Why did Iran directly attack Israel for the first time in its history? With support for Israel wavering from its allies, wouldn’t a direct attack from Iran re-bolster the world’s support for Israel? How was a direct attack in Iran’s best interest?

Escalating conflict abroad

Tehran, Iran (Photo courtesy of Khashayar Kouchpeydeh/Unsplash)

Lana Silk, CEO of Transform Iran, says, “Iran is in a difficult situation because, as you say, they can’t be seen to have ‘all bark and no bite.’ So they can’t just keep throwing all these threats out there and not following through.”

The lead-up to Iran’s attack has been a tit-for-tat process of escalation. Prior to October 7, Israel had a ceasefire with Hamas and was preparing to sign a peace deal with the Sunni government of Saudi Arabia. Then on October 7, Iran provided support for the terror attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 Israelis and took around 240 hostage.

Iran has continued to add fuel to the fire of war in the Holy Land through its Shia proxies in Yemen and Lebanon. Israel sent a message to Iran by striking the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1st, killing two Iranian generals and five officers.

Following the Iranian consulate strike, Tehran vowed to retaliate — which led to Iran sending hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel, most of which were shot down. Now, Israel says they cannot let a direct attack like this from Iran go unpunished.

Escalating conflict at home

Meanwhile, all is not well at home in Iran.

First, an ongoing power struggle between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the ayatollahs makes for uncomfortable bedmates when they have to turn and deal with wars abroad.

“That’s certainly what the atmosphere is in Iran today — that maybe there’s some infighting going on. And, of course, that has other implications,” Silk says.

(Photo courtesy of Transform Iran)

Then there’s the Iranian people, the majority of whom feel disenfranchised by their own government and are struggling to make ends meet.

Tehran received significant criticism for entering 2024 without an official budget or fiscal plan. This year also marks the end of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s first term in office.

“Economically, it’s a very difficult climate. There’s already been a lot of uncertainty now with this ‘budget, no budget’ question. I mean, they’re having to throw something together. They’re not committing the right money to the right places. They’re spending money in war.

“So the people of Iran continue to pay. They’re struggling for jobs. They’re struggling for affordable housing and food. Poverty is high. The people are not being looked after and they’re stuck.

“They feel completely trapped in the world that they live in right now. As far as they’re concerned, they are forgotten by the West because all the West sees is their regime with all the negative things at play that the regime is involved in. So then the West must hate us.”

Silk says there are many in Iran who are not pleased with their government’s actions on the global stage. Many are even questioning the validity of Islam itself, although it is incredibly dangerous to do so in Iran where Islam is the state religion.

Seeking Truth

These silent doubters are seeking spiritual truth. This is where Transform Iran’s ministry steps in with the transcending hope and truth of the Gospel.

Transform Iran is passionate about leadership development. The Church in Iran is growing fast.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Transform Iran)

Transform Iran uses television, radio, and social media to reach Iranians with the Good News about Jesus. No matter the circumstances, Christ offers comfort and hope. The people of Iran need to know.

“The best thing that we can do for the people of Iran today is to let them know that we see them, and we care!” says Silk.

“It would be so helpful for us all to be using the power of social media to be talking about the people of Iran, sharing posts that highlight the needs of the people of Iran, let them know that they are seen, that we love them, we care for them.

“Let’s be praying. Let’s be fueling what God is doing. Let’s be inviting the Holy Spirit to be visiting people in their dreams, in their doorways, in visions…. That is a powerful thing that we can be doing. If we do that, then we will have helped the people of Iran.”

Learn more about Transform Iran’s ministry here.

Header photo courtesy of Steven Su/Unsplash.

An organization in Northern Haiti, For Haiti With Love, takes the call of Matthew 25:35-40 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and shelter the homeless seriously. 

The headquarters of For Haiti With Love is part medical clinic, part pharmacy, and part homeless shelter. 

“It’s a variety of things that you encounter with people who have absolutely no flexibility with money,” DeHart said.  “We’re dealing with the poorest of the poor in the population, which means there is no emergency fund.”

For many Haitians, they have come to rely on For Haiti With Love as a place to go when they have emergencies. 

The organization transports people to the hospital and helps arrange how people will pay for their hospital visits. 

“It’s just a variety of things that come up that you’ve got to have flexibility in your budget and in your personnel to be able to deal with, we’re there to help the people and sometimes their definition is a little bit broader than ours,” DeHart said. “And so you try to fill that gap.”

One challenge this ministry faces is security. DeHart said a necessary part of living in Haiti is having a security team of armed guards as well as gates around their facility. 

For Haiti With Love is well-known enough in the area that they can manage the demand for medical care and food more than ministries closer to the Port-au-Prince area. 

While working with patients, a majority of whom are being treated for burns, For Haiti With Love makes it a priority to share the Gospel through prayer. 

“We make them very aware that without God’s provision, we wouldn’t be there to be this disperser of His funds in order for them to get the benefit…God is the supplier, we are just managing it,” DeHart explained. 

For Haiti With Love has been blessed by very loyal supporters in the United States. DeHart said they pray to be the best stewards of the money they get. 

Medical care for burn victims can be very expensive and it can take a long time for a patient to heal, but DeHart says that she prays people will stick with the organization in their giving so they can continue to help people in need. 

Pray for peace to be brought to Haiti and that For Haiti With Love can continue to service the community of Northern Haiti well. 

HungerFast, as it became known, was to raise awareness of the plight of
the poor. This year, with the threat of 40%
budget cuts to foreign aid, over 40,000
people joined in the HungerFast, including over 30 members of the U.S.
Congress. 

Food for the Hungry U.S. president Dave Evans says, "When the
HungerFast came to a close, we were celebrating the fact that God
really did move on behalf of the poorest and saved this resource that's so
critical to help them."

Specifically, God answered prayer. "God really did a
miracle. When we actually saw the budget, the final cuts to foreign aid that affect
the poorest were very tiny and will have no material effect on those
programs for the remainder of this fiscal year, which has another four and a
half months to go."

Even better, there was even a $20M increase
in funding to assist disaster victims through the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. The victory was thrilling, but also
short-lived. Evans says, "In Fiscal Year 12, starting in October, (right
now the process is going through Congress), there is talk about some of these same cuts that were
removed from this current budget being put back in."

So, it's back to the trenches. Food For the Hungry teams are trying to make sure that the
resources they have don't get whittled away. Evans says they're also trying to be part of the solution. "We are very supportive
of a balanced budget; at the same time, we
believe that there are savings that can be made in a whole bunch of areas so
that foreign assistance doesn't have to bear the brunt."

Food for the Hungry has large programs in 20 countries
around the world. They partner with the
local church in order to increase the ministry of the local body of Christ in a
culturally-sensitive context.  As a result, God opens more doors. "We see
change in both areas, so we believe that bringing the holistic Gospel is
critical to meeting people's physical and spiritual needs together and seeing that
hope of a new day in Christ becomes a reality in our program."

Evans urges vigilance as the negotiations over FY12 take
place. "Pray for wisdom on behalf of those in Congress. Pray that they wouldn't forget the poor as they
go through this process, that it wouldn't just be numbers."

There's more about FH here.

The FY11 bill was hammered out on Friday to avoid a
government shutdown, and the details of the $38 billion in cuts are still being
spelled out. The goal is to bring it to
a vote on the House and the Senate on Thursday. At the same time, the House Budget Committee
Chair Paul Ryan presents the FY2012 budget to the Full House and the
President.

The cuts are deep, even gutting. Already, there's an acknowlegement that the
$38 billion in cuts for 2011 won't be enough for 2012. 

That makes foreign aid an easy target. Lucas Koach with Food For the Hungry says, "When asked how much of the federal
government's budget goes to foreign aid, most Americans think it's over 20%. When asked what they think is appropriate,
the common answer is about 10%. The actual amount that goes directly to
international food aid and development is one half of one percent."

In other words, even if all food aid
got cut, it would not make a dent in the federal deficit.

In FY11, $8 billion in cuts are
coming to the State and Foreign Operations budget which includes all the the State Department's functions–a move that is both disappointing
and alarming.   

In practicality, the loss of the funds is a life or death issue for
70,000 kids around the world. "As we target the poorest of the poor around the
world, who are often weeks, if not days, from real starvation, these funds can
translate to death."

In our March 7 story, we broke down the proposed cuts this way:

41% – U.S. food aid programs

67% – Office of Foreign Disaster
Assistance

30% – Development assistance

15% – Global health and childhood
survival programs,

All of these were from FY10-enacted levels, according to budget analyses.

The dollar values may have
changed, but the percentage of cuts were roughly consistent with the earlier
reports.   

The cuts will also impact U.S. foreign
policy and national security. Hunger breeds political instability and chaos
around the globe. Koach explains that "one
of the best proven tools is food aid, food security, and serving the poorest
of the poor as we help our government win friends and allies around the country; it allows mission groups like ourselves to care for the least of these in
our midst."

FH is trying to close the gap between perception and reality
when it comes to the funding cuts. More voices are joining that chorus. 36,000, including congressional members, recently answered a call by religious leaders
to participate in a hunger fast protesting the cuts. They were calling for a "Moral Budget"
because, Koach says, "There isn't an army of lobbyists on behalf of the poor. There
isn't a lot of political pragmatic interest protecting this sector. That's why
it's an increasing imperative to continue to implore their members of congress to
balance the budget, but not to do so on the backs of the poor."

It wasn't only a protest: it was a way of sharing the burden, on a much
smaller scale. "We know that this isn't an easy road. Fundamentally, we are
called to suffer with and on behalf of the poor. We have to trust that God is
larger than these concerns. Hopefully, the suffering will only serve to further
awaken God's people."

How the cuts will impact FH's programs is yet to be seen. However, Koach notes that the budget issue
may be just the klaxon needed to wake believers. Real change happens when God's people
respond with the hope of Christ. "It's
not just going to be a matter of passing a few pieces of legislation, but it's
really going to be God's people moving with an increased compassion to reach
out for the poor."

Keep praying for the ministry leaders who are trying to find ways to
move outreach forward in uncertain financial times. Ask God to continue to resource them, as well
as give them wisdom.

Food for the Hungry U.S.
president and global executive, David Evans, calls the cuts "disproportionate." "They
proposed an average of 8% cuts in discretionary funding across all
areas, but the cuts in international relief and development assistance range
from 41% to 67%."  

In response, FH joined a
coalition of 30 religious and faith-based leaders and signed a letter to U.S.
Senate members urging them to reverse the reductions to international
assistance passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. "All Non-Governmental Organizations that are benefitting
from foreign assistance from the U.S. government will be affected in one way
or another, so there's really no area that's been spared the knife."  

Evans thinks that the deepest
cuts targeted international assistance because it's an "easy target." The
coalition has to counter the prevailing school of thought: "If we have a budget deficit, why are we
giving this money to other countries?"

In fact, a recent Pew Research Center
survey asked Americans how much of the government's budget they thought went to
foreign assistance. The average response was 25%. When they were asked how much they felt
should go to foreign assistance, they said no more than 10%.    

Evans says, "There's this huge
difference between reality and perception. Our message is: ‘If Americans feel like it should be 10%, then that's great. We'd take 10%. Given that it's only one half of one percent,
this is not the area to be making cuts. Even if foreign aid were completely
abolished, it would not make any recognizable dent in the current budget deficit."

Cuts proposed in the House of
Representatives budget resolution include slashing U.S. food aid programs by
41% ($687 million), Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance funding by 67% ($875 million), development assistance by 30% ($747 million),
global health and childhood survival programs by 15% ($365 million), all
from FY 2010 enacted levels, according to budget analyses.

The Senate passed a two-week
extension of the budget that would fund the government until March 18, all the
while countering with proposed $4 billion in federal spending cuts, somewhat
less drastic than the steeper cuts endorsed by the House. "Our desire now–in the U.S. Senate, where the debate is happening–is that some of these cuts
would be restored, particularly in areas where it helps the poorest of the poor
and the most vulnerable."

There's still time for you to get
involved. Evans says, "Talk to your
senators. Talk to your representatives about the good that some foreign
assistance does for the world's poor."

The budget measure would deny
roughly 18 million poor and vulnerable people life-saving physical and spiritual
help. "U.S. government funding allows
us to be in a number of countries that we might not be in if we didn't have
that resource, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and working with local
churches, helping to build those churches and build their capacity. All of that
would be curtailed–if not shut down completely–in those areas where we're
highly dependent on this resource to be there."

Although this year's offering surpassed the record set in
2006 by $231,00, it failed to meet the denomination's goal of $165
million. International Mission Board
needs the money to support new missionaries, especially as the falling value of
the U.S. dollar drives up their living expenses.  

"Although we're disappointed by the failure to meet the goal
of $165 million, we think it is significant in the context of financial
challenges in today's economy that we received the same impressive level of
giving as last year," said IMB President Jerry Rankin. The "shortfall in our budget…will have to be
made up from other sources, but even more critical is the declining value of
the dollar overseas."

IMB supports the work of over 5,300 missionaries around the
world who collectively reported a record 60,000 people baptized in 2007. In 2007, IMB also planted more than 25,000
churches and implemented church-planting strategies among more than 1,100
people groups, including 100 that were previously unreached. 

IMB leaders are challenging the church to send 2,700 more
missionaries to reach more unengaged people groups. 

"We don't plan to back off on sending missionaries at all,"
said David Steverson, IMB treasurer and vice president for finance. "We plan to
press forward. We will evaluate all of our planned expenditures and forgo most
of our planned capital investments for the remainder of the year. The Lord
provides for what He plans. None of this catches Him by surprise. If He's
calling missionaries out, He'll find a way to get the funds to us."

IMB is also funded by the Southern Baptist denomination's
Cooperative Program and by gifts from individuals toward specific outreach
ministries. 

"We are grateful for the strong commitment to the Great
Commission exhibited by the generous giving of Southern Baptists to the Lottie
Moon Christmas Offering," said Rankin. "Although we're disappointed by the
failure to meet the goal of $165 million, we think it is significant in the
context of financial challenges in today's economy that we received the same
impressive level of giving as last year."