Displaying items by tag: Asia

Authorities continue to tear down and demolish crosses in Zhengzhou, Nanyang, and Yuzhou. The Chinese Gospel Fellowship in Nanyang sang hymns to encourage each other in their empty church after the cross was demolished. Eight house churches were shut down in one district alone. Local Christians said that it was hard to estimate how many churches had been closed. In Zhongmo County, local government told each church to remove their cross, but nobody responded. Some were afraid the government would demolish the cross, so they covered it with a black veil to conceal it. Religious persecution has been escalating since the government issued new regulations in February. In Henan, which has a large Christian population, authorities are forcing churches to display the national flag and the president’s portrait. To read about the many measures to restrict pastors, click the ‘More’ button. All of these actions are in violation of the Chinese Christians’ freedom of religion.

President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff has called upon people, in the current economic situation, to avoid buying more goods than they require. He urged merchants and shopkeepers to respect fairness in pricing commodities. Since the USA re-imposed sanctions, Iran is experiencing skyrocketing prices and shortages of essential commodities. People are hoarding medicines, foodstuffs, and baby nappies in large quantities, even in warehouses. Iran's currency fell to a record low (140% drop), and Iranians are now using money-changers in fear of further drops. The second stage of US sanctions, targeting oil exports and banking, will begin on 4 November. Experts believe ongoing political and economic challenges are fuelling widespread anger against the regime. But as the regime’s popularity decreases, the influence of the gospel increases. World Mission reported that Iran’s underground church is one of the fastest-growing in the world.

Myanmar has 100+ ethnic groups, and over 2,200 Buddhist temples. It is rich in natural resources such as gems, oil, and natural gas. The military holds great influence in the government, forcibly repressing popular democratic movements and exploiting the country's rich natural resources, leaving the nation’s economy in shambles. Many are in poverty. Additionally, Myanmar suffers the second highest HIV/AIDS rate in southeast Asia, with a reported 54% of adults and 78% of children receiving treatment. The creation and use of illegal drugs is a contributing factor to this epidemic. It has been reported that at least 200,000 households are involved in the production of poppies, the source of illegal opiates. Recently, the largest human exodus since the Vietnam War began as Rohingya Muslims were driven out in what the UN described as ‘ethnic cleansing at the hands of the military’. Myanmar is 80% Buddhist, 8% Christian, and 7% Muslim. 84% remain unreached with the Gospel. Freedom of religion is restricted. The military actively promote Buddhism.

Praise God for the initiative of the Asi people in forming the ‘Asi Bible Association,’ to oversee New Testament distribution. Pray for good decisions and the finances needed to distribute the Scriptures in written, audio and digital formats, including the Jesus film, DVDs, CDs, and hymn books. Pray that people of the Philippines will be eager to engage with the Scriptures available to them. Praise God also for the hundreds of followers of the Northern Thai Facebook group formed when the New Testament was dedicated in early 2018. Pray for the scripture engagement team as they put out an updated version of the phone app. There will be a meeting of churches in September to encourage support for translation of the Old Testament. Ask God to bring many to the meeting, and that funds will be found to pay the salary for a scripture engagement coordinator for another year.

On 15 August North and South Korea celebrated their liberation from Japanese occupation in 1948, South Korea celebrated its 70th anniversary as a state founded purposefully as a Christian state, and North Korea also celebrated its formation. Seventy years is a significant time period for God: see A process towards reunification of the north and south was started by a joint declaration in June 2000, which was reaffirmed in April 2018 by the Panmunjom Declaration for peace, prosperity and unification of the Korean Peninsula. The two countries agreed to work towards a peaceful reunification in the future.

Amnesty International has called for the release of four Iranians sentenced to a combined total of 45 years in prison. Its report calls for urgent action from the Iranian government to quash the convictions and sentences of Victor Bet-Tamraz, Shamiram Isavi, Amin Afshar-Naderi, and Hadi Asgari, ‘as they have been targeted solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedoms of religion and belief, expression, and association, through their Christian faith’. They are currently free on bail, awaiting the outcome of their appeals. Also dual-nationality UK/Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is serving a five-year jail sentence after being accused of spying. Her British husband has been campaigning for her release, and the UK’s foreign secretary has also attempted to secure her freedom. She is currently in hospital, after suffering panic attacks following three days of freedom from jail.

Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett described to the UN security council meeting in New York 'gut-wrenching' accounts from Myanmar of Rohingya people being tortured, raped and killed in front of their relatives. 'How can any mother endure seeing her child thrown into a fire?' she said. The UNHCR goodwill ambassador also praised Bangladesh for taking in more than 700,000 refugees, calling it 'one of the most visible and significant gestures of humanity of our time'. UN secretary general António Guterres has called for those behind the Rohingya crisis to be held accountable, urging the council to act on what has become 'one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises'. However Aung San Suu Kyi probably won't be stripped of her Nobel peace prize, despite revelations around the Rohingya crisis. The UN report said that Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings of Muslim Rohingya. See

Five Saudi activists face possible execution for ‘participating in protests’, ‘chanting slogans hostile to the regime’, and ‘filming protests and publishing on social media’. The five, including women’s rights campaigner Israa al-Ghomgham, have spent over two years in prison. Now their deaths are demanded. Their plight reveals the emptiness of claims that Saudi Arabia is ‘liberalising’ after the death of King Abdullah and that the heir apparent, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, is a driving force behind ‘modernisation’. Over the past year, dozens of activists, clerics, journalists and intellectuals have been detained in a pattern of widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests and detention. Under current ‘reforming’ 146 people were executed in 2017, many for political dissent, which the Saudi authorities rebrand as ‘terrorism’. The regime permits women to drive, but executes them for speaking out of turn. Christians are treated as second-class citizens and persecution is an ongoing and serious problem. Apostasy is punishable by death for Christian converts who refuse to recant. See also

Monsoon flood waters have receded in Kerala after the worst monsoon rains in a century, allowing authorities to retrieve the bodies of victims and enabling residents to start assessing the damage to their homes. But it is feared that thousands of people are still trapped in the worst-hit areas. Pray for regular supplies of clean drinking water and electricity to be distributed quickly and fairly to the state’s 33 million residents. Pray for the thousands of army, navy and air force personnel still searching for survivors and delivering food, medicine and water to those stranded in remote, hilly areas cut off by damaged roads and bridges. Pray for the 1,028,000 people sheltering in 3,274 relief camps. Disinfectants in adequate quantities are needed to prevent water-borne diseases. Pray for more paramedics to be available to advise and give medical aid. The government said it needs hundreds of thousands of electricians, plumbers and carpenters to bring Kerala back to normality. See

Facebook has identified and banned groups and pages engaged in misleading political behaviour and removed 652 pages, groups, and accounts linked to Russia and Iran, for ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ that included the sharing of political material. Facebook significantly stepped up policing its platform after acknowledging that Russian agents successfully ran political influence operations on its platform aimed at influencing the 2016 US presidential election. Other social media networks have done likewise, and continue to turn up fresh evidence of political disinformation campaigns.