Kevin Zeller, Mission Network News

Each year, thousands of Iranians visit Turkey for the Persian New Year. They can celebrate more freely in Turkey than they can in Iran, where the government closely monitors behaviour.

Bibles for the World takes this opportunity to have conversations with the revellers about Jesus. John Pudaite says, “This year, as we geared up for it, we decided to go in for two consecutive weeks with two different teams and provide scriptures.”

The Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh has seen six fires already this year. The latest fire killed one child and destroyed 400 shacks and two learning centres.

A January fire destroyed 600 more shelters. In March of 2021, a massive fire killed 15 people and left about 45,000 without shelter.

Turkey has regularly expelled Protestant missionaries since 2018. But why?

Floyd Brobbel with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada says, “If we were to see that only the missionaries from the US were expelled, we might say, ‘Okay, there’s something more political to this.’”

China’s new internet law went into effect on March 1, laying out new regulations for internet use – including religious content.

The law allows only religious groups with government approval to share content over the internet. How has it affected churches so far?

Ukrainian forces say they have retaken the city of Irpin from Russian troops. Weeks of heavy fighting have engulfed this suburb of Kyiv. The city has suffered extensive damage to infrastructure, with apartments knocked down and bridges blown out.

Eric Mock with the Slavic Gospel Association says, “The word we have is that from street to street, it’s hard to tell who’s in control. There’s so much fighting continuing on that it’s very difficult.”

The Taliban has broken a promise to have girls back in school by March 21. The organization prevented teenage girls from attending secondary school just a week after announcing they would allow it.

Since 2018, Turkey has forced nearly 200 Protestant clergy and their families to leave the country. Intelligence officials claim they pose a security risk but do not say how. The expulsions began after the U.S. sanctioned Turkey for imprisoning an American pastor.

Soner Tufan works with the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, a network of about 40 churches. He says 28 of those deported were Americans, with the rest from Britain, South Korea, Latin America, and other nations.