebook)

Click here to give, and help RHM reach their support goal for the Summer of Hope Outreach!

Together, we can show Native American young people that they are seen, that they are loved, and that we want them to know the fullness of life in Jesus Christ.

You can also request a prayer kit for the Summer of Hope Outreach here.

Hutchcraft says, “When you gather Native young men and women under the banner of Christ from all over the continent in one place where many of them will choose Christ, and where many of them will be trained and equipped to go back and become spiritual warriors for their people…this is so exciting because I feel like I’m standing and watching missions history take place.”

(Photo courtesy Open Doors USA)

CAR (ODM/MNN) — According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly a fifth of the Central African Republic is on the move due to the tense security situation.

In the capital city of Bangui, lootings, shootings, killings, and targeted attacks have led to the deaths of about 10 people on a daily basis.

Since the uprising began, the UNHCR estimates that some 825,000 people have been displaced across CAR, with 400,341 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Bangui. Even though there is a glimmer of hope with the swearing in of new interim president Catherine Samba-Panza last week, the slaughter hasn’t abated much.

The crisis also developed religious overtones. Open Doors shares that Christian leaders have said, “In this situation, Christians are specifically most affected. Rebels rape civilians and religious orders, desecrate churches and religious institutions, and perpetrate violence against priests and pastors in particular. A number have been assassinated.”

(Map courtesy Open Doors USA)

Christian Solidarity Worldwide confirms this in a recent report. On January 28, Seleka rebels killed Pastor Kongbo, treasurer of the Union des Eglises Baptistes (UEB), along with his son at their home. Open Doors spokesman Jerry Dykstra says, “The bottom line is that it’s a very clear proof is that Christians in CAR have been facing persecution in this conflict, and, as usual, are caught in the middle.”

On the same day, the UN Security Council agreed to sanctions allowing for targeted punitive action against anyone violating an arms embargo imposed in December 2013, committing human rights abuses, undermining peace and stability, or obstructing humanitarian assistance.

They also deployed a peacekeeping force to the region. Open Doors, in partnership with the local church, continues to call on the United Nations Security Council to approve the launch of a full-scale peacekeeping operation in CAR, which appeared this year on the World Watch List for the first time, ranking #16.

Atrocities mount daily. Dykstra shares, “In the interior, Seleka forces/rebel forces burned down more 200 Christian homes in one area. Local sources said the death toll is expected to be in the hundreds. Please continue to pray for the country where there seems to be no end to the nightmare.”

Worse, they’re now seeing evidence of ethnic cleansing by way of rape. Amnesty International notes that rape is often used in conflicts as a way for attackers to spread their social control, redraw ethnic boundaries, and subjugate a populace. Dykstra confirms this, too. “Over the years, we have seen a rape and sexual violence directed toward women, men, and children, often used as a weapon of war.”

For the survivors, it’s not just the attack they must face. “They also are rejected from their families, marginalized by society, and ignored by their congregation.”

An Open Doors worker saw the emotional needs as well as the economic impact and started praying for a woman to come alongside the ministry to help. God answered the prayer by providing such a woman in Komoyo Lina (not her real name), who has since started counseling as many victims as possible in the insecure and violent area.

Open Doors is in the process of expanding the counseling ministry in CAR. However, for the work to progress, much more security is needed. Pray that the number of peacekeeping troops in CAR will increase.

(Photo courtesy UNHCR)

The situation is dire. Aid agencies also report that if farmers are not supplied with tools and seeds to plant, a nationwide food crisis could be on the horizon. Up to 94% of communities report that they do not have enough seed to plant in March, which will cause extensive famine. A Multi-sectorial Initial Rapid Assessment (MIRA) of humanitarian needs in CAR indicate that the hunger gap that usually starts in July will this year move forward to February.

Pray for grace for Christians as they respond to challenging and dangerous situations. Pray that humanitarian projects will be able to reach the hundreds of thousands of people in need. Pray for the protection of aid workers. Pray for God’s guidance and wisdom for Open Doors workers in communicating about the crisis, in planning and executing OD project, and in advocating for greater international involvement in the form of a U.N. peacekeeping force.