For over a year, Zimbabwe and some neighboring countries have endured a severe drought. Despite local and international efforts to address the water crisis, the situation continues to escalate, creating additional challenges. Melinda Kajilima from Trans World Radio describes the impact of the drought:

“There is this wild fruit that we find in bushes. Some people are now taking that to prepare, to cook. But our livestock, they feed on that. It’s now a competition between the people and the livestock.”

Eating livestock feed is just the tip of the iceberg. While both rural and urban areas are severely affected by the drought, farmers bear the greatest burden. Kajilima explains, “With the drought, severe food insecurity has been experienced.” Relying on subsistence farming for survival, rural Zimbabweans have been unable to grow enough crops, especially maize. Without these essential harvests, securing a proper meal becomes nearly impossible. As a result, over 7.7 million people in Zimbabwe face hunger, and an increasing number of children are being hospitalized due to severe malnutrition.

(Photo by Lil Artsy, courtesy of Pexels, https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photography-of-corn-3040710/)

With their resources depleted, many rural families placed their hope in relatives living in cities. However, the drought has also affected urban areas. “They are no longer able to [fend] for them, and that even makes it even worse for those in the rural areas,” Kajilima adds. In many regions, access to tap water is nonexistent, forcing people to travel long distances to find it. Across Zimbabwe, communities are on the brink of survival.

Neighboring countries like Zambia are also grappling with drought, compounding the crisis.

“The government realized the need and [has] taken it upon them to be able to partner with organizations, with churches, in providing immediate relief for those that are affected,” Kajilima says.

Local churches, the government, and international organizations are working together to find solutions. However, addressing one problem often reveals another, as the root cause — drought — remains unsolved and spans a wide geographical area.

The situation opens the door for God’s miracle. Join Zimbabwean churches in prayer for a lasting solution.

“Pray for the rains,” urges Kajilima, “that God will send the rains to replenish the land and yield a good harvest, providing food for the people. Pray for those affected by the drought, that they may find strength, resilience, and hope, and that their faith may sustain them through this difficult time.”

Join Kajilima and the TWR Africa team as they encourage Zimbabweans during this time of drought.

Header photo of Harare, Zimbabwe is a representative stock photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, a ministry of LSESD, is located at the edge of Beirut. ABTS used their facilities to house people who lost their homes in the 2020 port blast, and again today in the wake of mass displacement in Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of ABTS on Facebook)

Take Lebanon. It has endured decades of conflict and economic collapse. The current war no one wanted has displaced an estimated 1.3 million people.

“Crisis, wars, disruptions [are] nothing new to this region. We’re used to difficulties and hardships,” says Loulwa Maalouf with the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary.

“But at the same time, we are used to seeing God at work, and we are called to be here and be part of His work.”

ABTS is a ministry of Thimar-LSESD. Today it not only provides biblical education to around 240 students, but it also shelters a couple hundred displaced people. 

“With every crisis in Lebanon, we are used to taking a step and saying, ‘Okay, how does God want us to respond now?’” Maalouf says. This was true for the 2006 Lebanon War, the COVID-19 pandemic and the August 4 (2020) Beirut port explosion. 

“This time, God used our facilities so that we can welcome those who needed a shelter from the war. We opened our guest house and academic residence to welcome families,” Maalouf says. “Some of them are church families. Some of them, they’ve never been been to a church.”

Laundry services at ABTS’s campus (Photo courtesy of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary)

The seminary provide utilities, meals, laundry services; it works with other ministries to provide youth services and more to families as well. Daily chapel services at ABTS have been opened to the community. They worship God and hear a message of encouragement. 

“It takes a lot of effort because we are doing all our programs and we’re also doing that but we’re grateful that God is allowing us to serve Him through these guests,” she says. 

ABTS is seeing that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray with them for God to raise up more workers. Maalouf asks that you pray also for an ever-deepening love in the church for their enemies.

“You can always pray for us. Not only for us, for Lebanon, for the region, for our students and our graduates and the churches in the region,” Maalouf says. 

Learn more about ABTS here. 

Header photo of children at ABTS guesthouse campus courtesy of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. 

Transform Iran serves in the foundational areas of evangelism, discipleship, church planting and much more in Iran to see the power of Christ transform peoples’ lives.

(Graphic courtesy of Transform Iran)

One of the tools they use is Bible translation. Today, that tool is critical to reach Iranians. 

Lana Silk with Transform Iran says, “There are more than 39 languages in Iran. Some organizations will say hundreds. It depends on how you slice and dice it. But we believe 39 are the core languages, and within them, the dialects understand each other. Only four of them have the Bible. So you’re talking coming up to 30 million people in Iran who do not have the Bible in their language.”

Transform Iran partners with unfoldingWord among others to translate Scripture into these other languages. (More about that here.)

“We have worked together in learning and rolling out the concept of church-centric Bible translation, which is so dear to our hearts because we are not in the business of translation, we’re in the business of building the church and expanding the kingdom of God,” Silk says.

“As we go through translating the Word, we’re also inadvertently building (the) Church as people come together and worship and study and learn together in languages that they have not used before in the context of the Church.”

She adds that Transform Iran and unfoldingWord have worked together on “making sure that the Open Bible Stories are available in as many languages as possible. Now we are working together to bring the New Testament in some of the key languages. We’re at the early stages.”

(Learn more about recent projects completed such as an audio Bible dramatization in the Gilaki language as well as a mobile app called Cheshme.)

(Photo courtesy of unfoldingWord)

Silk says that many Iranians are disillusioned with Islam and are looking elsewhere for answers. “Iranians are open and they are hungry. When they look, we want them to find Jesus.”

Silk invites believers around the world to “pray and give where you can, but help us raise awareness because I see so much misinformation in the West about what God is doing in a country like Iran. If the Church can be aware, then more people can be praying and more people can be engaged in this exciting harvest.”

Sign up for Transform Iran’s email newsletter to know every month how you can pray for and partner with the awesome things God is doing to build up the Church in Iran.

Header photo is a representative stock photo courtesy of Timothy Eberly via Unsplash.

Every Child Ministries (ECM) uses a program called Farming God’s Way to teach effective farming techniques to people in northeast Uganda — and most importantly, connect them to our Creator.

(Photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries)

Mark Luckey, ECM’s Executive Director says, “It really helps people understand why. Why did God create it that way? How did he make it that way? How does it benefit us to remember that and learn from that? And what does it mean for the future as we farm about how we give back to the Provider?”

One Ugandan couple, Moses and Mary, joined the Farming God’s Way program with ECM two years ago.

Luckey says, “Toward the end of that first year, they had a pretty good harvest – five bags of corn, a few bags of sorghum, some peanuts, and one bag of beans.

“Just a year later, after continuing to put into practice Farming God’s Way, they harvested 25 bags of corn (which is a five times increase), 21 bags of beans,…they had a three times increase in sorghum, and a six times increase in peanuts.”

Moses and Mary used the profit from selling some of their produce to open a small grocery stand and generate more income. They were also able to store food for their family and pay for their children’s schooling.

In breaking out of the hand-to-mouth cycle of poverty, Ugandan believers are able to take their consistent income to save for their family’s future, give back to their community, and support their local Church.

“They learned to bring a tithe back to God,” says Luckey. “In a community like this, they literally would take 10% of their harvest…and give it to the church.”

Pray for a bountiful harvest in Uganda – both on farms and in people’s hearts through Christ!

Click here to learn more about ECM.

Header photo courtesy of Every Child Ministries.

FH’s Beth Allen shares, “Over the more than 20 years that I’ve been with Food for the Hungry, I’ve seen so many examples of how caring for the environment is really very key to helping children grow up into the children that God intends them to be and into the adults that God intends them to be.”

This concept hit home for Allen when she visited Rwanda with Food for the Hungry last year. She spent time with several families in mountain communities. Because of the genocide and political upheaval in Rwanda several years ago, people fled the country in droves. Then years later, many Rwandans returned.

Allen says, “That turned Rwanda into one of the most densely populated countries in the world with families carving out farms on hillsides, little postage stamp farms, and trying to make a living on it and trying to feed their children, trying to nourish their children.”

Over the years, the land and water in many Rwandan communities became degraded and sick from poor farming practices and lacked necessary nutrients for healthy crops. This had a harsh impact on community and child health.

Allen shares the story of a Rwandan mother named Venantie and her 8-year-old daughter Vestine.

“As we talked, she brought up that Vestine had been so malnourished when she was about 9-months-old, they had to take her into what’s called the therapeutic feeding center which is a hospital or a clinic that specifically deals with severely malnourished children. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say this child’s life was in danger at that point.”

Today, Vestine is a healthy 8-year-old child. Venantie told Allen that her daughter is well fed and excelling in school. Food for the Hungry had given this family a milk cow and taught the father sustainable farming practices.

When the father had first tried to grow coffee as a cash crop, the soil had so little nutrients that the harvest was sparse. The coffee that did grow had sickly yellow leaves and was very unhealthy.

Now, Allen shares, “The father said, ‘With the manure, I am able to fertilize my field, I’m able to take care of the soil.’… The father is able to do coffee as a cash crop. They are using the manure also in a vegetable garden, which helps to make sure that the children get their complete complement of vitamins and minerals in their daily diet…. All in all, it was a really great example of creation care.”

Caring for the earth and animals that our Heavenly Father created is important. However, Food for the Hungry recognizes it is a balancing act.

“One of the things we do fight against sometimes is this idea that…creation care, Earth Day, it comes dangerously close to idolatry. We do know that is the case, there are people who are worshipping the creation rather than the Creator and we definitely don’t want to go that direction. But I think it’s getting the word out there that there is nothing unchristian about caring for the environment,” says Allen.

“The command to care for the earth comes in I believe it’s the second chapter of Genesis. It’s pretty darned early in the Bible where it shows up. So it’s our response to Scripture to be able to help people do these things to get them over the barriers they have so they can be responding to Scripture.”

The sustainable earth care training FH does with families in Rwanda and around the world is very biblically based.

“We have to show that you live in response to God’s love for us and the response of that is taking care of the creation that God made.”

(Photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry)

So how can you actively value earth care and sustainability this Earth Day? Click here to sponsor a child with Food for the Hungry!

Allen explains, “With Food for the Hungry, all of the programs that I was seeing were funded by child sponsors — people who were sponsoring a child each month with Food for the Hungry. That allowed us to be able to send staff and do the training we had to do with these families and to do the regular check-ups we need to do with these families.”

FH’s child sponsorships cost just $38 a month and enact holistic change for the child and their family physically, relationally, and most importantly, spiritually.

“By sponsoring a child and giving us an opportunity to go and work in that community, we’re already helping the next generation.”

Like the Charlie Brown Christmas special, Christmas is a time when you hear about Jesus everywhere. When you’re out shopping, there’s a Christmas song about Jesus on the radio. When you turn on the TV, there’s Linus sharing the Christmas story.

Ron Hutchcraft of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says Christmas is the perfect time to naturally bring up the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Sergé via Flickr under Creative Commons: https://goo.gl/Pz7L9u)

“Most of us don’t realize that Christmastime is harvest time…. Have you ever thought about this? The busiest time of the year — which is the Christmas season — also happens to be the very best time for you to talk to somebody you have been praying for, someone you want in heaven with you. [It’s] your very best time to talk to them about Jesus. This is a time when hearts are softer toward Jesus, more natural toward Jesus, and where the subject to bring him up is really not that difficult.”

It can be easy sometimes throughout the year to put sharing the Gospel as secondary to everything else in our day-to-day activities. But fulfilling the Great Commission isn’t just for career missionaries. Hutchcraft encourages it’s a task for every ordinary believer.

“The people who got that Great Commission first were shepherds. You can’t get any more ordinary than shepherds! They weren’t even allowed in the temple in those days. They were thought to be such undesirables but they were the first to carry the message.”

He says, “You’ve got a chance to tell your whole story and what the word ‘savior’ means to you. And literally, it means rescuer…. You can share with them how the Savior that was announced that day has become yours personally. And if you tell it as part of your personal hope story, nobody can argue with how he has changed your life.”

A high-stakes mission

As Hutchcraft points out, the stakes are high in the Great Commission. Every day, more people die without ever having a chance to hear the Gospel.

“On our website, we have an eternity counter running right now…. It is indicating how many people have gone into eternity since Thanksgiving morning. And we know this: that 150,000 of our fellow humans will go into eternity today — heaven or hell. They will be in heaven or hell before the end of today.

“By the time Christmas rolls around, it will be well over five million people who have gone into eternity. So our task as God’s people is to — in some way, with our talents, with our work, with our gifts, whatever — to somehow help put the Gospel within the reach of more people.”

That’s why, over at Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, they are all about sharing the Good News. “We are proclaiming the Gospel by radio…in Mandarin and English and Spanish and Hindi and on our way to the fifth most spoken language in the world as God provides even this Christmas season. And that’s why we’re using every online tool that we possibly can.”

Hutchcraft says they are witnessing a great harvest for the Kingdom of God! “Four out of 10 people who watch one of our Gospel videos from across the country and around the world are indicating they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ through their phone, through their computer. It’s amazing.”

In addition to radio and online evangelism, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries supports indigenous Native American outreach through On Eagles’ Wings.

This Advent season, you can donate to Ron Hutchcraft Ministries and your gift will be doubled by a matching donor. Click here to give a matched gift!

“Every single dollar that will be given to that matching gift will be used to accelerate the spread of the Gospel. It won’t be used to turn on the lights here. It will be used to get the Gospel within the reach of more people, either through radio, internet, or Native Americans reaching Native Americans as only they can. Up to an up to a total of $125,000, your gift will be matched, doubled. There’s no better time.”

A Christmas gift for Jesus

So, this Christmas as you tick off your list of gifts for family, friends, and loved ones, Hutchcraft encourages Christians to be thinking about the gift Jesus would want this Christmas.

“I can tell you, I’ve got Christmas lists from all my grandkids. If I had a Christmas list from Jesus, I know what he would say. He would say, ‘Bring somebody home to me that I died for. This is why I came.’ Let’s think about a gift to him. And the only gifts he wants are the lives he gave his life for. You know some of those [people]. If you’re ever going to share Jesus, do it this time of the year when he came and when he very well might come into the life of someone that you know and love.”

“It would be easy to be really busy and for it to be all about buying gifts and getting to the mall and running through the internet to try to find what you want to get for somebody and all about parties and church activities — and miss the best moment of the year to tell about your Jesus.

As you prepare to share and prepare to give, the best way to prepare is through prayer.

“Start praying right now that God will open doors, natural opportunities for you to bring up Jesus this Christmas season. There should be more of them than usual. Number two, pray that God will open their heart. And number three, pray that you will open your mouth and that God will give you the words and the tone and the timing and the approach to effectively share what he’s done for you and what he could do for them because of what he did on that cross.

“It’s Christmas time. It’s time to tell about Jesus.”

Check back next week as we talk with Ron Hutchcraft about how specifically to share Christ with your own family members this Christmas.

International (MNN) — Have you ever been talking with someone and suddenly see an open conversational opportunity to share your faith? What happened? Did you get cold feet? If so, you’re not alone.

A study by LifeWay Research in 2012 found that 25 percent of Christians don’t feel comfortable sharing their faith.

That’s why movements like NoPlaceLeft exist. The goal of NoPlaceLeft is to tangibly equip believers to witness the Gospel so there’s “no place left” that hasn’t heard of Christ.

Kevin Maxwell is a missionary with e3 Partners, and the ministry is part of the NoPlaceLeft coalition — along with several other mission groups and individuals. He shares why this ministry is so effective in its outreach model, and the stories he’s seen of lives transformed.

A Harvester’s Personal Story

Maxwell’s experience for 22 years before joining e3 Partners was in various areas of ministry — from Christian education to youth and discipleship pastorates — but he felt like something was missing on the witnessing front.

“Many of those things were all great things that were taking place and ministries I had, but often times we do a lot of concentrating on the teaching aspect of things, sometimes to the exclusion of training in order to lead to obedience [in evangelism].”

Then he noticed e3 Partners’ outreach model and that of other ministries within NoPlaceLeft.

“I was seeing that they were taking a different approach…. They were training individuals, and so they were giving them tools in which they could go out and share the Gospel. They were giving tools that could get you started in the sharing, how to identify who you’re going to witness to, how you’re supposed to witness to them, [and] how you’re supposed to disciple them.”

First 30 Days in the Harvest

From there, Maxwell became an e3 Partner missionary and part of the NoPlaceLeft movement.

“We enter into what is called a first 30 days in the harvest. So that first 30 days when I first got here to South Florida, basically my contact and most of my time was spent out in the harvest. What I mean by that is out in the neighborhoods, out in the parks, out in the streets learning and bonding and identifying the different cultures and segment groups I’ll be ministering with. They want us to do that at the beginning so we can find out what those entry points are and the best way to engage an area, and then we can start openly sharing and we can start fine-tuning the tools we have.

He shares, “Just in the very first week of just going out into the harvest and engaging, I came across some individuals who identified as far from God, and they wanted to get back into God’s design. We use something called the three circles which talks about God’s design, it talks about how there’s brokenness in this world, and then the answer to this brokenness is found in Christ. That’s the Gospel message.

“They accepted Christ, they were baptized, we immediately started to hold ‘commands of Christ discipleship’, which is an early-on discipleship with them as a church, and have continued to do so each week while I’ve been even in these 30 days in the harvest.”

One of the biggest lessons Maxwell has learned while serving in the harvest? “When we go out into those fields and we’re spending time out in that harvest and we really open ourselves up through prayer and through trying to really be visible representations of Christ, which is what an ambassador is,…we see the need that’s out there, that’s going to create (and did create in me) a sense of, ‘I need to be out there, because that’s where the brokenness is.’”

A Domino Effect

The model of NoPlaceLeft looks like a domino effect. When someone leads a friend in the harvest to Christ, that new believer then is encouraged to go and do the same thing in their sphere of influence.

“Throughout that whole process, that discipleship is emphasizing that now they’re ambassadors for Christ who are supposed to go right back out into that harvest, and they’re supposed to be seeding the neighborhoods and their families and their coworkers and whoever they come into contact with, they’re supposed to be seeding that Gospel.”

When we say “harvest”, it can be easy to think of it as a designated mission field “out there” — a big city or an impoverished area. But, really, the “harvest” is everywhere there are lost souls. What makes the difference is how you engage it.

What about you?

If you’d like to find a NoPlaceLeft training near you, click here!

Maxwell says you can also contact e3 Partners. “There are e3 Partners missionaries located all throughout the United States. They will go to your church and help to provide training for the churches that are asking for it, help lead them through these tools, [and] take them out into the harvest so they can actually see that this does bear fruit and it is something they’re being called to.”

Then, pray. “Each day, we set our alarms for Luke 10:2, which is basically calling out individuals into the harvest. So at 10:02 every day, we stop and we pray…for people that would take on that call and to take on that challenge to be those ambassadors of Christ and to help us to work towards NoPlaceLeft. It’s going to take, not a handful of missionaries spread out throughout the world, [but] it’s going to take churches that are coming together, bodies of believers that are coming together that are all working towards this NoPlaceLeft.”

Maxwell adds this final thought: “We live in a society now where sometimes we don’t engage people. We often come home and many times we go inside the house and we close our doors. It’s really, really hard for the Church to be the Church and accomplish that Great Commission that Christ has called us to unless we go out and intentionally engage that harvest.”

Ethiopia (FFH) — After the holidays, it’s not unusual for many of us to experience a dip in energy and need a nice cup of coffee to get us going.

It’s amazing how people on the other side of the world appreciate coffee like Americans.

In Ethiopia, in the community of Sasiga, coffee is said to be a drink that gives people the “courage and determination to perform all of their duties.”

Coffee beans not only make a tasty drink, these beans are a cash crop that provide a great source of revenue for farmers, like the men and women in Sasiga. That is why Food for the Hungry (FH) helped these farmers overcome difficulties to start growing coffee beans for income.

In 2003, farmers in Sasiga tried to grow different crops on termite-infested lands. The bugs devoured sprouting plants overnight.

Poor farmers like Dereje Motuma lived in frustration and hunger. Dereje tried to earn a living as a laborer, since farming was impossible. But work for him was hard to find, and he and his family felt hunger pains every day.

But life changed–and this time for the better. Food for the Hungry (FH) came to Dereje’s community and worked with farmers to start growing crops.

Through FH classes, Dereje learned to rid his property of termites and learned about agro-forestry. He mastered how to make and use compost. He gained knowledge of business management, marketing and growing a private plant nursery, and raising coffee bean trees.

Dereje practiced agro-forestry by growing indigenous trees alongside of his coffee bean seedlings. Coffee bean trees grow better with shade, so the other trees provided an enriched environment for a better coffee crop.

Now, Dereje earns income from his coffee bean crop. He’s also growing other crops like vegetables to feed his family. He’s become a better farmer using irrigation, pest-control, and fertilizing practices to get the most from his land.

The coffee also provides Dereje and his wife with a way to bring the community together.

They invite neighbors to their home to drink coffee and discuss various social issues, such as community business and ways they can improve life for themselves. The gathering serves as a forum to address issues.

This is the kind of creative work faithful partners like you can support through Food for the Hungry.

Trees are reforesting Sasiga, turning what was once a wasteland into an oasis of coffee bean producing farms that help feed families. It’s also bringing people together as a community.

So when you drink your next cup of coffee, remember how on the other side of the world, this little bean is changing lives.

“We had enough food supplies when the fighting started and we first came to the camps. But now it has become very difficult to get fresh vegetables,” said Doi Sum Hlu, a mother living in Nhkawng Pa camp, home to 1,615 IDPs.

The organic farm project was started in November 2011 by Bridging Rural Integrated Development and Grassroots Empowerment (BRIDGE), a community-based organization. “It feels like we are back at our farm producing vegetables again, and [we] feel productive once more,” said Khon Ygee, whose deserted farmhouse is located in neighboring Kaw Thao Village, in the conflict zone.

The organic farms use natural fertilizers made from manure, leaves, and compost. The project is supported by Partners Relief and Development, an international NGO dedicated to Myanmar aid. “It’s such an exciting thing to do, rather than just handing them rice and blankets,” said Oddny Gunmaer, Partners’ founder and advocacy director. As PRD helps assist the organic farming project, the opportunity to share Christ is wide open.

Each camp has just over three hectares of land for organic farming. Any interested camp resident can join the program, and participants now grow 19 different types of vegetables, including ginger, carrots, cabbage, onion, lentils, pumpkin, and four varieties of beans. The food is distributed equally among the IDPs.

As the project continues, pray that the harvest will provide greatly for those in the community. Even though the people in the community are internally displaced, pray that through volunteers helping with the organic food project, Christ will be shared. Pray that an impact will be made on those who don’t know Him.

The damage has not been insignificant. At least six people were killed after a tornado ripped through northwest Oklahoma. Many homes have been turned to rubble.

Thankfully, though, the damage isn't anywhere near what it could have beeb. 120 tornadoes worth of damage could have been much worse, but the twisters struck mainly unpopulated or just not densely-populated areas. In fact, the effects of the tornadoes have not even been enough to get the Evangelical Free Church of America TouchGlobal Crisis Response team on the ground.

"It seems like local resources, in most cases, are being able to address most of those needs," says Crisis Response director Mark Lewis.

TouchGlobal may not have a need to respond, but that certainly doesn't mean they're not working on tornado cleanup. The tornadoes that hit last weekend are a reminder of how long-term these crises will inevitably be.

"The interesting thing with the tornadoes: they're in the news for a day or two, but they drop out pretty quickly," Lewis remarks. "Yet, even a year later, there are still people in the Harvest, Alabama area that need help."

The people of Harvest, Alabama were still trying to recover from a devastating 2011 tornado when another tornado hit almost the exact same area. For Harvest residents, just the reports of tornado possibilities last weekend were enough to put their hair on end.

Tornado victims living in Harvest have been through a great deal of loss, but the TouchGlobal is one of the only–if not THE only–group assisting in the tiring rebuild process. Lewis says the volume of tornadoes as of late has put places like Harvest on the back burner.

"[With] many of these small tornadoes in many different places all at once, the resources to come and help at one particular place really end up getting diffused," says Lewis. "Without the word getting out, people probably don't even know that there's a need for a whole lot of hands to come to Harvest, Alabama."

But there is indeed still a great deal of need. Some homes that TouchGlobal had rebuilt since the 2011 tornado were torn apart again last month. This coming weekend, a team is embarking on an extreme rebuild effort to tackle a number of home repairs. This effort will still only put a dent in the long-term work of debris removal and rebuild ahead.

The EFCA church in Harvest, Hope Church, is committed to the cause. They have been deeply involved with cleanup and rebuild efforts, and they continue to provide physically and spiritually for the community. The emotional scars left on Harvest residents are especially deep, but since Hope Church has been sending out regular prayer teams, Lewis says residents are talking about spiritual things and hope in a way they never have before.

"There is a lot of seed planting and watering being done, and the harvest is really up to the Lord," says Lewis.

There are a lot of things that believers can do to help in the process. Teams are needed to head to Harvest. Debris removal equipment is needed, especially chain saws to cut fallen limbs. Financial and prayer support are also vital. To find out how you can best respond to the recent tornadoes, visit touchglobal.org/tornado.