Ukraine has struck at least 21 of Russia’s 38 large oil refineries, leading to fuel shortages. Meanwhile, Russia is targeting Ukraine’s gas infrastructure. Emergency power blackouts have occurred in nearly every region in Ukraine. 

Eric Mock with Slavic Gospel Association says a partner in Kyiv sent a desperate message last week about one Russian strike. 

“The damage that was done to the electrical facility was so great that the local leaders said, ‘This will not be rebuilt until the war ends,’” Mock reports.

You can imagine what having no light or heat source means for that SGA partner’s household, and others like it.

Heat and Hope outreach provides generators for emergency use (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

“Last year it was a temperate winter. But this year, we’re hearing that it’s going to turn cold, and it already has become much colder,” Mock says. 

SGA sends resources through an outreach they call Heat and Hope in order to equip local Christians for ministry. To provide generators, they partner with a group called Sunset Solutions. The emergency equipment goes even as far as the front lines of the war — but always through local churches.

“All the food we send over, everything we send over for winter warmth, all of that goes through the local church. Why? [So] that people that are in need would hear — hear from Christians who are showing them love and grace, even in their own fear — of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” says Mock.

Find your place in the story. Learn more about past Heat and Hope outreaches and how to partner with SGA’s work in 2025 on their website. 

“Imagine the people in Ukraine where a light switch doesn’t work, nor a thermostat doesn’t work, who may sleep through the night when it’s 25 degrees in the house, who may have to burn a candle as their only source of light, or use the the light on their cell phone through a soda bottle to generate light to live by, to even read their Bibles by and to stay in touch,” says Mock. 

“Life for them is very difficult. It’s in such time[s] that God’s people gather together to take care of one another.”

Header image: Ukraine, Kyiv (Photo courtesy of Алесь Усцінаў via Pexels)

Many people live in brick houses without reliable internet or paved roads. After a June 2022 earthquake, aid organizations struggled to reach the rural, mountainous villages most affected.

Nehemiah with FMI says the area isn’t good for agriculture. He says, “Usually they just depend on the livestock. There’s no industry. There’s no factories. Very, very rural, very rocky, mountainous area. So usually men of the families travel to big cities like Kabul to earn money.”

Nehemiah says any boy who is 12 years old is considered a man in Afghan culture. “So when boys turn 12, they go to different cities, and try to earn bread for their families,” he says.

Why live there?

So why do people live in these areas? Nehemiah says it’s all many people can afford. They don’t have to purchase land in the mountains; they can just throw together a house from mud and stones.

Additionally, he says, “There is no cost of living. Because there is no electricity. There is no gas, natural gas. There is no water provided by the government because they cannot afford it.”

FMI works in these areas, planting churches and providing safehouses for believers. After the 2022 earthquake, they rushed to help their neighbors in need.

Pray their love would show the face of Jesus to this region.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

On Saturday, Pakistan’s Consumer Price Index announced March inflation soared to 35.37%. People are anxious for food when they can find it. Even when food is available, the next question is, can they afford it?

At flour distribution centers, stampedes have recently killed at least 20 people – mostly women and children.

Nehemiah* with FMI says, “We have seen several videos floating on the internet that whenever there is a truck coming with the food or the rice or the flour, people are just looting. I have never seen something like that. I saw a few such things in Afghanistan, but never in Pakistan.

(Photo courtesy of Shazaf Zafar via Unsplash)

“Even if you have to buy a bag of flour, you have to go to the black market. There were several times when I was driving around Pakistan and I needed to refuel my gas tank…. I had to go through the black market to get gas in my car. It is a terrible situation. We have never ever seen or heard anything like that which Pakistan is experiencing right now.”

Christians in Pakistan only make up around one-percent of the population and are severely marginalized. In situations like this, they are often the last ones to receive aid — if at all.

However, this isn’t stopping Pakistani believers from loving others in the name of Jesus.

Nehemiah says an FMI-supported church planter had a Muslim neighbor who desperately needed food. Rather than just looking out for himself, the church planter went out of his way to help this neighbor.

“They were able to get him a bag of flour and that was the way he was able to witness Jesus Christ. That neighbor who was a Muslim, he asked, ‘Why are you helping me and getting me the flour bag?’ And he said, ‘Because this is what the Bible teaches us: That we love our neighbors.’ So that was an opportunity that he can proclaim the Gospel and plant the Gospel in this difficult situation.”

Pray for relief in Pakistan, and for those who are anxious and hopeless to experience God’s comfort.

“Please pray for our brothers and sisters who are part of FMI. Please pray for them while they are struggling in this difficult situation [that] they can witness our Savior in these difficult times.”

You can help support FMI’s ministry here.

*Full name withheld for security.

Header photo courtesy of FMI.

In fact, Wickremesinghe has served as Prime Minister five separate times in his career. He comes from a wealthy family and has made himself a staple of Sri Lankan politics. For this reason, the protestors see him as one of the insiders they want to get rid of.

They demanded Wickremesinghe’s resignation earlier in July. Crowds burned down his private residence and stormed his office as well. Greg Yoder with Christian World Outreach says, “People are still not satisfied. And they’re expecting results, maybe faster than they can happen. So there’s still rioting going on, still long lines waiting to get fuel.”

Economic woes

Sri Lankan officials say the country will restrict fuel imports for 12 months, meaning that the crisis won’t end any time soon. Yoder describes gas station parking lots packed with people sitting on motorcycles or other small vehicles. “Now that it’s been going on for a while, there’s a safety aspect. People are starting to get upset when they sit in lines for long periods. And they’re limited on how much fuel they can purchase.”

Sri Lankan Christians continue gathering together in each other’s homes, praying for the country. Yoder says, “We’ve been sharing with them that they can be a part of the solution. If they do have something, they can share that with neighbors. And it opens the door for them to share the Gospel.” 

The header photo shows Ranil Wickremesinghe (pictured right) in 2015. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Andrew with Cry Out Now says, “It was subsidized, so low, so cheap that the people who were in power and people who had the ability were storing up gas. And they were actually buying whole truckloads and then putting it in a pipeline and selling it to Syria for profit.”

Some citizens are spending most of their paycheck just to get to work and back. It depends on if people are being paid in dollars, or Lebanon’s extremely devalued currency.

Some improvements

Still, the country has seen some improvement. Andrew says, “Our electricity has been so much better. It’s a night and day difference than over summer. And it seems like people are expecting that their salaries are going to come up. They’ll be able to actually have a living wage to be able to pay for their gas and to be able to go out and afford the normal things.”

But the crisis has exposed a deep rift of wealth inequality. Andrew tells a story from the summer of losing electricity in the city. Then, he travelled to a rich village in the mountains. “It was just a shocking thing to see. ‘Oh, you’re living your life normally. You even have enough electricity to run your twinkle lights.’”

Leave or stay?

Andrew says many wealthy people left Lebanon during the crisis. But he has seen Christians turning to prayer.

Even staying in the country can show the hope of Jesus to those who are hurting. “They genuinely can’t understand why would we be here? And in their minds, if you have the opportunity to leave, why wouldn’t you just go? They think, ‘If I could just go, I would go.’ Or you can choose to lean into the difficulty, which my experience with the Lebanese church has been.”

(Header photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Anne Hamming says, “Every time he needs to go to a government office, he’s had to work around closures. Because the government workers are striking. Their paychecks are now worth roughly five to ten percent what they were before this economic crisis.”

Even when the truck gets registered, it might not be able to run. Hamming says, “We don’t even know if he’ll be able to secure gasoline to get to the refugee camps. Because people are waiting for hours for gas. There has been violence at some gas stations. It takes hours to secure something so basic.”

Providing food

During the crisis, Tent Schools has been providing food for refugee families in Jesus’ name. But even that has proven difficult. Hamming says, “People are living on bread, fruit, vegetables, and what cheeses they can find. Meat has become a rare luxury for everyone.”

Pray many will experience Jesus’ love through this ministry. Learn how to support Tent Schools International’s work here.

Header photo courtesy of Tent Schools International. 

As of late, most headlines focus on growing U.S.–Iran tensions. January brought news of the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Then, not long after protestors turned their anger against the U.S., an Iranian missile downed a Ukranian passenger jet, and protest immediately turned back toward Iranian leadership.

Rising Gas Prices Lead to Rising Frustration

But discontment started much earlier than either of these episodes. Iran is “a country that is facing hyperinflation [and] high unemployment rate,” Nettleton says. “Basic food items have grown too expensive for the average person, and so many people are just eating bread and cheese.”

As if things weren’t bad enough, Iranian officials raised gas prices in December.

Actually, they tripled them overnight.

Fuel protests in November (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

“Literally you wake up the next door day and they say, ‘Oh, hey, by the way, gas just tripled in price today, and also you can only buy a certain number of gallons. There’s a ration system in place,’” Nettleton says.

This decision affects many Iranian citizens, but Christians were especially wounded by this move. According to Nettleton, “what our Christian brothers and sisters are saying is, ‘Hey, the part of our ministry is getting in a car and driving to places to meet with believers, but also to evangelize, to share the Gospel, not just driving across our city or across town, but literally driving around the country, driving to other cities where we have outreach events and where we have other churches that we’re coordinating with.’”

That means that by tripling the cost of gas, authorities have effectively tripled the cost of ministry for the Iranian Church.

Prayerful Response

But it’s not all bad news. Nettleton points out that for nearly 40 years, Iranian officials claimed to run the country according to Islamic principles. That means “to be angry at the government brings about the idea that maybe Islamic principles don’t work,” Nettleton suggests.

That’s why Voice of the Martyrs’ partners, especially TV and radio broadcast groups, report local Iranians want new answers. “[They] are getting a lot of calls right now about ‘Okay, how do we deal with this situation? What does God [and] what does Jesus have to say about the situation we find ourselves in?’ So we are praying that this will be a time of great harvest in Iran.”

Photo courtesy of Voice of the Martyrs USA

Want to join Nettleton in prayer? Voice of the Martyrs has just the thing for you: their 2020 Global Prayer Guide. With this guide, you can learn how to answer the first request persecuted Christians often make: “Pray for us.”

Nettleton calls the guide “a tool to help American Christians answer that request and to be able to pray, not just, ‘God bless persecuted Christians,’ but really to be able to say, ‘Okay, I’m gonna pray about the Christians in Iran.’”

The Guide answers contextual questions to help you get a better understanding of various persecuted Churches around the world. It clarifies governments, philosophy, persecution, difficulties, Scripture access, and more in order to help you pray specifically for local believers in different parts of the world.

Nettleton hopes “Every Christian in America will get a copy of this global prayer guide, put it beside your Bible, or put it in the place where you have your devotional time or your prayer time and use it throughout the year to answer that request of our persecuted brothers and sisters that we will pray for them.”

Learn more about Voice of the Martyrs here or check out the Prayer Guide for yourself here.

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Although the thousands of evacuees have been home for some time already, there are residual issues to be dealt with. According to Paradise Bound Ministries, most of the damage has been caused by heavy ash fall and has contaminated water supplies and even clogged water tubing in some villages.

When MNN first reported this story, Paradise Bound's work in La Reina was out of the danger zone. The village was on the edge of the ash cloud, but residents didn't have to evacuate.

However, Paradise Bound has relationship with other villages through their Mobile Medical Clinics/Outreaches. These villages were in the ash cloud's path. Although the ministry team temporarily lost communications with them, they have since begun responding to the needs expressed.

Since 1997, Paradise Bound Ministries has a comprehensive and growing suite of programs meeting the needs of children, families, and villages for basic sustenance, medical care, and Christian ministry.

The teams provide medical care, pastoral training, discipleship training, rebuilds homes for families, and runs Open Doors Orphanage. It costs $32 a month to sponsor a child there.

Please remain in prayer for Paradise Bound Ministries as they help make repairs and restore communities. Pray for Gospel opportunities, too.

"Last winter they sent us a woodstove, and we were able
to…receive that from U.S., connect it at the home. We see already an
improvement in the costs that we're spending to heat the house," said the founder of the home, Cami
Cismaru of Kids Alive International.

In the spring, the home planted 70 trees to provide wood for
the stove. 

"This is how God works, because it was just through His
grace that I talked to this friend of ours in Portage, Indiana,"
Cismaru explained. "I shared about our
problems with high bills in regard to gas…and he said, 'I work for this
woodstove company.'" 

The gas bill had been the home's largest expense, before the
arrival of the stove. 

"With children, there are many needs, and sometimes we have
to economize our finances in order to have some resources in our accounts to
pay the bills," Cismaru said. "Some winters are harder than others, and in a very cold winter we can spend as
much as $6,000 just for gas to heat the building." 

Ten girls aged seven to ten years old live in the home,
which was founded in 1999. The home is
unique because all of the girls arrived as babies. Romania is trying to serve its
orphans better by placing them in foster homes rather than orphanages, but the
new system is still under development. 

"It's a better situation for children, but the need of
affection still exists, and it's always work to do in this area for children in Romania,"
Cismaru said. 

The money saved could open new opportunities for the
children in the home, providing for their educational and spiritual
development. 

"As the children grow, of course they need more materials–educational materials," Cismaru said. "We
want to send them to Christian camps, things like that. So yes, I see how by saving money on our
heating bills, we can spend the money to help the children and to provide for
them different ways of growing spiritually and knowing God." 

Most of the girls recently had cases of the chicken
pox. Cismaru asked for prayer for them
as they grow. 

"Pray for continued safety and protection of our children —
good development educationally, spiritually, physically," she said. "And pray for God's provision, to be able
to raise these children for Him and for His glory."

You can help support the children's home in Dobrun.

Vice President for Russian Ministries Sergey Rakhuba says, "The animosity level is growing. In Russia there is a huge brainwashing campaign in its state-owned media, saying Ukrainians are thieves."

Ministry giving from the West has been affected by Russia's display of military might in Georgia and now by this energy monopoly. "When they see how much money Russia is making on oil and gas, people think Russians are wealthy people. Unfortunately they think that Russia doesn't need help any more. And it does impact giving."

Fortunately, Russian Ministries is training next generation church leaders to ignore that animosity. "We're training young people not to pay attention to the political side of this conflict but to continue spreading the Gospel and continue reaching out to their communities and be peacemakers."

You can support Russian Ministries' "Schools without Walls" program. Rukhuba says as these new leaders get training, they'll be focused on "spreading the Gospel and making a difference on behalf of their churches, reaching out to their communities and making Christ known through their actions."

If you'd like to help Russian Ministries, click here.