Myanmar junta bans conscription-age men from leaving country for work (May 2, 2024, Myanmar Now)
He declined to comment on whether the decision was related to the large number of young men who have sought employment abroad since the regime announced earlier this year that it would begin enforcing the country’s conscription law.
Arrest of alleged child trafficking TikTok gang sparks shock in Lebanon (May 4, 2024, The National News)
The exposure of an alleged child sex-trafficking ring involving a famous Lebanese TikTok influencer has caused shock in Lebanon.
The Syria I came back to is not the one I left (April 9, 2024, BBC)
A whole new generation of Syrians have grown up with war - explosions, bombings and the constant news of death and disappearance. They are indifferent about the war, yet they know that there are boundaries they can't cross in order to remain safe. So they cherish culture, heritage, art and music. Those fields are somehow safe from brutality.
Terrifying moment 29 children are hurt by runaway ice cream truck that rolls down a slope after driver 'left the handbrake off' during ceremony in Kyrgyzstan (May 2, 2024, Daily Mail Online)
The truck was being used by an ice cream seller when it suddenly started rolling downhill into a crowd of thousands - most facing in the opposite direction.
Turkmenistan Conducting Virginity Tests To 'Evaluate Teenagers' Morality' (February 11, 2024, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)
Students who “fail” the test are being reported to police and security services, according to an educational worker familiar with the campaign.
Human rights activists in Western Sahara are being targeted by mobile malware (April 12, 2024, The Record)
The disputed territory of the Western Sahara is mostly controlled by Morocco following Spanish decolonisation in 1975, although Moroccan control is contested by a Sahrawi nationalist group known as the Polisario Front.
PODCAST: Orthodox Missions Bound for the East: The Chuvash Republic (March 27, 2024, Lausanne Movement)
This is the story of the Russion Orthodox Church and the British and Foreign Bible Society working together in the Chuvash Republic. Their collaborative efforts were used by God to help this Turkic community have the Bible in their living language.
Are North Korea’s Christians Facing Genocide? (May 1, 2024, Forbes)
Classified as a “hostile class” in the songbun system, a social ranking dictated by perceived loyalty to the Kim regime, Christians have long faced severe punishments, imprisonment and execution. Proving that Christians are killed on the basis of their religion is not hard to do. Even the COI report documented killings of Christian. Media reports over the years have documented the public executions of believers, including for simply having a Bible.
MENA Leadership Center trains thousands by building capacity at executive level (May 1, 2024, Mission Network News)
Instead of teaching Gospel workers how to fill leadership positions, MLC works with believers currently in a leadership role. These leaders already have “boots on the ground,” MLC’s Fadi Sharaiha says.
The Christian Faith of ‘Shogun’s’ ‘Blue-Eyed Samurai’ (April 3, 2024, Christianity Today) (Subscription required)
From the first episode, Shōgun establishes that by 1600, Portuguese Catholics had been richly profiting from trade in Japan for decades, keeping the country’s whereabouts hidden from their sworn enemies: the European Protestants. It’s this international religious and political conflict that sends Blackthorne and his Dutch ship Erasmus to Asia in the adaptation, with the explicit command to “plunder any Spanish territory.”
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Joann Pittman
Joann Pittman is Vice President of Partnership and China Engagement and editor of ZGBriefs. Prior to joining ChinaSource, Joann spent 28 years working in China, as an English teacher, language student, program director, and cross-cultural trainer for organizations and businesses engaged in China. She has also taught Chinese at the University …View Full Bio
Blessing Asia
In October-2022 more than 500 Christian leaders from across Asia gathered in Thailand for the Asia 2022 Congress, sponsored by the Lausanne Movement and various partnering organizations. I had the opportunity to participate in the Congress virtually and was mightily blessed. From Bible exposition to K-pop worship, and through seminars and workshops, the participants were encouraged by the stories of what God is doing in countries all over Asia. Clearly, God is on the move.
A beautiful vision was portrayed in a video of the popular worship song The Blessing, featuring singers from all over Asia. Here it is:
Many of the sessions have already been posted on their website and to their YouTube channel.
One that I found particularly helpful considering all that is going on in China was a presentation titled Church and State Relationship in Asia Today. You can see the video here.
I encourage you to spend some time on their website; there are fantastic resources for understanding God’s work in Asia today.
Original link: https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/blog-entries/blessing-asia/
Image credit: Andrea Brucker, via Unsplash
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