“It truly is modern-day slavery in every sense of the word,” says Greg Kelley with World Mission. “We met people that had been born in these brick kilns that have been there 40 years, members of second and even third-generation families. [Their] slavery was initiated by a debt of maybe as little as $100 of a medical bill that they couldn’t pay. The slave owners pay that debt;  then they own these people.”

Horrible conditions

These people have to live in shacks near the kilns. If they do not make their brick quotas, they are assaulted or starved. Sometimes, the owners even kidnap the daughters of the kiln workers, selling them into the sex trade.

Kelley recounts one of the most harrowing stories from his trip. “A woman approached me, and it was clear that she had a child in her hands – an infant, maybe not even a month old. … She said, ‘Please take my daughter. I can’t bear the thought of her living the life that I have.’”

How to pray

Kelley says World Mission paid one day’s wages to some of the kilns so the slaves could take a day off. “It was like a Christmas celebration because they didn’t have to work. … we were able to gather these people together at these different brick kilns we visited and [share] the Gospel. I would say 90% of these slaves were coming to receive Jesus.”

Pray for the eradication of this practice and that many more kiln workers in Pakistan will encounter Jesus, the One who sets slaves free.

The header photo shows workers in a Pakistan brick kiln. (Daniel Buckles, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Political leaders blame the refugees for many of Lebanon’s problems, especially the financial ones. The national debt is more than 150% of Lebanon’s economic output, or GDP. Yesterday, experts forecast another decline; the International Monetary Fund projects Lebanon’s public debt burden will rise to 180% of GDP by 2023.

Yet, hope remains. Heart for Lebanon’s Tom Atema says Syrian refugees are coming to Christ in droves.

“They’re exploding exponentially. They’re sharing their faith. They’re winning other Syrian Muslims to Jesus Christ.”

Heart for Lebanon helps these new believers become disciple makers. “We have around 600 people in our Bible studies each month [and] we’re running about 300 in our worship services each week, plus Sunday schools,” Atema says.

How to help refugees in Bekaa Valley

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

While positive, the growth described above also introduced a problem; Heart for Lebanon quickly ran out of room at its facilities. “We have outgrown our space twice now already,” Atema confirms.

Right now, Heart for Lebanon is finishing work on a brand new Hope Ministry Center in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. It will provide humanitarian aid for families and Christian education for 250 children, ages 5 – 13. The facility will “officially” open on October 1 – nearly a full year ahead of schedule.

“In the center of the migration highway, we have been able to build – by God’s grace – a 54,000 square foot ministry center,” Atema says.

“It has the purpose of training them (refugees) to such a degree that they will become irresistible ambassadors for Jesus Christ when they return to Syria.”

Heart for Lebanon’s new facility includes a warehouse for packaging aid items, a 250-seat chapel and training room, cafeteria, clinic, dormitories for mission teams, fellowship hall, and distribution area. The Hope Ministry Center will educate over 12,000 refugees each year and equip them with skills needed to overcome poverty.

The center is a critical resource for this beleaguered population. While the Bekaa Valley is considered Lebanon’s most important farming region, it’s also home to approximately 350,000 of the poorest refugees in Lebanon.

There are “800,000 [Syrian] kids in the Bekaa Valley that have no education. If they’re eight years of age or younger, they’ve been born inside Lebanon with no birth certificate,” Atema states.

“We are focusing right now on a lot of those children, and the orphans, to give them a head start with the Gospel.”

Next steps

(Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

The Hope Minister Center is fully funded and increases the ministry’s capacity three-fold. However, with increased capacity comes increased need. “We believe deeply that God gives us facility to facilitate ministry. And, to triple our ministry means we need a lot more resources,” Atema says.

Visit Heart for Lebanon’s website to learn more about specific needs and how you can help.

Most importantly, surround this project in ongoing prayer. Ask God to guide Heart for Lebanon leaders and give them discernment. Find additional prayer needs in the sidebar.

“We need wisdom on how [to] say ‘no’ to a lot of people who really need help, and say ‘yes’ to others,” Atema requests.

“That’s not easy to do when everybody’s in desperate need of the Gospel and of family care.”

Header image courtesy of Heart for Lebanon.

(Capture courtesy AMG International)

Greece (MNN) — There’s never a good time for a crisis, but the Greek fiscal crisis comes at a terrible time. Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International explains, “It’s peak tourist season. You have literally hundreds of thousands of tourists who are in the country right now who also have to be fed.”

Tourism companies say people are cancelling vacations either because they don’t want to get stranded in Greece, or because they can’t get money out of the banks to pay for the vacations. Plus, Ioannidis says the food supply chain has been tightened considerably with the capital controls imposed on Greek banks. “Because Greek companies cannot make payments to suppliers, they cannot import stuff,” he says, which means provisions aren’t coming in to replace what’s been consumed either.

It’s just one more anecdotal situation illustrating how recovery from Greece’s financial disaster will take much longer than anticipated. Basic economics involving supply and demand don’t work anymore. “Because there are capital controls in the country, there is a very lengthy process that takes several days for companies to get permission from the bank of Greece to send money abroad so that suppliers can ship stuff to Greece.” Money paid for goods is at risk of confiscation to pay the IMF debt on which Greece defaulted.

(Capture courtesy AMG International)

For the next couple of days, says Ioannidis, “Merchants are reporting that they have things that can be supplied until the end of the week. But starting next week, they will be dealing with shortages.”

The longer the banks stay closed, the more exponential the damage. Even with just a few days of closure, “There is going to be a long term effect that is going to mean probably hundreds of thousands of layoffs in the private sector because of this. Companies cannot function with the capital controls that are in place.”

The layoffs will only magnify the hole left by the next domino to fall, setting into motion a vicious cycle, Ioannidis adds. “The prediction is that regardless of what happens with the banks, or how quickly they open, because it is likely that the capital controls will remain in place for a while, there will be a lot of job losses in the private sectors. That means less tax revenue for the government.”

With each day the economy is on hold, the damage worsens. When Greece started the bailout process in January, there was a trade funding gap of a billion. In the five months that followed, the gap grew to eight billion euros. Today, worsened by the capital controls, the gap has widened to 12 billion. How do you recover from that? The short answer is: you don’t. “Under the best-case scenario–let’s say there is an agreement tonight: it’s going to be years before things recover from where we started back in January,” explains Ioannidis.

With things as constipated as they are in the economy, how are any of AMG’s other ministries still functioning? Their hospital has a stockpile of medicine. Pharmaceutical companies have promised to keep supply lines as open as possible. What about the Logos Bookstores? They’re still open because AMG anticipated the financial disruption. They paid staffers a monthly salary, so the store employees are paid up through the end of the month. Good thing, too. “Basically, the market is dead right now. Nobody is buying anything unless it is an absolute necessity for something to be bought. That’s affecting the operation of places like [AMG] book stores, which are partially self-supported.” However, their bookstores also offer typing and copying services. That means customers are still coming in.

(Capture courtesy AMG International)

From an earlier writing, in one bookstore in Bolos, a coworker named Costas (who came from Albania and came to know the Lord in Greece) shared about the people who just got in the store in order to make a photocopy.

“It was a lady by the name of Vicky coming from a remote village of Pilio mountain. She had lost her husband, and she was almost depressed. I shared the Gospel and gave her our magazine The Voice of the Gospel. She came back after a month, saying, ‘I know I did not come here by accident. God brought me here in order to change my life!’”

In the right place, at right time. Ioannidis confirms, “We do have wonderful opportunities to engage them in discussion and to share with them about Jesus and about how [He] is the answer to everyone’s problem.”

What now? Greece is still trying to float proposals that the European community will accept. Ioannidis says, “Until there is an agreement and there is more clarity on how the banks are going to function, everything that everybody says is mere speculation.” There is one thing you can do to come alongside AMG’s ministry team in Greece right now. You can pray. Pray for a quick resolution and for the banks to reopen. He adds, for their team, “Pray for strength. Pray for wisdom. As you might understand, this is a very stressful situation for the local churches, for the local leaders of ministries. This is creating a lot of stress.”

Ask God to give His peace, His strength and His wisdom as AMG Greece deals day to day with a situation that is completely unpredictable.

(Photo courtesy AMG International)

Greece (MNN) — Greece’s drift toward the abyss of default was slowed in the hours after missing a major payment on an International Monetary Fund bailout loan.

The immediate consequences were swift and painful. Credit agencies lowered the credit rating for Greece to junk bond status. It also lost access to the European bailout loans that have helped keep it solvent.

Despite rhetoric insisting they wouldn’t budge on accepting bailout terms, it was the threat of collapse that forced Greece to offer concessions to creditor demands for a new bailout package. Germany froze talks until the outcome of Sunday’s referendum is revealed. From Greece, Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International explains that the vote originally was to decide on accepting bailout terms. With that package no longer on the table, “It really is a vote of whether people want to stay in the Eurozone or exit the Eurozone and go on a different path. That is, in essence, what’s happening, according to what European leaders are saying.”

There are a few days before that question is put to vote. With banks closed, Ioannidis says, “Tourist agencies that operate out of the U.S. and who pay Greek tour operators, they’re not making the payments because part of the default process is that any assets that are due to Greece can be confiscated and be used for payment for the International Monetary Fund.”

(Photo courtesy AMG International)

That’s one version of the impact on small business. Another would be that “there are already shortages in Greece in some areas. There’s a shortage of medicine in hospitals. In businesses here, a lot of them are not accepting credit cards. They want payment in cash because the banks are closed and they cannot get payment.” The shuttered banks are constant reminders of the uncharted waters Greece is attempting to navigate. Ioannidis says, “People continue to hope that there will be some agreement to restore the situation to some ‘normalcy,’ but that is unlikely to happen until there is a referendum (that’s scheduled for this Sunday).”

(Photo courtesy AMG International)

Despite outside support, or maybe because of it, AMG missionaries are walking on the same path as everyone else. struggling with the impact of shortages and lack of cash. Ioannidis explains, “It is impossible to pay anybody, including anybody that is employed by ministries, because the banks are closed. So there are a lot of people that are not able to get any income or any money out of the banks.”

Foreign funds coming in require more paper work, but all that’s a moot point if you can’t access anything through the banks anyway. In the first few days, people are surviving on their cash reserves and what stores they have at home. However, warns Ioannidis, “Depending on how long this bank closure is and if there is a negative vote in the referendum that is taking place Sunday, there is a likelihood that the banks will stay closed through a much longer period of time.”

Formulating a response is premature since no one knows how to fund it. “Pray for wisdom for our workers, that God will intervene, and that He will protect His ministry and will continue to provide for an opportunity to show God’s love here.”

Ioannidis also asks that you would pray that their co-workers would have clear vision and confidence in God’s direction. “Pray that they will be able to share Christ’s love with people around them; that their needs will be provided for as they provide for the needs of others.”

The alternative could be catastrophic.

Greece is one of 19 countries that share the euro. It means that goods and services can go across borders without changing currency. If Greece can’t renegotiate its debt, it could be forced out of the Eurozone.

A default would mean at least couple of firsts: (1) it’s the largest single overdue payment in IMF history, ( 2) as well as the first advanced economy to default in IMF’s 70-year history. As far as defaults go, Greece would join Afghanistan, Haiti, and Zimbabwe in that distinction, although Afghanistan and Haiti were both dealing with major insurgencies at the time.

In an effort to prevent impending default, Greece also requested a short-term extension of the current bailout program. However, any bailout would be attached to stiff reforms from creditors. At the same time, the country is set to vote Sunday on proposals from the country’s creditors.

(Photo courtesy AMG International/Greece)

How this is fiscal showdown hitting the average citizen? Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International is in Greece this week. He says, “The immediate reaction to these developments was for the Greek people to be afraid of what’s happening when it became apparent that the negotiations would fail.” Hours before the banks closed, “there were long lines at ATMs around the country. A lot of them ran dry, and then everything closed down.” That sparked other fears, he says. “There was also widespread fear of basic necessities running out. Gas stations around the country ran out of gas. There was a run, also, on supermarkets, and a lot of shelves were empty.”

Pensioners were caught off-guard. Many could not withdraw their pensions from the banks for living expenses. Since they have the thinnest margin of survival, Greece will re-open 1,000 bank branches until the end of the week to cater to pensioners who do not use cash cards for automated teller machines. For everyone else, capital controls apply. “Next week, the banks will open, but still there will be a 60-Euro-per-day limit on what they can withdraw.”

Plus, the state treasury is running out of money. “Depending on how the IMF proceeds, it will basically make Greece formally bankrupt, and that will create further problems.” Since nobody knows what will actually happen, everything is in limbo. That’s problematic for missionaries who get their support from overseas. With the banks closed and no funds moving anywhere, “All the businesses will be affected, all the ministries. St. Luke’s [Hospital] will be affected because most transactions between businesses will have to go through special procedures [and] permissions from the Greek Central Bank.”

Ioannidis says some businesses put their employees on furlough. Others are closing their doors because “they cannot get supplies from abroad. Foreign suppliers are demanding payment up front. They will not give credit.” It’s adding to the snowball effect. Incredibly, he adds that “as people have gotten desperate, and as this crisis leaves them–they just don’t know what to do–when they are presented with the Gospel, there is a lot better response these days.”

As the crisis has unfolded, AMG’s ministry arms have felt the weight of need increase. Local churches have opened their doors as relief stations. “We pray that as we continue to help people at the point of their needs, with basic stuff like food, clothing (at St. Luke’s hospital, by providing medical care, as the government’s health system has continued to collapse), that we will continue to have the opportunity to share the Good News.”

The concerns in Greece affect the expatriates there, too. Ask God to give them strength and wisdom for the days ahead.

Because there’s support coming from AMG, it has helped keep the ministry moving. However, with such a murky future for Greece, “We want people to pray that many hearts will be touched, that God will take this disaster here and turn it into an opportunity to touch lives, to draw lives to Him, and that they will come to know Him as Savior.”

(Photo courtesy AMG International/Greece)

Greece (MNN) — Greece’s economic troubles are no secret. In 2009, the country sought an emergency bail-out to stay solvent.

Years of hard cost-cutting measures followed. And now, five years later, the Greek people have had enough. With unemployment at 25% (youth unemployment is closer to 60%), minimum wages falling, taxes rising, and pensions being squeezed, people don’t want to deal with austerity any more. They rebelled in last month’s elections.

The new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, came to power promising an end to austerity, a raise in minimum wages, preserve pensions, and promising that their suffering would end quickly. Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International says, “He’s been just elected, and so people are supporting him and they’re feeling nationalistic pride; so even the church people are supporting him.”

His conundrum: in order for him to fulfill his campaign promises, the European Union has to provide additional funding for Greece–but they’re not willing to fund deficits for the country. “If he insists on what he wants to do, he’s going to basically run out of money. The European Union is going to refuse to lend him anymore. Greece will not have any liquidity.”

Ioannidis says the next few days are critical.
“There is a critical meeting that is taking place on Wednesday, the 11th of February, in which Greece is supposed to present a plan of what it is proposing. And then there is supposed to be an agreement on the future direction for Greece on the 16th of February.” However, with the way Tsipras remains defiant, “If there is no agreement, potentially Greece can run out of money by the 28th of February. And then nobody knows what will happen after that.”

Tsipras has also promised that he won’t endanger Greece’s presence in the Eurozone, but, notes Ioannidis, it’s hard to see how he’s going to keep all his promises and stay within the Euro. “People’s deposits in the bank will be frozen; the banks will not be able to give people whatever they have in their bank accounts. There’s going to be a devastating time for Greece, and the end result will be that Greece has to exit the Euro.” A Greek exit will leave the European Central Bank holding billions of dollars of Greek debt. That could, in turn, devalue the Euro, create global cash flow problems, and lead to investor troubles.

(Photo courtesy Wikipedia)

On another front, Tsipras is an atheist. Can he be trusted? “He’s also said in the past that he’s going to tax the property of the Church, so things may not be so rosy if he proceeds and makes good on those promises.”

With the future of Greece so uncertain, Ioannidis says prayer is appreciated. It has been what has upheld an exhausted staff. God is working because people are open to the Gospel now. “We see that throughout our ministries. We see that through our St. Luke’s Hospital in Thessaloniki, where we actually have record numbers of patients as the quality of government healthcare has gone down.”

Uncertainty keeps people on edge and nervous. As the world watches the next few days, Ioannidis asks, “Pray that God will intervene, that God will continue to draw people to Him, that the churches and the ministries would be supported. Also, as a ministry, we need financial support as we continue to provide for people that have financial needs.” Ultimately, “Regardless of what happens in the country, whatever the outcome is, [pray] that God will protect His people, that God will protect the ministries that are there and will continue to use them for His glory.”

Leaders of the struggling governing coalition were told to cut deeper, or risk losing vital rescue loans. Jenks says, "There is concern that there will have to be layoffs and things in the government, which is a considerable problem for the unions and for the politicians there."

The proposal laid on the table before Greece: over the next two years, employers were to increase staff working hours up to 78 hours a week, a reduction in redundancy notice periods from the current 4-6 months, and an increase in retirement age to 67 from 65.

The creditors are demanding additional cuts of nearly 12 billion Euro, and the cycle continues. "They're deeply in debt and trying to borrow more money or extend the terms of the loan that they already have, and the rest of Europe is running out of patience." The government faces a potential collapse even as there are more questions about whether or not a withdrawal from the Eurozone equals default or not.

Unemployment has reached 23%, with youth unemployment approaching 50%. About 500 people are losing their jobs everyday, so more than 14,000 new unemployed people entering this dreadful stage of life every month stay practically helpless and hopeless. Jenks says, "In the age group 18-25, more than half of the young adults are out of work. As it stretches out for a longer and longer period of time, the young people–the ones most likely to take to the streets and to be active in protests–are just very, very unhappy."

It seems like round after round of cuts have come until there's nothing left to cut. Many families have seen both parents lose their jobs, and suffering is widespread. Even those who still have jobs have seen their salaries decrease dramatically. Homelessness is rampant.

Jenks says they're hit on two fronts. First, "There are many refugees in the country, illegally, who are being supported by the government, but also by the churches, by Christians there; and the need is growing all the time." Second, they run a large hospital in Thessaloniki. State-run hospitals are running on fumes, if they're running at all. Although the situation is better at the privately-run St. Luke's, Jenks says, "The concern is [regarding] the claims that are submitted to the insurance companies: the money comes from these loans that are coming from the European Union, so we watch this news very closely."

Staffed with 450, the hospital helps 2,200 people every month. They don't turn people away because there aren't alternatives. However, the government hasn't paid St. Luke's for services rendered for nearly a year, which means hospital vendors aren't getting paid on time, either. The snowball effect has been troubling for the hospital, although a credit line and donations eased the crunch a bit. Will the doors stay open? "It just is a month-by-month issue of how much comes in from the government. Many times, those claims that we've made are way past 'normal' time frames."

Pray. Ministry leaders are stressed all the time. There is no immediate relief from the grinding poverty and the weight of the uncertainties and anger. However, because this is true, "People continue to turn an open ear to things that are spiritual. It seems that as people are faced with these financial crises, they're more willing to turn away from some of their more secular, humanistic tendencies and listen to things that are more spiritual. They're certainly willing to have people pray with them."

It's an incredibly difficult time for Greece, and the AMG team is often overwhelmed by the need, yet they do their best to share God's love. Please pray for strength and wisdom for them, as well as for the resources to provide help to those who truly need it.

Many report that Greece leaving the Euro Zone would be an economic homicide of the European Union. But Cornerstone University professor and Business Division Chair Dr. Brad Stamm has a different perspective: "What's bad for Greece might actually be good for the rest of the European Union."

Within the present situation, Greece is costing the EU millions. Economically-sound Germany, in particular, has been carrying the EU's struggling nations on its back. Getting rid of Greece could help shed some dead weight.

Stamm says of Greece, "You're hurting the Euro Zone. You're dragging down the overall income of the country. You've got incredibly high unemployment of over 20%. You've got interest rates of 30%. So for Europe as a whole, it might be a good thing."

If Sunday's vote results in a win by a party opposed to the austerities of a bail-out, Stamm says, the rest of the Euro Zone will likely be okay. There is concern that other nations like Italy or Spain will follow in Greece's footsteps if they pull away from the EU, but Stamm says there seems to be an unspoken "wait and see" policy in place among other struggling countries.

"If this turns out to be good for Greece, others will follow. If this turns out to be bad for Greece, they're going to do what they can to stay in the European Union, to continue using the Euro," says Stamm.

Although, even the depreciation of the Euro could be a good thing for struggling missionaries.

"The whole issue has caused the Euro to decline," says Stamm. "Most people expect it could go to $1.19, maybe even $1.15 by the first of next year. In that sense, European goods become cheaper. Ministries might actually be able to operate at a lower expense."

A lot of good could potentially come for outsiders from a Greek withdrawal. Of course, for ministries who remain in Greece like AMG International and Operation Mobilization, no outcome will be pain-free.

"Unless you're in Greece itself, I don't think this is going to negatively affect those other countries. If you're in Greece," notes Stamm, "then I would expect the amount of civil unrest to increase. I would expect there to be large fluctuations in currency. And we can expect continued high unemployment and interest rates of 30% or more, which makes it virtually impossible to borrow for anything."

Whatever is to come, the greatest need is for prayer. Pray for those struggling in Greece. Pray for wise international decisions. And pray that through all of this, people would come to see that neither money nor man are worth worshiping, but only the Living God.

Schools, government offices and even portions of hospitals were closed yesterday when thousands of air traffic controllers, tax workers, teachers, hospital staff, public transport workers, police and other emergencies refused to go into work in protest of the Greek government's new wave of tax increases and job cuts.

"The latest round of measures the Greek government has taken has been to impose an additional tax on Greek households based on the size of the property that the Greek people have," says Tasos Ioannidis with AMG International. "This extra tax is the sixth one that has been imposed on them in the last year."

Even more off-putting to the general population, perhaps, is the severe job cuts that have been announced. "They are terminating approximately 30,000 public sector employees this year," says Ioannidis.

It's becoming more than Greek citizens can bear. Ioannidis says the unemployment rate has reached 15%. Those that still have jobs have seen their wages sliced. People had hoped the recession would have ended by now, and they are fed up.

"The Greek people understand that they have to make sacrifices, but this has been going on for two years now, and they are not seeing any reversal," explains Ioannidis.

The debt crisis in Greece continues to be of concern to other European Union countries. Defaults on debt will mainly affect European banks. The BBC reports that Italy's credit rating was diminished on Tuesday as well.

In the meantime, AMG's St. Luke's Hospital continues to struggle. All Greeks are insured by the government for medical needs, says Ioannidis, but the financially-hurting government is slow on paying what they owe. The timing is regrettable, as many more Grecians are coming to St. Luke's since public healthcare is now frequently unreliable.

AMG has a team landing in Greece today. But their team is not in the nation to help with the debt crisis or even the hospital, but rather to help with its effects. The 10-day trip will serve as an opportunity to train pastors and Christian workers, as well as to minister to people in a soup kitchen and engage in evangelistic activity. The trained pastors and workers hopefully will be able to better share Christ's love to a hurting nation when the training is over.

And people are ready to listen. Many Greeks are desperate for hope and are open to Christ at this time. St. Luke's staff members are able to share the Gospel with those who enter, as will the AMG team. Pray for all of these outreaches to effectively invite the Greek people into a relationship with Christ.

The primary need, currently, is prayer; you can also help financially by sending gifts to AMG in order to provide for Greeks' necessities. To give, click here.

The significant rise comes as a blow to college students and parents everywhere, but years down the road, consequences may also strike an unintended victim: Christian ministry.

Jason Woolford, executive director for Christian Resources International, says the declining debt statuses of Americans worldwide could pose a serious problems for ministries like CRI.

CRI gets a majority of their support from those that are 65 years old and older. The generation gives generously to help CRI distribute Bibles, Christian literature and even full libraries to believers in need around the world. As debt continues to strangle the nation though, Woolford laments, "This next generation is not looking like it's going to have the means to do that."

Meanwhile, other concerns have risen in regard to generational differences in materialism.

"This is a generation that is much different than the one that's come before us," Woolford says. "These were people who served in multiple wars, who gave of their time, their life, their money. Now we have a newer generation that is more focused on themselves and things that they can get."

If the trend doesn't reverse, ministries could be in trouble within the next 10 or 15 years. The best hope for change is founded in biblical truth: "That they understand that the blessing comes from giving something away from yourself in hopes that somebody might be saved or learn about the Lord."

"My hope and my prayer is that we can conserve this legacy that has been left from great men and women of the past," adds Woolford.

Pray that this younger generation would grab a hold of God's truths, vision for missions, and expectation for good stewardship. Pray that God would protect the ministries that serve Him.

If anyone feels compelled right now to learn more about CRI or give to CRI, there are several ways to do so. Recently, a donor even ordered books from a publisher and had them sent directly to the CRI headquarters. Bare your bookshelf or get creative. Learn more at cribooks.org.