“Iranian children right now are victims of their wider society and the struggles that their parents face,” says Silk. “There’s a lot of very serious economic hardship in Iran today, and that is affecting the adult population in their mental health. There are a lot of people turning to drugs and alcohol. There’s a lot of joblessness and struggling to put food on the table. So that worry and stress and struggle, of course, is going to permeate the whole household. And children are very helpless in these kinds of situations.”

The weight of these challenges increases for Christian children. In Open Doors’ World Watch List, an annual ranking of the 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution, Iran ranks #9.  According to Silk, Christian Iranians have needed to be even more cautious with their faith since the 12 Day War in June, which started when Israel launched targeted airstrikes in Tehran, dramatically escalating conflict within the Middle East.

“The government is really scrutinizing everything and desperately trying to weed out the Christians, and these children have been very careful at school to toe the line and keep up pretenses that they are sympathetic, at least, to the Muslim faith. So all of that carries its toll.”

And while Iranians are free to acknowledge Christmas as a “festival,” that doesn’t mean Christians are safe to celebrate the meaning behind the day.

“People can still decorate their homes and make a fuss of that time of year,” says Silk, “but as soon as you get into a truly Christian celebration of what happened 2000 years ago, then that’s all going to be kept quiet.”

She notes that Iranian children outside of Iran are mostly refugees, with their own set of challenges: “A lot of the issues they face really affect their sense of well-being, even mental health, depression, anxiety, panic attacks.” However, evangelism efforts are much less dangerous for Iranian refugees than for Christians living within Iran.

“We do a lot of that, particularly in Turkey, where we can gather other refugee Iranians who are all living a sort of bleak life at the time,” Silk says. “And so the Christian families can say our holy celebration is coming up. So it’s a great way just to gather a community, and of course, through that, then we get to bless these families, practically and spiritually, sharing truth.”

For all Iranian children—Christian or not, within Iran or in refugee regions—Transform Iran is working to share joy through Operation Christmas Joy, a six-week program where families gather and talk about Jesus and what Christmas means, culminating with a gift for each child that helps meet a practical need.

“We talk a lot about joy and peace and hope at Christmas time,” says Silk. “We thought, well, how do we share the gospel message with children and truly allow it to penetrate their lives so that it does birth joy in their hearts? We want them to be laughing again and dancing again and enjoying community.”

To learn more about partnering with Transform Iran this Christmas, visit their website.

Header photo courtesy of Transform Iran.

Jason Woolford with Mission Cry says there is devastation in this area as thousands of villages were submerged by floodwaters. 

The body of Christ is also hurting in Kasur, as Christian girls and women are specifically targeted for sexual abuse.

“Combining both of those things, flooding, loss of food and hope, and the attacks on Christian women there, we wanted to come in and bring hope,” Woolford says. “We did that [by] bringing boatloads of rice, food, and most importantly, the Word of God, the only thing that doesn’t return void.”

Mission Cry is working to feed people physically and spiritually, and people are responding.

“We’re seeing hope and joy, because these people are being forgotten about, especially with their so-called God, when the real God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are showing up in word form and through our Mission Cry team,” Woolford says. 

The need in Kasur remains strong. Mission Cry went door to door and provided two weeks of food relief rations, but wants to again.

(Photo courtesy of Mission Cry)

For those not in this conflict, Woolford says, “We’ve been blessed, but we’ve been blessed to be a blessing as well.”

Please pray for the on-the-ground team and for the believers in this area. Pray for salvation for those who do not yet know the Lord. Pray that the flooding will stop and that Mission CRY’s work will bless the people in this area. 

To help Mission Cry as they seek to send more shipments around the world, go to missioncry.com/donation-form/.

Header photo of flood relief distribution from Mission Cry team in Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Mission Cry)

Dave LePoidevin usually flies in Mozambique but is now flying a busy schedule in Lesotho, where the usual team of five pilots is down to one.

Lesotho is a small mountainous landlocked country located in South Africa. 

Lesotho’s landscape is mountainous and is now in windy season. Photo by Tatenda Mapigoti on Unsplash. 

Recently, LePoidevin responded to a medivac or “code one” emergency.  “I get in the airplane, take off, go to this remote little airstrip carved into the side of the mountain, and this is the windy season, so you get tossed around and it’s slightly traumatizing to passengers sometimes,” LePoidevin says.

Arriving there, he picked up the patient and delivered them to a nearby hospital before he got another call. “Hey, we have another code one emergency at Bobete.”

In Bobete, LePoidevin picked up four pregnant women with delivery complications, all from the same small village. After bouncing around in the wind and arriving at a bigger hospital nearby, LePoidevin received another call.

Called to another code-one emergency on the other side of the country, he refueled and brought the final patient to another hospital.

Most of the MAF passengers in this area are nurses and doctors who go to village clinics out in remote mountains. But LePoidevin also flies people who do Lesotho Mountain Discipleship, including Mdadi Safiri.

LePoidevin recently transported Mdadi Safari to a Mercy Air helicopter that flew to a very remote mountain village.

This specific village sees a lot of theft and violence. While in the village, Mdadi Safiri was asked, “If we killed you, how long would it take for them to find out that you’re missing?”

While the majority of people in Lesotho are Christians, people in the mountain areas and villages tend to be animists. The farther into the mountains, the fewer people seem to know about Jesus. However, people in the village will sit down and listen to Mdadi Safiri.

LePoidevin says there’s a receptiveness to the gospel in Lesotho.

“I think they’re fairly eager to hear about the gospel and Jesus and Bible stories and what God is like. I don’t think they feel they’ve heard it all before,” LePoidevin says. “I think they’re eager that someone would care to come and tell them about Jesus. I think they’re fairly responsive.”

Please pray for adequate staff to meet the flight needs.

“We’re always very grateful if you would pray for us, for the safety of our pilots and passengers, and that people would be responsive to the Lesotho Mountain Discipleship teams that go out,” LePoidevin says.

Pray that pilots will have good aircraft to work with as MAF continues to repair and fix planes and considers upgrading to more modern aircraft. Pray that people would surrender to Jesus and find joy living for Him.

Photo provided by Mission Aviation Fellowship

“We haven’t got to go to Cuba a lot, but we’ve had the opportunity to send 10,000 Spanish Bibles into Cuba and the surrounding areas,” says Woolford. “We’ve had the chance to put them on a container in Florida, getting to Cuba and then starting that distribution.”

Cuba is number 26 on World Watch’s list of 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution. Church leaders and Christian activists who criticize the Cuban regime can face interrogation, arrest, physical violence, and imprisonment; the government often refuses to register new churches, forcing many to operate illegally, which makes them vulnerable to fines, property confiscation, and demolition.

“Our Mission Cry partner there on the ground, he has been beaten, he has been kidnapped and arrested, multiple times, and yet he continues to go back and distribute the word of God,” says Woolford.

According to the Cuban Observatory of Citizen Audit, crime is also increasing at an alarming rate. However, that’s not deterring Woolford.

“Crime’s on the rise due to economic hardship and a shortage of food and medicine and fuel. And so it’s so exciting to know that we have the word there, giving it to people that are in a bad way, those that are being persecuted, and then hopefully reaching those that are doing the persecuting and seeing a difference,” he says. “We’re going to continue to trust God and minister regardless of the violent crime and scams and targeted violence against people distributing the Word of God like our guy.”

“When we see the word of God being distributed, when we see lives being changed, if you can imagine stuff going out from Cuba to Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia—seeing how God’s using that as a hub is truly miraculous.”

To learn more about the work Mission Cry is doing and how to support it, go to missioncry.com.

Header Photo courtesy of Mission Cry.

When Esther inherited the house, it needed a lot of work. 

“The community around them, the community that he’s involved with, got together and helped repair the foundation, the roof, and different things to make [the house] into a ministry center,” Tim Landis with FARMS says. 

Pastor Albin and his wife, Esther, used a FARMS loan to develop a ministry location. Photo provided by FARMS International. 

Now that the repairs are done, this center has a guest room that missionaries and out-of-towners can use. It also has a meeting room where women’s Bible classes have already begun. 

Pastor Albin is an encouragement and a model for FARMS because he utilizes funds and loans in ministry-minded ways. 

“That’s the fruit that comes from his mindset and wanting to evangelize, wanting people to come to knowledge of Christ, wanting to disciple people,” Landis says.

Albin has been a FARMS program participant for several years. During COVID, he was able to buy a building with a FARMS loan, which he then strategically turned into a pharmacy on one side and a reading room on the other. 

This reading room then became a place for Bible reading and Bible studies. Albin has also worked with FARMS to get livestock and other resources.  

“There is a pattern of success with Albin, and ultimately it’s always with ministry at the end in mind. It’s so impactful because it’s always about serving other people, and I just think that’s one of the greatest things, and why we like to highlight him,” Landis says.

Loans can open ministry opportunities like Albin’s and enable people to tithe back into their local churches. Evangelism starts happening, church activities start happening, and pastors can get some extra income to operate and shepherd churches.

 Landis says, “The end goal for FARMS loans is to strengthen families, to help them out of poverty, but also to strengthen the church.”

Please pray that FARMS will continue to see fruit like this, as Christians flourish and choose to give back to God with the things he’s blessed them with.

Header photo provided by FARMS International. 

 “It’s a Bible college inside the prison for inmates,” explains Don Szolomayer, Director of International Affairs at PFC. “There are 143 total lessons in the whole course. So it takes about three to four years, depending. But the goal is once they go through all of that, those who graduate from it now become what we call an inmate chaplain.”

These inmate chaplains are trained to evangelize, teach, and disciple others through Scripture. The impact of this ministry is spreading.

Recently, Nigeria’s prison chaplains took their training to a new level. “About three or four weeks ago, they held a crusade with all of their inmate chaplains that have graduated,” says Szolomayer.

“They got permission from the officer in charge to go cell-by-cell evangelizing. Then on top of that, they had a full crusade out in the yard. This all went on for over a week and a half!

(Photo courtesy of Prisoners for Christ)

“So here is this group of men in this prison who’ve gone through this course, and now they’re putting feet to what they learned. They’re taking it actually step-by-step out into that prison — not just holding it to themselves — but actually going out and evangelizing and discipling.”

Szolomayer says prison staff are even noticing the change. “Something that we hear very often when we go into the prisons and the jails in other countries is, ‘How soon are you coming back?’ Because the officers see the difference that it’s making in their prison.”

Greg Von Tobel, President of PFC, emphasizes that this vision extends beyond Nigeria: “Our primary focus is to share the love of Christ and to save unrepentant sinners and move them to a situation where they’re now saved and can disciple other people.”

Yet, growth depends on resources. “If we had more volunteers that were qualified to go into prisons, we could cover more countries,” says Von Tobel. “Last year, we had 2.1 million inmates that attended our services. Out of that, as best as we can determine, 73,000 men, women, and children said yes to Jesus for the very first time.”

Learn more about PFC at their website and find ways to get involved.

Pray for more inmate chaplains to step up, and that prison officers would continue welcoming Gospel transformation inside. Ask God to multiply discipleship through Nigeria’s prison churches, that they may know Christ!

Header photo courtesy of Mirza Mustofa/Unsplash.

Currently, about a dozen of India’s 28 states have anti-conversion laws, according to Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs, Canada. Most of these laws have been implemented after Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took up power within the Indian government. 

“It is definitely intensifying,” says Musselman. “People are coming to the Lord, and then that can, you know, put these evangelists and pastors and those that have converted into great danger. But there’s also the daily aspect, the psyche within the Christians to keep their faith very quiet and silent. And that was not the case, you know, 10, 20 years ago, when you could be a Christian, you could meet openly, no problem.”

In the northern state of Uttarakhand, an amendment to the existing anti-conversion legislation was passed into law this past summer, introducing more stringent penalties along with a ban on digital propaganda

“Uttarakhand is the first state to include digital media, and this of course now is a major concern, because social media is used for evangelization. You know, Christians there want to share their faith.” 

In the state of Chhattisgarh’s capital, Raipur, more than 200 house churches were notified that worship gatherings within private homes are no longer permitted, restricting worship to officially registered buildings. 

“They allege these illegal conversions are taking place in these house churches, and the reality is that people are converting and coming to Jesus,” says Musselman. “One pastor was detained for violating that order, and then a legal petition objecting to the police directive has now been filed. There’s court hearings going on, and so it is putting pressure on the church.”

Anti-conversion laws can also make it illegal to use anything that could be considered allurement to convert others to Christianity. This can include preaching about heaven or hell—even caring for the poor and those who are dying would be considered “bribing people, because you’re showing compassion and kindness,” says Musselman. 

The impact, he says, is that “many Christians are being arrested. Leaders are being pressured. They’re stopping these house church meetings.”

“But the positive side is that the gospel is going forward. In spite of all these restrictions, these anti-conversion laws, the pressure and everything that’s happening, the gospel is still going forward. And, you know, our Indian brothers and sisters are aware that this is a spiritual battle and that they need to be praying. They need to be asking the Lord for wisdom.”

Spreading awareness is important, although Musselman acknowledges the voices of advocates are often drowned out by politics. Overall, he emphasizes the importance of prayer. 

“In terms of where we go now, is prayer. We need to be praying for our brothers and sisters, and then through that, really praying that God will give wisdom to our brothers and sisters in India.”

Header photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs Canada

Indonesia is a vast nation of striking contrasts. Some regions face significant persecution of believers, and reports have emerged of extremists — like ISIS — setting up camps and training there. Yet ministries based in the country continue to see openness and success in sharing the Gospel, even amid the protests.

John Pudaite from Bibles For The World says, “These protests are being led by students primarily across the country, who feel that this current government is becoming rather repressive and also quite corrupt, and is passing laws and bills that are benefiting them.”

Map of Indonesia (photo courtesy of Putri Nabila via Unsplash)

The main demands include economic reforms to help the middle class have financial stability, more job opportunities with fair salaries for young professionals and graduates, and freedom for opposition voices.

The protests also reveal the nation’s deeper need for hope.

“You could just feel such a poverty for Scripture there in that country, that they haven’t had access to it, and they really want to know what’s written in God’s Word,” explains Pudaite.

Christians responded to this need by going out to share the Good News with protestors.

“The most recent wave of protests and violence we had a wonderful window to provide 80,000 Gospels of John and 15,000 New Testaments for the new believers,” he says.

The Gospel is so refreshing that people often stop in their tracks!

“So often we saw them just kind of step off to the side and start reading God’s word immediately,” he shares.

Pray for lasting peace and economic breakthrough across the country. Pray also for the Gospel to fill the deep void of hope.

“We continue to pray into this situation, that the Prince of Peace may prevail, that these — especially the violent protests — may subside, and that the people will, in the process, come to know that Jesus Christ is truly the only way to everlasting peace and hope,” says Pudaite.

Visit Bibles For The World to see how Scripture transforms lives!

Header photo: 2025 Indonesian student protests in Central Jakarta (photo courtesy of David Wadie Fisher-Freberg via Wikimedia Commons).

WMP printed and shipped the two containers in September 2024, and the containers arrived at the port in Liberia in November. However, up until a few weeks ago, the materials were still being detained by customs.

“We provided all the paperwork, and all the paperwork was pretty much the same as before,” Helen Williams with WMP said. “We have certain designations for our materials for customs. It’s a designation that they are free literature, it’s written literature, it’s not being sold, and we use that sending designation around the world.”

When the containers came to customs, customs said that the designation was wrong, which resulted in the designation being changed. Suddenly, the containers were being held, and WMP’s contact in Liberia was given a large bill, above the regular importation fees that WMP had sent money for.

They began the process of appealing this up the governmental ladder, one after another. They would get a hearing, and then they wouldn’t hear anything in response. Meanwhile, these containers were sitting there.

After doing everything they could, WMP and their contacts worried that the containers would be sold or destroyed.

Just a few weeks ago, WMP’s original shipper reached out, aware that the containers were still in port, and directed WMP to a contact in Liberia who imports all the time and is well known at the port.

God is working through the booklets WMP supplies. The booklets in Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire will touch new lives with the gospel. Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press.

Around the same time, WMP got another call, this time from a ministry partner, Feed the Hungry, who ended up having the same contact as the shipper.

Williams says that the contact, a bishop from the area, was “very successful” in helping WMP.

“We had to reconcile the shipments to Feed the Hungry so that he could negotiate,” says Williams.

He got the $60,000 demurrage bill lowered to $20,000, which WMP was able to send to Feed the Hungry.

Three days after the bishop went to the port, the two containers were released.

After all this time, Williams lost contact with the original consignee. However, within the last couple of weeks, she got an email from the original requester who said, “I want to thank you for all your patience and your prayers, and your support. I’ve been working with this bishop, and they’re going to be cleared, and I’m going to make sure that those containers get to their destination.”

After two years, the containers are both at their original destinations.

“I just can’t praise the Lord enough for His sovereignty in these things,” says Williams. “We’ve learned just to wait on the Lord, and He brings the people, and He brings the opportunities, and He goes before, and this one has been a long, long problem on our desk.”

Please pray for WMP as they work to fulfill the many requests for materials they receive and praise God with them as they celebrate what He has done.

Please pray also for the safety of the production staff around the machinery.

For those who wish to donate to WMP, they can use the website or call in and support the work of sending booklets internationally as well as in the United States.

Photo by Guillaume Bolduc on Unsplash

On Eagles’ Wings is a division of Hutchcraft Ministries that equips Native American believers to reach their peers for Jesus. The team saw the power of God again and again during their Summer of Hope outreaches this past year.

In one urban Native community, a homicide had taken place just days before their visit. Ron Hutchcraft said local Native believers spoke about the obvious despair at the first night’s gathering. “There was a confusion and a chaotic feel in the audience that usually is not there.”

One team member shared their hope story of how Jesus had changed their life. But then a mysterious bang went off, scattering the crowd. It was followed by a severe thunderstorm that finished the night.

David, the Native host for the On Eagles’ Wings team, told them privately: “There’s a blanket of darkness over this community.  Life here is traumatizing.”  

The On Eagles’ Wings team immediately sent out a request for prayer. 

The darkness did not deter them — it made these Native young people more determined to share the hope and freedom Jesus offers. Then prayer was answered with the darkness kicked out, and hope and victory entering the park! 

People listened to different Native young people speak about Christ. When the invitation came to publicly accept Christ, key men from the community stepped forward.

“In fact, the response was all [men] that night. I don’t remember ever seeing that,” Hutchcraft remarked.

Find your place in the story through continued prayer. It’s been more than a month since the summer outreaches ended, but follow-up ministry plans were already in place with local Native leaders. Pray for discipleship to be effective with new believers.

Pray for the young people whose lives were changed by the summer yet who face tough daily realities back home.

Pray for the applicants to the leadership development program with On Eagles’ Wings. Hutchcraft says, “We’re praying that they will be exactly the people that God wants, and that they will be transformed by this year of intensive discipleship.” (Read about the 2025 graduating class of leaders here!)

2025 team photo (Photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries)

Header photo courtesy of Hutchcraft Ministries.