Katey Hearth, Mission Network News

Iraq’s newly-appointed leaders strengthened ties with the West, meeting ambassadors from the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia last week. Iran casts a heavy shadow over the war-torn nation, making it difficult for Iraq to gain foreign allies.

Fadi Sharaiha with MENA Leadership Center says Iraq is one more pawn for global superpowers to fight over. “It is a proxy for Iran; for Saudi, the U.S., Russia, China; everybody’s there, just like Lebanon,” he explains.

In Bangladesh, Christmas provides the perfect opportunity to spread the Good News!

“We like to use special occasions like Christmas to reach out to our neighbors. There are 100 [people living] around our church; they’re all Muslim and some Hindus,” Pastor Mushi says.

Pastor Mushi and his church will celebrate Christmas together on Sunday. Then, they have a special event planned for Monday, December 26.

A Deaf teenager named Kwahena was used to being ignored and isolated. But when she moved from her small village to South Sudan’s capital city, a handsome older man showed interest in her.

The fact that he, a hearing person, wanted to spend time with her, a deaf girl, quickly won Kwahena’s heart.

Kwahena recently shared her story with DOOR International:

Attacks targeting critical infrastructure will not stop “until Moscow runs out of missiles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns. Despite an additional $400 million in military support last week from the United States, Ukrainian officials say they still don’t have enough munition to keep Russia at bay.

At the same time, top NATO officials and foreign ministers gather in Romania to discuss Ukraine’s looming humanitarian crisis. “Many here face a grim choice: to flee or to freeze,” Norway’s foreign minister told reporters yesterday.

Kenya’s government reports worsening drought conditions. Nearly 950,000 children under five are now “acutely malnourished.”

The country has been without rain for four consecutive seasons, sending poverty and hunger rates skyrocketing. Last month, Oxfam International warned of an impending famine.

Groundwater plays an increasingly critical role as Kenya’s drought drags on.

“In the last few years, we have been able to put a well or a borehole in all of the communities that we have an established work in,” Joy Mueller of Kenya Hope says.

There’s much to be said about collaboration in the workplace. A 2018 business study found that when employees work as a team, 73 percent do better work, and 60 percent are more innovative.

The same principles apply to Bible translation. When everyone works together, more gets done. Andy Keener sees this firsthand as the Executive Vice President for Partnerships at Wycliffe USA.

A new report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom says Nigeria’s blasphemy laws have to go. USCIRF recommendations help guide the U.S. State Department in matters of foreign policy.

“I remember when some of the northern states in Nigeria were putting these Sharia laws in place,” The Voice of the Martyrs USA spokesman Todd Nettleton says.

Meteorologists expect more rain in Pakistan this week, posing a new threat to 668,000 people left homeless by severe seasonal flooding.

Weeks of heavy rains and floods have affected 33 million people; the number of people in makeshift shelters increased by 190,000 since last week. Record-breaking deluges killed at least 1,400 people, washing away roughly $30 billion in housing, farmland, and livestock.

A new report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges lawmakers to take a closer look at Nigeria. Simultaneously, a second report analyzed by International Christian Concern found kidnappers target Christians ten times more often than Muslims.

According to USCIRF, militant Islamist groups are growing, and significant attacks have become even more frequent. Since “many of the core drivers of violence in Nigeria relate to poor governance,” religious freedom watchdogs recommend diplomatic action.

Uncertainty remains as Russia’s war in Ukraine churns on. The February invasion triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Nearly 6.7 million refugees from Ukraine are scattered across Europe. Meanwhile, another 6.6 million people are on the run within Ukraine.

God is moving too, but not in the ways you might expect. Before the war, conflict among Deaf churches repelled nonbelievers in Ukraine.