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)

Buddhist artwork in Tibet.
(Photo credit: ConstantineD/Flickr/CC2.0)

During a press briefing yesterday with foreign reporters, Che encouraged Tibetans to follow the CCP’s formula for a “happy life.” Che also warned citizens not to “overdo” religion, Reuters reports:

“As long as they work hard to get rich, listen to the party, follow the party, and get down to doing things, their future will be more beautiful.”

Critics say the Tibet program looks eerily similar to controversial labor camps in Xinjiang that hold thousands of Uyghur Muslims against their will. Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton says China is waging war on every religion – including Christianity.

See our full China coverage here.

“Protestant churches are also being told to take down the pictures of Jesus, put up a picture of Chairman Mao [or] put up a picture of President Xi Jinping,” Nettleton says.

“Don’t sing your Christian hymns to start your service; instead, sing patriotic songs about the Communist Party.”

Why does President Xi hate religion?

Gospel growth and Communist control drive the latest crackdowns on Christians. Persecution even extends to children, Christian Post reports.

“[The oppression] is a reflection of the fact that the Church in China has grown dramatically in recent years. It is also a direct reflection of President Xi Jinping’s attitude towards religion and his desire for the Communist Party to exert control,” Nettleton says.

Why can’t religious groups and President Xi’s CCP peacefully coexist? Earlier this month, International Christian Concern’s Meg Midwood observed, “China’s leader, President Xi, is terrified of religion. Religion represents a threat to his authority, a potential Achilles’ heel of the communist infrastructure.”

Nettleton points to Xi’s history as another possible explanation. “Before [Xi] was a national leader, he was a provincial leader, and one of the things he did to ‘make his mark’ in that position was to crack down on the Church,” Nettleton says.

“I think he sees that as part of the way he got this job now as the president, and he has brought that philosophy to the national government.”

An official statement signed by 39 nations raised concerns about China at the U.N. General Assembly last week. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo urged the Vatican to join diplomatic efforts to hold China accountable for human rights abuses at the end of September.

(Graphic courtesy of VOM USA)

“This is a very serious issue for our brothers and sisters in China. It’s good to see our U.S. government paying attention to that and speaking in a very public way about it,” Nettleton says of Pompeo’s efforts.

Find your place in the story

Now that you know, how will you respond? Nettleton describes two ways to help persecuted Christians in China. “The first thing is to pray. We need to pray for the Church in China right now, which under intense pressure,” he says.

Use the prompts listed alongside this article to guide your intercession, or visit this page.

“The second thing we can do: make sure our government officials know we want to see them hold the Chinese government [accountable] about religious freedom,” Nettleton continues. Find your representative here.

“As voters in a democracy, they work for us. We need to let them know that this is a priority.”

Header image depicts Chinese President Xi Jinping during a 2015 visit to London. (Photo courtesy of Foreign and Commonwealth Office via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Recently in these mountains of northwestern Nepal, a Nepali Christian leader named Amir* climbed to the top of a peak with a group of fellow believers. Together, these Christians had a goal. They looked across to the next ridge of mountains and there in the fading dusk, they saw something that moved their hearts.

Galen* with Global Disciples shares, “As it was getting dark, the lights were coming on, flickering on in villages across the side of the mountain and they realized that no one has gone with the Gospel to those areas…. He said beyond that mountain there’s another and there’s another all the way to Tibet where there are many villages that have no witness to the Gospel, no believers, and no Church.

“So their goal is to continue to reach to the next mountain.”

Nepali Christians worshipping together. (Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

Amir is from a remote community himself that just six years ago had no Gospel presence. But then a discipleship mission training program with Global Disciples decided to go share the news of Jesus Christ with his village and the surrounding area.

“When they got there, they realized the Lord had been preparing the way,” says Galen. “People were receptive [and] they prayed for a number of people who were healed.”

Now there are seven churches in that area working together to disciple new believers. Amir is burdened to take the Gospel to other remote villages across the mountains. Together with other Christians in nearby villages, that is exactly what they are doing.

Global Disciples equips Christian leaders like Amir to make disciples as they plant churches and share Christ. Those disciples then teach and train other new disciples, creating a spiritual ripple in the region. Global Disciples especially works in areas where communities are least-reached with the Gospel.

Galen explains, “The secret in making disciples is equipping those disciples to make disciples. So in the training programs that we help the local churches to develop, they select their own trainer — someone who has demonstrated the ability to make disciples who will equip others. So we have disciples going who are prepared not only to gather people in a new fellowship of believers, but are prepared to disciple those people so they will go onto neighboring communities and share the Good News.”

(Photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

Only 1.4 percent of the Nepali people are Christians. Hinduism dominates roughly 82 percent of the Nepali population.

“There is increased resistance in many areas of Nepal due to some of the more radical Hindu movements. So there is a real need for prayer for those who are being sent out, to be able to relate with those who may resist their message in ways that communicate the love of Christ,” shares Galen.

“There is also a need for prayer that will enable those who are hearing the Gospel for the first time to see convincing signs and evidence of the power of God because all of them have their religious framework. It’s usually only through some sort of miracle or miraculous activity that their eyes are opened to the reality that Jesus is not just another God in the lineup of gods, but someone who really deserves their complete loyalty and worship.”

Learn more about Global Disciples and how to support their ministry here!

*Names changed for security purposes.

(Photo courtesy of Asian Access)

That was the case with one Tibetan priest. Last year, we told you about a Buddhist Lama from Tibet who came to Christ and had a vision to plant churches throughout the valleys of the Himalayas.

Joe Handley, President of Asian Access, says one of the major reasons why this man became a Christian was because of the love believers had shown him in providing relief efforts when a natural disaster struck a nearby country a year ago.

Now, Handley has an encouraging update:

“This priest had such an influence in his community, in his nation, that 62 other Buddhist monks have now decided to follow Christ,” Handley says. “It is really remarkable.”

That’s not all. “Just within the last year alone, [church leaders] are estimating that more than 200,000 people have come to Christ as a result of the labors of the Christian community there.”

Buddhist temple (Photo courtesy of Harold Cecchetti via Flickr)

Asian Access is one organization that has played a key role in this spiritual movement, by training and discipling church leaders in order to establish long-term spiritual growth.

“Asian Access just has the privilege of coming alongside key pastors like the ones that have invested in this Tibetan priest’s life,” Handley says. “We invest deeply, building their capacity so they can reach their communities.

“God does amazing things when you invest in people and see them grow deeper in Him, grow stronger as leaders, learn how to reproduce other leaders, and then it spreads through church planting efforts in ways that are simply remarkable.”

Asian Access is making a major difference, but it needs your help to keep going. Handley asks for prayers that God would continue this spiritual movement in South Asia. There are also opportunities for you to give financially or even take a trip through Asian Access.

Click here to learn more.

The man had spent almost 30 years as a Tibetan Buddhist Lama, or head monk. His duty was to prepare dead bodies for the next reincarnation. But as he worked, he would often wonder if what he was doing was actually effective. He was worried about what the afterlife might have in store for him.

Then, his wife became seriously ill. He used traditional Buddhist magic to try to heal her, but nothing he could do had any effect.

Asian Access president Joe Handley, left, with 2 Lamas and another man who have placed their faith in Christ.
(Photo courtesy Asian Access)

During the ordeal, his daughter started making friends with some of the girls from the Christian Children’s Home. She was struck by the difference she saw between these girls and the rest of her friends, and she began going to their church.

As time passed and her mother got even more ill, the little girl invited her father to church. She pleaded with him, insisting that they could help.

For months her father refused, but finally he succumbed to his curiosity and attended church, taking his wife and daughter along with him. That day, by the time he had returned home, his wife had miraculously recovered, and he committed his life to Jesus.

Since then, his passion has been to spread the Gospel to villages in his region that have no church. A group of Christians established a new church so believers wouldn’t have to walk as far, and they asked the former Lama to be the new pastor.

The man is being discipled by the leader of Asian access, and through his care, almost 30 people have accepted Christ and been baptized.

Because of his past, this man will be under extreme threat, but he has a such a heart for missions that it seems he cannot be stopped.

Pray that he will continue to spread God’s Word and bring the message of new life in Christ to the villages he cares so much for.

Words of Hope helps put on the Gaweylon (Good News) Tibetan program through radio broadcast every evening. Thirty-minute segments include Bible teachings with wonderful responses from listeners who have made the eternal decision to follow Christ.

But as is the trend in this communist country, their program has met resistance. Governmental authorities in Tibet imposed restrictions on their broadcast and are making the situation very difficult for their mission.

Opposition to religion is frequent in Tibet. In the nineteenth century there were common cases of persecution such as sewing missionaries up in a wet yak's skin and then setting them out in the sun to be crushed to death as the drying tomb of skin constricted.

Later in the 1960's, the Cultural Revolution took place and a communist-ruled Tibet suppressed any form of religion with beatings and arrests. During this time in Tibet, going to prison was practically a death sentence. Figures compiled by the Tibetan Administration showed that nearly 70% of those imprisoned died there.

These days, missionary works seem to ebb and flow. Cases of persecution remain, but the people are interested in learning more. Words of Hope developed a method that they have been using for two decades to reach beyond the closed sections of the community with the Gospel message: radio broadcast.

Also, the Gaweylon Tibetan program is in desperate need of a Tibetan Christian who can help them with thorough translation of the gospel messages into their language. Pinning down the correct dialect useful for Tibetans is difficult since certain words and ideas are hard to translate.

Words of Hope writes for the Tibet radio program in their prayer letter, "Pray that God will enable the programming to continue with clear reception in spite of difficult conditions and restrictions imposed by authorities."

Pray also that the Lord would bring a Tibetan Christian out of the woodwork for translation on the program.

 If you would like to consider donating to their Gospel broadcast mission, you can click here.

In other words, there are significant walls to climb.

Pioneers has begun scaling those walls, however, with the help of one vital project. The Trel'wa Project is a groundbreaking effort to reach the more than 140,000 Tibetans living in exile in South Asia. Ninety-five percent of the seven million Tibetans around the world remain unreached.

The unique media aspect and familial approach of the Trel'wa Project are what seem to have gained it entry into Tibetan society. Print, web, audio and visual media are used to address issues in Tibetan family life.

Family is a central value in Tibetan culture, yet one Pioneer says a frequent concern of the people is this: "We don't know what to do with our young people." The Trel'wa Project has been able to step in and provide answers from a biblical viewpoint.

Since the last update on this project two months ago, parents have consistently hailed the program as "useful" and "deep" — words that respectively refer to primary value and worthy religious teaching in Tibetan society.

As entire communities discuss the biblically-based principles taught regarding family life, those seeking to know more are connected with local workers who guide them to the Gospel.

Although the process is slow, the program is clearly infiltrating some hearts and drawing interest. The local refugee camp leader, who denied more than 80 percent of Pioneers' community development efforts in the past, has engaged at a level of personal risk in the Trel'wa Project to address these important family issues.

The concepts of Christ and Christianity may be foreign, but doors are opening for the Gospel. Pray that the Lord would continue to use this project to help families, that they might see the eternal value of a family rooted in Christ.

It's only $22 to reach about 50 Tibetans. To help with this project, click here.

Pioneers mobilizes teams to glorify God among unreached peoples by initiating church-planting movements in partnership with local churches.

The Trel'wa Project is just one example of that. It's a groundbreaking effort to reach these exiled Tibetans for Christ, so that they may then share the Good News with their brothers and sisters around the world. 95 percent of the 7 million Tibetans around the world remain unreached.

Tibetans value the family. Trel'wa means "relate" in Tibetan. Print, web, audio, and visual media will be used to address issues in Tibetan family life. Through this media campaign, whole communities and families — mothers, fathers, grandparents and children — will be invited to discuss biblically-based principles for family life. Those who want to know more will be connected with local Pioneers workers (including Tibetan nationals), who will guide them to the Gospel.

One-time gifts are needed to help launch the Trel'wa media campaign. Pioneers is also asking you to pray for the project. As you pray, would you please consider partnering with them financially?

The Lord has already provided $9,500 toward this project, so only $36,350 still needs to be raised. Every gift of $26 will help reach Pioneers reach approximately 100 Tibetans. Specific areas of need include: $9,000 for shared office space lease, $7,000 for script writing, and $1,200 for topic-specific material.

If you'd like to help Pioneers in this profound ministry, click here.

China has convicted 42 people for
their role in the March riots while another 116 await trial. Police detained
953 people, and recently the Chinese courts jailed 12 more rioters for their
roles in the unrest.

Olympic security has been the
cover story for the crackdown on internal dissent, particularly in Xinjiang
and in Tibet. Riots on March 14 sparked
anti-Chinese protests around the world. Chinese
officials say the riots were politically inspired, but they did not address the
underlying ethnic and economic grievances. 

The
trouble began on March 10 with peaceful protests in Lhasa to mark the
anniversary of a 1959 uprising against China's rule of Tibet. That quickly escalated into widespread
violence across the city four days later, which helped to rekindle
pro-independence sentiment.

As the Olympic Games in Beijing
near, the spotlight brings awareness of the plight of Tibet under Chinese
occupation. China's suppression of the
Tibetan culture has caused many to fear its loss.

Tibetans not only are looking for
ways to keep it alive, many are also looking for hope. Words
of Hope's Lee DeYoung says, "The broadcast that Words of Hope is involved
in every night continues to broadcast hope and the good news of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to the Tibetan people. The Chinese, in the past, have banned
Tibetan people from listening to foreign stations, but we do know, from a
number of testimonies, that people do listen quietly in private." 

The broadcasts themselves are not
political, but they do feature many things that keep the Tibetan listeners
encouraged. 

Called
the "Yeshu" program, the team is praying for fruit.
"There are over 20,000 responses that have come in the last year to
these broadcasts. We know that many Tibetan people, most of whom still are
Tibetan Buddhists, are interested in listening to these programs which
highlight, in a positive way, their culture and bring them hope."

Christians are getting involved in the Olympics, too, but not in protest. In a historic move, key organizations that work with the persecuted church around the world launched a global campaign calling for prayer for China. In what is called "The Zurich Statement," the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP)–with member organizations that include Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Voice of the Martyrs (Canada), and the Religious Liberty Commission of World Evangelical Alliance–has called the worldwide Christian community to pray for China during this Summer Olympics year.

Johan Candalin, WEA's Executive Director of the Religious Liberty Commission, says, "These organizations see it as a historical occasion to pray for China, to pray for the church in China, for human rights and democracy in China, but in a proactive way. It's not a political project. It's purely a spiritual project."

The Zurich Statement acknowledges some important progress made in China over the past few decades and raises the hope that this will translate into the removal of remaining obstacles to the full expression of faith and an end to serious violations of religious freedom. In addition, the Statement recognizes potential of the Chinese nation as a significant political and economic force for the furtherance of regional and global peace.

"The call for prayer is rooted in the fact that the RLP felt it was time to acknowledge some progress in China's attitude toward religious liberty and also the part Christians play at all levels of Chinese society," stated Mervyn Thomas, CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, UK, and Chairman of the RLP leadership team. "There is still a very long way to go, and religious freedom is something very alien to many Christians in China. However, Christians all over the world have been praying for their Chinese family for many years, and I believe we are beginning to see the impact of those prayers today."

"What a change we have seen in the nearly 30 years since my first visit to China," said Johan Compajen of Open Doors International in Holland and a member of the RLP leadership team. "In spite of many obstacles, the Church in China has multiplied. What seemed impossible in the past has happened because around the world we joined the Chinese Christians in prayer, and our Chinese brothers and sisters have been willing to pay the price for following Jesus. If we continue to pray, we may be surprised by what God will do in the coming 30 years."

Candalin says things are better in the cities, but he says there is a saying in China: "Whatever you have heard about China is true somewhere in China. In some cities you have house churches with up to 2,000 people without any problems with the authorities. But in the countryside, you can have a small house church with 10 or 20 people, and the pastor is arrested and put into prison."

Candalin says there are approximately 70-million Christians in China, and house church pastors say they need "very good leadership training. And they even want to send out many young pastors to the U.S. or to Europe to get that academic theological training to be able to lead the growing church."

The Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) is a collaborative effort of Christian organizations focused on religious liberty. The RLP seeks to more intentionally work together in addressing advocacy and in raising the awareness of religious persecution globally. The current membership of the RLP is listed on the Zurich Statement.