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By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Monday, March 16, 2026A displaced girl walks past tents covered in plastic sheeting to shield them from the stormy weather along Beirut's seafront area on March 15, 2026. Israel issued evacuation orders covering hundreds of square kilometres of Lebanon, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and prompting warnings of a humanitarian disaster. Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes, and the Tehran-backed group's leader has said the militants were ready for a long confrontation with Israel. | Ibrahim Amro / AFP via Getty ImagesThe Arab Baptist Theological Seminary near Beirut is sheltering displaced people who fled their homes as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces hundreds of thousands of civilians across Lebanon to seek refuge.About 170 internally displaced people are staying on the seminary’s campus while the institution continues its educational work online for roughly 250 students, the Southern Baptist Convention's news service, Baptist Press reports, quoting the seminary's president, Wissam Nasrallah. Israel’s military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has forced large-scale civilian movement across the country.The seminary, located on the eastern outskirts of Beirut in an area considered relatively safe, is providing food, housing and other basic necessities while staff attempts to balance emergency relief with the school’s long-term mission of training Christian leaders from across the Middle East.The displaced people staying at the campus come from southern Lebanon, the Bekaa region and suburbs of Beirut, and about a quarter of them are children, according to Evangelical Focus.Residents gathered at the campus help kitchen workers prepare meals and attend daily community chapel services organized during the crisis, while the sounds of drones and bombing can still be heard across the region.The Arab Baptist Theological Seminary trains Christian leaders from across the Arab world. The institution was founded in the late 1950s by Southern Baptist missionaries and now operates under THIMAR, the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development. Baptist partners in the United States continue to support its work.The conflict escalated after Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on March 2, saying it was responding to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, triggering an extensive Israeli bombing campaign against the Lebanese armed group and a new wave of displacement across the country, according to Reuters.Over 700 people have been killed and 1,774 others injured in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the fighting began, and at least 26 medics and first responders are among the dead, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, while Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets across the border into Israel.Israel has warned that it may target ambulances and medical facilities if they are used for military purposes by Hezbollah, a claim the group denies, in a development that has raised concerns because hospitals and medical infrastructure are protected under international law unless they lose protected status through military use.The fighting has forced about 800,000 people to flee southern Lebanon in roughly 10 days, and about one-fifth of the country’s population of around 4 million is now displaced by the violence.Israel has also expanded its military posture along the northern frontier and signaled it is preparing for a prolonged campaign against Hezbollah, while Israeli aircraft dropped warning leaflets over Beirut, threatening damage similar to the devastation seen in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has called for a ceasefire agreement and Israeli support for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah, accusing the armed group of risking the destruction of villages and threatening the stability of the Lebanese state.Christians make up about 30% of Lebanon’s population, roughly 1.2 million people. Evangelical believers account for about 1% of the population, around 40,000 people.Among those displaced are members of the Baptist Church in Deir Mimas, a congregation located near the Lebanon Israel border whose members fled north as bombardment intensified in the south.

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 16, 2026Singer Gwen Stefani discusses her faith journey during an interview on the “Hallow: Prayer & Meditation” podcast, which aired on March 5, 2026. | YouTube/Hallow: Prayer & MeditationSinger Gwen Stefani opened up about how an atheist friend’s spiritual journey, combined with what she described as a “miracle” pregnancy, inspired her to rekindle her Christian faith during a time when she felt “desperate.”During a conversation with evangelist Jeff Cavins on the “Hallow: Prayer & Meditation” podcast, Stefani recalled longing to have another child with her then-husband, Gavin Rossdale. The 56-year-old singer and co-founder of the band No Doubt was 44 years old at the time. “I was desperate at this point. I really wanted to have another baby. I really did. And I couldn’t, and I was old,” the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer told Cavins.Around the same time, Stefani started working with a Jewish man who, while growing up in Israel, had been an atheist but later converted. The man experienced a “big epiphany awakening” after studying the Torah, and Stefani said their conversations prompted her to reflect on her own beliefs.The music artist, who was raised Catholic, said the discussions with her friend were “waking [her] up.”At one point during the interview, Stefani referred to herself as a “baby Christian,” acknowledging that she is “certainly a work in progress.”“I think as a child, it was such a grounding thing, and I think my mom was the one that planted the seed of faith in me, and she knew I needed that, and I was going to need it, and she was right,” the artist said about her religious beliefs.Stefani also recounted during the interview the role her oldest son, Kingston, now 19, played in her faith journey. Years ago, Kingston, one of the three children Stefani shares with Rossdale, approached his mother one day and said he wanted her to have another baby.“I said, ‘I’m sorry, your mommy’s too old to have a baby now,’ you know,” Stefani said, recalling how her son then began praying for her to have another child.“He was like, ‘Please God let my mom have a baby,’ and I was just sitting there going, ‘Wow, look at my little boy! He’s praying for me like he was doing it every night, and I never asked him to do that, never taught him that really,’” she recalled.“I think it was like four weeks later, and I was pregnant with Apollo, who, you know, I had at 44 years old naturally. Totally a full-on gift. And that was the first miracle,” the mother of three said.During the interview, the artist said she believes her musical talents come from God, admitting she did not always recognize this at first.“I always have so much anxiety about it because I knew it wasn’t coming from me, but I didn’t know necessarily it was coming from God, or I didn’t recognize it,” she explained.“But then I remember at a certain point in the last 10 years going, ‘No.’ Yet, God made this for me to do. And if I don’t do it and share it, that’s a sin,” Stefani added.The award-winning music artist said she has learned to accept that God chose her for a purpose, adding that she feels “the closest to God” when she “is doing music.”“I want people to see God’s light through me,” Stefani said. “I’m desperate for Him because I’m about ready to go on stage, and I’m not nervous, but I just want God to use me.”In December 2024, the music artist invited people to join her for a prayer challenge, stressing that the holiday is about the biblical truth that “God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.”The singer said in a message on X at the time that she had partnered with the Catholic prayer app Hallow for the Pray25 Challenge.“This season has always been my favorite time of the year,” Stefani said. “It’s a season that we get to celebrate the birth of our Lord. This year, I’m excited to share that I’ve partnered with this amazing prayer, meditation and music app called Hallow on their 15-day prayer challenge leading up to Christmas called Advent Pray25. Join me and millions of other Christians around the world as we celebrate together the truth that God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son.”

By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, March 15, 2026Unsplash/Frank ChouHistoric communion silver dating back more than four centuries has been stolen from St. Margaret of Antioch Church in eastern England, just north of London, with key pieces used in Christian worship disappearing weeks before Easter.The items — which include two chalices, a silver communion flagon, a silver paten used to serve communion bread and a box containing other silver objects — were taken from the church in the village of Barley in Hertfordshire between 3 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. last Saturday, according to Hertfordshire Police, which is investigating the theft, BBC reported. The combined value of the missing objects is estimated at about £25,000 ($33,000), with the Barley Chalice alone valued at about £15,000 ($20,000) and a James I silver paten worth about £8,000 ($10,500). Both pieces date from between 1612 and 1619 and are used during Christian services, including special occasions such as Easter.Pastor Mark Bridgen, the church's rector, called the disappearance of the historic vessels “a sacrilege” and warned that the community may never recover them.“We are worried it is an irreplaceable loss and we may not get them back,” he was quoted as saying. The objects belong to the village itself, creating “much more of a corporate sense of loss” among residents, he added. The theft was discovered by the church’s 94-year-old verger, a long-serving caretaker responsible for helping maintain the building and preparing it for services.Bridgen said the discovery left the elderly volunteer shocked, given his age and devotion to the church.Police have begun investigating the disappearance and are seeking help from members of the public who may have witnessed suspicious activity near the church that afternoon.The disappearance has shaken the small rural congregation. In many Anglican churches, such vessels may remain in use for centuries and are often associated with particular congregations and local traditions.Bridgen said the church, like many rural churches across England, is normally left unlocked so residents and visitors can enter freely for prayer or reflection, but increasingly that openness carries risk.Barley is a small village near the market town of Royston on the Cambridgeshire border.St. Margaret of Antioch Church forms part of a rural Anglican benefice — an administrative grouping of parishes — that covers several surrounding communities, including Barkway, Reed, Buckland, Chipping, Nuthampstead and Newsells, according to the church.Within the benefice, active congregations worship in churches at Barkway, Barley and Reed, while Buckland contains a former parish church where occasional services still take place.