Joe Handley with A3 says it’s collaboration. 

“We’ve had congresses like this about every 15 years, and those congresses have produced significant documents for the Kingdom that have set kind of a roadmap forward for mission,” Handley says.

“One of the challenges is actually getting people to work toward an end.”

It’s not that ministry leaders don’t believe unity is part of God’s vision for His people. It’s that barriers to collaboration are common to us all. 

“A lot of us, including myself, [are] proud of the work we do. We think we may be better than others in the same space, which is foolish, but we tend to do that. That pride creates barriers or walls. In addition, there’s a fear factor. If we share, what happens if I lose my resource stream to that other entity?” Handley says. 

“Our hope is this week that repentance of those kinds of things would lead us to a new reality for the future.” 

Years of preparation and prayer have gone into Lausanne 4. “Listening calls” across ministries and nations helped to identify 33 “gaps” in world mission. Handley says 25 of those issues are dedicated track sessions at the Congress this week, including gaps leader development, which is a focus of A3.

(Photo of Lausanne 4 courtesy of lausannemovement via Flickr. Photo credit: Gersham Girum)

A3 is excited to share a new book, Leading Well in Times of Disruption, that comes from several years of their own asking questions and listening. This book is meant for the world — you can access it here.

“The first section is the history of [the] Lausanne Movement and what it’s produced. The rest of the book is meant to be a roadmap for developing leaders for the global mission of the church: to finish the Great Commission,” Handley says.

Join in praying for fruit from Lausanne 4, both this week and into the next 25 years. 

“Pray for unity, that our pride and ego and fear issues would diminish, and [for] our willingness to say, ‘No, we’re in this together. We need each other,’” Handley says. 

“That unity is going to be crucial for us going forward.”

Header photo of Lausanne 4 in Seoul, South Korea. (Courtesy of lausannemovement via Flickr. Photo credit: Grace Snavely)

Helen Williams with World Missionary Press says their primary contact, Pastor Andrew, distributes Scripture resources across five locations. WMP booklets contain Scripture and Bible studies in the local languages.

These resources are versatile and perfect for the creative spirit of Nigerian believers. “When they get the material, they get so excited [and] they see all of these new opportunities,” Williams says.

“They may start out with just one idea or two, but then [they think,] ‘Oh, well, we could use it in this ministry, and we could use it in this.’”

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)

Booklets have gone to children, prisoners, hospital patients, bus travelers, people on the streets, and more. A local leader we’ll call David explains in a recent letter to WMP:

“We were able to send some cartons of Hausa booklets to Gombi in Adamawa State for an evangelistic gathering. Also, we traveled with the English booklets received for our July rural mission outreach. Missionaries from various towns and villages came for the Rural School of Ministry and Mission. They all [received] materials to help with their outreaches, such as market outreach, street evangelism, school outreach, youth camp meetings, soul-winning crusades, hospital evangelism, and a lot more.”

Important Gospel work continues despite encroaching persecution from northern Nigeria.

“[Pastor] Andrew is getting reports of churches being burned and ministries being stopped from doing their work,” Williams says. “It’s not closing things down, but becoming more and more of a risk for many of them.”

Believers are taking every opportunity to reach new people for Christ. Please pray for them and for Pastor Andrew.

“He gets so many requests, and he cannot fill them. We’re having to send him two containers a year instead of one,” Williams says.

Connect with WMP here to learn how you can help cover the costs of printing, shipping, and distribution for this critical work.

Header and story images depict Scripture booklet distribution in Nigeria. (Photos courtesy of World Missionary Press)

Christian pilgrims used to flood Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born. Shireen Hilal, Director of Outreach at Bethlehem Bible College, says today, Bethlehem is a ghost town.

“When visiting Bethlehem, of course, people come and see the Nativity church, and then they go to their restaurants. We have many of the best restaurants here in the area. Besides that, souvenir shops and tour guides and all these businesses are connected to tourism,” says Hilal.

“Now imagine when the war started. Unfortunately, people stopped coming. People are afraid. So basically, those people who were actually working in businesses had to completely shut down their businesses.

A Palestinian woman. (Photo courtesy of Hammam Fuad/Unsplash)

“The war has put so many things behind. I think if the country would want to go back to how it actually was, I think we’d need at least 20 years to develop. I know that in Gaza, we even need more years to develop — I think, at least 30 years.”

Rising unemployment in the West Bank is made worse by the fact that Palestinians who used to travel across the border daily for work in Jerusalem are now barred from continued employment in Israel since the start of the war on October 7.

Amid growing tragedy and grief in their communities, Palestinian Christians with Bethlehem Bible College are being the hands and feet of Jesus to their neighbors.

Hilal says, “Through the Shepherd Society, which is the social arm of Bethlehem Bible College, we provided at least 200 jobs for those who are unemployed. I would not say it’s a full-time job, but at least on a monthly basis, we give what’s called pocket money for the family to survive.

“We want to raise a community that would not actually beg for food or beg for income, but rather work for that.”

The college is also supporting humanitarian aid efforts for those who cannot work or are unable to find employment. “There are areas where you want to teach people how to fish,” says Hilal. “But there are areas that you really need to fish for those who are elderly, for the seniors who are sick and who are with limited resources and so on.”

Through Bethlehem Bible College, people can also find the sustaining hope of the Gospel. To continue in their critical work as the light of Christ, Bethlehem Bible College needs the support of Christian brothers and sisters around the world.

Hilal says, “The Church itself, the Body of Christ…need to help the Body of Christ in Palestine.'”

Learn more about Bethlehem Bible College here, and find ways you can offer support and prayer!

Header photo shows a street in Bethlehem emptied during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Bethlehem is, once again, a ghost town with the ongoing war. (Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Bible College)

“When you have the frequency and the amount of stories coming out of Nigeria, people become numb to it. But these are our brothers and sisters in Christ,” says Greg Musselman with Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

(Map courtesy Voice of the Martyrs Canada)

“We have to keep sharp in terms of not losing that passion and continue to pray for what’s going on in Nigeria, because it’s a genocide and it’s an atrocity that’s taking place in that country.”

According to a July report from International Christian Concern (ICC), more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, the year the Boko Haram insurgency began. (Read the comprehensive ICC report online here.)

So why has the United States largely been silent on the religious freedom violations and slaughter of Christians that Nigeria’s government tolerates? The State Department’s 2023 list of Countries of Particular Concern ignored Nigeria entirely. 

“There’s no way that Nigeria should be off that list,” Musselman says. “But politics often get in the way, and that’s very troubling for those that are working in Nigeria.” 

National leaders may be ignoring Nigeria right now, but God sees everything happening there and He cares deeply. Would you commit to praying regularly for your fellow Christians in Nigeria? Ask God to dramatically reverse the direction their nation is going in and make the gospel of Jesus multiply despite intense opposition. 

“[Pray] that the Christians in Nigeria don’t become demoralized. We need to pray for God’s protection on them, and then also for organizations that are working in the country,” Musselman says. 

Learn more about Voice of the Martyrs Canada’s ministry among Nigerian believers here.  

Header image shows the aftermath of an attack in Nigeria against Christians. Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs Canada on Facebook.

Then, only two years later, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopia against a paramilitary group in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. That war ended in 2022, but in December of last year Eritrean troops were still present in Tigray. In the past two weeks, unrest has flared up again in Tigray, displacing nearly 29,000 people.

Even as concerns for the region’s long-term stability rise, an Eritrean Bible translation team is at work own people: the Kunama of Eritrea.

“They (the Kunama) have for decades experienced hardship through civil war in their country,” says Meg Hunt with Wycliffe USA. “Many of them have migrated to neighboring countries — and then actually several of them have come to North America as part of their refugee experience.” 

Population displacement due to Tigray conflict, 12 January 2021 (Photo courtesy of USAID via Wikimedia Commons)

Kunama translation teams live Ethiopia and North America. Together, they feel the effects of the regional tensions. 

“For the team that is translating the Old Testament (in Ethiopia), they are being targeted by the local government, so it’s been hard for them to continue to feel safe in that environment,” Hunt says.

“Although they have resettled into different cities (in Ethiopia), in more rural areas refugees experience fear of being relocated to refugee camps back in Northern Ethiopia where there is still unrest.”

For the North America team, who is working on the New Testament, their pressures are less dangerous but still real.

“It’s actually pretty incredible that it’s entirely volunteer-based in North America. The challenges for them are really that they’re balancing a lot. They’ve got a lot of things of care for their own families, their day jobs. But again, they’re so committed to translating God’s Word,” Hunt says. 

“One of the things that is really unique about the translation is that because they are a diaspora team, working together across multiple time zones and continents, keeping in step with one another is an opportunity and a challenge that they have.”

Meet this dedicated Bible translation team here. Several books of the Bible have already gone through community testing — one of the final steps before they go to print or audio publishing. The books are Ruth, Jonah, Haggai, Matthew and Galatians.

You can be part of this Bible translation project spanning the globe through your prayers and your partnership. Learn more and sign up for prayer updates here.

“Pray for the safety of these Kunama team members, especially those in Ethiopia. Pray for the just energy and stamina to continue this work,” Hunt says. 

Header photo of internally displaced persons in Tigray, April 2021 courtesy of Rastakwere via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China explains, “There’s actually quite a large Chinese population (in Russia). They kind of live together within Moscow, but also along the border up above in extreme northeastern China.”

Bibles in another shipment that were distributed to Chinese who live in Russia along the China border. 
(Photo courtesy of Bibles for China)

In 2022 the team was ready with a partner organization to distribute the Bibles to Chinese people living in Russia. But then the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out and plans had to change. 

Rather than keep the Bibles in a warehouse indefinitely, they released them to Chinese churches in the Moscow area for use in training and evangelism. Then they waited. 

More than a year later, they have received word that all 50,000 Bibles were distributed.

“Just in the last few months, the last of those (50,000) were all distributed. That was very, very much an encouragement to the work that we do, and a reminder that, that God is good, you know, when we step out on faith.” Rovenstine says.

“Those Bibles are in the hands of people who at least have the opportunity to read them and to discover the truth that they contain. That was very much an encouragement to the work that we do, and a reminder that God is good. When we step out on faith, and even when it seems as if there are roadblocks before us, God opens doors and gets the truth out to those who want to read it,” Rovenstine says.

Praise God for His living Word, and pray for more open doors for Bibles for China to reach Mandarin-speaking families.

“The power of the Word of God is amazing. God is not going to let that truth go away simply because the world is opposed to it. When God’s people walk in obedience, He opens doors for us to do the work that we do,” Rovenstine says.

Header photo courtesy of Bibles for China via Facebook. 

Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says that the Church in Lebanon faces great threats despite God’s evident work. “This is a paradox, really, because it’s true that the community is vibrant. It’s growing and it’s spreading its light, but also it is definitely under fire. It is struggling mostly economically to survive.”

People can’t find employment. Many young, bright workers are leaving to seek jobs in other countries. They go where work is available and send back money to their families as they are able.

Even some with jobs are feeling the need to move to an economy where they can take home a higher wage. Houssney shares that in one family two members each previously made the equivalent of $1000 a month, but now they bring in just $120 a month total. People cannot survive on their wages and so more and more are moving away.

This poses a serious potential threat to the Church. Suddenly church bodies are losing younger Lebanese Christians to other countries.

(Photo by Ben White on Unsplash)

Houssney states that they’ve seen many recent converts in this age demographic, but they are subject to the same economic struggles. “I praise God the church is becoming more and more Muslim background. The church is becoming filled with refugees, but also these refugees are turning around and traveling to the west, traveling to Canada, traveling to Europe. So, there is a turnover rate that is a bit alarming in the church in Lebanon.”

To keep the church healthy, there must be a shift.

Outsourcing Work to Keep the Church Intact

Horizons International is getting creative to help provide for the employment need. “Our organization has been experimenting a lot and expanding a lot in outsourcing, so that we can provide jobs for evangelical Christians. [This means] that they can stay, not only by receiving food portions or medical aid – things that we’re getting to refugees – but also by having a gainful income and having productive jobs either in ministry or things that can support them to stay, so that they can do ministry in their churches.”

Houssney sees this as a broader opportunity for the Church. There are many talented workers in Lebanon who can add value to the global economy, yet they are out of work. Christians in Lebanon don’t solely need emergency funds to get food. They need work. Now is the time to help start new companies or non-profits that will provide jobs for the evangelical community, allowing them to stay and have a future in Lebanon.

Consider the needs at your own place of work. “Do you need a personal assistant? Do you need a bookkeeper? Do you need a graphic designer? Do you need a web designer? Do you need a social media manager?” Houssney asks. “The evangelicals here that don’t have opportunities, they can do those jobs. We’re training them to do those jobs and we’re starting to have a growing number of US partners, and even partners in Europe that are providing us these tasks.”

Pray that God would provide sustainable work for Christians in Lebanon and consider how you might be able to support this need.

Header Photo by Pedro Lima on Unsplash

Horizons International wants to help by joining these people in Lebanon with businesses and ministries in the U.S. Pierre Houssney says, “Some of my friends in the US have businesses that they work for, or that they own. They are figuring out what little tasks here and there they could outsource to somebody that’s capable and that would only need a little bit of training and guidance.”

It’s all about paying these believers a sustainable, living wage. The tasks might include graphic design, video editing, or even accounting services. Houssney says one American pastor employs people in Lebanon for an E-commerce website that supports his ministry.

Kingdom work

How does this intersect with the Great Commission? Houssney says, “One of the most strategic things that we can do today for the Great Commission in the Middle East is helping the believers in Lebanon remain in Lebanon.”

“Not only are we giving them opportunities to make income, we’re also helping them apply their newfound skills to ministry contexts.”

Do you have any work or roles that can be done online? Consider outsourcing to Lebanese believers. Houssney says, “Reach out to us and we will let you know if we have staff available. Or we can recruit new staff that are skilled in these things. There’s a high education level in Lebanon. These are ambitious people that can really help your business or ministry out.”

Contact Horizons International here.

Header photo courtesy of Horizons International. 

In the last two years, the Lebanese currency has lost more than 93 percent of its value against the dollar. Wages alone barely cover basic necessities. Rising inflation means the average family is struggling to buy food or medicine. Many have to run up unpaid bills or borrow money just to put food on the table.

Horizons International works in Lebanon with a focus on evangelism, discipleship, and training. But in this economic collapse, the ministry’s Middle East Center for World Missions launched a new initiative connecting Lebanese believers with Western companies and ministries for remote employment.

Horizons International staff delivering food. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)

Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says, “There are a lot of really highly educated and capable men and women of God who have a lot to offer on the world scale, but they don’t have job opportunities and the money that they’re receiving in the local currency for their current jobs is just not enough to even start paying their most basic bills because it has just lost all of its value.

“We’re working with Western companies and also ministries to provide accounting, graphic design, web development, social media management, [and] all kinds of different services. We can be providing a living wage to Middle Easterners so they can tough it out in the Middle East right now, and specifically Lebanon during this economic collapse.”

Houssney says providing these job opportunities to church members in Lebanon has a direct impact on the Great Commission in the Middle East.

“The Christian presence in these Muslim-dominated areas is one of the most strategic things for reaching the Muslims for Christ,” says Houssney.

“So not only are we providing jobs for these people to be able to put food on the table so that they can remain in the Middle East, we’re also training them for ministry. We’re helping them to equip their churches, to be supporting their churches and families, and this is all part of our strategy for reaching the region for Christ.”

The Middle East Center has partnered with over 90 Lebanese churches, “which is most of the churches in Lebanon because there’s only about 105 churches in Lebanon,” Houssney says.

The language barrier between Lebanese employees and Western companies is a consideration. But many in Lebanon speak English and have done well in markets around the world. For those who come to Horizons International’s Middle East Center and want English lessons, the ministry connects them with the Language Academy of Beirut.

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Interested in getting involved? Houssney asks, “What business are you involved in? Do you have a small business? Do you have a ministry or your church? What are the needs administratively that could be outsourced in your business or ministry?

“If we could just start a discussion about that and you tell us what your needs are in these areas we are offering, then there’s something immediate you can do. You can provide jobs for Lebanese and Syrian believers so they can remain in the Middle East. Then it can also add tremendous value to your business.”

Click here to connect with Horizons International!

Finally, Houssney asks, “We can just be praying that the Lord will provide the right opportunities, that the right businesses will come forward, and that God would provide wisdom and ingenuity in figuring out where these Middle Eastern believers can add the most value to the ministries and businesses that they’ll be serving through the outsourcing project.”

Header photo courtesy of Michal Gadek via Unsplash.

It laid out more regulations for marriages, saying widows should have a share in their deceased husband’s property. The statement particularly forbids using women as bartering chips to settle a conflict or dispute.

However, the statement failed to mention women’s right to work, or their access to education. The decree hasn’t impressed Afghan women, who say these rights were already granted under basic Islamic law. The international community is putting a lot of pressure on the Taliban to increase women’s rights, including freezing funds held in the U.S.

Denise Godwin with International Media Ministries (IMM) says, “It’s a scary thing when these governments diminish the value of someone. It gives the community at large permission to be more abusive, whether towards children, women, or minority religions like Christianity in many cases. That’s common in these towns and smaller communities.”

Women of the Bible

Women throughout the Bible faced similar cultural attitudes. But God walked with them. IMM’s Women of the Bible follows some of these stories. Godwin says, “You have Ruth, who is sort of in a refugee situation fleeing from hunger. You have Rahab, whose city is being overtaken by civil war. Tamer was on the verge of an honor killing. And you have Bathsheba, who’s caught up in this whole political intrigue basically.”

The Women of the Bible series remains very popular in the Middle East. You can check out the series here.

Ask God to walk with Afghan women. Godwin says, “These people are truly fighting on the front lines of so many challenges. And we just want to encourage and uphold their arms as much as we can from outside.”

The header photo shows Afghan women using the internet at a university in Herat, Afghanistan in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Wilkinson (U.S. Department of State), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)