Hello, friend. We know more about what is happening around the world than almost any generation before us. Within minutes, we can learn about a war across the ocean, a disaster unfolding thousands of miles away, or another tragedy closer to home.

But knowing more doesn’t always mean seeing more clearly.

The suffering we encounter is real, and Christians shouldn’t look away from it. We grieve. We pray. We act. But what we can see is never the whole story. Even in places marked by suffering, opposition, and uncertainty, God is at work in ways that may never reach us.

So we can pay attention to a broken world without being overcome by it. The nations may rage, but God keeps building his kingdom.

In today’s edition:

🇩🇿 Why the story of the church in Algeria is bigger than persecution

📱 What your news feed can never show you about God’s kingdom

🇨🇦 How to pray for communities affected by Canada’s wildfires

The Church You Won’t See in the Headlines 🇩🇿

In Algeria, following Jesus can come at a cost. Nearly all Protestant churches remain closed after years of government restrictions, and believers can face legal pressure for gathering or sharing their faith. Christians from Muslim backgrounds may also experience rejection from their families and communities.

But that isn’t the whole story.

Across Algeria, believers continue gathering in homes, sharing Jesus, and discipling others. Radical’s partners are discipling Muslim-background believers and equipping emerging leaders to start discipleship groups and plant churches. 

Much of this will never make a headline. Most of us will never know their names.

But God does.

Every quiet gathering. Every conversation about Jesus. Every believer choosing faithfulness when following Christ is costly. The news we hear from Algeria may tell us where the church faces pressure, but it cannot show us everything God is doing there. He is building his church through believers the rest of the world may never see.

How to Pray

🙏🏼 Pray for Algerian believers to remain faithful as they follow Jesus amid restrictions and opposition.

🙏🏼 Pray for Radical’s partners as they disciple Muslim-background believers and equip Algerian church leaders with a strong biblical foundation.

🙏🏼 Pray that God would use ordinary acts of faithfulness to make Jesus known and strengthen his church throughout Algeria.

The Kingdom is Bigger Than Your News Feed 📱

In the first volume of a book of prayers called Every Moment Holy, author Douglas McKelvey includes an unexpected addition: “A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information.”

McKelvey writes about the anxiety of absorbing “more grief, O Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage with compassion.”

We know what he means, don’t we?

Some days, it feels like our news feeds aren’t feeding us but consuming us: Another war breaks out. Another shooting kills a child. Another disease kills a mother. Another earthquake destroys a city. Another church folds. Another pastor falls. 

Too. Much. Information.

And it would be too much news, if it was the only news. But, of course, we know there’s much more.

Wars do break out in the Middle East, but persecuted Christians in Iran risk their safety to share a loaf of bread and the Bread of Life with their frightened neighbors.

A new strain of Ebola does break out in the Congo, but missionaries and Christian medical workers risk their own lives to help the dying. 

Well known pastors fall under scandal, but across the ocean, an indigenous pastor prepares to take the gospel to an unreached province in China. 

These are believers the vast majority of us will never meet in places most of us will never go. Their names will never hit our news feeds. But their Father in heaven sees them. He knows them each by name. And he uses them to build his kingdom. A kingdom that’s not of this world.

It’s why the Apostle Paul can endure persecution and also say: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). 

Because Jesus has already overcome for us.

This doesn’t mean we won’t face sorrow. Jesus promised his disciples they would have trouble in this world. But he also told them: “Take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Christ’s life, his death, and his resurrection have overcome all that threatens to overcome us. 

So, we can read our news feeds with legitimate concern and sadness. We can grieve and lament. We can pray and we can act. But we can also trust. Trust that Christ’s kingdom is much bigger than our news feeds. And that Jesus is never wringing his hands. 

As McKelvey also writes: 

“But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted by such news of cruelty and terror and war. You are neither anxious or overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung upon the cross, and you carry it still.”

—Jamie Dean

Waiting to Go Home 🇨🇦

Across Canada, wildfires have forced thousands of people from their homes this summer. In British Columbia alone, more than 10,000 people remained under evacuation orders as of this week, while fires have destroyed homes and displaced entire communities. First Nations communities have been particularly affected, with thousands of Indigenous people evacuated over the course of the wildfire season.  

Behind those numbers are families waiting to return home, people discovering what the fires have taken, and communities beginning the long work of recovery. Firefighters and emergency workers continue protecting communities as families face the uncertainty of what comes next.

Christians don’t encounter suffering as information alone. We bring the people behind it before a God who knows each of them by name, and we look for opportunities to love our neighbors in the middle of their need.

How to Pray:

🙏🏼 Pray for families who have been displaced or lost homes and livelihoods, especially those facing a long and uncertain recovery.

🙏🏼 Pray for firefighters, first responders, and emergency workers continuing to protect communities across Canada.

🙏🏼 Pray for churches and believers in affected areas to care generously for their neighbors and point those who are suffering to the hope of Christ.

📍 Attention Worthy

🙏🏼 Can structure actually make your prayers more spontaneous? Written prayers and rhythms don’t have to compete with heartfelt prayer. They can expand our vocabulary, shape our desires, and teach us to pray more freely.

🌍 Acts isn’t a missionary playbook, but it still shapes how we pursue the Great Commission. Its patterns point us toward a Scripture-defined gospel, churches that glorify God, and a mission that extends to all peoples.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Where have all the youth pastors gone? As fewer churches employ dedicated youth pastors, the responsibility of discipling teenagers increasingly falls to senior pastors, parents, and the wider church—and that may not be entirely a bad thing.