But it didn’t have to happen this way. Pastor Adrian with A3 says flooding is common in Sri Lanka, which tempts some people not to take flood warnings seriously. That kept many from warning others and taking proper precautions for the cyclone. 

“In certain areas, the rainfall was about 400 milliliters of water within a single day,” Adrian said. “One of our churches went down completely underwater. And [that] church is situated about 50 feet above the river level. We had never heard of a flooding of this nature before.” 

Adrian serves as A3’s country director for Sri Lanka. He says that for churches in some regions, “I’m unable to contact them by phone or travel to these places because of the landslides. The bridges have been washed away. I don’t think even the government is aware of the scope of the damage that has happened due to the cyclone.” 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 1.1 million Sri Lankans were affected by the cyclone and that over 15,000 houses were destroyed.

Local Christians are working to provide immediate needs — like food, potable water, clothing and shelter. Then will come the long work of rebuilding homes, says Adrian. 

“It’s a huge concern, because our country and our churches don’t have that kind of infrastructure,” he says. 

Find your place in the story

Pray for God to bring eternal good from the devastation across Sri Lanka. Pray for hope to be found in Christ. 

“We are also getting ready to carry out a strong prayer ministry, moving to every district, gathering the believers, praying, because I believe that this devastation has also brought about receptivity in the hearts of people,” says Adrian. 

He says they are also looking to establish medical camps, because waterborne diseases will arise. 

“We are inviting people to contact us and send us teams of doctors and nurses who could come and serve,” he says. “We are also asking churches to stand with us financially, because we will have to provide [much]. It’s almost with some people starting life all over again.” 

Learn how you can partner with A3 to help local Christians bring relief and true hope to Sri Lanka.

Today is day two of unfoldingWord’s Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum, a gathering aimed at strengthening global collaboration in Scripture translation. The event brings 100 leaders from 18 countries and 28 language groups to Nairobi. Read about last year’s CCBT Forum here.

“Some of them work in countries that have religious opposition, all the way up to death threats and assassinations,” Dane* with unfoldingWord says.

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Kenya provides the neutral territory needed to facilitate a meeting of this size. Dane says, “We chose Kenya because it’s a very welcoming country, and it seems much easier for many of our global partners to get visas to Kenya than other parts of the world.”

unfoldingWord supports church-planting work among every people group by equipping believers with open-licensed biblical resources and training to translate God’s Word into their heart language.

“If we tried to do all of this translation work ourselves, we would immediately exceed our capacity. That’s why we are equipping a network of church planters and disciple-making ministries across the world with church-centric Bible translation tools, technology, and training,” Dane says.

“That network continues to expand, and as a result, hundreds and hundreds of new languages are being engaged in a formative process for them, individually and for their people.”

Learn more about unfoldingWord’s approach here.

“We’re not alone”: building a global family

The Church-Centric Bible Translation Forum builds upon unfoldingWord’s global church planting network, connecting believers near and far. The four-day meeting is comprehensive, offering education, training, and opportunities for collaboration and networking.

“Almost half of the people coming are new, and so it will be an introduction to how church-centric Bible translation works,” Dane says.

In addition, “They’ll have testimonies, and breakout sessions on overcoming barriers, security, funding, technology, and all of those kinds of things.”

(Graphic courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Believers gain more than practical skills at the forum. “What they tell us is, ‘It’s very difficult what we do, but when we meet brothers and sisters from other parts of the world who do this with us, we realize we’re not alone,’” Dane says.

“When they get to meet each other for the first time, face-to-face, it’s like this family that they didn’t know they had.”

Pray that the Holy Spirit would fill all the presenters and breakout leaders. Pray for the work that God is doing and is about to do through church planters and Bible translators.

Believers in Benin tell unfoldingWord, “We see Muslims giving themselves to Christ, imams giving themselves to Christ, kings giving themselves to Christ. Give us more. We want to keep going.”

Consider partnering with unfoldingWord to support this work. A $45,000 matching grant will double every gift made through December 31.

*Name withheld for security purposes. 

Header and story images courtesy of unfoldingWord. 

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.

The Supreme Court has issued several petitions for Rajasthan to justify the anti-conversion law’s constitutionality, which allows state officials to seize property and demolish homes based on allegations of forced conversion.

(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World via Facebook)

John Pudaite, President and CEO of Bibles For The World (BFTW), says it’s part of a broader legal battle as India’s Supreme Court takes a magnifying glass to anti-conversion laws across multiple states.

“They are questioning how this current government — the BJP government — can continue to steamroll across the country and pass these anti-conversion laws, which are nothing but an attack primarily on Christianity,” he says.

This new scrutiny may also cause those who target Indian Christians using anti-conversion laws to think twice.

“As they felt impunity, they would attack the churches and attack the Christians,” says Pudaite. “People are realizing that the laws they thought covered them may not have as much strength…as they had hoped.”

(Photo courtesy of Bibles For The World via Facebook)

Looking ahead, Pudaite urges the global Church to take this critical case, and others like it, before the Lord.

“We need to continue to pray for the Supreme Court and those justices, that they can be impartial in their evaluation of the evidence and of those laws. We can pray that they will not be politically influenced or otherwise influenced.”

Pudaite also encourages believers to keep the Gospel in sight — with hearts to reach their persecutors with the Gospel.

“Especially as we go into this Christmas season, pray that this may be a special time for the Body of Christ to be able to share the Good News of the birth of Jesus Christ…. Pray that the true spirit of Christ in Christmas may be able to shine.”

Header photo: Architecture in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. (Photo courtesy of Dexter Fernandes/Unsplash)

Usually, when asked to draw something they like, a child might sketch a sun, a flower, a car, or a dog. However, Eric Mock of Slavic Gospel Association says the drawings they receive from Ukrainian kids tell a different story:

Girl in Despair (photo courtesy of Meruyert Gonullu via Pexels)

“All of their pictures involve pictures of missiles or bombs coming down and them hiding from them. Their idea of of daily life is a threat of an air raid siren and what it means to them.”

SGA also asked a few children about their prayers. “They said they pray for the war to end. They don’t ask for peace because they don’t know really what peace looks like,” Mock explained.

Many Ukrainian children are also growing up without a father. Some fathers have been killed, taken hostage, or are serving in the army.

“And so these children, the fabric of their communications with one another, the fabric of their walk through society, is dealing with the constant state of war. This causes anxiety and fear,” Mock says.

That’s why Slavic Gospel Association is running its Heat and Hope and Operation Winter Warmth efforts — practical, cold-weather relief projects aimed at easing the daily burden on families torn apart by war, especially single mothers and widows who are now carrying the full weight of providing for their children while struggling to make ends meet.

A Boy Behind The Glass (photo courtesy of Tanya Gorelova via Pexels)

The war has left deep trauma in children’s lives, but hope is not lost!

“The best medicine for these kids is the love of Jesus Christ and the warmth of a local fellowship of believers,” Mock said.

Hope exists alongside heartbreak. More than seven hundred children have been killed by Russian aggression, thousands more wounded, and around twenty thousand kidnapped to Russia.

Pray that many more children will find the help and healing they need in Christ. And pray for lasting, sustainable peace in Ukraine.

Header photo: Child Looking Through the Window (photo courtesy of Elina Fairytale via Pexels).

“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.

Nmadu says from our standpoint as Christians, genocidal offenses are being committed; but regardless of how the UN or other international organizations choose to label the situation: 

“We can safely say that Christians are being killed in mass with the intention to coerce, to make Christians change their religious conduct,” he affirms. “Freedom of religion, or belief, is being hampered in many parts of Northern Nigeria.”

With land comes economic and political power, and the battle for control sweeps through a complex territory of cultural, political, and religious landscapes. 

Nmadu says he does not believe the present government is aiding the killing of Christians. But the administration’s refusal to take swift action, even in the form of strong rhetoric, reveals a trend towards political correctness. 

“In trying to be politically correct, they become complacent,” he says. “The government – not just this government, even past governments – have not done enough to protect lives of Christians in communities.”

The killings and abductions of thousands of Nigerians have been documented over the last few years. But Nmadu says small numbers aren’t even accounted for in those reports. 

“The evil is just unimaginable, and for a government to come out and deny that there is [any] such thing happening in the country shows their level of responsiveness in protecting lives and property, which is the number one duty of any government in the world,” he says. 

In particular, he believes the government of Nigeria must track down terrorists and hold them accountable to justice. He also thinks the administration needs to address the blasphemy laws being implemented in some Nigerian states by Muslims trying to enforce Sharia law. 

“When we say government is not doing enough, it is allowing the culture of impunity to prevail in the country,” he says. “People are emboldened to commit more atrocities because when one is committed, nothing is done.” 

Nmadu is hopeful that a surge of international interest will be a catalyst for change in Nigeria. 

President Trump has declared Nigeria a country of particular concern and has even threatened to send US troops to the country if measures to stop the genocide are not taken. It’s a move that Nmadu says has pricked the ears of government officials in his home country. 

“And if this is the only thing that this has done, I think it’s a welcome idea,” he says.

Above and featured photos courtesy of Unsplash

New Fast-Tracked Bible Degrees

Abanoub Isaac with NBIC says the school, which follows the Anglican Diocese of Egypt, is growing. They are offering more classes and programs for Sudanese people in Egypt. One program with tremendous growth is a one-year Bible degree that offers coursework on church planting, missions, and understanding people from different backgrounds.

This streamlined Bible training is crucial for Sudanese churches which are exploding with new Christians but lack trained pastors.

(Image courtesy of Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels)

Isaac says, “They have new believers every day. But they don’t have equipped ministries or pastors. They have to make [people] pastors in church without even reading the Bible one time. So, they don’t have any leadership skills, any biblical knowledge. So just he is good with people, knows the big message of Christ, but he can’t discipleship or make a Bible study, or anything else in the church – just worship.”

The one-year course begins with five months of studying in Egypt. This is followed by two months of practical ministry in Sudan and then a final five months back in Cairo. At the end of this intensive year, students are ready to go back to Sudan for good to lead their churches.

The program has been very successful. The first year they received 50-55 applications and the next year 90 people applied. During the first two-month practical training in Sudan, pastors were leaving their congregations in the hands of the students because they were so prepared.

However, even with the successes and growth of NBIC, they have had significant barriers to overcome.

Meeting Challenges Head-On

Isaac says one issue is that education has been poor in Sudan because of the war. Even identifying good candidates for leadership can be difficult. Many people just don’t have significant prior schooling.

Additionally, the war has continued to foster deep feelings of tribalism. The years of struggle make it difficult to get the church to come together over tribal lines.

“Actually, we faced a lot [the accusation] that we are racist against some tribes,” Isaac states. “Even we don’t know the tribes! We are not putting anything in our applications [about] which tribe you are from. But when we choose people to do something because we see that they have potential, they relate this to the tribe, not the potential of the people. So we faced a lot this accusation that we are racist [against some] tribes.”

NBIC is working to equip leaders from every tribe to combat these accusations in addition to their stated goal of training qualified leaders.

Join in Prayer

Training refugees to minister in war-torn areas is challenging work and Isaac asks for prayer. Unity among the tribes and Church at large is a major prayer request from NBIC.

“We [are] trying to give them lot of perspective. We have teachers from all over the places: Sudanese, Egyptians, some foreigners come. We give them retreats in Coptic places when they have worship nights and the Bible was read with like, six or seven different languages to make them know how important unity is.”

Please also pray for Sudanese Christians who are facing practical problems including racism, the cost of living in Egypt, and families who have been separated.

Header photo courtesy of Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.

Before the ceasefire last year, 800,000 Lebanese people were displaced to areas that are considered safer.

If attacks happen, people will be internally displaced this year, too.

Camille Melki with Heart for Lebanon says that southern Lebanon has “a very damp winter, (with) a lot of rain. Most of those families live in tent settlements or in makeshift homes, where it is very moist, and water gets into the house.”

At high elevations in the Beqaa Valley, many refugees and locals live in cold areas that will receive significant snow.

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

“Our team at Heart for Lebanon provides blankets, heavy coats, mittens, gloves, hats, anything that can help a family survive the harsh months,” Melki says.

Melki says, “If people flee and are living in the open air or in tents, that would significantly increase the risks (and) health hazards of being affected by the weather, as much as by the wars.”

Please join Heart for Lebanon in praying for peace as they work to fulfill needs this winter. Pray that needs will not become extreme.

“Everything we do, we give out, is given out and done unconditionally, but we also want to make sure that people who receive our aid know what drives us, what motivates us, what excites us, what takes us into the places that are hard and difficult to be in during conflicts,” Melki says. “Nothing motivates us except the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ towards those who are suffering the most.”

Please pray that this winter ministry will show the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ. Pray that it will lead to simple conversations that can turn into gospel conversations and will reach people who do not yet know God.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

“Whenever we talk about refugees,” he says, “we talk about broken dreams. We talk about broken hearts.” 

As believers, we know the one who transforms dreams and redeems hearts. So what happens when we join the conversation? 

REFUGEE MINISTRY

The world is home to about forty million refugees, and nearly half of them originate from the MENA region. The team at MENA Leadership center sees this reality as a call to action. 

“The task is to enable and build the capacity of the churches – the different ministries – on how to do refugee ministry properly,” Sharaiha says. 

Earlier this month, the center hosted a conference focusing on trauma healing for refugees. 

About 50 attendees from countries across the MENA region were given blueprints for building effective refugee ministries, including how to address and navigate trauma. 

Those working in refugee ministry must factor in realities and challenges that are heavily dependent on geographical location. Resources, physical or spiritual, are not always abundant. 

For example, as more than a million Sudanese flee the conflict in their homeland to neighboring Chad, Libya, and Egypt, believers in those countries are trying to assist the refugees.

Courtesy of Salah Darwish via Unsplash.

“So the churches in Egypt are trying to help, but we don’t have a good presence of Christians in Libya or Chad, and even if we do, this is a very much underground church,” Sharaiha says. 

In other areas, such as Lebanon, it’s Syrian refugees who are in need. There, Lebanese believers face cultural differences and political uncertainty as they consider how best to serve the refugee population.

“They are people just like us living in North America or in Europe,” Sharaiha points out. “It’s very important to put a face to the number and remember that those are people who are created in God’s image, and God loves them.” 

WHERE YOU COME IN

Please pray for the impact of the trauma healing course to continue far past the event. Pray also for the MENA Leadership Center team. If you are led to financially partner with the MENA Leadership Center, find more information about how to do so here. 

“Remember that we are working in a very difficult area,” Sharaiha says. “We are maneuvering around very tough situations all over the regions and then trying to meet those needs.”

As he prays for and works with those impacted by wars and conflict, Sharaiha says he reminds himself: “This could be me.” 

So let’s get the conversation going. 

Let’s talk about how refugees are made in God’s image. 

Let’s talk about how Jesus loves them.

Let’s talk about how Jesus died and rose for them. 

And as the body of Christ, let’s lend our hearts and hands to help. 

Above photo courtesy of Ricardo Gomez Angel via Unsplash. Featured photo courtesy of DJ Paine via Unsplash.