Christian News

An elderly Christian missionary doctor who was abducted and held captive by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Burkina Faso for seven years has said God alone helped him to survive the ordeal, Christian Today reports. An Australian national, 88-year-old Dr. Ken Elliott was abducted in 2016 and finally released last year.

Nearly half a year after his release from prison, Chinese Pastor John Cao has still not received identity documents and a passport that would enable him to live normally in China or visit his wife in the United States, Worthy News learned Monday.

Over 16,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in the last four years, more than any other religious group, according to new data obtained by Worthy News.

Members of a thriving Baptist church in western Uzbekistan say local authorities have begun demolishing their worship facility as part of a broader crackdown on devoted Christians.

Around 60 people were baptized with 800-1,000 people in attendance at an Ohio State University Gospel event hosted by Ohio state football players on Sunday, The Lantern student newspaper reports. Those in attendance were treated to hearing the Word of God and personal testimonies, with the opportunity to give their lives to Christ.

There was concern Thursday about three Christian youngsters in Pakistan, including a 12-year-old girl who was forced to marry and convert to Islam while two 18-year-old brothers were charged with blasphemy, several sources said.

As predicted by Christian rights groups, Nicaragua’s authoritarian government is set to begin taxing tithes and offerings collected by churches in an effort to tighten its control over religious institutions, Christianity Today (CT) reports.

A group of Chicago street ministers shared the Gospel and the love of God outside the Democratic National Convention in the windy city last week, CBN News reports. The evangelists are members of “Chicago for Jesus,” a multi-denominational group based at the city’s Metro Praise International Church.

Yowabu Sebakaki, a Ugandan evangelist who led Muslims to Christ and discipled them, was brutally murdered for the Gospel by Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda earlier this month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Christianity is legal in Uganda, but evangelists and Muslim converts are vulnerable to violent attacks and murder by Islamic extremist elements in the country.

Christians in Indonesia appealed for prayers Tuesday as security forces crushed nationwide protests against attempts by parliamentary allies of outgoing President Joko Widodo to change regional election legislation in their favor.

Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, has developed and launched an app for iOS and Android that brings the Bible’s New Testament to life through seven sign languages used in the African nations of Benin, Cameroon-Anglo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, and Togo. The “Sign Language Bible” is now available on Play Store.

Mexico last week saw demonstrations against the violation of religious freedoms as protestors gathered in Mexico City and the city of Oaxaca to show their anger about how authorities have subjected a Protestant minority community to discrimination, violence, and arbitrary detention, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reports.

Pastor Johannis ‘John’ Hus Lumenta, the restless, dedicated secretary-general of Indonesia’s main Pentecostal denomination Gereja Pantekosta di Indonesia’ (GPdI), has died, Christians confirmed to Worthy News early Sunday.

One year after the devastating Islamic riot against Christians in Jaranwala, Pakistan in August last year, just 12 of the more than 300 people arrested are facing trials, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. Islamic-majority Pakistan ranks 7 on the Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Prominent Yemeni Christian activist Abdulbaqi Saeed Abdo has started a hunger strike from prison in Egypt in protest at how the Egyptian government has treated him, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. 

A judge in Punjab Province, Pakistan has allowed three young Christian sisters to return to their parents after their employers held them captive and tried to forcibly convert them to Islam, Morning Star News reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia turned hundreds of churches and other religious sites into rubble since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The fate of a Protestant pastor and his 13-year-old daughter who were abducted in Gusau, northwestern Nigeria last month is not known, despite a ransom having been paid for their release, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.

In a move seen as punishment for not aligning with Nicaragua’s authoritarian communist regime, Nicaraguan authorities have revoked the legal status of hundreds of evangelical NGOs and transferred their assets to the state, CBN News reports. 

In the last four years, authorities in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state arrested 1,682, people under an extreme anti-conversion law designed to suppress non-Hindu religious freedom, the International Christian Concern (ICC) advocacy organization reports.