Breaking Christian News on The Gospel Herald

A Nigerian businessman unveiled what he believes is Africa’s largest statue of Jesus, describing it as a symbol of peace in a country wracked by Islamist insurgency. Obinna Onuoha commissioned the nearly 30-foot tall “Jesus de Greatest” statue in 2013, hiring a Chinese company to carve it from white marble.

Nigerian author and daughter of missionaries Stella Okoronkwo offers a new book she said contains powerful biblical teachings and true testimonies about worship and praise to "transport believers to a higher dimension in all areas of life." She promises her new manuscript "The Power of Worshipping God" gives readers the key to transform lives for the better.

A pastor in eastern Uganda was hacked to death on Wednesday (Dec. 23) as he and other church members resisted an effort by Muslims to take over their land, area church leaders said.

In a miraculous turn of events, a group of Kenyan Christian were saved from imminent death after the bus they were traveling in was accosted by Islamic extremists - thanks to the actions of heroic Muslims.

Muslim Fulani herdsmen on Dec. 13 attacked two households and a compound of displaced people in this village near Jos, killing 15 Christians, including two small children.

Drug-Free World Africa coordinator Maurithus Meiring was named runner-up at the South African Men of the Year Awards Banquet at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg for his relentless campaign to reach African youth before drug pushers do. Meiring, who is also director of public affairs for the Church of Scientology of Pretoria, said the difference between the Drug-Free World campaign and other programs is "it does not moralize or preach—it simply presents the cold, hard facts."

Hundreds of refugees entering Norway have been discovered with images of Islamic State flags, executions, and severed heads on their on their mobile phones, exacerbating widespread concerns the terrorist group may be using the refugee crisis to smuggle extremists into Europe.

A South African appeals court ruled that Oscar Pistorius is guilty of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius had originally been charged with manslaughter in a lower court. His case is being referred to by many as a tragedy that sounds like something that could have been penned by Shakespeare.

Pope Francis ended his six-day trip to Africa by delivering a poignant speech in which he called for unity among religious groups, arguing that religious conflicts simple spark civil war, terrorism and suffering throughout the continent.

A secret Christian in coastal Kenya escaped Muslim in-laws who last week sought to stab him and took his wife and children, less than two weeks after Islamic extremists further south torched two church buildings, sources said.

Malian special forces stormed a luxury hotel in Bamako on Friday after Islamist gunmen took 170 people including many foreigners hostage in the capital of the former French colony, which has been battling rebels allied to al Qaeda for several years.

The four countries fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in West Africa's Lake Chad region should unite behind a broader strategy to ease the poverty and climate change that are spurring millions to migrate to Europe, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Burundi's political violence threatens to spiral into an ethnic or regional conflict but the United Nations is less equipped to deal with it than it was in Rwanda before the genocide in 1994, a U.N. human rights official said on Tuesday.

Residents of Sierra Leone's capital held a candlelit vigil and celebrations to mark the end of an Ebola epidemic that has killed almost 4,000 people including more than 220 health workers since it began last year.

Thousands of schoolgirls in Sierra Leone have been forced to undergo humiliating and degrading public pregnancy tests since the government banned pregnant girls from attending mainstream schools and taking exams, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Somali Islamists al Shabaab said they had ambushed a group of military trainees on Monday southwest of the capital Mogadishu and killed 30 of them, though the claim could not be independently confirmed.

Fourteen humanitarian workers have been kidnapped in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a spate of hostage-takings in the region, the United Nations and local activists said on Monday.

Armed men in the capital of Central African Republic slit a person's throat and set fire to scores of homes, in a cycle of violence that could further delay elections and prevent a visit this month by Pope Francis.

A Christian mother in Uganda was recently beaten to death a mob of Muslims because she and her family refused to stop preaching the gospel despite ongoing threats.

A long-awaited regional task force is set to begin raids on Boko Haram's last enclaves when the rainy season ends soon, the U.N.'s top official in West Africa said.

Four people were killed by mobs in Central African Republic's capital Bangui on Thursday, witnesses said, in escalating religious violence that could threaten a December election.

Backed by tanks, armored vehicles and plenty of EU cash, thousands of African soldiers took on an imaginary enemy in the arid heart of South Africa this week, the last joint exercises before a homegrown continental strike force goes live.

Nigeria's armed forces on Wednesday said it had rescued 338 people held captive by Boko Haram and raided a number of the Islamist militant group's camps on the edge of its stronghold in the northeast's Sambisa forest.

Three hostages seized in Central African Republic this week were killed and three more seized later by another group were killed as well, apparently in retaliation, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Cameroonian soldiers drove Boko Haram insurgents back across the country's northern border into Nigeria on Friday, a day after the Islamist militants killed at least eight people in an attack in the remote region that aid groups say is becoming a war zone.