Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. Today, we have more ways to communicate than ever before.

A message can cross the world in seconds. Technology can translate our words, extend our reach, and help us do things that once seemed impossible. 

But making Jesus known has never been simply about how far a message can travel. It’s about people telling people about the One who came to us.

This week, we’re looking at what that calling means in a world where the tools keep changing, but the mission doesn’t.

In today’s edition:

🇧🇩 What happened when one believer refused to stop sharing Jesus

🤖 What AI will never become

🇵🇭 Why a Christian nation still needs the gospel 

When a Village Hears About Jesus 🇧🇩

Ripon became the first Christian in his Buddhist family about three years ago.

Since then, he has been sharing his faith and working with young people in his community in Bangladesh. Earlier this year, local Buddhist leaders summoned him and pressured him to renounce Christ and stop organizing Christian youth meetings.

Ripon refused.

But the opposition had an unexpected result. Ripon said that because of what happened, virtually everyone in his village now knows “there is someone called Jesus.”

Christians are a small minority in Bangladesh, and believers who leave another religion to follow Jesus can face significant pressure from their families and communities.

Yet believers like Ripon continue to make Jesus known.

The gospel can travel through many channels, but making Jesus known ultimately requires Christians willing to tell others about him. In Bangladesh, believers are doing exactly that, even when following Jesus comes at a cost.

How to Pray

🙏 Pray for courage and perseverance for Bangladeshi Christians facing pressure because they follow and share Christ.

🙏 Pray for protection and provision for believers separated from their families or communities because of their faith.

🙏 Pray that more people throughout Bangladesh would hear the gospel through the faithful witness of local Christians.

What AI Will Never Become 🤖

For about a week in September, the world wondered out loud if Artificial Intelligence might destroy us all. One AI researcher put the possibility at about 10 percent, within the next decade.

The media frenzy over the high profile warnings cooled, but the fears and uncertainty will continue. Even if AI doesn’t turn us all into paperclips, will it take our jobs? Massively alter our futures?

It’s not impossible.

But whatever AI becomes, there’s one thing it will never be: It will never be God. 

That’s an obvious fact for believers, but it’s good to remind ourselves. And it’s a good truth to tell those who don’t know Jesus yet. 

In fact, it’s an amazing opportunity. 

Because one of the most interesting dynamics about the AI discussion is how the language sounds apocalyptic. We’re pondering the end of the world and wondering how it will happen. 

But it seems like many people are more afraid of meeting their end by a computer than meeting their Maker at their end. 

The first thing could happen, but the latter certainly will. And that’s the meeting that matters the most. That’s the encounter we should be discussing with people anxious about what will happen to them in the next decade. That’s not unimportant, but the much bigger question is: What will happen to them in eternity?

This leads to a second important truth: Not only will AI never become God, it will never become human. Yes, it can compute information at an exponentially faster rate than the humans who feed it the data, but it will never be a person created in the image of God. No matter how human it sounds, it will never have a soul. 

That means our human tasks will always be important. Reading and thinking and writing and making things matter because God gave us those callings when he made us. 

And he also gave us another critical task: telling others about him. 

Making Jesus known isn’t a job for the algorithms. 

Thankfully, God does work through social media, and digital platforms, and websites and newsletters. These are good and useful tools. But they remain tools. 

Ultimately, disciples make disciples. That’s how God set it up. 

And there’s evidence that’s what people crave. In a world of endless screens and artificial interactions, many people long for something real, something better.

Friends, it doesn’t get any better, or more real, than the incarnation of Christ. 

Jesus was born into a real world and lived a real life. He probably carved real wood as a carpenter, and suffered real blisters when he walked miles to preach the gospel.

He touched real people with actual leprosy. He laid his own hands on cold corpses. He spit in his palms and rubbed mud into the eyes of the blind. He broke real bread and drank real wine. He held children in his arms. He wept with friends.

Jesus became earthy because he made the earth and he came to save it. 

He died on a cross made of real wood. He wore a crown of real thorns. He endured nails driven through his own flesh. He was laid in a grave made of real stone. And he came right out of it because he wasn’t just a man. 

He was God and man. He still is. 

He’s the King of glory, and he’s our flesh and blood in heaven. He wants us to join him, not just in spirit, but in our own flesh and blood on the day he returns.

This is great, good news, especially for a world wondering what lasts. 

The answer isn’t in the most powerful computer in the world. It’s in Jesus Christ. 

And for a world deeply anxious about all they don’t know, this might be the perfect moment to make Jesus known to them.

—Jamie Dean

A Christian Nation Still Needs the Gospel 🇵🇭

The Philippines is one of the most predominantly Christian countries in Asia. About 80% of Filipinos identify as Roman Catholic. But widespread familiarity with Christianity does not necessarily mean widespread understanding of the gospel.

Evangelical Christians remain a small minority, and churches across the country need pastors and leaders equipped to faithfully teach God’s Word. Radical partners with church leaders in East and Southeast Asia to strengthen biblical exposition and equip churches for the work of making disciples.

The Philippines reminds us that making Jesus known isn’t only about taking the gospel somewhere it has never been heard. It’s also about faithfully proclaiming Christ where his name has been known for generations.

How to Pray

🙏 Pray for Filipino pastors and church leaders to faithfully teach God’s Word and equip their churches to make disciples.

🙏 Pray for Filipinos who are familiar with Christianity but do not know Christ to hear and believe the gospel.

🙏 Pray for healthy churches throughout the Philippines to make Jesus known in their communities and beyond.

📍 Attention Worthy

📚 Amazon can sell you a book. It can’t pray with you. Independent Christian bookstores are finding new life by offering something harder to ship: conversation, community, and connection.

🛠️ Making things yourself still matters. The slow work of learning a craft may tell us something important about what it means to bear the image of a Creator. 

🖐️ A good translation should leave fingerprints. As AI makes centuries of Christian writing easier to translate, what disappears when the human translator does?

📤️ Share the Commission

Help more people learn, pray, and make Jesus known everywhere.

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Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. Measuring what we can see is easy.  How much we accomplished. How many people showed up. How quickly something grew. Whether the work we poured ourselves into produced the results we hoped for.

Those measurements aren’t necessarily bad. Sometimes they help us understand whether something is working. But they make poor answers to a much deeper question: What makes a life faithful?

The kingdom of God has never been particularly impressed by our spreadsheets.

Faithfulness is not always easy to measure, but it is always worth pursuing.

In today’s edition:

🇰🇷 When achievement carries too much weight

🍇 What our work can’t tell us

🇵🇬 Seventeen years for 230 people

A Church Between Generations 🇰🇷

South Korea has one of the most remarkable Christian stories in modern history.

Today, more than 80,000 Protestant churches are spread across the country, and Korean Christians have become a significant missionary-sending force around the world.

But that Christian legacy is less evident among younger generations. In 2021, 78% of South Koreans in their twenties reported having no religion, even as the country remained home to some of the largest churches in the world.

They are also growing up in a culture where the pressure to succeed can begin remarkably early. Education is intensely competitive, with families investing heavily in private tutoring and students competing for places at prestigious universities and, eventually, coveted careers.

Hard work and ambition are not the problem. But in a culture where achievement can carry enormous weight, the church has an opportunity to show another way of understanding who we are.

The challenge for South Korean churches is not simply preserving an extraordinary Christian legacy. It is discipling another generation to know and follow Jesus for themselves.

How to Pray

🙏 Pray for young South Koreans to encounter Jesus and find their identity in him.

🙏 Pray for churches to faithfully disciple younger generations rather than relying on the Christian legacy of previous ones.

🙏 Pray for Korean believers to pursue excellence in school and work without allowing achievement to determine their worth.

Don’t Ask the Fruit Who You Are 🍇 

Think about the last time you met someone new. After exchanging names, the question that usually comes next is, “What do you do?”

It’s a perfectly normal question. Our work tells people something about us. It gives them a glimpse into how we spend our days, what we care about, and what we’re good at. But somewhere along the way, it can become easy to answer a different question with the same information.

Who are you?

I’m a writer. A teacher. A parent. A pastor. A student. I lead this. I built that. I accomplished this.

There’s nothing wrong with working hard or wanting to do something meaningful with our lives. We should be mindful, however, not to ask our work to carry the weight of telling us what we’re worth.

Christians are not immune to this. We’re just very good at giving productivity a Christian vocabulary.

How much am I serving? How many people am I reaching? Am I sharing the gospel enough? Is my ministry growing? Am I doing enough for God?

These are not unimportant questions. Jesus calls us to obedience. He commands us to make disciples. He expects his people to bear fruit.

But in John 15, Jesus gives us an important order.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

A branch doesn’t produce fruit so that it can become connected to the vine. It produces fruit because it is connected to the vine.

Belonging comes before producing.

Jesus tells his disciples to remain, or abide, in him. The picture isn’t one of inactivity. Branches connected to healthy vines do something. They grow. They bear fruit. 

In fact, Jesus says that his Father is glorified when we “bear much fruit.”

But the branch never becomes the source of its own life.

That distinction matters.

Our belonging to Christ does not rise and fall with our output. We don’t make disciples, serve our churches, give generously, pursue holiness, or share the gospel so that God will finally consider us useful enough to belong to him.

We do these things because, in Christ, we already do.

That changes the way we work.

When the results are impressive, we don’t need them to prove that we matter. And when the results are small, slow, or almost impossible to see, we don’t have to assume our faithfulness was wasted.

Sometimes we’ll see the fruit of our work. Other times, we may never know what God did with our faithfulness. The outcome was never ours to control in the first place.

Our job is to remain close to Jesus and faithfully do what he has given us to do.

So perhaps the question isn’t, “Am I doing enough to matter?”

Maybe it’s simpler.

Am I abiding in Christ?

Then do the work he has put in front of you. 

Serve. Give. Go. Make disciples. Bear fruit.

Just don’t ask the fruit to tell you who you are.

Jesus already has.

—Camille Suazo

Seventeen Years for 230 People 🇵🇬

Would you spend 17 years translating the New Testament for 230 people?

That’s how long it took to complete the New Testament in Label, one of the smallest language groups SIL has worked with in Papua New Guinea. Along the way, one of the leading translators died, while another leader and language expert lost her sight. Still, the work continued.

In 2024, the Label New Testament was finally dedicated. Around 100 copies were purchased that day.

This year, SIL is celebrating 70 years of work in Papua New Guinea, one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. Since 1956, local communities and translation workers have helped complete New Testament translations in more than 230 of the country’s 800 languages.

Seventeen years of work for a language spoken by 230 people may not look efficient by ordinary measures. But the Label community reminds us that the value of making Scripture accessible cannot always be measured by scale. Every community should have the opportunity to hear and read God’s Word in a language they understand deeply.

How to Pray

🙏 Pray for translators and resources to reach communities still waiting to access Scripture in their heart language.

🙏 Pray that translated Scripture would be read, taught, and used to deepen discipleship and strengthen churches throughout Papua New Guinea.

🙏 Pray for local believers, translators, and gospel workers to remain faithful in the work God has given them, even when its fruit is slow or unseen.

📍 Attention Worthy

🌍 Good intentions don’t always lead to good missions. Rethinking how we show up can help us pursue partnership instead of control and make room for what God is already doing through others.

💼 Your job doesn’t have to be your dream job to be meaningful. Ordinary work can still be a place to faithfully serve God and the people around us.

🌱 We can’t manufacture the fruit of missions. Our responsibility is to faithfully sow the gospel while trusting God to bring growth.

📤️ Share the Commission

Help more people learn, pray, and make Jesus known everywhere.

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Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. It’s easy to look at the world and make assumptions about where the gospel is flourishing.

We see a country where churches are scarce and following Jesus is difficult, and wonder how the gospel could ever take root there. We see another where Christianity has shaped the culture for centuries and assume the work is already done.

But God’s kingdom has never fit neatly inside our expectations.

He is at work in places we may be tempted to overlook, drawing people to himself from backgrounds, cultures, and nations very different from our own. And he reminds us that familiarity with Christianity is never a substitute for knowing Christ personally.

The good news is that Jesus is gathering people from far and wide. And one day, we’ll see just how much bigger his kingdom is than the borders we drew around it.

In today’s edition:

🇹🇲 How the gospel endures in Turkmenistan

🚪 Why heaven’s guest list may surprise you

🇪🇹 How to pray for healthy local churches in Ethiopia

From Every Direction 🇹🇲

Turkmenistan is one of the most restrictive countries in the world for religious freedom. More than 90 percent of its population is Muslim, and the government tightly controls religious life. Religious communities face restrictions on gathering, registration, religious education, and the distribution of religious literature.

Following Jesus in Turkmenistan can be difficult, but believers continue to share the gospel faithfully.

The gospel has ancient roots in this part of Central Asia, and today small communities of believers continue to follow Christ despite significant restrictions. Their presence can be easy to overlook in a country where the visible church is so small.

Millions of people in Turkmenistan still have little access to the gospel. Yet even under these restrictions, gospel witness continues. The church may be small and largely hidden from the rest of us, but the gospel has not disappeared.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for believers in Turkmenistan to remain faithful to Christ amid government restrictions and social pressure.

🙏🏼 Pray for greater access to Scripture and the gospel, especially among people who have had little opportunity to hear about Jesus.

🙏🏼 Pray for local believers to have wisdom and courage as they make Jesus known to their families, friends, and communities.

Heaven Will Surprise You ☁️

A man once asked Jesus a question that sounds generous until you find out who was asking.

"Lord, will only a few be saved?" (Luke 13:23)

You may hear concern in that. Worry for everybody who might end up outside. But this man wasn't worried. He was fishing. The rabbinic teaching of his day said all Israel had a share in the world to come. He had the bloodline, the law, the temple, the history. He wasn't asking if he was in. He wanted Jesus to confirm that most other people were out.

Jesus gives a different answer.

"Strive to enter through the narrow door, because many will try to enter and will not be able."

The Greek behind "strive" is agonizomai. We get "agonize" from it. 

Now, by that Jesus doesn’t mean earn your salvation. Rather, he's saying the question of your salvation should keep you up at night. Your soul is not something to put on the backburner while you deal with the comings and goings of daily life. And specifically, just because you’re a part of Israel doesn’t mean you get a free ticket to his eternal kingdom.

In fact, it’s not just Israel who has a share in the world to come. Look at what Jesus says only a few verses later,

"People will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at table in the kingdom of God."

Well, that's the whole compass, isn’t it? The ones this man had already written off are the ones being seated, served, welcomed like family. Meanwhile some who spent their whole lives near the truth end up outside the door, knocking, saying "we ate and drank in your presence, you taught in our streets," and hearing back, "I do not know where you come from."

Jesus’s expectations for who will be in his kingdom are a bit backwards. In his own words: "There are last who will be first, and first who will be last."

Read Revelation 7 and you'll see that table finished. Every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne. John didn't invent that scene. Jesus was already sketching it on a dusty road toward Jerusalem, years before the cross, to a crowd who found it offensive.

So what makes the door narrow?

Well, it’s not because of who you are (I’m saved because I’m a Jew! Or because I was born in the right place! Or because I’ve gone to church my whole life!). 

What makes the door narrow is who he is. "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved." One Savior, one entrance. That's narrow enough to kill your pride, because nobody gets in on a family name, a baptism certificate, a good record, or solid theology. It's also the widest invitation ever offered, because if the door has nothing to do with your résumé, then nothing in your past can disqualify you either.

Exclusive and open at the same time. One way in, and anyone may come.

And if that door is real, it should be changing us now.

It changes how we pray. Praying for the nations stops being a slot in a meeting and starts being homesickness for people we haven't met yet.

It changes how we give. Some of the people at that table will only hear about Jesus because somebody sent the news to a place they'd never visit and funded a work they'd never see finished.

It changes how we welcome others. If the kingdom is full of people we never would have put on the list, then the person who doesn't fit our church, our culture, our language, our politics is not a problem to manage. They may be a preview.

And it changes what we tolerate in ourselves. Nearness is not the same as belonging. Jesus never says the door is hard to open. He says the danger is standing beside it your whole life without ever walking through.

So ask yourself the question this passage is actually asking. Not "how many will be saved," but "what am I trusting to get me in?"

—Steven Morales

An Ancient Church Under Pressure 🇪🇹

Christianity has deep roots in Ethiopia. Accounts of the gospel reaching the region stretch back to the first century, and Christianity became established there in the fourth century. Today, more than half of Ethiopia’s population identifies as Christian, making the faith an enduring part of the country’s history and culture.  

But Ethiopia continues to face significant physical and spiritual needs.

Violence and civil unrest have affected communities across the country, displacing families and affecting Christians in several regions. In some areas, believers also face religious persecution and pressure. Protestant believers who convert from Muslim or Orthodox backgrounds can experience pressure and isolation from their families and communities.  

Yet churches are continuing to make Jesus known. Radical’s partners are working alongside local believers to plant healthy churches and equip leaders who can serve churches in cities across the country. In a nation with a long Christian history, the need remains for Scripture to be clearly preached and for more Ethiopians to know the peace and salvation found in Christ.  

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for peace and protection for Ethiopians affected by violence, persecution, and displacement.

🙏🏼 Pray for strong, healthy churches where Scripture is preached clearly and believers are equipped to make Jesus known.

🙏🏼 Pray for Radical’s partners and local church leaders as they plant churches, develop future leaders, and share the gospel throughout Ethiopia.

📍 Attention Worthy

🫢 Our laughter shapes us more than we might think. What we find funny can reveal something about how we see and love the people around us.

🌏 The global church has much to teach us about following Jesus. Staying connected to believers across cultures can deepen and strengthen our own faith.

🗣️ Sharing the gospel is good for our souls, too. As we tell others about Christ, we’re reminded again of just how satisfying he is.

Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. We know more about what is happening around the world than almost any generation before us. Within minutes, we can learn about a war across the ocean, a disaster unfolding thousands of miles away, or another tragedy closer to home.

But knowing more doesn’t always mean seeing more clearly.

The suffering we encounter is real, and Christians shouldn’t look away from it. We grieve. We pray. We act. But what we can see is never the whole story. Even in places marked by suffering, opposition, and uncertainty, God is at work in ways that may never reach us.

So we can pay attention to a broken world without being overcome by it. The nations may rage, but God keeps building his kingdom.

In today’s edition:

🇩🇿 Why the story of the church in Algeria is bigger than persecution

📱 What your news feed can never show you about God’s kingdom

🇨🇦 How to pray for communities affected by Canada’s wildfires

The Church You Won’t See in the Headlines 🇩🇿

In Algeria, following Jesus can come at a cost. Nearly all Protestant churches remain closed after years of government restrictions, and believers can face legal pressure for gathering or sharing their faith. Christians from Muslim backgrounds may also experience rejection from their families and communities.

But that isn’t the whole story.

Across Algeria, believers continue gathering in homes, sharing Jesus, and discipling others. Radical’s partners are discipling Muslim-background believers and equipping emerging leaders to start discipleship groups and plant churches. 

Much of this will never make a headline. Most of us will never know their names.

But God does.

Every quiet gathering. Every conversation about Jesus. Every believer choosing faithfulness when following Christ is costly. The news we hear from Algeria may tell us where the church faces pressure, but it cannot show us everything God is doing there. He is building his church through believers the rest of the world may never see.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for Algerian believers to remain faithful as they follow Jesus amid restrictions and opposition.

🙏🏼 Pray for Radical’s partners as they disciple Muslim-background believers and equip Algerian church leaders with a strong biblical foundation.

🙏🏼 Pray that God would use ordinary acts of faithfulness to make Jesus known and strengthen his church throughout Algeria.

The Kingdom is Bigger Than Your News Feed 📱

In the first volume of a book of prayers called Every Moment Holy, author Douglas McKelvey includes an unexpected addition: “A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information.”

McKelvey writes about the anxiety of absorbing “more grief, O Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage with compassion.”

We know what he means, don’t we?

Some days, it feels like our news feeds aren’t feeding us but consuming us: Another war breaks out. Another shooting kills a child. Another disease kills a mother. Another earthquake destroys a city. Another church folds. Another pastor falls. 

Too. Much. Information.

And it would be too much news, if it was the only news. But, of course, we know there’s much more.

Wars do break out in the Middle East, but persecuted Christians in Iran risk their safety to share a loaf of bread and the Bread of Life with their frightened neighbors.

A new strain of Ebola does break out in the Congo, but missionaries and Christian medical workers risk their own lives to help the dying. 

Well known pastors fall under scandal, but across the ocean, an indigenous pastor prepares to take the gospel to an unreached province in China. 

These are believers the vast majority of us will never meet in places most of us will never go. Their names will never hit our news feeds. But their Father in heaven sees them. He knows them each by name. And he uses them to build his kingdom. A kingdom that’s not of this world.

It’s why the Apostle Paul can endure persecution and also say: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). 

Because Jesus has already overcome for us.

This doesn’t mean we won’t face sorrow. Jesus promised his disciples they would have trouble in this world. But he also told them: “Take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Christ’s life, his death, and his resurrection have overcome all that threatens to overcome us. 

So, we can read our news feeds with legitimate concern and sadness. We can grieve and lament. We can pray and we can act. But we can also trust. Trust that Christ’s kingdom is much bigger than our news feeds. And that Jesus is never wringing his hands. 

As McKelvey also writes: 

“But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted by such news of cruelty and terror and war. You are neither anxious or overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung upon the cross, and you carry it still.”

—Jamie Dean

Waiting to Go Home 🇨🇦

Across Canada, wildfires have forced thousands of people from their homes this summer. In British Columbia alone, more than 10,000 people remained under evacuation orders as of this week, while fires have destroyed homes and displaced entire communities. First Nations communities have been particularly affected, with thousands of Indigenous people evacuated over the course of the wildfire season.  

Behind those numbers are families waiting to return home, people discovering what the fires have taken, and communities beginning the long work of recovery. Firefighters and emergency workers continue protecting communities as families face the uncertainty of what comes next.

Christians don’t encounter suffering as information alone. We bring the people behind it before a God who knows each of them by name, and we look for opportunities to love our neighbors in the middle of their need.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for families who have been displaced or lost homes and livelihoods, especially those facing a long and uncertain recovery.

🙏🏼 Pray for firefighters, first responders, and emergency workers continuing to protect communities across Canada.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches and believers in affected areas to care generously for their neighbors and point those who are suffering to the hope of Christ.

📍 Attention Worthy

🙏🏼 Can structure actually make your prayers more spontaneous? Written prayers and rhythms don’t have to compete with heartfelt prayer. They can expand our vocabulary, shape our desires, and teach us to pray more freely.

🌍 Acts isn’t a missionary playbook, but it still shapes how we pursue the Great Commission. Its patterns point us toward a Scripture-defined gospel, churches that glorify God, and a mission that extends to all peoples.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Where have all the youth pastors gone? As fewer churches employ dedicated youth pastors, the responsibility of discipling teenagers increasingly falls to senior pastors, parents, and the wider church—and that may not be entirely a bad thing.

Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. We have plenty of ways to measure impact. Followers. Views. Growth. Reach. Attendance. Achievement. And without realizing it, those measurements can become the way we measure our own significance too.

But Scripture gives us a very different picture of the people God uses. Shepherd boys. Small armies. Ordinary disciples. Men and women whose names most of the world will never know.

God has never needed impressive people to accomplish his purposes. Our calling is not to become important enough for God to use, but to be faithful with whatever opportunity he has put in front of us—and trust him with the outcome.

In today’s edition:

🇲🇳 What Mongolia’s young church can teach us about faithfulness

👀 Why you don’t need to be impressive for God to use you

🇨🇴 How to pray for families in Colombia after a devastating earthquake

What God Can Do With a Few 🇲🇳

When Mongolia emerged from decades of communist rule in the early 1990s, only a handful of Christians were known to live there. Today, tens of thousands of Mongolians identify as Protestant Christians, and hundreds of churches have taken root across the country.

Yet Mongolia remains a place of significant gospel need. 

Many people, particularly outside major population centers, still have little access to the gospel. Churches can also face regulatory challenges as they register, gather, and serve. What began with almost nothing visible has become a young church faithfully carrying forward the gospel it received.

But the numbers aren’t what make that faithfulness significant. Those first believers could not know what God would do through their witness. They simply had opportunities to make Jesus known and took them. Faithfulness doesn’t require knowing what God will do with it. The outcome belongs to him.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for Mongolian believers to faithfully pass the gospel on to the next generation.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches to navigate regulatory challenges with wisdom and perseverance as they gather and serve.

🙏🏼 Pray that more Mongolians, especially those with little access to the gospel, would hear about Jesus through faithful local believers.

God Doesn’t Need You to Be Impressive 👀

YouTube videos with over a million views. Social media influencers with over 100,000 followers. Rapid economic growth with AI. Playing in a World Cup final with over 60 million people globally watching.

And then there’s me. 

I don’t know how to upload a video onto YouTube and if I did, no one would watch it. 

I don’t understand computer science enough to lead a growing AI company. 

I’m coaching a church soccer league, and, sorry to say it, none of those kids will ever be in a World Cup final. 

And I’m just trying to get my kids to listen to me, much less have “influence” over    hundreds of thousands of people on the internet. 

Am I having any impact on this world? Does my life count? 

Maybe it’s not just me feeling that way. Maybe you see yourself there too. Maybe you’re also tempted to feel insignificant because you don’t fit into the mold of what the world counts as significant.

But this isn’t what the Bible says. The Bible is clear that God uses the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27). 

God used a shepherd boy—a boy!—to defeat an undefeated, military-trained giant (1 Sam 17). God used an army of 300 under the leadership of Gideon and defeated an “innumerable” army of the Midianites (Judges 7). God used a slave girl to lead a foreign army commander to faith (2 Kings 5). 

God says his kingdom is like a mustard seed that starts small but grows to be the largest tree; he says his kingdom is like leaven that starts unnoticed yet eventually permeates the whole.

And isn’t this the pattern God always works by? 

God sent his Son as a baby, born to ordinary parents and raised in the despised town of Nazareth. Yet Jesus, rejected by the majority, sparked a silent revolution that has continued to this day. The mustard seed continues to grow, the leaven continues to spread. And it does so through weak and insignificant people being faithful in small things.

If God’s kingdom grew the way Amazon, Apple, or Tesla grew then God wouldn’t get the glory. These industries grow by the strength, strategies and tactics of men. But God has designed it so that his kingdom grows through the weakness of his followers, so that God alone can get the praise and glory. 

Look at the twelve disciples. A doubter. A tax collector. One who would deny him. One who would betray him. And yet, through these disciples the church was born and continues to this day through people like them. So if you think you’re too weak to be significant, to have any impact for the Lord, you’re actually perfectly qualified, because it is God who makes us sufficient for the task (2 Cor 3:5).

While saying God uses the weak, Scripture is also clear that God uses the holy. It is important to remind ourselves that we ought to fight to live holy lives for God so we can be more useful for God (2 Tim 2:21).

So what should you do? Be faithful and make Jesus known. Don’t think you’re too weak. Don’t think “I’m not eloquent enough to share the gospel,” “I don’t know enough of the Bible to tell people about Jesus,” “My past is too sinful to be used by God,” “I’m too young to be used for Jesus,” “I’m not important enough for people to listen to me.” These are all lies. 

My co-pastor recently told me about his weak faithfulness and how God surprised him through it. He was working at his office and some contractors came by and were doing some work in his building. He wanted to share the gospel with them, but didn’t know how and was fumbling a little as he tried to strike up conversation. As their work drew to a close at the end of the day, he asked if he could give them a Bible, which they accepted. After exchanging contact information, my friend returned home thinking he had “blown it,” was too “weak” in his efforts, and missed, yet again, a good opportunity to share the gospel.

However, he received an email the next day. 

It was from the contractor who had been working in his office. The contractor was Turkish and recounted that he had a dream when he was a teenager, a dream about Jesus. He wanted to know if he could tell the dream to my friend so that my friend could help explain the meaning of the dream to him and who Jesus was. This dream happened over three decades ago, and yet, simply because my friend was faithful and gave him a Bible (an act he thought at the time was weak), this Turkish man is now reaching out, asking to be told more about Jesus!

All that to say, this is another instance of God shaming the strong in the world by using the weak. We never know what God will do, but he is always acting for his own glory. 

And so, today, this week, and forevermore, do not be ashamed of being weak and insignificant. You are a prime candidate to be used by God. 

Make Jesus known. Tell someone, with fumbling words, about what he has done for you. Give someone a Bible. God is not asking you to be almighty or powerful. 

The end is not up to you. He will accomplish his purposes. But he will accomplish them through you in your weakness. He is inviting you into the joy of being faithful and watching him overcome the strong things in the world, growing his unstoppable church through what seems weak to the world.

—Jonny Atkinson

In the Aftermath 🇨🇴

Earlier this week, a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia, leaving widespread destruction in its wake. Hundreds have died, thousands have been reported missing, and rescue workers continue searching for survivors beneath collapsed buildings.

For families across affected communities, life changed in a matter of seconds. Some are waiting for news of loved ones. Others are grieving, injured, or suddenly without a home. As rescue and relief efforts continue, communities are facing urgent needs for shelter, medical care, clean water, and other basic necessities.

In moments like this, faithfulness can look remarkably ordinary: showing up, providing food or shelter, comforting a grieving family, or remaining present long after the world’s attention moves elsewhere. As local churches respond, they have an opportunity to care for people in both practical and spiritual ways, pointing those who are suffering to the hope of Christ.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for survivors, the injured, grieving families, and those still waiting for news of missing loved ones.

🙏🏼 Pray for rescue workers and relief organizations as they search for survivors and provide urgently needed care.

🙏🏼 Pray for Colombian churches to faithfully serve affected communities with compassion, generosity, and the hope of Christ.

📍 Attention Worthy

🛠️ Your faithful work matters to God. Your good works cannot earn your salvation, but that doesn’t make them worthless. In Christ, God delights in the Spirit-produced obedience of his children.

🧠 Young people are already learning theology. Songs, social media, and culture are shaping what they believe about God. Here are three ways churches can help them discover that good theology is practical, exciting, and worshipful.

📅 Don’t spend today living for tomorrow. Planning has its place, but our obsession with what comes next can make us miss the life God has given us now—and the eternity he calls us to hope in.

📤️ Share the Commission

Help more people learn, pray, and make Jesus known everywhere.

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Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. We all have something we instinctively reach for when life feels uncertain. For some of us, it is money. For others, it is a carefully made plan, a steady job, good health, the approval of someone we love, or simply the feeling that we are still in control. These can all be good gifts. 

But what we run to for refuge reveals what we treasure most. Good gifts become fragile refuges when we ask them to give us the safety, satisfaction, or peace that only Jesus can provide.

In today’s edition:

🇱🇦 Why believers in Laos risk security to follow Christ

🤏🏼 What the rich fool misunderstood about having enough

🇸🇸 How churches in South Sudan offer hope amid instability

When Christ Is Worth More 🇱🇦

For many believers in Laos, following Jesus can come at a real cost. 

Some Christians face pressure from local authorities or their own communities to renounce their faith. Others have been cast out of their villages or lost jobs. And many have seen churches restricted simply because they chose to follow Christ.

Still, God continues strengthening his church.

Through their costly faithfulness, many believers in Laos show what their lives are built upon. They have discovered that even when earthly security becomes uncertain, Christ remains a treasure no one can take away.

Their faith reminds us that the gospel is not merely something to add to an already comfortable life. It is worth more than comfort or security because the refuge we have in Christ is greater than anything we could possibly lose.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for believers in Laos to remain steadfast as they face pressure for following Jesus.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches to continue growing with wisdom, courage, and faithful witness throughout the country.

🙏🏼 Pray that many in Laos would discover the lasting hope and security found in Christ alone.

“Just a Little More” Will Never Be Enough 🤏🏼

Gaby and I got married young. We were both in college and money was tight. I remember regularly walking to a closed restaurant late at night just to sit on the curb outside and use the Wi-Fi. We picked up furniture people had left by the street, ate meals with older couples from church, and lived from one paycheck to the next. 

And honestly, we were happy. 

But as the years went by, the bills grew, our plans got bigger, and money started to feel like the answer to everything. I remember telling Gaby, “I don’t want to be rich. I just want enough so we can finally stop worrying.” It sounded reasonable. But hidden inside that desire was a dangerous assumption: that a little more money could give us the safety, satisfaction, and peace we were really looking for.

That is the danger Jesus exposed in Luke 12. 

A man interrupted him to demand help securing an inheritance. Perhaps he had even been treated unfairly, but this man wasn’t asking for a fair trial. He had already come to his own conclusion: what was his brother’s belonged to him.

Jesus saw beneath the dispute to the belief driving it. This man thought his life would be better, fuller, and more secure if he could only get what he believed belonged to him.

Jesus warned the crowd, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

Then he told a story about a wealthy farmer whose land produced an extraordinary harvest. The man had more than he could store, so he planned to build larger barns. His problem was not that he worked hard, planned ahead, or received an abundant crop. His folly was treating his abundance as a refuge.

He spoke to his soul as though full barns could guarantee peace: “You have enough for many years. Relax. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” But that very night, he died.

The man had planned for every possibility except the one certainty he could not control. His barns were full, but they could not hold his life. He had accumulated enough to feel secure, but not enough to keep death outside the door.

We may never build literal barns, but we build other kinds of shelters. 

We imagine a larger savings account will quiet every fear. We believe a better job will settle our sense of worth. We expect a relationship, a house, a certain lifestyle, or the approval of others to make us complete. These are often good gifts. The problem begins when we place the weight of our souls upon them.

Created things are fragile foundations. Money can disappear. Health can fail. Careers can change. People can disappoint us or be taken from us. And even when we receive exactly what we wanted, the satisfaction rarely lasts. “Enough” remains beyond our reach.

This does not mean we should distrust every pleasure or feel guilty for enjoying God’s gifts. Scripture gives us a better way than either worshiping the world or withdrawing from it. Ecclesiastes tells us to eat, drink, work, and enjoy what God has given because these things are gifts from His hand.

A gift can be deeply enjoyed without being asked to save us.

That distinction changes everything. When we treat life as something we must secure for ourselves, we become anxious, possessive, and dissatisfied. We clutch what we have because we believe our peace depends upon keeping it. But when we receive life as a gift, our hands can remain open. We can enjoy what God gives without demanding that it last forever. We can also share it because we no longer see ourselves as owners but as grateful stewards.

Jesus calls this being “rich toward God.” 

It is not measured by how little or how much we possess. It is a life rooted in the Giver rather than the gifts—a life that trusts God enough to receive with gratitude, give with generosity, and release without despair.

This trust is not naïve. Some fears are real. Bills arrive. Bodies weaken. Futures remain uncertain. Christianity does not ask us to pretend these things do not hurt. It asks us to remember that none of them has the final word.

Our deepest safety cannot be taken from us because it rests in Christ. 

Our deepest satisfaction is not something we purchase or achieve; it is found in knowing him. 

Our peace does not come from controlling tomorrow, but from belonging to the One who already stands there.

Everything in this world will eventually leave our hands. But those who belong to Jesus will not be left empty. Christ entered death and came out the other side. Because he lives, our lives are no longer defined by what we can preserve before death arrives.

So enjoy the gifts. Thank God for them. Use them well. Share them freely. 

But do not build your refuge out of anything you will one day have to leave behind.

—Steven Morales

When Every Earthly Refuge Feels Fragile 🇸🇸

In South Sudan, uncertainty is a familiar reality. 

Ongoing political tensions, displacement, food insecurity, and reduced humanitarian aid continue affecting millions of people across the country. For many families, the future can feel as uncertain as the present.

Even then, churches continue serving their neighbors and proclaiming the hope of the gospel.

Across South Sudan, believers are caring for displaced families, pursuing reconciliation in divided communities, and faithfully proclaiming the gospel. In a place where earthly security has repeatedly proven fragile, the church continues pointing people to the only refuge that cannot be shaken.

A believer’s hope is not built on stable circumstances but on a faithful Savior. Even when peace feels distant and tomorrow is uncertain, Christ remains the same, and his church continues bearing witness to that hope.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for peace, wisdom, and lasting stability throughout South Sudan.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches as they care for vulnerable families, pursue reconciliation, and faithfully share the hope of the gospel.

🙏🏼 Pray that many in South Sudan would find lasting refuge in Christ, even when every earthly source of security feels uncertain.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Everyday Radical is back. This week, David and Austin are joined by Steven for a conversation about persecution, storytelling, and what it means to remember suffering believers as though we were there with them.

• Barnabas and the ministry of stepping back. Faithfulness isn’t always found in leading from the front. Sometimes the greatest impact comes from helping others flourish.

• Have you lost your hunger for Scripture? Bible neglect is often a heart issue before it’s a habit issue. But God delights in restoring our appetite for his Word.

📤️ Share the Commission

Help more people learn, pray, and make Jesus known everywhere.

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Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. Waiting has a way of making us think nothing is happening. We wait for prayers to be answered, circumstances to change, or doors to open, and it can be tempting to mistake God’s silence for his absence.

But Romans 8 invites us to see waiting differently. While we often focus on what we cannot yet see, God is already accomplishing his purposes. The question is not whether he is working, but whether we will trust him while we wait.

In today’s edition:

🇨🇺 Why hope remains in Cuba, even when the lights keep going out.

📖 Five reminders from Romans 8 for seasons of waiting.

🇯🇵 Why years of faithful ministry in Japan remind us that God’s work is not measured by immediate results. 

The Lights Go Out, But Hope Remains 🇨🇺

For many families in Cuba, uncertainty has become part of everyday life. 

In just 10 days, the country has experienced three nationwide power-grid collapses, leaving millions without electricity and disrupting hospitals, transportation, communications, and access to clean water. Some families now keep their refrigerators nearly empty because they expect food to spoil. Others sleep on rooftops to escape the heat when fans and air conditioners fall silent.

And in the midst of that, life goes on. Neighbors gather around a single generator-powered television to watch a World Cup match together. Churches continue meeting. Believers continue serving their communities. Even when darkness lingers, the light of the gospel has not gone out.

Waiting does not mean God is absent. While many in Cuba wait for electricity, medicine, stability, and relief, God is still sustaining his people and building his church.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for Cuban families facing repeated power outages, economic hardship, and daily uncertainty.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches to continue serving their communities with hope, generosity, and endurance.

🙏🏼 Pray that many in Cuba would encounter the unchanging hope of Christ, even as they wait for circumstances to improve.

Childlike Faith in Seasons of Waiting ⏳

There’s a kind of childlike faith that trusts what his father is doing even when he doesn’t understand. At the same time, there’s a kind of childish faith that doubts what his father is doing because he presumes to know what’s best.

I am sad to admit that sometimes my faith is more childish than childlike, particularly in seasons of waiting. 

When I’m asking questions that start with Why? or How long?, often I’m doing so as if I have a solution I’m waiting for God to implement instead of asking these questions knowing I have a Savior who is working in ways I cannot see.

How do we cultivate a childlike faith in seasons of waiting? Here are five brief but significant reminders specifically flowing from God’s Word in Romans 8.

1. Remember that God is sovereign over everyone and everything.

In Romans 8:20, Paul writes how God subjected creation to futility “in hope.” 

In other words, we can be confident that even on hard days, God is working toward good ends. In fact, Romans 8:28 says God is working like this in “all things.” 

Do you know what the Greek word for “all things” means in that verse? It means “all things.” God is sovereign over everyone and everything, which means we can be confident that God ultimately has a good purpose in everything for everyone who trusts in Him.

2. Remember that God loves you more than you know.

“Predestined” is a word that causes a lot of confusion and even controversy among Christians. But what a beautiful word this is and what stunning truth it communicates: that God purposes to adopt us as his children before he even spoke the world into being. 

If he has loved you from eternity past, surely you can trust that he loves you in the present. When we’re waiting, let’s never lose sight of the wonder that God is for us.

3. Remember that God loves others more than you do.

Especially when we’re waiting (and longing!) to see God’s grace in someone else’s life whom we love, it’s good to remember that God doesn’t just love us. He loves them. 

If we’re not careful, we can start to convince ourselves that we love others more than God does, as if we know better than God what is best for them. But we don’t. 

Our love for others pales in comparison to the love of the One who formed them fearfully and wonderfully in his image. Whenever we think our love is greater than God’s, it’s good to pause and meditate on Romans 8:38-39.

4. Remember that God is the goal.

Often, we may start thinking that the goal is resolution of a certain circumstance or fulfillment of a certain dream. But circumstances and dreams in this world are not sufficient to satisfy our souls. 

Romans 8 reminds us, through powerful imagery of our adoption as sons and daughters of God, that the ultimate goal for which we live is full, final, complete, consummate redemption from sin, and reconciliation with God. And on that day when our faith turns to sight, we will not regret waiting on him.

5. Remember that God is at work.

Romans 8 is filled with ways that God is working by his Spirit in our lives, helping us in every way we need and interceding for us in every moment we face. And as we’ve already seen, he’s doing that as he’s working everything together for our good. 

As we wait and wonder why and for how long, let’s pray with faith in who God is, what God is doing, what God can do, and what God will do.

I sincerely can’t imagine waiting without these truths from Romans 8 (and all over Scripture). Let’s hold on to them with childlike faith as we wait. And let’s give our lives to making these truths known in a world where billions of people are waiting to hear them. 

—David Platt

When Faithfulness Looks Small 🇯🇵

In Japan, waiting rarely makes headlines. Many churches remain small, and some pastors spend years—even decades—faithfully preaching the gospel without seeing the kind of visible growth many Christians hope for. 

At the same time, Japan continues to wrestle with an aging population, increasing loneliness, and deep spiritual need. In a country where fewer than 1% of people profess faith in Christ, gospel work often unfolds quietly, one conversation and one relationship at a time.

But God’s work has never been measured by visible results alone.

While believers faithfully sow the gospel, God is at work in ways no one can fully see. The same God who brings the harvest is sustaining pastors, strengthening churches, and drawing people to himself in his perfect timing. 

Waiting is not evidence that God has stopped working. Sometimes his work is taking root long before we can see it.

How to Pray:
🙏🏼 Pray for pastors and churches in Japan to remain encouraged as they faithfully proclaim Christ year after year.

🙏🏼 Pray for those struggling with loneliness, isolation, and spiritual emptiness—that many would encounter the hope of the gospel.

🙏🏼 Pray that God would continue drawing people to himself and strengthening his church throughout Japan.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Help the next generation make Jesus known everywhere. The Pray the World Family Pack gives families practical ways to learn about the nations and pray for them together.

• God’s love is deeper than we often realize. A richer understanding of his love changes the way we trust him, especially when life feels uncertain.

• If the Bible is always in our pocket, why memorize it? Hiding God’s Word in our hearts offers something our smartphones never can.

Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. For a few weeks, the world’s attention is fixed on the crowd. Stadiums fill. Flags wave. Millions watch the same moments and celebrate alongside people they may never meet.

But the crowd is not the only place people can disappear. Sometimes they disappear inside headlines, casualty counts, or the ordinary machinery of public life.

Scripture teaches us to look closer. Jesus was never captivated by crowds in the way we are. He didn’t just see the crowd; he saw the people within it. And so should we.

In today’s edition:

🇻🇪 Why Venezuela’s rising death toll must never make us forget the people inside the numbers.

👀 Why Jesus never saw a crowd without seeing the individuals inside it.

🇦🇪 Why Christian witness in the UAE often grows quietly, one relationship at a time.

When People Disappear Into Numbers 🇻🇪

_{AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos - Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved}

Venezuela is grieving after devastating earthquakes struck on June 24, bringing destruction on a scale that is hard to comprehend. Reports now place the death toll above 1,900, with more than 10,000 injured and vast numbers of people in need of shelter, medical care, water, and sanitation.

In the aftermath, families have stood beside collapsed buildings listening for any sign of life, while rescuers have searched day and night for survivors. Moments like this can turn people into statistics if we are not careful. But every number represents a life, a family, a familiar home that disappeared in seconds.

Even in deep sorrow, God has not abandoned Venezuela. Most of us will never put boots on the ground in a moment like this, but our prayers are not falling on deaf ears. The God we serve listens, sees, and answers.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for survivors, the injured, and families still waiting for news of loved ones.

🙏🏼 Pray for local churches to show the love of Christ through practical help, compassion, and steady presence.

🙏🏼 Pray that many in Venezuela would encounter the hope of Jesus in the midst of grief and disruption.

The Crowd Is Not the Mission 👤

Global events. Viral Videos. Megachurches. The large always seems impressive and exciting. Cultural moments or political movements can mobilize the masses. 

Bigger numbers must mean bigger impact and thus bigger significance, right? 

Crowds do have an inherent beauty and utility. Many people are seeing the beauty of large groups from countries all over the world gathering for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Movements can connect and unite people. Lives can be improved as valuable insights are shared to more people by social-media influencers to their thousands of followers. 

And yet, moments and movements can sweep over us, giving us a thrill without genuine, valuable, lasting impact upon our lives. Being part of the crowd can generate a feeling of hype, but also a sense of being lost in the crowd.

This is because we are inescapably relational beings designed for a personal touch. And as humans, we have a limit for the number of meaningful personal relationships that we can have. Dunbar’s number, a standard in sociology, puts this number at 150. And even within that number, a human typically only has fifteen to twenty relationships that are close enough to offer valuable emotional and practical support.

We were made for personal human connection that a crowd cannot satisfy. 

No matter how many online friends you have, you only have one mother who shaped you. You only have one father who raised you. You only have a few siblings, a few co-workers, a few neighbors, a few good friends. You can probably point to less than five mentors or teachers who have left a permanent impression upon you. You were likely led to Christ by one person. You have been deeply shaped in seemingly insignificant ways by personal relationships in your life as people have invested their time in you.

How then, should Christians interact with the crowds? When a cultural moment happens, or a national crisis strikes, what opportunity is presenting itself? What is faithful Christian obedience in such a setting? 

As always, Jesus is both our Savior and our example. 

Jesus certainly drew crowds, but he was not a crowd pleaser. In John 6, Jesus did not give the crowds what they wanted, and his truthful words caused the crowd to grow disinterested in him and leave him.

Jesus did speak to crowds, he did want his message to go to the masses, but he also had time for the individual in the crowd. Jesus, in the middle of a crowd, stopped to speak to the woman with the issue of blood after she touched his cloak seeking healing (Lk 8:46). Though surrounded by a crowd, when Jairus came and pleaded for his daughter’s life, Jesus dropped everything and went to Jairus’s house to help (Lk 8:42). 

When Jesus’s teaching was interrupted by four men lowering their friends through a roof he pivoted and addressed the paralyzed man (Lk 5:20). As Jesus walked with a crowd entering Jericho, he noticed Zacchaeus in the tree and invited himself to Zacchaeus’s house (Lk 19:5). 

When Jesus descended the mountain after his transfiguration “a great crowd met him" but a “man from the crowd” begged Jesus to look at his sick and only son, resulting in Jesus healing the boy and giving him back to his father (Lk 9:37–42).

Do you see the pattern? 

Crowds are unavoidable. Crowds will gather. 

But the wise notice that crowds are made up of individuals. 

Deep impact upon lives happens when individuals are given attention, compassion, and a gospel witness. Jesus did minister to the crowds. No doubt many who heard Jesus’s message had their lives changed. But the ministry of Jesus was largely a ministry to individuals. He didn’t speak to crowds in a general sense, rather he spoke and ministered to specific individuals who happened to have gathered as a crowd. 

Would you rather have 500,000 followers whom you “influence” on your social media account, or five deep relationships in which you play a truly life-shaping role? 

There is nothing wrong with the crowd, Jesus did minister to the crowds. But he never forgot the individual. Ministering to the crowds has little lasting value if it does not reach the individual.

Whatever opportunity you find yourself in, whether God grants you an opportunity to speak to a crowd or to be a part of the crowd, seek the individual in the crowd. 

Each person has their story, their sorrows, their joys, their needs. Don’t be attracted by the size or the hype of a movement, and don’t underestimate your “influence” because you don’t have a large “following.” You were made for personal relationships, and most people can only manage a handful at a time well. 

So, seek to be a gospel witness, making Jesus known where you are, one person at a time. 

—Jonny Atkinson

Where People Are Easy to Overlook 🇦🇪

The United Arab Emirates is home to people from across the world. Migrant workers build its cities, staff its hotels, drive its taxis, care for its families, and keep much of daily life moving.

Yet in a country shaped by visible prosperity and constant international movement, many of the people who sustain that public life can remain easy to overlook. Migrant workers in the UAE can face wage theft, recruitment debt, and weak protections in extreme heat.

The UAE also has a significant expatriate Christian population. Many foreign Christians are able to worship, but public evangelism among Muslims is restricted, and Emiratis who follow Jesus may face serious family and social consequences if their faith becomes known.

In a place marked by movement, visibility, and real restrictions, faithful witness often grows quietly through friendship, faithfulness at work, hospitality, and the patient trust built between two people. This is not a place with no church. It is a place where Christian witness often requires wisdom, restraint, and deeply personal relationships.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for expatriate Christians and Emirati believers to witness wisely and courageously through trusted relationships.

🙏🏼 Pray for migrant workers who are far from home, vulnerable, or easily overlooked, that they would be treated with dignity and find real care and community.

🙏🏼 Pray that many would encounter the love of Christ one person, one conversation, and one act of hospitality at a time.

📍 Attention Worthy

• [Today Only] How to Read the Bible by David Platt is available for just $2.99 on Kindle. If you’ve been meaning to pick it up, now’s a good time to do so!

• Some of the most meaningful discipleship moments happen in ordinary places. Car conversations can become quiet opportunities to listen well, ask better questions, and speak truth with patience and grace.

• Women are leaving the church, and the trend should concern us. Here’s what may be driving it—and how churches can become places of refuge, dignity, and welcome again.

Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. The world is full of people on the move. Some are fleeing danger. Some are rebuilding after loss. Some are suspended somewhere between what they left behind and whatever comes next. 

As World Refugee Day approaches, we remember that Scripture teaches us to see displaced people not as interruptions or statistics, but as neighbors. And for those of us who have been welcomed by Christ, that should change how we respond.

In today’s edition:

🇲🇲 Why displacement in Myanmar has become a way of life for millions.

🫂 Why the gospel reshapes how we see strangers, exiles and neighbors in need.

🇹🇷 Why Turkey remains a crossroads for displaced families longing for safety, dignity, and home.

When Home Keeps Moving 🇲🇲

For many families in Myanmar, displacement is no longer a temporary interruption—it has become a way of life. 

Years of conflict, military violence, and ethnic tension have forced millions from their homes. Some remain displaced inside the country, moving from place to place in search of safety. Others, including many Rohingya refugees, remain across the border in overcrowded camps, carrying the ache of a home they cannot return to.

And for many believers, that hardship comes with added pressure. 

In parts of Myanmar, Christians from ethnic minority communities have been caught in the violence, losing homes, churches, and any sense of stability. What should be ordinary—gathering, worshiping, raising children, rebuilding after loss—can feel fragile when conflict keeps pushing people further from home.

Still, God has not abandoned Myanmar. Even in a place marked by fear, flight, and uncertainty, he is at work. He is strengthening believers to endure, care for their neighbors, and bear witness to Christ in the middle of chaos. When home keeps moving, the hope of the gospel does not.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for displaced families across Myanmar and beyond—that God would provide safety, shelter, daily provision, and hope for those who have lost home.

🙏🏼 Pray for believers under pressure, especially in ethnic minority communities—that they would be strengthened to endure and to love others in the middle of suffering.

🙏🏼 Pray for peace and stability in Myanmar—that even in the midst of conflict, many would come to know the welcome and hope of Christ.

Welcomed by Jesus, Sent to Welcome Others 🫂

On a recent trip, a few of us grabbed an Uber. 

As we chatted with the driver, we learned he was from Afghanistan, and had served as a translator for the U.S. military. We didn’t ask many questions, but my guess is that he fled to the U.S. after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in 2021.

My other guess is that he misses home.

People migrate from all over the world to the U.S. or other countries for all kinds of reasons. They want to live somewhere safer or less chaotic or in a place where they have better opportunities for work and school. 

But I don’t think I’ve met many (or maybe any) migrants who haven’t missed home. 

I recently had a conversation with someone who fled Yemen, a country torn apart by civil war and entangled in international conflict. He’s thankful for his new home in a safer country, but he also said: “I miss the smell of dinner cooking in my mother’s house.” 

No place has spices like the ones he remembers in Yemen. 

The story of the Bible is also a story of people on the move. 

God exiles Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because of their sin. 

He tells Abraham to pack up and move to a place he’ll show him. 

The Israelites are slaves in Egypt, but delivered through the Red Sea. 

They wander through the desert before coming to the Promised Land, before eventually being exiled again.

God told the Israelites their experience should shape how they treat others.

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19).

It’s true that the civil laws of the Old Testament don’t apply in the same way today. This isn’t a template for modern nations’ border policies. But the heart of those laws do remain the same. And the New Testament picks up that language too. 

The Apostle Peter calls us “sojourners and exiles.” In Luke 10, Jesus says to “love your neighbor as yourself.” A lawyer desiring to justify himself asks Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?” 

Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan and a punchline the lawyer probably didn’t expect: Whoever you see in need is your neighbor. It doesn’t matter where he or you are from. 

That’s because the gospel now shapes how we treat others. 

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus saves sinners, and he makes them part of his family. People from every nation, language, tribe, and tongue become united in Christ with one another. Paul tells the Ephesian believers from a Gentile background: “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” 

This has huge implications for how we live in unity with fellow believers in the church. But it also has implications for how we treat strangers in the world. In gratitude for Jesus reconciling us to God, we can live with a posture that seeks the good of others, no matter where they’re from. 

A posture that preaches the gospel of grace.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t live as faithful citizens in our own country. Or that we don’t have laws or borders. It doesn’t mean some migrants won’t break the law or abuse the system or come with bad intentions. All of that can be true, and we should take it seriously.

But there are so many migrants who miss home and need a welcome. So many from hard-to-reach places where they may have never heard the gospel. And there are so many opportunities for those of us who have been welcomed home by Jesus to extend a kind of hospitality that lives out the gospel we enjoy.

The kind of hospitality that literally opens the door to someone who misses the smells of home, and offers whatever we’re having for dinner, and also the aroma of Christ.

—Jamie Dean

At the Crossroads of Longing and Uncertainty 🇹🇷

Turkey sits at a difficult crossroads. It is home to one of the world’s largest refugee populations, with millions of displaced people trying to rebuild, wait, or decide whether home is safe to return to. 

At the same time, it is a land with deep Christian history. Some of the early church’s most important landmarks are there, yet today Christians account for less than 0.6% of the population, and many believers serve in a place where gospel witness can still bring pressure and resistance.

Many displaced people there are carrying both gratitude for refuge and grief over what they left behind. And in a country where so few know Christ, those realities call the church to reflect his welcome with courage and compassion.

Radical partners with believers in Turkey who use gospel radio programs to reach listeners, follow up with those who respond by discipling them and connecting them with local churches. God is still drawing people to himself there, sometimes through seeds planted years earlier.  

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for displaced families in Turkey as they navigate refuge, uncertainty, and the difficult question of whether home is safe to return to.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches and believers in Turkey to welcome refugees with courage, wisdom, and practical love.

🙏🏼 Pray that those uprooted by war and instability would hear the gospel and find lasting hope in Christ.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Don’t try to make Christianity look better by trimming away the hard parts. Jesus did not soften the truth to keep followers, and neither should we. 

• Your truest identity is not something you build, but someone you belong to. Being “in Christ” should reshape how Christians see citizenship, belonging, and every spiritual blessing.

• We used to ask institutions to form us. Now we expect them to affirm us. Expressive individualism has reshaped the way we think about belonging, authority, and what it means to be truly formed.

Hello, {{first_name | default: friend}}. When we hear that someone has been sentenced to prison, we usually assume that some kind of failure has taken place. And in most cases, that rings true. But for some believers, prison can mean something else.

Scripture teaches us to see suffering differently. Paul wrote from prison, yet his chains did not mean he had failed—quite the opposite. What looked like weakness became another place where Christ was proclaimed.

That matters for us, because we are often tempted to measure faithfulness by visible, positive results. But the gospel has never depended on ideal conditions to advance.

This week, as we pray for believers in Eritrea and Iran, let’s keep this in mind: hardship is not proof that God has withdrawn his hand. Even in prison, even under pressure, even when the world assumes the church is losing, Jesus will be made known.

In today’s edition:

🇮🇷 Believers in Iran keep following Jesus—even when it’s considered a threat to national security.

⛓️ Paul’s chains were never proof that his ministry had failed.

🇪🇷 Imprisonment in Eritrea hasn’t stopped the spread of the gospel.

When Faith Is Treated Like a Threat 🇮🇷

In Iran, following Jesus can be treated as a threat to national security. House churches, baptisms, evangelism, and even being found with Christian materials can lead to arrest, interrogation, and long prison sentences. 

In 2025, at least 254 Christians were arrested, nearly double the number from the year before. About 90% of them were charged for “propaganda contrary to the holy religion of Islam.”  

And yet the gospel is not bound. 

Though the church is pressured and often pushed into house gatherings, Christ is still sustaining his people. Radical partners with believers who are discipling new Iranian Christians through virtual classrooms, online chats, and digital training, helping them grow, gather, and form new churches inside Iran.

Many Iranians live with deep disappointment in both the government and the religious system around them, and some are searching for truth beyond what they have inherited. Even when believers are accused, confined, or scapegoated, God continues to build his church.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for imprisoned believers, converts, and house churches facing pressure, surveillance, and long sentences.

🙏🏼 Pray for boldness, wisdom, and endurance for Christians accused of being threats because of their faith in Jesus.

🙏🏼 Pray for new Iranian believers to be grounded in Scripture, strengthened through discipleship, and equipped to gather faithfully with other believers.

Prison Didn’t Mean Paul Was Wrong ⛓️

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Eph. 4:1)

Those are weighty words.

And they’re weighty not because Paul is writing from a quiet study or a place of comfort, but because he is writing them from a prison cell. Paul isn’t sending this letter from a position of safety or success as the world defines it. He’s writing as a man in chains—arrested for preaching the gospel and planting churches. 

To his critics, he was a troublemaker. A dangerous agitator. 

To God, he was a faithful servant.

That matters.

Paul is suffering for the very message he’s urging the church in Ephesus to remember and live out. His words carry weight because his life backs them up. He’s not asking them to do anything he himself isn’t already doing—at great personal cost.

And here’s the remarkable thing about Paul: there is no scenario in which he loses.

Let him go free, and he’ll travel to the ends of the earth preaching Christ and starting churches. 

Lock him up, and he’ll become “a prisoner for the Lord,” turning his suffering into a living testimony of the worth of the gospel. 

Execute him? Fine. As he says elsewhere, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21, ESV).

There is no situation where Paul says, “The gospel isn’t enough anymore.” 

There is no moment where he concludes, “This just isn’t worth it.”

Instead, Paul’s entire life—especially his suffering—testifies to this truth: no matter your circumstances, trusting in the gospel is never wasted.

Paul wasn’t in prison because his ministry failed. He was in prison because he believed the message was worth suffering for. And that’s an important distinction.

If a message isn’t worth suffering for, it’s probably not worth believing in.

Christianity doesn’t promise a life without pain. What it promises is something better: a suffering that is not meaningless. A hope that suffering does not get the final word.

That’s why Paul can say this in 2 Corinthians:

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Co. 4:17–18)

The gospel gives us a framework for enduring temporary suffering because it anchors us in permanent promises. We can endure hardship now because we know it won’t last forever. Our pain has an expiration date.

Why? Because Jesus has already suffered fully in our place. 

He took sin, death, and judgment upon himself—and walked out of the grave victorious. Because of him, not even death has the final say over us.

So when Paul urges believers to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling,” he’s not laying a burden on their shoulders. He’s inviting them into a life shaped by hope—a life that knows that whatever it costs to follow Jesus, it will never be in vain.

—Steven Morales

When Release Still Isn’t Freedom 🇪🇷

The government of Eritrea officially recognizes only four religious communities and treats unregistered churches as illegal, restricting everything from group prayer to places of worship. For many believers, faithfulness can mean arrest, imprisonment, and years of uncertainty.

In 2025, around 170 Eritrean Christians were released from detention, many after five years behind bars. But most were released only conditionally, after signing documents confessing that belonging to an unregistered denomination was a crime and agreeing not to return to it. Even release came with a warning to stay silent.

For decades, Eritrean authorities have tried to make believers disappear through fear, isolation, and confinement. But the gospel has not failed there. God is still strengthening his church and proving that pressure cannot silence the gospel.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for Eritrean believers who remain imprisoned, isolated, or under pressure to deny their faith.

🙏🏼 Pray for Christians released conditionally—that they would be strengthened, protected, and not silenced by fear.

🙏🏼 Pray that God would continue building his church in Eritrea, even when the government tries to shut every door.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Read your Bible before a crisis makes you reach for it. Scripture helps us know God, understand our place in the world, and navigate a confusing culture.

• Discipleship is not just coffee dates, convenience, or something reserved for “spiritual giants.” Ordinary believers can make disciples through everyday relationships shaped by the Word and prayer.

Hello friend. More often than we’d like to admit, we call fear “prudence.” We treat comfort like wisdom, or caution like faithfulness, when we’re really just trying to protect ourselves from paying the actual price. 

Scripture never calls us to seek danger for its own sake. But it does call us to follow Jesus wherever he leads—and sometimes obedience costs us comfort, approval, safety, or control.

With Pentecost right around the corner, let’s remember that the Spirit was not poured out to make disciples comfortable, but to make them witnesses. And as millions begin turning their attention toward Mecca for one of Islam’s holiest weeks, we pray that many would come to know the true and better sacrifice of Christ. 

In today’s edition:

🇦🇫 Why believers in Afghanistan still follow Jesus—even when the cost is high.

🔥 Why Pentecost reminds us that courage is not a personality type, but a gift of the Spirit.

🇸🇦 Why this Hajj season is a crucial moment to pray for Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world.

Hidden (Not Forgotten) 🇦🇫

Afghanistan remains one of the hardest places on earth to follow Jesus. Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, many Christians have fled, and the few who remain live under intense pressure. 

In a country ruled by Islam, being known as a Christian can mean losing family, freedom, or even life. Sharing the gospel openly or meeting seekers in person is dangerous. That’s why much of Radical’s gospel work there happens through secure digital evangelism and online theological training.

Even where the Taliban claims no Christians remain, the Lord knows his people by name. He is sustaining hidden believers, strengthening them through Scripture and fellowship, and raising up leaders who can courageously help others follow Jesus. 

In Afghanistan, risk is not abstract—and God’s faithfulness isn’t either.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for protection and wisdom for Afghan believers whose faith remains hidden.

🙏🏼 Pray for discipleship, fellowship, and access to Scripture for isolated Christians growing under intense pressure.

🙏🏼 Pray for bold and discerning witness—that even in secrecy, many Afghans would come to know Christ.

Risk Is Essential for Life 🏔️

There they stood, on the brink of the promised land. 

God had promised his people that he was going to lead them out of slavery and bring them to a fruitful, abundant, prosperous place. And God had done exactly what he said he would do. 

Spies were dispatched to check out the land, and report with which they returned was clear: “This land is glorious!”

But…

The majority of the spies said, “It’s not safe. It’s not secure. We can’t take the risk—for our own sake, and for the sake of our children. So we won’t take the land” (see Numbers 13:25-33).

Why did they decide the risk wasn’t worth it?

On one hand, they disregarded God’s goodness. 

“Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!” they cried. In an instant, they had forgotten the God who fed them with bread from heaven and gave them water from rocks, daily and faithfully providing for their every need.

On the other hand, they doubted God’s greatness. 

“Giants live in this land, and they’ll destroy us!” they lamented. It was like they hadn’t even seen God split a sea in half to deliver them or come down in a consuming fire on a mountain to visit them.

So they disobeyed God’s Word and disqualified themselves from God’s blessing. 

Their lives wasted away in a wilderness as a testimony to everyone in redemptive history after them: the blessing of God is reserved for those who take risks for the glory of God.

In light of their testimony, I simply want to ask you today: What risks are you taking based on God’s Word for the sake of God’s glory?

For followers of Jesus, risk is essential for life. Jesus says in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” 

In other words, if you try to hold onto your life without risk in this world, you’ll lose it.

But if you risk your life for Jesus’ sake, you’ll find it.

One of my favorite quotes comes from a persecuted pastor named Josef. 

As Josef was being interrogated, he told an officer who was threatening to kill him: 

“Sir, let me explain how I see this issue. Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying.” 

He continued. “Here is how it works. You know that my sermons have spread all over the country. If you kill me, those sermons will be sprinkled with my blood. Everyone will know I died for my preaching. And everyone who hears one of my sermons will say, 'I’d better listen again to what this man preached, because he really meant it; he sealed it with his life.' So, sir, my sermons will speak ten times louder than before. I will actually rejoice in this supreme victory if you kill me.” 

After Josef said this, the interrogator sent him home. And days later, another officer who was interrogating another pastor said, “We know Josef would love to be a martyr, but we are not that foolish to fulfill his wish.”

Josef then wrote, “I stopped to consider the meaning of that statement. I remembered how, for many years, I had been afraid of dying. I had kept a low profile. Because I wanted badly to live, I had wasted my life in inactivity. But now that I had placed my life on the altar and decided I was ready to die for the gospel, they were telling me they would not kill me! I could go wherever I wanted in the country and preach whatever I wanted, knowing I was safe. As long as I tried to save my life, I was losing it. Now that I was willing to lose it, I found it.”

This is the story of every Christian, not just persecuted pastors in difficult countries.

We’re all called to take risks for Jesus’ sake—whether it’s with our reputation or our money, our dreams or our very ways of life. We can’t follow Jesus truly while playing it safe in this world. 

So what we should ask ourselves is:

Will we believe in the goodness of God?

Will we trust the greatness of God?

Will we obey the Word of God?

Will we experience the blessing of God that he promises to all who take risks for his sake in the world?

I want to encourage you to consider practically: what is one risk Jesus is leading you to take today in order to share the gospel—or to give for the spread of the gospel, or to live for the glory of God—in a way that might cost you greatly, but will ultimately be worth it?

—David Platt

A Holy Week, A Deeper Need 🇸🇦

Saudi Arabia is entering one of the holiest weeks in Islam. In the days ahead, millions of Muslims will focus on Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and then celebrate Eid al-Adha, a festival centered on sacrifice and devotion. 

For many of us, these observances may feel distant. But for Muslims around the world, this is a deeply significant spiritual moment—a time of prayer, pilgrimage, remembrance, and longing for God’s mercy.

That is why this is such an important week to pray.

Saudi Arabia remains one of the most restrictive places in the world for public non-Islamic worship. In a country with no legal public churches and immense pressure on converts from Islam, many believers follow Jesus quietly. Radical supports a multi-year plan to establish a gospel presence in Saudi Arabia through one-to-one evangelism among young Arabs.

As millions seek God as best they know how, let’s pray that many would come to know the true and better sacrifice of Christ.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray that many Muslims would come to know the true and better sacrifice of Christ.

🙏🏼 Pray for Saudi believers and Christian migrant workers who follow Jesus quietly in a place with no legal public churches.

🙏🏼 Pray for open hearts, bold witness, and gospel clarity during this spiritually significant season.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Secret Church 26: Elijah is available for everyone to watch. Spend time in God’s Word through Elijah’s life, and explore The Living Room, where you’ll discover how Secret Church began and why Radical exists.

• Staying human is not a soft skill—it is part of faithful witness. Pete Nicholas offers four vital virtues we need to cultivate to stay human in our AI world.

• What do we lose when we stop studying the Bible for ourselves? Glenna Marshall shows why personal Bible study is one of the ordinary ways God builds conviction, depth, and spiritual steadiness in his people.

Hello friend. We are not naturally good at waiting. We want to see progress, answers, fruit—something we can point to and say, There, God is doing something. But his kingdom often grows underground before it breaks into view. 

We tend to measure by what we can see, but God is often at work long before anything breaks the surface. He knows how to keep a seed alive while it waits, and he knows how to bring growth in his perfect time.

Let’s trust that what seems hidden to us is never hidden from him.

In today’s edition:

🇹🇯 Why the gospel in Tajikistan still grows, even where new churches cannot open.

🌱 What a waiting seed can teach us about evangelism, prayer, and the work of God.

🇲🇽 How Mexico’s World Cup summer could become a rare moment for bold, hopeful witness.

No New Churches Allowed 🇹🇯

Tajikistan is a small Central Asian nation bordering Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. It emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union with deep scars from atheistic rule and civil war, and today it remains one of the region’s poorest countries, heavily dependent on remittances from abroad.  

The government is strongly secular and keeps tight, authoritarian control over religion. Unregistered church activity is illegal, religious materials are tightly controlled, and pressure on believers comes from both the authorities and their communities.

Christians make up a tiny minority, and for many—especially Tajik converts from Islam—following Jesus can bring suspicion, pressure from family, and close state scrutiny. That pressure has only deepened in recent years. 

In 2022, Protestant leaders reported being told that no new churches would be registered, effectively freezing the number of officially recognized congregations in the country. Christians were also warned that children and teenagers could not take part in religious events—minors are generally allowed to attend only funerals.

And yet the gospel has not stopped spreading in Tajikistan. Even where new churches cannot easily open, Christ is still sustaining believers, drawing people to himself, and strengthening the faith of those who quietly and courageously follow him.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for Tajik believers to stand firm under pressure and be encouraged with wise, trusted fellowship.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches facing registration barriers and state scrutiny—that God would make a way for gathering, teaching, and discipleship.

🙏🏼 Pray for the gospel to spread among Tajik families and communities, even where open witness is difficult.

A seed knows how to wait 🌱

I recently interviewed a Turkish pastor who grew up in a nominal Muslim home. He memorized parts of the Quran for schoolwork, but he never embraced its message. 

By adulthood, he was an atheist and a mountain climber, searching for meaning by scaling some of the highest peaks in the world.

Until one day, he fell. And for the first time in his life, he prayed. He asked God to help. Not long after, a couple of hikers showed up in a spot where few people tread. Now the atheist mountain climber was on a quest to seek the God who rescued him.

He searched out other religions and found them lacking, until he remembered a gift he received a long time ago: When he was a child, a couple of missionaries had given him a book. It was the Gospel of John.

That little book was the start of a new life for Pastor Kerem Koc. Many other believers eventually played a part in his conversion and discipleship, but it all started with a couple of missionaries giving a little kid a short book. A tiny seed that lay buried for years.

Until one day, it took root.

Kerem’s story reminds me of a remarkable fact I once read about seeds: “A seed knows how to wait.”

Hope Jahren, a scientist who studies trees, writes that most seeds wait for at least a year before they start to grow, and that a cherry tree “can wait for a hundred years with no problem.” This is possible for one crucial reason: “A seed is alive while it waits.”

Is that how we think about the seeds we’re planting in Christ’s kingdom?

How often do we speak a word, or pray a prayer, or have a conversation, or invite a friend to church—and it seems like it falls to the ground with a thud? Like it withers where it lands?

Instead, what if we remembered that a seed is alive while it waits? That no seed planted is hopeless or pointless?

Another pastor I once met grew up the Indian son of a Hindu priest. When he was a child, a couple of Christians gave him a Bible as he passed by on the street. He read it in secret—and he loved this man called Jesus. When he came to Christ’s crucifixion, he was stunned. Why would anyone kill a man like this?

For years, he wondered about Jesus and what it all meant. When friends in college invited him to a Christian prayer meeting, he went. The seed was still there, alive and waiting. By the end of the night, he knew he wanted to follow Jesus forever. Today, he preaches the gospel in his hard-to-reach homeland.

The Christians he briefly encountered years before never knew what came of the seed they planted in a little boy who passed by. And neither do we. We don’t know what might come of the conversation we initiate. The comment. The prayer. The invitation. Who knows how God might use them? Who knows how he already has?

This makes evangelism less a strategy and more a lifestyle. Yes, we need to be intentional about seeking specific opportunities to share the gospel with unbelievers. We need to be deliberate about gospel conversations. But we also need to live our whole lives sowing seeds in a thousand different ways. 

Sometimes those seeds will fall on rocky ground. Sometimes they’ll get choked by thorns. But sometimes, they’ll fall on soil made good by God’s grace. And those seeds will bear fruit, whether we ever know it on this side of heaven.

Some plant. Some water. But God gives the growth. Let’s spend our days planting seeds and watering the ones that might already be waiting. In fact, sometimes we may not really know whether we’re planting or watering as we go. But God does.

Because a seed knows how to wait. And God knows how to give growth. 

—Jamie Dean

A Summer Stage, A Deeper Need 🇲🇽

This summer, Mexico will co-host the FIFA World Cup 2026, alongside Canada and the United States. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19, with Mexico hosting matches in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. The world’s eyes will be on the country, and millions of fans will flood stadiums, streets, and public squares.  

But beneath the energy and excitement is a deeper spiritual need. 

Mexico is often seen as a historically Christian country, yet in many places the gospel is blurred by fear, tradition, and violence. Following Jesus in parts of Mexico can be dangerous, especially where organized crime pressures churches and pastors through extortion and intimidation.  

A global event like this creates a rare moment: nations coming to one place, conversations opening more easily, and local churches positioned to welcome, serve, and speak of Christ. As crowds gather this summer, pray not only for safe matches and joyful celebration, but for visitors and residents alike to encounter something greater than spectacle—the hope of Christ.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for churches in Mexico to welcome people with wisdom, compassion, and bold gospel witness during the World Cup season.

🙏🏼 Pray for protection and perseverance for pastors and believers serving in places marked by pressure, corruption, or violence.

🙏🏼 Pray that the attention on Mexico this summer would become an opportunity for many to hear clearly that true hope and life are found in Christ alone.

📍 Attention Worthy

• During Secret Church, believers around the world helped fully fund critical gospel work in 10 countries across Asia. Now the next 5—including North Korea—are within reach. Help make Jesus known across Asia today.

• Both Ends of the Rope is a new podcast from Chad Farmer, one of the voices featured in Hard to Reach: Japan. Built from years of ministry in Japan, it offers honest conversations about going, sending, and what it really takes to do both well.

• What happens when churches go quiet about hell? Losing the doctrine of hell doesn’t make our witness gentler or more loving—it hollows out the urgency and mercy of the gospel itself.

Hello friend. Sometimes the work of God is quieter than we expect. It doesn’t always arrive with obvious momentum or visible results. More often, it unfolds through steady faithfulness—through whispered prayers, patient discipleship, and ordinary believers who keep trusting him in places where following Jesus is costly.

None of that, however, means his work is small.

God is still strengthening believers, still raising up leaders, still drawing people to himself through local churches that keep praying, sending, and serving. What looks ordinary or unremarkable to us is often exactly how his kingdom moves forward—with patience, courage, and hope that is never wasted in him.

In today’s edition:

🇰🇵 Why the church in North Korea still whispers—and how Christ is drawing people to himself there.

🗺️ What Scripture actually means by “missions” and why the local church is God’s Plan A for the Great Commission.

🇲🇦 How church-rooted formation in Morocco is strengthening believers to live and share the gospel with courage.

Where the Church Whispers 🇰🇵

North Korea has long been one of the hardest places on earth to follow Jesus. 

Once home to a vibrant Christian presence—Pyongyang was even known as the “Jerusalem of the East”—it is now a land where owning a Bible, praying, or openly professing faith can lead to imprisonment, torture, or death. The ruling regime demands absolute loyalty and treats Christianity as a direct threat, so for the few believers who remain, faith is often hidden, fragile and costly.

And yet the church has not disappeared. 

God is still sustaining a small body of believers who meet in secret, and many North Koreans who flee the country encounter Christ for the first time beyond its borders. In a place where almost every door seems shut, the gospel is still finding its way in—quietly, securely, and often unseen.

This is part of the work Radical is helping fuel across hard-to-reach countries in Asia—secure gospel efforts in places where open witness is nearly impossible. Even in North Korea—one of the most restricted places on earth—Christ is still drawing people to himself.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for secret believers to be protected, strengthened, and encouraged with safe fellowship.

🙏🏼 Pray for more North Koreans to encounter Jesus through the few channels where the gospel can still reach them.

🙏🏼 Pray that Christ would continue building his church in North Korea, even where the world sees only darkness.

The Local Church: God’s Plan A for Global Mission 🗺️

As words get used over centuries there can be a drift in their meaning. 

For example, the word “nice” came from Old French and had the meaning in Middle English of “stupid” or “ignorant.” This word developed—I’ll spare you the details!—into the meaning today of “fine” or “pleasant.”

A similar drift has happened with the word “missions” in Christianity. 

However, unlike the word “nice,” the word “missions” is a biblical word and we can’t let the meaning drift. We must go back to the Bible to recover the original sense of the word.

Missions is an English word that comes from the Latin word missio, and this Latin word is a translation of the Greek word apostellō, which means “to send.” 

So missions is about sending. And an individual who is sent, in the Bible, is called an apostolos, a “sent-one,” or, today, a “missionary.”

But who can send? And who is sent?

When we look at the Bible we see at least three categories of senders and sent-ones; and only one is still in effect today.

The first “missionary” is Jesus (Heb. 3:1), as he was sent by God the Father (John 5:36).

The second type of missionaries are the disciples. 

In this instance, Jesus is the sender and his disciples are the “missionaries” (Matt. 10:1–20; John 17:18, 20:21). This group includes the Apostle Paul, as he was sent by Jesus after his conversation on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:6; Gal. 1:12). We call this group the apostles (often with a capital “A”), and by that we mean those sent by Jesus.

But they are not the only apostles mentioned in the Bible.

Barnabas (Acts 14:14), Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25), and a group of unnamed individuals (2 Cor. 8:23) are all called apostles. In the ESV, this is not as clear, because the Greek word apostolos is translated “messengers” in Philippians 2:25 and 2 Cor. 8:23 to distinguish this group from the Apostles sent by Jesus.

Since there are other apostles—other missionaries, other sent-ones—we must ask, “Who sent them?”

In 2 Corinthians 8:23 we are told they were sent by “the churches.” 

Paul says that Epaphroditus was sent by the church at Philippi, and Acts 13:1–4 shows Barnabas was sent by the Holy Spirit through the church at Antioch. 

This is our third group of missionaries: those sent by the churches.

So missionaries are individuals sent by local churches for gospel work.

In the ancient world, churches lacked the infrastructure—travel, communications, finances—that we have today to continue supporting missionaries. And so, after an individual was sent by a church, they would look for other churches who would send them on. Paul, likely sent by Antioch, was seeking the Romans to send him on his way to Spain (Rom. 15:24). When churches send people on, people like Zenas and Apollos (Titus 3:13), they become co-laborers in this gospel work (3 John 5–8).

Today, however, many missionaries are sent through agencies, often with very little connection to the local church. 

Local churches are vested with Christ’s authority on earth (Matt. 16:18–19), not agencies. Mission agencies can help local churches, but they ought never replace local churches. Mission agencies may prepare and support missionaries, but only local churches can send missionaries.

As the word “missions” has accumulated meaning, we often think of mission work as requiring someone to travel across an ocean, learn a new language, and stay for 20 years. What’s interesting is that the Apostle Paul did none of these things! 

Using a modern definition, even Paul wasn’t a missionary.

The biblical definition, however, is simply an individual sent by a local church to do gospel work.

What if a church sends a team to do construction work on a new building for gospel preaching—are they missionaries? Probably not. We must be careful not to let everything become missions, because then nothing will be missions. And it’s not wrong to adopt a mission strategy that involves crossing oceans and learning languages. But we can’t let a particular strategy define for everyone what missions is. 

We need the Bible to define missions.

So, when a persecuted, underground church in Iran, Afghanistan, or China sends their pastor to preach at another small, persecuted, underground church that currently lacks a pastor, they have engaged in biblical missions.

When churches of North Africa train missionaries in Tunisia and send them to share the gospel in Morocco—they did not cross an ocean or learn a new language—they have engaged in biblical missions.

You don’t have to be a perfect church to do missions. 

Think of the messiest New Testament church, Corinth, sending Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus to refresh Paul (1 Cor. 16:17–18). And you don’t have to stay for 20 years to do missions—though that may be helpful.

And so, start today. 

Send people. Send gifted people. Send people to cross the street, cross country lines, and even cross oceans. Send people for short-term and long-term work. Find teams you can join. 

If you have no one to send, find those sent by other churches that you can send on.

But if you are a church, be engaged in missions by sending laborers and becoming co-laborers.

—Jonny Atkinson

Sent Across Borders, Rooted in Christ 🇲🇦

Morocco is one of North Africa’s strongest Islamic strongholds, and today less than 1% of the population identifies as Christian. 

Christianity has ancient roots there, but openly following Jesus can still carry a real cost. It is illegal to convert a Muslim to another religion or to criticize Islam, which means many believers live and witness with wisdom, patience, and quiet courage.  

And still, God is at work. Radical partners with Moroccan church leaders through a training program, seminars, and Bible studies that help disciple believers and strengthen churches. 

In a place where open witness is costly and many believers feel alone, that kind of steady, church-rooted formation matters deeply. Christ is still drawing people to himself and raising up leaders who can shepherd his people with clarity and courage.  

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for bold and wise gospel conversations in a place where open witness can carry real consequences. 

🙏🏼 Pray for Moroccan believers to be strengthened through healthy churches, biblical teaching, and faithful discipleship. 

🙏🏼 Pray for Moroccans at home and abroad to know that true freedom and life are found in Christ alone.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Hard to Reach: Nepal is now live on our YouTube channel. See the cost of taking the gospel into one of the hardest-to-reach places on earth—and the cost of staying faithful once you come to Christ.

• Church planting isn’t a solo assignment for a gifted leader. Preparing to plant starts long before anyone is sent—and the whole church should feel the weight and joy of that work. 

• Discipleship is more than showing up to the right events. Real growth happens when believers move toward one another with intentional, life-shaping relationships that strengthen both people and the church. 

• Prayer and evangelism are not competing priorities. They fuel each other—deepening dependence on God while giving us courage to speak of Christ with greater love and clarity.

Hello friend. Some places feel far—not just from us, but from the gospel itself.

Mountain villages, crowded nations, hidden valleys where the name of Jesus is still rarely heard, if at all. But distance has never limited God. 

He is not absent from the places that seem hardest to reach. He isn’t stopped by resistance, isolation, or slow progress. He keeps drawing people to himself—often quietly, often patiently, often through ordinary believers who trust him one step at a time.

In today’s edition:

🇧🇹 Why the gospel in Bhutan moves quietly through mountains, homes, and hidden faithfulness.

🇳🇵 What Nepal reveals about the real cost of reaching people shaped by spiritual blending.

🇮🇳 How patient, local faithfulness is carrying the gospel into the crowded complexity of India.

Where the Gospel Quietly Climbs 🇧🇹

Bhutan is a small Himalayan kingdom where Buddhism shapes nearly every part of public life. Though the country is known for peace and beauty, following Jesus can still carry a quiet cost.

Christian groups are not freely recognized, public worship is heavily restricted, and converts from Buddhism are often viewed with suspicion by their families and communities. In many places, faith stays personal, discreet, and carefully guarded.

And yet the gospel has not stopped in Bhutan. 

It moves slowly, often through relationships instead of platforms, through whispered discipleship instead of public ministry, and through believers who keep meeting, praying, and sharing Jesus in hidden ways.

For many Bhutanese, access to the gospel is still painfully limited. 

There are villages where no church exists, valleys where few believers are known, and mountain communities where the name of Jesus is rarely heard, if at all. Whole people groups still live without a local witness, without Scripture in hand, and without anyone nearby to tell them who Christ is. Even there, he is not absent.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for Bhutanese Christians to stand firm under pressure and know they are not alone.

🙏🏼 Pray for the gospel to take root in remote mountain communities where Jesus is still barely known.

🙏🏼 Pray for households across Bhutan to be transformed by the hope of Christ and become lights in hidden places.

Why Nepal’s Spiritual World Won’t Fit in a Pie Chart 🇳🇵

If you asked most people what religion looks like in Nepal, they'd probably say Hindu. And they'd be mostly right. 

81% of the country identifies that way. 

Another 8% call themselves Buddhist. 

Clean numbers. Neat categories.

But spend any real time there, and you'll realize the pie chart lies.

Hindu tradition in Nepal runs deep—over two millennia. Indo-Aryan migrants brought Vedic rituals and ideas about karma and rebirth that fused with tribal and animist traditions already rooted in the land. Nepal would eventually become the world's only officially Hindu state, a distinction it held until 2008. 

But when the monarchy fell and the country declared itself secular, it didn't push religion out. It made room for all of it.

That complexity hit me hardest in Lumbini—the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama (A.K.A. Buddha).

Standing at the ruins of the palace where his father once tried to shield him from suffering, I kept thinking about what broke that open: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic who somehow looked at peace. 

Four sights. A whole life unraveled.

Siddhartha rejected both indulgence and extremism, sat beneath a fig tree, and—Buddhist tradition says—woke up. Liberation through ethical living and meditation, not ritual or the accident of your birth. 

A direct challenge to the religious world around him. Except Buddhism wasn't born outside that world. It grew from inside it.

So what does this mean?

Well, here's the simplest way I can put it: in Nepal, religion doesn't work like a multiple-choice question. Most people in the West grow up assuming you pick one — you're Christian, or you're Jewish, or you're Muslim. 

But in Nepal, the dominant traditions don't demand that kind of exclusivity.

Hinduism, at its core, is remarkably open—it tends to see different gods, teachers, and spiritual paths as different expressions of the same ultimate reality. 

So when Buddhism arrived, rather than replacing Hinduism, it got absorbed into it.

The same sacred figure might be worshipped as a Buddhist symbol of compassion in one temple and a Hindu deity in another—and many Nepalis wouldn't see a contradiction there at all. You can light incense at a Buddhist shrine in the morning and make offerings at a Hindu temple in the afternoon, and nobody blinks. 

That's syncretism: not a blending born out of confusion, but one built over centuries of two traditions living inside each other.

What you believe in Nepal, and how you practice it, depends entirely on who you ask. Not contradiction—layering. A religious world that has spent thousands of years absorbing and refusing to stay in clean categories.

Which raises a harder question I kept coming back to the whole time I was there: What does it actually cost to bring the gospel to people whose entire spiritual world is built on blending?

That's what we spent weeks trying to understand. 

Next Saturday, we're releasing Hard to Reach: Nepal on our YouTube channel—an honest look at the spiritual landscape of this country, and the real cost of reaching its people with the gospel. We hope you'll watch.

—Steven Morales

P. S.: If you want to watch it sooner, join us for Secret Church on April 17. We’re doing an exclusive premiere for Secret Church attendees. Remember to use code COMMISSION for 20% OFF your registration 😉

Clarity and Courage in a Crowded Land 🇮🇳

India’s gospel story stretches back centuries, possibly even to the apostle Thomas or the generations soon after him. Yet today, Christians make up only about 2.3% of the population in the world’s most populous country, and vast numbers still live with little or no clear access to the gospel. 

Hindu nationalism is growing, anti-conversion laws in multiple states make open witness and baptism increasingly difficult, and many new believers face real pressure from both the government and their own communities. In some places, churches can gather openly; in others, house churches are shut down and preachers are jailed. 

And still, God is at work. 

In rural India, Radical is helping a local church share the gospel with tribal communities—equipping church leaders, translating ministry resources into the regional language, and helping send workers into places where Christ is still barely known. It’s quiet, patient, deeply local work. But in a country where so many have never heard the gospel clearly, that kind of faithfulness matters. 

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for protection and perseverance for Indian believers as opposition grows.

🙏🏼 Pray for new converts to find strong Christian communities and be encouraged in their faith.

🙏🏼 Pray for the gospel to spread with clarity and courage among unreached peoples across India. 

📍 Attention Worthy

• Secret Church is only a week away. Use code COMMISSION to get 20% OFF on registration (including group packs!). Join us April 17 at 6 PM (EDT)!

• Religious diversity doesn't disprove Christianity. Gavin Ortlund explains why—and how believers can confidently affirm Jesus while engaging others with humility.

• What does faithful witness look like in a world that no longer feels remotely Christian? The church’s witness is bigger than scattered ministry activities—it’s part of who the church is.

• Missions strategies matter, but they can’t substitute the One who gives growth. When the soil is hard and progress feels slow, remember to trust the One whose power, not our methods, advances the gospel.

Hello friend. There are days when the bad news feel close enough to touch—a diagnosis you didn’t expect, a country unraveling in war, a prayer that still hasn’t been answered. In moments like that, it can feel as though the story has stopped in the dark. 

But Scripture teaches us this: “weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5). 

While his people are weeping, waiting, and wondering what comes next, God is still at work. Not absent. Not delayed. Not indifferent. He is faithfully holding us through every part of the story, leading us toward the day when sorrow gives way to joy.

In today’s edition:

🇱🇾 How Christ is drawing people to himself in Libya, where the church often has to remain unseen.

🗓️ What it looks like to live with resurrection hope when life feels more like Friday than Sunday.

🇺🇦 Why Ukraine needs more than relief—and how the church can embody hope in a weary land.

Where the Church Stands Unseen 🇱🇾

Libya remains one of the hardest places in North Africa to follow Jesus. 

Though the gospel has ancient roots there, today less than 3% of Libyans identify as Christian, and most of the country remains unreached. Years of political fragmentation, violence, and instability have made life especially dangerous for believers. For Christians—especially converts from Islam—following Jesus can mean rejection, surveillance, and the constant pressure to keep their faith hidden.

Radical’s partners use online outreach in Libya and the surrounding region to connect seekers with believers for evangelistic conversations and discipleship, helping bring the hope of the gospel to those who may never encounter it openly.

God continues to sustain a small and often isolated body of believers, many of whom have little or no safe local fellowship. Even in the shadows, Christ is still drawing people to himself.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for the gospel to spread across Libya and for many to see that Jesus is the one true Savior.

🙏🏼 Pray for isolated believers to be protected, strengthened, and connected to safe fellowship and discipleship.

🙏🏼 Pray for peace and stability in Libya, and for God to use local gospel leaders to make disciples and strengthen his church.

Living like it’s Friday or Sunday? 🗓️

The other day I was reading Genesis 37, and I was struck in a fresh way by the last two verses. After Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery and convince their father, Jacob, that Joseph is dead, we read this about Jacob in verses 35-36:

“All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.”

What struck me in meditating on these verses was how God was working while Jacob was weeping. As Jacob was mourning over death, God was orchestrating a plan for life…not just for Jacob, but for his entire family, including the very sons who had just trafficked their brother.

It all made me think about the disciples on Good Friday. We can only imagine all the emotions they felt, the questions they had, the confusion they experienced, and the sadness that weighed them down.

Yet when you think about it, we’re not actually that distant from those disciples.

How many times in this wearying world have we experienced similar emotions, questions, confusion, and sadness? When tragedy strikes our families or friendships? When death steals away someone we love? Or when a situation seems essentially hopeless?

Amidst such emotions, questions, confusion, and sadness, it’s really good to remember: God is working. As followers of Jesus, we know that Good Friday is not the end of the story. We know that Resurrection Sunday is coming. And this changes everything.

Specifically, this changes our outlook on our lives. Without question, we still grieve. But in the words of 1 Thessalonians 4:13, we grieve with hope. We mourn with supernatural comfort and confidence that one day the King who conquered sin and death will make wrongs right for all who know him.

And this changes our outlook on the world. When you read the news, for example, about the Middle East, there’s much reason to grieve. At the same time, there’s much reason to rejoice, for the church in the region is growing and the resurrection power of Jesus is spreading.

The gospel is a constant reminder that when we see—and feel—reasons to weep, we can trust that God is at work.

So ask the question today: where do things feel like Good Friday in your life or in the world around you? Then press in and pray—and live—like you know Resurrection Sunday is coming. And share that good news with a weary world that desperately needs to hear it.

—David Platt

Hope for a Weary Land 🇺🇦

_{Sonia Dauer/Unsplash}

After years of full-scale war, Ukraine is still carrying enormous pain. 

The conflict has become Europe’s largest displacement crisis since World War II, with families scattered, cities scarred, and daily life shaped by grief, uncertainty, and endurance. Even as Ukrainians continue to show remarkable resilience, the weight of war presses deeply on homes, churches, and communities. 

Ukraine is often seen through headlines about maps, missiles, and negotiations. But beneath those headlines are millions of image-bearers—neighbors, children, widows, pastors, and weary believers—who need more than relief. They need the steady hope of Christ. 

In moments like this, the church has a unique opportunity to embody that hope through prayer, presence, and practical love.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for peace that is just, durable, and protective of the vulnerable.

🙏🏼 Pray for families who are displaced, grieving, or exhausted—that God would sustain them with daily mercy and surround them with care.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches in Ukraine to remain steady and compassionate, serving as places of refuge, truth, and hope in the middle of war.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Secret Church is almost here. Join us on April 17th for six hours studying God’s Word, praying for the persecuted Church and taking faithful action for the spread of the gospel. Get 20% OFF using code COMMISSION at checkout.

• How can we better support women missionaries on the field? Keri Folmar offers practical reminders for how churches and sending communities can help them endure, flourish, and keep serving well.

• Struggling to make time for evangelism? This piece makes a simple case for seeing your car as an ordinary place God can use for meaningful gospel conversations.

Hello friend. As news cycles fill with reports of strikes, shifting alliances, and the movement of armies, it is easy for the heart to grow heavy with a specific kind of anxiety. We look at the Middle East and see a region in turmoil—but through the lens of the gospel, we see a region filled with image-bearers of God who are currently living in the shadow of fear.

Our goal this week isn't to decode the geopolitical "why," but to remember the "Who" that reigns over every border. 

In the middle of conflict, Jesus is still drawing people to himself. He is still the Prince of Peace in places where peace feels like a distant memory. 

Let’s look past the maps and the missiles to the brothers, sisters, and neighbors who need us to stand in the gap through prayer and steady witness.

In today’s edition:

🗺️ Why regional instability creates unique dangers for the Middle East’s smallest religious minorities.

👑 How to find steady confidence in a seated King during a heavy news cycle.

🇱🇧 Why Lebanon remains a vital, strategic corridor for the gospel despite a humanitarian crisis.

The Weight of Instability 🗺️

The Middle East is currently facing a volatile intersection of military conflict and humanitarian crisis. For our brothers and sisters in the region—many of whom already live under the pressure of being a tiny minority—increased instability brings unique dangers. 

When governments are preoccupied with war, religious minorities often face increased scrutiny or become easy targets for local hostility. Displacement is not just a statistic; it is families leaving behind their Bibles, their small house churches, and their livelihoods to find safety in lands where they are unwanted.

How to Pray:

• Pray for the protection of believers in conflict zones, that God would be a shield around them and their families as they navigate displacement.

• Pray that earthly leaders would be granted a common-grace wisdom to seek the preservation of life.

• Pray that the church in the Middle East would not be silenced by fear, but would instead find unprecedented opportunities to show Christ’s compassion to their grieving neighbors.

Finding Footing in a Tilting World 👑

_{UNSPLASH/Mohammed Ibrahim}

The headlines of March 2026 are heavy. Between the reports of military strikes in Iran and the rapid shifts in regional power, it feels as though the world is tilting on its axis. 

When we see nations in turmoil, our natural instinct is to scan the news for a sense of control, hoping for a headline that promises stability. We look for a diplomatic breakthrough or a de-escalation report to catch our breath, but often, the next notification only brings more weight.

It is a difficult place to be, even from a distance. The secondary trauma of witnessing global upheaval through a screen can lead to a paralyzing sense of helplessness. We feel the "groaning of creation" in every refreshed feed. Yet, as believers, our stability is not found in the absence of conflict—it is found in the presence of the true King.

Scripture tells us that while "the nations rage and the kingdoms totter," God is not pacing the floors of heaven. He is not surprised by the movement of troops or the rhetoric of earthly leaders. He is seated. In the Middle East right now—across every border currently being contested and in every city where families are hiding away in fear—Christ is actively reigning. He is not a distant observer of the crisis; he is the sovereign Lord who "makes wars cease to the end of the earth" (Psalm 46). 

This isn't a call to ignore the tragedy of war or to minimize the very real human suffering occurring in the region. Rather, it is a call to remember that no missile, mandate, or regime change can move the needle of God’s eternal purposes.

His mission to redeem a people for himself from every tribe and tongue is not hindered by regional instability; historically, it is often accelerated by it.

Our call to share the hope of the gospel doesn't change when the world gets louder; if anything, it becomes more urgent. In a culture of panic, the most radical thing a Christian can do is remain steady. 

So, how do we practically live out this "wartime" faith when the world feels like it’s falling apart?

• Pivot Your Feed: Every time a news notification hits your phone, take it as a prompt to intercede. Instead of spiraling into a debate about foreign policy, immediately pray for the protection of believers in that specific city. Pray for the underground networks of Iranian believers who are navigating this chaos with incredible courage. Let the news drive you to the throne room, not the comment section.

• Check Your Hope: If your peace depends on a specific geopolitical outcome or a return to a "calmer" era, it is a fragile peace. Ground your hope in the fact that the gospel has always flourished in the soil of instability. The church began in the middle of an empire that sought to crush it, and it will endure long after modern borders have been redrawn.

• Redirect to Jesus: In your workplace and your neighborhood, be the person who isn't shaken. When others express dread, don't meet them with partisan talking points—meet them with Christ. Point them toward the cross and the King whose kingdom cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).

Our task is not to fix the world’s problems through our own strength or political savvy, but to point the world toward the One who holds the world in his hands.

The King is on his throne, and there he will remain. Let that be enough for us today.

—Camille Suazo

A Strategic Corridor for the Gospel 🇱🇧

Christianity in Lebanon dates back to the earliest centuries of the faith, yet today, less than 1% of the population identifies as Protestant.

The nation is currently facing a humanitarian catastrophe, with massive displacement following intensive regional strikes. Despite this volatility, Lebanon remains a vital corridor for the gospel to reach Syria and other restricted parts of the Middle East. Some of Radical’s partners leverage Lebanon’s unique geography to train church planters and supply urgent humanitarian aid to communities devastated by the conflict in the region.

How to Pray:

• Pray for the hundreds of thousands of displaced families, that God would be their shield and provide for those sleeping in makeshift shelters or on roadsides.

• Pray for the regional church planters being trained in Lebanon, asking for supernatural courage as they carry the gospel into war-torn, restricted areas.

• Pray for the logistics and safety of partners delivering aid through Lebanon into Syria, that meeting physical hunger would open doors for the gospel.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Secret Church prices increase March 18. Remember, you have 20% OFF as a The Commission subscriber. Use code COMMISSION at checkout!

• Massive growth in the Iranian church is the result of a sovereign God working through a people refined by suffering. Learn how to pray for Iran’s New Day.

• Remaining in Beirut during war requires pastoral courage anchored in the scars of Christ. This sober, hopeful perspective will help you understand what it means to be a long-term witness amidst the sirens.

• Sharing the gospel in large groups can feel intimidating for those who are naturally reserved. Here’s a shy guy’s guide to fostering deep, one-on-one connections in a crowded world.

Hello friend. Some of the hardest moments in life are the ones where you can do almost nothing. Sitting beside a hospital bed. Watching news from a country torn apart by war. Loving someone who wants nothing to do with Jesus. Those moments expose how little control we have—and how much we need a Savior who really sees and really acts.

The good news is that helplessness isn’t the same as hopelessness. 

In Scripture, desperate people simply bring others to Jesus and lay them at his feet. That’s still our call today: to pray, to show up, to carry those we love—near and far—into the presence of the One who can do what we never could.

In today’s edition:

🇾🇪 What following Jesus looks like in Yemen’s fractured land

👣 Bringing your friends to Jesus’ feet—literally and figuratively

🇬🇹 Why Guatemala’s growing numbers still need deeper discipleship

Seeking the Light in a Fractured Land 🇾🇪

Yemen is home to more than 34 million people, yet it remains one of the most physically and spiritually isolated places on earth. 

After a decade of civil war, the nation has fractured into competing power centers, leaving nearly 70% of the population in need of emergency assistance just to survive. For millions of families, daily life is a search for bread and clean water amidst "famine-like conditions" and a crumbling healthcare system.

In this environment of instability, the spiritual climate is one of the most restrictive in the world. 

Following Jesus is considered a capital offense under Sharia-based legal systems, and those who turn to Christ face "maximum pressure" from the state, their tribes, and even their own families. For the few who follow him, faith is often a solitary journey marked by the constant threat of discovery and the weight of "honor killings."

Still, God is not absent in Yemen. 

Despite targeted campaigns to root out "apostates," a small, indigenous church continues to meet in secret, proving that even in the world’s most closed nations, God’s Word cannot be stopped. Our prayer is for these brothers and sisters to endure with hope, serving as a living witness in a land that has known so much sorrow.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for physical survival—asking that God would provide daily bread for the 18 million Yemenis facing acute food insecurity and open doors for relief to reach isolated regions.

🙏🏼 Pray for the protection of secret believers—that God would provide them with miraculous ways to gather and that the Holy Spirit would shield them from discovery and harm.

🙏🏼 Pray for stability and peace—that political rivalries would be restrained, detained workers released, and a way paved for the gospel to be heard by every Yemeni.

Put Your Friends on a Stretcher and Bring Them to Jesus 🧎🏽

For the last few weeks, I’ve spent many nights in a hospital room with a close friend recovering from a major stroke. She was young and healthy before her brain bleed, and her sudden crisis was a shock. 

During the first nights, I’d sit next to her in the dark while she breathed through a ventilator, and I’d read the Songs of Ascent. Her favorite is Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

I developed a new appreciation for Psalm 130: “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.” 

As she began to recover and breathe on her own, I found myself gravitating to the gospels. But I found myself unsure how much to read aloud. Especially when it came to the accounts of Jesus healing people: the blind, the deaf, and yes, the paralyzed and lame. 

Was this too raw?

We boldly pray for my friend’s healing, but we’re not exactly sure when or how Jesus will answer. At one point, I found myself thinking: If only I could put her on a stretcher and sit her right at Jesus’ feet. I’d even climb a ladder and cut a hole in the roof like the men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus in Luke 5.

But then I realized: that’s exactly what we’d been doing all along. 

Every prayer, every cry, every plea that she couldn’t make for herself was us bringing her to Jesus, sitting her at his feet, and asking him to do her good. 

And we believe he will. Because he is good. He does good.

I also began to think about how much this applies to other people in my life who need Jesus. People who are physically fit and financially secure and think they have everything they need—but don’t realize they are spiritually sick and just helpless as my friend lying in a bed, unable to do anything to save herself. 

In fact, they’re more helpless. Because they don’t realize they need Jesus at all. 

What can I do for them?

The same thing I’m doing for my sick friend. I can bring them to Jesus. 

Just like so many people in the gospels who brought their sick friends and family and laid them at Jesus’ feet, I can bring my spiritually sick loved ones to him. I don’t know exactly what he’ll do, or how he’ll do it, but I trust his power. I trust his goodness.

That seems to be the essence of bringing our friends and family to Christ—not only in prayer, but in presence. When we speak about him. When we invite them to church. When we ask them just to read a simple book about him. 

It often seems like so little because we realize we have no power to save. But we believe in the power of the One who does. All we can do is bring them to him, and lay them at his feet. 

When Jesus healed the paralyzed man carried by his friends in Luke 5, the author says that Jesus saw their faith. That included the faith of his friends. So, I’m going to keep bringing my physically sick friend to Jesus in prayer. She already knows and loves him, and she trusts that he will be good to her, as he always has. 

But let’s also renew our resolve to bring our spiritually sick friends to Jesus—with our prayers and our presence. And let’s trust that Jesus sees our faith. That it matters to him. 

And let’s also trust that, however he works, a final day will come when “amazement will seize us,” and we will “be filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today.’”

—Jamie Dean

Faith Beyond the Surface 🇬🇹

Guatemala is often cited as a success story for the gospel in Latin America, with nearly 40% of the population identifying as evangelical Christians. 

Yet, behind these encouraging numbers lies a complex reality of deep-seated poverty, systemic corruption, and a history of civil unrest that continues to push thousands to migrate in search of safety and stability. In many communities, the prosperity gospel has taken root, offering a distorted view of Christ that prioritizes material wealth over biblical discipleship and the hope of eternal life.

For the church in Guatemala, the challenge is not just to grow in number, but to grow in depth. True faithfulness involves moving beyond nominal identity to a life-altering encounter with God’s Word that transforms how one loves their neighbor and seeks justice in a broken society.

How To Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for biblical clarity—that the prosperity gospel and syncretism would give way to repentance, sound doctrine, and discipleship rooted in the true character of Christ.

🙏🏼 Pray for the vulnerable and displaced—that families facing poverty or violence would find tangible help through the local church and the lasting peace found only in Jesus.

🙏🏼 Pray for deep discipleship among the next generation—that young Guatemalan believers would be grounded in Scripture, mobilized for mission, and burdened for their unreached neighbors.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Praying consistently can feel strangely hard—even when you want to. Start with a simple first step: ask God for help, trusting he meets weakness with grace.

• Busy seasons don’t cancel the Great Commission. A gentle, realistic encouragement for making disciples when life feels full—helping you pursue faithfulness without pretending you have endless time or energy.

• Not going overseas doesn’t mean you’re sidelined. Here's a vision of when staying can be as active as going—through sacrificial support, prayer, and joy-fueled generosity that helps reach the nations.

Hello friend. Most of us naturally reach for what’s comfortable. We avoid risk, keep our plans tidy, and quietly hope obedience to Jesus will fit neatly inside an easy life—even though we’d never say it like that. 

But again and again, Scripture shows us a different pattern: God calls his people into costly yeses—and meets them there with a deeper joy than comfort can offer.

From places where access to the gospel is limited, to cultures where “Christian” is mostly a label, to whatever decisions sit in front of you this week, the same truth holds true: Jesus is worth more than ease. And wherever obedience feels hard, he is not pushing you out alone—he is walking with you into it.

In today’s edition:

🇳🇪 Limited access in Niger—and how God still strengthens his church.

👣 What it really means to say “yes” to Jesus when it costs you.

🇧🇷 Why Brazil’s “Christian” culture needs deeper discipleship and a steady church.

Limited Access Can’t Stop God’s Work 🇳🇪

Niger is home to more than 24 million people, and the overwhelming majority still has little to no access to the gospel. Islam shapes much of public life, and daily realities—poverty, food insecurity, political instability, and violent extremist threats—press in on families and communities across the country.

In many rural villages and desert communities, Jesus’ name is rarely spoken with clarity or understanding. For those who do follow him, faith can be costly and isolating. Small pockets of believers often live quietly—limited access to Scripture, few mature leaders nearby, and real social pressure if they’re known as Christians. And when instability rises, ordinary ministry becomes even harder: travel is risky, gatherings can be disrupted, and trust can be fragile.

Still, God is not absent in Niger. He is drawing people to himself, sustaining his church in hidden places, and keeping the light burning where it seems least likely. Our prayer is not just for “more information,” but for a living witness—local disciples who know the Word, love their neighbors, and endure with hope.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for Nigerien believers to be strengthened in isolation—rooted in Scripture, protected from harm, and encouraged with wise, trusted fellowship.

🙏🏼 Pray for unreached communities where the gospel is unknown—that God would send workers, open doors through relationships, and grant clarity and courage to share Christ.

🙏🏼 Pray for stability and peace—that violence would be restrained, families protected, and space created for churches to gather, disciple, and multiply.

Following Jesus When It’s Not Easy 👣

Does saying “Yes” to Jesus mean saying “No” to ease?

It certainly seems that way.

I think about Jesus’ words in Luke 9:23:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

I don’t think anyone heard those words and walked away thinking, “This is going to be easy!” No one heard the word “cross” in that context and thought “comfort.”

But what does this look like in everyday life? This question immediately calls to mind a couple of different conversations I’ve had just this week.

One was with a brother who was burdened for the persecuted church in northern Nigeria. 

He told his wife he thought God was leading them to go on short-term trips and serve our suffering brothers and sisters there. When he shared this with his wife, she immediately said they needed to pray and make sure the Lord was really calling them to do this because she knew there would be much risk involved. So they joined hands with their kids and prayed specifically for God to show them if he was leading them to do this. 

Within hours, he received a completely unsolicited email from someone in northern Nigeria asking him to come over and help them. Today, he is serving the church there at great risk. A couple of his fellow team leaders were just abducted and tortured (and thankfully—and miraculously—released). 

God is working in powerful ways through the work they are doing, but no one would call it easy.

I had another conversation with a brother who, many years ago, found himself in an unplanned pregnancy with his girlfriend at the time. 

He was sharing with me how seemingly everyone was telling them to get an abortion, saying how hard it would be to finish college and have a career with a baby who would be a barrier to that. Knowing that it was the right decision to have this child didn’t make that decision easy. 

But this brother and his wife now work alongside other women and men in the same circumstance, helping them get the support they need to thrive as parents, and the son who was born to them is now thriving with his own children.

Finally, I think about a young adult who grew up a devout Muslim here in the United States. 

A couple of years ago, she heard the truth about Jesus for the first time, and she found herself drawn toward the gospel. But she knew that if she trusted in Jesus as her Savior and Lord, many in her family (and, namely, her dad) would react very negatively. Yet she became a follower of Jesus anyway, and she’s still working through how to best love her family as she’s ostracized from them.

So how is Jesus asking you to say “Yes” to him and “No” to ease? 

Maybe he’s calling you to go short-term—or longer—somewhere else in the world for the spread of the gospel or the building up of the church. 

Maybe he’s calling you to come alongside women and men with unplanned pregnancies, or children, or single parents in need.

Maybe he’s calling you to open your home and share the gospel with your Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, or agnostic friend, neighbor, or acquaintance.

Maybe he’s calling you to take a specific stand for Jesus on your campus or in your workplace.

Obviously, I don’t know all that he’s calling you to do. But I do know this: 

It won’t be easy. And it will be worth it.

So don’t be surprised when it gets hard (see 1 Peter 4:12-19). Yet do be confident that you’re not alone. 

Truly believe that the One who calls you to take up a cross daily has borne the cross on your behalf, and he now lives in you so that you can boldly step into the hard with the supernatural strength, peace, joy, love, and hope that only he can provide. 

According to Jesus in Luke 9:24:

“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

—David Platt

Beyond Cultural Christianity 🇧🇷

Brazil is a country of striking contrasts—spiritual familiarity and spiritual need, side by side. Many Brazilians identify with Christianity, yet the gospel can be blurred by syncretism, prosperity messaging, or a “Christian vocabulary” that never becomes personal faith. At the same time, Brazil is home to dozens of unreached people groups, especially in hard-to-reach regions where access is limited and long-term presence is rare.

Right now, everyday life is also shaped by climate strain—seasons of “too dry, too wet,” with communities facing drought, flooding, and the ripple effects on food, health, and stability. In that mix, local churches have a unique opportunity: to be known not for noise, but for steady truth, costly love, and humble service.

Pray for Brazil’s church to grow in depth—not just attendance. Pray for believers to be grounded in Scripture, mobilized for mission, and burdened for neighbors who have never heard the good news clearly.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for spiritual clarity—that cultural Christianity would give way to repentance, faith, and discipleship rooted in God’s Word.

🙏🏼 Pray for unreached peoples, especially in hard-to-access regions—that God would send long-term workers and raise up local believers to make disciples.

🙏🏼 Pray for strength and compassion in seasons of climate pressure—churches serving wisely, families protected, and the vulnerable cared for in Jesus’ name.

📍 Attention Worthy

• The Commission subscribers get a Secret Church discount—use code COMMISSION for 20% off. Join us April 17 for six hours in God’s Word, praying for the persecuted church, and responding for the spread of the gospel in the world’s hardest places.

• Feeling pressure to move faster than faithfulness allows? A missionary shares what he wishes he knew sooner: patience isn’t procrastination—it’s trust in God’s sovereign timing. 

• Paul isn’t the only church-planting template in the New Testament. This piece widens the lens—highlighting models from Timothy, Titus, Priscilla & Aquila (and even Jesus) for the contexts many planters face today. 

• Language learning matters—but God may have already put a “common tongue” in your hand. With about 1.5B English speakers worldwide, this article explores how English can serve the Great Commission (without replacing local languages).

Hello friend. Scripture says “the end of all things is at hand,” but it doesn’t tell us to panic, stockpile, or close the door.

Instead, it calls us to be clear-minded in prayer, sincere in love, and open-hearted toward others. The God who welcomed us through Jesus makes us a people who welcome—into our lives, our spaces, even our ordinary routines.

That matters in places where following Jesus must stay hidden and in places where Christianity feels mostly cultural—whether in Somalia, Georgia, or your own neighborhood.

Wherever he has put you, you’re there on purpose. Take it as an invitation to live your days—however many are left—with a heart that is awake, open, and ready for his return.

In today’s edition:

🇸🇴 Hidden believers in Somalia and the quiet courage it takes to follow Jesus.

🍽️ A basic meal, an open door, and how God uses ordinary hospitality.

🇬🇪 When “Christian” is cultural in Georgia—and what real faith looks like underneath.

Where Meeting a Christian Is Almost Impossible 🇸🇴 

Somalia is one of the most difficult places in the world to follow Jesus. 

In a country where almost everyone is Muslim and over 99% of people remain unreached, even being suspected of Christian faith can bring severe consequences. For many Somali believers, faith must stay hidden, and isolation can make ordinary discipleship—learning Scripture, praying with others, sharing the gospel—feel nearly impossible.

Life in Somalia has been shaped by years of conflict, displacement, drought, and extremist influence. In that kind of pressure, fear can set the pace for everyday life.

But Jesus is not absent from hard places. 

He saves, sustains, and builds his church even when it can’t gather openly—often through quiet relationships and the few channels where the gospel can still be heard.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for secret believers who are isolated—steadfast faith, wisdom in daily decisions, and safe, genuine fellowship.

🙏🏼 Pray for clarity and access to the gospel through the few open avenues available—media, humanitarian relationships, and personal witness.

🙏🏼 Pray that God would raise up Somali men and women who know Jesus, grow as disciples, and share his love with courage and humility.

When the End Feels Near, Set the Table 🍽️

As Christians, we are living in what the Bible calls the last days. The end of time is near; Jesus’ return is only getting closer each day. He told us his return will be like a thief in the night. 

We must be ready, and we must be working, awaiting our master’s return. And billions of people have yet to even hear the good news of the Savior. The work to be done is massive, and the time is running out. 

How then should we be living?

You should have people over for dinner. 

This isn’t my idea, it's actually Peter’s: “The end of all things is at hand … show hospitality to one another” (1 Pet 4:7–9).

Peter states that “the end of all things is at hand” and lists out a few things Christians ought to do in light of that, and then concludes by showing hospitality to people. 

Hospitality is central to the Christian identity. 

Consider how Paul tells Christians to “welcome” (Rom 14:1) those weak in faith because Christ has “welcomed” us (Rom 15:7). Paul shows that one of the major areas in which we can welcome others is in eating and drinking (Rom 14:3–23). 

Or think about the fact that we remember our Lord’s saving death for us by sharing a meal, the Lord’s Supper, together. Christian hospitality can include a warm meal, but it can also include lodging, particularly for traveling missionaries (3 Jn 8).

Christian hospitality should extend to unbelievers around us. 

It’s well documented today that we live in the loneliest generation in modern history. We were made for relationships, but many today live very alone lives. The warmth you enjoy through the friendships and hospitality of your local church is alien to so many people today. 

Showing hospitality to unbelievers opens a great door—pun intended!—for the gospel. While many people won’t enter the door of a church, they may enter your door to share a meal. And bringing unbelievers into the community of Christians creates opportunities for them to experience the presence of God (1 Cor 14:25).

Also consider the nations in your neighborhood.

While billions have never heard the gospel and while many people groups and nations have few or no believers, many of these very people are now your neighbors, your co-workers, or your fellow students. 

You don’t need to go to the nations to reach the nations. Simply show hospitality.

What if my home is small? You can likely fit at least one more person in there! 

What if I’m not a good cook? You can order food or play a board game! 

One of my pastors used to say, “All you need to show hospitality is a cup of water and a couch—and many nations don’t even sit on couches, so just throw cushions on the floor!” 

Hospitality isn’t ultimately about what material things you share—the size of your home or the taste of the meal—it’s about the message that you get to share: the good news of Jesus.

What will you share when they are with you? As one of my friends says, “Simply gossip about Jesus.” 

What he means is this: naturally—and it should be natural if we love Jesus!—drop Jesus into your conversations. 

Share what you’re doing at church this week.

Share what you’re learning in the Bible. 

Share how you pray to Jesus. 

Share how Jesus has saved you and turned your life around. 

Share his wondrous deeds in your life. 

And most importantly, pray that God will give boldness and openness for you to share the hope of the gospel.

So what can you do this next month? 

Is there one unbeliever in your life you could reach out to? Could you begin having an unbeliever over once a month? 

Who do you regularly see at the grocery store, at work, in your neighborhood, at your park, at a local restaurant, or at school that you could invite? 

This isn’t starting a formal “hospitality” ministry; this is just doing life, eating food, sharing your home with those around you. 

Jesus was mocked by the Pharisees for eating with and being a “friend of sinners.” Will you join in imitating him?

—Jonny Atkinson

When Everyone Is Christian—and Few Know Christ 🇬🇪

Georgia sits at a tense crossroads right now—caught between deep public hope for a European future and a growing atmosphere of political pressure and distrust.

Over the last year, protests and crackdowns have become part of the national rhythm, and many Georgians feel the weight of uncertainty about where the country is headed. 

Spiritually, Georgia is often described as “Christian,” but for many, faith is more inherited than inhabited. 

The Georgian Orthodox Church has shaped the nation’s identity for centuries, yet Protestant believers remain a tiny minority—often misunderstood, sometimes quietly discriminated against, and frequently limited by social pressure rather than open violence. 

That’s why discipleship matters here—patient, Bible-rooted, life-on-life formation that helps tradition become conviction. Radical is helping equip workers through a training center focused on making disciples and planting churches in hard-to-reach places—pairing biblical instruction with language and cultural preparation for long-term ministry

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray that God would steady Georgia in a polarized moment—bringing justice, wisdom, and restraint to those in power.

🙏🏼 Pray for many Georgians to move from inherited religion to a living, Bible-rooted faith in Christ.

🙏🏼 Pray for pastors, planters, and disciple-makers to be equipped for patient, life-on-life ministry that forms deep conviction, not just tradition.

📍 Attention Worthy

• Watch Hard to Reach: Indonesia (Full Documentary) to see gospel work across the archipelago—from major cities to remote, unreached islands—through the courage and quiet resilience of local believers.

• Trace the Great Commission all the way to the local church. See why “make disciples” naturally leads to baptism, teaching, and planting churches that can outlast the missionary.

• Keep the gospel within arm’s reach when life gets loud. Let this “7,000 pennies” picture help you hold big gospel truths in a way you can actually access on a Tuesday.

• Bring a calmer, more human tone to apologetics.Recenter on Jesus—not winning—so objections matter, but never become the main thing.

Hello friend. We live in a world trained to skim—feeds, headlines, short clips, fast takes. And if we’re honest, we can start carrying that pace into our life with God: a glance here, a verse there, and then we’re on to the next thing.

But Scripture invites us to something different: to slow down long enough to actually listen—to let God’s Word soak in, reshape our instincts, and steady our hearts.

And that matters not just for our own souls, but for God’s global mission. 

Believers in places like Pakistan and Nigeria don’t have the luxury of “casual Christianity.” Following Jesus can cost them everything. And still, they choose to follow Jesus and make him known—because he is worth it.

Let’s choose to resist the hurry—and take one small step of unhurried faithfulness toward the Word and the world God loves.

In today’s edition:

🇵🇰 Pakistan—faithful witness under pressure, and leaders being equipped for patient, relational mission.

📖 The Message—a simple 2026 reset: stop scrolling Scripture and start sitting with it.

🇳🇬 Nigeria—pray for believers enduring violence and displacement, and for courage to keep making Jesus known.

Faithful Witness Under Pressure 🇵🇰

Pakistan’s population of over 250 million people includes one of the largest concentrations of unreached people groups on earth. Many have never heard a clear, faithful presentation of the gospel.

In a Muslim-majority country where discrimination can be quiet—at work, at school, in the form of “second-class citizen” treatment—and danger can be sudden—false accusations or mob violence—believers often live on the margins. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are frequently used to target religious minorities, and even rumors can ignite violence. 

Add to that a backdrop of economic pressure and rising militant violence in parts of the country, and everyday ministry can feel costly.

Still, quiet seeds of faith are being planted. Radical is training young believers and church leaders from rural areas in Pakistan.

Through Bible teaching, mentoring, and one-on-one pastoral care, we’re strengthening them in Scripture, encouraging endurance, and equipping them to share Christ with their Muslim neighbors through patient, relational witness.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for believers facing quiet discrimination at work and school—may God grant favor, wisdom, and steady joy.

🙏🏼 Pray for open doors through everyday relationships with Muslim neighbors—hospitality, compassion, and conversations that are natural, patient, and Spirit-led.

🙏🏼 Pray that the rural trainees Radical is equipping would be deeply rooted in Scripture, discerning under pressure, and courageous to shepherd others even at a high cost.

Stop Scrolling the Bible—Start Sitting with It 🪑

Could I interest you in trying a physical Bible this year?

No, I’m not a Bible salesman, but hear me out.

We live in a golden age of access to Scripture—an age our spiritual ancestors could hardly imagine. 

Every verse is a tap away. Podcasts read the Bible to us while we drive (perhaps you’d like to give ours a listen?) AI apps can summarize the Isaiah scroll in an instant. If there’s a way to consume Scripture quickly, efficiently, and with minimal friction, someone has designed it.

And yet somehow… We are still starving. 

In places where following Jesus is costly, we hear stories of believers clinging to Scripture as if it were their only oxygen. In the West, we often drift past verses like billboards on a highway—glanced at, but never entered.

But James tells us the goal is not to hear the Word and nod politely; it is to look intently, to linger, and then to do (James 1:22–25). 

That kind of hearing can’t be microwaved. It requires something we’ve nearly lost: attention.

But here’s the hopeful part: you don’t need a monastery or a six-month retreat to change this. 

You just need a Bible—an actual, physical Bible—open on the table.

There’s something grounding about paper and ink. You can’t swipe away Leviticus. You can’t toggle to Instagram when a verse hits too close or too far, for that matter.

A paper Bible invites you to slow down. To think. To notice. To obey. And that kind of slow consumption—small but serious—can bring peace to a distracted heart. 

So as 2026 begins, here’s a simple challenge—nothing flashy: Pick a book of the Bible. Pick a plan. Commit with one other person. 

Read slowly. Ask questions (Ok, I promise I’m not a salesman, but maybe try this book for help?) Read expecting God to speak. 

And when he does—obey.

If thousands of us did that this year, and thousands of communities were shaped not just by access to Scripture, but by actual submission to it, imagine what God could do. 

He might just use you to bring Jesus to the attention of someone who desperately needs to know him.

—Steven Morales

Endurance to Keep Making Jesus known 🇳🇬

Nigeria is a land of massive gospel opportunity—and real, costly suffering. 

The gospel first came to the southern coast through Portuguese merchants centuries ago, then spread more widely through missionary movements and the growth of local churches.  

In the 1970s, university-campus revivals helped ignite student fellowships and mission movements that strengthened the church’s reach.

Yet many Nigerian believers live with daily vulnerability as Islamist militants and armed groups carry out attacks, kidnappings, and destruction—especially across the northeast and the Middle Belt, with violence spreading beyond areas once considered “safer.” 

Millions have been displaced, trying to hold faith and family together amid trauma and loss.

Nigeria’s church is large—but in places where fear can feel louder than hope, believers need fresh courage to hold fast to Jesus and keep making him known.

(To hear a first-hand witness of what’s happening in Nigeria, listen to the latest episode of Everyday Radical with Dr. Arllen Ade of Healing Africa Ministries.)

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for steadfast faith and wise leadership in churches grieving violence, rebuilding, and caring for displaced families.

🙏🏼 Pray for protection for believers who gather to worship under threat—and for boldness to keep making Jesus known in the aftermath.

🙏🏼 Pray for the rescue of those abducted, and deep healing for survivors and families living with uncertainty.

📍 Attention Worthy

• If Iran’s regime cracks, what happens to the underground church? A glimpse into Iranian believers’ hopes—and the urgent question of readiness if freedom suddenly arrives. 

• A different “blessed” scorecard: these Beatitudes reframe fruitfulness as meek, dependent, often hidden—before it’s ever impressive.

• Disciple-making reset: a back-to-basics guide that clears the noise and recenters what actually matters on mission.

• An evangelism experiment: talk less, listen longer, ask better questions—and watch how clarity (and compassion) show up when you slow down.