MAF recently transported the family of Dr. Peter Stafford, an American doctor who tested positive for Ebola from the DRC to Uganda. Dr. Stafford had been working at Nyankunde Hospital and was evacuated separately to Germany for specialized treatment. While still symptomatic, his condition seems to be improving.

Nyankunda Hospital walkway to patient wings. (Photo courtesy of MAF)

Passengers on the MAF flight included Dr. Stafford’s wife—also a physician—their children, and another doctor who had been exposed to the virus. Prior to this mission, MAF had conducted an earlier evacuation flight for another mission family. All evacuation operations are conducted in close coordination with public health officials and government authorities.

MAF is a Christian mission organization that uses aviation to support missionary and humanitarian relief efforts for remote communities around the world. MAF has served in the DRC since 1961. This is the 17^th recorded Ebola outbreak in the country since 1976.

MAF has an established Ebola Management Plan (EMP), which has been successfully implemented during previous outbreaks. The EMP includes strict measures such as passenger temperature checks, mandatory use of personal protective equipment, comprehensive aircraft sanitization procedures, and other safety protocols. MAF flight operations will continue under these procedures to ensure the safety of both passengers and crew.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The outbreak is centered in the Ituri Province, where Bunia—the provincial capital—also serves as the base for MAF’s operations in eastern DRC.

Nyankunde airstrip (Photo courtesy of MAF)

All MAF staff remain in good health and are taking appropriate precautions in their daily activities. A dedicated Crisis Management Team has been established and is working closely with the East DRC team to monitor developments, provide support, and guide operational decisions.

Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids. While it is not transmitted through the air, the virus can remain viable on hard surfaces for several days, making strict hygiene and sanitation practices essential.

This outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus. Unlike the more common Zaire strain, there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment available for this variant. Exposure risk is considered low while protocols are being followed.

MAF asks you to pray for impacted individuals and their families, and for the swift containment, effective response efforts, and continued safety and health of our staff. Please pray specifically for Dr. Stafford’s healing.

Header photo: The mission hospital in Nyankunde. (Photo courtesy of MAF)

Whatever Hezbollah’s response, Israel and Lebanon still took a significant step this week, with their first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says the US-hosted talks on Tuesday were good news for the Lebanese people.

“Hezbollah is kidnapping the country, and Iran is kidnapping Hezbollah, which means that Iran is in control of what’s happening in Lebanon,” says Sharaiha. “So what the US is trying to do also is to take away this card from Iran and give it back to the government of Lebanon.” 

This temporary ceasefire could bring much-needed relief. Since March 2, nearly 2,200 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah. Before moving past those numbers, remember that each person had a name and a family they left behind.

Refugee child in Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of Ahmad Bader/Unsplash)

“Those are parents, children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, daughters,” Sharaiha says. “We need to remind ourselves that people who are dying are created in God’s image.”

Many victims were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, unknowingly near someone from Hezbollah. 

“One story is like, one delivery boy was part of Hezbollah. He was delivering something, and he was having a meal or something in one of the apartments of the building. Then, Israel bombed the whole building, and they [other people] were collateral damage,” says Sharaiha. 

He urges Christians not to accept news about war and bombings as normal, but instead to respond through prayer.

“We are called as a Church for peace. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ We should be also calling for justice,” he says. “We know that we are here to glorify God, to enjoy God, and also to reach out to people who are lost for the kingdom of God.

“God is sitting on the throne, and God’s hand is on the hearts of the kings and the presidents and the prime ministers. So please pray that the Lord will move their hearts for peace.”

As Israel and Lebanon continue diplomatic talks, remember that for Christians, the deeper battle is spiritual and is fought through prayer.

“You are moving the hand of God in the region,” says Sharaiha. “Pray for us and pray for the different churches and ministries that are doing so much good in the region, trying to build peace and also build the capacity of those ministries in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Header photo is a stock photo taken in Lebanon courtesy of Nathan McBride via Unsplash.

“Things are really very difficult, and getting even more difficult,” says Pierre Houssney with Horizons International. “We’ve gone through a lot of crises in Lebanon, but this one definitely feels different.” 

Even after the 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel continued near-daily strikes on Lebanon. 

“We see this new round of war, which has been about 40 days now, as kind of an escalation. But it’s not like there wasn’t war or strikes happening before,” says Houssney.

But last Wednesday, things became much worse. Hours after a temporary ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, Israel struck more than 100 targets in Beirut in 10 minutes. The strikes killed over 300 people and wounded more than 1,160, according to an initial count by Lebanon’s civil defense. 

During that 10-minute span, Houssney was at a gathering with 90 pastors seeking to work together better. They heard the boom of the strikes and realized what was happening.

Smoke from the explosion in Beirut. (Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“We were actually launching a website which was helping us to coordinate needs and resources,” says Houssney. He says the then-recent US-Iran ceasefire wasn’t discussed. “The operating assumption of everybody was that, ‘Hey guys, let’s unify more and more practical unity, working together in the Kingdom.’” 

Houssney says many people felt the Wednesday attack was like the August 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion: It came out of nowhere and demanded that people leap into emergency mode. He describes a rush on hospitals, chaos, and fear.

“So many families that got disconnected from one another, don’t know if the other one is alive. Or losing family members, you know. Their whole world [was] falling apart on that day. So it’s been quite intense and difficult,” he says.

At the pastors’ gathering, one leader reminded Houssney and the others that God looks at their hearts, not whether they can meet every need around them.

“I thought that was quite deep and important, because sometimes we do want to meet all the needs and we feel like we fail to do so,” says Houssney. “The point is we respond with our full capacity, making sure that we are being faithful.”

Today’s headlines may feel overwhelming, but Houssney urges believers to stay focused on the gospel mission wherever they live.

Throughout Lebanon, Horizons staff members meet with people in their homes to share the Gospel and pray together.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Horizons International)

“I always have to come back and just recognize my own human limitation, but then also my calling, that the Lord has called me to spread the gospel to everybody that’s around me,” says Houssney. “That is absolutely the best thing, the most impactful thing that I can do in the light of these headlines.”

As you pray for Lebanon and Israel, pray also for direction and boldness to reach your own circle of people with the gospel of Christ. Then go knowing that your brothers and sisters in Lebanon are doing the same.

Header photo courtesy of Horizons International via Facebook.

Duane Friesen with Voice of the Martyrs Canada says all Christians today experience persecution to greater or lesser degrees. “But India has a unique reality upon them that is sad. I’ll give you one story to help give context,” he says.

(Stock photo courtesy of Shiva Verma via Unsplash)

“A 14-year-old girl from the Punjab province had come to trust Christ as her Savior. When her family found out about her newfound faith, the immediate response was outrage and severe oppression.” 

The girl’s family forced her to marry a non-Christian man, and years of suffering followed. Yet the Lord brought other believers into her life — people who encouraged her and advocated for her. 

“She has communicated for the first time in years that she felt seen and she felt loved,” says Friesen. 

That young woman is one of many who are living a reality like this. Pray for comfort and gospel courage for Christians like her. 

Friesen says that in all the hostility that Christians in India endure, “they have been able to find hope and be encouraged that ‘God wants to do something. He hasn’t taken us home yet, so there’s still work to be done. So God help us be faithful with what He’s given us.'” 

God is doing something beautiful through the Church in India. Would you stand with them in prayer?

“[Pray] that they would be all that God’s called them to be,” says Friesen, “and to be encouraged to know they’re not alone in the midst of all the hurt.”

Header image is a stock photo courtesy of Phinehas Narra via Unsplash.

On December 5, an unidentified man gunned Pastor Kamran Salamat down outside his home. The husband and father of three was leaving to take his daughter to college. He was still injured from a September attack. 

Nehemiah* with FMI says that tragedies like this cast a long shadow over the Christian community in Pakistan.

Person holding a Bible (Stock photo courtesy of Ivan Samkov via Pexels)

“Pastor Kamran was more than a preacher. He was a shepherd who walked closely with his people,” Nehemiah says. “He supported the poor, trained marginalized women in a sewing center, and shared Christ with boldness. His life embodied a sacrificial love. His death is painful, of course, and that reminds us that for many believers in Pakistan, the cost of discipleship is written in blood.”

Nehemiah says that FMI partners, pastors, disciple-makers, and evangelists “continue to serve under constant threat, often feeling as though they are walking on eggshells in neighborhoods where suspicion and hostility is never far away.” 

Christians make up only 1% of Pakistan’s approximately 253 million people. They suffer physical, social, and legal persecution, yet God gives them resilience. 

“I was talking to a member of the congregation of Pastor Kamran. He said that ‘Even in heartbreak, we hold this hope. The enemy can silence a voice, but he cannot stop the message. God is at work in Pakistan, and the light of Christ still breaks through.’”

Pray for comfort and grace over Kamran Salamat’s wife, children, and congregation. Pray for bold gospel witness to spread in Pakistan and change many people’s hearts, including Kamran’s attackers. 

“Please pray for supernatural protection, that God would be [gospel workers’] shield in a land where persecution is rising,” says Nehemiah. “Pray for wisdom, so that they may know when to speak, where to go, and how to shepherd their people safely.”

*Pseudonym

Header photo: A pastor (not Kamran Salamat) in Pakistan (Photo courtesy of FMI).

If you have a passion for spreading the Gospel, India is one of the most critical mission fields — and now is a key time to support Mission India as they touch kids’ hearts.

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Raina Miller with Mission India says, “Giving Tuesday falls during our 10-Day Children’s Bible Club matching challenge, so it’s a great time to take advantage of that…. Every dollar that you give to 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs is currently being doubled — so $1 is doubled to reach two children with the good news of Jesus!”

India is home to 1.4 billion people, and 96% have never heard the Gospel. Mission India works with local Christian partners for these Children’s Bible Clubs — even as believers face intense persecution.

“India is actually the 11th most dangerous nation in the world for Christians,” Miller explains. “There are people who are ostracized from their communities, they are facing violence, they’re facing intimidation in all different forms for following Christ…. And yet, we’re finding that the more persecution increases, the more the Church grows.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

You can donate to Mission India’s 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs today at www.missionindia.org/double.

This Giving Tuesday, help make an eternal difference for children in India.

Miller also asks, “Pray that the kids who are reached through the Bible Clubs that are being sponsored during this match would have their hearts changed in a way that pushes them to lead others to Christ as well. [Pray] that it just creates a domino effect where the kids reached through this match then go on to reach entire communities!”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

Church planters in Muslim-majority Indonesia have their work cut out for them. This is especially true in Aceh Province, located in northern Sumatra. The region is nearly 100% Muslim and has been governed under Sharia law for decades.

But right where it’s hardest to live for Christ is right where one Christian and his family have gone. Brian Dennett with AMG International shares the story of a man we’ll call Dodi.

(Photo courtesy AMG International)

“Dodi is not from Aceh. He’s from a different province, and he was blessed to be born into a Christian family. But prior to really coming to the Lord himself, he ran off to the big city of Jakarta,” Dennett says.

“Through many disappointments and really coming to recognize a profound emptiness in his life, he eventually fully accepted Jesus as his Savior, started going to church, and now has a passion for reaching his people with the gospel — eliminating that same emptiness that he had.”

Through his church, Dodi learned about AMG and a Bible school that they operate in Indonesia. He went through that Bible training and has been sent out along with his wife and family. 

“He chose the Aceh people because of that distinction of being so devoutly Muslim and [having] so few Christians. That became a burning challenge and passion for him,” says Dennett.

Dodi and his wife have dedicated themselves to this mission. “They’re planning and praying to open a house church in every village of the province of Aceh.”

It’s no small task. Aceh has a population of 5 million, Dennett says. Would you pray for more gospel workers like Dodi to go among the Aceh? Then pray about supporting gospel workers like them with AMG. 

Not all church planters in the region come from a Christian background like Dodi. But that can be a strength! “The effectiveness of using Muslim-background, local Christians to reach their own people just cannot be underestimated,” says Dennett. “This works, and when approached with love and humility, many are open to hearing about Jesus.”

Find out the difference your gift can make in AMG’s Church Planting 2025 initiative here. 

Header photo courtesy of AMG International. 

Since 2022, as the Russian army advanced and occupied more Ukrainian territory, children became silent casualties — taken to unfamiliar Russian institutions. An estimated 20,000 Ukrainian children are still missing, believed to be in Russia or Russian-occupied areas. The actual number may be even higher.

The mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime according to International law.

Families are doing everything they can to recover their children, while Ukrainian authorities insist that even orphans taken to Russia remain part of the nation and must be brought home.

Representative photo courtesy of
Evgeniy Alyoshin via Unsplash

Eric Mock from Slavic Gospel Association says: “There are children who desperately miss their parents. Some are told their parents don’t want them or aren’t worthy of them — an awful reality no child should ever have to face.”

Some parents of these children were detained and later released. Others fled while their children were taken. In some occupied areas, families were offered the chance to send their children to summer camps — but not all of them came back.

“It’s difficult to sort through the pieces, but it’s clear that kids have been separated from their families, and there’s an overwhelming need to restore these families. That is a heartbreaking reality of this war,” Mock explained.

Finding and accessing the children inside Russia remains difficult. “There are organizations that are working to get these children home,” Mock added. So far, only 1,399 children have returned, while thousands remain trapped in the reeducation system — where efforts aim to replace their Ukrainian identity with a Russian one and revise their understanding of the war.

Slavic Gospel Association supports churches across Ukraine, where some Christians are actively involved in the search for lost children. Also, through its orphan ministry network, Orphans Reborn, operating in over seven countries, some of the orphans encountered may be from Ukraine.

“A lot of these disconnected children are showing up in orphanages, and we pray that SGA-supported churches who minister to orphans are able to connect with these kids and be there for them,” Mock said.

Be the voice for these children. Many feel helpless and forgotten, and their families struggle to find them.

“We pray for the restoration of these families, and above all, we pray that these children and their parents — wherever they may be — will be connected to a faithful church and get to hear the Gospel at every opportunity,” Mock said.

Header representative photo courtesy of Tadeusz Lakota via Unsplash.

“The prisoners gathered in the courtyard, and they were able to get a copy of a Bible, and they were able to do worship songs,” says Reverend Jason Woolford with Mission Cry.

Mission Cry missionary partner and prison director of a prison in Honduras (Photo courtesy of Mission Cry)

“Our missionaries were able to share the salvation message with them and witness them reading their very own Bible. It was so beautiful. [As] the team was leaving, many inmates shook their hand[s] and thanked them for coming.”

This moment happened because Mission Cry missionary partners had favor with prison officials, which Woolford says is happening not only in South America. 

“We’re seeing it in Africa. We’re seeing it in the Philippines. You name it — we’re seeing where doors of these prisons are starting to open. Wardens who are not even believers [are] allowing us to come in and preach the gospel by giving them the Word of God.” 

If you know Christ, think of how the gospel has transformed your life. God can do the same work in a prisoner’s life and community. 

“When these men or women get out of prison and they come back and their families are able to see that God touched them and did something in their lives, how that will impact generations to come,” Woolford says. 

Find your place in the story

More Bibles await sponsorship at Mission Cry. 

“The Bible that we give, it’s very strategic. It’s the Mission Cry Bible in Spanish. It’s the New Testament, and it has a discipleship program in the back, and [other study helps]. We produce this Bible and get it in the hands of people around the world absolutely free for $2 a Bible.” 

Visit missioncry.com to partner with their team on their upcoming shipments. Please pray as well!

“You’re making a difference in the lives of people around the world with the Word that is the only thing that doesn’t return void,” Woolford says. 

“Pray for protection over our leadership, our Mission Cry missionaries on the ground and [for] favor — that God would continue to prompt and prick the right hearts at the right time so that we can continue to do what we do by people that partner with us in giving.”

Header photo courtesy of Mission Cry.

“When you’re in the early years with young children as a stay-at-home mom, it can definitely be isolating [and] sometimes not as mentally stimulating as I was used to,” says Arijaan.

Arijaan’s own mother encouraged her to look into becoming a mentor with Crossroads Prison Ministries. It’s a unique ministry opportunity from home where Christian mentors correspond with Crossroads Bible study students in prison through writing letters.

“To take on a ministry that I could do from home and really see the impact and believe in it was so exciting for me!” she shares.

Arijaan Norwood and her family. (Photo courtesy of Arijaan Norwood with Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Now, as a Crossroads mentor, Arijaan not only engages with inmates through Bible study but also sees the spiritual impact on her own family.

Arijaan shares, “My kids see me working on the lesson or writing the letter [and] they’ll ask about what I’m doing. I love sharing with them about God’s heart for those who are in prison and the role that we can play. We pray for them together.

“Another positive impact I would say is on my marriage, kind of unexpectedly. But there are times where my mentee will write something that I’m not sure how to respond to. I’ll bring it up with my husband and we’ll talk it through, and it just brings about deeper conversation than just the day-to-day conversations.”

Through prison mentorship, Arijaan has found a tangible way to connect with the Great Commission and witness God’s movement — both in her life and in the lives of others.

She says, “It’s definitely worth it to invest into the lives of not just those that you see right in front of you, but to gain that eternal perspective as you’re reaching out to all sorts of people that God has a heart for.”

If you or someone you know may be interested in becoming a Bible study mentor with Crossroads, Arijaan encourages, “It’s definitely a step of faith, and it’s easy to think that you don’t have time. I will say that it does take discipline to set aside really just about an hour a week, so it’s not long. But it’s really mentally and spiritually engaging.”

Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads!

Header stock photo courtesy of Sixteen Miles Out/Unsplash.