AP

‘LOOT AND THEFT OF CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS’: INDIAN LAW TARGETS NONPROFITS
India’s government is facing growing backlash for proposing to change a key law that regulates foreign funding for nonprofit organizations. It’s led to complaints of Christian persecution. On March 25th, lawmakers in New Delhi introduced amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), changes that would give the government sweeping new powers over thousands of Non Government Organizations (NGOs), including churches and other Christian organizations. Stephen Schneck, member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, states: “This means things like orphanages, clinics, schools, churches, can no longer be funded.” Under the proposal, if an organization’s license is suspended, cancelled, or not renewed, authorities could take control of its assets, manage them, or even sell them. “It seems completely unfair and arbitrary,” warned Schneck. “Now, moreover, this is clearly an effort to repress minority religious groups in India at a time when we see rising Hindu nationalism working, in ways that persecute religious minorities in the country.” Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say this builds on a law they’ve long criticized.
Since it came into force in 2010, Amnesty states, “The FCRA has been cynically amended and misused to harass, intimidate, and censor human rights defenders and NGOs carrying out vital human rights work across India.” As of March 2026, nearly 22,000 organizations had lost their FCRA licenses. Amnesty says many of those groups were involved in religious freedom, minority rights, and freedom of expression. Christian organizations are warning they could be disproportionately targeted. While the Indian government has defended FCRA rules in the past, saying they are necessary for transparency and national security, Archbishop Joseph D’Souza of Good Shepherd Church of India claims that the current amendment is a “straightforward loot and theft of the Christian institutions and their properties through a legal amendment of a bill.” This is in addition to the  “anti-conversion law” – law now in 13 Indian States, resulting in many Christians being falsely accused and facing persecution and prison. [Source: CBN News]

INDIA – FOUR CHRISTIANS BEATEN AFTER REFUSING TO GIVE UP THEIR FAITH
In March 2026 Chhattisgarh passed a new Freedom of Religion Bill (commonly referred to as an anti-conversion law) that strengthens the existing law regulating religious conversions and criminalizing those believed to be obtained through force, fraud or allurement.
It is a result of these laws that a Christian family suffered persecution at the hands of extremists in the state of Chhattisgarh. A married couple and their two children were beaten by a mob and left with serious injuries. The attack in Asrith village, Sukma District, took place on 14 April. The attackers attempted to force the four – Sodi Motu, Sodi Paike, Vetti Shanthi and Madvi Mangl – to undergo Ghar Wapsi, a ceremony of reconversion to Hinduism. The injured victims were transported to Sukma Government Hospital for medical treatment. [Source: Barnabas Aid]

WELLS BRING HOPE AS KENYANS GRAPPLE WITH DROUGHT
Below-average rainfall in Kenya in October-December 2025 and again in March-May 2026, has led to another drought, affecting millions. It has called up memories of the 2020-2023 drought in the Horn of Africa. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification projects that between April and June, 3.7 million Kenyans in the country’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) will face crisis levels (or higher) of acute food insecurity. Already, 3.3 million people are in this stage of emergency.
Kenya Hope (a Christian non-profit organization bringing aid and the Gospel to Kenyans in need) has already stepped into the crisis with practical, long-term help. The Executive director Bryan Haley explains that one of the first things they do when they enter a community is drill a borehole well. They currently serve 17 distinct communities in Kenya. One woman recently told Haley she hadn’t recognized the effects of the water her family collected from local rivers and dams. “They didn’t realize how sick their kids were — waterborne illnesses like diarrhea and all of these different things,” says Haley. “But as soon as they had clean, safe drinking water, those health issues were erased. Clean water really opens the door to education, food security, dignity for widows, and increasing income. And that all leads [to] or is the chance to share the hope of the gospel or living water.” [Source: Missionary Network News]

AFRICAN PASTOR ASKS FOR PRAYER AS EBOLA OUTBREAK INTENSIFIES
The 17th Ebola outbreak continues to spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) despite efforts to contain it.  Reverend Bisoke Balikenga spoke to CBN News about the desperation people in his city of Bunia are experiencing.  Bunia is one of the hardest hit areas in Eastern Africa. “Pray for us in order that God can stop the spread of the disease among the people, and stop the people dying, because so far we’ve lost many people,” he said.  
An infectious disease physician who has worked through two previous major Ebola outbreaks,  told CBN News that the disease is spread through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids like blood and saliva. “This particular strain of Ebola appears to resist most vaccines and treatments.  The highest risk of spread is within the first 48 hours after death,” he said, “so managing cadavers is very important.”
That’s proving difficult in many areas. Reverend Balikenga reports that Health centres have been attacked, because workers refused to hand over the bodies of Ebola victims to their families. “They become  angry because they want to bury their loved ones. In Africa, the burial is something to take  seriously. They like to honour their loved ones by being at the burial, but now when someone passes away from Ebola, no family can have access to it. It’s only the healthy people who can bury the dead body.” Despite quarantines, Reverend Balikenga is now a part of a massive education program to teach local residents how to prevent the spread of a disease that has a death rate of between 20 and 50-percent. A great encouragement and motivation for those undertaking this programme, is that early detection, isolation and supportive care will often result in complete recovery.
Hearts for the Congo which shares the love of Christ to orphans, refugees, and the poor in the DRC, is one of the Christian organizations working with officials to provide funding, and more medical workers to combat the outbreak. [Sources: CBN News and other sources]

D. R. CONGO – ISLAMISTS KILL NEARLY 140 CHRISTIANS IN SERIES OF ATTACKS
The Outbreak has not stopped Islamist terrorists killing more than 140 Christians in several armed assaults throughout May.  Many Christians were also abducted, and dozens of homes burned. In the deadliest attack, an estimated 60 “Christian combatants” were killed by fighters from Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) on 5 May in Beni Territory on the border of North Kivu and Ituri provinces. In recent months, Islamic State propaganda has used the word “combatants” to describe Christians who have refused to accept either conversion to Islam or dhimmi status as subjugated people. In classical Islam, those who accept such a status must pay the jizya tax to their Islamic conquerors. In exchange for this payment, non-Muslims are granted protection of their life and property, allowed to practice their religion, and exempted from military service. A statement published on Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) social media channels declared, “Let the worshippers of the cross know that they have no security except by submitting willingly or paying the jizya in humiliation.” You are asked to renew your prayers for our brothers and sisters in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). [Source: Barnabas Aid]

WHY CHRISTIANITY IS SOARING IN IRAN
For decades, Iran’s Shiite government leaders have been obsessed with death. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1978, children have been raised on stories of martyrdom. Young men were taught that dying for Allah was the highest honour they could attain. But now, as thousands of mosques close and the Islamic regime loses its grip on the hearts of its people, something extraordinary is happening – the underground church is alive and growing!
Mohamad Faridi knows this reality firsthand. As a young boy growing up in the early days of the Revolution in Iran, Mohamad’s world was saturated with fear. The echoes of Quranic recitations filled his home. From childhood, Mohamad was taught that the ultimate purpose of life was to die for Allah. But underneath the devotion was terror. Muslims are taught to fear the grave. Mohamad had wrestled with fear of the afterlife since he was a child, but every time he asked questions, he was silenced. He was told that questions lead to doubt, doubt leads to sin, and sin leads to hell. The only guaranteed way to paradise, he was taught, was martyrdom. So, Mohamad longed to die for Allah. After completing his military service with the IRGC, however, an emptiness lingered. At 21 years of age, he began searching for meaning beyond rituals, fear, and striving. Then one conversation changed everything. A close friend named Rasul told him about Jesus.
Here was a message unlike anything he had ever heard: Jesus had already suffered a cruel death for him! Mohamad later described the moment as if lightning struck his heart. That day, Mohamad accepted God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ! His whole world changed in an instant. He immediately joined Iran’s underground church, secretly meeting with believers, studying Scripture, and sharing the Gospel with fellow Iranians hungry for hope. But in Iran, converting from Islam is dangerous. As Mohamad became more vocal about his faith, the threats intensified.
Eventually, it became clear he could no longer remain safely in his country. Through a series of miraculous events, he fled Iran and was granted asylum in the United States as a religious refugee. Today, Mohamad serves as president of Iranian Christians International, a ministry focussed on evangelism, discipleship, Bible distribution, and strengthening the underground church in Iran and throughout the Muslim world. According to Mohamad, the spiritual landscape inside Iran is shifting dramatically. “Islam is dying as you have never seen anything die this fast inside Iran,” Faridi shared: “Religion is dead in Iran.” 
But while many Iranians are turning away from Islam, they are not abandoning spirituality altogether. A spiritual hunger for truth remains — and they are discovering THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life in Jesus! According to reports from organizations monitoring religious persecution, Iran is now home to one of the fastest-growing underground churches per capita in the world. Despite arrests, surveillance, persecution, and executions, Iranians are flocking to house churches across Iran. The nation that once trained young men to die is now witnessing thousands discover new life in Jesus! Perhaps that is the great irony unfolding beneath the surface of Iran today: while the ideology of death slowly collapses under its own weight, the underground church continues rising from the ashes — alive, growing, and impossible to bury! [Source: CBN News]

– compiled by Guido Kettniss