AROUND THE WORLD: Major Demographic Shift Underway in Christianity Scholars claim the biggest change in the history of Christianity is underway amid the religion's move to Africa, Latin America, and Asia. “The story of Christianity as a worldwide faith isRead more…

CHINA: Church Leaders Released after Two Years After serving two years in Chinese labor camps, five leaders of the Linfen house church have been released. Although each experienced physical and psychological torment, all feel strong, experiencing “glory in the midstRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Bible Agencies Unite to Strengthen Ministry Impact Two Bible ministries with complementary missions have announced plans to merge. Bible League International (BLI) and the World Bible Translation Center (WBTC) both bring unique strengths: Bible League in BibleRead more…

CHINA: Repeated Arrests of Christians Prompts Petition to Government Pastors from unregistered churches in China have lodged a petition with the Chinese government, calling for religious freedom and a peaceful resolution to an ongoing conflict involving one of Beijing’s largestRead more…

BANGLADESH: Bibles for Street Preachers Twenty young Bangladeshi Christians are risking their lives by selling and handing out Christian literature on the streets, busses, and marketplaces in their cities. In the past 11 months they have distributed more than 500,000Read more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Bible.is App Expands Global Gospel Outreach by Adding Arabic Bible.is, the popular Bible app from the Audio Bible ministry Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH), is now available for use in Arabic. Spoken by more than 221 millionRead more…

EGYPT: Army Fires Live Ammunition at Monastery The recent Egyptian uprising has left Coptic Orthodox monasteries exceedingly vulnerable, as the police who normally guard the monasteries have either deserted their posts or been redeployed to the cities. Exploiting the securityRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Wycliffe International Becomes Wycliffe Global Alliance Wycliffe International has a new name: Wycliffe Global Alliance. This new “doing business as” name, effective 1 February 2011, reflects organizational changes already underway and helps position Wycliffe for ongoing adaptability.Read more…

ALBANIA: Radio Station Births New Ministry Out of Kosovo An Albanian radio station created by Words of Hope is now paying it forward by spreading the ministry to Kosovo. Until fairly recently, Albania was a closed, communist country in whichRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Billy Graham Radio Program Turns Sixty One of Christian radio’s most beloved and longest-running programs hit the airwaves across the United States sixty years ago. “The Hour of Decision” with evangelist Billy Graham has grown into oneRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Global Prayer Initiative to Launch Annual Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering If the leaders of Convoy of Hope's Global Prayer Initiative have their wish, hundreds of thousands of people will pray every year onRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Eldon Barkman Serving as Interim President of JAARS Eldon “Butch” Barkman is serving as interim president of JAARS until a new president is chosen. David Reeves resigned in April 2010 as president of JAARS. Reeves and hisRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Living Water International Celebrates Twenty Years In 1990, a group of believers went on a mission trip to Kenya. When they came back, they began Living Water International (LWI), an organization now celebrating twenty years of bringingRead more…

ALGERIA: Christians Stand Firm, Meet in Vandalized Church Even on an ordinary Sunday, it takes courage for Pastor Mustapha’s church to meet together. As Christians living in Algeria, many face daily pressure from their families and neighbors, as well asRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Training Essential for Global Church Growth India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are areas of the world where being a Christian can cost you your life. However, many people are coming to Christ, and churches are growing atRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: GoBible Traveler Holds Entire Audio Bible The GoBible Traveler device is available in two new portable audio Bible editions, The GoBible Traveler and the Spanish GoBible Viajero. The GoBible Traveler is a lightweight, hand-held, portable device preloadedRead more…

EGYPT: Large Christian Population Faces Many Threats The Christian population in Egypt is very large—estimated at six to nine million people, or between eight and twelve percent of the population. However, Egyptian Christians face discrimination in education, employment, and theRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Trans World Radio Changes Its Name to TWR Effective 18 November 2009, International Christian ministry Trans World Radio, a pioneer in media missions, changed its name to TWR. TWR has also adopted the positioning statement “Speaking HopeRead more…

From a multiplication effort in Nepal to creating music from the heart to an update on the Pakistan Fellowship of Evangelical Students…we take you around the world as we end 2009.Read more…

AFRICA: New Africa Regional Director Elected Filimao M. Chambo has been elected the new Africa regional director of the Church of the Nazarene. Chambo, a native of Mozambique and resident of South Africa, replaces Eugénio Duarte, who was recently electedRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Global Media Outreach Reaches a Milestone For the first time, Global Media Outreach (GMO) saw over one million people indicate decisions for Jesus Christ in a single month. In June 2009, 1,030,581 people indicated either a first-timeRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Forum of Bible Agencies Launches “Find-a-Bible” The Forum of Bible Agencies International (IFOBA) recently launched a new website that gives easy access to scripture in more than three thousand languages. Find-a-Bible is the first centralized global resourceRead more…

AFRICA: Increased Information Technology Capacity Critical for Bible Translation Work JAARS Africa area liaison Bill Mayes envisions a day when every Bible translation center on that continent can enjoy Web page retrieval rates of less than five seconds, as opposedRead more…

ANGOLA: Southern Baptists Respond to Effects of Severe Flooding Severe flooding hit southern Africa earlier this spring, and reports say the “situation is worse than last year.” About twenty-five thousand people in Angola have been displaced, and the Red CrossRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: World Vision International Names New President Kevin Jenkins, managing director of a Canadian investment firm and vice chair of the board of World Vision Canada, has been appointed the new president and chief executive officer of WorldRead more…

ARAB WORLD: HCJB Global Reaches More than One Million Households Weekly HCJB Global is now reaching more than one million Arab households weekly across the North Africa/Middle East region via radio broadcasts. HCJB Global's media strategy in the region hasRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Religious Freedom on the Decline Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and now Kyrgyzstan have passed very restrictive religious laws, which all but force the evangelical Church into hiding. Unfortunately, the future for the evangelical Church in the former SovietRead more…

ARABIAN GULF: Frontiers Begins New “Gap” Program Frontiers will soon begin a new “Gap” program in the Arabian Gulf. In the past, the program, which prepares new overseas workers through on-the-job training, has been held in northern Iraq. The newRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Military BibleSticks Successful Since July 2008, Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) has sent more than 7,600 Military BibleSticks to military chaplains around the world. The specially-designed devices are digital audio players pre-loaded with the Audio Drama NewRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Trans World Radio Selects New President Trans World Radio (TWR) announced in October 2008 that Lauren Libby would serve as its new president and CEO. The decision was unanimous by TWR’s Board of Directors following a 6-monthRead more…

BOLIVIA: Conflict and Violence Escalates while Bishops Call for Peace Roman Catholic bishops in Bolivia appealed to the country’s political leaders to bring an end to recent violence that has reportedly left several people dead and many others injured. Several regionsRead more…

CHINA: American Christian Group Leaves after Airport Standoff In August 2008, Voice of America (VOA) reported Vision Beyond Borders (VBB) leader Pat Klein and three others spent twenty-six hours at Kunming airport waiting for officials to return more than threeRead more…

AZERBAIJAN: Censorship Goes against Constitution Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations has denied that the required approval of all religious literature is censorship. Censorship, according to the leader of an Azeri religious community, violates the country’s constitution. ARead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: North Korea Tops World Watch List for Sixth Year For the sixth straight year, North Korea tops Open Doors’ World Watch List, which lists where persecution of Christians is the highest. Rounding out the top ten are:Read more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Christian Persecution Showing No Sign of Improvement According to the German yearbook, Martyrs 2007, at least one in ten Christians around the world suffers persecution. In Iraq alone, three in four Iraqi Christians have left their countryRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Gospel Communications Launches Volunteer Matching Site Gospel Communications is launching an online volunteer matching site in partnership with TechMission to match Christians with volunteer opportunities in ministries serving under-resourced communities. Potential volunteers can search over 2,200 volunteerRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: WEA Joins with TOPIC The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) announced TOPIC (Trainers of Pastors International Coalition) as its new global partner to work closely together for their common commitment to pastoral ministry. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, head ofRead more…

AROUND THE WORLD: Top Ten Places of Persecution According to a report from Minority Rights Group International, the top ten places where ethnic and religious minorities are persecuted are: Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan,Read more…

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has established the Centre for Research and Canadian Evangelicalism in order to enhance the effectiveness of ministry carried out by evangelicals in Canada and shed light on the character and role of Evangelicalism in Canada.Read more…

For decades, the Chinese government has been denying the true extent of Chinese Christianity. In 2004, the government-backed Amity News Service put the number of Protestants at eighteen million. However, China Aid Association reported on 8 January 2007 that YieRead more…

A Christian council in India has appealed to the governor of the state of Andhra Pradesh to halt legislation that would ban non-Hindu religious activity around the Hindu temple town of Tirupati. “This order is in total violation of bothRead more…

Representatives of Dusun-speaking churches attended the recent dedication of the revised Dusun Bible. Dusun is one of the main indigenous languages in the province of Sabah, northern Borneo. The first edition of the Bible in this language was launched inRead more…

Three years ago, Antoine Rutayisire, African Enterprise Rwandan team leader, received a copy of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. After reading it, he decided the Rwandan people should have the privilege of reading it in Kinyarwanda, their nativeRead more…

Hundreds of UK churches are expected to hold Micah Sunday 07 events this fall. Micah Sunday is an annual event which aims to galvanize the international Church family to act on behalf of the world’s poorest people. The theme ofRead more…

Representing more than thirty countries around the world, some 102,000 people gathered 3-5 August 2007 in Anaheim, California, USA, for the annual Southern California Harvest Crusade with Greg Laurie—an event that has been a fixture in Orange County since 1990.Read more…

Christians continue to be martyred abroad, but few American believers are aware of how pervasive religious persecution is around the world. “Christians in this nation don't realize how fortunate they are to live in the US,” observes Jim Jacobson, presidentRead more…

According to a report carried by the Catholic News Agency (CNA), some 200 million Christians in sixty countries are at risk of suffering persecution. The report reveals that in the Sudan, for example, “thousands of Christians have been massacred andRead more…

Nearly four hundred Christian leaders met in Budapest, Hungary, recently for the Lausanne Bi-Annual International Leadership Conference. The weeklong conference was for the purpose of praying, planning and working together for the next Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization (LausanneRead more…

China Aid Association (CAA) confirms that a central government-directed campaign to expel suspected foreign missionaries has been ongoing since February 2007. According to reliable China Aid sources and collaborated reports by at least five different mission agencies, over one hundredRead more…

The general secretary of the World Young Women’s Christian Association (World YWCA) has called on the movement to strengthen its ties to the Christian values upon which it was founded. “I believe this movement will go further if it continuesRead more…

The Anglican Church of Kenya has appointed two bishops to oversee a group of clergy and congregations in the United States, amid continuing tensions between the Kenyan denomination and the US Episcopal (Anglican) Church over homosexuality. “The Anglican Church ofRead more…

A new report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide has accused North Korea of international crimes, including crimes against humanity, and recommends that the United Nations establish a strong commission of inquiry. The report states that “there is a prima facie caseRead more…

IBS-STL South Asia (formerly International Bible Society-South Asia) and STL (Send the Light) OM Books India announced plans for a strategic alliance to collaborate efforts to distribute the Bible and Christian resources throughout the subcontinent and surrounding territories. Both organizationsRead more…

In western Sudan, more than 200,000 people have died in the four-year Darfur region conflict between ethnic African rebels and pro-government militia. “Sadly, it is the civilians who suffer,” said Dr. Mwaya Wa Kitavi, Bible League’s associate director of AfricaRead more…

“We are ready to assist the churches in their quest to regenerate morals in our society,” declared Sphiwe Ngwenya, executive secretary of the Bible Society in Swaziland, at a recent symposium held as part of celebrations to mark the tenthRead more…

A new religion law in Tajikistan could make ministry difficult in that former Soviet bloc nation. Slavic Gospel Association’s (SGA) Joel Griffith says it could ban all unregistered religious activity. Griffith outlines some of the other restrictions: “Religiously-affiliated political partiesRead more…

With inflation exceeding 4,500 percent—some reports put the figure nearer eight thousand percent—currency no longer buys food and medical care in Zimbabwe. There is little food due to drought and poor harvests, and the collapse of civil infrastructure has meantRead more…

After sixteen years of serving as president of Asian Access, an evangelical mission organization that develops leaders and serves as a catalyst to multiply churches, the Rev. S. Douglas Birdsall, will step down on 30 September 2007 to devote full-timeRead more…

The leader of the mainline Protestant Churches in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, is deeply concerned about increasing threats to the lives of former Muslims who have embraced the Christian faith. There are congregations of former Muslims in Berlin, Huber's diocese,Read more…

Hong Kong Christians have launched their first manual to help combat domestic violence and church leaders have urged communities to renew their pastoral theology to support victims of the home scourge. “When the Church places too much emphasis on forgivenessRead more…

More than four thousand protesters took part in a rally in New Delhi, India, recently to demand that the Indian government acts to quell the recent increase in violence against Christians. The rally was called in response to two attacksRead more…

A Malaysian woman who converted to Christianity might be jailed for apostasy, or the rejection of her religion, after the Muslim-majority country’s highest court ruled that she does not have a constitutional right to convert from Islam to another religion.Read more…

Churches in Pakistan are urging the government to protect a Christian community facing threats from Islamic fundamentalists to either convert to Islam or shut their churches and migrate from their native villages in the North West Frontier Province. “The authoritiesRead more…

Roman Catholic religious orders in Poland have taken to advertising to try and stem a decline in vocations. “The church has been advertising itself for two thousand years,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, the head of the Jesuit order in Poland, was quotedRead more…

The Russian Orthodox Church and an émigré church that broke ties in 1927 over a Russian church leader’s declaration of loyalty to the then-Soviet state have officially reunited at a ceremony in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. “Church divisionsRead more…

Churches need to examine their old mission strategies and reshape them for the twentieth century, according to the Rev. Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC. “Addressing this problem is at the heart of strengtheningRead more…

Results from a LifeWay Research study of teenagers in the United States indicates that many teens are confused about what it takes to get to heaven. More than one thousand teens were surveyed in January and February 2007 by mailRead more…

The killing of three Christians at a religious publishing house in eastern Turkey has triggered strong condemnation by the United States and international church and advocacy groups. Twelve suspects have been linked to the killings of the three men, NecatiRead more…

The recent staging of the African Football Federation’s Under-17 Africa Cup tournament in Lomé provided an opportunity for the Bible Society of Togo and other Christian organisations to bring God’s Word to many sports fans. Teams and their supporters fromRead more…

As part of the Micah Challenge coalition, Christian leaders are calling on Western governments to stick to their promises on tackling global poverty. The call comes in the light of a report by the Africa Progress Panel, which was setRead more…

Senior government ministers have welcomed a proposal by the Bible Society of Gabon to launch the Good Samaritan program in order to help tackle the country’s escalating HIV/AIDS problem. The Society put forward the proposal last month following a callRead more…

After a two-year interruption due to widespread violence in the country, the Church of the Nazarene in Haiti resumed and completed eleven district assemblies in April. Final membership totals are not yet complete, but nearly every district showed growth. TwoRead more…

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) has called on the authorities to act immediately to restore the rule of law, following a number of attacks against Christians in recent weeks. The council urged state governments to clamp downRead more…

A call for Christian mission work to promote “non-aggressive” evangelism and for traditional denominations to find new ways of working with Pentecostal and charismatic movements has been made by the World Council of Churches general secretary, the Rev. Samuel Kobia.Read more…

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and the University of Wisconsin (UW) have reached an agreement that settles a lawsuit and fully restores recognition to InterVarsity’s student chapter at the UW-Superior (UW-S). The agreement also removes the threat of derecognition that has beenRead more…

Individual congregants of sixty-five Christian denominations that reported financial information for publication gave an average of $713 to their church in calendar year 2005. That figure was reported in the seventy-fifth Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, published in MarchRead more…

Fifteen key organizations that work with the Persecuted Church around the world launched a global network in order to cooperate more intentionally together. Meeting in Amsterdam, Holland, the group formed the Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP), with charter organizations that includeRead more…

Nearly 3.3 million Bible studies were completed worldwide during 2006 in areas with active Bible League ministry—that’s 376 every hour. Bible League provided 19.3 million scriptures in 2006—a twelve percent increase from 2005. Since 1938, the Bible League has providedRead more…

Increasing interest in Christianity among Chinese intellectuals is transforming China’s religious landscape, says Edmond Tang, an academic and consultant on China for British and Irish churches. “Today it is an open secret that Christian fellowships, a new kind of ‘houseRead more…

When an earthquake struck El Salvador in 2001, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in Santa Tecla was so badly damaged that it had to be torn down. But the congregation itself was not destroyed. Meeting in makeshift quarters, church membersRead more…

The number of people in Britain going to church is falling rapidly and only one in ten adults attends church weekly even though fifty-three percent of adults or 26.2 million people in the United Kingdom identify themselves as Christian. ARead more…

Despite opposition and threats of beatings, a team of seven women who are part of Gospel for Asia (GFA) Women’s Fellowship gave out fifty thousand tracts at the Kumbh Mela festival earlier this year. Coming to the Ganges River inRead more…

More than sixty thousand people recently attended the three-day Festival of Life 2007 outreach in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital city of Chiapas, Mexico. Of these, more than six thousand people gave their lives to Christ. Nearly four hundred American ChristiansRead more…

Rev. Kefas Kane Mavula was elected bishop of the United Methodist Church in Nigeria 3 March 2007. Mavula’s appointment comes at an exciting time for Nigerian United Methodists, who have been experiencing rapid growth over the past decade. According toRead more…

A senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church has told attendees at a meeting in Moscow that human rights cannot be considered only from a secular standpoint, which he said often fails to take into account questions of morality, andRead more…

Nearly one thousand leaders from Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela gathered in their respective countries as National Iberoamerica conferences sparked a renewed priority for evangelism and holiness. In addition to spending much time at the altar, people of all ages receivedRead more…

The major contribution made by thousands of faith communities to Welsh society is to be quantified in the nation’s first faith audit. The audit, “Counting for our communities,” will survey the voluntary work carried out by faith communities for theRead more…

The Latin American Council of Churches, known under its Spanish acronym CLAI, has elected Panamanian Episcopal (Anglican) Bishop Julio Murray as its first black president in a tightly contested election. “I am very happy about this election,” said the Rev.Read more…

With increasing restrictions within China, radio becomes an even more attractive means of gaining information from the outside world. Alliance Radio in Hong Kong continues to prepare and broadcast programs over Christian radio stations outside of China. Popular programs areRead more…

Integrated Community Development International (ICDI) in Boali, Central African Republic, officially began broadcasting the gospel via shortwave with help from HCJB Global Voice. This is the country’s first privately-owned shortwave station, making Christian broadcasts available to most of the country’sRead more…

There are 113,000 Internet cafes throughout China, serving over 123 million Internet users. Of this number, an estimated eighteen million of these users are under the age of eighteen. According to new governmental regulations, those under eighteen will not beRead more…

The first Iberoamerican Wesleyan Women’s conference was held in February in San Jose, Costa Rica. Over two hundred women from thirteen different countries attended this event, including two women from Spain and four women from Equatorial Guinea, Africa. This eventRead more…

Leaders from the Christian Conference of Asia have concluded five days of celebrations in Indonesia for their fiftieth year as a grouping with one leader calling for stepped-up efforts by churches to fight corruption and nepotism in the region. “TheRead more…

Approximately seventy people met on 2 December 2006 in Oslo, Norway to celebrate the official organization of the country's first Church of the Nazarene. Between thirty and fifty people now comprise the Portuguese-speaking congregation, which began as fifteen to twentyRead more…

Leaders from the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia gathered recently to address the issue of unity among evangelicals in Russia. Participants not only discussed working together with different groups and denominations, but also addressed the differences between the olderRead more…

The International Bible Society (IBS), one of the world’s largest translators and distributors of scripture, and Send the Light (STL), one of the world’s largest distributors of Christian literature, have merged. The new organization, IBS-STL, has operations in the UnitedRead more…

Amity Bible printing press in China is planning to move to a new site. On a visit to Nanjing, China last fall, Daniel Willis, CEO of Bible Society NSW, inspected the new site for the Amity Printing Press. “At theRead more…

Using the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a platform, a United States commission on religious freedom has called for increased international pressure on China to end its intolerance of religious expression. Felice Gaer, chairperson of the US Commission on InternationalRead more…

Faced with a dwindling church membership and growing secularization, the mainline Protestant churches in Germany are launching one of the most radical reforms in recent history. The former “people’s church” in Martin Luther’s home country has suffered continuous losses sinceRead more…

The International Bible Society pioneered the first prose literature ever written in the Awadhi language by completing the first Awadhi translation of the Bible. More than fifty native scholars in northern India worked for twelve years to accurately translate the language,Read more…

Christian groups in India have lambasted the passage of an anti-conversion bill in northern Himachal Pradesh state, ruled by the secular India National Congress party, as pandering to a small minority of hardline Hindu nationalists. The ecumenical All India ChristianRead more…

Despite being a “secular democratic republic,” India is still “not a very safe place for its tiny Christian minority,” says a report released by a top official in the All India Christian Council (AICC). The Christian community faced at leastRead more…

A locally-produced Children’s Bible has hit the market in a country where, until now, most Children’s Bibles have been translations from other languages. The Bible is the culmination of a project launched several years ago by the Latvian Bible Society.Read more…

Operation Blessing International (OBI) recently built innovative micro-enterprise fish farms in Senegal. OBI hatched plans to help a local missionary build two more tilapia ponds, but this time with a twist: the side by side ponds will be fished notRead more…

Plans to build the largest mosque outside of the Middle East are being made. The mega-mosque, which will be called the London Markaz, will be located on London’s east end. The land for the proposed mega-mosque now hosts a smallRead more…

The number of languages into which at least one complete book of the Bible has been translated reached 2,426 at the end of 2006, according to the United Bible Societies’ (UBS) 2006 Scripture Language Report. The report records each scriptureRead more…

On 1 January 2007, the United Bible Societies began the next stage of an ambitious project designed to bring God’s word into the homes and workplaces of many residents of Côte d’Ivoire who have little knowledge of the Bible. OnRead more…

Although translation work among Wycliffe Bible Translators has been progressing faster than ever (more than 2,200 languages have at least some of the Bible in their language), at least three thousand languages still need the good news translated into theirRead more…

Members of thirty-two minority language groups worldwide received God’s word in their own heart languages for the first time in 2006 thanks to a long-standing partnership between Bible League and Wycliffe Bible Translators. Ì¢‰âÒSome of those we are reaching haveRead more…

The newly published Business Bible was launched by Bible Society NSW 12 December 2006 in Sydney. The Business Bible is a new edition of the Good News New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, with personal testimonies from leading Christian business peopleRead more…

European church leaders meeting in Brussels have called for a dialogue with other religions about the future of Europe, while underlining the need for the process of European integration to be based on shared values and a common vision. Ì¢‰âÒAsRead more…

A research team was formed by Shaanxi provincial China Christian Council/Three Self Patriotic Movement to carry out an investigation on the situation of grassroots level churches. In August 2006, the research team, made up of three vice presidents of theRead more…

More than two years after a tsunami devastated communities around the Indian Ocean, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) continues to help build hundreds of houses for tsunami survivors in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. In India’s Tamil Nadu state, MCCRead more…

After years of satellite and shortwave broadcasting into the North Africa/Middle East Region, HCJB World Radio recently had the opportunity to show God’s love through its healthcare ministry, responding to the aftermath of the war between Israel and Hezbollah inRead more…

Russia’s Orthodox Church has bought a Roman Catholic church and monastery in the Netherlands and plans to turn them into the largest Orthodox complex outside Russia. Ì¢‰âÒMany churches have had to close here, especially in suburban areas, and all kindsRead more…

The much publicized, long-awaited Jesus 50 Million People March took place 26 December 2006 in all thirty-six states of Nigeria and 774 local government areas spread across the country. Over forty thousand Christians converged at designated zones all over theRead more…

An increasing number of European churches are beginning to understand the role of Christian media in reaching the unchurched in Romania and Europe. To provide adequate training in the use of Christian television, Alfa Omega TV reports that in conjunctionRead more…

The Lutheran Church of Sweden, the national church and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden, the country’s second largest denomination, have celebrated the signing of an ecumenical agreement at a service in Uppsala Cathedral. In terms of their agreement Ì¢‰âÒtheRead more…

Delegates at the Global Connections’ conference in December in Swanwick, Derbyshire, UK heard how mission is central to God’s very nature. Conference speaker Clive Calver said that our Lord is a sending GodÌ¢‰â‰۝the Father sent the Son, the Son sentRead more…

Kurdish Surani-speakers in northern Iraq are to receive scripture calendars in their own language for the first time, thanks to an initiative by the Bible Society in Lebanon. The Society has published twenty-thousand scripture calendars in the language for theRead more…

Individuals on Christian college campuses, local church college ministries, mobilization ministries and others passionate about getting this generation on fire for Jesus Christ will be taking part in the 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting from 22 January to 12Read more…

After standing in ruins for more than a decade, the only Russian Orthodox church in Chechnya’s capital has been restored. The consecration of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Grozny was led by Bishop Feofan of Stavropol andRead more…

Arab Vision is drawing up plans to produce Iraqi television programs by early 2007. These programs will be made by Iraqi Christians themselves in their own Iraqi Arabic dialect. They will focus on sharing the gospel of peace with theirRead more…

Theologians from Korea and Japan, Korea’s colonizer in the first half of the twentieth century, have begun a dialogue in search of Ì¢‰âÒan Asian theology that can act to reconcile, and that goes beyond nationalism in both countries.Ì¢‰âÂå The two-dayRead more…

Christian groups in India are mourning the killing of a prominent Christian worker who had converted from Islam and who was shot dead at a bus stop in front of his home in the state Kashmir. The Global Council ofRead more…

The number of missionaries in India has increased over sixty-seven percent in the last five years, said the country’s Minister of State for Planning, M. V. Rajasekharan. At the same time the Minister said that according to the World Bank’sRead more…

For the first time, 24-hour Persian Christian radio is available anywhere in the world. The new Persian-language website Radio Mojdeh (Mojdeh means Ì¢‰âÒgood newsÌ¢‰âÂå in Persian) and a 24-hour Internet radio service have recently been launched. The website, www.radiomojdeh.com, includesRead more…

After more than fifteen years of work by many translators and collaborators, missionaries in Mali announced that the New Testament is now available in the Maasina Fulfulde language. This will make the gospel story accessible for the first time toRead more…

The Disaster Response Office of Habitat for Humanity International recently rolled out its newest program, the Disaster Corps. The program seeks to provide increased support for disaster affected Habitat affiliates by engaging baby boomer generation volunteers with professional and skilledRead more…

Lowell Nelson Reed was recently named the new international director for Action International Ministries (ACTION), a position he officially takes up 9 March 2007. Reed, currently the associate international director and Southeast Asia regional coordinator for ACTION, will be succeedingRead more…

Dr. Jim Montgomery, founder of Dawn Ministries and a missionary for OC International, passed away 29 October 2006 after a prolonged bout with cancer. Montgomery and his wife joined OC in April 1958; they spent four years in Taiwan andRead more…

Church leaders in Tasmania, Australia, announced that they would run the first statewide Ì¢‰âÒJesus. All about lifeÌ¢‰âÂå (JAAL) campaign in September/October 2007. JAAL, developed by Bible Society NSW, was held in Adelaide in August 2005 and in Canberra in March/AprilRead more…

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams says he believes that in some regions in China the percentage of the population attending church on Sundays is as large as or even larger than that in most western European countries. “The astonishing andRead more…

Despite that fact that officials of the stadium in Quito scheduled a soccer game for the same night as the 21-23 September 2006 Franklin Graham Festival was to start, more than fourteen thousand people gave their lives to Christ atRead more…

Bless Bihar Conference 2006 was held in Siwan 26-29 October 2006. More than four hundred delegates attended. Every day, after the morning worship the participants were separated into three different groups as workers, believers and Sunday school children. Classes forRead more…

The general assembly of the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) and the European Evangelical Missionary Alliance recently launched the Polish Evangelical Alliance‘s (PEA) Ì¢‰âÒYear of Evangelical Christians in Poland,Ì¢‰âÂå with a firm belief that there is still great hope for ChristianityRead more…

The first ordained woman to be named to the top position of the Church of Scotland says she hopes to promote Christian unity during her year in office. “I will definitely be focusing on Christian denominations. That will be theRead more…

A team of fifty volunteers and Asia Challenge Teams workers in northeast Thailand recently traveled to three rural areas unreached with the gospel. Over one thousand people attended three days of makeshift clinics and no one was turned away. BesidesRead more…

The Apostolic Church of God in Romania recently celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Pentecostal Theological Institute in Bucharest, the church’s primary training school for ministers. The school opened in 1976 when Romania was still under theRead more…

The first women priests in Sri Lanka’s Anglican Church say their ordination is a dream come true. “I have no words to describe my joy,” the Rev. Chandrika Mayurawathie, one of the first three women ordained in September into theRead more…

In a historic moment for the Wesleyan North American General Conference, Distrito Hispano Suroeste de La Iglesia Wesleyana (Southwest Hispanic District of The Wesleyan Church) was formally launched as the denomination’s thirty-fourth district organization. It is also the first Spanish-languageRead more…

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a faith-based, non-profit ministry that serves missions around the world with aviation, communications and technology, recently dedicated its new training and mobilization headquarters in Nampa, Idaho, USA. The MAF previous headquarters was in Redlands, California. FoundedRead more…

The July 2006 merger of Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment (ACMC) and Caleb Project has resulted in Initiative360Ì¢‰â‰۝Take it Global, a new organization which seeks to further the kingdom of Jesus Christ by serving the missions interests of believers andRead more…

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) will be held 12 November 2006. Some countries will pray one Sunday earlier or one Sunday later but 12 November is the most common day for IDOP in the world,Read more…

The number of persecuted Christians is on the rise worldwide, according to Professor Thomas Schirrmacher, director of the Religious Liberty Commission of the German Evangelical Alliance. Three in four cases of severe persecution are targeted at Christians and at leastRead more…

Christians in Africa need to develop their own theology instead of copying Western theology, which is influenced by rationalism, said Joe Kapolyo, a theologian from Zambia, to participants at the annual meeting of the German Association of Evangelical Missions (AEM)Read more…

Three indigenous Bible translation projects, started through the support of Bible Society in Australia (BSiA), are continuing through private donations and individual church support. The projects are in Nyoongar, southwest Western Australia; Dhurga at Mogo near Bateman’s Bay NSW andRead more…

A report presented to French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked controversy by proposing to amend the country’s strict laws separating church and state by allowing local authorities to finance the construction of new places of worship. The proposal drawnRead more…

Over 5,300 Hungarians from fifteen countries attended the third Hungarian Baptist World Assembly in Debrecen 4-6 August 2006. Over eight hundred non-Baptist guests attended the meeting as well. Speakers for the event included Kalman Meszaros, president of the Baptist UnionRead more…

According to one of Asia’s leading exponents of liturgical music, despite their long-standing preference for Western melodies and words, Asian Christians need to learn to use traditional cultural elements to enrich their hymns. “The great majority of Asian Christians haveRead more…

President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged Nigerians to turn to God if the country is to overcome intractable problems that have bedevilled Africa’s most populous nation for nearly forty-six years. “We have come out of the dark past and as weRead more…

Global Mapping International (GMI) has released The Peoples of the Buddhist World CD-ROM, a prayer guide for the peoples of the Buddhist world. It was designed for Christians, educators, churches and missionaries concerned with better understanding and praying for theRead more…

The global website for the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP, www.idop.org) will open 12 October 2006, one month before the IDOP Day 12 November. Some countries will pray one Sunday earlier or one Sunday later butRead more…

Ì¢‰âÒThe future of the Church could be under threat unless biblical illiteracy among young people is not urgently addressed,Ì¢‰âÂå a group of Christian evangelical agencies have warned. Although young people may have well-rehearsed arguments outlining Christian responses to social andRead more…

Statistics from the 2001 Canadian census indicate that the growth of religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism in that country are far surpassing both Protestant Christianity and Roman Catholicism and that Canada is indeed a great mission field. BetweenRead more…

Representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World Evangelical Alliance met in dialogue 8-11 August 2006 on the campus of the International Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Prague, Czech Republic. Although informal contacts had occurred during the past fiftyRead more…

Nearly six hundred Bible League-trained Mexican church planters recently gathered in Mexico City for a congress to discuss what God has done through their ministries. The congress brought together church planters who have been trained over the past eleven years.Read more…

A bishop in Pakistan has renounced his nationality in protest against discrimination and hatred he says is suffered by the minuscule Christian minority in the world’s second largest Muslim nation. “In Pakistan, Christians, including me, are facing extreme hate, discriminationRead more…

In order to confront the growing HIV/AIDS crisis in Russia, Christian organizations Tearfund (UK) and Russian Ministries (US) will hold the “HIV & AIDS Forum of Good Practice and Networking” 15-17 November 2006 at the Moscow Christian Center in Moscow,Read more…

The World Missions Atlas Project and its partners, in cooperation with the greater missions community, have released the new “Global Status of Evangelical Christianity” wall map. The map illustrates the status of evangelical Christianity and church planting based upon theRead more…

Mark Brown, national director for Scripture Union in New Zealand, has been appointed chief executive officer of the Bible Society in New Zealand. Brown will start his post in the early part of 2007. He is succeeding Colin Reed, whoRead more…

The Salvation Army has announced that it is to return to Namibia in November after a 67-year absence from the formerly South African-administered territory. “We feel our caring ministry will make great contributions in such areas as caring for theRead more…

Thanks to volunteer knitters from the United States and abroad, more than 250,000 impoverished children around the world now enjoy the comfort and warmth of handmade sweaters. World Vision has partnered with Guideposts magazine in its “Knit for Kids” sweaterRead more…

China’s official media has confirmed that two people have been arrested after reports that about three thousand Christians in eastern China’s Zhejiang province clashed with police over the demolition of a church building for a denomination not officially recognized byRead more…

The Brno Sports Blitz, the largest event that the Majak Ministry Center has ever hosted, took place 8-18 June. Eighty-three student athletes, coaches and support staff from several colleges in the US converged in Brno. After two days of intensiveRead more…

Christian groups have decried changes to laws said to enshrine “freedom of religion” by legislators in India’s central state of Madhya Pradesh, ruled by the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), a party opponents describe as having a Hindu nationalist agenda. UnderRead more…

The only Christian player in Iran’s national soccer team was named “Christian star of the World Cup” in a poll undertaken by a Dutch ecumenical Christian group. Andranik Teymourian, a 23-year-old midfielder, received 31.3 percent of votes in the onlineRead more…

The Rev. John C.A. Barrett of the British Methodist Church is the new chairperson of the World Methodist Council, which includes churches in 132 countries. Barrett was elected by the council and installed at the 24 July closing worship serviceRead more…

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, is set to visit China 8-23 October 2006. The visit is at the invitation of the senior leadership of the post-denominational Protestant churches in China. Dr. Williams’ trip will include visits to citiesRead more…

Dan Brokke was recently named president and CEO of Bethany International. He replaces Dave Hicks, who stepped down after five years of service. In his new position Brokke has placed a priority on the expansion of Bethany College of MissionsRead more…

Representatives of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church and the World Evangelical Alliance met in dialogue 8-11 August 2006 on the campus of the International Baptist Theological Seminary, located in Prague, Czech Republic. Although informal contacts had occurred during the pastRead more…

After nearly five years in the making, the first Bible commentary to be produced in Africa by African scholars has been published. The African Bible Commentary (ABC) is a two thousand-page commentary that includes a section-by-section interpretation of the BibleRead more…

This year marks several significant missions anniversaries, says missions expert Paul Borthwick. One hundred years ago the Azusa Street Revival in California, USA, began. This launched the modern Pentecostal movement. Two hundred years ago the Haystack Prayer Meeting was heldRead more…

Caleb Project, a ministry which creates materials, programs and curricula for those involved in mission, and ACMC (Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment), a ministry which uses conferences, consultation and resources to equip local churches for outreach, have joined forces. TheRead more…

Royal Rangers, an Assemblies of God ministry for boys, is experiencing growth in Asian Pacific countries such as Malaysia, which has twenty outposts, and Singapore, which has eleven outposts. Jim Guneratnam, national Royal Rangers program coordinator for Malaysia, contributes theRead more…

Ted Noble, president of Greater Europe Mission (GEM), has announced that he will step down from the post effective June 2007. Noble has served in this position since 1992 after serving for four years as executive vice president of FoodRead more…

Rev. Karl Johnson, general secretary of the Jamaica Baptist Union, was elected president of the Jamaica Council of Churches, the largest and most prominent ecumenical body in the country. Johnson succeeds Rev. Philip Robinson, a Methodist. Johnson is also chairRead more…

The Christian population in Japan has remained at around one percent of the country’s population since 1549, when Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived, says a professor of the sociology of religion at Tokyo’s Roman Catholic Sophia University. “But the youngRead more…

Latin America Library Services (LALS), a ministry under the support of Assemblies of God World Missions, recently posted its new bilingual website, which offers valuable resources for Bible school librarians, administrators, pastors and missionaries. The bilingual format serves both SpanishRead more…

The number of people responding to SAT-7 broadcasts in the Middle East is up two hundred percent from 2005. Much of this is the result of Ì¢‰âÒA Very Happy Marriage,Ì¢‰âÂå a program which encourages husbands and wives to dialogue withRead more…

A new bachelor of arts translation degree program has been launched by the Theological College of Northern Nigeria to train Africans for Bible translation. Dr. David Crozier, a Wycliffe Bible Translator member, is serving as head of the college’s BibleRead more…

Dr. Fred Drummond, who has served as a Church of Scotland minister in Perth for fifteen years, began his post as head of the Scottish Evangelical Alliance 1 July. Concerned that Scotland is becoming an increasingly fragmented society, Drummond hopesRead more…

Nearly 450 Mennonites from ten different countries attended the 2006 Mennonite European Regional Conference 25-28 May in Barcelona. Ì¢‰âÒFreedom is Commitment: Living the Will of God,Ì¢‰âÂå the theme of this year’s gathering, was the first time in its thirty-year historyRead more…

In the face of declining income and loss of members, the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the country’s main Protestant umbrella, is proposing sweeping organizational changes, including cutting the number of pastors by a quarter over the next twenty-five years.Read more…

Week-long celebrations were held in July in Chennai to mark the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the first Protestant missionary to India. “The arrival of Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar in 1706 no doubt marked a remarkable change in theRead more…

In light of current objections from Christians to the movie version of Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, recent protests from the Muslim community about the Mohammad caricatures and from Jewish groups about anti-Semitism inspired by The Passion ofRead more…

From inside a thatch-and-mud house in a remote village, Nango Ouattara spoke legends into a microphone. Weeks later, her stories captivated hundreds of listeners on The Samogho Program, a weekly radio broadcast that combines traditional lore and music with biblicalRead more…

Lutheran leaders in Germany say they hope the global assembly of the Lutheran World Federation scheduled to meet in their country in 2010 will boost links with other Protestant denominations. The federation’s German National Committee has proposed that governing bodiesRead more…

More than 3.6 million people in India have committed their lives to Christ as a result of the six-day Christmas 2005 Ì¢‰âÒMy Hope IndiaÌ¢‰âÂå project, sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). During the six-day project, nearly 800,000 homeRead more…

A rccord 10,250 people recently graduated from Hopegivers International leadership training courses in India. Despite threats of violence from radical anti-Christians in Rajasthan, over 8,100 missionaries went forward to receive diplomas in two of the three scheduled 2006 graduations. OneRead more…

Ten thousand Methodists from around the world will assemble in the South Korean capital of Seoul 20-24 July 2006 for the 19th World Methodist Council (WMC) to pray for the peaceful resolution of global conflicts. The theme of this year’sRead more…

The Trainers of Pastors International Coalition (TOPIC) is coordinating a leadership development research project in South Africa to accurately assess the needs of Church leadership and the available formal and informal leadership training in South Africa today. The project willRead more…

After nearly twenty years of civil war, Christians in the Sudan Interior Church (a church planted by Serving in Missions years ago) are seeking to bring restoration to the land. They are partnering with missionaries from Nigeria and Ethiopia toRead more…

One of the most effective ways to share the gospel in South Asian countries where Christians are heavily persecuted is to demonstrate Christian love and to show a new way of living, participants at the annual World Evangelical Alliance ReligiousRead more…

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has announced the results of a study called Ì¢‰âÒOperation AccessÌ¢‰âÂå that will have a profound impact on the spread of the gospel in hard to access areas. MAF’s Ghislaine Benny spearheaded the effort. It focuses onRead more…

A multi-lingual online database of training courses that will allow evangelical colleges, missionary training organizations, Bible colleges and non-formal training programs to input information about their courses online has been developed. The Evangelical Training Database is available online at www.trainforChrist.orgRead more…

Few people are aware that China is a Bible-producing country, yet over the past two decades, forty million complete volumes of scripture have been produced by the Amity Printing Company alone, not counting Bibles produced for the Catholic market inRead more…

Members of Puqian Church in Fuzhou, China, have partnered with the Fuzhou Red Cross and the Fuzhou Daily for Ì¢‰âÒLove in Action,Ì¢‰âÂå a campaign designed to care for the poor and needy in a way that reflects Jesus Christ’s ministryRead more…

From 31 March to 1 April a series of evangelism training sessions was held in El Salvador for the purpose of equipping leaders with new regional evangelism resources to help renew the emphasis on evangelism in the local church. AmongRead more…

The decision by the two biggest Protestant denominations in France’s eastern Alsace-Lorraine region to form a union of churches will strengthen Christian witness, says a World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) top official. “In the face of gross injustices inRead more…

In efforts to “make Jesus famous to the next generation of Hondurans,” 274 El Salvadoran youth (ages nine and up) and their leaders traveled to Honduras to minister in eighty-four Assemblies of God churches. The missions trip was known asRead more…

For what is believed to be the first time, a Christian congregation in Israel is building its own church. Grace and Truth, a Reformed and Baptist church, is located in a Jewish area near Tel Aviv. The more than 450Read more…

Christianity is growing rapidly in Nepal, despite a ban on conversions. When Chuda Bastakoti became a Christian twelve years ago, the people in his remote village would taunt him, shouting “Christian” as an insult. “But that has changed now,Ì¢‰âÂå BastakotiRead more…

History was made in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in March as Nina Gunter, the first woman elected general superintendent for the Church of the Nazarene, ordained the first women in the Papua New Guinea Church. The three women, Pastor ClaraRead more…

The World Council of Churches (WCC) says it is launching a three-year joint study project with the Vatican aimed at developing a shared code of conduct on religious conversion where charges of proselytising can trigger tensions in societies. According toRead more…

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) unanimously voted in Ken Behr as the new president. Behr began his post 1 May, succeeding Paul Nelson, who served as president for twelve years. In its 27-year history there have only beenRead more…

More than seventy college campuses in the United States are now conducting days or weeks of 24-hour prayer for revival and spiritual transformation, said Jeremy Story, president of Campus Renewal Ministries. Story volunteered his time to program a database backendRead more…

More than seven hundred Christians of diverse cultural backgrounds convened 27-29 April at the Rehoboth Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, for the sixth Ethnic Workers’ Summit, sponsored by the Ethnic America Network (EAN) and a local committee. The summit helpedRead more…

To help North Koreans who are deprived of their religious freedom, the Korean Church has founded the Commission to Help North Korean Refugees (CNKR) in 1999 and has submitted a petition with ten million signatures for recognizing North Korean defectorsRead more…

Aid agencies around the world have mobilized to rush assistance to Indonesia’s island of Java where at least 4,900 people are reported to have been killed and another 200,000 left homeless by a powerful earthquake near the city of Yogyakarta.Read more…

Early in the new millennium Angola was officially named by the Global IDP Project the worst place in the world for children to grow up. During a quarter century of war millions of people were forced to flee and hundredsRead more…

There are currently between two million and 3.4 million displaced people in Colombia. Many live in sub-par shantytowns on the outskirts of the country’s major cities. As a result of decades of civil conflict, Columbia is facing the worst humanitarianRead more…

The government in Rajasthan, India, recently became the sixth state in India to enact an anti-conversion law. The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantraya (Freedom of Religion) Act outlaws any attempt to convert a person from one religion to another Ì¢‰âÒby use ofRead more…

Twelve Christian leaders from the Middle East recently shared with nearly sixty Western Christian leaders on the state of the Church in the Arab World. The event was held 20-22 April at the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois, USA,Read more…

The third annual Spring Conference for African-American Journalists of Faith was held 21-23 April 2006 at Morehead College in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The keynote speaker was John W. Fountain, professor of journalism at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). The conferenceRead more…

Pentecostal and so-called non-mainline Protestant churches show continuing growth in the United States, while mainstream churches continue to lose membership, according to the latest annual figures on US church membership. The largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the SouthernRead more…

A national survey in the UK shows that Christians are the happiest people in the nation. The survey was carried out by CommunicateResearch and was sponsored by the Evangelical Alliance and Premier Christian Radio. Findings show that seventy-five percent ofRead more…

A poll commissioned by the Evangelical Alliance and Premier Christian Radio found that seventy percent people in the UK believe Christian principles are still valid in today’s society, even though half of those who answered in the affirmative professed noRead more…

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) has been working in Russia since the early 1990s. Due to inaccessible cities and villages across eleven time zones expansion has been difficult, despite the need. However, MAF is now expanding into Siberia. MAF’s Dave BochmanRead more…

Wesleyan Church National Superintendent J.Y. Konteh reported news of a revival breaking out in the Kavala District where The Wesleyan Church has been partnering with the Great Commission Movement and the JESUS Film Project. Thousands are turning to Christ andRead more…

Through providing food, clothing, school supplies, teaching materials and generators, Convoy of Hope (COH) helps enable more than three thousand Ngobe Bugle Indians to attend an annual conference in western Panama. The conference provides teaching for pastors, laypersons, youth andRead more…

The Book of Hope has joined with Hillsong Church of Australia and many international Christian ministries for HOPE RWANDA: 100 Days of Hope. From 7 April through 15 July, they will provide the Book of Hope to every student andRead more…

On 28 March 2006, a Thanksgiving service took place in Westminster Abbey to mark the 150th anniversary of The Mission to Seafarers. The Mission to Seafarers (formerly The Missions to Seamen) is a missionary society of the Anglican Church whichRead more…

The Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos-Orench will begin 1 June as provisional bishop of the Diocese of Central Ecuador, one of two Episcopal dioceses in Ecuador. The Diocese of Central Ecuador has twenty-nine missions, fourteen presbyters and two deacons. The administrativeRead more…

Royal Rangers International (RRI) held an historic conference in Florida, USA in February. In Spanish, the conference was called Seminario de Actualizacion Latinoamericano (SAL, which means salt). The purpose was to introduce new evangelistic program resources to the national RoyalRead more…

The Rev. Walter Altmann, a Lutheran theologian from Brazil, has been elected the new moderator of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, a WCC official said on 24 February. Altmann is president of the Evangelical Church ofRead more…

The board of trustees of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has appointed Ida Mutoigo to the position of director of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), Canada. If the appointment is ratified by Synod 2006, Mutoigo, who currently servesRead more…

A new website www.prayfornorthkorea.org, dedicated to mobilizing and facilitating prayer for North Korea has been launched as part of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea 19-25 June 2006. The website is a call for Christians to pray forRead more…

In Uttar Pradesh, Jharkand, Punjab and other places in India 175 Operation Mobilization India film and literature teams are working to add new believers to local fellowship for God’s glory. The teams are using a film on the life ofRead more…

The board of directors of International Teams mission recently appointed Dr. David Schroeder as president and CEO of International Teams USA. Outgoing president Stephen Freed will now serve as international ministry leader for the global organization, which serves fifty-three countries.Read more…

The Encounter with God churches in Quito continue to make sizable strides toward unifying their relationship and planning joint partnerships for future church multiplication in the area. Recently the churches formalized their relationship as a Ì¢‰âÒRED,Ì¢‰âÂå the Spanish term forRead more…

Urbana.org has announced the launch of a new blog: Missional Hands. The blog is intended to be a conversation with missions staff from around the world who are uniquely qualified to talk about what it takes to be a missionaryRead more…

Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, the magazine of the Assemblies of God denomination, received a record number of salvation responses in 2005. Nearly 1,900 people clipped salvation coupons from the magazine and sent them to the Evangel office, indicating they had decidedRead more…

The Episcopal Church and the Church Pension Group (CPG) are collaborating in a historical research project known as the Episcopal US Congregational Life Survey. Congregations were selected at random, and include communities of various sizes in rural, suburban and cityRead more…

Nearly 1,800 Eritrean Christians are believed to be under arrest because of their religious beliefs, according to Compass Direct. Many are being held in police stations, military camps and prisons in twelve known locations across the country and are routinelyRead more…

As North Queensland experiences its worst cyclone on record, Anglican offices have been shut down, a church hall has been destroyed and a rectory roof has been ripped off. The town of Innisfail was most affected by Cyclone Larry, whereRead more…

The youth outreach of Open Doors International is gearing up for a SHOCKWAVEÌ¢‰â‰۝a global 72-hour prayer event for youth that will take place 3-5 March, both online and at prayer meetings throughout the world. The fifth annual SHOCKWAVE kicks offRead more…

Compassion International has become one of more than 260 Christian organizations around the world that have partnered in the Micah Challenge to combat child poverty globally. The Micah Challenge is a global Christian campaign that encourages Christians to engage withRead more…

Ì¢‰âÒA day hasn’t passed without people coming to see it and comment on it,Ì¢‰âÂå said Dorothee Daneidjo, as she displays her dress with verses of the Bible printed on the material. Ì¢‰âÒSometimes people on the street ask me to stopRead more…

After serving for the past eight years in South Africa, Jonathan Wilson will be serving as executive director for World Team Canada. Born in the United Kingdom, Wilson was a missionary kid for seventeen years in Papua, Indonesia. In SouthRead more…

A record-breaking graduating class of over ten thousand studentsÌ¢‰â‰۝most of them DalitsÌ¢‰â‰۝recently produced the world’s largest seminary graduation ever. The historic graduation of Dalit outcastes in India was sponsored by Hopegivers International. Although Dalits make up nearly twenty-five percent ofRead more…

Nazarene Youth International (NYI) Africa is receiving recognition beyond church walls for its work in AIDS prevention. At a recent youth convention in Lilongwe, Malawi, minister of youth, sport and culture Jafali Mussa applauded NYI for the Ì¢‰âÒgreat workÌ¢‰âÂå beingRead more…

As missionaries and nationals work on Bible translation across the globe, Wycliffe Associates serves to support that translation work. Wycliffe’s Norm Every says he works to maximize translation efforts in the Americas by sending short-term teams to help with constructionRead more…

A boom in Christian websites is occurring in the Middle East. According to the Strategic Resource Group (SRG), these websites are receiving nearly nine million hits per month and more than two thousand Arabic Bibles are downloaded from the InternetRead more…

The Metro Manila Franklin Graham Festival, held 2-5 February drew massive crowds to Rizal Park, totaling at least 317,600, including 125,000 on the final night alone. Throughout the event, 33,844 people responded to the invitation to put their faith inRead more…

The leaders of two worldwide church groupings have proposed the creation of a new global body called the World Reformed Communion to unite the more than eighty million Protestants in their two organizations. “We … believe that this new, united,Read more…

SAT-7 is partnering with TURK-7, a new media outreach to the Turkish people, to create indigenous television programs that will both grow the believer in the Christian faith and lead non-believers to Christ. According to one Turkish pastor, Ì¢‰âÒTurkey isRead more…

Registration is now open for Urbana 06, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s twenty-first student missions convention to be held 27-31 December 2006, in the Edward Jones Dome at the America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Jim Tebbe, InterVarsity’s vice president forRead more…

An estimated 100,000 Pentecostal and charismatic Christians are expected to come together in Los Angeles, California, 25-29 April to commemorate the centennial of the Azusa Street revival, an event that marked the emergence of the modern Holy Spirit movement. TheRead more…

Ken Olson recently made a major contribution to what is an obscure, but necessary science if the gospel is going to go into all the world. Olson contributed a new symbol to the International Phonetic AlphabetÌ¢‰â‰۝the first new contribution inRead more…

Zambia’s major denominations melded during January’s global week of prayer for Christian unity. And while the churches are expected to play a pivotal role in national elections scheduled to take place by the end of 2006, civil society groups pressingRead more…

International Bible Society (IBS) released its Shona Bible translation on 27 January in Harare City, Zimbabwe, Africa. This translation makes the Word of God accessible in contemporary language to ten million people in Zimbabwe who speak the Shona language. MoreRead more…

World Vision’s Australia office is mustering an emergency response to help the victims of the Philippines landslide. Officials fear that continuous rain in the province could slow down rescue efforts. While some survivors have been pulled from a school buriedRead more…

Evangelical Christians are called to actively participate in society, says Dennis Smith, president of the World Association for Christian Communication-Latin American Region (WACC-LA). Smith believes that evangelicals should integrate existing spaces in civil society with humility and decision and rememberRead more…

More than 345,000 people living in Constanta, the largest seaport on the Black Sea,can now hear Christian radio broadcasts in their native tongue. The new radio station is part of the Radio Voice of the Gospel (RVG), a nationwide networkRead more…

The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) expanded its work of combating racism and its effects within the church recently by hiring Steve Kabetu to serve as Race Relations coordinator in Canada. Born in Kenya, Kabetu moved to Canada twenty years ago.Read more…

While rhetoric from French officials toward immigrants of African descent continued, Mennonites in the northeastern part of the country welcomed delegations from Botswana, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Canada and the United States. It was the firstRead more…

The younger generation of Christians in Germany are showing an unabated interest in evangelism and missions. More than six thousand participants between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five attended a youth conference for world missions, held 8 January in Stuttgart.Read more…

For the first time the Awadhi people of India, numbering over twenty million, will be able to read the Bible in their own heart language. The project, undertaken by translators for the World Bible Translation Center, took thirteen years. OverRead more…

Tensions between fundamentalist Muslims and Western aid workers have increased in Aceh as the area recovers from the December 2004 tsunami. According to one report, Christian groups have been accused of proselytizing Muslims in Banda Aceh amid aid efforts. DespiteRead more…

One year after the 2004 tsunami hit Banda Aceh, the Banda Aceh Museum re-opened with the exhibit, “Art & Tsunami Recovery,” which featured ten local Acehnese artists depicting the stories of tsunami survivors. The paintings depicted scenes of terror, trauma,Read more…

A group of twenty Arab and Israeli women recently met in Petra for the Musalaha Reconciliation Ministries’ Women’s Leadership Conference. The women represented many communities and congregations and a host of backgrounds, including some who were born and raised inRead more…

The Church of God Chaplains Commission recently brought chaplaincy training to Kenya for the first time. Thirty-two pastors met at Discipleship College in Eldoret to learn from church leaders, Dr. Jake Popejoy and Dr. R. Williams. Eldoret is a ruralRead more…

More than forty people recently attended a church planting retreat, a major step toward choosing the first church planters in the Evangelical Covenant Church in Mexico. Pastors and lay people came from eight Mexican states and met in Oaxtepec, oneRead more…

Rev. D.J. Galela has been named the new regional superintendent for the Wesleyan Church of the South African Region, which includes Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He was educated at the Evangelical Wesleyan Bible College in Swaziland and has servedRead more…

Seventy-five years ago, Clarence Jones went against the belief of many Christians who thought radio was the invention of the devil and founded HCJB World Radio. Decades later, HCJB has planted over 250 radio stations in every continent of theRead more…

With the enormity of impact and seemingly increased frequency of natural disasters, many people may develop what some experts call a “global desensitization” to the overwhelming amount of information they are receiving from media sources. However, according to Rita GuerraRead more…

Teen Missions International is holding ten boot camps in sub-Saharan Africa designed to train teenagers from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania for ministry. Teens involved partake in projects such as building, orphanage work, agriculture, evangelism and otherRead more…

A small church of only two hundred people reached nearly their entire community by distributing more than two thousand copies of the Book of Hope, a compilation of the four Gospels which tells the story of Jesus. Over a two-monthRead more…

A new report from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPPB) reveals widespread torture occurring in Burmese jails. The report, based on interviews with thirty-five former political prisoners, includes details of poor prison conditions, deliberate medical negligence, severe beatings andRead more…

Christian Freedom International (CFI) has delivered more than twenty thousand pounds of medicine, cooking utensils, tools and clothing to residents on Nias Island. Ninety percent of the residents are Christian and many believe the Indonesian government has been discriminating againstRead more…

Nigerian evangelists say that a revival is sweeping the ranks of the police force in Africa’s most populous nation as thousands of law enforcement officers are casting aside their weapons and surrendering their lives to Jesus. According to the evangelists,Read more…

A census taken just before the state of Israel was founded in 1948 showed that eighty percent of Bethlehem’s inhabitants were Christians. Today, Christians only make up forty percent of the town’s forty thousand residents. According to reports, the townRead more…

The Church of God is one of many denominations in Puerto Rico that has a growing burden for world missions. Although at one point the missionary zeal in the country seemed to diminish, in the past six to eight yearsRead more…

The Bible League has reached a milestone in Romania with the establishment of 1,065 new evangelical churches since 1993, when the organization first began working with national Christians. In 2005, eighty-one new churches and more than 18,200 church members wereRead more…

Claudine Storbeck, a Nazarene from South Africa, was recently appointed as a World Federation for the Deaf (WFD) Expert in the area of education. Storbeck’s role will include research, planning and implementing surveys and studies on specific areas pertaining toRead more…

Swedish pastor Ake Green was recently acquitted of hate speech by the Swedish Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court. The precedent-setting verdict upheld freedom of speech and religion. Green was accused of the crime after denouncing homosexual behaviors in aRead more…

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and a prominent congresswoman in Taiwan have endorsed the distribution of the Book of Hope, a compilation of the four Gospels which tells the story of Jesus, to public schools in Taiwan. ToRead more…

The eighty-member First Baptist Church in Avondale, Louisiana, USA, has seen two middle-aged women come to trust in Jesus Christ in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The first woman wandered into the church on the first Sunday the congregation metRead more…

U.S. churches say they have made significant advances in the fight against human trafficking in recent years, due in part to the opposition of faith-based groups. Lutherans, Adventists, the Salvation Army and the National Association of Evangelicals are educating theirRead more…

Six ethnic minority Montagnards have been sentenced to between seven and seventeen years in jail for “threatening national security,” the Vietnam News Agency reports. The men, from the Central Highlands, are Protestants who follow an evangelical Christian church not sanctionedRead more…

The five-year “Unite for Children. Unite Against AIDS” campaign was recently launched by leaders of UNICEF, UNAIDS and other global HIV/AIDS organizations. The campaign is a worldwide effort to raise awareness, commitment and resources to halt the destruction of AIDS.Read more…

The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, owned by thirteen Canadian church agencies, is responding to the food crisis which is impacting nearly twelve million people in southern Africa. More than 6,500 metric tons of food will be distributed. With areas of southernRead more…

Cuba’s Minister of Religion has accused Eliseo Rodriguez Matos, a pastor in Colon, of taking part in dangerous and subversive actions–using a printing press to print copies of the Gospel of John. Mato’s printing press was recently confiscated and heRead more…

Armed guards have been placed around St. George (St. Girgis) Coptic Orthodox Church in Muharram Bik, Alexandria on the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast due to recent attacks from Muslim mobs. Massive Muslim riots, web threats and the stabbing of a CopticRead more…

A non-profit, Christian-owned pharmaceutical factory in India has launched production of cheaper AIDS treatment drugs that can prolong the lives of the growing number of people infected with HIV/AIDS. The Comprehensive Medical Services India, the pharmaceutical unit of the Inter-ChurchRead more…

Two new overseers have been appointed to head up the Church of God in Uruguay and Peru. Rev. Alcides Morales, a pastor for eleven years at a local church in Uruguay, is the new National Overseer for the Church ofRead more…

Activists from church and faith-based organizations are preparing for a world conference on HIV/AIDS. Organizers plan to call on government and religious leaders to keep their promises for action to halt the spread of the disease. “Faith-based organizations will beRead more…

With only 40,000 of the 3.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria receiving anti-retroviral drug treatment, members of UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) are calling for large amounts of the drugs to become available in order to treat the growingRead more…

Reeling from the 8 October 7.6 magnitude earthquake which left tens of thousands dead and millions homeless, Pakistan may now be facing more catastrophes–widespread disease and illness, a lack of resources and aid and harmful weather conditions. Injured survivors areRead more…

For the first time since the arrival of Islam in the seventh century, a Christian church, headed by Scottish archdeacon Ven Ian Young, will be built in conservative Muslim Qatar. Work on the Anglican Church of the Epiphany will beginRead more…

With United Nations reports stating that Russia has one of the highest HIV/AIDS growth rates in the world, the Russian Orthodox Church has launched a new program to combat the epidemic. The program aims to offer both physical and spiritualRead more…

Christian Sarmiento, who has served as director of the Church of the Nazarene Mexico/Central America (MAC) Region since 1999, has been appointed the new South America Regional Director. After being led to the Lord in 1974 by his future wife,Read more…

With fewer than one percent of the world’s 2.2 million children with AIDS receiving treatment, physicians in the Pediatric AIDS Corps are hoping to treat those in need and train medical workers who can provide care long-term. Bristol-Myers Squibb andRead more…

After more than twenty-five years, the Gullah people now have a completed New Testament. For decades, translators with JAARS have been working with the Gullah people, descendants of West African slaves brought to America from the late 1600s to theRead more…

The Alaska Baptist Convention (ABC) recently marked sixty years of ministry in the northwestern state. The meeting’s theme, “Light Up Alaska,” encompassed the mission’s emphasis on missions, prayer and church development. The ABC has four associations which include seventy-four churchesRead more…

Seven major faith groups have signed a communique stating their plans to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Zambia. The document was signed at the First Zambian Open Day for Care and Compassion for People Living with HIV/AIDS, organized byRead more…

Christian leaders in Zimbabwe have launched a new HIV/AIDS policy for churches in this southern African country of 12.7 million people, where the pandemic kills an average of 2,000 people every week. “This decision to launch an AIDS policy indicatesRead more…

Two months after a regular Sunday morning service of the New Life Church in Minsk was raided by police, a court fined the church’s administrator Vasily Yurevich the equivalent of 160 times the minimum monthly wage for organizing what theRead more…

After spending more than thirteen years in Soviet labor camps for his faith, Pastor Ernst Sabilo has promised that the Belarusian Evangelical Church he leads in Minsk will continue to meet for worship despite the recent liquidation of its legalRead more…

After serving with Christian Reformed World Missions in the Philippines for nearly a decade, Ontario native Rev. Bruce Adema has been appointed as the Christian Reformed Church Director of Canadian Ministries (DCM). He currently works as missionary professor and interimRead more…

After nearly twenty years of service in the Covenant-Free Church mission office in Bangui, Rev. Jean Bete was installed as president of the new Communaute Evangelique de l’Ubangi en Mission en Afrique (CEUMA), (the Evangelical Community from the Ubangi, inRead more…

Evangelical churches and schools are temporarily housing more than 70,000 people who have been left homeless as the result of massive flooding and landslides left by Hurricane Stan. More than 2,000 people died when Stan slammed into El Salvador, GuatemalaRead more…

A Muslim in the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region has complained of tightening restrictions on Muslims since the ban on the Sala Sufi order in August and the closure of two local mosques. “Now that the SufiRead more…

Figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that one in three women in the Eastern DRC have been raped. Over 3.8 million people have died as a result of the conflict in DRC, whichRead more…

More than two and a half million people were left homeless by the earthquake that shook the Kashmir region between Pakistan and India on 8 October, reports the United Nations. With the death toll potentially exceeding 30,000, Christian organizations andRead more…

The 300-member Kurdzman Church in Iraq is collecting money to help the New Orleans (USA)-based Adullam Christian Fellowship Church, which was devastated by hurricane Katrina. Although the two-year-old congregation in Iraq is half a world away, church members were motivatedRead more…

Nearly 160 Christian leaders from countries such as Peru, Israel, Russia, Belgium, the United States, India, Spain, the Congo and Egypt met in Seoul to officially launch the Christian Global Network. CGN exists to present the gospel message to variousRead more…

The fourth trial for Archbishop Jovan, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, began in Veles on 29 September. Only six days earlier, the court found him guilty of embezzling 57,180 Euros donated for church reconstruction when he wasRead more…

A group of Nazarene leaders have organized Ì¢‰âÒBorder Initiative,Ì¢‰âÂå a project designed to strengthen churches along the Mexico/United States border. Churches and districts from northern Mexico and southwestern United States will be partnering through short-term mission trips called Ì¢‰âÒMaximum Mission.Ì¢‰âÂåRead more…

The Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan is calling for the abolition of the country’s blasphemy law, following recent attacks on Christians and Hindus accused of blaspheming the prophet Muhammad. “We hold the government responsible on account of their passivity inRead more…

Several minority communities are expressing concern over the current draft of a new religious law that may affect their ability to have legal status. Set to replace the religious law established in 1948, the draft law has been rushed toRead more…

The Sri Lankan parliament is getting ready to debate a proposal to amend the Constitution to make Buddhism the state religion. Currently, the Constitution gives Buddhism the foremost place as a religion; however, it is not classified as the Ì¢‰âÒstateRead more…

Nearly eighty delegates representing Asian Covenant churches and ministries in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, India, China, South Korea and New Zealand recently met for the Fourth Asia Covenant Churches Consultation in Taipei. This year’s theme, Ì¢‰âÒReaching Youth,Ì¢‰âÂå focusedRead more…

Southern Baptist churches are partnering with the International Mission Board to pray for missionaries around the world through the year-long prayer call, Ì¢‰âÒLife Up Your Voice.Ì¢‰âÂå The partnership is centered on Beth Moore’s Voices of the Faithful, a new 366-pageRead more…

More than 25,000 people from the Hunter region of Australia (15% of the population) attended the recent Harvest ’05 crusade. Nearly 2,500 volunteers from 200 churches participated in the event, which resulted in more than 2,000 people giving their livesRead more…

Christians from New Life Church in Minsk are protesting the state’s seizure of their church land. The 600-member church is part of the Full Gospel Union Church denomination and has been under watch since the nation passed the 2002 LawRead more…

Ronald Lalthanliana, a key figure in spiritual renewal across Burma for more than fifty years, passed away in late July at the age of 89. The son of the first native missionary to Matipur, an Indian state bordering Burma, LalthanlianaRead more…

The United Nations Security Council is being called upon to address the threat to peace in Burma. Commissioned by former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Bishop Desmond Tutu, the report recognizes the reasons the Security Council should intervene, as wellRead more…

Three Christian women have been charged with violating Indonesia’s 2002 Child Protection Act and sentenced to three years in prison. The women, who held a “Happy Sunday” program in their homes in early May, were charged with attempting to ChristianizeRead more…

The first Christian radio station in Ireland will begin broadcasting around Christmas of 2006 in Cork, a city where nearly half of the 120,000+ people declare themselves to be Christian. After successfully holding a temporary license in 2004, LifeFm hasRead more…

In less than six weeks the translation of the Iwam New Testament will be complete. Several Iwam men are partnering with missionary Hope Sharp to complete the final 1,151 verses of the Gospel of Luke as well as revising literaryRead more…

More than a year after 331 people (including 186 children) were killed by explosions and gunfire in a terrorist attack in Beslan, a new Calvary Chapel has opened to provide hope for those still suffering from the school attack. AfterRead more…

A Russian Orthodox bishop has appealed for a European Roman Catholic-Orthodox alliance to combat what he described as secularism, liberalism and relativism. “Europe has so rapidly de-Christianized that urgent action is needed to save it from losing its centuries-old ChristianRead more…

For the third time, evangelist Dinh Van Hoang’s home was burned down because he would not sign a paper denying his Christian faith. A member of the Hre minority and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), Hoang and several otherRead more…

Amidst the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary president Chuck Kelley is reminding the church of the opportunity to both proclaim and minister. “We separated the two functions. Evangelism became proclamation and ministryRead more…

Pastors and Christian leaders from thirty-five nations will gather in the United States October 10-13 for the International Summit for Church Leaders. Sponsored by Global Advance, the event is held every three years and is intended to give leaders inRead more…

A five-week media and advertising campaign to reach the people of Australia began August 8th. Bible Society NSW, in cooperation with more than 300 congregations representing all major Christian denominations, launched the first-ever prime-time media campaign, “Jesus. All about Life”Read more…

Two workers for Christian Life Bangladesh, a partner agency of Campus Crusade for Christ, were recently murdered in Faridpur for their work in local health awareness programs and their part in the showing of the JESUS film. Lipial Marandi, 21,Read more…

Nearly 35,000 Dalit or untouchable children in Tamil Nadu are receiving free education and food through Gospel for Asia‘s (GFA) program, Bridge of Hope. With 260 million of the 300 million Dalits in India being children, GFA founder K.P. YohannanRead more…

Nearly 6,200 members of the Christian Reformed Church recently gathered at the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre in Ontario in what organizers call the largest CRC gathering in Canadian history. The event was a celebration of the 100th anniversary ofRead more…

One of the most damaging natural disasters in the history of the United States occurred when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast just before sunrise August 29, creating loss of life and massive destruction of homes and businesses. HurricaneRead more…

Ben Homan Food for the Hungry president and CEO Ben Homan was recently appointed chairman of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA), a division of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Homan has served on theRead more…

Minnesota pastor Jonathan Reckford was unanimously named CEO of Habitat for Humanity International, an organization which builds homes in more than 100 nations around the world. Having worked in leadership positions in several public-sector corporations, including Best Buy, Inc. andRead more…