But the U.S. is also pointing past the Houthis to Iran, which denies backing the group despite evidence over the years. 

For Iran, it’s already not been a good year. Dr. Hormoz Shariat with Iran Alive Ministries says that after the events of 2024 and of 2025 so far, “the Iranian government has lost its influence in the Middle East.”

He says Iran’s proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and players in Syria have been destroyed. On top of that, Iran has already lost the support of the Iranian people, plus suffered financial losses.

“Now with Trump in power, it’s going to be even worse with maximum pressure and sanctions,” he says. “So [the] Iranian government is really desperate right now for survival.”

The people of Iran are suffering along with the government, though in sharper ways. “They’re suffering because of [the] economy. They’re suffering because of the government. The government is so afraid of the people … that anybody [who] speaks up will be killed,” Shariat says, pointing to recent uprisings in the past few years which the government responded to with brutal crackdowns.

But despite the continued undercurrent of defiance of Iranians, their outlook is still grim.

Women in Iran wearing the traditional hijab and loose-fitting clothing required by sharia law.
(Photo courtesy of mostafa meraji/Unsplash)

“People are in such a desperate way that they say, ‘What else is there? Who can save us? If we come on the streets, they will kill us,’” says Shariat. “So [the] people of Iran are looking for a savior.”

As the Iranian regime grips its own people, Iran Alive broadcasts the hope of Jesus into Iranian homes through a 24/7 satellite channel. 

“The message we have is, ‘No human can be your Savior. Don’t trust in human[s]. They say something and they change their mind. The prince is not your Savior. Netanyahu is not your Savior. Trump is not your Savior. Jesus is your only Savior left.’” 

Please ask God for more spiritual breakthroughs in Iran. “We are facing a dark spirit of Islam. It’s named in Daniel 10 ‘the Prince of Persia,’” says Shariat. “So, number one [way to get involved]: prayer. Number two is to support us financially. For any growth, you need the right people and you need finances.

“Number three is [to] get involved. If you have discipleship material, if you have video resources on any subject — not just the Bible, but how to have a good marriage, how to parent — any subject that you can build [up] Christians, you can broadcast on our channel. I invite brothers and sisters to join us using media to help the church in Iran,” says Shariat.

Connect with Iran Alive Ministries here to learn more. 

Header photo of Tehran, Iran courtesy of Mohammad Amirahmadi/Unsplash. 

Whether you live in the US or not, Ron Hutchcraft with Hutchcraft Ministries says if you know Christ, you are like the shepherds in Luke chapter 2. These ordinary people were entrusted with a glorious message to tell others, against all human odds. 

“If we were alive at that time, we couldn’t think of a more unlikely choice for angels to entrust their message to [than] shepherds,” Hutchcraft says. Shepherds were lowly and sometimes of questionable character. The ones in the gospel accounts were working “third shift” jobs.

Yet God chose them to be the first witnesses to the birth of Jesus!

“Who are the primary messengers of the gospel [today]? It’s not the people that would be perceived as professional ‘God salesmen,’ like it’s their job. It’s the machinist and it’s the teacher, the mom, the cancer survivor, the golfer, the soccer player,” Hutchcraft points out. “It’s the everyday person who’s in the best position, just like the shepherds.”

The parallels go further. The message the shepherds heard of “good news of great joy for all people” is meant for every person in your life today too!

“The message of our faith is summed up by the angel making the birth announcement with these words: “For to you is born this day a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord,’ or ‘Christ the Lord,’” says Hutchcraft.

(Stock image courtesy of drabbitod via Pixabay)

“The reason it’s such good news [comes from] three things that our message says about Jesus: First, we have a Savior for our sin. Then … we have a Messiah for what’s broken in our life. [Third,] we have a Lord for the things that we are afraid of. Boy, that is good news!”

Hutchcraft says the shepherds’ story was their superpower. They ran to find baby Jesus and His family in the stable, and then they spread the news about what they had seen. “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them,” Luke 2:18 says.

Your story with Jesus is meant to reach people too. So what might you do even today? 

“What a great thing to know that this message is supposed to be for all the people, [which] means that every person we know deserves a chance to hear this,” Hutchcraft says. 

“How life-changing it is for us to look in the mirror and say, ‘I am someone’s chance. Yes, I’m ordinary, imperfect, sometimes my life is messy’ — think about the shepherds! — ‘but I am the one who’s in their life.

“I have Jesus by one hand, and I have some lost people by the other hand, and God has put me in a position to be the one to bring them together.’ That’s great news this Christmas, because your life really, really matters.”

Header image is a stock image courtesy of Dan Kiefer via Unsplash.

Prayercast is hosting a Ramadan Prayer Challenge to help Christians pray strategically for Muslims during this time to know Jesus as their Savior. You can sign up now to join the Ramadan Prayer Challenge!

Each day, Prayercast will send an email to inform your prayers for the Muslim world.

(Photo courtesy of Rumman Amin via Unsplash)

Prayercast director Chris Ruge says the focus of this year’s Ramadan Prayer Challenge is a prayerful geographic tour.

“We’re going to be taking people on a journey through different regions of the majority Muslim parts of the world, and then drilling into each of those,” says Ruge. “So we’ll start at a very high level in each region. Then over a few days, dig a little bit deeper looking at some cities and some different ethnic groups and people groups that are unreached in that region. In some cases, [we are] even looking at specific individuals and leaders in that region.”

The daily email is also accompanied by a different Prayercast video.

“Each one of those videos has a prayer in it that’s prayed by a former Muslim somewhere in the world who now follows Jesus. He or she will lead all of us each day in prayer for a group of people who’s very near and dear to their heart.”

As you pray, the Lord can also use your prayers to grow your love for Muslims in your sphere of influence and around the world.

“We have seen very practically in past years in our Ramadan challenge that over 85% of people who engage in the Ramadan challenge say that God has changed the way I feel toward Muslims.”

Additionally, Ruge says, “Over 98% of people who have engaged in this prayer challenge, it totally changes the way that they pray, not only for Muslims but prayer in general.

“We want people to be a part of this and to just commit to 30 days of praying each day for Muslims through this month of Ramadan, and see what God will do not only in the Muslim world as you pray but even in your own life.”

Click here to sign up for Prayercast’s Ramadan Prayer Challenge before it starts on March 22nd.

Header photo courtesy of Andri Helmansyah via Unsplash.

The question came from Sarah Rabinovitch, a Holocaust survivor living in Israel. She lived through the Nazi reign, a harrowing ship journey to Israel, and extreme poverty.

Growing up, Sarah’s main exposure to Christians came through Germans and Russians who claimed the name of Jesus while murdering her people. She was suspicious of Christians and especially of Messianic Jews who followed Christ.

But when Sarah went to a Holocaust Survivor banquet hosted by Uncharted Ministries, her heart stirred when she heard Jesus’s words read from the New Testament.

Israeli flags (Photo courtesy of Cole Keister via Unsplash)

JoAnn with Uncharted Ministries lovingly replied to Sarah’s question:

“Of course you will still be Jewish! Following Jesus is the most Jewish thing you can do! It doesn’t change your ethnicity, but it does trade in religion for a relationship with the Living God.”

As Sarah spoke with JoAnn, she felt the movement of the Holy Spirit. There, Sarah began a relationship with Jesus. Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says their outreach to Holocaust survivors like Sarah is crucial in this generation.

“The Israeli comptroller estimates that all Holocaust survivors will be gone in about eight years. Some are even saying it may be five years and there won’t be any more Holocaust survivors in Israel. They’ll be gone. The average age [of a Holocaust survivor] right now is 88.”

Doyle says most Holocaust survivors today come from an atheist background. Like Sarah, they tend to be wary of those who call themselves Christians.

“Because of what they endured, they can’t fathom there is a God. But through love and reaching out to them and just spending time with them, they see it in people. They start to have that spark again. ‘Okay, maybe there can be a God.’ And then of course, the Father draws them to Jesus.”

Last year, Uncharted Ministries saw over 60 Holocaust survivors begin relationships with Jesus and get baptized.

You can follow more stories with Uncharted Ministries and get involved at their website here!

Meanwhile, Doyle asks, “Pray for Holocaust survivors. It’s a short fuse on this ministry. We don’t have a lot of time left, but they need Jesus.”

Header photo of Jerusalem courtesy of 8thirty8.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries understands the struggle. “You know the people we love the most are the hardest people to talk to about Jesus, aren’t they? Our own family, our closest people. And who do we want in heaven with us more than we want them there?”

Over at the ministry’s website, there is a free downloadable e-book called “A Lifetime’s Not Enough” talking about how you can be forever with the people you love the most. It provides real-life stories and Scripture paired with seven ways to help open the heart of a loved one to the Gospel this Christmas.

So how do you share with family members – people who may even be very familiar with the Bible and the Christmas story — and their hearts are hardened?

“We know that it is hard to share it with the people who are most familiar with us. And a lot depends on how much they do know and I think chances are that these days they know less about Jesus than we even realize. But we shouldn’t assume what they know about him.”

Hutchcraft has four tips on how you can effectively be a witness for the Gospel to a loved one this Christmas.

Write your hope story

His first tip is to know and write out your hope story. “Your hope story is about the difference he makes in your life. So what you want to do when you write out your hope story is talk about what’s different about your lonely times because you have Jesus. What’s different about your stressful times, about your ‘when the world is spinning out of control’ times, about when you get bad news from the doctor? What difference does Jesus make at the funeral? What difference does Jesus make for a husband or for a wife?

“You are living proof that Jesus can change what no one else could change. Think about it. Maybe you are living proof that a temper can change because of Jesus. Maybe you are living proof that a mom or a dad or a husband or wife or son or daughter can change because of Jesus. Maybe you are living proof that when the news from the doctor is deadly or frightening and it sounds like a death sentence almost, and maybe it is, that Jesus makes a difference. Maybe you are living proof that somebody who is worried and been consumed with anxiety and stress their whole life can change. Maybe you are living proof of someone who has been addicted to something that they could never change — maybe you’re living proof that that can change.”

As you write your hope story, it’s all about sharing how God’s story and the story of Christ impacts your story.

And, as Hutchcraft points out, writing out your hope story is important for two reasons. “Number one, it helps you think it through so you know what story you have to tell. And you ought to be able to do it in two or three minutes.”

Share your hope story

The second reason why writing out your hope story is useful takes us to Hutchcraft’s next point: “It’s something you can hand to people that you love and to say, ‘Have I ever really told you my story?’ And most people are interested in the story of a family member to go, ‘I don’t think you know my whole story. And if you’d be interested, I would love to give it to you and let you read it over and I’d love to have your comments on it.’ So your hope story always is your most important door opener.”

This part can be easier said than done. Often, it means waiting for a conversational opening. Hutchcraft advises praying for that sharing opportunity.

“Jesus is very skillful at opening for you a natural opportunity. They will say something that will give you an opportunity to tell about how your life has been changed by Jesus Christ. It may be something that they say is going on in their life. It might be something going on in your life. Or it could be something going on in a very scary world that we live in these days.”

But ultimately, he says, when you share, remember it’s not up to you to open the heart of your loved one to Jesus. It’s in God’s hands.

“Let go of the pressure. Realize that it is not up to you to convince somebody to come to Jesus. If you think it is, you’ll push too hard. And when you push on someone, they’ll move farther away from you. I hope you can relax in the fact that Jesus said the Holy Spirit is the persuader of people to come to Jesus. You just have to be available to share his story and your story.”

Watch your approach

In 1 Peter 3:15 it says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect….”

That aspect of gentleness and respect is key in having complex conversations related to faith. “Realize that you need to see things through their eyes,” advises Hutchcraft. “Try to find whatever common ground you have with their starting point.”

Keep the conversation on Jesus

Then, he encourages, “Keep it all about Jesus. Don’t get into religion. So often they’re going to want to talk about religion. When Jesus talks to the woman at the well, when he started to get close to her soul, she wanted to talk about the difference between her religion and his religion and he wouldn’t go there.

“The issue is always going to be about our personal spirit and truth relationship with God. They need to know this is not about religion. You have no religion to offer them. You’re not interested in discussing religion because Jesus didn’t come to start a religion. This is a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you can focus it on what he did on the cross and that he walked out of his grave under his own power and make it all about Jesus, you have a lot better chance of breaking through.”

Ultimately, the salvation of your family member or loved one doesn’t come down to the eloquence of your hope story or the clarity of your rhetoric. It comes down to them falling in love with Jesus.

“Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’ When people say, ‘Yes, but what about the hypocrites and what about those Christians and the way Christians do–’ Well, hold on. Jesus didn’t say follow my followers. He didn’t say follow my religion. He didn’t say follow my leaders. He didn’t say follow my rules. He said, ‘Follow me.’”

Click here to learn more about Ron Hutchcraft Ministries at their website.

According to an article in the New York Times, crowds of "red shirt" protestors reached about 80,000 as they petitioned for the reinstatement of government that supports a former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin presently lives in exile after facing a two-year jail sentence for abusing his power as a leader.

Amid the chaos, people have begun asking questions, searching for some sort of leader who will rise up and appeal to everyone. "[People are asking,] ‘Will there actually be a charismatic person who will come  to rescue, to save the country?'" says Joseph Richter of FARMS International. "But the missionaries said, ‘The Savior is here. Jesus is here to rescue Thailand, and this is harvest time.'"

Christians are taking this political instability as an opportunity to share the love of Christ with those in search of a savior. They hope that the Lord will use the chaotic situation (which includes wounds from the hurting economy as well) to ultimately bring glory to Himself.

FARMS has been serving in Thailand for about 11 years. Richter says that the country has always been fairly stable and open. "So it's hard to know sometimes how these political ups and downs will affect the church."

Pray that the unrest would subside in Thailand, especially since it already seems to be losing some steam. Pray also that believers in the country would have many opportunities to proclaim the truth about the Savior the people of Thailand are looking for, and that many will come to know Him.

To learn more about the work of FARMS in Thailand, click here.