World in Brief

Christian Witness to Israel will restart its mission work in Australia, it was reported in March, nearly 50 years after its first missionaries shared Jesus with Jewish people in that country.

Mark and Rahel Landrum are based in Sydney in New South Wales, where there is a thriving Jewish community of around 50,000 people. In total, Australia’s Jewish population numbers around 120,000, and includes many Holocaust survivors who arrived during and after the Second World War.

The much-maligned Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, was seen praying for his nation from his parliamentary office in a clip widely shared online in early April.

Taking part in a prayer group, he committed the nation and the world to God. He prayed for strength, wisdom, peace, and encouragement. He asked that God’s people be instruments for God’s love, compassion, mercy and grace, and lights in the darkness.

On March 10, authorities visited Christian Lan Wei’s family, as his pregnant wife had been to the hospital after showing symptoms of high blood pressure, to offer assistance.

She feared they came to take her away, and refused the first offer of help. But a second group of unidentified government personnel, claiming to be police officers, later attempted to open the lock on the door and break in. The family don’t know why the police had interfered in their personal family matter.

It was announced in April that a new multi-year project has been embarked upon to put together a one-volume Bible commentary. It will be written in Chinese by indigenous Chinese scholars.

There will be over 100 articles on various contemporary issues addressing the spiritual and practical life of a Christian in church and society. Their aim is to help leaders interpret and apply biblical truth in the ever-changing contexts of their lives and communities, with the overall impact of maturing and growing their congregations.

A pastor’s wife was released from detention on 29 March after being held for almost a year.

Adya Expósito Leyva and Ramón Rigal were imprisoned for refusing to send their children to government-run schools, where they faced severe bullying at the hands of both students and teachers. Adya was reunited with her children since all schoolchildren were sent home due to Covid-19 lockdown measures. Her husband remains in a maximum-security prison.

Egyptian authorities gave 74 more churches a licence for their buildings, on 2 April.

A law introduced in 2016 was designed to make the approval process less complex as local governors had the power to give licences. However, the legislation is discriminatory, as the same requirements do not apply to Sunni Muslim houses of worship. Other religious groups such as the Ahmadi, Baha’i and Shia communities, are not covered by this law.

In mid-March, the Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital opened in Cremona.

The 68-bed unit was airlifted using the Christian relief organisation’s DC-8 cargo plane. Specially equipped with a respiratory care unit to provide critical surge capacity to an overwhelmed hospital, the tent facility began receiving patients as soon as it opened so that staff could begin helping Italians with urgent medical needs. A second cargo load of medical supplies along with disaster responders arrived a few days later.

Violence against Christians reached a new level on March 3 when Hindu extremists ran over a key evangelical leader after beating him.

Armed with bamboo rods and a thick metal chain, the ten Hindu nationalists beat Isaac Paulose and then ran their five motorcycles over him, fracturing one of his ribs. He was accused of converting people.

In March, police detained Christians in Tamil Nadu who were providing food and other aid. They detained them on false charges of forcible conversion.

Accused of trying to fraudulently convert the poor in the guise of providing basic necessities, they were threatened with being burnt alive. The police appeared to be trying to incite the younger Christians to respond aggressively, but a pastor said: ‘By God’s grace [they] did not fall into it’. They were released with a warning.

A total of 21 villagers were killed and about two dozen injured when military jets opened fire on four majority Christian villages in Chin State in March.

Eyewitness said 12 people were killed in the first attack. A further eight people died the following day during a second airstrike on two other villages. The attacks caused about 2,000 residents to flee to a nearby town. A local official said the hospital there was struggling to cope with the number of injured.

A new Union Learning Community for southern Holland is being established in partnership with local churches, it was announced in April.

The work will be led by Dr Kees van Kralingen, a highly-experienced church elder, preacher and theologian. It will strengthen those already in ministry, while also raising up church planters to grow the church across Holland. Kralingen said: ‘It will have a solid Reformed evangelical emphasis’ and he looks forward to churches being planted as a result.

The wife of the Bishop of Bari Diocese in Kano State, Nigeria, and another church member, Deborah, who were abducted by gunmen on 10 March, were released ten days later.

Mrs Zubairu and Deborah were kidnapped by gunmen who looted the town and premises. The attack occurred at a time when the Bishop of Bari, The Right Revd Idris Ado Zubairu, had travelled to Plateau state. It remains unclear whether or not a ransom was paid to secure their freedom.

Those ministering to North Korea received a moving testimony from a man to whom they gave the Bible in digital form.

He said the Covid-19 virus was spreading fast in places such as Pyongyang and Sinuiju. ‘I think we will all die from starvation or being infected. Both are deadly and cause despair, but after knowing Him, my fear has vanished. Thank you.’

Sudanese government officials are to investigate extremist attacks on the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) in Jabarona, on the outskirts of the capital city, Khartoum, which took place in December 2019 and January 2020.

Nasr al-Din Mufreh, the Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, confirmed that the Ministry would work with the relevant authorities to investigate reports of multiple attacks on the church. He said they will also take all necessary measures to protect the church and arrest all those found responsible.

The long-term chocolate supplier to Swiss Air Lines was axed over its connection to a Christian organisation, it was reported in March.

Läderach, which has supplied the Swiss flag carrier for more than ten years, recently came under fire from homosexual and pro-abortion activists. Owner Jürg Läderach is also President of the pro-family, pro-life group ‘Christianity for Today’.

Police in Dashoguz raided two Protestant home meetings in February.

During one of the raids, officers threatened to take away the host’s grandchildren and have other participants sacked from their places of work. The host was fined nearly a week’s average wage.

A Christian journalist and a father are facing charges for speaking out against the experimental practices being performed on the man’s daughter’s body to make her appear male, it was reported in March.

The dad went to court attempting to stop his child being given cross-sex hormones. He broke the court order not to speak to the press about the case, and the journalist published the interview online. Both now face charges.