(Open Doors USA) — It all started with a phone call. Not a phone call from Payam himself but a phone call from his Muslim mother. She was concerned about her son’s behavior. He was selling everything they owned to buy drugs. The 21-year-old was even beating his father for money. “I don’t know what […]

BABILE, Ethiopia (Open Doors USA) — Four teenage believers, three of them minors, served a one-month jail sentence after being convicted on charges of distributing Christian literature and “inciting religious violence.” The girls were reported to be “in good health” following their release from prison on Dec. 22. Gifti, 14; Mihiret, 14; Eden, 15; and […]

(Open Doors USA) — In parts of Mexico, going to church is risky and dangerous. Drug cartels are treading on the heels of churches in Mexico, extending their gripping power beyond the northern states where, for many years, they have been harassing entire communities ruthlessly. A very common practice drug traffickers have implemented to control whole […]

(Open Doors USA) — The long drawn-out Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria has created an ongoing humanitarian disaster. In the northern state of Yobe, one of the three worst affected states, Christians who have finally returned to their destroyed and severely damaged communities are facing added pressure for their faith. Reports reached Open Doors […]

(Open Doors USA) — Early in the morning, on October 13, Kanygul Satybaldiyeva, a 76-year-old Christian woman, died in Sary-Talaa, a village in Kyrgyzstan. According to Radio Freedom in Central Asia, her daughter, Jyldyz Azaeva, was not permitted to bury her mother in the local village cemetery. Only Muslims may be buried there, and Kanygul […]