In a remote village in Asia, a man identified as Iresh became the first person in his community to follow Jesus, according to an account published by The Alliance Canada on 13 October. He did not keep the news to himself: he preached in his own village and travelled to neighbouring communities to share what he had found. His witness was met with violence. Iresh was seized, hanged upside down, severely beaten and left for dead before someone cut him free when it was safe to do so.
As he recovered, Iresh said he felt a continuing call to return to the unreached community. He went back to the same villages where he had nearly died and continued preaching Christ. According to the account, three churches have since been planted as a result. Alliance Canada presents his story as one example of a wider church-planting movement in Asia called Unreached, which the agency says has planted 57,000 churches and aims to reach 100,000 by 2030.
Alliance Canada says the region where this work is taking place is home to fewer than two per cent of people who follow Jesus, and that nearly half of the world's unreached and unengaged peoples live there. Since 2021, the agency reports that giving through its work has helped train 600 pastors, plant 1,200 churches and see 15,000 people come to faith. The account was published in the agency's mission updates and uses a pseudonym for the church planter.
Source: Christian and Missionary Alliance Canada / The Alliance Canada — thealliancecanada.ca/updates/he-went-back-under-threat-of-death
