Mission Network News (Mon, 09 Mar 2026 - 4.5 min)

Thanks for joining me today on Mission Network News, I'm Steve Odell, a ministry leader shares

a call to remember the people behind statistics in the Middle East conflict.

Then Mission India's literacy classes teach adults much more than reading.

We'll unpack that story in just a few moments, but first, as you follow the latest numbers

and reports from the Middle East conflict, here's something to keep in mind.

Are you missing the human realities behind them?

Fadi Sharaha with the Meena Leadership Center says,

We forget that people are dying right now, and people are being killed, and life is disrupted.

Each man, woman and child killed in strikes since February 28 was made in God's image.

They are not numbers.

As the Middle Eastern Evangelical Christian, I really grieve the violence happening in the

region.

War brings suffering to ordinary people on every side.

Sharaha sees the polarizing effect of today's media coverage.

Yet the role Christians are supposed to fill is to pray, not to be polarized.

Peace in the region, wisdom for leaders, and the spread of the gospel are places to start.

Prayer over Iran's future is also critical, as it enters a historic moment that could

go many different ways.

What we don't want to have is Iraq or Afghanistan.

Sharaha says to pray for the Middle East with a real person's face in mind.

Try to meet people in your community from that region, or look up Christian ministries

online, such as the Joshua Project.

Hutchcraft Ministries daily devotional broadcast, a word with you, is now being translated

into its seventh language, Japanese.

Brad Hutchcraft with Hutchcraft Ministries says,

It's been a country that has been on our hearts because we are all about wanting to

feel the gospel of Jesus Christ, the hope of Jesus, to some of the hardest to reach, and

when you're looking at a country where 1% proclaimed to know Jesus, that is a place

that we want to be with a program like this.

A word with you reaches believers and non-believers in an inviting way, and Hutchcraft Ministries

was glad to find the right Japanese host for the broadcast, who could convey the message

in the same conversational style.

It's a story telling approach to the gospel, and to encourage the body of Christ, when

you are able to have a story wrapped gospel.

It breaks down barriers, it reaches people where they're at, when you tell a story in

a positive, encouraging way, all of a sudden you're revoking the emotions and you're connecting

with the listener.

Pray that this program will join into what the body of Christ is already doing in Japan,

and that the Lord will position the work in the place that would have the greatest impact

and reach the most people for Jesus.

Learn the full story at missionnews.org.

And illiteracy burdens an estimated 287 million adults in India.

Reina Miller with Mission India says this lack of education affects every area of life.

From signing the documents to open a bank account, to understanding signs on public transportation,

literacy is key for completing basic tasks.

We heard about one woman who took her child to the doctor, and they were calling everyone's

number when it was there turned to come back to the doctor's office, and she had taken

a number, but she didn't know what it said.

So she didn't know when she would be able to go back with her child and she was too humiliated

to ask.

Mission India offers hope, dignity, and independence for people facing such difficult circumstances.

They use a Bible-based curriculum to teach students to read and write at the fifth grade

level needed to find work in India.

They also offer health and hygiene training and special classes for entrepreneurship.

Most people who attend the classes do not come from Christian backgrounds.

However, Miller shares that on average, about 40% of those who graduate the adult literacy

classes become followers of Jesus.

One of our biggest prayer requests for adult literacy classes is that as students gain

an education, that they would see that it's Jesus that is providing for them.

That it's through him that they find joy and hope, and that he is giving them this incredible

opportunity.

Learn more in today's online story.

Thank you for listening to Mission Network News, a service of one-way ministries.

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Together, the Great Commission Happens.

Look for the links at missionnews.org, I'm Steve Odell.