JustinLong.org

What matters to the unreached?

I monitor trends in the 10/40 Window, set them in context of history, and try to estimate how much of it really impacts the unreached, and what it might mean to them and the spread of the Gospel and the Kingdom.
VERITATEM QUAERE
December 18, 2024

Noted+Trends

One of Assad's mass graves found, with over 100,000 bodies.... Link

Assad's fall upends the Middle East's largest drug empire.... Link

The gold rush at the heart of Sudan's civil war: 'helps explain why the war start, and why it's hard to stop.'... Link

The leader of HTS & apparent new leader of Syria also has (for now) a $10 million US bounty on his head?... Link

In aid-starved Afghanistan, relief workers fight a forgotten hunger crisis.... Link

Prisoners are being released from Assad's torture chambers, but some still trapped underground.... Link

India's anti-conversion law is fine-tuned to allow policing of Christians.... Link

SCMP multipart series examines whether China's population crash is irreversible.... Link

Fresh doubts about China's ability to invade Taiwan: comes down to corruption in the armed forces.... Link

Mormon Land: why LDS is growing in Africa, and how this patriarchal faith is seen as a 'woman's church.'... Link

All about the LDS Church's rapid growth in Africa.... Link

S Korean President declares martial law. Populace rebels. Parliament overturns. President backs down. Parliament moves to impeach.... Link

The Syrian rebel who seized Aleppo professes religious tolerance, but many have doubts.... Link

Analysis: The decimation of Hezbollah deprived Assad of key allies and led to a vacuum that enabled stunning Islamist gains in Syria.... Link

Syrian rebel group seizes control of much of Aleppo, surrounding areas; government forces fall back; Russian reinforcements coming.... Link

On Iran and the possibility of delivering lethal chemical weapons (like fentanyl) via drone.... Link

A cease-fire has been negotiated between Israel and Hezbollah/Lebanon. (Est: a similar cease-fire with Hamas less likely)... Link

Christian nurse abducted by Boko Haram describes daring escape... Link

Russians in Yemen: recruiting mercenaries (involuntarily?), negotiating weapons for Yemen... Link

The Christians ensnared to work in Asian cyberscamming ops & Christian orgs working to stop them... Link

World's conflict zones increased 65% since 2010, to 6 million km (double size of India)... Link

The demand for female maintenance workers in China.... Link

Taiwan: when deities promise answers to dating, money woes. Religion has to get practical... Link

Sudan will extend opening of Adre crossing for aid delivery... Link

So bad in Lebanon: Syria now seems a safe haven.... Link

Saudi: NEOM boss has ‘departed from his post.’ A lot of construction worker deaths on the project... Link

Russia’s ban on ‘child-free propaganda’ is ill-defined. A tax on childlessness?... Link

Russia offers ‘total support' to African countries, w/o human rights strings attached.... Link

Qatar stops trying to talk, says Hamas leaders should leave.... Link

Port-au-Prince airport closed after Spirit plane struck by gunfire.... Link

Ideas & Rabbits

How Dell went from supplying PCs to supply AI racks, and how Michael Dell is as rich as Nvidia's boss.... Link

Why do some rebel governments last, and others don't. A new 72-page study suggests an answer... Link

15% of the world lives within 6 miles of the coast. After that, populations drop quickly.... Link

USA: Go-Karting as the first step to F1 racing, and the parents spending millions on it.... Link

Mormon Land: on the LDS church's rapid growth in Africa.... Link

Lonely graves, scattered bones: the stark reality of one of the world's most overlooked & fastest-growing migration routes (Ethiopia-Djibouti-Yemen).... Link

AI Jesus might 'listen' to your confession, but it can't absolve you of your sins, says Catholic scholar.... Link

The growing militarization of China's Africa policy: might China and Russia eventually clash in Africa?... Link

At seven, I saw the truth of China's one child policy, and felt my parent's pain.... Link

Ted Esler on seeing and serving micromissions (very small, often husband-and-wife agencies): over 8,000 est. in USA alone.... Link

The world is losing the fight against international gangs: globalization, tech progress leading to a boom in organized crime... Link

August issue of ChinaSource looks at the Catholic Ch in China. ... Link

Is the Missio Dei framework on its way out? Ted Esler says Global South leaders think so.... Link

Dragons and Loongs: much ado about nothing--Westerners don't think Chinese & Western dragons are the same. Also, Matteo Ricci's influence.... Link

My Essays & Analysis

I was on Cynthia Anderson's Dare to Multiply podcast... Link

MF: How long to reach the goal?... Link

EMQ: Reporting challenges for movements in a world of misinformation and persecution... Link

1 percent of the world: a macro analysis of 1,967 movements... Link

Unreached, unevangelized, unengaged: the difference... Link