NANYANG, China (Associated Press) — The 62-year-old Chinese shopkeeper had waited nearly his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true — a brick house with a sunny courtyard and spacious hall with room for 200 believers. But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed […]
(Mission Network News) — In a virtually unprecedented move, 35 Eritrean Christians have been released from prison. It’s welcome news in the often disheartening story of persecution in Eritrea. Greg Musselman of Voice of the Martyrs Canada says it all started almost two decades ago, when the Eritrean government decided that evangelical Christians could no […]
(Morning Star News) – Pastor Sagar Baizu, 46, had finished one meeting and had an hour before the next one, so he decided to stop at a café on a major thoroughfare in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on July 19. As he was about to sip a coffee in the crowded café at 2 p.m., […]
SANGAMESHWAR, Maharashtra — (International Christian Concern) – “All that the Hindu radicals want is for Sangameshwar to be a ‘Christian-free’ village,” Pastor Srinivas Sapa, a 42-year-old Christian resident of Sangameshwar, told International Christian Concern (ICC). “Of all the 50 odd Christians who are native to Sangameshwar, most were born in the village and are now panicked […]
(World Watch Monitor) — The Rwanda Governance Board continues to close churches it says fail to meet requirements laid down at the beginning of the year. New requirements set in place for those congregations that want to continue ministry are also complicating efforts to comply. Many see the closures as part of an effort by […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A crowd of Turkish Christians from Andrew Brunson’s Izmir Resurrection Church greeted their pastor with cries of “We love you, Andrew!” as he arrived home under police escort on Wednesday afternoon, July 25. After nearly 22 months in detention, Brunson was released at 5:30 p.m. from Izmir’s Kiriklar maximum security prison […]
(International Christian Concern) — International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on July 24, the Medan District Court in Indonesia sentenced Martinus Gulo to four years in prison and a fine of 1 billion Rupiah (approximately 68,914 USD) for religious defamation. He may also choose to serve an additional six months in jail if he […]
(Morning Star News) – Three Christians in Iran were arrested from their homes today and yesterday following the violent arrest of pastor Yousef Nadarkhani on Sunday (July 22), according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC). Pastor Nadarkhani, a convert from Islam like the others arrested, was awaiting a summons to begin a 10-year prison […]
XINYU, Jiangxi (China Aid) — Churches across Jiangxi received a warning from local authorities in early July, demanding that they dismantle their crosses, replace them with either an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping or the national flag, and keep their children away from church. In Xinyu—a city within Jiangxi—alone, more than 100 churches received this […]
(World Watch Monitor) — Hopes were dashed for the imminent release of an American pastor jailed in Turkey on terrorism charges as a Turkish court today ordered him to remain behind bars. The court scheduled Andrew Brunson’s next hearing for Oct. 12. Some observers had believed that Turkey might release Brunson, who has been detained […]