“We’re very glad to serve there because it’s untouched. They would never see a doctor there,” says MAF’s Dave LePoidevin. “The more difficult cases we fly back to Nampula, the big city where we’re based.”

(Photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique)

MozMed flights serve communities in the Niassa National Reserve, a vast, underdeveloped region of Mozambique where healthcare access is nearly nonexistent. MAF pilots fly teams of Christian doctors to these isolated villages, partnering with Bethesda Mission and local conservation groups that help maintain the airstrips.

However, the service had to be suspended for most of the past year. LePoidevin explains, “For quite some years, we’ve had the insurgents there — a branch of ISIS — and so they’ve been moving in from the north and attacking there. That’s been a constant threat, and we were always watching, ‘Is it safe to fly where we want to fly?’”

The danger only escalated when national elections last October brought political unrest.

“People wanting to make a statement or insurgents, they would just love to see a burning airplane,” says LePoidevin. “So we got kind of nervous that we might be a target, so we pulled the airplane out.”

(Photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique)

Now that conditions have improved, MAF has returned to the skies — carrying both medicine and Christ’s compassion.

LePoidevin says, “We can love the people with medical help. Even small diseases or wounds or difficult pregnancies or something like that, [which] would be relatively small for us, is a big deal for them there.”

The Niassa region is predominantly Muslim and animist, and direct evangelism is difficult. Still, LePoidevin says the love of Christ can be felt in every flight.

“We’re focusing on material needs and medical needs, and we’re glad to be doing that,” he says. “Nearby here, we have had some opportunities to show the Jesus film…. Some went well, some not so well with objection from the local Muslim community. So we’re focusing on loving our neighbors here.”

Pray for continued safety as MAF flies MozMed teams into Mozambique’s conflict-affected north. Ask God to open hearts among Muslim and animist communities to the hope of Christ.

“If anybody would pray for us in our work in this area in the north, to find opportunities to show Jesus in a respectful and kind way, we would appreciate your prayers for that.”

Header photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique.

Luke Perkins, president of Crossworld, says that working professionals are often welcome where missionaries are not.

“We’re finding in many of the places that have been closed, they are open to people who have some kind of profession or some kind of skill,” says Perkins.

Over the last 15 years, Crossworld has specialized in sending skilled workers to become cross-cultural disciple makers. Some of the areas where Crossworld has found opportunities are in places of Central Asia and the Middle East where many people may never meet a Christian let alone hear about Jesus.

“If we’re really going to move the needle on reaching the unreached and reaching the unengaged, we’ve got to be able to deploy non-traditional, what we would call at Crossworld ‘marketplace’ workers,” says Perkins.

“The sacred, secular divide that has grown over the years in church history really shouldn’t be there to begin with. It’s all sacred. Work itself is sacred and valuable, and God has designed it.”

Crossworld recently sent a man to work for an IT company and a woman to a hospital, both in unreached areas. After workers arrive to their new context, the ministry then provides ongoing support to thrive and make disciples. From language learning to spiritual health, Crossworld workers receive all they need to succeed.

“The complexity of living cross culturally is not something to be taken lightly,” says Perkins. “A lot of people have gotten hurt even, emotionally and in other ways, by trying to do that on their own, or trying to do that with their family on their own.

“We want people to be able to do that in a healthy way and bear good fruit.”

Pray for more workers to go where the Gospel is needed. Learn how you can get involved at Crossworld.org.

Header photo courtesy of National Cancer Institute via Unsplash.

“Uganda has one of the lowest nurse-to-patient [ratios] in the world; there’s one [nurse] for every 11,000 patients. [It] also has one of the lowest doctor-to-patient [ratios,]” AMG International’s Brian Dennett says.

AMG’s Bugongi College of Nursing and Midwifery seeks to fill the healthcare void in Uganda. “We now have the capacity to train 250 nursing students,” Dennett says.

“We are not just training them to be expert nurses. We’re also training them to share their faith at a time when people need hope.”

The school uses top-of-the-line equipment like electronic dummy patients. A Christ-centered curriculum prepares students to follow in the footsteps of the Great Physician.

“It was a joy to meet these nurses. Quite a number of them were former sponsored children from our schools all over Uganda,” Dennett says.

The Bugongi College of Nursing and Midwifery trains nursing students in a Christ-centered environment to enhance good values, knowledge, and excellency.
(Photo, caption courtesy of AMG International)

One recent graduate overcame several trials to fulfill a God-given calling.

“We met a young man who was a sponsored child from a very tough family situation. Ever since he was a young boy, he had dreamed of being a health professional,” Dennett says.

Now, he’s “equipped to go and care for the sick and also to show God’s love to patients.”

Support from people like you makes it possible.

“We need all the help we can get in providing scholarships for the students,” Dennett says.

Header and story images courtesy of AMG International.

Protests have raged across Iran since September. The morality police accosted a young woman for not wearing the hijab correctly, and she later died in custody.

Denise Godwin with International Media Ministries (IMM) remains skeptical. “Just a couple of weeks ago, they started killing young people who have protested. Iran has a history of saying what the international community wants to hear. And that’s regarding freedom. That’s regarding politics and other things to get what they want.”

Iranian Christians

Despite the danger, Christians are finding ways to help. Godwin says, “I know there are some organizations who are sending Iranian doctors and nurses or people who can get inside the country in to help protesters who are being injured.”

“Because if they go to the hospital, they’re arrested and not treated.”

About 60 percent of people in Iran are under 35. They know how to use social media and circumvent government restrictions. Pray many will hear about Jesus through these channels. Some will encounter IMM dramas that portray biblical stories through film.

As the Islamic government tries to crack down on protests, more and more Iranians are abandoning Islam. Godwin says, “In a country that declares itself 99 percent Islamic, only around 30 to 35 percent will claim Islam. So we’ve got a large culture of people who are not satisfied with the religion and the official storyline that’s been given to them.”

Pray for the Christians helping protesters in Jesus’ name. Godwin says, “They’re dealing with a crafty government that will do one thing and says another to the world at large.”

The header photo shows a protest at a university in Iran. (Photo courtesy of Darafsh, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

The government denies any COVID-19 outbreaks, but independent doctors see countless people sick and thousands of deaths. The Catholic Church has also reported the deaths of several priests from COVID-19. Most people in Nicaragua know someone who has been sick. The vaccinations process has only recently picked up, as the government hopes to vaccinate 32% of the population by October.

Discipleship conference

Sammy Tippit recently held an online conference to encourage Nicaraguan Christians. “It was just a tremendous blessing. The pastors were really excited. In fact, what they want to do is start discipleship and leadership training, online through Zoom with the pastors in the country.”

But not everyone in Nicaragua has good internet access. That’s where Sammy Tippit Ministries’ new app comes into play. Tippit says, “What we’re doing is we’re going to be putting the whole conference on the app, so that they can take those videos and show to their whole churches for the ones who were not able to access it online. We’re trying to build something that would help them during this time of the pandemic.”

Tippit says he wants to expand this work in Nicaragua. “After the end of the year, we’re hoping to open it up to the rest of Latin America and train Spanish-speaking pastors and leaders in this whole area of discipleship and evangelism.”

The app is now available in Spanish. Search for the Sammy Tippit Discipleship App at Google Play or the Apple App Store.

Ask God to strengthen the Nicaraguan Church.

Header photo courtesy of Kaufdex from Pixabay.

“We haven’t done as much testing as would be preferred,” says Matthew Monson, manager of Mission Aviation Fellowship Lesotho. “South Africa is sort of our temperature gauge of what is going on in Lesotho, and South Africa was having definitely some explosive cases where things were expanding and growing so they went into lockdown. Shortly after that, Lesotho followed.”

Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has the country on lockdown until May 5 and deployed the military to “restore order” in the capital, Maseru. The government also plans to release mass coronavirus screening and testing in high-risk areas.

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Monson with Mission Aviation Fellowship Lesotho)

MAF serves Lesotho by flying into remote areas with medical, physical, and spiritual aid. A big part of MAF’s work in the country includes the Lesotho Flying Doctor Service which supports clinics and hospitals in hard-to-reach areas, mostly by shuttling doctors and nurses to and from these locations.

Due to the current lockdown, MAF has suspended normal day-to-day flight operations.

MAF pilot Grant Strugnell explains, “We’d love to be flying out every day to take nurses from the city into the mountains. But we’ve also just got to stop ourselves and think what harm that could do if we’re taking infected people out to these villages where it could be a village of 100 people or something that would never be infected if it wasn’t for people coming from the outside.”

However, Monson says they are still flying code ones, “which is a medical emergency — someone that a lot of times could be a pregnant woman who’s in labor and that’s not going as planned. So we’re able to take them from a facility that doesn’t have the necessary equipment or ability and transport them quickly to a facility that can care for them.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship Lesotho)

MAF’s international staff had the chance to leave, knowing that if they stayed, they may not get another chance to get out of the country for several months.

But everyone with MAF stayed to continue serving as the hands and feet of Christ in these uncertain times. And others have noticed. 

For example, Monson says, “I went to the hangar to grab some things and I got into a discussion with some military guys and they’re just amazed. ‘Why are you still here? Isn’t your country better?’ I get to explain essentially what God has called us to, explain the Gospel of what He’s done in our lives and why we choose to stay — not because we’re thinking about ourselves, but because of the love that we want to show people that God has given us to show.”

If COVID-19 comes to Lesotho, MAF could start coordinating with the government to fly infected patients or medical personnel working with coronavirus cases. If so, they will need more personal protective equipment to carry out these flights.

Please pray for the health and safety of MAF pilots, mechanics, and staff in Lesotho, especially as they explore assisting with potential future COVID-19 medical needs.

A village in the mountains of Lesotho. (Photo courtesy of Pixabay)

“Something that just the country of Lesotho could really use prayer for is that the decisions to lock down and the steps that the country has made so far to protect itself against COVID would be successful,” Monson says. “If COVID came into the country with full force and began to spread, there would be some challenges in the medical sector and also just challenges with the general population’s health status as being high-risk.”

Also, pray encouragement for the nurses and doctors working in Lesotho’s remote regions with little support. Strugnell says, “I’m just still amazed that we fly into these places and there’s a clinic there and there are nurses there who, I don’t know what they’re being paid, but it can’t be enough to justify the kind of work that they’re doing…. It’s not something that should be overlooked. They do a good job.”

Finally, you can be a tangible encouragement to the people of Lesotho by coming alongside MAF! You can financially support MAF here.

Monson reflects, “It’s just a blessing to be able to see where the Lord is leading us…because God is working and we get to see Him work in us and through us every day. So it’s just an exciting thing to get to highlight where God is being glorified through our work.”

Header photo courtesy of Angelo Moleele via Unsplash.

In the current COVID-19 crisis, each hospital is approaching the situation differently. Some say it’s first-come, first-served when it comes to life-sustaining ventilators. Others are directing the most resources towards patients who have the best chance of survival. Still others are taking additional factors into account such as how many children a patient has or the essential nature of a patient’s occupation.

(Photo courtesy of Jonathan Borba via Unsplash)

Such decisions are striking different moral chords, and no one envies the agonizing situations these doctors and other frontline workers never wanted to face.

But it is also making society as a whole examine the broader question: What determines the worth and value of a human life?

Eric Verstraete, president and CEO of Life Matters Worldwide has a few thoughts: “At the end of the day, life comes from God, life starts at conception, and life is valued all the way until natural death. That’s what we believe.

“Whether we’re old or we’re young, we all are made completely in the image of God. That’s where we gain our value — not from our skills or from our abilities. Are those skills and abilities that people have, are they coveted at different times in our history and different times in our world? Absolutely. But that does not make someone more or less valuable.”

In the midst of a pandemic, what does it mean for believers to be the Church and affirm the value of life at this time?

“I saw one meme the other day that says, ‘The churches aren’t empty. The Church has just been deployed,’” Verstraete says. “I loved that statement because, yes, we can’t be meeting together but I think…true intentionality works within the Church to be able to build those relationships so that people don’t have to live in fear.”

Ultimately, this is a rare opportunity for the Church to reach out and show people their value in Christ.

“We can be reaching out to the people…who we know are the more vulnerable people. If someone needs them to go and get some groceries for them and just leave it on their front doorstep so that they can have what they need, that’s important; reaching out through video chats or even just cards or phone calls.”

Verstraete knows from experience how important it is at this time to be intentional with relationships. “My mom is in a senior living facility that’s basically on lockdown and I know that we try to video call with her a couple of times a week if we can. She loves that. So I think it’s trying to stay as connected as we possibly can to show people how important they are in our lives.

“I think this intentionality that we’re forced to have right now will make the congregational gatherings…much sweeter because of the roots that are being developed from this forced intentionality that we are having right now as the Body of Christ.”

Please pray for people who are solitary shut-ins to still feel connected and loved. Ask the Lord to be near families and friends who have a loved one in the hospital. Pray for people to turn to Jesus in this crisis.

Verstraete also asks, “Pray for those who are on the front lines. We pray for the doctors and the nurses who are on the front lines right now because this is an army that’s getting tired right now. So we can be praying for them.”

Click here to learn more about Life Matters Worldwide.

Header photo courtesy of Marcelo Leal via Unsplash.

This move comes on the heels of the United State’s largest abortion restriction that Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed into law last week. The law bans abortions in all cases except when the mother’s life is at risk.

Alabama Capitol Building (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Alabama is leading the charge for the pro-life movement as legislators everywhere brace for the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade.

In light of this, some states like Vermont, New York, and Nevada are rushing to strip away abortion infringements.

Other states such as Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio are moving to position themselves on the side of life, passing bills to ban abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected as early as six weeks.

Those who bemoan the surge of pro-life legislation claim that cutting off abortion access is stripping away women’s rights to bodily autonomy.

However, as Life Matters Worldwide’s President Eric Verstraete points out, there is more than one body in the abortion conversation.

“Many people say, ‘Well, what about the rights of women?’ Well, I go back to say, ‘What about the right of that young baby girl in the womb? What about her rights? If you’re so for women’s rights, what about that baby girl’s life and where do her rights come in?’”

Abortion Morality and Human Rights

The abortion topic has been painted in many different lights. It has been portrayed as a political issue — a useful tool for politicians seeking re-election and campaign funding, depending on the side they pander to.

It has also been painted as a religious issue. Pro-life advocates are often depicted merely as religious zealots who want to impose their faith on others.

But abortion isn’t just a political issue or a religious issue. The abortion conversation is much broader than these smokescreens of stereotypical write-offs. And being pro-life is not limited to faith circles and political affiliations.

“At the basic idea, abortion is a moral issue. When does life begin?… We are all the human race. The real question [that] needs to come is, when do those babies that are in the womb, when do they become a part of the human race?”

The answer to that question, “When does life begin?” is unequivocally affirmed by the scientific community here, here, and here that human life begins at conception.

Verstraete says in the midst of the abortion conversation, the Church has an opportunity to share the love of Christ through pro-life ministries.

“We as believers, we believe that every single one of those babies, every single person, everybody as a part of the human race is imprinted with the image of God. That’s where we in our faith can take it one step farther to say, ‘Because we all are within the image of God, we therefore need to honor that image of God no matter where that part of the human race exists — whether it’s in the womb, whether it’s outside of the womb, [or] whether…it’s at the end of life.’

“So as a part of the human race, yes, it’s a moral issue. For those of us who are believers, that human race component also has with it the image of God component, and we need to honor that image of God no matter where it falls in the human life spectrum.”

An Opportunity for the Church

The pro-choice camp claims abortion is a reasonable and even loving approach for pregnant women in crisis situations. Verstraete says the truly loving approach is giving both mother and baby the support they need, whatever their circumstances.

“The focus can’t just be on a law,” says Verstraete. “It has to be on the actions of how do we surround people with love, encouragement, and support to help them make the decisions in these really difficult times. I can’t imagine what some of these women and men are going through. We need to come along and support them. That needs to happen way beyond any bill or legislation that is put into order.”

The Church has a unique opportunity here to be the hands and feet of Jesus by being His agents of love to women and men facing unplanned pregnancies or who are post-abortive.

Pro-life Christians are already doing a lot to support families and children in crisis. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it will be a call to the Church to step up even more.

Verstraete says the stories of these women and men who have suffered under the abortion agenda may even be the tipping point to one day making abortion unthinkable in our culture.

“I think…stripping the shame away from these voices and giving them encouragement to tell their story will create such a tidal wave of support for people who are actually considering abortion that I think that’s going to be the biggest tool to begin to end abortion in our country — those post-abortive folks, both men and women, rising up to tell their story to bring this stuff out of the dark into the light.”

To learn more about Life Matters Worldwide’s ministry, click here!

If you’re interested in alternatives to abortion where you will be met with compassion and support, click here!

Header photo courtesy of H. Hach via Pixabay.

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.

Tom Lothamer with Life Matters Worldwide says, specifically, the prayer warriors with 40 Days for Life are “praying for those going in for their [abortion] services, praying for the staff, and especially for the doctors who are performing abortions and asking God to change their minds about this…and choosing life. But also [they are] asking God to rid our communities of abortion. They do that with a constant vigil, 24-7 prayer for 40 days.”

(Photo courtesy of John Pisciotta via Flickr under Creative Commons License)

The 40 Days for Life movement began in 2007 and they’ve seen God do amazing things through their prayers and presence. According to their website, over 13,600 lives have been saved from abortion, 156 abortion workers have quit, and 90 abortion clinics have closed since the movement began.

The heart of this campaign is to peacefully and lovingly bring together the Body of Christ in prayer for God to move society from a culture of death to a culture of life and bring an end to abortion.

Occasionally, 40 Days for Life’s peaceful vigils are met with opposition. “Sometimes people go by and they’re not very happy with the prayer warriors so they’ll honk their horns or they’ll say something maybe nasty,” says Lothamer. “This year too in Grand Rapids we’ve had the group Antifa — which basically stands for anti-fascists, it’s kind of a radical political group — and they just come and they don’t necessarily do anything to the people who are praying, but they’re just there with their…masks in all black and they’re just there to intimidate and make them feel uncomfortable.

“But the people that are praying, we have the Holy Spirit of God who is giving us the power to not notice that so much but to continue their prayers.”

These prayer warriors are also available to speak with people outside of the clinics, and it’s from these encouraging conversations that hearts are encouraged towards life.

“A number of times, one of the prayer warriors will have a chance to actually connect with a client going in [the abortion clinic] and be able to talk to them and they’ll try to encourage them saying there are other options. In fact, if you wish, we can take you over to the local pregnancy center and you can get an ultrasound and you can get counseling for yourself. There’s a number of times people will take them up on that. Other times, they’ll go in and then they’ll come back out and take them up on that and they’ll take the materials they’re offering them.”

Prayer vigil with 40 Days for Life. (Photo courtesy of John Pisciotta via Flickr under Creative Commons License)

This fall’s campaign is taking place in 375 cities across 24 different countries. If you’d like to join a 40 Days for Life campaign near you, click here!

But that’s not all you can do. Lothamer adds, “You can actually get on the 40 Days for Life website and sign up to receive the daily news from around the world and then at the end, they have a Scripture and a devotional and prayer.” You can use these resources to fuel your prayers

Finally, this coming Sunday, November 5th is the last day of 40 Days for Life. Your church can commit to praying on Sunday for an end to abortion both in your community and around the world.

Find more pro-life resources and materials from Life Matters Worldwide’s website!