The presidential election results are still being contested by opposition parties, and emotions were high going into gubernatorial elections.

Most reports of violence and voter intimidation came from the southern parts of the country in areas with majority Christian voters.

Greg Kelley with World Mission says, “During the election itself, this ruling party deliberately disenfranchised communities and targeted primarily the Christian communities. Voters were terrorized to stay away. We have firsthand accounts across the country of reports of being terrorized.”

(Photo courtesy of World Mission)

Nigeria is deeply divided between the Christian-majority south and Muslim-majority north. Christians who find themselves in dominant Muslim territory are often attacked by Boko Haram extremists and Islamic Fulani herdsmen.

Kelley says, “The Islamic agenda is not just emphasized, but aggressively installed throughout the hierarchy of the governmental system, which really causes a lot of problems because if you’re Christian, you’re persecuted from a business standpoint, from a family standpoint. Of course, we know about the Boko Haram activities going on.”

The winner of Nigeria’s presidential election last month, Bola Tinubu, is a Muslim, as is one of the other top three presidential candidates. The third candidate, Peter Obi, is a Christian.

President-elect Tinubu has made statements recognizing the threat Boko Haram poses in the country. But Nigerian Christians are wary, given Nigeria’s lackluster political history.

“They’re really quite honestly not looking at it so much from Christianity versus Islam. They just want a godly, moral leader in place, and Nigeria has just been carnage because of all the attacks and atrocities that we’ve been hearing about in the north by the Boko Haram [and] Fulani herdsman. There has been zero accountability. If there were a Muslim in power who was holding them accountable, quite honestly, Christians would be fine with that. But the Islamic agenda is being so rammed down the throat of the people in that country, it’s just really leading to a terrible place.”

However, Kelley reminds there is not just physical conflict taking place. There is a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12) for the hearts of Nigerians and their leaders.

“I think we can get caught up in the politics of it, but if you were to ask a Nigerian Christian and say, ‘What is the answer to Nigeria?’ they would say prayer.”

These disciples of Christ are passionately sharing God’s Word in North Eastern Nigeria.
(Photo, caption courtesy of World Mission)

Kelley says, “We have to be praying for the change of hearts. We don’t like what these people are doing. We don’t like being oppressed. We don’t like being victimized. We don’t like being persecuted. But when it’s all said and done, Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords, not whoever happens to have the temporary title of president of Nigeria.”

World Mission works with Nigerian believers to distribute solar-powered audio Bibles called Treasures. Ultimately, it’s the Gospel that will change hearts. Much of their ministry efforts are focused in northern Nigeria.

“The southern part of Nigeria does not need the Gospel. It doesn’t need our international mission investment. They are very strong, they’re stable,” says Kelley. “We need to get the Gospel and put our energies and resources and deploy them into the northern part of Nigeria. So for people who are involved in missions, we need to start thinking that way. We need to be praying that way.”

Pray for Nigeria’s new leaders to walk in wisdom. Ask the Lord to open Nigerians’ eyes to His love, justice, and truth. Pray for the people to know Jesus Christ as King.

You can donate to World Mission here.

Header photo courtesy of Emmanuel Ikwuegbu via Unsplash.

Last year, e3 launched Made to Multiply — a five-year initiative to train one million North Americans in the United States and Canada to effectively share their faith. They would also like to see Gospel conversations trainings happen in all 50 US states.

(Infographic courtesy of e3 Partners)

E3 has already reached 24 states in 2022 with Gospel conversations training.

Abbie McConnell, Marketing Communications Director with e3, says, “We’re definitely looking for believers and local churches that want to partner with us. We want to take this training to 26 additional US states in 2023!… If you see that your state hasn’t been reached, we’d love to hear from you.”

E3 sends teams of people around the US to work with churches and ministry organizations to bring people together for Gospel conversations trainings.

Brad Prizer, e3’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications, says, “A lot of this is done through church partnerships. We are not the Church. We recognize that the Great Commission was given to the Church, not to e3 Partners.

“Our role in this that God has given us is to come alongside the Church and support the Church in its training efforts and sharing the Gospel with the community surrounding their church and their Jerusalem, and their Samaria, and their Judea, their area.”

Register for upcoming trainings at madetomultiply.org.

Prizer says, “It’s our goal as a ministry to not do all these training sessions ourselves. We could never reach one million people trained if it was just e3 doing it. What we do is we train other people to train other people.

“Our goal is to not only train those who want to know how to share the Gospel more effectively, but train people to rise up and also have their own training sessions.”

If you’re nervous to share your faith or don’t know where to start, Prizer has this encouragement: “I think God equips us to be able to share our story and God’s story with others. But also, when we do the Gospel conversations training, we actually go out into the harvest and we pair up with other people who have done it before. They get to knock on doors and see how the Holy Spirit actually goes before them and gives them the opportunity to share the Gospel with someone who’s eager to receive it.”

Learn more about e3 Partners here.

Header photo courtesy of Christina @ Wocintechchat.com via Unsplash.

(Photo courtesy of Sammy Tippit ministries via Facebook)

Tippit says this past decade opened up opportunities for ministry in a way he never imagined possible. Technology has given ministries the ability to cross borders and enter countries in some unexpected ways. Social media and other communication tools have connected people near and far, enabling the building of relationships that would have otherwise never happened.

“As a result of that, ministry, especially evangelism and discipleship, is able to be done in creative ways, more effective ways, and we’re able to reach more people with the Gospel. One of the exciting things is that it can be done at a very, very low cost, and so this has just opened up a whole new world of mission opportunities,” Tippit says.

Technology in Ministry

Technology connects Tippit with people where no Christians live and provides him the tools to share Christ. Five years ago, Tippit used Skype to mentor a young pastor in India. When the pastor started a church, he enlisted Tippit to help with discipling new believers.

(Stock photo via Pixabay)

“I actually had the ability to disciple people from here in the United States using that simple technology,” Tippit says.

“Well, that has developed, and other technologies have come up since that time. Even…Facebook, it’s opened doors to other technologies like WhatsApp that have enabled not only a broader way of ministering to people but a deeper way of ministering to people.”

Tippit notes all ministry is rooted in communication and relationships. Technology enabling people to communicate has also helped them build robust relationships, too. These relationships have expanded and grown the global Church.

Church Planting and Small Groups

Sammy Tippit Ministries has planted several churches over the last ten years, including churches in countries Tippit has not visited. Relationships, built through multiple technological mediums, led to collaborations, friendships, and partnerships. Tippit applied opportunities for evangelistic events where few Christians live. Then, a local church planter disciples new believers and eventually forms a small church.

“We’ve done this in numerous places. That was unthinkable ten years ago,” Tippit comments.

(Photo courtesy of Sammy Tippit Ministries via Facebook)

With hours left until the start of a new year, Sammy Tippit Ministries is looking toward 2020 with hope and ambition. Tippit emphasizes technology can “only assist human relationships; it never replaces human relationships.”

For example, Sammy Tippit Ministries uses technology to assist in relationship building and connecting people through small groups. The ministry is developing and resourcing small groups connected via technology, like WhatsApp or even text messaging. This means a person in the United States can join a small group with someone in Brazil. These small groups will launch at the beginning of 2020.

To learn more about the small groups, click here!

Pray for Sammy Tippit Ministries

Will you consider coming alongside the ministry of Sammy Tippit Ministries? Tippit asks for prayers.

“This year will be a huge step for us, and we have a lot of pieces that are coming together and we really, really need people to pray that God gives us the wisdom, that God gives us the people: the right people in the right place doing the right thing,” Tippit says.

Another way to come alongside this ministry is through financial support. To give to Sammy Tippit Ministries, click here!

“We’re hoping to reach, with an evangelistic outreach, 10,000,000 people in May of 2020. You can help us do that,” Tippit says.

Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash.

Prayer Walk a Campus

There are only eight days left in 2019, and just over 1000 college campuses in the United States still need prayer walkers. Will you help prayer walk the remaining campuses?

(Photo courtesy of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship via Becket Law Media Kit)

“Any of your listeners could visit EveryCampus.com. And when you go there, there’s a really easy way to search for a campus near you. You can search for a particular campus, you can search by zip code or city, and it will pull up the campuses near you. It’ll tell you whether that campus has been prayer walked yet or not,” Jon Hietbrink says, InterVarsity’s Vice President of Campus Ministry in the Central United States.

“If it hasn’t yet been prayer walked there’ll be a green button where you can click ‘start here,’ and enter either your phone number or your email address and we’ll send you a customized prayer guide that you can use to shape your prayer walk on that campus. And then at the end of that prayer walking guide is a button for you to be able to say that you completed the prayer walk and that will update our count down.”

Results of Prayer Walks

Hietbrink has participated in prayer walks which have taken only 10 minutes. Other times, the Holy Spirit has prompted him to pray longer. Regardless of how long a prayer walk lasts, InterVarsity believes it is a powerful experience, setting foot on a college campus and joining God in that space.

(Photo courtesy of EveryCampus via Facebook)

“Our hope with that is that people really start to experience what we in campus ministries see every day, is that Jesus is alive and well on every single campus in the country already. We don’t bring God to those campuses. God is already at work in those places, we’re just joining Him,” Hietbrink says.

Stories have reached Hietbrink’s desk from people with whom InterVarsity did not have previous contact. They are stories of people who felt moved to prayer walk a campus where they knew no one, yet God led them to a student or faculty member who wanted to start something new on that campus. To prayer walk a campus before 2020 comes, click here.

Looking Ahead to 2020

In 2020, InterVarsity plans to mobilize the Church further to reach college campuses across the United States. This will look like continued prayer and even efforts to start new Gospel communities on college campuses.

“Our desire would be that there wouldn’t be a single campus left in the country that didn’t have a local community of Jesus followers meeting on that campus to seek and bear witness to His presence and His lordship on that campus,” Hietbrink says.

Sign-up to prayer walk a campus here!

Header photo courtesy of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Yesterday, we covered why Christians should continue the work to end human trafficking and not grow weary of doing good. (Read the article here.) Now, we are digging deeper into the narrative surrounding human trafficking.

As previously noted, in 2019, The Freedom Challenge, an organization under Operation Mobilization, started a domestic partnership with the like-minded Logos Wilderness Therapy.

The Human Trafficking Narrative

Chelsea Van Essen, who is a licensed social worker and therapist, is the co-founder and clinical director of Logos Wilderness Therapy. She focuses on trauma and complex trauma and works with trafficking survivors. Primarily, human trafficking comes down to the exploitation of power and control.

“Oftentimes, when we’re healing from trauma or with trafficking survivors, we’re actually trying to re-establish the feeling of empowerment and control, and then also put those protections back in place,” Van Essen says.

(Photo courtesy of The Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

Re-empowering people means starting with enlightening ourselves. Access to a multitude of stories about exploitation and abuse in the world is overwhelming. However, Van Essen emphasizes the need to not live into the narrative that the world is overcome with evil or that the average person is powerless.

“God has created us to live into these spaces of dignity and value of human life,” Van Essen says.

The next level of fighting human trafficking is seeing the individual.

“The first thing that [is] lost with human trafficking is the dehumanization. That’s the first thing that happens where people are objectified for someone else’s pleasure or power,” Van Essen says.

Reinstating a person’s dignity and humanization is powerful. Examples of seeing the individual are found in Scripture, too. Tracy Daugherty, the director of The Freedom Challenge, says human trafficking is a narrative throughout the Old Testament. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and he was trafficked to Egypt. But before Joseph came Hagar, the mother of Ishmael.

Hagar and God

Daugherty explains how Hagar was trafficked from Egypt to Abraham, the same man who God makes a covenant with and who Christians call “the father of faith”. Despite being a man of faith, Abraham takes Hagar, most likely because social norms of the day said such an action was morally acceptable.

(Photo courtesy of The Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

“He picked up this woman and then, of course, she becomes a, really basically a sex slave for [Sarai/Sarah] [Abraham’s wife] to have a child for them. And as you continue on that story, what I love about it is she is the only woman in scripture that God reveals himself personally to. He says my name is El Roi, the God that sees,” Daugherty says.

In Hagar’s story, God makes it clear that he sees her pain and how His people have wronged her. His face turns toward her pain, and he provides for her and her son.

“It’s just good to remember that this is not a new story. It’s not a new narrative. We’re just more aware of it, and from the very beginning, we see the enemy’s plan to exploit God’s beautiful, resilient, fabulous creation,” Daugherty says.

A Heart for the Vulnerable

Van Essen urges followers of Christ not to be surprised by evil. This surprise is the first step to feeling helpless. God has not abandoned His people, and He does not call His people to manicured lives that never touch the edges of darkness.

(Photo courtesy of The Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

“It is always God’s heart for us to turn towards and walk towards pain. We don’t want to do that. But, when we just look at the model…it is always God’s call for what does God require of us, to love justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God,” Daugherty says.

“I am made in God’s image, which means that he empowers me to turn toward what He deeply cares for, and He deeply cares for those women and children who have been exploited in the world.”

James 1:27 reveals how what God considers undefiled religion is looking after the orphans and widows and staying unspotted from the world. Continuing the push against human trafficking is just one of the ways to live out pure and untainted religion.

Breaking Power Cycles

Furthermore, Van Essen notes how people should not try to fix the survivors of human trafficking. The Bible shows a pattern of God seeing people who are vulnerable experiencing pain and suffering. He draws near to them and moves them forward.

“It takes away this power dynamic, right. So, if I’m not over here trying to fix you, because then I’m assuming I know how to fix and rescue you and I don’t, right, that’s God’s job,” Van Essen says.

“I think in a lot of ways to remain hopeful is to have these reality checks of who am I? What is my space? What’s my role? And who is God? That does bring so much peace to my heart. God is the one sovereign, rescuer always, and then I am a partaker, a journeywoman with Him in this work. And that actually gives me the strength to like not [to] look away from what’s happening.”

Dig Deeper Into Ending Human Trafficking

Are you interested in joining or digging deeper into the work of fighting against the exploitation and abuse of vulnerable individuals? Then consider teaming up with The Freedom Challenge.

In 2020, The Freedom Challenge is headed to Israel to host the Jesus Walk. The Jesus Walk is a five-day wilderness backpacking trek. Participants will walk through Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. Along the walk, they will also minister to communities and learn more about the places where Biblical events took place.

To learn more about the Jesus Walk or to register for the event, click here.

(Photo courtesy of The Freedom Challenge via Facebook)

The Freedom Challenge is also hosting six one-day regional events. To find a regional event near you or to host an event, click here!

Another way to step up is through prayer. Pray for both the survivors and victims of human trafficking to find peace and healing. Pray for God to restore the dignity of those who have been dehumanized.

Ask God to encourage the Church not to turn away from pain or become overwhelmed by it, but to provide a light in the darkness instead. Pray for the Church to see the individuals impacted by human trafficking. And pray for the provision of The Freedom Challenge and Logos Wilderness Therapy.

Last Thoughts

On a closing note:

“As we discover these stories that often have men in the center, we can really without knowing [it] place a shame blanket on all men. I am the mom of two boys, and I have an amazing husband…what I would like to say is for our brothers; we need our brothers in Christ to stand up and be a voice, an advocate for their sisters,” Daugherty says.

“There [are] t-shirts out that say “the future is women,” and as much as I love women, I don’t want my future to look like that. I want my future to be men and women because we’re both made in the image of God, and it’s going to take all of us, the full Kingdom, to be able to stand in this fight.”

To learn more about The Freedom Challenge, click here.

To learn more about Logos Wilderness Therapy, click here.

Header photo courtesy of The Freedom Challenge.

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

Need for Training

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

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

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

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

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

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

Reaching Out With the Gospel

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

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

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

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

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

Marc Papai, Director of International Student Ministry for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, says there are many different ways international students are counted. For example, students in exchanged programs or who are studying at language schools are sometimes counted, too.

International Students and YOU

Either way, Papai says building genuine relationships with international students is an excellent opportunity to reach the nations.

(Photo courtesy of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship via Becket Law Media Kit)

“Now we have about 500 chapters in InterVarsity that have international students involved in them. And they become a part of the flow of the chapter life together. So, that includes social outings, meals together, lots of tea and coffee drinking together, and building those kinds of friendships in the context of which we have the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus,” Papai says.

But, as much as 75 percent of international students in the U.S. never see the inside of an American home. This Thanksgiving is a chance to change this statistic. InterVarsity is helping every-day Americans connect with international students to host them in their homes.

(Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash)

“You can search on [InterVarsity’s] website to make a connection with a staff member in your city or near your location, who’d be elated to hear from you about having an international student, or two, or ten; we’ve had 24 at our house for Thanksgiving in the past. It’s such a delight to bring the world around your dining room table,” Papai says.

This week, as preparations are underway to thaw a turkey, bake bread crumbs for stuffing, and recreate grandma’s famous cranberry sauce, take a moment to consider inviting an international student, who is far from home this holiday season, to a seat at the dining room table.

Invite a New Thanksgiving Guest

InterVarsity has connections with hundreds of international students, and Papai says the organization is happy to connect believers to students looking for a place to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. Another option Papai suggests is to talk to a church leader and ask if the church has any connections to help extend a Thanksgiving invitation to an international student this week.

“I cannot tell you how many families have told me that they are the winners, so to say, in this relationship. That they feel blessed…and it can become the beginning of a very long relationship,” Papai says.

Connect with InterVarsity here!

(Photo courtesy of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship).

Hosting or not, please pray for international students and God’s work in their lives. Pray for international students to feel welcomed in U.S. homes. Pray for the connections made this holiday season to build trust and life-long relationships where the truth, love, and hope of Christ is experienced.

To learn more about InterVarsity’s International Student Ministry, click here.

Header photo by SJ Baren on Unsplash.

Church Closures

Since 2006, all religious groups must register their places of worship with the Algerian government. The only religion not required to follow this ordinance is the majority religion of Islam. However, the government often uses strict requirements for places of worship, resulting in the denial of applications.

(Photo by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay )

The USCIRF emphasized the need to protect places of worship during a recent hearing. USCIRF Chair Tony Perkins says the right to religious freedom is a right all people should maintain, including the right to access their places of worship. Christians who attempt living into this right put themselves at risk in Algeria.

“We don’t hear a lot about Algeria, but it’s extremely dangerous for believers to live there,” Patrick Murphy says, with I Found the Truth.

The USCIRF’s Vice Chair Gayle Manchin has called on the Algerian government to reopen the closed churches and to stop harassing the Christian community in the country. If history is any indicator, it is unlikely the Algerian government will heed this call.

Persecution in Algeria

(Photo by James L.W on Unsplash)

The World Watch List ranks Algeria #22 of the hardest countries to live in as a Christian. Open Doors USA, publishers of the World Watch List, says the persecution level of Christians is very high in the country.

“We have seen pictures and even videos of police coming in and closing down churches; believers being in prayer meetings, and they’re forcibly dragged out, and the doors are locked for good. And so, I mean this is a bad thing. Of course, it’s a terrible thing, and these pictures and videos are going around the Middle East, and now around the West,” Murphy says.

Next Steps

But the circulation of these images and videos is generating prayer. Pray for the protection and encouragement of the Algerian Church. Pray for their ability to meet and worship, too. And pray for God’s Word to impact and transform the people in Algeria.

“God’s going to use it to spread the Gospel. That’s always the result of persecution. So, in the end, it’s difficult, but God turns it to good.”

Header photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash.

John and Kelly Chesnut. (Photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators via website)

Chesnut came into the position following a year-long journey of prayer and extensive interviews. The installation of Wycliffe’s new leader took place on October 10.

As CEO and President, Chesnut’s vision for the ministry is to get the Bible translated into every living language.

“Well, one of the things, as we look ahead, is there’s still some 2,100 language communities out there with no scripture at all. And so, that is our primary focus as we move forward. How might we see, through partnerships and working with other ministries and churches around the world, how can we see God’s Word come to those communities,” Chesnut says.

“My hope and desire is that every language coming around the world would have access to the full context or all of scripture in a language or form that they can understand.”

Nurturing a Passion for Bible Translation

Chesnut’s passion for Bible translation developed when his church adopted an unreached people group. It was then that the need for translations of God’s Word became a reality for him.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe USA)

“As I engaged as a pastor and began to realize that there’s a huge need out there [for church planting]…How can that happen if God’s word is not present in a language that people can understand?” Chesnut recounts.

The task at hand is huge, and Chesnut knows this. But through partnerships within the global Church, by God’s providence, his goals are achievable.

Chesnut believes God is “pouring out His spirit, maybe as never before in history right now”. According to him, it is an exciting time for Bible translation; the completion of Scripture translations in every current living language is within sight.

Next Steps

This is why Wycliffe is asking for prayer. Ask God to continue and protect the work of completing remaining Bible translations.

(Photo courtesy of Wycliffe USA)

“I continue to believe that one of the greatest threats to the work as a whole is really what Christ challenges His disciples [with] in John 17 is that we would be one…And I really feel like, from a prayer perspective, that that’s one of the areas that we are regularly asking for prayer for is that God would maintain the unity of these working relationships around the world so that His work can continue—often in very difficult circumstances, already,” Chesnut says.

For tangible ways to support Bible translation work, CLICK HERE.

To find more ways to get involved, CLICK HERE.

“God is doing some fantastic things around the world to see that picture that we find in Revelation 7:9 of people from every tongue, tribe, and nation coming around the throne,” Chesnut says.

“I believe it’s very possible that we would see the reality of every language community having access to God’s word during our lifetime.”

Header photo courtesy of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA via Facebook.

(Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash)

Todd Nettleton, of Voice of the Martyrs USA, says both the founder and assistant director of China Horizons are detained in China. The reason–suspicions of helping people enter the country illegally. However, the recent charges correlate with a trend VOM USA has witnessed.

“We have seen, over the last number of months, a number of foreign workers in China, who have (when it comes time for their visa to be renewed) they find out, ‘oh sorry, your visa’s not going to be renewed’. Some foreigners have had their visas canceled,” Nettleton says.

Others have voluntarily left the country to avoid having their visas canceled with the hopes of returning in 6-12 months.

In the past, when travelers were unwelcome or detained in China, authorities typically put them on a plane and instructed them not to return. The end. However, travelers were not detained for lengthy periods, as is such with the arrests of China Horizons’ employees.

Has the golden age for traveling to the land of the Red Dragon come to an end? Possibly.

Concern for Foreigners in China

Some sources who have taken to social media are speculating if the recent arrests are the mark of something even bigger. Something resembling the Boxer Rebellion—a warning to foreigners to get out now.

For context, the Boxer Rebellion (1900) references a period in China’s history when a secret organization in the northern part of the country attacked foreigners. The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists “killed foreigners and Chinese Christians,” according to this article. The attacks stemmed from a desire to prevent outside influences from penetrating the region. A similar attitude seems adopted today.

“Xi Jinping and his government have set as an aim they are going to control religious expression in China. If that takes tearing down church buildings, if that takes putting people in prison, they are going to exercise that control,” Nettleton says.

“Foreigners, obviously, don’t necessarily cooperate with that. They don’t fall under that Chinese control of all religious expression. And so, I think that’s why you’re seeing foreigners being told it’s time for you to go home.”

The resounding question—what does this mean for ministries working in China?

A reevaluation.

Nettleton says it is time for careful consideration of the ‘how’ and ‘what’ behind foreign ministries and foreign workers in China. The good news—Nettleton believes the Chinese Church is mostly self-sufficient and capable of carrying on the Church and Gospel work despite the costs.

“As believers, and as those who would take the Gospel to a place like China, we need to consider the consequences. We need to count the costs ahead of time because it has become much more serious in China, and an American passport is no longer protection from being put in prison,” Nettleton says.

Next Steps

(Photo courtesy VOM Canada)

Pray for the protection of Christians in China. Pray for discernment, their tact, and their wisdom in navigating ministry work in the country. Ask God to make clear His will for each Christian currently in China.

Also, pray for those who are or will pay a price for their faith. Pray for their strength and perseverance. Finally, pray for the national Church and its ability to carry forward the Church.

Find more ways to support the Church in China here.

Header screen capture courtesy Prayercast.