World

(RNS) — The number of Christian refugees coming to the United States from the countries where Christians are most persecuted has dropped dramatically under President Trump's administration.

BEIJING (AP) — China is saving Muslim ethnic minorities from the lure of religious extremism by teaching them to speak Mandarin and accept modern science, a senior Chinese official said in a report Tuesday, Beijing's latest propaganda effort to defend its internment of Muslims against mounting criticism.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freed American pastor Andrew Brunson fell to one knee in the Oval Office and placed his hand on President Donald Trump’s shoulder in prayer on Saturday, asking God to provide the president “supernatural wisdom to accomplish all the plans you have for this country and for him.”

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) – Dr. Evan Atar Adaha knows that faith matters to many of his patients at the Maban Referral Hospital in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State.

So, before administering the anesthetic for surgery, he recites verses from the Bible or the Quran with patients. Then the 52-year-old surgeon, who is Roman Catholic, follows with a short prayer — according to the patient’s faith — before taking up his surgical knife.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi was rocked by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent 20-foot-high tsunami on September 28, followed by a volcanic eruption on the same island just days later. The current death toll is reportedly 1,407 and is expected to climb, with hundreds more reported injured.

PALU, Indonesia (BP) -- Baptist Global Response is assessing needs on Indonesia's Sulawesi island after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami Sept. 28 killed at least 1,200 people, with the death toll expected to rise. More than 1.5 million people have been affected, according to initial reports.

YANGON, Myanmar (BP) -- Ethnic Wa rebels this month shut down churches or destroyed their buildings and temporarily detained several clergymen in eastern Myanmar (Burma), sources said.

KAMPALA, Uganda (RNS) – Thousands of faithful in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are staying home from church services to avoid contracting or spreading Ebola.

KIGALI, Rwanda (RNS) – Grace Umutesi has secretly been conducting services in her house in the Bannyahe slum on the outskirts of the capital since officials shut down her church in July for failing to comply with building safety standards and other regulations.

“I’m very disappointed by the decision of the government to close our church,” said Umutesi, 35, a mother of four. “But we cannot stop to pray and praise God because our church has been closed. God is everywhere and he listens to our prayers.”

KAMPALA, Uganda (RNS) – On a recent Sunday morning, hundreds of worshippers gathered at Jehovah Pentecostal Church in Kisenyi, a slum on the outskirts of Kampala, to pray against their government’s intensifying crackdown against opposition politicians, journalists and supporters.