Asia
India: Christians threatened for distributing tracts
Leo and Jenifa Johnson were intimidated and threatened in a residential area of Tamil Nadu state where they had distributed Christian tracts to homes. As they were leaving the area they were stopped…
Iraq: the last church standing
There are almost 20,000 ordained ministers in England; in Iraq there is just one, Rev Faez Jirjees, the parish priest at St George's church in Baghdad. Christians make up about 1% of Iraq’s…
Afghanistan: crises
On 19 September 30+ civilians were killed and 40+ injured in an air attack that accidentally targeted farmers, and 20+ people were killed in a suicide car bomb that hit a hospital. 74…
Afghanistan, Iran: suffering but growing church
We praise God that hundreds of new Iranian and Afghan believers have been baptised in recent months in cities across the region. In Iran, these include teenagers who were deeply impacted recently by…
China: Ten Commandments replaced
A believer says the Chinese government doesn’t want Christians to know the Ten Commandments, which have been removed from nearly every state church and meeting venue and replaced with quotations from a 2015…
Israel: Judaism’s place in politics
Religious Jewish parties won nearly 20% of the vote in the national election on 17 September. Previously, those parties have united with the conservative Likud party to form a governing coalition. But now…
Israel: pray for snap elections
Following April’s elections Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition, the first such failure in Israeli history. Snap elections will now be held on 17 September. The polls predict another election result…
India: illegal conversions bill being prepared
According to Indian news outlets the nationalist ruling party is preparing a bill which would make all conversion, not just forced conversions, illegal in all of India’s 29 states. The bill will be…
Turkey: nuclear weapons
In an unprecedented move, President Erdogan has declared his desire to obtain nuclear weapons, flouting Turkey’s obligations as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In a speech he praised the advancement of Turkey’s…
Israel / Lebanon: ‘30 minutes from war’
On 1 September Hezbollah fired several precision-guided missiles from Lebanon towards an army base on Israel’s northern border, destroying an IDF armoured vehicle in the attack. Thankfully, there were no soldiers inside it…
