Bangladesh
Overview
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Churches are careful when offering relief to the poor and needy because they do not want to encourage false conversions among people claiming faith in Christ solely for economic benefit. While Bangladesh is a majority-Muslim nation, the government avoids undue influence from Islamists and actively fights extremism. Millions of Bangladeshis are learning about Christ and the Bible through media outreaches.
Major Religions
87 percent of Bangladeshis are Sunni Muslims. Approximately one-half of 1 percent are Christians.
Persecutor
Local Muslim authorities, Islamist extremist groups, families, and communities persecute Christians.
What it Means to Follow Christ
Many Christian groups meet publicly, while others worship in unregistered churches. When Muslims convert to Christianity, they are often forced to leave their community.
Access to Bibles
The Bangladesh Bible Society and the missions community have made Bibles available in several languages, but those in rural areas and especially Muslim converts have difficulty finding and acquiring them.
VOM Work
VOM relocates those expelled from their communities and provides for the medical needs of those injured in persecution attacks.
We support Bible distributions and evangelism training, and we provide rural pastors, bold evangelists and church planters with tools and resources for their ministry.