If you have a passion for spreading the Gospel, India is one of the most critical mission fields — and now is a key time to support Mission India as they touch kids’ hearts.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Raina Miller with Mission India says, “Giving Tuesday falls during our 10-Day Children’s Bible Club matching challenge, so it’s a great time to take advantage of that…. Every dollar that you give to 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs is currently being doubled — so $1 is doubled to reach two children with the good news of Jesus!”

India is home to 1.4 billion people, and 96% have never heard the Gospel. Mission India works with local Christian partners for these Children’s Bible Clubs — even as believers face intense persecution.

“India is actually the 11th most dangerous nation in the world for Christians,” Miller explains. “There are people who are ostracized from their communities, they are facing violence, they’re facing intimidation in all different forms for following Christ…. And yet, we’re finding that the more persecution increases, the more the Church grows.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

You can donate to Mission India’s 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs today at www.missionindia.org/double.

This Giving Tuesday, help make an eternal difference for children in India.

Miller also asks, “Pray that the kids who are reached through the Bible Clubs that are being sponsored during this match would have their hearts changed in a way that pushes them to lead others to Christ as well. [Pray] that it just creates a domino effect where the kids reached through this match then go on to reach entire communities!”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

“Some people had leading roles, others worked backstage, but all of them were catalysts who equipped the Church and empowered it to reach the world,” says Dane with unfoldingWord.

unfoldingWord follows their example, acting as a catalyst for the global Church in today’s context, he adds.

“We want to see the Church go throughout the world, and it was always God’s primary means of reaching the world in the first place – the Church of Jesus Christ,” Dane says.

Breaking down barriers

unfoldingWord collaborates with indigenous churches and church-planting networks to establish a church in every people group and make the Bible available in every language. Learn more about that here.

Along with teaching believers how to do church-centric Bible translation, “We try to catalyze Bible translation organizations to adopt open-licensing strategies for their translation resources and software,” Dane says.

“It’s incredibly important for the global Church to have this (information), especially in the Global South. They don’t have lawyers that can negotiate copyright licenses year after year.”

unfoldingWord partners with the global Church to make Scripture accessible in every language through open licensing, translation, and collaboration.
(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Removing barriers is part of the ministry’s original purpose. unfoldingWord “has been advocating for open licensing of Bible translation resources since before we were founded in 2017. The people in leadership were doing that way back in 2010,” Dane says.

Today, “we count at least 32 Western organizations that are releasing open-license portions of their content for the global Church.”

Find your place in the story

Partnership is another key catalytic component. At unfoldingWord’s annual Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, “We bring together church planting ministries, disciple-making ministries, [and] Bible societies, for networking, training, and collaboration,” Dane says.

“That benefits the global Church in its mission to translate and proclaim the Gospel.”

This collaborative effort includes you. “We have several ‘Whole Bible, Whole Nation’ projects around the world. If a church is looking for a mission [project] and they care about getting God’s Word out, that’s a great way to do it,” Dane says.

Check out unfoldingWord’s “Whole Bible, Whole Nation” projects and ask the Lord how He’d have you support this work – whether through financial means, prayer, or advocacy.

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

It’s been two thousand years since Jesus gave the Great Commission, yet millions still haven’t heard His name. If every Christian shared the Gospel with just 3 unreached people, the whole world could hear the Gospel! But real barriers stand in the way.

David Bogosian from the Alliance for the Unreached says, “These 3 billion [unreached] people live in places that are difficult to get to — Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, northern India… These are places where Christian witness is heavily persecuted.”

The good news is that God sends workers into these fields — both local believers and foreigners who have responded to His call. They bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to regions thirsty for truth.

They need your support! Bogosian explains:

“Our job is to pray for those people, to get behind those that are trying to reach them and to stand with God’s people that are on the front lines of this type of witness.”

Heaven’s perspective on the world builds faith (photo courtesy of Maksim Shutov via Unsplash)

Yet, often our daily troubles distract us from God’s greater work. World news can seem unbearable and the future hopeless — yet this is exactly what Jesus’s disciples experienced!

“Jesus wanted to lift their eyes,” says Bogosian, “above all of that, to see what God is doing, to see what Heaven sees!”

There are three steps we can take to gain Heaven’s perspective:

1. Pray for God to give you His vision for the world — “We need to ask God to give us a global vision, a heart that sees the world the way that he sees it. And God will do that.”
2. Learn about these nations: from open sources, testimonies, active workers— “So learn about the nations, learn about what God is doing.”
3. Act — “The third thing is get involved. Action fuels prayer!”

When we begin to see from Heaven’s perspective, our faith grows, and we recognize how deeply Christ’s message transforms individuals, communities, and even nations. Then we pass that message forward.

“We’re God’s people. We are His hands and His feet, and this is what Jesus was doing. Jesus went out to seek and to save the lost,” says Bogosian.

Be part of Christ’s global rescue plan! Visit the Alliance for the Unreached to learn more.

Header photo courtesy of Roman Melnychuk via Unsplash.

But there’s more than economic opportunity at play. In a similar way, spiritual doors are opening for Gospel work. “Syria has opened up,” Marc with Global Catalytic Ministries says.

“Because it’s now accessible for the first time in decades, we are starting work in Damascus.”

Working through a network of Syrian Christians, Marc says, “We’re going to be spreading to the north and south, building disciple-making communities, starting to see house churches formed, starting to see baptisms happen.”

Global Catalytic Ministries is known for equipping Muslim-background believers in underground churches across the Middle East. More about that here. These believers, once hesitant, are now eager to bring others to Christ.

“When our people come into contact, they’re already ready; the harvest is truly ready. We have a disciple maker sitting in Syria about to baptize a new believer tonight,” Marc says.

(Graphic courtesy of VOM Canada)

Still, eagerness doesn’t always come with experience. Many Christians from Muslim backgrounds long to share the Gospel but lack practical training.

“We’re seeing this massive hunger for disciples to be made,” Marc says.

“I sat in a room with 25 locals yesterday, pouring into them for about five hours on disciple-making strategies, and they’re like, ‘Tomorrow, more. Friday, more. We need more,’ because they’ve never had this before.”

This hunger offers hope in a region where traditional churches often struggle to grow.

“In this region, not many people are coming to the Lord because the churches are content with the status quo. They’re just moving Christian-background believers from church to church,” Marc says.

As Syria opens to new opportunities, believers see a rare chance to plant seeds of faith that could flourish for generations. Pray for training to take root, for leaders to rise up, and for the Gospel to spread like wildfire across the country.

Header image is a representative stock photo depicting a market in Damascus courtesy of Mahmoud Sulaiman/Unsplash.

“Not because they’re Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim, but because they will never have a single opportunity to hear of Jesus.”

People in this category are known as unreached people groups. The International Day for the Unreached, coming up on Sunday, highlights their plight. Unreached people groups have no access to the Bible, and there are no believers among them.

“By definition, outside assistance is needed, and it starts with prayer,” Kelley says.

“Before Jesus said ‘Go,’ He said, ‘The harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest.’”

One-third of the world’s population is still waiting to hear the Gospel. More about that here. Partnerships make it possible to reach them by providing manpower, awareness, resources, and more.

(Graphic courtesy of A Third Of Us)

“That (partnership) can start with advocacy because not everybody will go and have that opportunity to engage those places. Very few would,” Kelley says.

Though partnerships can include a financial aspect, they don’t often start there. “When we talk about partnership, people think it’s a code word for money. No, forget about money,” Kelley says.

“You can’t effectively use money unless you’re properly educated and your heart is burdened.”

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Pray for humility among ministries serving the unreached.

“Territorialism in the Church is one of the stifling elements of seeing the perpetuation of indigenous church planning movements,” Kelley says.

“We’ve got to put our pride and ego [aside] and be about seeing Jesus made known in these places.”

Header and story images courtesy of A Third Of Us. 

“There in the southern portions of Russia that are more Islamic, you have someone like German, who is faithfully ministering in a community that is resistant to the Gospel. There is a community area where there’s great tensions, and he is faithfully ministering to people one life at a time, even with threats against him for doing so,” explains Eric Mock of SGA.

In Siberia, SGA is seeing a massive ministry to orphan children, where children who have been surrounded by destructive parents or have no living parents can go to summer camps and hear the Gospel for the very first time. 

“And then these kids age out of the orphanages, and then become ministers to other orphans,” says Mock.

Then, on the far east side of Russia, is Yakutia—a huge land mass almost the size of India, with only 1 million people. Among the 1 million, there are about 1000 believers. There, in a little city, is Valery. 

“He and his wife first came to that region in 1984 after they were newly married. In fact, all their family members said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t go there. It’s cold, it’s desolate. There aren’t other believers to help you.’ And they went, and it was brutal. For the first six or seven years, no one was coming to faith. And then, as God would have it, 1991 the breakup of the Soviet Union, relative freedom came to Russia—they were able to be more open with the gospel. And from there, some of the first people in 1991 to 1994 came to faith, and they literally just started going up and down the tributaries. The gospel went out, and churches are being planted.”

Also on the far east side of Russia are Avel and his wife, Olessya. They used to own a major business, until they heard about a need for pastors.

“So they moved to this little church, and this little church just had this little fellowship room on the back. They had [around] eight people in the church, and they moved into the fellowship [room]. That’s where they were living with their children. They went from having a two-story house to having nothing because they heard there was a village there that needed to hear the gospel,” says Mock. “By God’s grace, it looks more like a house now, and they’ve been able to improve it, because he’s quite the handyman, but they still minister in a church that has about 25 people.”

The pastors and churches SGA serves often urge Mock to share their stories—not for their own sakes, but for Christians in other parts of the world.

“They’re thankful for the financial support and for our prayers, but they most often tell me, ‘Tell our story, that the Americans would feel emboldened to be the same faithful witnesses in their own communities.’ So often we think of missionary work as over there, sending people over there, and certainly being a missionary is being sent. But I think we pass off the responsibility to be a gospel witness. And the so what SGA really strives to communicate is that the ministry of the gospel is all of our responsibilities. And we hope, by telling the story of what God is doing in those countries, like in Russia, that we too become the story behind the story. There are many headlines in our own country, of many difficulties, trials and confusions that are going on. But what we pray is that the people, the believers in our country, will become emboldened witnesses for the sake of Christ, because certainly he’s coming again soon.”

Header photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association

“When you’re in the early years with young children as a stay-at-home mom, it can definitely be isolating [and] sometimes not as mentally stimulating as I was used to,” says Arijaan.

Arijaan’s own mother encouraged her to look into becoming a mentor with Crossroads Prison Ministries. It’s a unique ministry opportunity from home where Christian mentors correspond with Crossroads Bible study students in prison through writing letters.

“To take on a ministry that I could do from home and really see the impact and believe in it was so exciting for me!” she shares.

Arijaan Norwood and her family. (Photo courtesy of Arijaan Norwood with Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Now, as a Crossroads mentor, Arijaan not only engages with inmates through Bible study but also sees the spiritual impact on her own family.

Arijaan shares, “My kids see me working on the lesson or writing the letter [and] they’ll ask about what I’m doing. I love sharing with them about God’s heart for those who are in prison and the role that we can play. We pray for them together.

“Another positive impact I would say is on my marriage, kind of unexpectedly. But there are times where my mentee will write something that I’m not sure how to respond to. I’ll bring it up with my husband and we’ll talk it through, and it just brings about deeper conversation than just the day-to-day conversations.”

Through prison mentorship, Arijaan has found a tangible way to connect with the Great Commission and witness God’s movement — both in her life and in the lives of others.

She says, “It’s definitely worth it to invest into the lives of not just those that you see right in front of you, but to gain that eternal perspective as you’re reaching out to all sorts of people that God has a heart for.”

If you or someone you know may be interested in becoming a Bible study mentor with Crossroads, Arijaan encourages, “It’s definitely a step of faith, and it’s easy to think that you don’t have time. I will say that it does take discipline to set aside really just about an hour a week, so it’s not long. But it’s really mentally and spiritually engaging.”

Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads!

Header stock photo courtesy of Sixteen Miles Out/Unsplash.

Officials passed a draft anti-conversion bill earlier this month, and it needs one more set of votes to become law. If that happens, Rajasthan will be India’s 12th state using the legal system to prevent people from changing their faith.

Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says the push for religious suppression comes from the top.

“There’s no doubt that Prime Minister Modi [has] pursued a very aggressive Hindu nationalist agenda, really since he took power in 2014. His re-election in 2019 just further emboldened him,” Kelley says.

(Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations)

“Some of the people we know on the ground are saying that these anti-conversion laws are distractions [to hide] issues like child labor and domestic violence, child marriage, even illiteracy. There’s such a massive increase of robbery and murder and rapes,” he continues.

“So, it’s really viewed, in many ways, as a political posturing to create fear and distract the people from some of the main issues.”

Mob justice is a concerning reality in states with anti-conversion laws. Vigilantes hijacked believers’ Christmas outreach in one location, using the anti-conversion law as a cover. Unknown Nations partners were distributing Christ-centered gifts to schoolkids.

“These boxes were filled with little goodies and things for the children, and some Christian literature was in there. It was distributed with the blessing and permission of the school authorities,” Kelley explains.

“[A] mob had heard about it, a vigilante group of people, and they immediately went to the school and scared the children, took all these boxes, and that teacher got suspended. He’s being tried right now.”

Pray the fear generated by anti-conversion laws will not overcome believers.

“Imagine if you were just going around, especially in the season of Christmas, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and by doing that, you could be put in jail for five years,” Kelley says.

Partner with Unknown Nations here to help reach India for Christ.

“We need to recognize India for what it is,” Kelley says. “It is ground zero of the unreached world. By the year 2030, it will simultaneously be the most populated Hindu country and the most populated Muslim country [in the world.]”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Element5 Digital/Pexels.

The answer is satellite TV. Here’s why Christian programming for this medium is so worth investing in.

(Photo courtesy of Sam Moghadam Khamsen/Unsplash)

“Consider someone’s relationship with Jesus from complete ignorance right through to personal commitment and submission,” says Lana Silk with Transform Iran. “At that first stage, they are probably Muslim — if not, sort of secular Muslim — and nervous to be considering anything outside of Islam.”

She explains that while social media tends to dominate in the West, social media can be dangerous in Iran. The Iranian government can track internet activity and impose internet restrictions and blackouts. 

“[Seekers will] be looking for a way to safely explore without being detected, and the only way to truly do that is either TV or radio, where they’re anonymous and just accessing information without anyone seeing,” Silk says.

A person might watch a Transform Iran TV program intentionally or by “coincidence.” If it captures their interest, they might respond to the program’s invitation to reach out to Transform Iran.

“That journey just keeps continuing, from digital church, to a phone call, to remote discipleship, to in-person training at a secure training center in the Middle East,” Silk says. “The whole time, we’re investing in them, loving them, doing everything we know how to do to keep them safe and progressing them through their relationship, from discovery to commitment to Jesus.” 

Silk estimates more than half of the Iranians who reach out to them say their first contact was a satellite TV program. This is an opportunity Christians need to make the most of in closed countries like Iran, where Silk says “we can’t walk the streets, we can’t have open meetings. We have to use digital media to open that conversation with people who are looking for an alternative [to what the Iranian government is pushing].

(Graphic courtesy of Transform Iran)

“Of course, the aim is one-to-one connection, the aim is church plants and inviting people into personal relationships [with Christ], but it starts with digital media,” she continues. “So pray for us. Help us raise awareness for the need, and go and partner with us through our website. You can designate your gift to media ministry, and it will go to this kind of work.”

Here’s one example of the quality programming you would be partnering with: Transform Iran just finished recording a socio-political TV series, for release in 2025. 

“We touch on international affairs, foreign relations with everything that’s going on in the Middle East and Iran’s role in the world, and how that affects the people Iran in their day-to-day lives,” Silk says, “[These are] the subjects that are on their minds today — and of course, all with the Christian perspective. They’ve all been recorded in studios in Finland with our dear partners there who support us.” 

Future topics Transform Iran has in mind are trauma counseling, freedom from addiction, apologetics, and more. They have a detailed proposal outlined for the new year and will start rolling once funding comes in. It costs only $450 to create a 30-minute program that will be aired multiple times and reach countless Iranians.

So start your partnership today! Visit Transform Iran’s website to give and learn more.  

Header image courtesy of Transform Iran. 

The truth is that God can use anyone, regardless of their profession, to further His Kingdom.

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is a testament to this truth. Missionary pilots and mechanics are essential to their ministry. Yet, MAF relies on many different hands and laborers to reach isolated communities with the love of Christ — including IT, education, administration, and even human resources.

Marionne Tucker, MAF’s Chief People Officer (Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Marionne Tucker, MAF’s Vice President and Chief People Officer, is a prime example of how God can use diverse talents in missions.

With a background in human resources, Tucker’s role might seem far removed from traditional missionary work. Yet, her work in managing and supporting MAF’s staff is crucial to the organization’s ability to advance the name of Jesus through aviation.

Tucker’s prayer to the Lord captures the heart of missions: “We want to give You our lives, we want to give You our talents, our skills, our treasures… for the expansion of Your work.”

MAF continually seeks individuals with various skills to join its mission. From IT specialists to teachers, there are countless ways to contribute to the Great Commission.

Beyond offering talents, Tucker emphasizes the importance of prayer and financial support. She prays for more laborers to join the mission and for the resources needed to sustain MAF’s work.

“I just pray…that they may desire to come alongside Mission Aviation Fellowship… to be a blessing, to sow into this ministry,” she says.

Whether you’re on the field or behind the scenes, God can use your talents to reach the unreached and bring His love to the ends of the earth.

Find missions roles at MAF here!

Header photo courtesy of Chuttersnap/Unsplash.