“Usually when we talk about our ministry there, I have to kind of explain where Burkina Faso is. They’ve not heard of it. It’s not been in the news,” says Greg Yoder with Christian World Outreach (CWO). 

Islamic militant groups entered Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali nearly a decade ago. They’ve been fighting each other and the government ever since. One city in the north has been under a blockade by Islamic militants for two years. 

Civilians are caught in the crossfire. Today, two million people are displaced within Burkina Faso. In 2023, one quarter of all terrorism-related deaths reported in the world were in Burkina Faso, surpassing Afghanistan. (Source: Institute for Economics & Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2024 report.) Just this past August, up to 600 men, women and children were shot within a few hours in an eastern town by jihadists.

Yet for the number of people caught in this crisis, the humanitarian aid, media coverage, and political and diplomatic efforts to intervene are incredibly low, as the report from the NRC points out.

In the midst of these deep-seated problems, CWO’s medical clinic and its vocational training school for young women have felt the pressure.

Village of Opportunity graduation in Burkina Faso 2023. (Photo courtesy of Christian World Outreach)

“We’ve had our girls from the Village of Opportunity come back early — some of them — just because of the safety [concerns], but that puts a strain on our budget because we’ve got girls coming back early and need to feed them,” Yoder says. 

“[Some of them] came back about a month early. It’s a blessing to be able to help them that way. God’s been good and supplied what we’ve needed.”

Would you consider becoming part of CWO’s financial support for ministry to the people of Burkina Faso? What the team is doing is making a difference for eternity.

“You know, if people are are fleeing their homes and they’re hungry, just sharing the gospel with them is not going to do much. Being able to to love on them and supply some of those physical needs gives the opportunity to share the gospel,” Yoder says. 

And of course, pray! Pray that the right people in the world will see and stir themselves to take action on behalf of Burkina Faso. 

“Pray for our leadership staff as they make discerning decisions on who to help and how to help,” Yoder says. 

“Pray for the safety of the Village of Opportunity. Pray for the mobile clinic as they go out. They’re going into the villages, and so they’re risking their safety sometimes.”

Learn more about CWO’s ministry here. 

Header photo of women in Burkina Faso is a representative stock photo courtesy of AFRIQUE AYELE-Y via Pexels.

This week, that milestone was reached–a full three months ahead of schedule. The UN estimates that more than 7,000 refugees cross Syria's borders each night, fleeing to Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, North Africa, and the Middle East.

However, the story within Syria itself is grimmer as more than 4 million people are trapped, in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Pioneers ministry partners say life in refugee camps is difficult. It's still winter, so the nights are cold. Stomachs are empty. Fear and uncertainty prevail. They need blankets, clothing, shoes, food, fuel for cooking, medicines, and access to medical care. 

During the month of March, AW Media is tailoring their message specifically to Syrians, sharing the hope of the Gospel. AW Media partners, already living in a country with hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, are able to provide follow-up to these media messages through individual visits to families.

During these visits, the workers provide material relief through food packages, food coupons, blankets, donated clothes, heaters, and other essential goods. By meeting these basic needs, the love of Christ becomes tangible, and lives are changed.

Already, 10 families have decided to follow Christ and are connected through a cooperative with a local church. And these 10 families will no doubt impact hundreds more when they return to Syria.

One Pioneer writes:

"As we've gotten to know some of them [Syrian refugees], we've become aware of their needs. The living situations of many are dismal. Often several families live together in a small room without electricity, running water, bathroom, or kitchen space. For many of them, their kids aren't able to attend school because they don't have money. We've started handing out food boxes and shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child. Please join us in praying for wisdom about where and how to best be involved in meeting both the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors."

In some cases, refugees are embracing the hope that comes through faith in Jesus alone. As God transforms their hearts, He is growing many of them into men and women who are bearing fruit among their own displaced countrymen.

"One Syrian refugee saw Christ heal his daughter while in the refugee camp. This event drew him to follow Jesus. Now he is reaching out by giving sacrificially and boldly proclaiming Christ.

"This winter he spent nights sleeping on his roof so that the women of another family could share a room with his wife and kids. He also housed another family whose belongings had been washed away in recent flooding. Praise God for these sacrificial acts of love from a new believer. Two others have recently made professions of faith. Pray that all of them would stand firm and continue to put themselves in contact with other believers so that they can be discipled."

These Pioneers and local Christians want to see Syrians meet the real Jesus for the first time. They want to see the new believers share the Gospel with other refugees and eventually take it back to their friends and family in Syria. This big vision is only possible as a work of God. You can help, too. Click here for details.

Patrick Klein with Vision Beyond Borders says for some reason,
their misdeeds have gone "under the radar." 
"I think it's going to become a North Korea very easily unless the
world gets involved and says, 'Enough is enough.'" 

Ironically, Burma's
leaders have set another election date for October 10 this year–the first
since Suu Kyi won 20 years ago. While
government supporters claim it's a step toward democracy, everything else
points the other direction.

There are concerns that a new election will sweep the junta
military into power and officially entrench the ongoing brutality. 

Those fears are especially real against the backdrop of a reported military
crackdown against Burma's Karen, many of them Christians. Klein says, "There's genocide taking
place. They're wiping out whole villages. We have a report of over 3300
villages being burned to the ground and landmines everywhere. Over half a
million people have died."

Over 500,000 of Burma's minorities have been slaughtered, and
yet very little of this crisis makes it onto the headline pages. That's 
a source of frustration for Klein and other partners working to
alleviate the suffering of Karen Christians.

However, the tide could be changing. "Many people have lost complete confidence
whatsoever in their government. It
seems like you have this leadership that becomes more and more evil and bent
on destruction. And yet, in the midst of it, you see God really working."

It's an overwhelming
task, but Klein says the Gospel brings hope amidst dangerous circumstances. He notes, "We've just had a request
from an evangelist to help provide 20,000 New Testaments. He wants to
evangelize soldiers." Klein
says their partner has been talking with a general of one of the tribal armies
who has also come under fire. Funding
for the Bibles is needed along with monies for medical supplies and food.  You can help. Click here.  

(Join us tomorrow for Part 2 of this 3-Part series on the situation in
Burma.)

However, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board
says youth from their Center for Young Missionaries (Centro Misionero Jovenel) are
leading a response.  Since the quake, these Chilean Baptist young
people have been sending teams to Los Lizamas regularly to distribute food,
water and diapers.

IMB missionary Charles Clark was part of the IMB's quake-relief
assessment team. He says, "These Chilean Baptist youth are pretty well-known and build a relationship with the people there."

The center trains missionaries-to-be in their late teens and
early 20s on living the Gospel. It's a
new missions education program that sends missionaries to other parts of Chile
and the 10/40 Window–the geographical band from North Africa to Southeast Asia
where most of the world's unreached peoples live.

Students in the program receive proactive, on-the-job
training for two years. During training, they live in a facility the students
built behind the church to use as a base for mobilizing projects. When they
complete training, participants are sent to their fields of service. They're applying their training in earnest
with the survivors of Los Lizamas.

The assessment team also pledged to support Molina Baptists'
plans to establish a feeding center to assist up to 5,000 Chilean families in
the area. Can you help?

Looting and unrest have plagued the
hardest-hit areas, which has prompted a curfew and military presence. 

Craig Dyer with
Bright Hope International says their Partnership
Developer, Mark Lennox, arrives tomorrow to help coordinate relief. Lennox has been in contact with other
Christian leaders in Chile, and together, they created an immediate response
plan to help the people in Concepcion through their local church networks.

Dyer explains, "We're empowering the local churches in
these communities to reach out to the other churches so that people's needs can
be met. Right now, it's primarily focused on food and safety. We've released
the funds to be able to purchase food, and that's being distributed through
the local churches. "

A second approach of their response goes through a contact
in the local church in Santiago. Bright
Hope is working with an owner of a grocery store chain near Concepcion. They
are still formulating the plan, but the store owner has agreed to purchase and
deliver needed supplies to churches in Concepcion.

Throughout the chaos, the quiet murmur of the hope of Christ
can be heard when believers offer a compassionate response. "To take the
time and say, 'Not only are we delivering this food to help you, but we want
you to know we care,' and then to stop and pray for that person for a moment: Those can be life-changing moments." 

Continue praying for the Christians who are acting as the hands and
feet of Christ in Concepcion. Pray God's
blessing on Bright Hope's response. Pray
that this crisis creates opportunities to share the Gospel. 

Recovery will take a long time. You can help. Click here.

The camps are full because the Burmese army is
wiping out the Karen. Wes Flint with Vision Beyond
Borders says, "I'm
shocked that the free world is just allowing this to continue." 

The ruling junta has been
battling Christian-majority Karen rebels for decades. Similar army crackdowns forced thousands of
villagers to flee their homes, and they found
their way across the border to Thailand's refugee camps. 

Many of the more-recently displaced were
forced to hide in the Burma jungle. 

Human rights groups protested the
Thai plan to repatriate the refugees in Burma over concern that once back in Myanmar,
the refugees will be subject to "severe
human rights violations, including forced labour and rape by soldiers of the
Burma Army," according to a leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. 

No one expects the situation to
improve, but VBB teams are trying to intervene. "We try to create a safe environment for them, to bring them in, to
provide food for them, and medical care."

VBB's Patrick Klein wrote this from Myanmar: "Due to rice fields and crops being destroyed and attacks on villagers by the Burmese army, we have a group of 100 children who are in urgent need of food. They are on the brink of starvation. Currently they are in hiding with their parents inside Burma. Our caretaker in our Shekinah children's home in one of the official refugee camps asked if we can help those children with food and get them out of Burma."

It's dangerous work, but there are friends of the ministry who are trying to get those 100 children to the VBB camp in the mountains.  

Klein says, "If we are able to get them out, we will build housing for them. The parents are ready to die and give whatever food they find to their children for now. Please pray with us that God will make a way for these children and help our attempts to get them safely into one of the camps where we have a Children's Home."

The VBB team delivered 45 bags of rice and medicines to partners who will take all the supplies to the Internally Displaced People inside Burma–those hiding from the Burmese Army.

It's hard to imagine what is going unnoticed in front of so many international eyes. Flint explains, "There's what they would call an 'ethnic cleansing' going on, but it seems that most of their targets are Christians."  

Does their identity as a Christian mark them as Karen–or possibly something more? Flint says, "This persecution has really refined them. They have been great ambassadors to reach out to the Buddhist community–even to those that are persecuting them."

You can help these persecuted people. Click here for
details.

Jeff Boshart with FARMS International says many have given up. “350,000 people have left the Port-au-Prince area and have moved out into
the countryside.”

It’s not much better elsewhere. “The families that will be receiving them were probably counting on their relatives in the earthquake zones to send them money for support through the tough times; now they have those people back home with them, and they’re being asked to support the people who were the breadwinners.”

FARMS has 10 years and two volunteer loan committees in Haiti. They’re helping the Evangelical Church of Haiti, an association of 55 churches in northern Haiti, now fully indigenous.

The funds that FARMS provides enable the church to develop an interest-free loan program for very needy families within the church. The idea is to use the funds to develop a small business. Profits from the business go not only to support the family, but also to support the church through tithing.

One of the benefits of tithing is that the pastor has time to evangelize the community and disciple his congregation. So another benefit of stewardship is that when Christians give, and give sacrificially, God brings revival.

The programs started by FARMS a decade ago have been running so smoothly, they eventually took on their own life.   Communications with the committees dropped off.  When Boshart re-connected during his most recent visit, he told them FARMS was prepared to help the churches with the influx by giving the programs another cash infusion.

Those projects are now gearing up to respond long-term to these refugees. “One of the ways that FARMS can help is by making money available to the local churches to help stimulate business through their own membership.”

As the teams lay the economic groundwork, they are also laying the foundation for evangelistic ministry. “One of the hopes is that through tithing, the ministries of the local church will be strengthened.” Be watching and praying to see how God uses these projects for His glory. You can help. Click here

In this impoverished country, food prices will quickly escalate. Clean
water will be at a premium. Gas prices will be exorbitant. Aside from U.S. troops and the United Nations, there is little
effective government presence to prevent the mounting bedlam from going into
anarchy.

As the search for food and water
grows more desperate, the struggle for
survival will take a violent turn.  Already
there are reports of gangs of young men and boys armed with machetes scavenging
the ruins. 

At the best of times, lone
children faced abuse and attacks in the streets. With
conditions deteriorating,  the danger
increases for the youngest quake survivors.

Al Lackey with Kids Alive International says,
"Kids Alive hopes to cooperate with some of the other organizations there
and rescue these children and bring them into temporary care, give them the
counseling and care that they're going to need after going through this
horrible experience."

Kids Alive
ministers to children in three homes. They are first making sure the
kids they're already helping stay safe. Plans
are also underway to take in as many orphans as they can in the unharmed
housing in the north of Haiti and possibly in the Dominican Republic.

Future plans also include additional
homes for 50 to 100 children orphaned by the earthquake. Lackey says that when Kids Alive says 'Yes,'
it's a lifetime commitment. 

The kids hear this message:
"We're going to care for you until you are a young adult. We're going to
educate you, we're going to love you, we're going to teach you about Jesus Christ.
We want you to be the Godly change agent of the future Haiti."

Kids Alive sent funding to begin
rescue measures. More needs to be done. Click
here for details.

The International Red Cross estimates a third of the country's 9 million
people may need emergency aid.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the
American Red Cross says the aid organization ran out of medical supplies in Haiti.

There are reports of people dying from injuries that are easily treated. Bodies are piled in the streets, adding to
what may become a fight to stave off disease before the crisis is over.

Steve Bostian, executive director
in the Dominican Republic with
CURE International, is leading a 5-member surgical team in the
area. Including Bostian, the team consists of: Dr. Scott Nelson,
orthopedic surgeon; Dr. Dielika Charlier, a Haitian pediatrician; Lucia Hernandez,
a nurse; and Susan Beemer, nurse anesthetist.

The CURE team will establish a base at the
home of Dr. Charlier's mother and coordinate with organizations on the ground
to provide medical care to Haitians. Bostian explains why it's so
strategic. "We have located a home that apparently has minimal damage, and
it's only five houses down from the pediatric hospital that collapsed."

Thousands are buried in the
rubble. Understanding that people want to help, Bostian says, "We first want to go in with the
professionals that have done this, do the assessment, and then we'll know how
many doctors and nurses we can bring down."

Their plane will be carrying
500 pounds of medical equipment. The AES
Electric Company in neighboring Dominican Republic stepped in to help CURE.  "They're donating an
electrical generator, food, clean water, and medical supplies." Arrangements are currently being made to get this equipment into the county.

The hope of the Gospel doesn't go
unnoticed by those who receive help. "They really understand the spiritual impact
that 'God must have sent you.' When the dust
settles, people start to ask those questions, 'Why did you do that?' then you
have the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them."

Your prayer is needed for the
CURE team members, as well as for those they're reaching. For those who can help earthquake
victims financially, CURE has established a donation fund to provide relief for Haitians.

You can donate in one of two
ways: Click here to give an online donation. Or you can make a contribution by phone. Simply text
CURE to 85944 to give a $10 mobile gift.

Worse yet, there is little communication from the ruin. Kathy Redmond with Compassion International says they’ve heard nothing from their 50-member team, and there is no word about the 64,000 kids they help.

The silence is ominous. Struggling to overcome her emotion, Redmond explains, “These are Americans, work colleagues from my team, as well as some of the nationals that we work very closely with.”

Compassion has 230 child development centers in Haiti. Not knowing anything or how to respond is the hardest part of this crisis. Compassion dispatched a relief team that will try to re-establish communications. They’ll also help with emergency relief distribution.

The team, led by Doug Bassett, director of Central American countries for Compassion, will coordinate Compassion’s supply of clean water, food, medical care, supplies and adequate housing to aid those who have been affected by the quake.  In addition, Compassion has immediately released $20,000 to assist teams on the ground in areas affected by the quake.

(Photo courtesy Compassion International)

Not only are they living Christ, but they’re also leaning on Christ. Redmond says going from the organization who always provides help to being one who might need help is a new thing.

She explains, “We deal with disasters, but to be without any communication–for us to have to send people down there in order to try to assess anything because we can’t get any communication–has really shown us how vulnerable we can be.”

Compassion is urging prayer for its Haitian relief efforts. Contributions are also needed.

$35 helps one family receive emergency supplies of food and clean water for about one week. $1,500 can help rebuild a home in Haiti. Text “disaster” to 90999 to give $10. More details are available here.

Header image courtesy Compassion International.