Tremors reached down into Nepal and India too. A man we’ll call Chitry is A3’s Country Director for Nepal. He was literally reading Scriptures about God shaking mountains and rolling rivers. 

“Right there, as I was doing devotions, and then earthquake hit there, and I couldn’t get up and move even and run away. That’s what happens. It wasn’t long, probably 45 second, almost [a] minute,” he says. 

More than 1,600 aftershocks have rolled through the region as of Friday, slowing rescue and relief work. Tragically, experts say it’s likely that those who were still trapped underneath the wreckage died from hypothermia.

Chitry says they are reaching out to people in northern Nepal to assess any needs there. It’s an important time, he says, remembering how after the deadly 2015 Nepal earthquake Christians rallied others to begin clearing rubble.

Shakemap from USGS for the magnitude 7.1 Tibet earthquake. (Photo courtesy of United States Geological Survey via Wikimedia Commons)

“Many people were shock[ed] and they had no desire to move and do anything. When we went with the love of Christ, people were moved. Within the day… they started to come and help side-by-side with us. We as Christian[s] need to initiate and work so that other will join together also.”

He remembers people who’s lives were completely changed after that 2015 disaster. 

“These kinds of things actually moves the heart of the people, and the Holy Spirit can work in their life. They find Jesus as their Lord and Savior,” he says. 

Please pray for those who will be serving as the hands and feet of Christ after the quake, that their witness will be strong. Pray also for urgent, ongoing relief work, and consider supporting these efforts. 

“If our brothers and sisters in USA and around the world can join with us, we can help them show the love of Christ and also meet their needs,” says Chitry. 

Header image: Screenshot of a video from China News Service that shows the aftermath of the 2025 Tibet earthquake. (Photo by China News Service courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157606649)

But the pushback from India against this designation has been swift and sharp. A spokesperson for the nation’s Ministry of External Affairs referred to the report as “propaganda,” and called USCIRF “a biased organization with a political agenda.” 

So what is going on? Tim Landis with FARMS International says there has been a “ramping up of new anti-conversion laws.” 

India’s population is nearly 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim and 2% Christian. (Source: CIA Factbook) Photo courtesy of Ron Hansen/Unsplash.

Twelve states in India criminalize changing your religion, under certain circumstances. There are also concerns that India’s current government will make all of India a nationalist Hindu state. We’ll see who is in office after the general election results come in June. (More on the ongoing election here.)

For now, incidents of mob violence against Christians are on the rise, and FARMS is feeling it. One of their local partners had to move his family due to threats in their home area. 

“Church, believers, and families were persecuted, false accusations of saying that the businesses were giving people loans and beneficiaries loans to convert to Christianity, which is not the truth. It’s not even how FARMS operates,” Landis says. 

FARMS offers interest-free loans to Christians to help them work their way out of poverty. It doesn’t touch on conversion. Until recently, their work in India has not been under much threat.

“[Our partner] has had very good connections within the government, but that is starting to deteriorate, as the government kind of keeps pressing on these [anti-conversion] laws,” Landis says. 

Pray against the fear Christians are facing of losing their crops, livelihoods or lives to community attacks spurred on by anti-conversion laws.

Learn more here about how you can come alongside Christians around the world with FARMS International.

Header image is a representative stock photo of India courtesy of Akshat Vats/Unsplash.

We talked yesterday about Indonesia’s plan to move the capital from Jakarta to Borneo. The decision wasn’t just based on geography and the economy. Overpopulation was also a major factor.

In the Muslim-majority nation, Islamic authorities have been paying people to relocate to less-populated areas of Papua, Indonesia. Some people even move over 2,000 miles. However, this is impacting rural Christians.

Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates says, “When you take the majority population and you move them into areas like Papua, which is in the far eastern part of the Indonesian region, you then start changing the demographics of that area. Where Christians had been the majority in Papua, now they’re being overtaken by Muslims that are being migrated into that arena.

“The believers in these areas are standing as strong as they can, but many have no Bibles in their own heart languages. As you can imagine, they need the encouragement and the wisdom of the Scriptures in a language they can fully understand.”

Wycliffe Associates is working to accelerate Bible translation in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world. Christians there face daily persecution, and many are still without the Bible in their language.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)

Wycliffe Associates provides computer tablets and training to mother-tongue translators around the world, so they can translate the Bible quickly and safely.

“These Bible translators are determined to do everything necessary to share the Scriptures with the people of their language groups,” Smith says. “They have waited for generations to experience God’s Word in the language of their hearts. All they need are the tools and the training.”

Wycliffe Associates’ Tablets for National Translators (TNT) initiative provides the national translators with computer tablets loaded with translation software. The translators also have the option of working offline for privacy and security.

“If paper copies of Scripture translations are discovered, they could easily be destroyed. Tablets are absolutely essential,” says Smith. “Whole language groups are still waiting. Our response to their requests will mean committed Christians can translate God’s Word quickly and safely.”

One language group in Indonesia has had Scripture in their language for more than 25 years. When Muslims tried to establish a presence there, Christians were unfazed, because knowledge of the Bible is now deeply rooted in their community.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Associates)

The cost of providing a mother-tongue translator with one tablet and training is $300. Wycliffe Associates has received requests for 1,525 Tablets from Papua New Guinea, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

If you would like to support Indonesian Bible translators through Wycliffe Associates, click here to donate!

“They will make any sacrifice, take any risk, to make Bibles available to their people.”

To date, Wycliffe Associates has distributed 6,008 TNTs in 67 countries.

“October of 2017, this highly influential and strategically placed ministry leader inside Pakistan was falsely charged with blasphemy, which in Pakistan is a capital offense. Had he been convicted of those charges, even though they were false, he could have been executed.”

Leaving Pakistan

Ahmed’s bloody shirt from attack in court at a blasphemy trial in Pakistan on April 2018. (Photo Courtesy FMI)

Islamic religious edicts, called fatwas, are still in place calling for Ahmed’s death. Anyone who acts under these fatwas acts with impunity. Ahmed is legally cleared of the blasphemy charges, but his life remains in danger. However, earlier this month Ahmed and his family landed in the United States for a temporary relocation. The purpose for Ahmed and his family’s relocation is to give time for those hunting him in Pakistan to lose interest in his situation.

Still, this relocation takes resources and provides some large cultural shifts. Ahmed and his family are setting up a new household. Will you help? Give to FMI’s Ministry Liaison Support or Ministry Liaison Gift Cards to help Ahmed and his family with the financial costs of calling the U.S. home. To give, click here.

However, financial costs are not the only challenges Ahmed and his family are facing. Adjusting to a culture starkly different from the one they have spent their whole lives in is another hurdle. (Learn about the difference between Pakistan and the U.S. here.)

Plus, while there is food available in the U.S., finding foods similar to what Ahmed and his family eat in Pakistan is challenging. In a sense, without similar foods, this family has to relearn how to cook unfamiliar and foreign dishes.

Ahmed and Family Safe

As for the transition, there are good things, too, like safety.

“I saw a piece on my wife’s face after more than two years. That was really encouraging and good for me as well, because she was always worried about me when I’m traveling. I was traveling in Pakistan or different places in Pakistan. She was really very worried for the kids as well. So, I’m very thankful to God [that] he brought us here. Even for a couple of years,” Ahmed says.

While in the U.S., Ahmed will work with FMI as a U.S. employee. He is available to speak to churches about his story and will continue focusing on strategically fortifying the ministry work in Pakistan. Ultimately, Ahmed and his family plan to return to Pakistan. Ahmed says Pakistan is his home, it is where his grave is.

Want to invite Ahmed to your church? Then email FMI here.

Will you pray?

Please, if you would, pray for Ahmed and his family.

(Photo courtesy of Nathan Dumlao via Unsplash)

“There [are a] few points you can pray for me and for my family. The first thing…still helping or empowering my people in Pakistan, my Christian brothers and sisters. Because I left Pakistan, but still Pakistan [is] inside me. And then, you can pray for my family. My children, they go to a Christian school here in [the] U.S. [Pray for] my wife, [that] she can find some Pakistani food or Indian food she can cook in the kitchen,” Ahmed asks.

Finally, despite the tumultuous journey Ahmed and his family have experienced, their story is not one of despair.

“It’s really a story about God’s victory in the midst of persecution. And that’s what we want to focus on,” Allen explains.

To continue supporting FMI’s work in Pakistan, click here.

*Name changed for security purposes.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

This week United States-backed Iraqi special forces took most of Mosul, dealing another blow to the ISIS caliphate. They’ve lost ground in Iraq and Syria, and Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs Canada calls the extremist group “demoralized”.

But Musselman says the fight is far from over. “Even though they have been defeated in terms of land in the Middle East, that does not mean that they are going to stop trying to cause havoc and enforcing their brand of Islam on the rest of the world.”

Losing land does not mean losing power.

That’s what makes ISIS so unique. Instead of being centered around a region or a nation, ISIS is focused on a set of extreme beliefs, and thanks to media and the internet, it’s easy for like-minded radical Muslims to connect with the group. “They had this caliphate and that was very attractive to those who are buying into this militant Islam from all over the world,” Musselman says.

(Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs Canada)

Musselman explains ISIS members are beginning to move from group assaults to “lone wolf attacks”, and because these attacks are so removed from the main part of ISIS, the group can pick and choose which events to claim based on the “success” of the project — the body count.

And those attacks are becoming more and more common. Musselman points to Indonesia as an example. With 203 million Muslims, Indonesia has a larger Muslim population than any other nation in the world and has remained relatively peaceful.

However, there has been a rise of recent attacks in southern parts of the country that indicate, though ISIS may not make a massive grab for territory, the group might be facing relocation, not extermination. “With that many Muslims, chances are you’ll find a few willing to join the radical side of Islam,” Musselman says.

ISIS pulls in followers by appealing to Muslims dissatisfied with their societies. “We do know that the propaganda that is happening and ideology that is being pushed by many of these leaders to inflame people says, ‘See? We’re being persecuted, we’re being oppressed, and we need to stand up.’ That’s the rallying cry that they’re using,” Musselman says.

But ISIS’ power doesn’t just come from ideology and physical might. “The Bible says that the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and that’s what’s happening. These people are being used by the enemy to cause havoc and destruction.”

(Photo courtesy of World Watch Monitor)

That means there’s a very real threat to ISIS idealism: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “They’re against anybody that opposes them, but the Christians are at the front of the line in their mind because of our message as followers of Jesus that Jesus is the only way. It’s not through violence,” Musselman says.

We show our God’s power through love and compassion, while the ISIS agenda says God’s power comes from physical might and aggression. “The message of the Gospel is the opposite of Islam. It’s not about rules, it’s about a relationship with Jesus.”

Christianity is an affront to ISIS ideals, and many Muslims are paying attention. “Often in these kinds of chaotic, tumultuous places, people tend to be more open to the Gospel,” Musselman says.

But Christianity isn’t just a threat to ISIS; it’s a target. That’s why the Church needs to unite in prayer and support. “We need to pray a prayer of protection for our brothers and sisters in Christ, that they will not bend under fear, that they would be bold, that the Lord would give them wisdom.”

(Image courtesy of Deaf Bible Society)

JR Bucklew, President of the Deaf Bible Society, explains, “Our organization grew from just one person years ago to now we have somewhere between 12 to 15 people working with the Deaf Bible Society globally.”

Deaf Bible Society realized, in order to maintain effectiveness in ministry to the Deaf, they may need to consider new locations and opportunities for growth.

“Earlier this year, we began to really pray and seek the Lord as we looked at where we would move our office spaces. We had a small office in Albuquerque, but we knew if we were going to continue growing, if we were going to continue reaching more people in the community with God’s Word in their sign language, we would need to have more skilled, qualified Deaf staff. And then also, being in an environment where we’re in close proximity to our donors, in close proximity to an active Deaf community, we could be involved even in our personal lives.”

Bucklew says, “As we began to research, we saw Dallas-Fort Worth right there in Arlington, Texas had the largest population of our donors, and Texas today has one of the largest Deaf populations in the US. Texas is growing in their provisions as far as education for Deaf people. There is a lot of opportunity to do more recruiting, to bring on interns who could later get free education in state schools and have access to many other Deaf churches and churches with interpreting ministries, places where our staff could really plug in.”

Deaf Bible recordings are available on their app and at www.deaf.bible (Photo courtesy of the Deaf Bible Society)

The decision was made to relocate to Arlington, Texas. Deaf Bible Society plans to open their new offices after January 1, 2017.

One of the bigger visions this move would allow Deaf Bible Society to tackle is the recording of sign language Bibles into every known sign language. They’re working with several other ministry partners, including the Every Tribe, Every Nation Alliance, Wycliffe Bible Translators, SIL, The Seed Company, and The American Bible Society. Their collective vision is to see a portion of Scripture available in every language of the world by 2033.

“The vision is large,” Bucklew admits. “Of course, we talk about God’s Word in every sign language, and we know that means every sign language. There are over 400 sign languages in the world, and today there’s not one sign language that has a complete Bible. American Sign Language is the only sign language that has a full New Testament.”

To have a portion of Scripture in every sign language recorded by 2033, it would mean starting 22 sign language Bible recordings every year from 2015 onward. It’s going to take a lot of funding. Hopefully, through more strategic partnerships with believers, Deaf Bible Society can make it happen.

“We’re talking in today’s cost structure, what it’s costing on average for a foundational set of Scripture in a sign language, what it costs us for distribution to every Deaf person, and to fund the consultants for each of their own sign languages that have been identified to date, that’s going to cost around $280 million — which is not impossible. It seems really, really difficult, but it’s not impossible.”

Click here to donate to the Deaf Bible Society, and be a part of making God’s name known to every Deaf person!

Bucklew also asks that you remember their ministry in prayer, especially during the understandable stresses of moving.

“Please be praying for us, because the idea that we’re moving to a place that’s going to allow us to grow and is going to provide, not only a better platform for the organization, but a better environment for staff, for spiritual vitality and personal growth, that’s exciting. But moving is frustrating…. So please be praying for our staff who are relocating, pray for our partners that we’ll be engaging with.”

If you’d like to learn more about Deaf Bible Society, click here!