60-year Scripture translation finished
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 28 Jun 2026
A translation of the Bible into Wolof, Senegal’s native language, has been completed after 60 years of work spearheaded by one woman.
Contemporary Wolof is the main language of Senegal, a country on the Western side of Africa with a population of more than 19 million – though its formal language is French.
Technology boosts Bible translations to 800 mark
Luke Randall
Date posted: 27 Jun 2026
The Bible has been translated into its 800th language, with the second 400 taking just 1.5% as long to complete as the first 400, Wycliffe Bible Translators have announced.
The latest milestone means an estimated 6.2 billion around the world can now read Scripture in their own language, 500 million more than in 2020. The landmark 800 figure also points to an ongoing remarkable upward trend in translation efforts, with the number of languages which have the whole Bible translated having doubled since 1998, with the first 400 taking 1,900 years to complete, and the next 400 just 28.
Lebanon: Christian views on Hezbollah 'wide-ranging'
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 Jun 2026
As tension continues to rage across the Middle East, the views of Lebanese Christians towards Hezbollah are perhaps more wide-ranging than many would expect, with strategic alliances and political differences existing between different factions.
A Church Mission Society (CMS) partner told en of how believers in Beirut, and Lebanon more generally, are able to “live openly” as Christians, with their freedom of worship protected constitutionally and their voices heard through parliamentary representation, and their situation relating to Hezbollah is “more complex than a simple picture of persecution.”
Increasing danger for believers in Pakistan & Afghanistan
Luke Randall
Date posted: 19 Jun 2026
Danger is increasing for believers in Pakistan and Afghanistan as freedom of expression is increasingly clamped down on and deportations continue to ramp up, with many facing life under Taliban rule.
Relations between the two nations, already infamous for their treatment of Christians, are hostile and this is perhaps reflected by the Pakistani state’s increasing rate of deportations and forced removals of Afghan refugees back across the border, leaving them facing ongoing Taliban rule.
Crosslinks programme aims to improve Biblical literacy internationally
Neil Watkinson
Date posted: 17 Jun 2026
Imagine being a member of a church in which your pastor-preacher has no training in understanding or teaching the Bible, where there are few or no commentaries in his heart language, and where the model of preaching everyone has grown up with (and he has therefore copied) is simply telling stories or speaking on a Bible verse ripped out of context.
Add to this the prevalence of the "prosperity gospel", which continues to spread like wildfire.
Greece: Speaking up for vulnerable women
Langham Partnership UK & Ireland
Date posted: 10 Jun 2026
This is the second of three articles shared with en by Langham Partnership UK & Ireland (LPUKI). The articles detail LPUKI's work in various parts of the world.
Greece is a major gateway into Europe, with 80% of migration flowing through its borders. Where there is migration, traffickers follow. Approximately 40,000 women and children aged 12–25 are trafficked in Greece every year.
Pakistan: Change ‘needs enforcing’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 8 Jun 2026
Calls from a United Nations body for Pakistan to combat forced conversions and marriages and raise the legal age of marriage are welcome, but “meaningful change will depend on enforcement”.
Experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) have highlighted that young girls belonging to religious minority groups, including Christians, are often caught in the crosshairs of abusive patterns, and have called for reforms to legislation across the entire nation.
Colombia: What happens after election?
Luke Randall
Date posted: 6 Jun 2026
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is “hopeful” that a new Colombian government will restore protections for religious leaders and work to improve the nation’s increasingly precarious humanitarian predicament following the upcoming presidential election.
The organisation has called upon the government to restore previously held protections to religious leaders due to their increased susceptibility to attack by armed insurgents, which featured their inclusion on a list of vulnerable populations, enabling them to access means of official security, such as protection programmes. The armed insurgency in Colombia is a complex, low-intensity conflict driven by splinter groups, drug trafficking, and territorial control by three groups including two guerrilla organisations and a narcotics cartel.
Training preachers in Indonesia — interview
Langham Partnership UK & Ireland
Date posted: 4 Jun 2026
This is the first of three articles shared with en by Langham Partnership UK & Ireland (LPUKI). The articles detail LPUKI's work in various parts of the world.
In this first article—an interview—Vic Marsay, LPUKI's Media Producer, chats with Hamdani Tedja, Langham Preaching’s Coordinator for Indonesia. So far, over 6,000 preachers in Indonesia have been trained by Langham.
North Korea: ‘Special anti-Christian effort’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 3 Jun 2026
The number of state executions rose sharply in North Korea following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, and a “special effort” is being made to counter Christianity, which is seen as a Western religious import, it is emerging.
A new report from the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), based in Seoul, revealed that following a decline in the years before the pandemic, executions and death sentences surged by 116.7% after the nation closed its border due to Covid-19, with an increase of 247.7% in the number of individuals subjected to such treatment.
letter from America
Controversy, scandal, and the need for discernment
Josh Moody
Date posted: 2 Jun 2026
One of the challenges of writing this “Letter from America” is the sheer scale of America, and in particular American Evangelicalism. It is hard to “take the temperature” of what is going on at any particular moment when, in truth, there are many different things going on.
Of course, the art is to simplify without falsehood, depict without distorting. But shall we talk of some of the conversations within the Southern Baptist Convention, or the Presbyterian Church of America, or The Gospel Coalition, or the collection of Christian Universities and Schools? Shall we survey the current state of (broadly speaking) reformed evangelicalism, progressive evangelicalism, dispensational evangelicalism? Or, instead, shall we take the tack of looking at the reputation of evangelicalism as it is being perceived?
letter from Sierra Leone
Evangelism in a fast-growing Muslim-majority city
James Stileman
Date posted: 1 Jun 2026
Two men, recommended to one another four years prior, finally met in Nairobi in March this year.
One was Thomas Wilson, Anglican Bishop of Freetown, Sierra Leone, who had become increasingly anxious about the state of his church. Freetown is one of the fastest growing cities in West Africa, yet the Anglican church was unable to keep pace. Pentecostal churches were attracting the young with contemporary music and dynamic services, but his diocese was failing to adapt. His clergy were too focused on tradition and the liturgy, and were reluctant to upset the church’s older, more conservative members.
Cuba: ‘Dictatorial’ regime must go
Luke Randall
Date posted: 30 May 2026
The removal of Cuba’s “dictatorial” government is urgently required to bring an end to difficulties facing the nation amidst an ongoing US naval blockade, according to pastors in the nation.
As we reported last month, the situation within the Caribbean country remains tense as ongoing US action squeezes its resources. Electricity, food and water are all in increasingly short supply, placing communities under huge pressure and also impacting how local churches operate.
letter from Japan
Drawn to Jesus – but repelled by Trump
John Newton Webb
Date posted: 30 May 2026
In the space of ten days, three Japanese people have asked me about Donald Trump and Christianity.
A non-Christian academic, who said he is drawn to Christianity but that Christian nationalism keeps him from embracing it, a non-Christian lady who is attracted by the Christian faith but was worried that following Jesus would also mean supporting Trump, and a Christian who was troubled by Trump/Hegseth’s claim to be doing God’s will.
Mission in India faces new obstacles
Luke Randall
Date posted: 29 May 2026
Alongside the widespread increase in laws discriminating against the religious freedom of Christians in several states (see en article here), hostile actors are also working to make it more difficult for foreign missionaries to make an impact in India.
Legislators are considering the Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill which, if passed, would give the Indian state greater control over the activities of mission organisations, charities and religious institutions and enable them to block funding. The legislation will be decided upon later in the summer.
Egyptian ‘hung in crucifixion position’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 27 May 2026
An Egyptian Christian who converted from Islam has been subjected to persecution as he awaits the result of a trial concerning his religion, including being deprived of basic necessities and being hung in a crucifixion position for hours.
Said Mansour Rezk Abdelrazek has been held in the 10th of Ramadan Prison in Cairo while waiting to face several charges relating to his church involvement and views, as well as his criticism of Islam, at a hearing scheduled to take place this month, The Christian Post reports.
‘Gentle and Lowly’ pastor fired worker ‘in retaliation’
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 26 May 2026
A judge has ruled that Gentle and Lowly author and pastor Dane Ortlund fired a female church employee in retaliation after she accused him of gender discrimination at work.
Ortlund, who serves as senior pastor at Naperville Presbyterian Church just outside Chicago, is required to pay $93,000 to Emily Hyland, the church’s former operations director, for lost wages, legal fees, and emotional distress.
New Christian initiative will block 'harmful' content
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 25 May 2026
Radiant Mobile, self-described as “the first-ever Christian mobile carrier,” launched in the US this month, pioneering a new type of phone network that blocks certain content for its users.
Marketed specifically to Christians, Radiant offers age-based content filtering to block access to websites that could be deemed harmful.
