That’s the question on the minds of many Israelis, even as they adjust to life in wartime. Around 200,000 Israelis have fled their homes at both the northern and southern borders.

Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association says, “Most reports show about 80% of the Israeli military up on the northern border. They don’t know what Hezbollah will do. So they’re in constant fear that now, all of a sudden, it’s the eye of the storm before rockets come from the North.

(Photo courtesy of Oleg with Slavic Gospel Association)

“So even as they attempt to go back to normal, there’s this recognition that at any second, at any moment, much like what happened to them earlier on October 7, everything could change.”

SGA supports Russian-speaking churches in Israel, which include Jews who fled the war in Ukraine.

However, instead of being immobilized by a new war front, these believers understand the fear their neighbors are going through, and they’re responding with compassion.

“We’re talking about all these people that have been displaced,” says Mock. “Much like a hurricane coming into New Orleans, much like we see other destructions, these people now have nowhere to go.”

With SGA’s help, Russian-speaking churches are delivering groceries to the displaced and gathering for meals.

Mock says, “Central to distribution of food is relationship building, and then the questions follow the relationship building. The [relationships] then provide bridges for the Gospel.”

Pray for spiritual fruit in Israel. Ask the Lord to encourage churches representing Christ and comfort those living in grief and fear.

Header photo courtesy of Oleg with Slavic Gospel Association.

It is easiest to establish a Coptic Orthodox Church. Other Christian groups may freely gather for worship whether or not they are officially registered as a church.

“Evangelical Christians still face challenges, especially for Christians in Egypt that come as refugees from Sudan or other places, or former Muslims,” says Ioannidis.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, Egypt hosts refugees from 59 countries. Since April, when war broke out in Sudan, close to 300,000 Sudanese refugees have fled into neighboring Egypt. Ioannidis says Christian refugees are normally able to meet for worship but are at risk of deportation if they entered the country illegally.

Even so, the relative peace and religious freedom in Egypt provide opportunities for the Gospel to spread. He says,

“There is growing hunger and interest in learning more about the Gospel. There are a number of former Muslims and Muslim background believers that are now being discipled. And it is exciting to see that.”

AMG supports national leaders who drive outreach through personal interactions, conferences, and intentional discipleship.

“Right now we are in a period of calm. So there is opportunity, but it is very possible that in the future things will revert to a more challenging environment,” says Ioannidis.

“[Believers] can be praying for wisdom for the national missionaries who are engaged in sharing the gospel. They can pray for the new believers who are coming to faith, and they are in an environment that is hostile to them, especially if they are refugees.”

Header photo by George Youssef on Unsplash.

The campaign is called Greater Together. Don Waybright, e3’s new Executive Vice President of Partnerships, says, “This premise is that together – and that’s field staff, that’s our national indigenous co-workers, that’s Great Commission ministries and partners around the world, that’s Kingdom investors and donors and friends of e3 – we can be a thriving family all being driven together by this audacious vision of really getting the Gospel to every people, every village, every place.”

(Photo courtesy of Priscilla du Preez/Unsplash)

E3 needs fellow believers like you to support Greater Together and help make Jesus Christ known in every corner of the world.

Waybright says, “You look at Scripture and the age that we’re in and there’s one sign that the end is coming. That was, ‘…this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.’ [Matt. 24:14] We’re in the age of movements – this exponential increase of Gospel activity around the world.”

Click here to give towards e3’s Greater Together campaign.

Then, pray for the advancement of the Great Commission around the world.

“Pray for the stewardship of what God has given us,” asks Waybright. “Let us not take organizational shortcuts. Let us continue to keep that ethos, putting our head in the Bible, praying, abiding, surrendering, yielding, and pursuing these targets with great passion. We’re an apostolic ministry, and let’s continue to protect and steward that dynamic.”

Header photo courtesy of Louis Hansel/Unsplash.

“We basically were on a listening tour,” says Rovenstine. “How has the last three years been? What are your ministry needs? What can we do for you? How can we help you?”

They found out that many believers in rural China have Bibles, but now the challenge is understanding and learning from Scripture.

“How do we help those people who have a Bible correctly read and interpret it and understand context?” says Rovenstine.

Local partners said one solution is training more teachers of the Word. Christian leaders in rural provinces often lack opportunities for biblical education. Meanwhile, those in the cities have options to grow in their understanding and knowledge of Scripture. A city pastor may have several years of studies while rural leaders have little to no training.

Rovenstine says, “We’ve always believed that the Bible is enough. But we also know that the Bible tells us that there’s great value in teachers and leaders and those who explain the truth that’s been given to them through the Scriptures.”

Bibles For China is exploring ways the ministry can come alongside leaders in rural China with encouragement, support, and biblical resources. Since the ministry already has the means to distribute printed Bibles, one natural next step would be to begin distributing study Bibles and other materials for teaching Scripture. Whichever methods are used, Bibles For China wants to continue encouraging and supporting those leaders who are working to disciple Chinese believers.

Rovenstine had the privilege to meet many on his trip and asks for prayer for them.

He says, “They’re doing the work, and they’re hanging in there, and God’s blessing them and reminds us that we serve a faithful God. And that should be very comforting and challenging to us as believers.”

Pray for God to continue to show His faithfulness to those serving Him in China. May He give them strength and tenacity to grow His Church.

Photos courtesy of Bibles For China.

However, World Mission’s Greg Kelley says it may not be over.

“What we’re hearing is that Christians right now all across this country are terrified. They’re literally terrified because what they’re hearing is that Muslims are planning similar attacks in other cities.”

The Minar of a Masjid in Faisalabad, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Asfand Yar/Unsplash)

The Pakistan government has arrested nearly 150 people connected to the mob and deployed more than 6,000 police to the area. But is it enough to stop more coordinated attacks?

Kelley says, “Let’s not forget, this is the second most populated Muslim country in the world and you have 135 million people living in that country. It’s about 1% Christian. So this is a massively highly-concentrated Muslim community, and the scary part about it is how quickly that mob can be mobilized.”

You can support our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan with World Mission.

“They’ve lost everything,” says Kelley. “There’s opportunities to sow into organizations like World Mission and others who will be responding to this tragedy.”

Click here to give to World Mission.

Also, Kelley says, “We can pray for church leaders who are going to be intimidated and be shying away from preaching the Gospel with boldness, but that’s exactly what we need from them right now in Pakistan.”

Header photo courtesy of World Mission.

Yesterday, a mob of hundreds of people stormed the predominantly Christian neighborhood Jaranwala in Faisalabad. So far, at least five churches have been burned as well as many believers’ homes.

Nehemiah with FMI says, “Before they burned these churches and houses, they tortured Christians, they vandalized and they demolished everything. While I’m talking to you right now, riots continue in Jaranwala in the same city and radical Muslims have blocked all major highways.”

Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Videos show some local police, rather than stopping the violence, actually joined the protestors. Other police, “even if they’re not part of the riots, they are just standing there alongside with these mobs and watching them burning these churches and then vandalizing everything.”

The Gospel is needed more than ever in Pakistan.

Nehemiah asks, “Please pray for FMI partners because we have partners in the same city. I was able to connect with him and, of course, he was scared, he was afraid. But he’s still standing on the ground and…he is serving in this very, very difficult and dangerous situation.”

Ask God also for protection over churches and Christians in Faisalabad.

Header photo of the Minar of a Masjid in Faisalabad, Pakistan. (Photo courtesy of Asfand Yar/Unsplash)

Bibles For China supports registered churches to faithfully share the Word of God. The ministry partners with local Christians to distribute Bibles where most needed and promote the teaching of Scripture.

Kurt Rovenstine says, “At Bibles for China, one of the things that we feel like is our opportunity, our mandate is to be Bible advocates against all kinds of attacks on the Word of God.”

Whether in a house church or one of China’s registered churches, Chinese Christians face a variety of challenges. Current concerns include alterations to the biblical text and state surveillance cameras installed in church buildings. Read more here.

“They’re both trying to do their very best to be ministers of the Gospel, true to the Word of God, in the context that God has called them to work in,” says Rovenstine. “And, you know, we celebrate that. We support that.”

Rovenstine invites believers to pray that God would give the Church of China wisdom and unity while continuing to follow their calling.

“That just God would move in China in a fantastic way and that there would be unity amongst the Body of Christ,” says Rovenstine. “And that we not get caught up in the things that divide us but celebrate the things that unite us, especially in China.”

On a recent visit to China, Rovenstine witnessed one of Bible For China’s distributors mentor a younger leader. They discussed a current difficult situation and began to make plans together for future ministry opportunities.

“That’s what the call is all about,” says Rovenstine. “It’s not running from where you are. It’s saying, ‘God, you’ve placed me in this moment. And I’m going to do my very best. And I’m going to dream for the future. And I’m going to plan to let you do incredible things in and through my ministry right where I am.’”

Learn more about the work of Bibles For China and pray for Chinese Christians at BiblesForChina.org.

Photos courtesy of Bibles For China on Facebook.

SGA-supported churches are ministering to an estimated 14,000 orphans in 190 orphanages across six countries, including Ukraine.

Yet, in the midst of wartime, Ukrainian churches have discovered as many as 50,000 “social orphans” who are neglected in their own homes.

SGA’s Eric Mock says, “We miss the children that remain in these homes among parents that are basically abandoning the children every day. We hear of children that come home from school to find parents passed out, they’re drunk, they’re not providing food — children that are going for days at a time with never getting a meal [and] no clean drinking water.

(Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

“We’re finding over and over where, especially in Ukraine in the midst of this war, we have single moms that can’t figure out how to survive. The husband is gone or he’s fighting on the front line. Most of the aid centers are single women taking care of children. Some of the men just literally disappeared.”

Some of these social orphans are older siblings responsible for the younger ones, and many even end up on the street — a prospect made more dangerous by the bombs and missiles that have become a reality for Ukrainians.

Then there are Ukrainian orphans who “age out” of the orphanage system. “Children, when they turn at age 17, they leave the orphanage there. They’re nonetheless an orphan, and these children don’t know how to buy groceries. They don’t know how to cook a dinner. They don’t know how to wash their clothes. They don’t know how to pay bills.”

Ukrainian believers are expanding their reach to help these social orphans in their communities with the support of SGA.

Mock says, “We’re not only helping orphans in orphanages, but we’re also working with churches as they minister to children wherever they find them. It might be on the street. It may be in troubled homes.

Summer camp for kids. (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

“Some of the churches are working with families to make sure the tide of orphans heading into orphanages is slowed at least in some measure…. If we sit back and wait somehow for those children to show up in an institution, I think we’re missing an opportunity.”

In reaching social orphans, Ukrainian believers are practicing James 1:27 and representing Jesus Christ to these kids.

You can support SGA’s ministry to orphans in Ukraine here.

Then, pray for Ukrainian orphans to know the perfect love of their Heavenly Father.

Mock says, “Rather than just thinking of orphans in institutions, let us think of broken homes, let’s think older orphans, and what you see is God raising up His Church in these communities to be salt and light among these hurting hearts.”

Header photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association.

Before the coup, Türkiye wanted to appeal to the European Union. Allen says, “Türkiye is a unique country, because it straddles Europe and Asia. So it could be admitted to the European Union. It did this dance many years ago trying to show Western governments how secular it was pluralistic.”

Turkish Christians

How does this kind of religious nationalism affect local Christians? Allen says, “They’ve already been such a minority that it doesn’t surprise them. It’s a country of about 85 million people. And the evangelical population perhaps totals only .04 percent of the population, with only 10,000 to 12,000 in the country.”

These Christians meet in about 170 small churches, mostly located around the larger cities. Some have buildings of their own, while others use public spaces. Allen says, “They watch very carefully what’s happening with the government because they know a crackdown could happen against them very easily.”

A Turkish pastor that Allen spoke with says they aren’t experiencing persecution right now. “He actually said, ‘What we’re seeing is people are more interested in the Gospel now than during the times when pandemic restrictions and lockdowns were first initiated.’”

Much of the New Testament was written to churches in the borders of modern-day Türkiye. As FMI trains Christian leaders, pray the Turkish Church would grow.

And ask God to challenge the spirit of religious nationalism in Türkiye and around the world.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Meg Jerrard/Unsplash.

The latest disaster compounds trauma for Ukrainians living through the war.

(Photo courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries)

Greg Yoder with Keys for Kids Ministries says, “Those that are internally displaced…in new parts of Ukraine where there is somewhat safety, there have been churches formed. There are kids that are still reeling from much of the calamity that’s taken place. The Russian government, of course, has come in and just completely annihilated some cities that many of these kids called home.”

Internally displaced Ukrainians need hope, especially children.

Keys for Kids prints devotionals for children and Unlocked devotionals for teens. The devotionals are printed in both Ukrainian and Russian since both languages historically have been used in different parts of Ukraine as a first language.

These devotionals are giving Ukrainian kids a glimmer of Gospel hope, and they go fast!

Yoder says, “In fact, 200,000 units were able to get into the hands of kids, whether it be at summer camp, in churches, [or] in relief areas where they were providing relief assistance, especially through SEND International and through Mission Eurasia. We were able to provide material for Christmas outreach as well, but they’re all gone and so there is a crying need to have more printed.”

Keys for Kids needs to raise $78,000 to print and send more devotionals to children and teens in Ukraine. You can give to Keys for Kids here!

“We’re hoping that through the Keys for Kids and Unlocked distribution through our partners, more and more kids who are afraid, who are anxious [will] receive the hope found in Christ alone.”

Header photo courtesy of Keys for Kids Ministries.