A convoy of 100+ Christians, including at least fifteen families, will leave Afghanistan to make a new life in Pakistan. It is not a hospitable country for Christians, but Afghanistan has become much worse with the Taliban in charge. Leaders of house churches have already received threatening letters from the Taliban, warning them that they know where they are and what they are doing. They are ‘on a list.’ The convoy is being led by a pastor who serves ten Afghan house churches. He was a Muslim until his life was turned around when someone shared the Gospel with him. The ages of the people in this convoy range from three months to 70 years. There are no buses, no trains running between Afghanistan and Pakistan: so this convoy will be taking, for lack of a better word, taxis. Ask God to give them strength and ask Him to frustrate the plans of any wanting to stop them.

Pastor Samuel lived in the north of Burkina Faso but had to flee from extremist attacks on his church and members of the Christian community. ‘We don’t know who the attackers are, nor do we know who is sponsoring them,’ he said. ‘All we know is that they attack Christians. These attacks have shattered the lives of our people. We are troubled and filled with pain over the deaths of our family members.’ There are no open churches in parts of the northeast. Pastor Samuel lives in a camp for internally displaced people, praying with others there and encouraging them to not lose hope. Open Doors estimates there are over a million internally displaced people, and many are Christians. Believers who have converted from Islam also face significant pressure and opposition from their communities. Families may reject Christian converts, and new believers may be pressured to renounce their new faith.

Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, has called the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem a ‘bad idea’ that could ‘destabilize’ Israel’s new government. He said it would send the wrong message not only to the region or to the Palestinians, but also to other countries, adding, ‘We don’t want this to happen’. His comments come after Biden reportedly discussed the issue with Israel’s ultraconservative prime minister, Naftali Bennett, last week at the White House. The Times of Israel cited unnamed officials as saying the Biden administration agreed to wait to open the consulate until after Bennett’s fragile new government passes a budget in November.

As the Taliban secures its grip on Afghanistan, UN Security Council officials are warning that the militant group is reliant on drug trafficking as its primary sources of financing, and opium poppy production has increased significantly. They also said the problem of production of poppy-based drugs and methamphetamine was ‘unaddressed’ by the Afghan peace process, even though it remains the Taliban’s largest single source of income. Opium has a destabilising and corrupting effect within Afghanistan and contributes significantly to the narcotics challenges facing the wider international community. Taliban financing is also sourced by other criminal activities including extortion, kidnapping for ransom, mineral exploitation, and revenues from tax collection in areas under their control or influence. The UN office of drugs and crime estimates that taxes collected from drug farmers alone were about $14.5 million, while another $46 to $98 million comes in from heroin manufacturing and trafficking.