MY ACCOUNT
A new year invites reflection.
As 2026 begins, it’s worth pausing to consider what shaped the global Church in the year behind us. In 2025, persecution did not take a single form. In many places, it emerged through deepening legal pressure, targeted violence, and daily restrictions that made faithful living increasingly costly.
Yet 2025 was not marked by suffering alone.
It was also a year of endurance and provision – of Christians released from bondage in Pakistan and of believers in Gaza receiving life-saving aid amid ongoing crisis. Even under pressure, the Church endured, and God remained at work through His people.
The stories below are not ranked. Instead, these 10 stories reflect key developments the global Church can’t ignore – both the challenges believers face and the ways God is sustaining His Church in the hardest places.
1. I Just Got Back From an Active Conflict Zone in Nigeria (It’s Worse Than I Thought)
A Global Christian Relief team traveled into Nigeria’s Plateau State in the Middle Belt expecting a familiar narrative – conflict over grazing land between farmers and herders. Instead, pastors and local believers shared eyewitness testimony that pointed to a clearer pattern: Christians were being targeted because of their faith, with churches and pastoral leaders often hit first. Share the video to help spread the word about what the team encountered.
2. Fifty Seconds of Horror, A Lifetime of Faith
On June 22, 2025, a man armed with a rifle, knives, and a suicide vest entered Mar Elias Church during evening prayers in Damascus, Syria. The attack lasted less than a minute, but it shattered lives inside the sanctuary. Even so, survivors spoke of forgiveness instead of vengeance. Rima, who lost her 15-year-old daughter, said, “We pray for [those who attack us]. Our God is not a killer. We don’t want harm for anyone.” She said they had prayed for their attackers to come to their senses.
3. Pray for Zion Church: China’s Believers Need Our Support Now
In early October 2025, police across several provinces in China moved before dawn, raiding homes where believers had gathered and detaining church leaders. Pastor Ezra Jin of Beijing’s Zion Church was among those taken. Within three days, nearly 30 pastors and staff were detained or went silent, and at least 20 were held in a detention center on charges of illegal use of the internet to spread religious content.
4. The Light of Christ Still Shines in Darfur
After more than 500 days of siege, El Fasher – Darfur’s last major city not under militia control – fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group involved in Sudan’s ongoing civil war. Thousands fled with urgent needs. Through trusted local networks, GCR partners helped provide food, medicine, and shelter to displaced Christian families. Pastors in an underground church network reported that three Christians were killed in El Fasher and that more than 350 Christian families had been there, with many now missing.
5. A Palm Sunday attack: 50 Christians killed in Plateau State, Nigeria
As Palm Sunday, April 13, drew to a close, gunfire rang out in Tilengpan Pushit, a small farming village in Nigeria’s Plateau state. Armed militants stormed homes, set fires, and opened fire on families gathered for the night. By morning, more than 50 Christians had been killed, and authorities confirmed that dozens of homes were set ablaze. The attack came just days after extremists killed at least 52 people and displaced 2,000 others in another Plateau state village.
6. 200 Families Freed: Your Generosity Doubled the Impact
After GCR shared a goal in early July to help free 100 Christian families in Pakistan from generations of bonded labor in brickyards, your generosity doubled the impact – 200 families walked in freedom. For many, freedom meant children registering for school for the first time, families receiving national IDs that opened doors to jobs and healthcare, and parents beginning to rebuild stable livelihoods with dignity.
7. Giving Tuesday 2025: How Your Donations Put Bibles in Persecuted Christians’ Hands
Thanks to your generosity this Giving Tuesday, GCR raised $374,666 – enough for 74,933 physical and audio Bibles for persecuted believers and seekers around the world. That giving helps fuel Bible distribution that equips pastors like Antonio in Chiapas, Mexico, to keep planting churches and putting audio Bibles into the hands of people who can’t read.
8. GCR CEO Calls for Prayer and Action as Global Attention Turns to Nigeria’s Crisis
Less than a week after GCR CEO Brian Orme urged U.S. believers to respond to Nigeria’s violence with prayer, solidarity, and advocacy, the U.S. President officially named Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). Brian had encouraged Americans to kindly urge Senate Foreign Relations Committee leaders to prioritize the designation as a step toward greater diplomatic pressure and accountability.
9. Christians Are the World’s Most Persecuted Faith – How Did We Get Here?
In September, U.S. President Donald Trump told global leaders gathered at the United Nations that Christianity was the most persecuted religion on earth. He wasn’t overstating matters. His statement reflected a decade of rising violence, authoritarian crackdowns, and systemic discrimination against Christians around the world.
10. Persecuted Christians in Gaza Receive Much-Needed Aid
As persecuted Christians in Gaza faced growing desperation as a tiny minority caught in a warzone, GCR’s partners stepped in with emergency relief and Gospel support. In northern Gaza, three solar-powered water purification systems provided 650 liters of clean water daily to 1,020 people each, while 738 families received meals each day and 400 displaced people were housed in tents. Altogether, more than 12,000 people received needed aid daily, and the report noted that more than 300 people had recently come to Christ and were attending Bible studies and prayer meetings.
Taken together, these stories reveal both the reality of persecution and the resilience of the Church.
The pressures described here did not end with 2025. In many regions, they continue to deepen. At the same time, so does the faith of believers who refuse to abandon the Gospel – and the global Church’s call to stand with them.
As we move forward into a new year, may these stories shape how we pray and how we respond. Not with despair, and not with distance – but with steady faith, shared responsibility, and hope rooted in Christ.
We are one Church, one family. And no believer stands alone.
