But the pushback from India against this designation has been swift and sharp. A spokesperson for the nation’s Ministry of External Affairs referred to the report as “propaganda,” and called USCIRF “a biased organization with a political agenda.” 

So what is going on? Tim Landis with FARMS International says there has been a “ramping up of new anti-conversion laws.” 

India’s population is nearly 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim and 2% Christian. (Source: CIA Factbook) Photo courtesy of Ron Hansen/Unsplash.

Twelve states in India criminalize changing your religion, under certain circumstances. There are also concerns that India’s current government will make all of India a nationalist Hindu state. We’ll see who is in office after the general election results come in June. (More on the ongoing election here.)

For now, incidents of mob violence against Christians are on the rise, and FARMS is feeling it. One of their local partners had to move his family due to threats in their home area. 

“Church, believers, and families were persecuted, false accusations of saying that the businesses were giving people loans and beneficiaries loans to convert to Christianity, which is not the truth. It’s not even how FARMS operates,” Landis says. 

FARMS offers interest-free loans to Christians to help them work their way out of poverty. It doesn’t touch on conversion. Until recently, their work in India has not been under much threat.

“[Our partner] has had very good connections within the government, but that is starting to deteriorate, as the government kind of keeps pressing on these [anti-conversion] laws,” Landis says. 

Pray against the fear Christians are facing of losing their crops, livelihoods or lives to community attacks spurred on by anti-conversion laws.

Learn more here about how you can come alongside Christians around the world with FARMS International.

Header image is a representative stock photo of India courtesy of Akshat Vats/Unsplash.

Mark Luckey talks a little bit about the ministry. “We are involved with helping kids in impoverished African communities to rise up and come through that. We also help kids with albinism or other conditions that cause them to be discriminated against. Perhaps they have medical conditions, or they’re disabled.”

“We work with all of the things that put kids on the edges of society.”  

Luckey says they want to transform the lives of children so the children can, in turn, change their communities.

Family Empowerment Program

But the ministry wants to support whole families, not just one child. That led to the Family Empowerment Program. They started in Uganda, helping parents provide food and education for all their kids. It’s a two-year program. In a year, the current families will graduate and the ministry will take on ten new families. Luckey hopes to see the project grow in the future.

Many of these families can now save money and start businesses. Luckey says, “I think it was Martin Luther King who said, ‘I don’t want just to be the Good Samaritan. I want to make the Jericho road safe for everyone.’ Over the years, ECM has functioned as that good Samaritan. We spent years picking up the broken and the beaten along the road, helping them to survive, and so on.”

There’s always a need for that kind of ministry, Luckey says. “But there also is a time when you say, ‘What would happen if we fix the road, paved it, and put in lights and that security?’”

Learn more about the program or donate here. And pray many people would see Jesus’ love through this work.

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries. 

Over the last few decades, many Haitians have started eating food in plastic packaging rather than local, biodegradable materials. This mimics practices of the United States and Europe, where plastic packaging is common. To fight this problem, Haiti banned plastic bags in 2012.

Many Western countries have begun to rethink plastic packaging. Recently, a study found tiny particles of plastic embedded in human lungs, raising questions about the long-term health impact of plastic use.

For Haiti with Love

For Haiti with Love launched a cleanup campaign around the northern city of Cap Haitien. Eve Dehart talks about the work. “It’s not only unsightly and smelly, but it’s also a breeding ground for all kinds of diseases. Our staff is trying to get other ministries and the businesses involved to clean up around their own areas.”

“If we can get enough people to do that, then we are accomplishing our goal.”

Businesses often create the most trash. Dehart says they pile it up, expecting the city authorities to take care of it. “Our staff is trying to spread awareness that that isn’t happening and that people need to take the responsibility for getting rid of their own trash, particularly the businesses downtown.”

This project aims to improve public health, but also build a sense of community.

As Christians care for the streets and waterways of Haiti, pray many would see the love of Jesus in their actions.

The header photo shows household trash used to build a road in Cap Haitien. (Photo courtesy of Rémi Kaupp, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Horizons International wants to help by joining these people in Lebanon with businesses and ministries in the U.S. Pierre Houssney says, “Some of my friends in the US have businesses that they work for, or that they own. They are figuring out what little tasks here and there they could outsource to somebody that’s capable and that would only need a little bit of training and guidance.”

It’s all about paying these believers a sustainable, living wage. The tasks might include graphic design, video editing, or even accounting services. Houssney says one American pastor employs people in Lebanon for an E-commerce website that supports his ministry.

Kingdom work

How does this intersect with the Great Commission? Houssney says, “One of the most strategic things that we can do today for the Great Commission in the Middle East is helping the believers in Lebanon remain in Lebanon.”

“Not only are we giving them opportunities to make income, we’re also helping them apply their newfound skills to ministry contexts.”

Do you have any work or roles that can be done online? Consider outsourcing to Lebanese believers. Houssney says, “Reach out to us and we will let you know if we have staff available. Or we can recruit new staff that are skilled in these things. There’s a high education level in Lebanon. These are ambitious people that can really help your business or ministry out.”

Contact Horizons International here.

Header photo courtesy of Horizons International. 

In the last two years, the Lebanese currency has lost more than 93 percent of its value against the dollar. Wages alone barely cover basic necessities. Rising inflation means the average family is struggling to buy food or medicine. Many have to run up unpaid bills or borrow money just to put food on the table.

Horizons International works in Lebanon with a focus on evangelism, discipleship, and training. But in this economic collapse, the ministry’s Middle East Center for World Missions launched a new initiative connecting Lebanese believers with Western companies and ministries for remote employment.

Horizons International staff delivering food. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook)

Pierre Houssney with Horizons International says, “There are a lot of really highly educated and capable men and women of God who have a lot to offer on the world scale, but they don’t have job opportunities and the money that they’re receiving in the local currency for their current jobs is just not enough to even start paying their most basic bills because it has just lost all of its value.

“We’re working with Western companies and also ministries to provide accounting, graphic design, web development, social media management, [and] all kinds of different services. We can be providing a living wage to Middle Easterners so they can tough it out in the Middle East right now, and specifically Lebanon during this economic collapse.”

Houssney says providing these job opportunities to church members in Lebanon has a direct impact on the Great Commission in the Middle East.

“The Christian presence in these Muslim-dominated areas is one of the most strategic things for reaching the Muslims for Christ,” says Houssney.

“So not only are we providing jobs for these people to be able to put food on the table so that they can remain in the Middle East, we’re also training them for ministry. We’re helping them to equip their churches, to be supporting their churches and families, and this is all part of our strategy for reaching the region for Christ.”

The Middle East Center has partnered with over 90 Lebanese churches, “which is most of the churches in Lebanon because there’s only about 105 churches in Lebanon,” Houssney says.

The language barrier between Lebanese employees and Western companies is a consideration. But many in Lebanon speak English and have done well in markets around the world. For those who come to Horizons International’s Middle East Center and want English lessons, the ministry connects them with the Language Academy of Beirut.

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

Interested in getting involved? Houssney asks, “What business are you involved in? Do you have a small business? Do you have a ministry or your church? What are the needs administratively that could be outsourced in your business or ministry?

“If we could just start a discussion about that and you tell us what your needs are in these areas we are offering, then there’s something immediate you can do. You can provide jobs for Lebanese and Syrian believers so they can remain in the Middle East. Then it can also add tremendous value to your business.”

Click here to connect with Horizons International!

Finally, Houssney asks, “We can just be praying that the Lord will provide the right opportunities, that the right businesses will come forward, and that God would provide wisdom and ingenuity in figuring out where these Middle Eastern believers can add the most value to the ministries and businesses that they’ll be serving through the outsourcing project.”

Header photo courtesy of Michal Gadek via Unsplash.

(Photo courtesy of Joey Pilgrim via Unsplash)

FARMS’ interest-free loans create a dependency-free way for families to establish agriculture and small businesses, breaking the cycle of poverty. The pandemic was especially hard on impoverished people and day laborers around the world, making these programs more important than ever. Through the difficulty, Scott Clifton says the churches FARMS partners with have stepped up.

“Churches have really come together. People have given their own resources to help their neighbors. Churches have coordinated with other churches to band together and help in light of natural disasters. In the Philippines, there was a big typhoon, and one person used a T-shirt print shop and sold T-shirts as a fundraiser to raise money [for] typhoon victims,” he says.

“A farmer gave milk from his cows to his neighbors so they would have some food and his church that put together relief packets for people. These are just a few examples, but we’re hoping many people would come to know the Lord through [all of] this.”

Another blessing amid the hardship of 2020 is how FARMS’ model meant the ministry could continue operating even without travel.

“The pandemic has really reinforced some of our principles. One of those principles is every program is overseen by a local committee. This local committee is comprised of volunteers who give their time to review business plans, to check in on people who have received loans for their business or for agriculture, and so on. They oversee the day to day operations of the program,” Clifton explains.

“We train that committee, and we provide funding to that committee. Although it’s very useful for us to travel, the program still goes on without us being there.”

Helping the Hurting

With these blessings in mind, Clifton hopes the pandemic will improve throughout the year, allowing farms to move forward with plans they have for growth in 2021. FARMS currently has 17 programs in nine countries, and they hope to add four more programs this year.

“These programs represent growth in that they’re another program, but they’re also programs that could potentially grow a lot within themselves. There’s a lot of excitement over partnering with the church this way because the pandemic has had such an impact and increasing poverty. There really is more opportunity to come alongside the church to help people to create a sustainable income source,” Clifton says.

As FARMS begins pursuing these programs, Clifton asks for prayer.

(Photo courtesy of Adrien Taylor via Unsplash)

“We want God’s wisdom. We don’t believe that growth for the sake of growth is a good thing. We believe that’s where God is pointing us, so [please pray] God gives us wisdom and everything that we pursue.”

To learn more about FARMS and how you can support their ministry, visit their website here.

Header image courtesy of Heather Suggitt via Unsplash

Pierre Houssney with Horizons International suggests the current business as missions model may at times have some flaws.

“Sometimes business as missions doesn’t go much beyond kind of a cover for missions. Sometimes it’s been a little bit prone to fail on the business side, and sometimes [it will] fail also to push forward the ministry activities that it’s trying to.”

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

That’s why Horizons International is taking this model and flipping it on its head. Their approach to ministry in Lebanon is what they like to call missional business.

Houssney describes it as business activities, not just for a missional cover, but with a missional purpose.

“What we’re trying to do with missional businesses is make them actually really viable businesses that directly impact the Kingdom. We have found the best results come from when we are using indigenous ideas for business and indigenous businessmen that are Kingdom-minded.”

Indigenous staff members in Lebanon with Horizons International have started small businesses around the country under this missional business model. Their ministry centers include daycares, gyms, coffee shops, bookstores, sewing centers, car wash and maintenance garages, and more!

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“We’ve used these avenues not only to help pay for the rent of ministry spaces that we’re using, but also as a way to access communities that are really difficult to plant evangelical ministries in.”

Although mostly indigenous, these businesses with Horizons International are also supported by international staff at times with specialized skill sets.

Houssney shares the example of a gym in one of their newer ministry centers. “We have a Western missionary who is planning to come in and start to conduct Crossfit classes in the gym as another way to kind of access the community and provide revenue for the ministry.”

Lebanon is a country with ripe fields for a Gospel harvest. According to the Joshua Project, the country is nearly 60 percent Muslim. Around 13 percent of the Lebanese population is completely unreached with the Gospel.

Houssney says, “Those projects really directly advance the Gospel because [they] bring Muslims in from the community and they do get a chance to hear the Gospel through our spiritual ministry programs that we’re doing at the same time.”

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

If you like the thought of missional business with Horizons International, there are several ways you can get involved!

“We can use startup funds for these business activities. So, for example, we have a sewing shop in the south of Lebanon that we already have going. [From] that sewing shop, we’re actually not selling any of the product, but we’re giving out the product that refugee women are making…as aid to other refugees. We’re trying to open up other shops like that in our centers.”

To come alongside Horizons International financially, click here!

Additionally, Houssney says, “If there is anybody [who] has a specific business skill, they could also contact us and check if we can use that particular skill. So we would love to find out how to creatively partner with people so whatever they are offering to the Kingdom can be invested and we can use those specialized skills for the Gospel.”

Your prayers also have an impact on these missional businesses in Lebanon. As our Christian brothers and sisters minister to their communities through business ventures, please pray for the work of their hands to bring glory to God. Ask the Lord to open faith conversations between Lebanese believers and their neighbors. Pray for these businesses to thrive so their funds may have a widespread Gospel impact.

Header photo courtesy of Horizons International.

But Sierra Leone is not alone, and World Hope International (WHI) is bringing them the First Step .

First Step is a subsidiary program of WHI with the goal of stimulating the economy and businesses of Sierra Leone. While the project has been underway for about a year, they are now seeing results with partnerships being formed. This program was reported on by CNN last weekend June 24-26th as President and CEO of World Hope International, Dr. Karl Eastlack, spoke on First Step's beginnings, its partners, and its mission.

Here's how it works. Much like a jigsaw puzzle, Sierra Leone has most of the pieces. They have a labor force in desperate need of jobs, resources for products, and businesses with creative ideas. First Step is providing the "box top" and a few of the missing pieces so that businesses can get the big picture and figure out how to fit all the jigsaw pieces together.

First Step is building warehouses for manufacturing products that will be rented out to businesses demonstrating enough promise for economic stimulation. They will also be installing state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment so that products can be processed. Also, when businesses need certain materials to be imported and combined with native raw materials to finish their product, those materials will be imported by First Step.

All this is being done in a Special Economic Zone established by First Step near the country's main seaport. The first tenant in the zone with First Step is a pineapple and mango juice concentrate manufacturer called Africa Felix Juice. Dr. Eastlack spoke of their work with Africa Felix Juice, which has now been in production since April 2011 and is proud to be the first fruit juice manufacturer ever based in Sierra Leone.

First Step also wants to look out for and encourage growth in the employees. Workers with the partners of First Step will be engaged in WHI training programs such as HIV/AIDS awareness, health nutrition, and adult literacy. WHI promises that those employed in First Step work zones will experience safe and respectful work environments and businesses will be eco-friendly.

Sierra Leone's government under President Earnest Bai Koroma is very supportive of these projects and Sierra Leone's Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Sheka Tarawalie also spoke with CNN in their piece on the benefits First Step is having on their economy.

By showing the people of Sierra Leone that they are not forgotten and without hope, WHI seeks to be the hands of Christ. WHI is a Christian relief organization that has their feet in several countries around the world, bringing aid to the poor and suffering. As they stimulate the economy, they hope to open doors in the hearts of the Sierra Leonean people who may become curious about this ministry behind First Step and why they would want to help. Christ does not forget about the poor, and in providing help for their physical welfare, hopefully it will provide opportunities to stimulate their spiritual welfare.