These articles were first published in our September edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A pastor has been shot and killed by masked gunmen on motorbikes in a village in Northwestern Laos, as reported by The Christian Post.
Thongkham Philavanh, aged 40, who was a pastor in Vanghay Village and the head of Lao Evangelical Church, was shot seven times as he was feeding his chickens and ducks. He died on his way to hospital, leaving his wife and two teenage children in mourning.
The Indonesian authorities have thwarted an attempt to bomb two churches in East Java and arrested a student member of an Islamic terror group, along with his parents. He had reportedly used savings from school allowances to purchase the explosives he was set to use for the attack.
The 19-year-old student, known only by initials H.O.K., was arrested while on his way to dispose of evidence of his plan, and was declared to be a supporter of ISIS or Dawlah Islamiyah, who are based in the Philippines.
A Muslim father in Uganda has burned his daughter with an iron after finding out she had converted to Christianity. Naasike Maliyati had attended an evangelical crusade while visiting her grandmother in a different district and gave her life to Christ when the call was made for people to come forward by leaders.
Morning Star News reported that she went to a church service on a Sunday and returned to find her father and uncles angry with her. She was tied up and beaten, and her father told her she was an ‘embarrassment to the family’ before burning her on the buttock. She was left by a river nearby, but a Christian on a motorcycle rescued her.
A prominent Christian woman has been kidnapped by gunmen from a church in Nigeria, as reported by Morning Star News. Joan Onyemaechi was taken from a Bible study at the King Jesus and I church in Asaba, capital of Delta state, in an attack which left her driver and a policeman dead.
The attackers reportedly stormed into the church during the Bible study, causing panic among church members. They are reported to have also wounded another policeman and a civilian. The motives behind the attack are unclear.
Elder Zhang Chunlei has been sentenced to five years in prison in China under charges of suspicion, fraud and inciting subversion of state power. Zhang had gone to a local police station in 2021 to enquire about ten Christians who had been removed by authorities during a police raid on a privately rented property.
Zhang, who is a member of Guiyang Ren’ai Reformed Church, had been detained since then, and was denied medical release after learning that he had liver cirrhosis. He has also been fined 14,400 yuan (about £1,558) under the fraud charge, and an additional 5,000 yuan (£541).
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced a Christian to death for Islamic blasphemy. Ehsan Masih was charged for sharing an image of pages of the Qur’an with lines crossed out on TikTok, which authorities claim led to riots in Jaranwala which saw Christian homes and churches destroyed.
However, Masih, who is illiterate, denies the charges, and his lawyer revealed that there is no evidence of blasphemous material on his phone. The Lindisfarne Centre, which supports persecuted Christians, claims authorities are weaponising the law against Christians.
A group of about 150 Hindu extremists attacked a house church in northern India, and the church are now unable to meet together for worship. 15 church members were worshipping during a service when pastor Rajesh Bhomi’s mother-in-law warned that she had seen the group approaching the area.
The attackers entered the property and beat members, injuring several of them, and damaging musical and technical equipment. The church is no longer allowed to meet and one of the members has lost their job. The police told the church an investigation is ongoing.
Six Christians have been released from prison without charge in Tahae Village, Khammouane Province, Laos. They had been detained for a month after being arrested for holding a small, unregistered church service in one of the victims’ houses.
The local and national authorities deny responsibility for the arrests, making it likely that the village chief in Tahae was responsible.
A global conference is to be held for therapists seeking to help clients facing unwanted same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria. It will be held in Poland and will host over 200 therapists, counsellors and medics from over 30 countries.
The conference is being run by the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice, (IFTCC) a Christian counselling body from London which promotes qualified, experienced therapy for clients with unwanted same-sex attraction and gender identity.
Religious minorities in Iran are being targeted by the government who are clamping down on ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests, which began after 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in 2022, having been arrested for apparently wearing her hijab incorrectly.
A United Nations Fact-Finding Mission report claims that people belonging to religious minority groups have experienced ‘disproportionate’ targeting and have been subject to ‘crimes against humanity’. The news comes after the Centre for Human Rights in Iran also reported that many people have been executed in Iran, with one day seeing 36 killed.
Luke Randall