Citing lax government response to Islamic extremist attacks on a Christian community last August, an advocacy group on Wednesday (Feb. 7) filed another plea for justice with the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
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When God calls us out from our homes, we go as strangers to lands that are strange to us. Yet, God goes ahead of us and stays with us, challenging us to always trust in him. Here is the experience of one young woman who has been challenged to use her gifts for the sake of the gospel and a better world.
After a miraculous healing and turning to Jesus, an Indian family has faced persistent persecution. Recently it became so fierce they were forced to flee. Nevertheless, a powerful witness to faith in Christ remains in their village that we pray will one day bear much fruit. Here is their first-hand story.
As new Christians (especially if you're non-Western) we are too often taught that our ethnic identity should be ignored or even suppressed in favor of a spiritual identity. Our teachers ignore the fact that Evangelical Christianity is heavily interpreted through a Western lens. Non-Westerners will flourish in Christ if they are encouraged to embrace the redeemed benefits of their unique ethnicity, because that is part of them being a gift from God as a blessing to the Church and the world.
As the younger generation challenges the status quo in Nepal, local churches find their voice, offering hope, and stability in uncertain times. A young Nepali believer, Surendra Bajracharya, writes that this is an opportunity for the church, especially its younger members, to respond to God’s calling and reach out to their peers beyond the church walls—young people burdened with broken dreams in a trembling nation.
An Islamist cleric presided over the forced conversion of two Christians in Sialkot District, Pakistan after they were tortured into reciting the Islamic conversion creed, sources said.
Vietnam improved from 24th to 35th place in Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List (WWL) of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, but the U.S. government was not so generous regarding its religious freedom record, placing the country on its Special Watch List on Jan. 4 for the second year in a row.
Pastor Keshab Raj Acharya faces a one-year prison sentence for his religious activities, marking a significant setback for religious freedom in Nepal, after the country’s Supreme Court upheld a previous judgment against the pastor, who now awaits the court’s response to his appeal for converting the sentence into a fine.
Police intimidation and lax investigations into Islamist rioting that destroyed scores of Christian homes and businesses in Jaranwala, Pakistan in August has dampened hopes of justice for the victims, sources said.
Christians in Pakistan have breathed a sigh of relief over the government’s decision to make Islamic studies not compulsory for non-Muslim students in schools at all levels.
A court in China sentenced a prominent Protestant pastor to 14 years in prison. The pastor’s wife and four church members have also been sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years. They were all found guilty of purportedly “using superstition to undermine the law.”
A massacre in the Sudanese town of El Fasher has worsened the refugee crisis in South Sudan as more people escape the war in Sudan, according to Christian Aid.
