An Islamist gang trapped more than 450 people in false blasphemy charges in recent years in Pakistan, including five who were tortured death in custody, according to human rights lawyers.
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.
As the tragic plane crash at Muan International Airport in Jeollanam-do on Sunday (Dec. 29) left most passengers presumed dead, the church community in Korea has expressed its condolences, according to reporting by Christian Daily Korea.
On Christmas Eve, melodious Christmas carols echoed through an old church in Shanghai. It has a history of over a hundred years. Hundreds of Christians celebrated Christmas through songs, sacred dramas, and sermons. Meanwhile, churches across China celebrated Christmas in diverse ways, including hymn singing, musical worship, and sacred dramas depicting the birth of Jesus.
Three Christians were shot and wounded in a Christmas Day gun attack on the home of a pastor and televangelist in Lahore, Pakistan, sources said.
A proposed regulation in Sri Lanka targets Christian churches in the Buddhist-majority country, according to an evangelical association.
A Christian woman in Pakistan has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a Muslim prayer leader accused her of burning passages of Islamic scripture, sources said.
A 17-year-old Christian who has been incarcerated for 16 months for charges in three blasphemy cases will spend Christmas in jail, but he obtained bail in one of the cases, sources said.
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.
