A time for intercession and lament

Bibles for Mideast has six underground churches in Palestine. As Christians in an Arab land, members of those churches have never ‘had it easy’ but now, having fled to the West Bank from their now-destroyed homes in Gaza, they lack food, water, clothes, medicine and electricity. Thankfully though, all are safe! While their situation is precarious, our Lord protects them mightily.

With their mental and spiritual support resting with Israel, they assure us they can palpably feel the Lord’s Presence. They spend much of their time praying for a stop to the war between Israel and Palestine. Kindly remember them in your prayers.

Lisa Loden’s words about hostilities in the region back in May of 2021 are as true today as ever.

“It is a time for intercession and lament. May the Lord have mercy on us all.” (Lisa Loden co-chairs the Lausanne Initiative for Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine)

Billboard in Jerusalem features Arab and Jewish children, with the slogan written in Hebrew and Arabic: “Growing up together”

If you are able to help us financially, now direly needed due to the war in the Middle East, please click here: BLESSING Bibles for Mideast

A beyond-astonishing story of God’s redemption!

A tale of the truly awesome nature of our Lord’s redemptive power has been unfolding over the last several months in an area of India along the border with Nepal.

One of our Bibles for Mideast leaders, Pastor Riyaz*, had been brutally attacked while ministering among Muslims and Hindus in East Champaran, India. A mob of Muslim fundamentalists threw his seemingly lifeless body into a ditch after attacking him, leaving him for dead.

But God! Some Christian believers found him lying in the ditch and, noticing signs of life, rushed him to the local hospital. That was two months ago. Barely alive and with one knee damaged beyond repair, once he was stabilized somewhat, doctors replaced his knee.

We have been sending out prayer requests to our subscribers (sign up at the bottom of our CONTACT US page, in the Subscribe section, if you’d like to be one of them) for Pastor Riyaz, his wife, four children, his church, and for his deaf and mute sister who lives with the family.

‘May God be glorified through this horror!’ has been our constant prayer. But, just a couple of weeks ago, the horror got worse.

Many of Pastor Riyaz’s* congregation gathered for prayer

Pastor Riyaz had been recovering slowly but well, learning to walk with a walker, and was expecting to be released soon. Then, in the middle of the night, three thugs somehow made their way into the hospital and into his room. One used the pillow he had been propping his leg up with in an attempt to strangle him, while the other two masked men held tightly onto his arms and legs so he couldn’t move.

The pastor’s wife, sleeping in a bed beside him, woke suddenly from a dream where her husband was in mortal danger. Her loud screams alerted hospital staff, who rushed to the room. The attackers, who clearly had hoped to kill the pastor, fled. Pastor Riyaz’s re-injured leg was bleeding profusely by this time, so he was rushed to emergency surgery.

As he recovered in the ICU, his congregation and many others prayed and fasted, often on-site, for his recovery and safety. And soon, answers to prayer began to be more apparent.

The pastor’s health continued to improve, and hospital management both apologised for the attack and provided far tighter security for him. 

Then the hospital staff—all 250 of them, and mostly non-Christians—began visiting Pastor Riyaz and his wife. They wanted to encourage them after the horrible attack, then would stay to listen intently to the couple’s testimony of turning from Islam to Jesus. Many accepted Lord Jesus as their Savior!

When the doctor came for rounds this past Sunday, Pastor Riyaz asked him a special favor. Could he have a worship and prayer service in his room for four people, to include singing and clapping? The doctor said he would look into it, and half-an-hour later returned with official permission.

So at about 11 a.m. yesterday, Pastor Riyaz and those with him began their little worship service. Ten minutes later, the same doctor and a few nurses came to the room and sat with them for prayers. Pastor Riyaz’s wife put a mat on the floor for them to be seated.

A little while later, a few other staff wandered into the quickly-filling room. A doctor who had just arrived announced that even more were on their way, so he asked that the hallway be arranged for prayer.

Soon about 200 people had gathered in the hall, with Pastor Riyaz joining in a wheelchair. For most of the doctors and other staff, it was their very first Christian worship service. Pastor Riyaz shared some of his story of converting to Christianity from Islam, then his wife both shared her testimony and the Word of God. She relied entirely on the Holy Spirit for the words since it was her fist time giving a ‘message’!

As the service wrapped up, many in attendance shared how meaningful and impactful it all had been for them, and before the closing prayer, each and every one joyfully dedicated themselves to Jesus! Worship continued well into the afternoon.

We are also grateful that hospital authorities have reduced the pastor’s hospital bill by half, and will not charge for his second surgery (done after the murder attempt in the hospital). Yet, as Bibles for Mideast Director Pastor Paul explains, we still need a fair amount to settle the rest of the hospital bills.

If you would like more information on what we do, or how to support us (prayer is most important, and you can submit a request for your own needs), please visit our CONTACT US page.
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*Name changed for security reasons

Challenging but victorious mission trip to Tamil Nadu

Pastor Paul recently led a secretive and dangerous evangelical mission to the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

“The ministry was successful and many people accepted Lord Jesus as their personal savior and Lord!” he reports, and thanks all who prayed.

An evangelist working with PAstor Paul

As in the rest of India, the vast majority of the population of Tamil Nadu follow Hinduism, with Christians and Muslims forming small religious minorities. Christians face persecution on all sides, from Hindus, Muslims, police and government officials.

With so much persecution and so many resulting restrictions, we cannot reveal much about the exact locations and details of this latest adventure, except to thank and praise the Lord for His help and guidance as so many new citizens joined the heavenly ranks.

“We badly need prayers and support from the children of God for our precious ministries,” Pastor Paul adds.

Baptisms in Tamil Nadu church and river

We sing it, but do we really mean it?

The question could no doubt be asked of almost every hymn sung down through the many years of Christian gatherings. Do we really mean the powerful words we sing along to? Sometimes we know about the author and his or her inspiration, but most of the time we don’t.

Does it really matter so long as the words ring true in our spirits, draw us closer to God, or whatever other reason you might give for just why you really like to sing that particular song? It probably doesn’t, but some of those extra-special hymns do indeed hold within them an extra-special touch of the Master Creator.

Take, for one, ‘Amazing Grace’. Most of us who love and love to sing that old faithful favorite do indeed know at least something of the trials the hymn-writer, John Newton, went through before putting the words to paper. Once captain of a British slave-trading ship, his route to writer of that amazing hymn was both tortuous and treacherous, and well-worth the finding out if you’re not familiar with his story.

How about the old evergreen ‘I have decided to follow Jesus’? More supremely powerful words helping us connect to our supremely powerful Lord, but unlike with ‘Amazing Grace’, few know about the writer or the inspiration behind the words.

What we do know for certain is that it originated in the Assam region of northeastern India in likely the 1930s, and soon made its way around the globe. All versions of its origins have the same astonishing story as the backbone.

A Garo couple in traditional dress (Wikipedia)

Apparently in the mid-19th century. some missionaries (inspired by revival in Wales) came to Assam to proclaim the gospel among the Garo people, a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group considered by outsiders as bloodthirsty savages. The hills they roamed were covered with impenetrable jungle, and the climate so deadly it was considered impossible for white people to survive there. The determined missionaries visited nonetheless, and among the first converts was a Garo man named Nokseng, along with his family. The family’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity. The incensed village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public, or face execution.

Moved by the Holy Spirit, Nokseng replied, “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back.”

Furious, the chief ordered his archers to shoot the two boys.

“Now give up your faith,” he ordered Nokseng. “You have lost both your children, and I will kill your wife next.”

“Though none go with me, still I will follow Jesus,” Nokseng replied. “No turning back.”

Further enraged, the chief ordered his archers to kill the wife, and when she was dead, he turned to Nokseng.

“If you don’t renounce Jesus, you will die, too.”

“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back,” Noksung reportedly declared.

The chief’s archers shot the man where he stood. The chief, deeply moved by the man’s faith, could not fathom what had just happened.

“Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago?” he wondered. “There must be some supernatural power behind the family …  and I too want that supernatural power!”

In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.

While how exactly those words were formed into a hymn can’t be known for certain, the two most credible stories credit either Simon Marak or Sundar Singh. Simon Marak, a Garo pastor, schoolteacher, and missionary from Assam is probably the most likely composer. Yet some credit the renowned Indian missionary Sundar Singh, formerly Sikh, who, combining  the lifestyle of an ascetic ‘holy man’ with the devotion of a Christian visionary,  became for many a symbol of authentically Indian Christianity

“What was it about Sundar Singh that inspired many Indian and European Christians? Like Paul, he claimed that his conversion came through a vision of Christ and that he traveled to the ‘third heaven’ in ecstasy. Like [St.] Francis, he imitated Christ's life of poverty, wandering, and preaching. And like Christ himself, he taught in parables and suffered persecution.

“Yet in the Indian context that shaped Sundar Singh's Christianity, all these aspects of exemplary Christian religious life had strong parallels in Indian traditions. The sadhu or ‘holy man’ renounces worldly life in seeking ultimate salvation’. In this way, Sundar Singh sought to demonstrate that Christian faith and Indian religious culture had much more in common than the Christianity brought by foreign missionaries seemed to allow. Indian Christians understood and appreciated this, ….”
[from Christianity Today’s comprehensive piece on Sundar Singh, which you can read here: Wanderer for Christ]

American hymn editor William Jensen Reynolds composed music to accompany the words, his arrangement becoming a regular feature of Billy Graham‘s evangelistic meetings in America and elsewhere, spreading its popularity even further and likely cementing it in the songbooks of many Christian churches.

I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
no turning back, no turning back. 

Though none go with me, I still will follow
though none go with me, I still will follow
though none go with me, I still will follow
no turning back, no turning back. 

The world behind me, the cross before me
the world behind me, the cross before me,
the world behind me, the cross before me
no turning back, no turning back.

Christian missionaries attacked by Hindu extremists in India

Christian missionaries working with Bibles for Mideast in Uttar Pradesh, North India, were recently attacked by Hindu extremists. While politely speaking and sharing with a few people, the missionaries’ mention of praying to the Lord for the sick and the poor apparently triggered the attack.

Someone from another church videoed the attack, which we had hoped to post here so you could see and hear the interaction. YouTube has unfortunately deemed the video in violation of their ‘terms of service’. It does show an attack resulting in some serious injuries, so I suppose the good news is YouTube has standards it must uphold.

So while many were hurt, police authorities asked the hospital they were taken to not to admit them.

Please pray for them, their families and all believers simply trying to ‘live out the Gospel’.