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CHRISTIAN AID IN THE FOREFRONT IN VENEZUELAN TRAGEDY

Back-to-back earthquakes rocked Venezuela within a minute of each other on June 24. The second quake reached 7.5, making it the strongest to hit the country in over a century. Aftershocks continue, complicating search-and-rescue and relief efforts. More than 1,700 people are confirmed dead and many thousands more are injured or missing.  Hundreds of buildings have collapsed. People are living on the streets—terrified of aftershocks. An estimated 1.8 million people are in need of humanitarian aid, the United Nations reported, including some 680,000 children. Hospitals in the hardest hit areas were strained before the quake, and now many are damaged and overwhelmed with people in desperate need of care.  “They need our prayers,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “It’s heartbreaking to see the suffering and loss. We love the people of this country, and we want to do all that we can to help in Jesus’ Name.”
And in response, Samaritan’s Purse responded on June 27th, sent the ministry’s 767 cargo plane with life-saving supplies, including an Emergency Field Hospital, set up in the hard-hit city of La Guaira. The  Emergency Field Hospital is capable of treating more than 100 people each day. It will be equipped with multiple operating rooms, a critical care unit, pharmacy and  laboratory. Samaritan’s Purse has also airlifted emergency shelter material, solar lights, and blankets to provide relief to families who are suffering, as well as dozens of  disaster response specialists.
Relief efforts have also arrived from Operation Blessing – a global Christian humanitarian organization, bringing immediate relief and long-term solutions that demonstrate God’s love in action. The senior director of Operation Blessing’s global disaster response team, described how they will be providing help in Venezuela: “Food, water, and shelter, and medical – we’re taking a bit of everything; so, some water equipment, some filtration equipment, some chlorination equipment to sanitize, and, you know, clean water, that’s gonna be top priority. We’re bringing our doctor from Brazil and putting together medical teams,” he explained.
Also bringing the love of Christ to devastated Venezuela, is Convoy of Hope  – an International  Christian non-profit humanitarian organization,  that works to feed the world, empower women, and respond to natural disasters. Teams are utilizing mobile kitchens to distribute tens of thousands of hot meals, safe water, and essential supplies to displaced families sleeping on the streets.
All three organizations are committed to assisting survivors during the long recovery process. Christians throughout the world have been asked to continue to pray for residents of Venezuela, especially around La Guaira and Caracas. Pray for the response teams and for opportunities to witness, while serving as the hands and feet of Jesus. [Sources: CBN News, Samaritan Purse, Convoy of Hope and Media outlets]

THE CHURCH IN JORDAN
The Christian community in Jordan represents one of the oldest in the world, making up roughly 2% to 3% of the modern population. Protected by the Jordanian constitution, Christians are deeply integrated into society, holding a minimum number of parliamentary seats, and occupying significant governmental and military roles.
For more than 30 years, Jordan has been a safe destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees from Middle East conflicts. Refugees who are crammed into huge over-crowded camps receive international aid, but refugees who have sought shelter in nearby towns and cities receive less attention – and these represent the overwhelming majority of refugees.
One Jordanian Christian ministry (Manara Christian Mission) has been serving these refugees, bringing physical and spiritual aid through food, clothing, education, literature, medical services and gospel outreach. It partners with like-minded organisations and with local churches who allow it to use their facilities to distribute relief supplies and spread the Christian gospel. Desperate and traumatised people are not only given hope in their present circumstances but many also find eternal life in Jesus Christ.  The Mission also focuses on distributing Bibles, running youth camps, and expanding relief efforts to provide essential goods for Iraqi and Yemeni refugees.[Sources: Manara and others]

MAURITANIA‘S SMALL CHRISTIAN GROUPS
Christians make up roughly 1% to 1.5% of Mauritania’s population, totalling about 10,000 to 11,000 adherents. The community is predominantly composed of foreign expatriates and sub-Saharan African migrants. Because Mauritania is an Islamic Republic, indigenous ethnic Mauritanian believers must keep their faith highly discreet to avoid societal and legal persecution. In one town a demonstration, fuelled by anti-Christian rhetoric on social media, turned violent when a mob exhumed the body of a recently deceased Christian man, dragged it through the streets and left it in a village 20 kms away. Christians are labelled ‘infidels’ and ‘apostates’, as calls go out for their complete social exclusion. Pray for God’s protection of these small Christian communities. [Source: Open Doors]

STRUGGLING YEMEN
Christianity in Yemen is an underground, heavily persecuted faith. Almost all Christians are converts from Islam, practising their faith in extreme secrecy. Facing threats from the state, armed militias, and conservative tribal authorities, the Christian community survives through discreet house fellowships and online networks rather than public gatherings. There are a few groups of believers who gather in private, relying on whispered prayers and encrypted communications to sustain fellowship. Many believers, disadvantaged because of illiteracy and limited education, struggle to earn a living. Yet even in this war-torn and dangerous country, reports indicate that the number of believers in Jesus is growing. [Source: Suffering Church]

EQUIPPING AUSTRALIA’S INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANS
A Bible College in the Northern Territory equips indigenous men and women for leadership roles in their churches and communities. Four different groups that recently completed a course in indigenous translation have now returned to their communities to apply what they learned so that people might hear and read the Word of God in their heart language. [Source: Sparklit (a small, not-for-profit Christian mission organisation that empowers Christian writers)]

OFFICIALS IN SUDAN WARN CHURCH BUILDING WILL BE DEMOLISHED
(Morning Star News) – Authorities in Sudan have warned leaders of a church in Khartoum that their worship building could be demolished at any time, sources said. The planning director of Jebel Aulia District, accompanied by an engineer from the land department, came to the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) site in the Mayo Angola area of southern Khartoum – on June 7, and gave a strong warning, saying only, “Be ready”, the source said. Church leaders fear the government will provide no compensation for the demolition, and  are taking the threat seriously because of a previous experience, and the demolishing of a church complex in Khartoum North last year. With no prior warning, bulldozers and trucks accompanied by police and armed forces personnel arrived at the compound of the Pentecostal Church in the East Nile District, and began demolishing the church building. Church leaders were later told that the building was destroyed as part of a drive to remove “unregulated” buildings throughout Khartoum state,
The SPEC building in southern Khartoum was constructed in 1991, after the congregation’s previous building in another area was demolished in 1988. Authorities claimed without evidence, that the church building is constructed on a road – which the church leaders deny – and that it is located on land not zoned for a religious building. Christians in Sudan have long complained that authorities refuse to designate lands for church buildings and use it as a pretext to bulldoze them. The Sudan Council of Churches condemned the move and called for immediate action from the government to keep churches from being targeted for demolition.
Sudan was ranked No. 4 among the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, in Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, down from No. 5 the previous year.

BRAZILIAN PARENTS SENTENCED TO 50 DAYS IN JAIL FOR HOMESCHOOLING THEIR GIRLS
A judge in Brazil has sentenced a mother and father to prison for 50 days because they home-school their children, accusing them of “intellectual neglect” and failing to teach them “tolerance and diversity”.  Audato and Ieda Denardi began home-schooling their daughters, Alice, 15, and Lorena, 11, during the pandemic in 2020 after recognizing shortcomings in their public schools’ remote-learning programs. In doing so, they joined about 75,000 home-schooling families in Brazil. Little did the couple know their choice could cost them their freedom.
The caring parents saw home-schooling as giving their daughters the best education possible; however, Brazilian state prosecutors viewed it as an administrative offense, for failing to register the children in a formal, state-accredited school. The prosecutor examined the witnesses and recommended their acquittal. An independent educational psychologist found no sign of neglect. Despite this, the judge  convicted and sentenced them, because he claimed that the parents were “using their daughters as pawns in an ideological struggle”, quoting as evidence that their 15-year-old daughter said she finds some music lyrics morally questionable. Although the parents were taken aback by the troubling conviction, Ieda and Audato still have hope that the courts will change their verdict. They are being supported legally by Alliance Defending Freedom International.
In 2019, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that home-schooling does not violate the Constitution but ordered federal lawmakers to officially codify it.  The country’s National Congress responded by passing a Bill authorizinge home-schooling under certain conditions. However the Bill has since stalled in Brazil’s Senate, leaving home-schooling parents without clear guidelines to educate their children. Amidst the legal ambiguity and increased consequences, now including imprisonment, home-schooling parents are fighting for educational freedom. [Source: CBN News]

– compiled by Guido Kettniss