
Record number of blasphemy cases recorded in Pakistan
A rights watchdog chronicled a record 344 new blasphemy cases in Pakistan in 2024, highlighting increased abuse of the country’s condemned blasphemy laws.

A rights watchdog chronicled a record 344 new blasphemy cases in Pakistan in 2024, highlighting increased abuse of the country’s condemned blasphemy laws.
A devastating wave is crashing over South Asia, wreaking havoc on those who choose to follow a faith other than the majority. It is a wave of anti-Christian sentiment. So-called “Freedom of Religion” and “Anti-Blasphemy” laws fuel it, generating a powerful undercurrent of distrust and disdain toward Christians.
The recent flood from the Himalayas through Nepal to India, shared via social media, stunned the world. Relief organizations mobilized to capitalize on the catastrophe and the Nepali government collected a great deal of financial aid to assist but relief action was slow. Whereas, NGOs and churches competed for the donor dollar while families grieved.
For a followers of folk religion in Taiwan, who understand religion as transactional with individual spirits, forgiveness of sins may not immediately sound like an answer to the practical fears that emerge during Taiwan's Ghost Month. Yet the gospel can reframe the human problem without ignoring the fear that brought the person to the conversation. Our deepest problem is not that we have failed to satisfy every unseen power. It is that we are sinners before a holy God.
Disciples are made to need one another, and in their interdependence they reveal God's glory. Collaboration with those who follow Christ from other backgrounds is a powerful witness in this regard. By living and ministering well together the lives of those who don't know Jesus will be impacted by a community of spiritually transformed, self-giving people who demonstrate a love that is not of this world.

Fifty leaders from across the Global South gathered Monday morning (April 28) for the first plenary of the second day at COALA3.0, the Christ over Asia, Latin America and Africa movement’s conference, to focus on “building common ground" in a rapidly changing mission landscape.

Sarang Church in Seoul, the host church for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) General Assembly this October, has launched the search for its third senior pastor, forming a nine-member search committee on April 13, according to Korean Christian news outlet iGoodNews.

Bishop Emeritus Hwa Yung of the Methodist Church in Malaysia issued a stirring call for Global South leaders to take ownership of the global mission mandate and forge genuine partnerships free from financial dependency or Western theological dominance. His keynote address opened COALA 3.0, the third global gathering of the "Community of Africa, Asia, and Latin America" (COALA), immediately following the COMIBAM 2025 missions congress.

Officials in Indonesia sealed a prayer hall on Saturday (April 19), prohibiting the congregation from celebrating Easter, according to local sources.

One of the Hindu extremists sentenced to life in prison for burning Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons to death in India 25 years ago was given a hero’s welcome after he was released on April 16.

A group of Muslims disrupted the Maundy Thursday Mass of a church in Indonesia last week, the latest in a series of protests at the site, sources reported.