(Photo courtesy Keys for Kids Ministries)

The June 24 earthquakes damaged more than 800 buildings, according to government statistics. Nearly 200 structures completely collapsed. Yet the full scope of the disaster remains unclear, especially outside major population centers.

“You’re obviously seeing a lot of damage in Caracas, in the coastal areas of La Guaira, but you’re not hearing about people who are on the outskirts,” Greg Yoder of Keys for Kids Ministries says.

“Some of the rural communities are still waiting for help.”

On June 24, two powerful earthquakes shook northern Venezuela. The quakes happened approximately 40 seconds apart: a magnitude 7.2 foreshock followed by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock, making them the country’s strongest recorded earthquake event in more than 125 years.

The disaster also happened at night, killing many while they slept. Others were trapped by debris, and hundreds of aftershocks delayed rescue teams. See our coverage here.

Believers respond

With thousands of people still missing and rescue shifting to recovery, the United Nations is planning for up to 10,000 deaths.

Yoder calls the situation in Venezuela desperate. “When you think of the 3535 deaths, 16,000+ injuries; Many people are now living in the streets; they’ve lost loved ones,” he says.

Yet hope remains. Pastor Mateo, a local believer, can access three locations that haven’t yet been reached by aid groups. With the support of other local Christians and Keys for Kids Ministries, Pastor Mateo wants to help isolated earthquake survivors.

(Photo courtesy Keys for Kids Ministries)

The planned response, totaling $24,000, provides “food, medicine, water, travel in and out of the area like four times, but it also covers the printing costs of a new [trauma-focused] devotional,” Yoder says.

“It’s not enough to provide physical assistance for these people. Their eternity is dependent upon whether or not they know Jesus.”

Find your place in the story

Can you send help and hope to earthquake survivors through Keys for Kids Ministries and Pastor Mateo? Donate here to help meet urgent needs.

Most importantly, pray. Use the prompts listed alongside this article to guide your intercession.

“We’re providing a felt need that the government and even some of the larger NGOs are not participating in,” Yoder says. “Pray for wisdom and for open doors. Most importantly, pray that many people would hear the Gospel and find true hope in Jesus Christ.”

Additionally, “Pray for Pastor Mateo and the believers who are on the ground,” Yoder says.

“Pray for safety, [as] sometimes they’re having to go into these areas under the cover of darkness because the government leaders don’t want Christians helping in certain situations.”

Header and story images courtesy Keys for Kids Ministries. 

By Friday, the death toll rose to 589 people, with thousands reported missing. Damages are especially heavy in the coastal region north of Caracas. 

Annabel Torrealba serves as the International Director for Latin America and the Caribbean for TWR. She has been in steady communication with quake survivors.  

“They say that the earth felt like it was moving up and down, and then when it got stable for a few seconds, then it was like moving like the ocean, like in waves,” she says. 

The quake left people feeling dizzy and paralyzed. 

“When they could move, they got out of the house, the buildings, and they stayed in the middle of the street, just waiting for the ground to get stable,” Torrealba says. 

The elderly or disabled had to be helped out of their homes. People saw God’s providence right after the quake in being at the right place at the right time for those in need. “That’s the common description from many that I’ve been talking with: ‘I don’t know why I was there in that moment, but I was there, and I could help this person. I could take them to a safe place,’” says Torrealba. 

Many countries are promising aid for Venezuela, but Torrealba says that it will take time. Rescue and recovery are currently hindered by a lack of heavy equipment for removing rubble. Also, the country’s main airport in Caracas had to be closed due to quake damage. 

In the meantime, many survivors have endured the agony of waiting to hear from family members, as communication challenges persist due to power outages. 

“After the earthquakes, they didn’t have power. Some of them could text and send messages. People were communicating with us until one in the morning [early Thursday], and then they ran out of batteries,” says Torrealba.

(Photo courtesy Radio Trans Mundial de Venezuela)

When the quakes hit, TWR’s team in Venezuela was at the office recording new content. Torrealba notes that Wednesday was a national holiday, so the team was working outside of normal business hours, “because they have so much passion for reaching the people in Venezuela.”

Pray for wisdom as TWR’s partners, RTM Venezuela, serve as witnesses of Christ on the long road ahead.

“The director is Gabriel Fernandez. Please pray for him that he can lead the team and do what God wants him to do during this time. Probably they have to switch some of their plans and go a different direction for a few months,” says Torrealba. 

Pray also for God’s comfort and help to come to Venezuelans through the Church as well as through governments and NGOs.

“Don’t forget to pray for them, because in the first weeks many people are praying, but when it’s after a month or two, the prayers are less and less,” says Torrealba. 

Header photo of Caracas, Venezuela is a stock photo courtesy of Bona Lee via Unsplash.

The archipelago’s second-most populous island, Mindanao, suffered damage, with the quake killing at least 32 people and injuring more than 200. Small tsunami waves triggered by the quake reached as far away as southern Japan.

“We are very closely monitoring the situation, getting in touch with our ministry leaders there on the ground and assessing the impact,” AMG International’s Brian Dennett says.

AMG International oversees three child development centers in the quake zone. Learn more about that work here.

“We’re working with hundreds of kids in the area, local churches, and national leaders,” Dennett says.

“Our first priority is to determine the safety and the well-being of our children, their families, and of course, our staff, our church partners.”

Typically, AMG staff serve as first responders when disaster strikes. “Because we are local, we are able to respond very quickly. We’ve even turned facilities into relief centers,” Dennett says.

Screenshot of a crisis response page dedicated to the June 8 Mindanao earthquake on Facebook.

Believers offer practical help and lasting hope.

“Our first efforts would include providing emergency food, clean water, essential supplies, hygiene items, and temporary shelter, with the Gospel at the center of everything we do,” Dennett says.

AMG International’s disaster relief ministry stands ready to provide desperately needed assistance in emergency situations. Support the work here to help send time-sensitive aid.

Most importantly, pray. “Please be praying for the children of AMG, their families, the churches, and the communities that have been affected by this earthquake,” Dennett requests.

“Pray for their protection, and wisdom for us on how to respond.”

Header image courtesy of AMG International. 

“Some government relief has gone into the mountains, but there are still people living in tents, and it’s cold. There’s snow in some regions,” says Patrick Anthony with FMI. 

The FMI team partners with a local ministry leader who lives just outside of the earthquake’s impact zone. He and another Christian brother have spent the last few months organizing and carrying out aid distributions to people in remote, hard-to-reach areas. 

But terrain hasn’t been the only difficulty. At one point during an attempted trip, the pastors were stopped from completing their journey by security forces who took issue with their Christian affiliation. 

After finding a workaround, they were able to continue, eventually connecting with locals and passing out used clothing items collected by local churches. The believers were also able to pray with the villagers and begin building relationships. 

“They said they were doing this in the spirit of Christmas,” Anthony says. 

While communities in this region are predominantly Muslim, several parents told ministry leaders they are only Muslim by ritual. When their children asked the visitors, Who is this Messiah? Is he Santa Claus?, the men were able to give a simple overview of the Gospel. 

Please pray for the local ministry leader leading this effort. Anthony says he is encouraged, as “now people want him to return and explain more.”

He and his fellow believers will need to be wise as they seek to do this, since security challenges are common across Morocco. Anthony says Christians there need to be careful to build trust slowly when engaging new people. 

“When they hear of someone who’s interested to learn more about the Gospel, they’ll meet with that person – three times, five times, ten times – before they invite that person to visit their fellowship” Anthony says. “It’s just common across Morocco that people try to infiltrate the church to turn people in and to get pastors and church people arrested.”

Please pray for discernment and open doors as mountain visits continue. 

“It sounds like God has opened up a tremendous door of opportunity for the Gospel in these places where people are still suffering from that earthquake a couple years ago,” Anthony says. 

Pray also for boldness, safety on dangerous Atlas Mountain roads, and wisdom for believers who must answer to authorities. Most of all, pray for the villagers: some who have never heard about Jesus but may now have that chance. 

View of Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Courtesy of Kaur Virunurm via Wikimedia Commons. Header photo: 2023 Earthquake damage; courtesy of Lucyin via Wikimedia Commons.

David Robison, a local missionary with Japan Evangelical Missions Society and a friend of A3, says, “Immediately after the earthquake, we started hearing the tsunami sirens going throughout the city.”

A warning system of sirens and public announcements alerted coastal residents to evacuate. The earthquake caused little damage, but it revived memories of the 2011 quake and tsunami, disasters that devastated the region and killed nearly 20,000 people.

“Every time something like this happens, it does reawaken a lot of trauma. People have been through a lot in the last tsunami, and there are people who lost houses, who lost family members, jobs,” says Robison.

Wave (Photo courtesy of Mikhail Nilov via Pexels)

That tragedy nevertheless opened doors to the gospel.

Though Japan’s Christian roots run deep, believers are few. “There are very few people who know anything about the Christian churches or what they do,” adds Robison.

But after the 2011 earthquake, life in the affected areas changed for many. International Christian missions partnered with local believers, and their practical aid — paired with biblical encouragement — brought real hope to communities desperate for help.

As a result, Robison’s home church, along with other missions agencies and denominations, recognized the need and began launching new church plants.

“There’s been, I believe, a new church plant in almost every city in Iwate prefecture that was hit by the tsunami,” he says.

Fourteen years later, Monday’s earthquake comes just weeks before Christmas. Robison says, “Our whole focus right now is to introduce people to the Prince of Peace and to offer the hope and peace they need,” underscoring how fitting Jesus’ title is for this fearful season.

Pray for safety from stronger earthquake waves and any tsunamis. “The big concern right now is that there will be another larger earthquake in the next week. So that’s what everybody’s worried about,” says Robison.

Pray for the Christmas outreach of Japanese believers and local missionaries amid the uncertainty of the weeks ahead. 

Header photo: Japan (Photo courtesy of Faycal Ken via Unsplash).

As of Thursday, at least 114 people have lost their lives and more than 120 are missing, many from the central province of Cebu. Most deaths were due to flooding.

Herman Moldez with A3 says those numbers will change. “There are still many areas where we don’t have power, and communication is poor because [the] internet is down.”

The storm is just one more layer of disaster for the people of Cebu. A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the tourist hotspot September 30, killing dozens and displacing tens of thousands. Typhoon Kalmaegi is the 20th named storm to impact the archipelago nation this year. What’s more, another storm system is on the way, called Fung-Wong.

But even as people suffer disaster upon disaster in a broken world, God is at work for good.

“Normally, in our country, this proves to be awakening,” says Moldez. “In the midst of disaster, people cry to God. They realize that there’s no one who could help but God.” 

(Image courtesy of A3)

People in the Philippines have learned that help doesn’t always come when it should. A corruption scandal broke earlier this year involving perhaps billions of dollars stolen from national projects meant to control floods. Moldez says the presence of corruption can make international aid groups hesitate to send help. But aid is exactly what is needed right now.

A3 is connected with a network of local pastors and churches. Pray that churches will be able to respond to Kalmaegi’s devastation with gospel hope and practical help. Ask God to give endurance to local believers facing so much loss and need. 

“Prayers are very important, because they strengthen the inner resource of people to become resilient, and not to give up — just to persevere in this situation,” says Moldez.

Header photo: Women and children in the Philippines. (Photo courtesy of Zeyn Afuang via Unsplash.)

Nehemiah with FMI says the Taliban-run nation lacks basic infrastructure, including heavy machinery for disaster relief. “Afghan people, they are digging the rubble with their bare hands and trying to find out their loved ones who are buried or who are down in the rubble,” he says. 

Afghanistan is prone to earthquakes, and the mud and wood that many Afghan homes are made of can’t withstand many tremors. Most recently, a 6.0-magnitude quake struck eastern Afghanistan one night in late August, killing more than 2,200 people.

(Photo courtesy of FMI)

Today, survivors of the November 3 quake need tents, food, blankets, and basic medical help, says Nehemiah. Yet Taliban control is another factor that hinders much-needed help.  

“They [the Taliban] do not want [others to] see what’s going on on the ground. So they don’t want any aid from foreign countries,” he says. “There are very, very few non-profit humanitarian organizations who work in Afghanistan, so they have very limited access to these affected areas.”

An August 2025 report from the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction documented how the Taliban diverts U.S. humanitarian aid for its own purposes. That environment presents a challenge for FMI partners, too. 

“This is very, very strange situation,” says Nehemiah. “It’s very difficult sometimes to proclaim the gospel when you don’t have food to eat, when you don’t have [a] place to stay.” 

But FMI partners still point people to Christ. One partner recently visited a family that had no home and was living under the open sky. He was able to give them some aid, and he told them, “This is a gift from your Father.”

“We don’t have a father,” they said, confused.

“Father means Jesus Christ,” the man explained. 

Nehemiah says, “This is very important. Sometimes just a simple sentence, not even sharing [the] gospel, but just a simple word that really encourages these families who are stranded in such situation.”

Please pray for gospel hope to reach survivors. Support FMI’s relief work in Afghanistan with a gift of any amount at this critical time.

“Please pray for them. Come forward, support them, and try to be an echo for these brothers and sisters who are voiceless,” Nehemiah says. 

Header photo: A boy stands by the side of the road in Afghanistan. (Photo courtesy of IMB — Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License)

Mike* with Global Catalytic Ministries says there’s a massive movement of God happening in Myanmar. But, “it’s hard to share these types of stories because the persecution is so high.”

Myanmar’s civil war has killed over 75,000 people and displaced more than 3 million since 2021, according to UN estimates. Although last week the military junta signed a ceasefire with the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — a key rebel group in the north — the nationwide chaos has no real end in sight.

GCM lost contact with dozens of believers after a devastating 7.7-magnitude quake struck Myanmar in March. Dozens more recently lost their lives at the hands of the military. 

In that loss, Mike still says, “There’s so much more to these people. [It’s] one of the largest movements on earth that no one knows about. Under the nose of such hatred and evil, God is moving and moving in such a powerful way. This is what He does all over the world.”

Recently, disciple-makers gained a new tool for spreading the Good News: a comic book version of GCM’s “Creation to Christ” story series.

“The way that we make disciples is we build relationships with individuals, and then we share stories,” Mike says. “We are discipling them in understanding God’s character without them even knowing it from the beginning.”

He says that in other contexts, such as the Middle East, visual aids are frowned upon. But this comic, created by a former Buddhist-turned-Christian, is more than welcome in Myanmar.

(Stock photo courtesy of Pixabay)

“Even the visual aid of it — because a lot of them don’t read or write — the visual aid of it is making just a profound impact. We have images of them discipling monks and monk children,” Mike says.

Find your place in the story

Please pray for the gospel to reach more people, and for wisdom and protection for Burmese believers in danger.

“[Pray for] blindness to the enemy, [and] infiltration at the highest level with the gospel of Jesus so that the [junta] government falls and the transformation happens at the highest level,” says Mike. 

Finally, please consider helping to recoup the printing costs of the comic book. In response to the March 28 earthquake, GCM invested above and beyond the funds they raised for relief and aid. One of those expenditures was for printing the comic books. 

“We knew that the desperation that they were feeling, these are the ingredients where the gospel just spreads like wildfire,” says Mike. 

Support ministry in Myanmar with GCM with a gift of any amount. 

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Kosygin Leishangthem via Pexels.

More than half a million people were affected by last week’s 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Cebu province. Landslides and sinkholes caused by the quake and subsequent tremors are preventing survivors from getting help today.

“Most of the [aid] responses are underway in San Miguel and Bogo [City], but there are churches up on the mountains in the villages, and they’re not being reached because it’s difficult to go there,” A3’s Herman Moldez says.

However, he adds, “Local pastors are ministering to them; they don’t have the resources, but they’re just being with the people, praying, encouraging, and supporting them.”

Over 23,000 people cannot – or will not – return to their homes. Authorities set up a “tent city” in Bogo City to shelter earthquake-displaced families.

Bogo City Hall damaged by the earthquake, October 2025
(Wikimedia Commons)

“At the moment, [there are] still many aftershocks happening, so most of the people are not returning to their houses,” Moldez says.

“Some have lost their houses, so they’ve been sleeping on the streets.”

Seasonal monsoon rains complicate relief efforts, but the weather could’ve been much worse.

“We are so grateful to the Lord that the typhoon did not pass [through] that area. It’s up north, it’s quite far away, so it did not complicate [relief efforts,]” Moldez says.

Gospel opportunity

A3 equips and empowers Christian leaders throughout Asia and beyond. Learn more about their ministry here. Partnering pastors work alongside the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches to deliver help and hope to those in need.

“Most of the time, this is an opportunity for people to start thinking about [their] relationship with God,” Moldez says.

“The Philippines is a very religious country. It’s predominantly Catholic, so it’s an opportunity to help them understand what the Gospel means.”

Pray for the coordination of aid deliveries so that people in remote locations get the help they need and for the safety of those traveling through rugged terrain.

“Pray for the pastors, that they may know how to minister and guide [people] and the Lord will use this as a means to create spiritual revival in the lives of people,” Moldez adds.

Pray for churches planning trauma-response outreach once relief efforts transition to recovery.

“One of the things that will be needed is a continuing rehabilitation of these people, what we call trauma healing. So many people are still afraid whenever there is an aftershock; they’re just trembling,” Moldez says.

Header image depicts the 53rd Engineer Brigade DRU with the Mandaue City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in the Search, Rescue, and Retrieval Operations in Bogo City, Cebu on October 2, 2025. (Wikimedia Commons)

But for local women, the quake is only one crisis among many. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan four years ago, the militant group has tightened restrictions on women’s travel, education, employment, and even the use of their voices. The UN reports that these abuses of women’s rights are being normalized. 

Recently, Nehemiah* with FMI heard directly from Afghan pastors about the social boycott women are enduring: “Many women feel trapped, silenced and powerless. This isolation has further increased levels of depression, anxiety and hopelessness among women, while also placing immense pressure [on] families who relied on women’s income.”

(Photo courtesy of FMI)

Yet in places of despair, the light of the gospel shines. It just has to be shared carefully. In Afghanistan and similar cultures, a man may only speak with a woman if they are related. 

“In many cases, FMI’s pastors, their wives are the ones who go and talk to these deprived women who [do not find] hope in [the] Taliban system, but they find hope in Jesus Christ,” says Nehemiah. “This is the only channel we have at the moment where women feel connected and encouraged.”

Recently, one pastor’s wife showed the Jesus Film to a dozen women. Pray that many more will know the hope of Christ! 

“Pray for FMI partners in Afghanistan and their wives, who are really struggling and [who] put their life on [the] line every day,” says Nehemiah.

“Pray for their safety, their wisdom. [Ask] God [to] open avenues and doors for these pastors and their wives so they can connect with other Afghan families, women, children, so they can do ministry.”

Learn more about the work of FMI here. 

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Farid Ershad via Unsplash.