According to an in-depth summary by BBC News, 3 million people have left Venezuela since 2014. Colombia has taken in the most Venezuelan migrants of any South American country. Officials announced earlier this week more than 1.2 million Venezuelans are being integrated into Colombian society. The total could reach up to 4 million by 2021.

UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, claims most people fleeing Venezuela need international refugee protection.

Sound familiar? In 2013, Lebanon began bearing the brunt of neighboring Syria’s refugee crisis. The Syrian refugee population grew to 1 million in 2014 from a mere 10,000 in 2012. Today, Lebanon hosts “the largest number of refugees per capita,” according to UNHCR.

Is Colombia the next Lebanon?

While similar, key differences separate Colombia’s refugee situation from that of Lebanon.

(Photo courtesy of Alejandro Ortiz via Unsplash)

First of all, Colombia has more room. South America’s fourth-largest country has 439,736 square miles of total land area, whereas Lebanon has only 4,014 square miles. Secondly, Colombia has more capital; the national GDP is $309.2 billion USD. By comparison, Lebanon’s GDP is $51.84 billion USD, and leaders are grappling with austerity measures.

This doesn’t mean Colombia is challenge-free. Conflict and violence continue despite a 2016 peace deal. As noted last year, coca production has reached its highest level since the UN began keeping records. Coca is cocaine’s base ingredient, so – theoretically – more coca means more cocaine.

Colombian resources and personnel dedicated to fighting these vices could be strained by the influx of Venezuelan refugees. Support from groups like AMG International is essential.

In 2015, God equipped AMG International to meet needs in Jesus’s name at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis as desperate migrants began making their way to Europe through Greece. He appears to be doing the same thing now in Colombia.

How to help kids in crisis

AMG’s Bill Passons says vulnerable children on the outskirts of Cali, Colombia – including Venezuelan refugee children – are receiving care at the ministry’s new child development center. The program gets kids off the streets and out of harm’s way.

“We’ve been actually praying about starting a work in Colombia for a couple of years…. It just happened to be the right time in God’s provision.”

Jersson Muñoz’s neighborhood is not supportive of family life; drugs, alcohol, gang activity are rampant.
(Photo, caption courtesy of AMG International)

As they prayed for an opportunity to serve the Lord in Colombia, Passons says AMG leaders sought like-minded organizations with a local presence. God answered those prayers by connecting AMG with their current partner, a ministry in Palmas del Mirador. This group was seeking a partner with experience in Gospel-centered, evangelistic child and youth ministry – a criteria AMG met perfectly. More about AMG’s youth focus here.

Passons says, “[Our] desire is to go into some of these communities where people are moving; either refugees from [places] like Venezuela who’ve come across borders, or people who’ve come from rural areas and [are] coming to the city of Cali looking for work.”

Through the new center, AMG and its local partners bring the hope and love of Christ to kids surrounded by violence and poverty.

“When you live a day-to-day life and your primary focus is survival, it’s hard to look ahead to the future. It’s hard to care about education when you’re not sure what you’re going to be able to eat the next day,” Passons observes.

“It’s hard to dream about what you want to be in life when you’re worried about just existing.”

(Photo courtesy of AMG International)

As described here, Gospel workers operate a comprehensive program tailored to meet the community’s needs. For six days every week, kids escape their surroundings to a world of Bible lessons, discipleship, nutritional food, and education.

“What we want to do is share the love of Christ, show them opportunities, and give them hope that their life can be different.”

AMG began helping 50 kids in January, but they need sponsors to support this work long-term. Click here to sponsor a child in Colombia.

In the header image, Venezuelans wade across the Tachira River to seek food and other aid in Cúcuta, Colombia. Caption and photo © UNHCR/Vincent Tremeau. Photo obtained for use under terms described here.

A fire in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil spread fiercely, destroying
over 100 homes and leaving around 250 people homeless. Among these individuals
were Compassion's six supported children and their families.

Compassion has a child development center in the affected
region, and they are currently preparing to respond, lending aid to the impacted
children and their families.

Compassion said they will contact you if your sponsored
child has been affected.

As Compassion reaches out to these families, pray that they will
have opportunity to share Christ's story of redemption with many people.

Also, pray for the children and families now homeless. As
they have lost many, if not all, of their possessions, ask God to provide for
their every need and send His comfort to them during this devastating time.

Would you like to sponsor a child and help Compassion reach
out to even more of the Sao Paulo community or somewhere else around the world?
Click here.

In the wake of
Hurricane Ida, three days of national mourning, beginning Tuesday, are underway in El Salvador following the
deaths of over 130 people in floods and landslides.

The areas around the capital, San Salvador, and the central
province were hardest hit. Thousands are homeless and large parts of the
country are without electricity and clean water.

Compassion International has many church partners in the
flooded areas. Kathy Redmond says, "We're looking at 21 of our Child
Development Centers that operate out of the church being damaged by this and
so, we're looking at about 6,000 kids who have been affected." 

The United Nations World Food Program says over 10,000
people will need emergency food assistance over the coming days. Compassion teams are responding. An initial aid package of $20,000 disbursed
to get immediate aid on the ground.

This is where Compassion partnerships through the local
church become essential. They're a
functioning network with an infrastructure. 
They can respond quickly to emergencies. Redmond notes that meeting needs in crisis opens many doors. "People within the community have to go
to the local church to get relief. When they go to the local church to get
relief, the message is already there that, 'We're God's hands. We're doing
God's work.'" 

Pray for wisdom for the church leaders as they respond to the
situation. Redmond says, "When
strangers from the church come along and say, 'We're here to help you and we
want to make sure you have everything you need,' it really goes a long way in
ministering to people. It goes much further, I think, than just being a church
that has services."

You can help. The humanitarian aid response is just
the beginning.  Compassion assessment teams
are still making their way to the disaster zones to find out how heavy damages
are.  

We caught up with Compassion International Child Survival
Program specialist Patience Musiime on a couple of home visits today at the
Kitimbwa Child Development Center. 

The families in this project area work as subsistence
farmers earning roughly $11 per month.
Many of them live in houses with
dirt floors, adobe walls and corrugated iron roofs. Indoor
plumbing did not exist in the village we walked to, and the kitchen was outside,
shared by goats, dogs, pigs and chickens.

One family of seven whose home we visited slept in a
one-room building. As our group crowded
into the small, dark warm room with the family, the mother proudly told us what
she had learned with the help of Compassion International.

Before she came to Christ, she explained, she had another
family with five children, but she was no longer with them. When she came to the Kitimbwa area, she
married again and had more children, but that was where things got difficult.

Her new husband contracted polio as a teenager and walks
with a lame leg today. That makes it
very hard for him to earn money on a regular basis or provide for his family.
The mother told our team that when Compassion came to her area, she began to
learn not only how to care for her children better, but also the importance of
hygiene and nutrition.

A regular exposure to the Gospel through a local church
partner also helped her recognize her need for Jesus Christ. As she began her new life as a believer, she
also found that the church was willing to train her so she could earn a better
way of life for her family. 

Over time, she saved enough money digging ditches to
purchase a pig.  That pig will eventually
provide several months' income for her family needs. She credits the love and care Compassion
workers showed her for the brighter future she now sees ahead.

What's more, as a participant in the Child Survival Program
(UGCS27), her youngest child will be part of the sponsorship program when he
turns three. The parents are most
excited about a chance for this child to get an education, good food and a
chance for a better life all around.

Compassion's intervention is the difference between life and
death.  From the most obvious objective of saving a
child's life to teaching mothers a trade, Musiime says their end goal is this:
"First, to give hope for a future spiritually; then seeing a mother commit herself
to the lordship of Christ; and physically, being able to live, being able
to fit in the community that she is in, and even appreciating life." 

Leaders say that for every one Compassion-sponsored child,
ten people come to Christ. It breaks
down to a dollar a day to help a child not only have a fighting chance to
survive, but also to change his culture as he grows up. Click here for more information.