Christian World Outreach helps orphaned kids and their caretakers with an interesting means of support — goats!

(Photo courtesy of Christian World Outreach)

CWO’s Greg Yoder says, “We don’t have an orphanage per se. We try to find what we would call here in the States ‘foster families.’ A lot of times that’s grandparents and uncles and aunts that bring the kids in.

“[Goats] help them raise some money because they’ve brought another child into the house that they didn’t have before and helps them raise money so they can feed them. We continue to help pay for school fees and food and clothing and things like that.”

What difference do goats make for Zimbabwe families? Yoder explains, “If we can get them a pair of goats, they can get the milk but they can also have baby goats to raise some money for the family.”

CWO has given goats to 60 households so far. The ministry hopes to fund 100 more goats in the next two months for Zimbabwe families.

You can help! Each goat costs just $70. It’s a minor investment with a critical impact.

Help the ministry reach its goal and give here to the Goat Project under CWO’s Zimbabwe fund!

Yoder says it’s all done in Jesus’ name. “Pray that this will expand to give us opportunities to share the Gospel. That’s why we help with the physical needs is it opens the door to share the Gospel with people.”

Header photo courtesy of Jonathan Mast via Unsplash.

Government officials asked these believers to “play a major role” in Eswatini’s COVID vaccination program. The Luke Commission gives each patient a World Missionary Press Scripture booklet, but they ran out of material last year.

“We didn’t have time to put it (the order) on a production schedule and take three months to get it ready. So, we put together 462,000 pieces, sent it out, and they got it within weeks,” WMP’s Helen Williams says.

(Photo courtesy of World Missionary Press)

The Gospel seeds sown during this outreach are bearing fruit today. Partners at The Luke Commission tell Williams:

“As we’ve been able to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, others have come to know Him more deeply and intimately through the material. We want to thank you for the beautiful way you continue to love and support the kingdom of Eswatini with the wonderful WFP Scripture booklets.”

WMP is preparing another shipment for Eswatini right now. “It’ll be a 20-foot container with about 765,000 pieces of material in English and Swati. It’s on the floor now [getting ready] to be shipped out in possibly a month,” Williams says.

When you help cover the shipping costs, someone in Eswatini gets to meet Jesus. Connect with WMP to give online here.

“The shipping from here to South Africa is getting more expensive. The costs are almost three times what it was the last time we sent something,” Williams says.

Header inage depicts Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini [left] and Temtsimba Dlamini [right] at the Reed dance festival in Eswatini 2006. (Wikimedia Commons)

Many people in Zimbabwe live on subsistence farming, providing only for their own needs and not producing extra.

Christian World Outreach has worked in Zimbabwe since the year 2000. Greg Yoder says the financial crisis makes it difficult to plan. “Even looking at, ‘Okay, we’ve got this amount of funds we had available. It’s going to do less now than we thought it was.’”

Yoder recently spoke with the CWO Zimbabwe National Director, Onias Tapera. “He made the comment that it has a negative impact on staff morale. Because they always feel like they’re putting out fires and trying to help people with their physical needs.”

CWO’s work in Zimbabwe

CWO works with pastors and lay leaders in Zimbabwe to raise Jesus-centered churches.

This is all the more important because prosperity gospel teaching (saying Jesus will give people money) has become quite common throughout parts of Africa. Yoder says, “They’re begging us to come back. They make comments like, ‘I didn’t realize that the Bible applied to my whole life.’”

“And here’s your pastor, your lay leader making that comment.”

Out of that ministry grew a need to help orphans whose parents died from AIDS. Yoder says, “Now we look at it more as vulnerable children. We have the Our Kids program, where we’re helping keep the kids in school but also helping them find foster parents.”

The training has gone on long enough to see some of the kids graduate from college.

Ask God to give the CWO team wisdom as they serve churches and kids while navigating the economic crisis.

The header photo shows farmers in Zimbabwe. (Header photo courtesy of Domikatema, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Set Free also works in areas of East Africa, where witch doctors have an iron grip on the people. Dean VanderMey with Set Free says in these regions, it’s children and orphans who suffer the most.

One such region is Rakai, Uganda. VanderMey visited Rakai with Set Free for the first time in 2005. He says, “Rakai had 95 percent unemployment at the time. Fifty percent of the people that we were ministering to had AIDS and there were thousands of orphans walking around kind of hollow-eyed. I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing.

“For every 11 people, there’s one witch doctor. So, the witchcraft in that area is very, very strong and they hold everyone through fear because everyone has been abused by a witch doctor there.”

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Malaria and waterborne diseases are rampant in Uganda and other areas of East Africa. VanderMey says whenever someone falls ill, their first response isn’t always to visit the nearest hospital. Especially in remote areas, a medical doctor or hospital may be extremely difficult to get to, so they go to the local witch doctor.

“The first thing he will do is he pulls the curtains and that’s where you’re going to be sexually abused as a child,” VanderMey says. “After that, he will give you the herbs to cure you. So the witch doctors hold everyone through fear and terror, and there’s demonization that goes with it.”

Set Free knew if they were going to make a difference, they need to be invested in East Africa for the long haul to address emotional, physical, and spiritual problems.

The ministry met with local pastors and proposed a partnership to get kids and orphans into a safe environment where they sense Jesus’s love — namely, Christian schools.

“We said, ‘We have funds, we have money. You have time and talent. If we do this together as the Church universal, then this will work as we combine our efforts.’ So we co-joined in ministry together and the results have been astonishing,” VanderMey says.

“January 1, 2006 was our first school with 42 kids. Now we’ve founded or supported 17 schools and there are 4,800 children.”

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Set Free started building a new high school in January 2019 called Light Academy. VanderMey is pleased to report they now have enough buildings to invite the first group of 200 students to attend.

It will still take another four years to finish the Light Academy project. Ultimately, their hope is to have 1,200 boarding high school students and another 800 students in the vocational training center.

There are several ways you can get involved with Set Free in East Africa. First, pray.

“We have a lot of testimonies that need to be shared and we have a lot of witch doctors that really hate us there,” VanderMey says. “So pray for spiritual safety for our teams and also a covering, that the angelic host would go before us. Also, [pray for] the witnesses who have their stories to tell, that they could tell them and give God the glory and praise due His name.”

Also, to complete Light Academy and have a profound spiritual impact on vulnerable kids in East Africa, Set Free needs more believers to link arms with them financially.

“We need $5 million to build this new high school. That’s more money than we’ve ever even ventured to raise. In fact, we had to double our budget to do it. So we need some donors who are willing to step up to the plate and say, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of this.’”

Click here to support Set Free Ministries!

Header photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries.

Africa was once called the dark continent because it was thought by Europeans to be unknown and mysterious. According to Dean Vander Mey from Set Free Ministries, it can still be called the dark continent today because of the sexual abuse that plagues the continent.

Join us as we begin part two of our two-part conversation about how God is transforming communities in Uganda! Click here to read part-one about new Christian school.

Witch doctors remain a prevalent issue in many parts of East Africa as the only source of medicine many East Africans have access to. In Uganda, there are 645,000 witch doctors, including 7,000 in the areas Set Free works in.

Vander Mey reports that witch doctors sexually abuse 90 percent of the children taken to see them. “When you get abused and traumatized as a child all the way through until you’re a teen and as an adult, there is such fear that the whole place is held by fear.”

Sexual Trauma and Transforming Lives

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

The prevalence of sexual abuse and AIDS has also made Uganda a country of children, with over half the population under age 18. The average adult in Uganda only lives to be in their mid-to-late 50s, and the country has a high birth rate. The spread of AIDS has contributed to the nation’s life expectancy and death rates.

Set Free is making it a priority to spread the truth of the Gospel to these communities and free them from this cycle of sexual abuse. By providing both truth and basic resources, this also removes the power of witch doctors.

Vander Mey says, “We call upon God, we get you good medicine, [and] we’re going to love you back to life. We’re going to care for you, we’re going to love you, and we’re going to disciple you. And now you have a whole new generation of Christ followers who will be disciples of Jesus Christ. They will no longer have that fear they had before.”

Once communities hear the Gospel and have access to better medicine, they turn away from witch doctors. Increasingly, Vander Mey reports, witch doctors in these areas are losing business and moving away.

New School Brings New Opportunities

Set Free is helping communities by keeping children in school and away from the risk of human trafficking and witch doctors.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

The ministry sponsors many schools in Uganda and is also working on building a high school of their own. In four years, Light Academy and Vocational Center will be open to 1,200 new students.

Light Academy is a Christian high school and boarding school that will also teach students about career skills.

Vander Mey says, “We want every one of our young people to know how to do jobs so that when they leave high school, they can be gainfully employed immediately.”

He adds, “We teach not only the children, but we teach the communities [too].”

Donate to Set Free and sponsor a child for just $20 a month.

“With that $20, we will make sure that child gets fed, clothed, and has a Christian education from age five to 20,” Vander Mey says.

Continue to pray for Ugandan children and the communities around them. Pray that they would be freed from the cycle of AIDS and abuse, and that they would hear the Gospel. Pray also for Set Free as they build Light Academy and open it to new students.

Header photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries. 

Today we begin part one of a two-part story about Set Free Ministries’ work in Uganda with Christian schools.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

In Uganda, many children are sexually abused. Witch doctors are one of the leading culprits in the increase in sexual abuse and the spread of AIDS. Yet, they are the only option many East Africans have to receive medical treatment.

HIV.Gov reports 19.6 million people are infected with AIDS in eastern and southern Africa. Many of those infected are children who became infected either from their mothers or from witch doctors.

Dean Vader Mey from Set Free Ministries reports 90 percent of children who are taken to a witch doctor to receive treatment are sexually abused.

Tomorrow, we will look at the impact this abuse has on children and communities in Africa. We’ll also tell you how God is setting people free from sexual trauma.

Receiving an Education

Set Free is currently working to build Light Academy High School and Vocational Center. They already have a primary school and sponsor several high schools.

Currently, 350 students graduate every year from Set Free sponsored schools, but there are many who don’t have that opportunity.

Vander Mey says, “We want to have an opportunity for these children to become disciples of Christ from age five until 19.” By opening their doors to older students as well, Set Free is supporting even those who have had delays in their educations.

At Light Academy, students will receive a Christian education and learn both household skills and career skills.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Vander Mey says, “We want every one of our young people to know how to do jobs so that when they leave the high school, they can be gainfully employed immediately. So the girls will know how to do hair, how to sew, how to cook, and they’ll know how to grow their own food…. We’re going to have a whole lot of occupations that they can choose from.”

It’s especially important to keep children in Uganda in school after they graduate from local primary schools. When girls graduate from school at 12 or 13, they are often sold into human trafficking due to extreme poverty in the region.

At Light Academy, these students have a chance to grow in Christ and learn skills to support themselves.

New School Buildings

Vader Mey explains they have a goal is to raise five million for this new school in four years by increasing the school a grade at a time.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Once Light Academy is completed, it will be a boarding school — ready to house and provide basic resources to orphans and other children who desperately need it.

Vander Mey says, “This is going to be the future of these children. This is going to be a boarding school for 1,200 children who, right now, don’t have any hope or future when it comes to having a good Christian education.”

They currently have several buildings already built and are ready to begin construction on more buildings in January 2020.

If you would like to donate funds to build the high school, click here!

Another way to get involved is by sponsoring a child. For just $20 a month, or 65 cents a day you can help provide a Christian education as well as clothe and feed a child. This is an opportunity to change their lives and their eternities with the Word of God.

Finally, continue to pray for these children. Pray they have the opportunity to go to school and receive an education. Pray for those who have AIDS or are at risk for human trafficking in East Africa.

Join us tomorrow as we take a deeper look at witch doctors in East Africa and how God is working in these communities.

Header photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries.

While the lowlands have the advantage of cities and travel ease, Lesotho’s mountainous regions are hard to reach and the people often cannot get to medical services like hospitals and doctors. Since Lesotho has the third largest number of HIV/AIDS cases in the world, medical care is critical.

The sharp contrast of lowlands and mountains means Lesotho churches are also geographically divided. Matt Monson with Mission Aviation Fellowship in Lesotho says while there are theologically solid churches in both regions, villages in the mountains do not have easy access to trained pastors, and remote congregations often suffer theologically.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Monson with MAF Lesotho)

“There has been a lot more mixing of different ideas and concepts and traditions out in the mountains and so that’s where I think the real impact needs to happen. And that’s a call not only to us as MAF because of the aircraft and because we can transport ourselves out there, but that’s a challenge and a call for all the churches here in the lowlands.”

Just because Lesotho’s population is 80 percent Christian doesn’t make ministry any easier. In fact, Monson speculates, in some cases it even makes witnessing the Gospel more difficult.

“Statistically, it’s a Christian country but you’ll find that that actually can add a barrier to getting into the mountains and really making a true transformation because everybody’s a Christian…. But you find as you get to really invest into people and build relationships that the understanding of what that really means is more of how you act and how you behave and less about who Christ is and having a relationship with him.”

With the desperate medical and spiritual needs in the Lesotho mountains, MAF is connecting doctors and pastors with remote communities — through aviation!

Flying Doctors

(Photo and header photo courtesy of MAF Lesotho)

In Lesotho, MAF collaborates with the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service next door to their base. LFDS has a team of doctors, nurses, and trained specialists whom MAF flies to the clinics they service.

Monson shares, “[HIV/AIDS] has a huge impact on the country just in terms of how it affects the livelihood of people, how well the people are living, their health deteriorates really quickly, and then also just the fatality aspect as well.”

MAF also transports remote patients in critical emergencies or if they need regular medical treatment.

The MAF pilots often carry Gospel of John booklets with them. When the people they serve open up conversations about faith matters, the pilots can offer these booklets and talk about their relationship with Jesus Christ.

Flying Pastors

Additionally, MAF partners with local churches for the Lesotho Flying Pastors project.

“It’s a group of five or six local churches that have sent representation out into the mountains monthly. So we’re continuing to invest in that project and actually, through that project, we just got funding available to build a church in one of our most remote locations in the mountains. So through the building of that church and continuing the partnership with the Lesotho Flying Pastors, we’re praying that there is going to be a community there that can have some pastoral oversight until the community is able to take ownership of their own walk and faith.”

A village in the mountains of Lesotho.

Monson reflects, “We’re really excited about that project. That is something I have been praying about since I first arrived here because the chief of that area has received us, accepted us, and wants us to come build a church in his community. To have the support of a chief in a region is very critical and crucial if you want to make an impact.”

MAF’s chaplain, Sefiri, combines spiritual outreach with medical care by ministering to families in hospitals and clinics. Recently, the Lesotho government started having patients from the mountains sent to mountain hospitals instead of the city. Since these remote patients are no longer coming to him, MAF is sending Sefiri to them.

“We’re really looking forward to just seeing how the Lord is going to use [Sefiri] in the mountains,” says Monson. “He has a huge passion. He is from the mountains and he has a heart for his own people. So it’s just about us supporting and getting him out there.”

A Family Transformed

Just last month, Sefiri had an impactful encounter with a father whose young daughter was in the hospital.

Monson shares, “There was a girl that got injured on a horse — a young girl about 10-years-old. She got flown down here on our airplane to the hospital and Sefiri was daily going and checking in with the father who was here with his daughter and ministered to him and took care of him and gave him food when there wasn’t food available for him and just really made an impact on his life.”

As his daughter recovered, the father asked Sefiri to visit his remote village in the mountains.

“It was about a six-hour walk from the airstrip to get to his village and when he got to the guy’s house, his whole family just greeted him with joy and excitement because of the love and the care he had showed their family while they were in a really difficult situation.

“Two of the brothers of the family received Christ because of Sefiri’s visit, just because he opened the door and through the love and care that he showed.”

Support and Encouragement Needed

While the MAF team in Lesotho is passionate about their ministry, Monson says they can always use encouragement.

(Photo courtesy of MAF Lesotho)

Monson says, “It is a challenge every day and we just covet the prayers of the Body. When we have experienced people reaching out to us and saying they’re praying for us, it really does seem like, ‘Wow, the Lord is working,’ and things take a turn and exactly what we were hoping for occurs and we can just celebrate that.”

Please pray for the MAF Lesotho team to remain spiritually encouraged and vibrant as they serve hard-to-reach communities.

Through MAF Lesotho’s Facebook page, you can get prayer updates and continue interceding for the team. You can also learn more about MAF missionaries here and support those serving in Lesotho.

If you would like to support MAF’s work in Lesotho, click here.

Most people can say being a teenager is hard. There are a lot of questions and not a whole lot of answers. And sometimes, churches just simply aren’t equipped or they’re not sure how to engage with the questions and answer them. Reach4Life was born as a solution this.

Reach4Life

Biblica’s Southern Africa Regional Director Marius Brand shares:

“We worked with experts to develop a program and then also a New Testament Bible, which gave young people the resources first of all to be informed about sex and sexuality, and HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, but also to give them the resources, the spiritual resources to deal with the kinds of choices and pressures that young people face.”

In the 12 years since Reach4Life was first created, it has grown and expanded across the globe. Today, it’s a full curriculum being used in schools in 24 countries and has been translated into 11 languages. In fact, Reach4Life recently started its first program in the United States.

“The Reach4Life Bible is a little New Testament Bible…packed with lots of extra resources in addition to the text of the New International Readers Version of the Bible,” Brand explains.

“We have four kinds of resources. The primary one is 40 lessons, so in other words, it is a whole year with the Bible teaching, based on four different journeys. The journeys are ‘Believe’, ‘Grow’, ‘Live’, and ‘Change’.”

The “Believe” journey provides the Gospel message with 10 lessons. The “Grow” journey details how users can grow in faith and mature spiritually. The “Live” journey gives guidance in how to practically deal with the challenges teens face. And finally, the “Change” journey gives 10 lessons in how to create world change for God’s kingdom.

As one can see, Reach4Life doesn’t just teach kids about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, but it also provides a type of life roadmap for living a healthy life both physically and spiritually in Christ. The Reach4Life Bibles also include inserts which answer questions teens may have on sexually related issues including pornography, pregnancy, STIs, sexting, and more.

“So it’s all the kinds of things that young people really grapple with but don’t always know who to ask. And then of course, all of this [is] from a Biblical perspective,” Brand explains.

Growing, Expanding, Revamping

Two years ago the program was revamped and is essentially what Brand calls Reach4Life 2.0 version. The revamp came after Biblica decided to expand the program to include other issues that teenagers and young people face.

“In our second version or second edition, we also pay a lot of attention to things like addiction. You know, how to deal with drugs and alcohol. Friends, peer pressure, school work, money, emotional pain, you know, self-image, those kinds of things,” Brand explains. “So all of that has really helped to expand the reach of Reach4Life.”

(Photo Courtesy Biblica via Facebook)

Over 1 million young people have gone through the Reach4Life program since it began. And in this time, Brand says there has been a lot of positive feedback about the program.

“One of the keys to the way we run the program is that almost all the teaching and the discipleship is done by what is called peer educators,” Brand shares.

Young persons are trained in how to use the Reach4Life resources and are then able to go into their schools, youth groups, churches, and even prisons and drug rehab centers with the Gospel message and Biblical guidance to living life.

Impact for Life

One example Brand has is of a girl called Caroline. Caroline is a peer educator and works in the Johannesburg, South Africa program. Here’s the catch that makes Caroline’s story unique—she’s HIV positive. She’s been positive since birth, when she first contracted the disease from her mother.

“To see the impact she has on other young people when she tells them, ‘Hey, I’m HIV positive, but I’m still reaching for life and living positively,’” Brand says. “That is so precious to see that and it really does have an impact on other young people.”

And you can have an impact too. Ways to get involved include becoming a peer educator, financially giving to the program, and, of course, praying.

Pray the hearts of these young people in the Reach4Life programs. Ask that their hearts would be open to the Gospel and that they’d grab hold of the wisdom and virtue of living a life for God by His will.

Get more information about Reach4Life and Biblica’s ministry here!

To give, click here.

(Photo courtesy Biblica)

Nigeria (Biblia) — 4,200,000 Nigerians are infected with HIV.

220,000 of them died last year.

The Reach 4 Life Scripture project is run throughout Africa through a partnership Biblica maintains with Scripture Union. Through their network of staff and volunteers, the Bibles are distributed in public schools as well as private schools. Many times, the schools are predominantly Muslim.

Each Scripture contains a full NIV New Testament with:

• Practical applications that teach teens how to live free from sexual sin
• A section that teaches young people about HIV/Aids and how to live according to God’s standard of purity
• 40 Bible studies contained within the text
• Instructions on how to accept Christ as Savior
• Testimonies from African athletes
• Instructions on how to lead a small group Bible Study

Before each distribution takes place, Scripture Union staff and volunteers are trained. After the distribution, the local workers develop small group Bible studies that lead students through 40 Bible studies and hold them accountable to their behavior.

Please help Biblica get these Scriptures throughout Nigeria. Would your church consider taking an offering for this project? For every $3 raised, one New Testament will be placed in the hands of a Nigerian student.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries via Facebook)

“It was through the efforts of Set Free Ministries and their donors who helped work with the locals there to help put this amazing orphanage up for over 550 orphan kids where AIDS began,” Dean Vander Mey of Set Free explains.

Based in the town of Kansensero, about 40% of people in the area have the AIDS virus, including a number of the children living in the new orphanage. Many had been victims of sexual abuse leading to the infection. During the planning and construction process, Set Free kept this in mind.

“Often times, when children and young people–and even adults–are sinned against, it’s when they hold onto that anger and their bitterness, and then their own heart condition begins to harden. And, we actually sometimes blame God for the evil that’s come upon us. So we have to work through a lot of that, working with children of abuse.”

Set Free hopes the construction of the orphanage will be a reminder of how much God loves them and that He will provide. After all, the building previous was nothing like it is now.

Vander Mey explains when a group was visiting, the orphanage was still called God Cares, “but it was built in a swamp.” The conditions were very poor. Animal feces were everywhere, and Vander Mey notes that when it started raining, everything floated between their legs and the kids’ legs. Further, none of the 550 children had shoes to protect their feet and prevent disease.

(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries via Facebook)

While those 550 kids called it home, Vander Mey says it was a disease-infested swamp and admits he was angry at the conditions. Yet, that anger turned into motivation to put an end to the bad conditions.

Upon returning home, he met with a group of seven men. “I said, ‘Guys it’s time to fish or cut bait here. It’s time to do something instead of just talk about it.'” Vander Mey challenged the lot to ask for donations in order to fund-raise for new living conditions. “And within two weeks, that group of 7 guys raised $400,000.”

Soon after, Set Free cracked down on construction.

December 4 marked the end of the era when around 1,000 people gathered around the completed orphanage in celebration. And, last year, a number of donors and sponsors were able to visit and see the transformation with their own eyes.

“They got to take videos and meet the people, and meet the children that they helped. It was powerful.”

Currently, Set Free is partnering with 16 overseas schools and offers sponsorship of children for $20 a month. The daunting question is: will you help through prayer, giving, or by going?

“Edmund Burks says evil remains when good people do nothing…. The #1 problem with what’s happening today is apathy. People don’t know what to do, so they do nothing.”