Missionary Martyred in South Western Asia and How to Help End Bible Poverty

A Missionary working with Youth With A Mission in South Western Asia was martyred for his faith, YWAM Founder Loren Cunningham exhorts us to help end Bible poverty around the world, medical ships from Youth With A Mission continue to meet the medical needs of people in the Pacific, Homes of Hope celebrate their 25-year anniversary with the building of their 5000th house, and more ...

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YWAM Worker Martyred in South Western Asia

YWAM Frontiers reported this month that a missionary working with Youth With A Mission in South Western Asia was recently martyred for their faith:

Twelve Christian fellowships met this past week in a Muslim dominated town in Western South Asia to break bread together and be encouraged by their leader, “Joseph”, who had introduced most of them to Christ. A few days later, four masked gunmen in uniforms burst into Joseph’s home, took him outside, and shot him dead.

Joseph has worked in this area for many years to reach his people so that they, too, would know the Messiah that he so loved. Excited about the future and getting the Word of God to every person, Joseph boldly shared his faith with anyone who would listen. With a team, they have already distributed nearly 500,000 Bibles and over 100,000 JESUS movies to the people of his region. Following the teaching of Christ in an area where many live in great poverty, Joseph also helped by getting clean drinking water brought in, medical and dental services, and distributing solar lights to tens of thousands living in darkness without electricity.

As Christianity has spread across this region in the last 20 years, so has religious persecution. Although the ruling government is secular, religious groups frequently oppose one another, sometimes violently. Just three years ago, Joseph experienced this firsthand when a group of Muslim militants burst into his classroom, confiscating their Bibles, notes, and personal identifications. He was then arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned. When told to sign a letter recanting his faith, he refused. Instead, he shared the gospel in the jail until he was released.

During his imprisonment, Joseph meditated and spoke on Hebrews chapter 11 that tells of the tremendous faith of the saints of old during trials and tribulations. Pray for Joseph’s wife and three children and these twelve young Christian fellowships that are now fatherless. Pray to our heavenly Father for the remaining believers to continue to keep their faith, be strong, and demonstrate the love of God to those around them. Pray for the different religious groups in this region to live in peace.

Visit ywamfrontiers.com to find out more, and to find out how you can give a memorial gift to help fulfill Joseph's dream of sharing the gospel and distributing the Word of God to all in the unreached area that he was working.

Loren Cunningham turns 80, want to End Bible Poverty

When we asked Loren what he wanted for his birthday there was only one thing. It was not a car, nor a trip around the world (he’s done that), nor a gold watch. So what was it? He wants his YWAM family to commit to help end Bible poverty worldwide.

Professional linguists are hard at work translating Scripture for 2,195 language groups that do not have God’s Word. But there are an additional 1,859 languages that have no portion of the Bible - and NO ONE IS WORKING ON THEM.

There’s much that ordinary people can do to speed the process, doing oral translations which we can then give to the professionals to edit.