However, when the service ended, a stampede at the exit caused multiple injuries, and eight people were killed.

Egide Bandyatuyaga, East Africa Ministry Director with Trans World Radio (TWR), says, “It was already dark, and people were just rushing.

“Any one of them wanted to be first to go out of the venue. It happened that the gate they were using was a bit narrow to let out a big number of people at the same time. So that’s when the unfortunate events happened where there was a stampede. Some people were crushed, and others were wounded.”

(Photo courtesy of TWR Burundi)

TWR is broadcasting Gospel hope in Burundi, which is especially needed at this time. “We do that not because we don’t have churches; the churches are there. But what we are doing, it helps the Church to reach more people,” says Bandyatuyaga.

Since 1988, TWR Burundi has used radio broadcasts, online content, and Christian literature to share the Gospel with people who may not have regular access to a church.

Bandyatuyaga says, “There are people who are not able to go to church because of different reasons, like people who are on the move every day, truck drivers, or even people who are in prisons…. But as long as they can listen to the radio, all those people can receive the Gospel.”

Estimates indicate Burundi is at least 80% Christian, with the Joshua Project putting the nation’s Christianity percentage as high as 93%. Yet, Bandyatuyaga says that for many, the Christian label simply means “not Muslim.”

Burundians need a real understanding of what it means to follow and have comfort in Jesus.

“If you don’t have people who are well taught in the Christian matters, they will just be easily led astray,” he says.

Pray for God to encourage those affected by the stampede, and for Burundians to truly know Christ.

Bandyatuyaga asks, “Also be praying for blessings from the Lord [for TWR] to get funding and also equipment and anything that is needed so that they can continue broadcasting and also producing and propagating the Word of God.”

Header photo: Bujumbura, Burundi (Photo courtesy of Edouard Mihigo/Pexels)

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)

Dave, Joy, and Kenya Hope volunteer Julie Holman were killed in a car crash in Kenya on October 25. The Muellers are survived by their three sons — Ian, Forrest, and Cameron Mueller, along with their wives and four grandchildren.

The couple served as executive directors with Kenya Hope for 13 years. Prior to that, they worked with New Tribes Mission, Partners in Compassionate Care, and Closed Door Ministries.

Ian Mueller says his parents were passionate about ministry at Kenya Hope, caring for Kenyan widows, providing clean water, and distributing audio Bibles.

Dave Mueller, Joy Mueller, and Julie Holman. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Joy’s heart was especially with the widows they served at Kenya Hope. Each widow sponsored through a 24-month program receives food assistance, skills training, goats, and Bible instruction.

“She just saw the need of the widows in Sub-Saharan Africa was just like, ‘I can’t sit idle,” says Ian.

“The thing I want people to remember about my mom is she was impossible to contain. [She had] endless wells of energy powered by her love for the people that she valued and the people that God loves as well.”

Meanwhile, Ian says his father Dave was a handyman, known for fixing almost anything, “So taking a multi-year construction process and turning it into a two-week complete move-in — from prefabricated homes in the jungle for missionaries, to Ferro-cement buildings in southern Sudan, to water towers and water projects, churches, chapels, and school buildings in Kenya.

“A do-it-all guy. We called him MacGyver most of the time! The Kenyans called him ‘The General.'”

Dave and Joy Mueller (Photo courtesy of Mueller family)

Dave was also especially attentive to the audio Bible distributions. “These people walk everywhere, miles and miles and miles a day, and they’re just listening to the Word constantly,” says Ian.

“They would come to him like three or four years later and they would say, ‘It (the audio Bible) doesn’t work anymore. It’s been through rain and everything.’ He would hook them up with another one [and saw] the life that brought to so many people.”

The Muellers’ celebration of life service is on Saturday, November 4 at 1:00 pm EST. The service livestream can be viewed at this link.

You can read Dave and Joy’s obituaries here.

Ultimately, Ian says anyone can serve God as his parents did.

“You don’t need to be a super person because a missionary isn’t a special person. It’s just a job, and the job is faith.

“My dad would say you never graduate from the school of faith. It just gets harder. He would say he hated walking by faith, in all honesty. Even though he was an incredibly committed missionary, it never gets easier. It only gets harder. But Jesus is a light unto our feet and He guides the way, so you’ve just got to keep saying yes every time.”

Please pray comfort for the Mueller and Holman families, and for Kenya Hope as they grieve and continue in Gospel ministry.

Header photo courtesy of the Mueller family.

Brad Prizer, the Vice President of Marketing and Communications with e3 Partners attends the church. He says they take one Sunday each year to serve in the community. Congregants split off into groups to work with different ministries in the city.

This year, Prizer’s group worked with a ministry called Grace to Go. He says, “Grace to Go takes food donated by different organizations, gathers it together, takes it to a government-subsidized housing apartment complex, and disperses food to the people who live there.”

“Because many times it’s very hard for them to feed their families with the limited incomes that they have.”

During the barbeque, about 60 people from the church sat down and shared the story of Jesus and His work in the world. All of them had gone through a brief e3 Partners training course about how to share their faith.

During the training, people were taught to communicate using a simple circle drawing. It shows God’s creation of the world, humans bringing chaos, and God bringing redemption through Jesus.

They also get prayer requests from people and talk about their lives. Prizer says, “We know of at least three Gospel conversations during that time. So we praise the Lord for that. Now, in the future, we’re going to change the way we’re doing Serve Sunday in our church.”

Want to do something similar at your church? Connect to e3 Partners training and resources here.

(Header photo courtesy of moerschy from Pixabay)

Warriors Set Free is part of Set Free Ministries, which introduces people to the freedom they can have in Christ, provides biblical guidance, and encourages discipleship. Warriors Set Free provides this same counsel and guidance specifically to veterans. Their director, founder, and volunteers are all veterans. Steve Prince explains this is key for the ministry to be successful.

“With myself being a veteran of about 25 years [of service], I connect with veterans the way a veteran can talk to a veteran. I will sit down with a vet either over lunch or over zoom and just listen to their story. I can relate to a lot of them even among different generations or different branches. I was in the Army, but we connect with Marines and Navy and Air Force because we all have a similar experience of leaving home to go defend freedom,” he says.

(Photo courtesy of Eric Ward via Unsplash)

“I use my military background to connect with them so they can start to understand that someone else understands. That allows them to open up and start to tell me what they’ve been through.”

Guided by Truth

Once the conversation gets going, Prince is then able to offer veterans biblical truth.

“If a veteran isn’t living his or her life to the full, we can help him or her see what they’re doing [isn’t] in alignment with Scripture,” he says.

“We refer to Scripture as truth because it is similar to a military manual. We have technical manuals and field manuals in the military that tell us how to do our jobs and how to accomplish tasks. Scripture is very much the same, so we start discipleship processes with many veterans and then encourage them to continue that through their church, through another ministry, or with us long term.”

On Veterans Day tomorrow, Prince encourages everyone to think about how they can best honor veterans, both in interactions on Veterans Day and the rest of the year.

(Photo courtesy of Caleb Fisher via Unsplash)

“As a society, we want to talk too much, and Scripture says to be slow to speak quick to listen. It’s a very important skill just to be able to listen and ask gentle questions,” Prince says.

“I don’t recommend saying thank you for your service because it’s become very hollow since that’s what everybody says. If you walk up to that veteran and say, ‘Look, I know you’re in the military, and I want to thank you on behalf of my family,’ or change it up at all. That means a lot more to me personally than thank you for your service.”

Prince asks for prayers for veterans both on the holiday tomorrow and all year. To learn more about how you can connect veterans to Warriors Set Free and pray for those they’re already ministering to, visit their website here.

Header image courtesy of Aaron Burden via Unsplash

If you are looking for a way you can serve others from home, consider becoming a penpal with a prisoner!

(Photo courtesy of Scott Graham via Unsplash)

Crossroads Prison Ministries needs more people to write letters to prisoners in their Bible study program. When you volunteer to mentor a Bible study student in prison through Crossroads, you are tangibly showing them God’s love.

Doug Cupery, Crossroads’ church mobilization director, says, “We do biblical studies with prisoners through correspondence through the mail. A key piece that we do is build relationships with those that are participating with us through letter writing. So really, what you are doing is you are journeying with prisoners through their Bible studies and speaking truth, encouraging, [and] offering hope.

“Just the other day, I heard a story about a woman who just couldn’t serve in the community anymore and it was really breaking her heart. She just felt an emptiness. So she found her website and checked us out and started volunteering with us. It’s just been a life-changing experience for her.”

Crossroads serves prisoners in at least 20 countries. Prison is a lonely place, and especially during the pandemic, prison visitations are restricted.

“We have to remember over 95 percent of those that we incarcerate will be coming home to our communities. So when you think about that, if we as the Church are journeying with this prisoner (who we call a student,) we’re not only impacting that person; we’re impacting the prison environment. We’re impacting our communities, our schools, and our families.”

Learn more about becoming a prison mentor with Crossroads here!

“It’s life-changing,” Cupery says. “You won’t regret it. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s a beautiful journey.”

Header image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.

Added Security

Technically, Christianity is protected by Indonesia’s constitution. But with somewhere around 6,000 inhabited islands, locals often pay more attention to island subcultures than to national culture. On paper, Christians are protected, but reality tells a slightly different story.

“Let’s say that there is an attack against a church – an arsonist or something like that,” Allen says. “And the people of the congregation or the Pastor calls the local fire department. Well, yes, the Christians are entitled to the services of that fire department. But the fire chief may say, ‘Let’s drag our heels. Let’s get there and about three or four hours.’ Well, by that time, the church has been burned to the ground. That sort of thing does happen in Indonesia.”

That’s what makes official reactions to Christmas so significant. As in many other countries, Indonesia sees church attendance spike around Christmastime. Students are home from university, city workers head home for the holidays, and families reunite where they grew up. That’s why many churches, particularly those in small villages and farming communities, face spikes in terrorist attack frequency.

In response, officials are providing uniformed policemen, undercover cops, and military personnel for protection. And according to Allen, Muslim officers look forward to the assignment.

Photo courtesy of FMI

“They love to hear about Christmas,” he says. “They want to help with the decorations or sing these carols. They may not understand it all, but hopefully, if they’re attending an FMI affiliated church, they’re getting a good Gospel presentation as well.”

Introducing Muslims to Christmas

Apparently, these security personnel aren’t the only Muslims interested in Christmas church services.

“When I was in Indonesia last, I was hearing reports about what was happening last Christmas in 2018,” Allen says. “In some of these remote villages that are really difficult to access, you’d have a small congregation, maybe 30-40 Christians, but a wider community of hundreds or a few thousand Muslims.”

According to Allen, somewhere around “90% of the Muslim neighbors were trying to get into the Christians’ meeting place.”

Some of those meeting places are house churches. Even then, Muslim neighbors stand around windows and doors, trying to get any hint of the Christmas story.

“They want to know who Jesus is. Why did he come? Now, a devout Muslim would kno

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

w from the Quran that Jesus is sinless, born of a virgin, and is considered the Word of God… and so they go, ‘Oh, wow, the Christians are celebrating Jesus birth, about why he came to earth. I need to find out about this.’”

As a result, Muslims even outnumber Christians at some services. Last year, one pastor recalls hearing almost 50 Muslims crowded outside the sanctuary. When he went outside, he was surprised at their complaint: “We’re disappointed that you did not invite us to your Christmas service!” The pastor, of course, let them join the service.

A new year, a new Christmas

This year, FMI partner churches want to go out of their way to invite Muslims to their services ahead of time. That’s where your prayers come in.

“Pray that the curiosity of the Muslim neighbors would be stoked and that there would be a boldness on the part of the Christians to invite their neighbors so that the neighbors don’t have to riot outside the church and say ‘Please let us in!’ That the Christians would be very proactive in saying, ‘Please come, we’d love to have you join us. We would love to sit and talk with you afterwards as we fellowship together and explain more about not just how Jesus came but why Jesus came.’”

Pray also for the safety of Allen and other FMI representatives travelling to Indonesia. In efforts to understand how partner churches operate, especially during Christmastime, Allen is paying local congregations surprise visits.

“I’m scratching my head going, ‘Wow, is this a new movement of God’s Spirit among the Muslim world? I’d like to experience this firsthand and see what really is happening. Observe, listen, watch.’”

Photo courtesy of FMI

So far, he’s already visited several churches. For example, “on Sunday night’s (Dec. 22) Christmas program that I attended, there was an overflow crowd at the church of one of FMI’s partners. The is congregation regularly has about 90 attenders, and there are only 132 people in the entire village, and there were perhaps about 150 at the Christmas celebration to hear about the Savior’s birth.”

You can learn more about FMI and their work right here. Consider giving to their efforts or connecting with them to follow their projects in Indonesia and around the world.

And from FMI and their partners in Indonesia, Merry Christmas.

Header photo courtesy of FMI

But after hundreds of years, people in Iraq’s historically Christian communities were primarily Christian because, well, they weren’t Muslim. This led to a lot of rote religion that didn’t always include a true relationship with God.

That all changed when ISIS entered the picture.

Steve Van Valkenburg with Christian Aid Mission says, “When ISIS came in and persecuted them and chased them out, many of these Christians went to places like Erbil and Dohuk and Kurdistan. In those locations, there is a ministry assisted by Christian Aid Mission that was able to reach out and feed and clothe and share the Gospel and give out Bibles and disciple new believers.

“Many Muslims have believed in Christ, but also many of the historic Christians have believed. So for them, being a Christian means a lot more than just not being a Muslim. Now being a Christian means that they’re born again, they believe in Christ as their Savior and Lord, it means that they begin to read the Bible and they attend Bible studies and they’re discipled.”

One of the towns outside Mosul destroyed by Islamic State terrorists. (Caption, photo courtesy of Christian Aid Mission)

Then in October 2016, they got the news: Iraqi forces had retaken Qaraqosh from ISIS. Since then, some residents have returned to Qaraqosh. But many have not since there isn’t much to go back to. Homes, businesses, and churches were demolished. The infrastructure for sewage, power, and water was destroyed.

For those who have returned to Qaraqosh, however, they are hopeful. In December 2016, a Catholic church celebrated Christmas for the first time since ISIS’ takeover. But still, no evangelical Christians had gathered in their newly-liberated city.

Nasim was a nominal Christian who fled Qaraqosh before ISIS came in. While living displaced in Erbil, a ministry leader led Nasim to a true relationship with Christ and discipled him. When Nasim went back to Qaraqosh, he began building a two-story house. On December 7th, Nasim led a small group of Christians in worship for the first evangelical church meeting in Qaraqosh.

Now, in the midst of the Christmas season — which goes until January 6th in Iraq — these evangelical Christians are celebrating Christmas for the first time in liberated Qaraqosh.

“For them this year, Christmas in their hometowns is a very different kind of feeling, because to them now they know the one who was born on Christmas day 2,000 years ago and now they have a relationship with him and they have a new identity as Christians.”

Van Valkenburg asks believers around the world to celebrate and pray with our Iraqi Christian brothers and sisters as they finish their Christmas festivities.

“Pray that they would find great encouragement and that they would be people who would walk with Christ and that this Christmastime would be a time when they’re encouraged spiritually and they know how to reach out to those around them and show the love of Christ.”

Right now, some of their biggest needs are supplies to rebuild homes and earn a living. Iraqi Christians also need more audio Bibles as an oral culture so they can continue to grow in their faith and witness to their neighbors.

You can be a tangible encouragement by giving to Christian Aid Mission. Click here to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of displaced people in Iraq.

Just ask Brian Marx, a pilot with MAF based in Papua, Indonesia. He grew up overseas and his parents served with MAF. Even as a teenager, the importance of the airplane to mission work was obvious to Marx. When two pilots died, the missionaries, ministries, and organizations they flew into remote and hard-to-reach areas suddenly had to find less convenient travel options. This hampered Great Commission work such as Bible translation and evangelism.

“I just saw this gap and the struggle and God began working on my heart and I began to pray and say, ‘God, if you’ll open doors, I will step through them and I could maybe fill the shoes of those pilots who are gone now.’”

From there, Marx attended Moody Bible Institute for a Bachelor of Science in Mission Aviation Technology. He then got the rest of his necessary licenses and joined MAF as a pilot.

So what does a day in the life of an MAF pilot look like? Marx gives us a glimpse into one of his personal reflections after a day of taking missions to the skies:

“Flying home today, I thought back to what had been accomplished with the plane. It was just an average day. Nothing particularly out of the norm. The first leg from Nabire, which is where we live, to Pogapa I had half a dozen schoolkids who had been boarding in Nabire and now get to go back to their village and to their parents for Christmas.

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“The second leg was a very sad one. In Pogapa, a young lady was experiencing a miscarriage. She was into her second trimester and the baby had passed. Now she seemed to be in quite a lot of pain. I would evacuate her to Nabire where doctors can help her. There’s a special account where I can charge emergency medical needs. The flight for her would be free.

“Suddenly, one of the local teachers came running up to the plane. ‘Mister pilot! Could you please wait for my friend? She just found out her father passed away and she needs to fly home.’ I did my best to comfort these two passengers as we headed back to Nabire. Such a sad flight; but for me, a huge privilege to help during their time of deepest need.

“Third leg was a plane full of pastors headed to Beoga. As I gave the before-flight briefing, there were many ‘amens!’ and enthusiastic ‘praise the Lord!’. It was pretty funny but terrific at the same time. Their culture is different than mine and I appreciate and enjoy it.

“Fourth leg was full of folks headed over the mountain range to Timika and probably further for the holidays. I had to fight some really tall rain clouds, maintaining max climb performance all the way to 14,500 feet where I donned an oxygen mask and maneuvered to a safer air route where I could punch through the weather to better skies on the other side. I landed in moderate rain and heavy crosswind in Timika.

“My fifth leg would take me back through that weather.” He pauses for an audible shudder. “Last week, I picked up some-60 pastors from interior villages for a ministry planning conference in Timika. Now I would take nine of those home to their village on Dofu. I briefed my passengers about the weather we’d face and then decided to swing out west hoping to find a better situation. Things were not quite as bad. I only had to climb to 13,000 feet to clear the building storm.

“Dofu was clear and hot. From the ground, I had the chance to chit-chat with John, a Bible translator who’s been working here for 20 or more years. John and his wife are doing well. His young teammate, a relatively new arrival, is making progress building his home with supplies that MAF delivered this fall. Pray for John and his team of Edopi tribal pastors who bring salt and light to a very dark corner of the jungle.

“I found myself on the last leg back home to Nabire with three nurses and the doctor from Dofu all headed home for Christmas. I filled out the paperwork for the day, and I thought, ‘Wow, it’s unbelievable that today is just another average day at MAF. Only God could take a group of simple pilots and little airplanes and do so much with them.’”

One of the flights delivering a combined 7,000 pounds of plywood in Papua. (Caption, photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

So what about you? Would you like to become a pilot with Mission Aviation Fellowship? Click here to check out their website and learn more!

When asked what his favorite part is about being a missionary pilot, Marx doesn’t miss a beat: “Not a flight goes by when I can’t look in the back of the plane and see the reason that I came to Papua. Sometimes it’s a missionary or a pastor or an evangelist. Other times, it’s a teacher and schoolbooks. And sometimes it’s a huge pile of cargo…. That’s my favorite part, is just being able to serve.”

Check back tomorrow as we talk with MAF’s recruitment coordinator about the technical and spiritual aspects of becoming a missionary pilot.

[Header photo: Pilot Daniel Moser taking off from an airstrip in Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste is operated by MAF-International. Together, MAF-US and MAF-I operate in 33 countries! (Caption, photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)]

This has led to a whole new pattern. Joanna works with Pioneers USA. We’ve limited information about her for security purposes.

(Photo courtesy of Pioneers via Facebook.)

She says, “One of the things we’re seeing, like so many other mission agencies, is just the incredible growth of the Global South Church in the current membership of Pioneers. We’ve seen just a massive influx from non-traditional sending countries, so places where they were obviously traditionally receiving places now becoming sending nations, and it’s just so exciting to see that.”

Did you get that? Countries where the West has been sending missionaries for centuries are now raising up their own mission field.

Joanna works in leadership development with Pioneers. Here she works on how to better resource leaders in cross-cultural situations. She views this as an area that has room for growth in the mission field. But also in her work, she gets to experience a unique perspective of what God is doing around the world.

“One of the things I find so compelling about working globally with Pioneers is […] it’s such a privilege to be a part of God’s greater story of what He’s doing around the world and what He desires to do — the ways He’s using people from every background.”

This brings up another thought that more and more people have started to realize, but something that has been true about God’s people since the beginning. There is no traditional missionary.

“It doesn’t have to be a particular gift set that equals ‘missionary’ — it’s been wonderful to see God using people according to the ways He’s gifted them in a variety of settings. That’s something we really celebrate.”

God has gifted each of us with different skills– we may be talented in the arts, communication, technology, relationship building, leadership, and more.

She cites 1 Corinthians 12, a passage that talks about the Body of Christ being made up of individuals with a variety of talents, gifts, and purposes. We all have our place in that Body, but as Joanna says, it takes being responsive and obedient to God’s call to be effective.

When Joanna joined Pioneers, she felt called to work with a particular group of people Pioneers wasn’t working with at the time. They asked her to pray with them for a team to be assembled.

In a little over a year, God brought that team together.

No matter where we are stationed, there are people around us who don’t know Jesus. In that sense, we’re all missionaries. But sometimes God calls people to specific locations and to work with a specific ministry. If you feel like God is pricking your heart, start with prayer. Learn about the opportunities to serve with Pioneers here.