Persecution trends for 2026 predicted
Luke Randall
Date posted: 29 Jan 2026
Release International’s Persecution Trends Report has been released for 2026, detailing serious concern for believers in various countries, particularly across Africa and Asia.
The report is based on first-hand accounts from Release partners across the globe. Several of the countries which feature prominently are predictable, following much difficulty for Christians within them throughout the last year.
letter from Moldova
Bălți encouragements
www.sga.org.uk
Date posted: 29 Jan 2026
At the end of 2025, a group of 26 students graduated from the Slavic Gospel Association Mission School in Bălți, North Moldova.
It was the 16th such group to complete a two-year Bible training course designed to prepare men and women for a wide range of ministries in their spiritually needy land.
letter from France
Mariam’s story
Blaine Vorster
Date posted: 28 Jan 2026
I still remember the first time she walked up to me before a Sunday service. “I’m new here. I’m not a Christian, and I’ve never been to church before. I’m not sure what I am supposed to do, but would it be okay if I came to your church?”
Mariam (not her real name) was a student studying in France. She arrived from a country with little to no gospel access and no idea how to get it. Yet, for several years, she has had a desire to find out more about Jesus. So, when the opportunity to study in English in Europe arose, she was excited to visit a church for the first time. There was a snag, however, as she did not speak French. Nevertheless, Mariam went to a French church where a few believers who could speak English took her under their wing. They then brought her to the International Church.
Christians send help to Afghanistan
Luke Randall
Date posted: 27 Jan 2026
Tearfund partners in Afghanistan are working to help vulnerable people in remote mountain regions survive brutal winter conditions as part of a two-year response plan to support communities most impacted by recent earthquakes.
Those working in tandem with the missionary organisation are handing out winter survival kits to the most vulnerable, many of whom are now living in tents after losing loved ones and their homes, following three earthquakes which ravaged eastern Afghanistan at the end of the summer months, killing almost 2,000 people.
Revised ‘Africa Bible Commentary’ out
Luke Randall
Date posted: 26 Jan 2026
A new and revised Africa Bible Commentary has been produced by African scholars, in partnership with Langham Publishing and HarperCollins Christian Publishing.
The one-volume release has taken seven years to produce and has come out just under 20 years after its predecessor, which had been the first Africa Bible Commentary (ABC) to be produced by African scholars for Christians across the continent.
Venezuela: ‘Extraordinary’ opportunities
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 Jan 2026
There are “extraordinary gospel opportunities” in Venezuela at the moment, a Christian organisation says.
The capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his transportation to face trial in the US have plunged the South American nation into uncertainty.
Who are Greenland's Christians?
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 Jan 2026
It’s the largest island in the world (excluding Australia) – yet a country with one of the smallest populations. It’s also a land which is nominally 96.6% Christian – but where the Evangelical witness is small. As Greenland unexpectedly hits the news in 2026 with President Trump vowing to “get” the nation one way or another, en looks into the spiritual landscape of this beautiful land.
Christianity has had a presence in Greenland since the 1000s, when Norse settlers first brought it to the territory. It has since become a noteworthy part of its culture, predominantly in the form of Lutheranism.
Iran: Christians at ‘heightened risk’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 Jan 2026
Christians may be at particular risk in Iran at the moment, a Christian organisation says.
Elam Ministries is calling on believers to pray for Iran during the current “significant and uncertain moment,” with the nation experiencing turbulence which could put Christians at “heightened risk”.
Famed US Christian university comes to Europe
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 21 Jan 2026
Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the United States, is now offering online degrees to students living in Europe and is even considering the possibility of creating a European campus in the future.
The evangelical institution, which was founded in 1971 in Lynchburg, Virginia, enrolls more than 140,000 students through its residential and online programmes. With this latest expansion, European students can access 600 options for study online.
More 'non-denominational' US Christians
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 20 Jan 2026
New research conducted by the General Social Survey, which records social trends in the United States, has shown a significant increase in US Christians who identify as non-denominational.
While less than three per cent of Christians in the US identified as non-denominational in 1972, almost 40 million people place themselves in that category today. Although the Baptist denomination remains the largest Protestant group, non-denominational Christians are now the second largest grouping in Protestant Christianity with an estimated 40,000 churches across the US.
updates from the mission field
Mission in Naples: 'Italian gospel workers are heroes'
Mark Oden
Date posted: 20 Jan 2026
In the heat of the summer of 2013, Jane and I, and our four kids (Sofia, Inez, Luisa, and Archie), moved from leafy Sevenoaks to noisy, crowded Naples, Italy, to work alongside a Brethren church we’d built links with previously.
We spent two years serving in Pozzuoli, then moved into the centre of the city to plant the Chiesa Evangelica Neapolis (the Greek name for the city, meaning "new community"). In March 2026, we intend to leave Naples, having been called to serve Chalmers Church, Edinburgh.
University changes wording after 'ancient Palestine' row
Emily Pollok
Date posted: 17 Jan 2026
The Open University (OU) has said it will no longer refer to “ancient Palestine” as the birthplace of the Virgin Mary in course material following complaints that the term risks “erasing Jewish history.”
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) wrote to the university to address the use of the description in one of the OU’s humanities modules, which also includes a map of “ancient Palestine” and references the Aramaic language as widely spoken in that region.
Iranian pastor: 'The people are not backing down'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 16 Jan 2026
Iranian evangelical pastor Pooyan Mehrshahi says the people of Iran are not backing down, despite thousands having been killed and tens of thousands reported to have been arrested amid the country's protests against the government.
In an update earlier this week, en shared statistics from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) stating that 490 protesters and 48 security personnel had died in Iran in recent days, with 10,600 reported arrests.
Belief in God surges among Finland's youth
Luke Randall
Date posted: 16 Jan 2026
Belief in God among Finland’s young people is growing at a remarkable rate, with the percentage of boys professing belief almost doubling in just six years.
A study among the 75 per cent of the nation’s young people who attended confirmation preparation classes last year unearthed the stunning new statistics, which confirmed that 67 per cent of Finland’s boys expressed belief in God, up from 36 per cent in 2019, while the number of girls who believe increased from 35 per cent to 56 per cent.
North Korea tops 2026 'World Watch List'
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 14 Jan 2026
Christian charity Open Doors has released its 2026 World Watch List, and it's North Korea where believers are facing the most extreme persecution.
Worldwide, 4,849 Christians were murdered for their faith in Jesus in the last year; of these, 72 per cent were from Nigeria - that's more than the rest of the world combined.
Iranian pastor: Pray against 'Satanic' regime
en staff
Date posted: 12 Jan 2026
Christians must understand the Islamic regime in Iran is demonic, and pray against it accordingly, an Iranian evangelical pastor says.
The call comes from Pooyan Mehrshahi, who was born in Iran in 1980, after the Islamic Revolution.
Chinese pastor free after 12 years
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 9 Jan 2026
A Chinese pastor has been released after serving a 12-year prison sentence. Zhang Shaojie and other church leaders in Henan had been planning to build a new church on a plot of land they owned, but he was charged and convicted of fabricated public order offences and fraud.
Church members believe the authorities targeted him to obtain the land and prevent the church from growing.
Nigeria: Missionary’s report raises questions
Luke Randall
Date posted: 8 Jan 2026
Much media attention has focused on barbaric attacks perpetrated against Christians in Nigeria by Islamic Fulani herdsmen. However, an American missionary has said that the prevailing narrative omits “a significant part of the story”.
In a wide-ranging report sent to en, Rachelle Wenger, who has lived in rural Nigeria for almost 30 years, has claimed that accusations of Islamist genocide against Christians are “false and dangerous”, and that the conflict is “more ethnic than religious”. The report was originally produced for a missionary organisation.
