By Katey Hearth | January 23, 2025

Nigeria (MNN) — Rapidly rising oppression in Nigeria caused it to top the Global Christian Relief Red List this year as the world’s most dangerous place to follow Jesus. More about that here.

What’s driving the bloodshed? Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley outlines three contributing factors.

First, “The Nigerian government is silent, and they are not holding people accountable,” Kelley says.

“It doesn’t matter who’s in control. There have been Muslim presidents and Christian presidents; apathy has been pervasive among leadership in Nigeria.”

Governmental apathy extends to foreign relations. Nearly 10,000 believers died in Nigeria between 2022 and 2024, but the U.S. State Department refused to call Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern in its latest ranking.

“There’s a ‘black eye’ when you get on those lists,” Kelley observes.

“There are implications with foreign investment, and if you scare off foreign investment, that is almost a shutdown on your economy in a place like Nigeria that’s struggling so much.”

The lack of repercussions drives a second factor of persecution: the increased intensity.

“People [are] beheaded, slaughtered; people’s homes [are] burnt to the ground. It’s incredibly violent activity,” Kelley says.

Lastly, “One of the great challenges is the apathy of the church in southern Nigeria as they look at the carnage taking place in northern Nigeria.”

Pray for relief as Gospel workers from northern Nigeria meet at a retreat center this week.

“Leaders will gather together to be refreshed and energized and just for their personal growth in Christ,” Kelley says.

Pray also that leaders receive the tools they need to further the Gospel.

“They (Nigerians) need the Word of God. That’s why we distribute our solar-powered audio Bible,” Kelley says.

In the header image, Nigerian Gospel workers introduce displaced communities to Christ using solar-powered audio Bibles called Treasures. Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/three-factors-driving-persecution-in-nigeria/

By Katey Hearth | January 14, 2025

International (MNN) — Nigeria replaces North Korea as the world’s worst persecutor of Christians, according to a new report from Global Christian Relief. The ministry’s Red List highlights the top five countries where killings, displacement, arrests, attacks, and abductions are most severe.

The events-based list aggregates data drawn from the Violent Incidents Database—an index documenting physical and non-physical religiously motivated violent incidents from November 2022 to November 2024.

“The two years of reporting from Red List truly reveals where Christian communities face the gravest threats and help us direct life-saving support where it’s needed most,” Brian Orme, acting chief executive of Global Christian Relief, said in a press release.

The persecution of Christians has grown across the globe since 2014, driven by the rising influence of Islamic extremism, growing Hindu nationalism, resurgent authoritarian regimes, government corruption, and the misuse of more sophisticated technology.

India saw the most destruction of Christian property between 2022 and 2024, while China topped the Red List for arrests and sentencing. Over 9,800 believers died in Nigeria during the reporting period.

“Nigeria has been on our radar for almost 20 years,” Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says.

“More people are killed for their faith in Christ in Nigeria than the rest of the world combined.”

Islamic extremist groups target isolated villages throughout the country. “Boko Haram is a radical Islamic group in the vein of ISIS, al Qaeda, and al Shabaab that wants to take over the north. So, it (persecution) starts with Boko Haram, but then you also have the Fulani, who are one of the largest Muslim people groups in all of Africa,” Kelley says.

“They’re pushing their cattle from place to place, and [when] the Fulani come into these farmlands for grazing, there becomes a violent sort of interaction between the farmers and the Fulani herdsmen. Many times, the farmers are Christian.”

Despite government assurances that they will defeat the radical groups, violence continues to escalate. Nigeria also tops the Red List for abductions and ransom demands.

“Leaders want to be able to go into a Muslim community and share the Gospel without the threat of being kidnapped,” Kelley says.

Pray for an end to the violence in Nigeria. Ask the Lord to strengthen and sustain Gospel workers.

“We just ask for people to be praying for us to be able to send more solar-powered audio Bibles in the various languages so that people can hear about Jesus for the first time,” Kelley says.

Photo courtesy of Unknown Nations

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/north-korea-no-longer-tops-global-persecution/

By Lyndsey Koh | January 3, 2025

Nigeria (MNN) — A cluster of attacks on Christmas week kills nearly 50 people from Christian communities in Nigeria. A one-year-old baby and a 13-year-old child were among those slaughtered by Fulani herdsmen.

Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says, “A few dozen people were killed on Christmas Day simply for being followers of Jesus. It’s a pattern, unfortunately, that has just been a reoccurring theme now for several years across Nigeria.”

The Fulani herdsmen live in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority North, but they’re increasingly moving south to find better grazing land for their cattle.

“They target farms, and a lot of times these farms are owned by Christians,” Kelley explains. “It’s a very difficult thing to contain because there’s no assistance coming from security forces, and if it does come at all, it’s always after the fact.”

Christians grow weary of the never-ending bloodshed. Kelley says, “Christians and Muslims have coexisted for literally hundreds of years, and so the issue isn’t that they can’t coexist. The issue is the violence. You have all these IDP (internally displaced people) camps throughout the country filled with people who have lost everything.”

Please stand with believers in prayer for relief.

Nigeria remained the deadliest place in the world to follow Christ last year, according to Open Doors.

“We need to be praying for the persecuted believers in Nigeria,” Kelley urges. “More Christians are killed simply for their faith in Christ than the rest of the world combined.”

Representative header photo, courtesy of Unknown Nations.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/christmas-week-massacres-kill-nearly-50-nigerian-believers/

By Abigail Hofland | January 2, 2025

Myanmar (MNN) — A new report from International Christian Concern suggests millions are at risk of starvation in Myanmar, where a humanitarian crisis has been unfolding since a military coup in 2021. Since then, fighting across political and ethnic groups has meant economic upheaval.

According to The Independent, “The conflict has severely disrupted farming in both highland and lowland areas. In addition, fuel shortages have caused transport costs to skyrocket.”

The continual presence or threat of military aggressors creates an impasse for humanitarian organizations seeking to provide citizen aid.

“To go in and to set up infrastructures to help the people in the active presence of them doing carpet bombings and attacking, indiscriminately, villages is almost impossible,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations.

Meanwhile, over five thousand people have been killed since 2021 as villages and citizens are routinely attacked. Kelley’s colleagues on the ground recently reported an attack on one village that left many dead and all homes destroyed.

“Everyone in that community who wasn’t killed is living in the jungles right now. They said, ‘We’re like stray dogs living in the wilderness,’” Kelley says.

News from this region is often eclipsed by that of nearby countries such as China and India. But Kelley thinks there’s another reason Myanmar often flies under the radar: its widespread adherence to Buddhism.

“Particularly from a missional standpoint, I think we tend to look at areas that are predominantly Muslim, like Bangladesh, or predominantly Hindu, like India, and we say ‘Well those are the harder areas,’” Kelley says.

Furthermore, Buddhism has a reputation for being a calm, peaceful religion, to which Kelley responds:

“I can tell you that some of the fiercest opposition to the gospel we hear around the world comes right out of Myanmar.”

Unknown Nations has 35 networks across the 10-40 window. It’s in these difficult areas that Christians must firmly draw from Scripture and offer its truth to those around them.

“We’re not just interested in making people more comfortable on their way to eternity,” Kelley says. “How can we step as the body of Christ into these crises and not share the hope of glory?”

The magnitude of loss leads people to lean on, or question, their worldview, and Kelley’s team is witnessing that in Myanmar.

“We’re seeing God move in power in the midst of this chaos,” he says. “The day after this particular attack happened where 270 homes were completely annihilated: at our training center, 18 people were water baptized.”

Please pray for peace in Myanmar. Pray also for continued spiritual harvest in this Buddhist country, and pray that more laborers would be sent toward that end.

Kelley especially asks that believers would lift up indigenous Christians:

“We need to pray for these leaders who are administering hope and bringing life,” he says.

Featured image courtesy of Wine Su11 via Wikimedia Commons

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/millions-face-food-shortage-in-war-ravaged-myanmar/

By Katey Hearth | December 30, 2024

India (MNN) — India’s northern state of Rajasthan delays a controversial vote until mid-to-late January.

Officials passed a draft anti-conversion bill earlier this month, and it needs one more set of votes to become law. If that happens, Rajasthan will be India’s 12th state using the legal system to prevent people from changing their faith.

Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says the push for religious suppression comes from the top.

“There’s no doubt that Prime Minister Modi [has] pursued a very aggressive Hindu nationalist agenda, really since he took power in 2014. His re-election in 2019 just further emboldened him,” Kelley says.

“Some of the people we know on the ground are saying that these anti-conversion laws are distractions [to hide] issues like child labor and domestic violence, child marriage, even illiteracy. There’s such a massive increase of robbery and murder and rapes,” he continues.

“So, it’s really viewed, in many ways, as a political posturing to create fear and distract the people from some of the main issues.”

Mob justice is a concerning reality in states with anti-conversion laws. Vigilantes hijacked believers’ Christmas outreach in one location, using the anti-conversion law as a cover. Unknown Nations partners were distributing Christ-centered gifts to schoolkids.

“These boxes were filled with little goodies and things for the children, and some Christian literature was in there. It was distributed with the blessing and permission of the school authorities,” Kelley explains.

“[A] mob had heard about it, a vigilante group of people, and they immediately went to the school and scared the children, took all these boxes, and that teacher got suspended. He’s being tried right now.”

Pray the fear generated by anti-conversion laws will not overcome believers.

“Imagine if you were just going around, especially in the season of Christmas, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and by doing that, you could be put in jail for five years,” Kelley says.

“We need to recognize India for what it is,” Kelley says. “It is ground zero of the unreached world. By the year 2030, it will simultaneously be the most populated Hindu country and the most populated Muslim country [in the world.]”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Element5 Digital/Pexels.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/rajasthan-delays-vote-on-anti-conversion-bill/

By Katie O'Malley | December 19, 2024

Nigeria (MNN) — As persecution of Christians rises in new places today, remember one country that has been in a firestorm for years: Nigeria. According to data gathered by Open Doors for their 2024 World Watch List, 82% of the Christians killed in the previous year were in Nigeria (data gathered October 2022-September 2023).

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says the West is missing something about the Islamic militant activity in Nigeria.

“We think, ‘Well, that’s just kind of the way it is over there.’ What we don’t realize is their aggressive pursuit. They’re trying to annihilate Christianity from the entirety of northern Nigeria,” he says.

Boko Haram rampages in northern Nigeria, while Fulani militants are pressing southward. These Fulani herdsmen murder and seize land from Christian farmers to use for their livestock. Kelley calls it “literally a land grab.” The Fulani are an influential people group, he explains, with people in political authority from their number. These leaders tend to look the other way on the violence.

“People in Nigeria, Christians and moderate Muslims, are done with that. They’re just disgusted with the lack of intervention from the government,” Kelley says. (More on that here.)

On top of the killings, Christians are experiencing displacement, incredible loss, and the threat of kidnapping. Nigeria is also the country where the most Christians are kidnapped. One local Christian leader, Kelley says, has lost one of the missionaries in his network every month for the past six years to kidnapping.

“You have over 3 million people that are in these internally displaced [people] camps. There’s over 300 [IDP] camps all around Nigeria. Every minute, people — entire families, every single minute of every single day — are being displaced all throughout Nigeria, and they’re ending up in these camps. They lose everything,” Kelley says.

Pray for endurance for these brothers and sisters, but also pray over a missions gap within the Nigerian church. Kelley says local believers they partner with are pressing north with the gospel. But in the majority Christian south, there’s not always that same missionary drive.

“A lot of the Christians in the southern part of Nigeria, unfortunately, they just don’t have a heart for reaching the north. They’re focused on making more Christians in the south. That’s just the reality of it,” Kelley says.

“We need to pray that God would raise up a remnant, a group of Nigerian Christians that would have a passion for people groups like the Fulani, the Hausa, the Kanuri — who are the three majority Muslim people groups in the northern part — and send local missionaries in there. That is the only way the gospel will be spread throughout Nigeria.”

Header photo of 2020 protests in Abeokuta, Nigeria courtesy of Tope. A Asokere via Unsplash.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/nigerian-christians-under-fire-gospel-desperately-needed-in-the-violent-north/

By Katie O'Malley | December 9, 2024

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (MNN) — Good luck identifying one group responsible for the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chaos. More than 100 armed groups are operating in eastern Congo today.

“Congo has been a chaotic situation for decades now, but really one of the big origin or triggers of it goes back to the Rwanda genocide in 1994,” says Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations. He explains that after the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people, tens of thousands of the Hutu crossed the border into the Congo and “caused havoc.”

He continues: “Congo is the size of the eastern seaboard of the United States. Think of the capital (Kinshasa) being in Dallas, Texas, and the eastern part — where a lot of the atrocities are taking place — in New York, with zero infrastructure in between and dozens of people groups in between. So there’s not unity, [and it’s] not cohesive. It’s like India from the standpoint of [having] all these different languages. It’s being run by warlords.”

Different groups from within and outside of the DRC plunder its rich natural resources, with little to no consequences. The Congo is the fourth most impoverished country in the world, according to one global finance organization.

There’s also lack of spiritual depth in the Congo. Although the nation is over 90% Christian, Kelley says, “It’s the old adage in Africa where they say ‘Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep.’

“It comes back to the original instruction [Jesus] told us. He [didn’t tell] us ‘Make converts.’ He said, ‘Go and make disciples’! That’s depth, and that’s what Congo really lacks today. If you were to say, what’s the one issue, it’s that the church lacks disciple-making.”

Pray for that deeper walk with Christ!

“We really need to come alongside the churches that are serious about it (discipleship), and really empower them with the tools they need.”

“You become a product of your environment, and if the leaders who are equipping (the church) aren’t really serious about it, then they’re going to produce a bunch of shallow Christians. It’s no different than anywhere in the world. It really starts at the top. It’s passion for the Word of God. It’s sharing faith with others. It’s not being distracted,” Kelley says.

“Until the main thing becomes the main thing, Congo will continue to struggle. So we really need to pray that there would be unity, and pray that there would be seriousness and creating transformational discipleship.”

Header image of church in the DRC is a representative stock photo courtesy of Johnnathan Tshibangu via Unsplash.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/discipleship-gap-holding-the-church-in-the-drc-back/

By Abigail Hofland | December 4, 2024

Turkiye (MNN) — A new report by International Christian Concern shows anti-Christian hate crimes doubling in Turkey since 2021. These include property damage, harassment, and violence, the group says.

While Christians make up less than one percent of the country’s 85 million people, they experience the highest number of religious hate crimes. The actual number remains low – just 52 of these occurrences have been reported since 2020. Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says while the numerical increase is not large, the reason for the trajectory is worth noting.

“Any time the Gospel is making inroads, it becomes a threat,” he says.

Especially in Muslim majority countries, the government response will be swift.

“The way they react to it, primarily, is through a lot of foreign workers being targeted and kicked out of the country,” Kelley says.

Still, Kelley is encouraged. He says the Gospel is making progress among a sizable group: the country’s nearly 300,000 refugees. Turkiye hosts more refugees than any other nation, especially from surrounding countries such as Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Syria.

“We’re seeing people from these majority Muslim countries responding to the Gospel,” Kelley says, “and the Turkish government isn’t nearly as concerned about that activity as they are with their own people.”

Ministries like Unknown Nations work within Turkey to bring the Gospel to Turks and refugees alike. Their focus is currently on Gospel-focused training that equips refugee believers to return to their own countries as missionaries, Kelley says.

While barriers exist to reach the Turkish people, he says there is opportunity to impact them as well. The need for Christ among this group is enormous.

“The Turks are one of the largest unreached people groups in the world,” Kelley says. “You’re talking about 62 million people that are one quarter of one percent Christian. It has to be a priority for the body of Christ.”

In the face of foreign workers being targeted and scrutinized, Kelley believes the key is to raise up and equip the indigenous community. The essential fuel is prayer.

“Jesus said to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers, and Turkey has got to be on the radar of the body of Christ from a perspective of prayer,” he says.

Please pray for Unknown Nations and similar ministries working to bring the Gospel to this difficult place. Pray that the indigenous community and refugees would respond to the Gospel and be equipped to share it. Pray also that believers in Turkiye would be strengthened and encouraged in the midst of persecution.

Featured photo courtesy of Meg Jerrard/Unsplash

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/despite-persecution-turkiye-remains-a-field-ripe-for-gospel-harvest/

By Katie O'Malley | November 25, 2024

Myanmar (MNN) — The Rohingya of Myanmar continue to brutally suffer at the hands of the Burmese military. They aren’t the only ones. Since a military coup three years ago, Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says over 5,000 people have been killed in Myanmar. Just this month, a church bombing by the military killed nine people near the border with China, seven of them children.

“This same group that has been tormenting the Rohingya staged a military coup in February 2021,” says Kelley, “and that has resulted in over 3 million people being displaced other minority ethnic groups like the Rohingya, who have been just savagely targeted, oppressed, beaten, persecuted, killed.”

Forty percent of those 3.4 million displaced people are children. This war zone is where Unknown Nations sees gospel ministry unfold. They have been present there for the past 20 years, and Kelley says the Burmese are one of ht largest unreached people groups in the world.

“It’s not like they’re just targeting Christians, although Christians absolutely are a threat to them (the military) because they have a different worldview. But everyone’s suffering,” Kelley says.

“When you have never had access to the gospel, and this military is so oppressive, you become open to a message of hope. In the midst of this chaos, as crazy as it seems, hearts are open and responding to the gospel.”

Please, become aware and pray for these tragedies in Myanmar. Don’t forget about them in the midst of widespread displacement crises across in the world today.

“Every two seconds, someone is newly displaced in the world because of war, violence, persecution, human rights abuses. The Body of Christ needs to come and lean into these situations,” says Kelley.

“They don’t fit nice and cleanly into a box, like a lot of missions initiatives we try, but that’s okay. Jesus gave His life for these situations.”

“Engage with organizations like Unknown Nations, send out an email or give us a call. We can tell you how you can intimately be a part of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ into this dire situation,” says Kelley.

Header photo Rohingya refugees gathered in Bangladesh for Genocide Remembrance Day (2023). Photo courtesy of Md. Jamal / VOA – via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. 

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/decades-of-abuse-leave-rohingya-and-myanmar-searching-for-hope/

By Anna Deckert | November 11, 2024

Nigeria (MNN) – In an area of Africa fraught with violence and poverty, God is drawing new believers to Himself.

Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says he recently visited an area of Northern Nigeria that is almost exclusively Muslim. In addition to the lack of Gospel saturation, the poverty is striking. He says, “When you come you feel the depravity of the people’s lives. You see poverty in every direction. You see villages that people are suffering just for daily necessities, drought conditions, and yet God is moving in power in this place.”

Two Villages Turn to God

God’s work has been especially evident in two villages in the area. Despite political and social turbulence a team was able to complete a water project in one village. This opportunity opened the door to sharing the Gospel with the village chief. As a result, he and his whole village turned to the Lord in repentance and faith.

As if that were not extraordinary enough, God miraculously healed a man with epilepsy in a second village.

Kelley says, “It caught the attention of all of the leaders in the area, particularly the witch doctor, who had tried many times to heal this individual, but to no avail. But God healed him through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now both of these villages in northern Nigeria, near the border of Niger, are 100% Christian. It’s just an unbelievable experience for us here at Unknown Nations.”

A Cause for Rejoicing

Believers in these villages are hungry for the Word of God. By their own reports, they cannot spend enough time hearing about their Savior.

“They’re consuming the Word of God. They’re listening to the Treasure, our solar powered audio Bible. The witch doctor himself, he testified. He listens now to the Word of God from sunup until sundown. We are rejoicing in what God is doing in this part of the world.”

Please pray that God will continue to grow these new believers in truth and understanding of the Gospel.

Image courtesy of Tep Ro from Pixabay

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/gospel-miracles-in-nigeria/

By Lyndsey Koh | October 15, 2024

Nigeria (MNN) — A first-of-its-kind report was just released looking at ethnic and religious violence in Northern Nigeria. The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa examined incidents of extreme violence in the region between October 2019 and September 2023.

With 30,880 civilian deaths, the report found Christians were disproportionately targeted. Christians accounted for 16,769 of civilian deaths; 6,235 Muslims were killed. The rest had no known religious affiliation.

Much of the violence in northern Nigeria came from Fulani herdsmen. Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says, “What aggravates it is the constraint of grazing land, and then the fact that the Fulani are Muslim and the farmers are Christian. So you have that religious tension that comes in there too.

“There are a lot of dynamics that are at work here; but fundamentally, Christians are being killed and…the government largely is non-responsive to these atrocities.”

Unknown Nations works with some Christians in southern Nigeria to go into the North with audio Bibles. But Kelley says those with the greatest heart to reach Muslims in northern Nigeria with the Gospel are Christians at risk in the North.

“That’s been our focus is, as we pray…how do we mobilize the Christians in the North? They will be the ones who will reach the Fulani. They will be the ones who reach the Hausa and the Kanuri.”

Pray for the resilience of faithful Nigerian Christians sharing Jesus in persecution. Ask God to open the eyes of Fulani Muslims to the truth of the Gospel.

“Until we get a heart for the nations that we will maybe never meet this side of eternity for the fact that they are separated from Jesus and an eternal presence with Him – until we get that conviction – then things are not going to change.”

Header photo courtesy of Tope A Asokere/Unsplash.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/christians-disproportionately-targeted-in-nigeria-violence-report/ 

By Katey Hearth | September 13, 2024

Sudan (MNN) — The United Nations Security Council votes to extend current sanctions against Sudan by another year. The bans include asset freezes, travel restrictions, and an arms embargo.

Sanctions have born little success so far in moving either of the warring parties to the negotiating table. An ongoing war between Sudan’s army and rebel forces backed by the United Arab Emirates has uprooted more than 10 million people since April 2023.

“They’re in the midst of their third civil war in the last 50 years,” Greg Kelley with Unknown Nations says.

“When we hear ‘Sudan,’ we associate that with carnage, and what happens is [we] get apathetic. But we should care, as followers of Jesus, because Jesus called us to make disciples of all nations.”

Sudan is facing the worst levels of food insecurity in its history, with more than half of its population in acute hunger. Famine conditions were confirmed earlier this month in several displacement camps.

“Children are dying every single day of starvation. That’s not a pleasant sight, and it’s happening by the dozens in both South Sudan and Sudan,” Kelley says.

Yet amid Sudan’s despair, hope remains. “People are open. They’ve lost every earthly possession, and they’re sitting in a tent in a country that’s not their own,” Kelley says.

“They are asking questions. When you’re in that position, and someone comes with the life-transforming message of the Gospel, that heart is ready to receive.”

Partner with Unknown Nations here to support this work in Sudan.

“We need to be praying for the Christian leaders because they share the Good News in the most difficult of environments. Pray that God would give them strength and courage.”

Header photo depicts Sudanese refugees being baptized in Chad. (Header and story images courtesy of Unknown Nations)

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/hope-remains-amid-sudans-despair/ 

By Katey Hearth | September 9, 2024

Pakistan (MNN) — Torrential rains in Pakistan trigger displacement and suffering in the same areas devastated by monsoon floods in 2022.

Every year, “It’s not a matter of if, but when the monsoons come in,” Unknown Nations CEO Greg Kelley says. “The devastations vary, but this year, it’s been on a dramatic level.”

Some villages remain cut off by snake-infested floodwaters and are only accessible by boat. In one district, farmers lost 80 percent of their cotton crops – a primary source of income – and the floodwaters killed hundreds of animals.

In most disaster zones, Kelley says, “They don’t have access to clean water, so we need to get water, food provision, temporary shelter” to flood-affected areas.

Charity organization Save the Children says more than 150 kids have lost their lives since the start of monsoon season in July. That’s over half of all the deaths recorded so far. Another 200 children have been injured.

Believers walk alongside struggling families with the compassion of Christ.

“Whether I am hostile to the Gospel or I’ve been a follower of Jesus my whole life, I care about the well-being of my children,” Kelley says.

“When my child is suffering, and they want to care for that child and love that child unconditionally, it does something to the heart.”

Support Unknown Nations’ efforts to provide help for today and hope for tomorrow here.

“That act of love does an amazing thing. It takes these people who are hostile to the Gospel and opens their hearts up so that we can deposit the Good News of Jesus Christ,” Kelley says.

Header and story images courtesy of Unknown Nations.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/believers-pair-help-and-hope-in-pakistan-flood-response/ 

By Katey Hearth | September 4, 2024

Afghanistan (MNN) — A growing number of religious scholars in Afghanistan are openly challenging the Taliban’s restrictions on female education. Even some clerics working for the government have opposed the ban.

Meanwhile, Afghan women sing to protest new Taliban decrees seeking to erase women from wider society. The “vice and virtue” laws, approved two weeks ago, are the Taliban’s first formal declaration since taking power in 2021.

As more voices join the resistance to Taliban rule, some practices carry on just the same. For example, persecution remains at an all-time high.

Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says Afghan partners recently shared the following report:

“A couple of underground workers reached this village, and they had a lot of fruit; people were responding to the Gospel. The Taliban heard about it, they went to that village, and every man, woman, and child was executed. There [are] atrocities like that happening daily inside of Afghanistan.”

The good news? “There was one survivor who we connected with, and now he’s being equipped and trained [as a Gospel worker to Afghanistan,]” Kelley says.

Unknown Nations partners with believers in a neighboring country to help Afghan refugees become missionaries to their homeland.

“At that training center, we pour into Afghans who are being multiplied, and their target is to reach Afghanistan with the Gospel,” Kelley says.

“Every Afghan [understands] the depth of despair within Afghanistan. They also understand there’s only one solution, and that is the hope of the Gospel.”

Contact Unknown Nations to learn how you can help train Afghan Gospel workers.

“Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth the laborers [who are] willing to die, thrive, and multiply into Afghanistan,” Kelley requests.

“Before Jesus told us to go, Jesus gave us the action word – to pray. He said, ‘Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers.’ In places like Afghanistan, Iran, and that whole corridor of the world, we need more laborers.”

Header image is a representative stock photo depicting a scene in mountainous Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of Joel Heard/Unsplash)

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/persecution-continues-amid-calls-for-change-in-afghanistan/ 

By Katey Hearth | August 27, 2024

Afghanistan (MNN) — Friday marks the third anniversary of the final U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Yesterday, on the anniversary of a suicide attack on Kabul that killed 13 U.S. servicemembers, presidential candidate Donald Trump emphasized rival Kamala Harris’s support of the chaotic withdrawal process.

Harris also affirmed her continued support of the withdrawal decision without commenting on servicemembers’ deaths.

While politicians use the withdrawal as an election talking point in the U.S., Afghans mourn yet another freedom lost under strict Taliban rule. New laws forbid women from speaking outside the home.

“Afghanistan [has] been in a continual state of decline since the pullout three years ago,” Unknown Nations’ Greg Kelley says.

For example, the Taliban continues to execute Christians when militants discover underground churches or individual believers. “On almost a weekly basis, we hear of people being captured, punished, and killed,” Kelley says.

“It’s a regular event, yet Christians are multiplying. They’re passionate about reaching their fellow Afghan brothers and sisters with the Gospel.”

Unknown Nations’ training center equips Afghan refugees in a neighboring country to reach their people for Christ. A recent graduation ceremony celebrated and launched the newest batch of Gospel workers.

“They cannot wait to go to Afghanistan and share the Good News because the power of the Gospel has transformed them,” Kelley says.

“The crazy thing is they understand that [surviving] even three years is probably beyond what would be expected.”

Ask the Lord to provide more laborers to make disciples and train believers in Afghanistan. Pray that training center “graduates” can start disciple-making movements in their homeland.

“Converts will not survive in a place like Afghanistan. The pressures are beyond description,” Kelley says.

“You have to have come to [an understanding as] Paul did in Galatians 2:20 where he said, ‘I must die so that Christ can live.’”

Header image depicts women in burqas. Photo courtesy of FMI.

Original Article Posted Here: https://www.mnnonline.org/news/afghanistan-new-laws-forbid-womens-voices-in-public/