India (GFA) -- A Gospel for Asia Women's Fellowship organized a literacy class to teach and encourage women to read and write. Twenty-nine women from five local churches attended the class.

One woman named Neela, 40, said she lived in shame among her neighbors because she was illiterate.

"In my life, I have never been to school and never had the chance to hold a pencil," she said. "I used to feel shame because I did not know how to read or write. But through this literacy class, I got the privilege to learn how to read and write. From today onward, I will not be ashamed [in front] of others for not knowing how to read or write. I will not be lazy but give my best and learn how to read and write. After I learn, I will read the Bible and memorize Scripture verses."

The women missionaries took great care to help each person who came. Their love and support were a huge encouragement to those attending, especially Charumati, 35, whose husband is a local pastor.

"My husband asked me to learn how to write, but I used to feel shame and ignored his words," she said. "But through the literacy class today, and the sharing from our Women's Fellowship leaders, I am encouraged and know the importance of writing and reading."

Because of the class, Nami, 32, feels she is one step closer to helping her children with their studies.

"Sometimes I want to teach my children and help them do their homework when they are confused," she said. "But I am illiterate, and I do not know how to help them. Thinking about this, I feel very sad. But through the literacy class today, I am very happy. I will try my best to learn to read and write so I can read the Bible and tell others about it, and even help my children in their studies."

Through the efforts of GFA-supported women missionaries, these literacy classes are restoring dignity to women all over South Asia.

AMG's Eastern Europe Director, Fotis Romeo (Photo courtesy AMG International)

Greece (MNN) -- Greece will go to the polls for the second time on June 17.

To many Greeks, it's seen as a referendum on the euro itself. AMG International President Paul Jenks says, "One of the groups that was elected basically has said that they will not agree to continue on this path of receiving money from the European Union, according to the agreements that have been put into place. This throws the whole negotiation into turmoil."

After the May 6 election, there was hope that although there was no clear majority, political leaders could come to an agreement on a coalition government. They failed, extending a political crisis that threatens to finally push the country out of the Eurozone.

Party leaders have been squabbling over continuation of austerity measures prescribed by the European Union (EU) or pulling out of the bailout agreement and suffering the insolvency instead.

In the meantime, the chaos has caused a run on Greek banks. "If the government of Greece won't honor the commitments that it made in the past, Germany and some of the other large European countries have said they just can't go forward."

AMG coworkers in Greece are under a lot of pressure, as the situation has put a severe strain on St. Luke's hospital, the Logos bookstore, the Cosmo Vision Center, and other ministries there. Jenks says, "For the common person in Greece, prices have gone up. For many, they've used their savings, and many are out of work. People are losing their homes. Among young adults, unemployment is as high as 50%."

AMG teams are responding through the local churches. "All of our national leaders there are often leaders in their local church groups as well." However, Jenks says, "The demand for outreach and the need of the people of Greece and of the many refugees that are in Athens, especially, put a strain on already limited resources."

The country has been in five years of recession, and desperation is growing even as the austerity measures bite. AMG has come alongside believers there through thick and thin. The ministry celebrates its 70th anniversary in Greece this year. At the same time, Jenks notes opportunity. 

Pray for our coworkers as they all feel the tremendous pressure of our economy. "When disaster happens, people are so willing to have someone take time with them and to listen to their story and their need. Of course, we as believers have a special hope in Jesus Christ, so that's a natural way to respond to these who are expressing hopelessness is that we do have hope in Jesus Christ."

Expressions of faith shared are having positive results, says Jenks. "Especially among those that have lost their jobs and refuges, and those that can't find work and don't have what they need. There's more openness than in the past; of course, Greece hasn't been very open to the Gospel until now, so we feel that God is really shaking things up there for eternal purposes." 

The AMG team is reworking the ministry schedule in order to respond to the current need. Pray for St. Luke's hospital as the challenges are becoming greater since the Greek government is not able to respond in its financial obligations.

There are ways you can prayerfully and financially support AMG's work in Greece. Check our Featured Links Section.

Mexico (MNN) -- The discovery of 49 headless bodies in Monterrey, Mexico is further proof that drug war violence is only getting worse.

The deaths of the 43 men and six women found dead--headless and handless near a roadside in Monterrey--have been blamed on a cartel called the Zetas, a major drug trafficking group fighting a war for a route to the United States. The Zetas have been responsible for a number of similarly brutal attacks.

In the six-year war, over 50,000 people have been killed, but lately things have been heating up to a faster pace of violence.

"We definitely have seen a whole lot more activity between the drug cartels over the last 30 days or so," agrees Todd Szalkowski with E3 Partners.

Some have speculated that the rise in violence could be a result of the upcoming presidential elections to be held on July 1. But Szalkowski says not only is it unlikely that the drug cartels care about anything besides their drug routes, but it is doubtful that the elections will impact the cartels much at all.

"It doesn't appear that anyone in any of the parties that are vying for the presidency have any kind of plan whatsoever to address the drug violence," says Szalkowski.

Understandably, fear and lack of hope have swept over many regions of Mexico. The cartels' violent acts are usually directed against each other rather than civilians, but many cartel members are not even willing participants. Many have joined by necessity when cartels threaten them or their families, in turn placing targets on their backs for further attacks.

Szalkowski says, "We feel a great deal of urgency right now because so many are dying in the violence by participating directly, being innocent bystanders, or being sucked into the drug wars unwillingly. So there is an urgency to our work to try to spread the Gospel to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible."

Increasing violence and little hope even post-election for this six-year terror have created a more vital need than ever to spread the saving message of Christ throughout Mexico. But cartel threats combined with a few direct attacks against Christians have ignited fear in the hearts of many believers. Christians are often afraid to meet in a church setting.

E3 Partners continues to train small group leaders, though, and small discipleship groups are popping up across the country. They're growing, too.

Mexico is in serious need of prayer at present. Pray for open hearts and minds as E3's I Am Second groups reach out to other fearful countrymen. Pray also that small group leaders would be bold in sharing about the Prince of Peace with their neighbors.

"Biblica has come out with a new version this last year," says Biblica's East Asia Director Somporn Sirikolkarn. "We call it the Chinese Contemporary Bible. It's a modern translation near to the NIV English Bible, using similar philosophy of translation."

Sirikolkarn says there's a reason this translation is needed. "The church Bible, that the church has been using, [was translated] in 1919. But because the language has been changing--especially the last 50 years, there's been a lot of changing of the language. The culture has changed, therefore many words [have] become archaic."

Many people in China have come to Christ. While that's good news, the lack of trained leaders and a translation of Scripture the average person can understand cult groups have formed. Sirikolkarn says this Bible is especially designed for young people. "This is for them to easily access and understand. And the new Christian can use this translation for their Bible study and their own private devotions."

Sirikolkarn says the new translations haven't been approved by the Chinese government yet. He's urging Christians to begin praying that these Bibles will be approved. In the meantime, this version is available on their Web site, http://www.Biblica.com. They just began working in the Old Testament. He says they hope to have that version ready by December.

In the meantime, Biblica has a goal of printing 180,000 new Contemporary Chinese Bibles. Your gift of $10 will purchase four Bibles for Chinese Christians. Support Biblica's work by clicking here.

Europe (MNN) -- At the Southern Baptist Convention meeting last summer, president of International Mission Board Tom Elliff challenged the Southern Baptist Church to "Embrace" the 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups (UUPG).

These 3,800 are not the only people groups unreached with the Gospel, but they represent all of the groups with no known strategy in place to reach them for Christ. IMB's goal was to have 3,800 Southern Baptist Churches take the Embrace challenge to commit to at least one UUPG.

Churches were to start praying about the people groups and ask God for a strategy to reach them. They were to go to an Embrace Equipping conference and be coached as to which UUPG they should help. Then they would dedicate eight weeks per year for eight years to church planting right in the UUPG that they were assigned.

The first group to have not only been assigned a people group and gone through training but to actually engage with the group overseas just returned from Europe.

After hearing Elliff's commission last summer, Emmanuel Baptist Church of Oakdale, Louisiana and First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas came together to develop an active church-planting strategy among a UUPG in Europe.

First Baptist's pastor Johnny Dickerson told IMB, "The thing that appealed to me about Embrace was that we were stepping into places and situations where there was not already an IMB missionary on the ground. When we decided we were going to do this, I told our church, ‘We are not sending a missionary--we are sending you.'"

The two churches just returned from round one of their eight-week, eight-year commitment to Europe. On the ground, their IMB coach helped them learn about the culture and locations of their people group, as well as how to begin planting churches among them. They also went out into the city and made initial contacts with the people group.

The team was blown away by their initial contact. A volunteer with First Baptist's team explained, "[We] saw the Holy Spirit do stuff that only the Spirit could do."

Later, the volunteer added that the hardest part was over. "When we send teams back there, one of the hardest things about all of this has already been taken care of. We have somebody who has invited us back. They want to know when we are coming and want us to contact them when we get here."

Doors are now open that weren't open before, he said.

The task ahead is huge, but the churches are confident that God is big enough to reach the whole UUPG.

For more information about Embracing an unreached people group in Europe, e-mail euroconnecting@imb.org, or visit call2embrace.org.

Will gay marriage force black churches

to reconsider the Democratic Party?

(Commentary by Larry Elder)