It all comes down to geography. “They’re right on the Ring of Fire in Southeast Asia. [They get] lots of volcanic activity and lots of earthquake activity, which makes general infrastructure improvements difficult. They also have a very volatile combination of sea currents that makes hurricanes and things like that a lot more common in the region. It’s not uncommon, both in ancient and modern times, that Indonesia would experience torrential rains and flooding.”

But Indonesia also doesn’t have the resources to build good infrastructure. This can make the effect of disasters even worse. Michael says, “When the population is growing, businesses go in, which means more of the landscape is being concreted. But the infrastructure is not keeping up. It’s lagging behind the growth of the cities. When the rainwater comes in, it has nowhere to go.”

How to pray

FMI supports many Indonesian pastors serving on several main islands. Pray they would have a fruitful ministry as they proclaim the risen Jesus.

Pray also that the Indonesian government would have wisdom as they oversee infrastructure building. It’s a difficult job in such a disaster-prone area.

The header image shows an Indonesia volcano erupting, with lighting strikes. (Photo courtesy of Oliver Spalt, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Pakistan (MNN) — Every year, hundreds of Pakistani women and children get kidnapped and forced into marriage by Muslim men.

Typically, these women come from religious minorities in the country, such as Christianity or Hinduism. Vincent Michael of FMI says, “You can imagine putting yourself in that situation, how horrific that would be. And the conversions are coercive; they’re being forced to convert to Islam. So many of them are living out their Christian faith secretly behind closed doors, and I just can’t imagine the amount of faith that would take. Pray for those women.”

To make things worse, law enforcement often allows this behavior to continue. In fact, they often persecute religious minorities themselves. Michael says, “In certain areas down near Karachi, especially in the Sindh province, I would say Hindus are a bit more targeted. It is a religious minority thing in general. But Christians are certainly vulnerable.”

Ask God to comfort and strengthen the Christian women and children who have been abducted. “God is moving powerfully in the women in Pakistan, and I can’t stress that enough. The harder that the enemy presses, the more that God’s spirit moves just seems to be pleased to move when there’s distress. The theology of gender in the conservative Islamic world is not a friendly place for women.”

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

Vincent Michael of FMI says, “In 1971, when Bangladesh got their independence from Pakistan, the government at the time really wanted Bangladesh to be a secular nation that was Muslim majority, but also friendly towards the West. But in 1988, the leadership of the country changed and the opposition party took control. They passed an amendment to the Bangladeshi Constitution, which declared Islam as the state religion.”

Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists in the country point out the original constitution still calls Bangladesh a secular state, contradicting the amendment. Ultimately, they want the amendment removed from the constitution. In the meantime, they want a minority commission established to help protect against injustice.

How to pray

Michael says, “So much of the justice or injustice that can be meted out is in the purview of individual bureaucrats, or individual government officials. So just pray for them that that justice would be in their hearts and not injustice. Pray they would not take advantage of their position as the majority religion to discriminate against Christians.”

Ask God to give Christians in Bangladesh grace and wisdom. Pray that they would know when to speak up for their rights, and when to live quietly.

Photo credit: The header photo shows the largest Hindu temple in Bangladesh. (Photo courtesy of Kuruman, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Vincent Michael of FMI says this happens so often, it barely makes the news. And there isn’t much families of victims can do. “A couple of years ago, I was in Pakistan and we visited a family whose daughter was kidnapped just months before. While we were visiting that family, the family of the kidnappers was outside taunting them. They were saying, ‘If you try to do anything, or if those Americans who are with you try to do anything, we will kidnap your other daughters too.’”

This kind of abduction is not technically legal in Pakistan. But often, the authorities look the other way. Michael says, “In Islam, the theology of gender is very different than in Christianity. We believe that both genders are created equally in the image of God. Conservative Islamic theology does not teach that, nor does it practice it.”

How to pray

Many Pakistani people disapprove of this treatment, but change has been very slow. Pray the Gospel of the risen Jesus would change many hearts in Pakistan. Michael says, “And then pray for the authorities. Because oftentimes, is the authorities that can make the difference. It really is up to them to be just and to uphold the laws that are already on the books.”

Header photo courtesy of Shiza Nazir on Unsplash.

Vincent Michael of FMI says, “This isn’t the first fire to hit this camp. This is the third or fourth, and this is by far the most devastating of all of them. It looks like 9500 homes have been either completely burned to the ground, or are significantly damaged. 50,000 people displaced, and then a lot of people who are just missing.”

As the fire grew, Michael says people struggled to escape the flames.  “These camps are fenced in. And so as people were fleeing, they were just kind of getting balled up on the fences and these massive numbers of people.”

Bhasan Char

Aid agencies have rushed to get food and shelter to refugees now exposed to the elements. “It may be that there’s greater pressure put on the Bengali government to get people to Bhasan Char, which is the island that they’ve been relocating the refugees to.”

Bhasan Char first appeared in the Bay of Bengal in 2006. Many worry the upcoming cyclone season could endanger Rohingya on the island. As these refugees endure hardship after hardship, ask God to comfort and strengthen them.

The header image shows the refugee camp before the fire. (English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0 <http://NationalArchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/1/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Vincent Michael says FMI hopes to connect with ministry work in the area. “In our recent history, FMI has had a focus on Muslim majority nations because the Gospel is so needy there. And Western missionaries often lack access to those areas. So sending indigenous missionaries makes a lot of sense. Kenya is a bit different for us because it is a Christian majority nation. But the eastern border with Somalia is pretty porous, and Somalia is a very needy region. So we’ve wanted to help the Christians in Kenya and we’ve also had a secondary goal of an eye towards Somalia.”

“[Somalia holds] 16 million Muslims, who are very, very impoverished. And the culture is very violent. We’d love to see the Gospel make inroads.”

FMI recently sent a team to the area to gather information and create friendships. They found an astounding level of persecution. The terrorist group al-Shabaab freely crosses from Somalia into Kenya, harassing and even murdering Christians. Michael says, “It’s a very scary place right now. And so we’re praying for boldness for those workers, that we will find them and that they will be boldly reaching.”

Michael asks readers to pray for FMI’s future ministry in Somalia itself. “We’ve learned this in a lot of areas where we serve that look hostile to the outside: sometimes the most hostile people are actually the most open to the Gospel.”

The header photo shows a tree in Somalia. (Photo courtesy of Yasin Yusuf on Unsplash.

Vincent Michael of FMI says, “Indonesia is made up of a group of islands called the Greater Sunda Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands. And the Lesser Sunda Islands is where this latest flood happened: in the southeast part of Indonesia.”

Tropical Cyclone Seroja drenched several islands with rain, triggering landslides of hardened volcanic lava. The storm displaced over 8,000 people.

It’s rare for a cyclone to hit Indonesia so directly. But Michael says these types of flooding events have grown more common in recent years. “Infrastructure and flood prevention has always been a nightmare in Indonesia, and probably always will be. But in a relatively poor country where they don’t have a lot of money for infrastructure projects, it is going to be all the worse.”

How to pray

Pray the people caught in this disaster would receive the resources they need. Michael says, “There are churches in most regions in Indonesia, whether they’re large, influential churches or small churches. Pray for the Christians in these regions, that they can reach out and use this as an opportunity to show the love of Christ to those who are suffering.”

Additionally, pray for the future of these kinds of disasters in Indonesia. Michael says, “Pray for the government of Indonesia as some of their metropolitan centers are really swelling. Pray that God would give them wisdom on how to plan for infrastructure in those instances. Because they do have a difficult job.”

The header photo shows a scene from the aftermath of the flooding. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

Vincent Michael of FMI explains why Turkey’s government would reverse course. “More recently, with shifts in the West, more conservative countries (and not just Turkey, conservative Christian countries like Poland) have grown leery of the convention. They see it as maybe a backdoor way to advocate for transgender [identities] or to advocate rights for LBGT communities inside their country.”

A persistent problem

This decision comes at a time when violence against women has surged around the world due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Michael says it’s a similar story in Turkey. “It’s not a moot point. It is a very real issue. And as President Erdogan takes Turkey into a more Islamicist way of thinking, those things will probably continue to rise more sharply.”

Michael encourages listeners to pray for the Holy Spirit to change hearts in Turkey. “You clearly see through the Gospels the value that Jesus places on women. But also, Muslim men have mothers. They have daughters. They have sisters. Pray that God would move in the heart of Muslim men, even before they become Christians, that they would become more compassionate to the needs of the women in their lives. Laws are one thing that nations set up, but hearts are another thing. And God can change hearts even in spite of laws.”

The header photo shows Istanbul, Turkey, where the treaty was opened for signature. (Alexxx1979, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Meanwhile, the government of Bangladesh continues shipping thousands of Rohingya refugees to a new settlement on the small island of Bhasan Char. It’s a new island, recently formed from Himalayan sediment.

Vincent Michael of FMI says many people worry about the island’s safety. “From everything that we’re hearing, the island really hasn’t been tested yet. So it’s going to have to go through a serious cyclone season for them to really know. And that’s really hard whenever you have 6,700 residents. You don’t want to take 6,700 people through an unknown outcome. They’ve claimed that they’ve made the island cyclone safe. But a lot of experts have doubts.”

Myanmar coup

Many Rohingya still live in Myanmar, even after the genocide against them that drove many from the country in 2016 and 2017.

Now, many of their oppressors have retaken power in a military coup. Michael says, “A lot of people are afraid that it’s going to become much worse for the Rohingya still in Myanmar. So pray for that. And the other point related to the coup is many Rohingya were still hopeful that there would be a chance they could be repatriated back to Myanmar in a peaceful and safe way. With a military takeover, that’s looking just a lot less likely to happen.”

Pray Rohingya churches would grow and flourish despite all these circumstances.

The header image shows Rohingya refugees. (English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, OGL v1.0 <http://NationalArchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/1/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

The letter mentions the Armenian Genocide from 1915-1917. But it also highlights atrocities towards Armenians during the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. To this day, Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide.

Vincent Michael of FMI explains the situation in Turkey. “For many years, Turkey has looked with kind of stars in their eyes toward Europe. Since the days of World War Two, it has wanted to be more a part of Europe. But with this most recent president, it’s really taken a shift back towards being a strongly Islamic nation. And not just Islamic inside of Turkey, but a leader in the Islamic world. This has caused Turkey to really trend in a direction that would be out of step with the rest of the European countries. Lots of abuses towards ethnic minorities, religious minorities.”

FMI’s new ministry in Turkey

FMI has begun building relationships and ministering in Turkey. Last year, the ministry helped fund Bible materials for children. Michael says, “That was something that we didn’t think we might not, we thought that that might not happen till 2021, maybe 2022.”

As Turkey cracks down harder on religious minorities, Michael says we need to pray for ministry workers in the country. “People who have worked for 10, 20, 30 years inside of Turkey as just really good-hearted Christians wanting to make a difference, they’ve been denied entry into Turkey. So that just is causing a huge amount of heartbreak. [Imagine] what that would be like as a missionary: dedicating your life to a place and not being allowed to return.”

Header image by rus-burkhanov from Pixabay.