Category: News

In the past, Malawi has affectionately been known as the “warm heart of Africa.” Over the last week, however, headlines have popped up indicating that recent unrest has turned Malawi upside down. So what exactly is happening in this typically friendly nation?

Stuart Palmer, CURE International executive director for CURE Malawi, says there is more than meets the eye with the recent violence that caused Malawi to take a place on international maps.

Despite rumors that protests turned deadly when government officials fired live ammo above an innocent crowd, Palmer says he hasn’t felt threatened. “It hasn’t been a terrible experience, what’s happened in the last week in Malawi,” says Palmer. “There’ve been many storm clouds building up to what happened over the last week.”

Authorities in a village in northern Laos have ordered all Christian residents to cease meeting for worship in private homes following the arrest of four Christians on July 10, rights advocates said.

Also on July 10, police arrested a Christian in Luang Prabang Province, ordering him to abandon his faith or face imprisonment, according to a statement from the advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom.

In Luang Namtha Province, Pastor Seng Aroun of Kon church in Namtha district, and three other Christians from Sounya village church identified only as Souchiad, Naikwang and Kofa had met at Kofa’s house for Sunday worship on July 10, HRWLRF reported. Kofa had also asked them for advice regarding a vehicle accident in May in which he had unwittingly caused the death of another person.

Parliament in Tajikistan adopted two new laws Thursday, which would ban most children under the age of 18 from religious activities.

As reported by Forum 18, these documents are to be forwarded to President Emomali Rahmon for his approval. If Rahmon signs these legal documents, it could spell out increased suppression of parent and child religious rights in the country.

Joel Griffith with Slavic Gospel Association says: “Apparently the presidential administration was sort of behind [the effort] to put this kind of a law through to begin with, so the initiative came from there. So if it’s not signed, it would certainly be a miracle.”

Ed and Linda Baker spent the last decade abroad, living in a tent in Third World countries, digging wells and spreading the gospel.

Nowadays, the couple feels more like foreigners in their Lawrenceville, Ga., home.

“I still assume there’s going to be an animal somewhere,” Linda Baker said recently. “Any animal you can think of, we had in our house.”

Both Methodists “pretty much from birth,” the Bakers raised their family in the metro Atlanta area, Ed a civil engineer and Linda a database consultant. They dabbled in missionary work in the ’90s, traveling to Honduras after Hurricane Mitch.

A house church leader has been kidnapped by Muslims in Duhok, Iraq, according to a report from Voice of the Martyrs, Canada. A young Iraqi girl recently told VOM contacts that Muslims broke into her home and took her father, Jamal.

VOM reports that Pastor Jamal works among the Shabak people—a people who have Jewish roots and speak Arabic and Kurdish.

VOM sources suspect militants targeted Jamal for working to evangelize Muslims. Several weeks ago, the home of one of Jamal’s recent converts was sprayed with machine gun fire, VOM reports, and many fear that the militants, possibly members of al-Qaida, will immediately kill him.

With the start of the month-long Islamic fast called Ramadan beginning Aug. 1, Open Doors USA is launching a 30-day campaign urging Christians in the West to pray for persecuted believers in Muslim-dominated countries.

During August most Muslims will fast from dawn until dusk, seeking to shed their sins through acts of restraint. They believe this is a time of purification accomplished through good deeds and self control.

“Ramadan is a time when Christians are especially isolated in some Muslim-dominated countries,” says Open Doors USA President/CEO Dr. Carl Moeller. “This is why it is so important for us to unite in prayer for persecuted Christians throughout the world. I urge you to use the Open Doors resources to pray for our brothers and sisters.”

Sunday, all across Haiti, thousands of “Matthews”—people who have been reaching out to friends, family and neighbors with the Gospel of Christ—turned in their church envelopes.

Written on the envelopes are the names of people who have made decisions for Christ in the past three nights after watching culturally sensitive TV programs featuring messages by Billy Graham or Franklin Graham.

 Called My Hope Haiti, this project involved nearly 5,300 churches across the country.

The “Matthew” aspect of My Hope is the use of friendship and relationship evangelism to bring one’s family members, friends and neighbors to Christ—just as the Apostle Matthew did when Jesus called him.

Even as blind activist Chen Guangcheng suffers malnutrition under house arrest for blowing the whistle on China’s forced abortion practices, … Read More

The world continues to grieve for the country of Norway, after a bombing in Oslo’s City Center and subsequent shooting that left 92 dead on Friday.

32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik of Oslo is in custody after allegedly detonating a bomb which targeted government buildings, including the Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s office. Seven people were killed there.

Then he traveled to the Island of Utoya to attack a youth summer camp. Oslo police say more than 80 people were killed at the camp organized by the governing Norwegian Labor party, most of them youth.

Three Muslims convicted of killing a Christian in Pakistan’s Punjab Province for refusing to convert to Islam last year have been given life sentences, according to attorneys for the European Centre for Law and Justice in Pakistan.

The Sessions Court in Mian Channu on July 7 convicted Ghulam Rasool, Amjad Iqbal and Kashir Saleem of torturing and killing Rasheed Masih on March 9, 2010, and sentenced them to life in prison, which in Pakistan is 25 years. The court also ordered each convict to pay 100,000 rupees ($1,153) to Masih’s family. A fourth suspect, Muhammad Asif, was acquitted.

Haiti has been on numerous emotional roller coasters in the past 18 months. What some may not realize though, is that Haiti has been on this rickety ride for centuries.

But now the tables may be turning. Pastor Robert Ulysse, a minister in the northwest region of Haiti, confirms that a great awakening has been taking place in that region over the past several months. He expects the area is about to stumble upon an even greater revival.

For the last six years, Ulysse has been involved with a development project in Haiti. Out of this project was birthed a Spiritual Warfare Campaign, which has been in effect over the last eight months.

An airplane from the Mission Aviation Fellowship program in South Africa is flying to Kenya to reinforce the group’s response … Read More

 In a response to the call of Isaiah 58 for widespread social transformation, 10 Christian antipoverty organizations are working together … Read More