Kenya Hope works with local Kenyan believers to support widows, community water and health initiatives, and empower families through their Hope Centers – all in the name of Christ. Last year, Kenya Hope had seven ministry sites among the Maasai people. But soon they hope to expand to 12 locations.

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Steve Holman with Kenya Hope says, “Our board has approved an initiative of some major fundraising which will take the next couple of years. With all those new ministry locations, obviously there are infrastructure needs – practical things like classrooms and a dining hall or cook houses and faculty housing and things.”

Yet, with the sudden loss last year of their executive directors, Dave and Joy Mueller, Kenya Hope is in need of new leadership and looking for a new executive director.

“It would take a step of faith for any person to say, ‘I’ll be the next executive director of Kenya Hope,” says Holman. “We’re not looking to replace Dave and Joy Mueller. They were unique and irreplaceable.

“But we are confident that God’s hand is on this ministry, and we’re looking for a godly leader to have the skills to work with a multicultural team and have the ability to effectively present a compelling story.”

Ask the Lord to raise up a godly leader to the helm of Kenya Hope.

If you’re interested to learn more about opportunities with Kenya Hope, visit their website here!

Header photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

On April 13 – the same day Tehran launched drone attacks on Israel – the regime also announced a new campaign called Noor, or “light” in Persian. The campaign increases efforts by the morality police to punish women not wearing hijab in public.

The header photo shows an Iranian woman. (Photo courtesy of TruedynamicPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Iranian women who’ve been arrested without head coverings say they are physically and verbally assaulted — accused of loving the West and loving America.

Iranian Christians are also ostracized and treated with suspicion for ties to the West.

An annual report released by Article18 in February shows a similar number of Christians were arrested in 2023 from previous years. However, fewer Iranian Christians in 2023 were willing to allow their faces and names to be publicized due to growing fears of backlash.

Joe Willey with SAT-7, a Christian satellite television broadcaster in the Middle East and North Africa, says they recently heard from one Iranian Christian viewer who was denied a job opportunity.

“He had applied for a job with an excellent salary. But he also had to write his religion and he wrote Christian/Protestant…. But the owner sadly just said, ‘If you were not a Christian, then with your experience, your capabilities, you would go into management in the IT department. You’d get an excellent salary. But we do not employ Christians.’”

SAT-7 PARS’ television programs in Farsi are challenging the narrative on Christians in Iran.

By broadcasting via satellite and utilizing social media, they can reach across closed borders and connect with Iranians who might otherwise never hear the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of SAT-7 PARS)

Willey says, “SAT-7 exposes people who are not Christians to Christians and Christian theology, Christian thought. How do Christians act? Why do Christians say what they say?

“So it is a tool to make the Gospel available, to make God’s love visible to people who may have preconceived notions about Christians.”

To believers around the world, Willey says we can be encouraged by the example of persecuted Iranian believers.

“There are those in Iran, there are those in the Middle East who are certainly firm and strong in their face — that they would say, ‘No, I am a Christian,’ even if it means not getting a job, not having an opportunity that would be a benefit; but also in more extreme cases, physical harm and worse.”

Please pray for women and other marginalized minorities in Iran to know their worth in Christ! Ask God to give local believers wisdom and boldness as they share their faith.

Learn more about SAT-7 here.

Header photo courtesy of Zahra Amiri/Unsplash.

Spoken Worldwide is a Christian ministry that equips leaders to share the Gospel with oral learners. Their work includes orality coaching, pastor development, and oral Bible translation initiatives.

Like many of their ministry partners, Spoken Worldwide is feeling COVID-19’s impact on their supporters.

Uncertainty in finances

(Photo courtesy of Nik Shuliahin via Unsplash)

Ed Weaver, President of Spoken Worldwide, says, “We’re completely dependent on the generosity of believers and when they express fear and uncertainty in terms of their careers or their personal wealth, then it creates a downstream problem for us. As confident as we want to be in the Lord and His provision for us, how do we provide confidence to those who support us?”

It is understandable that charitable giving decreases in times when families aren’t sure how to pay their bills or afford groceries.

Rather than making financial decisions out of fear, Weaver encourages believers to bathe their situation in prayer. He also says nonprofits should empower and trust their donors to make wise decisions as the Holy Spirit leads — even if that means a decrease in giving.

“I know that there’s plenty of people that suggest that part of the ministry is a ministry to donors and to disciple donors. Well, I’m never one to presume that I know more spiritually than a donor does so it’s not like I can counsel them. If someone is experiencing fear in what to do with their money and maybe they want to pull in their horns, who am I to say that’s not what God’s telling them to do?”

(Photo courtesy of Nathan Dumlao via Unsplash)

Uncertainty in leadership

The pandemic has also put leaders like Weaver in very tough positions. As people look to their leaders for guidance and encouragement, ministry heads especially have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.

“We know that we need to stiff-arm fear and recognize that’s not from our Lord and God…but then how do you really face that? How do you articulate that to your team — that you are confident [but] at the same time, not unaware of what everybody else’s fears and uncertainties may be, and then helping them manage through what their fears are?”

Weaver says being proactive in team communication is key. “We’re not in the office together and so, therefore, we really can’t very tangibly lift each other up or have each other’s back. So there has to be some intentionality that not only I have to deliver to the team, but the team needs to be able to lift each other up in the process.”

Spoken Worldwide also supports indigenous ministry leaders around the world in orality Gospel movements. Weaver says he is also trying to empower these leaders in their own contexts to support and encourage the people they work with.

“There’s compassion that we need to have on our local leadership…and provide whatever strength and support that they’re going to need in navigating this uncertain time.”

Uncertainty in the future

(Photo courtesy of Nikko Macaspac via Unsplash)

Personally, Weaver is no stranger to financial devastation and uncertainty. He and his wife Laura got married in 2001. Within a year, they both lost their jobs.

“Our income for the next three years was never more than ten percent of what we had made collectively before we got married. So you go through three years of that and every time you reduce a certain expense, it’s just never enough. Finally, after a while, you don’t have anything.”

However, Weaver says times of future uncertainty and even tragedy are reminders that our confidence shouldn’t rest on the money we have in our bank accounts.

“We’re all equally in a dependent position on God and His provision for us. If we look…at His Word and we read what He says about His faithfulness to us,…we typically interpret that as saying, ‘Well, then I’ll never lose my job.’ No, He means He’ll never leave us or forsake us. That doesn’t have anything to do with our income and our livelihood.

“We are just beginning to realize how dependent we are on God, how dependent we always were. Nothing has changed from yesterday to today.”

Certainty in God

Finances, leadership, and the future may all be uncertain. But one thing is sure — we serve a God who is certain.

(Photo courtesy of Whoislimos via Unsplash)

“That is what my go-to is,” Weaver says. “It’s the parallel between God’s Word and my personal experience that prove He was faithful. But you know what? I did lose my job. I did lose my income. It was a long, painful process and there were a lot of things I had put my faith in that God said, ‘You don’t need to have your faith in that. You need to have your faith in Me.’”

If there’s one thing we as believers can do to take advantage of this season, it’s pray.

Please pray for Spoken Worldwide and other ministries to persevere in telling people about Jesus. Ask the Lord to give nonprofit donors and supporters wisdom. Pray for many people to turn to Christ for hope and peace in the midst of uncertainty.

Weaver asks, “Pray that God will reveal Himself to us in a new and fresh way and remind us that He is the same God today as He was yesterday. He’s the same God today when things are uncertain as He was when we thought things were certain two months ago. I think reminding each other of that is incredibly powerful.”

Click here to learn more about Spoken Worldwide!

Header photo courtesy of Milada Vigerova via Unsplash.

In the current COVID-19 crisis, each hospital is approaching the situation differently. Some say it’s first-come, first-served when it comes to life-sustaining ventilators. Others are directing the most resources towards patients who have the best chance of survival. Still others are taking additional factors into account such as how many children a patient has or the essential nature of a patient’s occupation.

(Photo courtesy of Jonathan Borba via Unsplash)

Such decisions are striking different moral chords, and no one envies the agonizing situations these doctors and other frontline workers never wanted to face.

But it is also making society as a whole examine the broader question: What determines the worth and value of a human life?

Eric Verstraete, president and CEO of Life Matters Worldwide has a few thoughts: “At the end of the day, life comes from God, life starts at conception, and life is valued all the way until natural death. That’s what we believe.

“Whether we’re old or we’re young, we all are made completely in the image of God. That’s where we gain our value — not from our skills or from our abilities. Are those skills and abilities that people have, are they coveted at different times in our history and different times in our world? Absolutely. But that does not make someone more or less valuable.”

In the midst of a pandemic, what does it mean for believers to be the Church and affirm the value of life at this time?

“I saw one meme the other day that says, ‘The churches aren’t empty. The Church has just been deployed,’” Verstraete says. “I loved that statement because, yes, we can’t be meeting together but I think…true intentionality works within the Church to be able to build those relationships so that people don’t have to live in fear.”

Ultimately, this is a rare opportunity for the Church to reach out and show people their value in Christ.

“We can be reaching out to the people…who we know are the more vulnerable people. If someone needs them to go and get some groceries for them and just leave it on their front doorstep so that they can have what they need, that’s important; reaching out through video chats or even just cards or phone calls.”

Verstraete knows from experience how important it is at this time to be intentional with relationships. “My mom is in a senior living facility that’s basically on lockdown and I know that we try to video call with her a couple of times a week if we can. She loves that. So I think it’s trying to stay as connected as we possibly can to show people how important they are in our lives.

“I think this intentionality that we’re forced to have right now will make the congregational gatherings…much sweeter because of the roots that are being developed from this forced intentionality that we are having right now as the Body of Christ.”

Please pray for people who are solitary shut-ins to still feel connected and loved. Ask the Lord to be near families and friends who have a loved one in the hospital. Pray for people to turn to Jesus in this crisis.

Verstraete also asks, “Pray for those who are on the front lines. We pray for the doctors and the nurses who are on the front lines right now because this is an army that’s getting tired right now. So we can be praying for them.”

Click here to learn more about Life Matters Worldwide.

Header photo courtesy of Marcelo Leal via Unsplash.

God’s Work Through Radio

In areas hostile to the Gospel, God’s Word can reach Christians and unbelievers alike through radio programs. TWR, or Trans World Radio, preaches the Good News to people around the World through a variety of Christian programs. It broadcasts Biblical truth in over 230 languages in 190 countries around the globe.

(Photo and header photo courtesy of TWR)

The testimonies are precious. People turn from darkness because of a perfectly timed broadcast. Isolated Christians tune into a program to feel connection with the global Church.

However, to continue broadcasting, TWR needs help.

A Pressing Need

Many ministries and churches send their people to their own programs to serve, but Rick Weston, Chief Personnel Officer for TWR, encourages people to remember established missions.

TWR has had the privilege of working with talented individuals and couples for years, but now they need to renew their workforce.

Weston explains, “We need people who have an overwhelming calling from the LORD to serve in this kind of ministry. And we have sought those types of people and over the years we have found those people. The Lord has brought them to us. And many of those people are getting toward retirement age, either to take care of very elderly parents or they are getting up there themselves and they need to look to their own needs.”

Workers Ready for the Harvest

Weston and his team pray weekly for the right people to join their team. The critical needs list is hitting over 20 open positions at the moment. To keep operating at full capacity, they need those jobs to be filled.

Weston says, “I can’t emphasize enough the need we have for people to serve.”

(Photo courtesy of TWR)

Has God gifted you with technical maintenance, financial, graphic design, or administrative skills? Are you willing to learn on the job? Perhaps God is calling you to a career you weren’t aware was available.

Please pray to ask God if He is leading you to join TWR as they broadcast God’s Word around the world, then visit this link to see what critical needs exist.

Perhaps you have a different set of skills and are feeling the Lord’s tug. Visit here to see all open missionary staff positions.

Join from Your Current Career

You might not feel called to a full-time missions career, but Weston says that you can still help. Pray that God would direct the right hearts to respond to His call for missions. Pray that those who have responded but are not fully funded would be able to raise the support they need.

Lastly, get involved financially. TWR missionary staff rely on support from Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Go here and look for appointees to see which missions workers still need funds.

God has called everyone to join His mission. Weston asks that you pray and seek out if TWR is where God is calling you.

A Spike in Persecution

From state-sponsored backlash to familial pressures, faith in Christ is under attack. This is increasingly true in countries dominated by radical Islamic ideologies.

Samuel with Redemptive Stories explains that while the presence of Isis is slimming overall, their ideology continues to live. “An ideology that, is although a minority among most Islamic scholars, but it is an acceptably held understanding of Qur’anic and Scriptural interpretation.

“And so therefore, this is an ideology that can’t be fought with weapons, and knives, and war. It has to be fought with the Gospel. And with… so with that reality, I think we’re going to continue to see a spike in persecution across this part of the world, especially as the church continues to grow in this part of the world.”

Community-Enforced Ideology

Samuel further identifies that ideological persecution won’t just be from governments in 2019. While many Near East and Middle East countries have blasphemy or anti-conversion laws on the books, daily persecution comes from communities more than governments.

“Persecution here looks a lot different than in places, I think, like the far East and China, unless you are in Iran. It’s not usually state-sponsored persecution.”

Samuel continues, “But it’s usually familial, communal persecution that believers face in this area. It can be things like loss of job, it can be violence. It takes on various different forms. You know the person persecuting them is often the same person that sits across from them at the breakfast table in the morning.”

Persecution from family lines, friends, and coworkers is common. The government may step in, but often the Christian’s community is the group trying to shut down their faith.

Promised Trouble and Prayer

This makes it especially difficult for Christians in those communities. There are few people to trust. The fear of being cut off from their community, beaten or killed is a real struggle.

This is not surprising. Samuel reminds us that Christ promised such things. In John 15 Jesus tells His disciples that as the world hated Him, it will also hate His followers. Yet, knowing that doesn’t mean persecution will be an easy lot to accept.

“And so because of that, we beg the Church to pray, to intercede on our behalf, that we would stand strong in the midst of that persecution. That we would be faithful to the calling of Christ on our lives; that we would communicate boldly.

Refugee Child (Photo courtesy of MaximilianV on Flickr https://goo.gl/ZrkmhR)

“Not to pray necessarily that God would take away the persecution, because we know that persecution is also an essential part of the growth of His Church. But we primarily ask that God would use that persecution to make His name known and to grow us through that experience as well.”

In addition to prayer, Samuel asks the Church to support organizations that work with the persecuted Church. Whether those organizations provide counseling, travel assistance to Christian refugees or something else, they need the Church.

Use the 2019 World Watch List as a way to pray for and learn about how you can support persecuted Christians.

Header photo courtesy of Mohammad Moniruzzaman via Flickr.

Joshua Harrison with Audio Scripture Ministries reflects, “We have realized and seen that there is a place for everyone in God’s Great Commission. There is one Body with many different members. We’re all on the same team, but we may have different roles on that team.”

Get Creative With Your Gifts

ASM has seen this truth carried out in profound ways. Their ministry gives people access to God’s Word in the form of audio Bibles. To do that, they have a whole force of volunteers and staff with many different giftings.

“For example,” says Harrison, “we have Don Lang who is a retired electrical engineer. He travels and shares the stories and the needs for God’s Word in audio in Mozambique and the many other places where we serve. He visits different conferences and shares that all across the US.

A faithful group of volunteers from Hamilton Reformed Church serve at the ASM office. (Photo, caption courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“[There are] others we have who have been painting and gardening and keeping our facilities in good running order here in the Holland, Michigan office. We’ve had groups from local churches who come a few times a year to stuff praise and prayer guides or help send out newsletters for mailing to our supporters.”

There is also no age limit to how God can use you! One of ASM’s volunteers named Lena is a great example of what it looks like to creatively serve the Lord.

“She is 93-years-old but she recently took the time to knit dozens of hats that we were able to bring to our compassionate care patients in Mozambique!

“Old and young alike, they fight many different kinds of illnesses and chronic diseases, so they struggle to maintain proper body temperature. But to see the joy on their faces when we brought these beautiful hats that someone cared enough to make…for them, [it was] just confirming the message of the Gospel that we’re bringing them with our weekly visits.

ASM’s Compassionate Care Team preparing hats. (Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“One of our patients,…as she put the hat on, she said, ‘This is so pretty, I feel like I’m going to church now every day!’”

Harrison shares, “I hope and pray for you and me that at 93, that you and I are still diligently using whatever skills we can to connect people to God’s Word and to share His love for them.”

What about you? Are you skilled at crafting or writing or music? Maybe you excel in hospitality or encouragement. There are several opportunities to be involved in the Great Commission by getting creative with how God has gifted you.

ASM even has an opportunity right now for an accounting coordinator to join their ministry!

“We’re looking for someone right now who is good with numbers and loves Jesus and has a passion for global missions!… Maybe you are interested in joining the team here as accounting coordinator or maybe you know someone who fits that or wants to volunteer in some way. Contact us! We would love to talk with you.”

Look For Opportunities

Another aspect of involvement in the Great Commission is simply looking for opportunities.

(Photo courtesy of Crista Ballard Photography)

Harrison suggests, “Do you know a friend or a neighbor or a colleague who speaks a different language than you? Have you considered bringing them an audio Bible [and] perhaps connecting them to God’s Word in their own heart language? Or maybe, do you know someone who is sick or shut-in? Could God’s Word in audio bring comfort and hope to them?”

You can get audio Bibles from ASM to give to friends and family who you think would be encouraged by God’s Word in audio!

“Recently, we had a distribution partner report they brought an audio Bible to someone who was shut-in. He had had degenerative eye surgery just done and he was facing a long recovery time. He was so excited to receive an audio Bible and the joy it brought to his heart was so amazing!”

Earlier this month, we even shared a call for more recordists to join ASM’s team in Mexico. The recordist job is not for the faint of heart since it requires someone who can get outside their comfort zone to live in rugged conditions while recording Scripture translations.

But someone saw the opportunity to serve in ASM’s recordist position and stepped up!

Harrison shares, “We are praising God for Luis who has been involved with his father in prison ministry before and preaching the Gospel. Now, he is excited to join the team as a recordist! So, thank you so much for your prayers, and let’s keep praying for more laborers for the harvest field of our Lord.”

Ask God to show you how you can get involved in the Great Commission by creatively using your time, talents, and treasure for His glory.

To find more ways you can serve with ASM, click here!

(Header photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

Every year, Donna Glass of India Partners gives a gift in memory of her mother and grandmother to a woman in need. And because this tradition has been so meaningful to her, she’s inviting you to join her.

What’s this gift, you ask? A sewing machine.

Tailoring schools

You see, India Partners provides tailoring training to women whose families are struggling to make it financially. In these situations, it’s common for the main breadwinner to work as a day laborer. This unreliable and poor-paying employment can leave a family on shaky ground. In addition, the women in these families are usually unable to have an income– they haven’t had the opportunity to finish their education. But the classes offered at the tailoring schools give the women a viable career option to help support the income of their family.

It’s all part of India Partners’ desire to see an India rich in hope, justice, and compassion.

Glass says, “Currently we have seven schools operational in various villages in India, working with our partners there.”

Several of the women who’ve gone through this program are illiterate, so India Partners makes sure to give them some basic business training so they can effectively run their business.

(Photo courtesy of India Partners)

Each class has 12 women, meaning at any given moment there are 84 women going through the six-month tailoring training. Yesterday, 24 of these women graduated, and the next classes have already started. Glass says the rest of the five schools will be graduating next month– just in time for school to start for their children.

“They’re going to be able to help make it so that their children can go to school and have the supplies that they need for their classes.”

The gift of being able to provide for their family, feed their children and even send them to school is a huge relief to these mothers.

“Some of the women… who graduated last December, they’re looking forward to being able to earn 150 rupees a day—it’s a little less than two and a half dollars—and how that will make a difference in their family finances. And, it’s really amazing to think that less than two dollars and 50 cents can give them such hope. But it does make a difference,” Glass says.

She continues, “It’s just so great to be able to offer these classes because not only do they get this training but when they graduate, they get the gift of a treadle sewing machine.”

These sewing machines, which give the women the ability to earn money each day, cost about $100. And while that’s not much of a business investment for some people, it would be nearly impossible for them to purchase the machine out of their own wages, especially if they’re not able to start their business without it.

Mothers around the world

The theme of women helping to provide for their families in difficult circumstances hits home for Glass. She says, “My grandmother was a tailor. And she lived back in the Midwest, back in North Dakota. And she was born in 1900, so she came up through the Depression as an adult.”

Her grandparents had four children they had to support during this time. It was common for families to leave home during the Great Depression in search of a more viable life situation. However, Glass’ grandparents didn’t have to do that. And it was largely because of the sewing skills her grandmother had.

“Being able to do tailoring—to go into a shop in town and do men’s tailoring and making other women’s clothes and stuff was… one of the things that helped make sure that my grandparents and my aunts and uncles and my mom did not become homeless.”

(Photo courtesy of India Partners)

Her grandmother passed the tailoring skills on to Glass’ mother who passed it on to Glass herself.

“To be able to honor her by making it possible for a woman in India to not have to move, to … be able to help support, stand by her husband or her father, and help support the family—I think to honor my grandmother by gifting a sewing machine in her memory is—it means a lot to me.”

Over the years, Glass has gifted the sewing machine in honor of her mother, as well. But this simple gift of a sewing machine is also a symbol of honoring mothers and motherhood, everywhere.

“I think it honors them in recognizing that they are an integral part of the family, and helping to build up by going through training and then having a sewing machine and that whole sense of being able to help with the family income and not feel like… everything is dependent on their husband or their father—I think it helps to build up people’s sense of self-worth. And mothers especially, they want the best for their children and they want to be able to help to make a difference in the lives of their families. I think for any mother that that’s a really powerful thing.”

So, are you still looking for a way to honor your mother this year? Consider giving a sewing machine in her name. Learn more about that, here.

(Header photo courtesy of Rex Harsin with permission from India Partners)

A History of Christianity

Joe Richter of FARMs says, “Mizoram has a very interesting history. It goes back over a century with Western missionaries coming there to Mizoram. And, there were a series of revivals back in the early days and continuing on into the 20^th century. And today, statistically, about 97 percent of the Mizos consider themselves Christians.”

Richter explains that their religious roots include animism, and that some of them came from the practice of head-hunting. They were a people living in darkness.

And so, Richter says, “They embraced Christianity. Many miraculous things happened in the past that prepared the people, and when the missionaries came, it was one of those situations where they were expecting them to come and share with them that there’s a way out of the fear of the spirit world, and there was a way to have freedom in their lives.”

He says Christianity spread rapidly from there and became deeply rooted in the area.

Need in Mizoram Prompts New Project

So, why is FARMS interested in starting a new project here? Richter says this story began back in Nepal where they became friends with a missionary from Mizoram working there. This man recently retired, returned to his people, and saw a great need. You see, they were living in extreme poverty. This missionary remembered FARMS and reached out to them.

“We’re developing now a program with them, and we’ll be visiting them this May to train a new committee there and to start a program for FARMS International.”

FARMS International runs microloan programs in various parts of the world. Through the local church, they provide small sums of money to Christians who then use this money to start or improve a small business. Once they’ve been able to pay these interest-free loans back, they agree to tithe from their profits to the Church. This helps to strengthen the Church so that it can be more effective in outreach.

And despite the fact that there is already a vibrant community here, the Mizos are 0ften on the brink of despair.

Richter says, “The unemployment is something like 45 percent in Mizoram. And it drives many of the young people into drugs and alcoholism and despondency because there’s a lack of real opportunity for them to have a good job and to have an income.

“But the Mizos are very skilled people, and especially the ladies. They are skilled at weaving and weaving is a very profitable industry. But it needs money to start and to be sustained.”

(Photo courtesy of Sandro Lacarbona via Flickr)

The microloans would be perfect to help these women start a business weaving on a hand loom or something more industrial. Richter says their missionary friend “feels with training these ladies that are in extreme poverty, [they] can earn a living and come out of the poverty in a dignified way.”

Other possible projects would be agriculture and the farming of pigs and small animals.

“We’re going to target some really impoverished people in that part of Mizoram and also hopefully [be] expanding from the city area out into the countryside and the villages.”

Growing Faith in Mizoram

Despite Mizoram’s rich history of Christianity, this region faces many of the same challenges other Christian cultures face: “Even though Mizoram is considered one of the most Christianized states in India, there’s always that problem of nominalism. And you know, being raised in Christian culture sometimes doesn’t equate to being a vibrant Christian.”

Social issues and the poverty can be distracting and heavy. And, growing up in a Christian region does not mean everyone has their own individual faith.

“FARMS, working with families, has a real opportunity to disciple those people deeper in their faith, helping them give more abundantly and generously.”

And yet, even with the challenges, the Mizo have a deep understanding already of one of the main components of the FARMS program: giving back to the Church.

One of the methods they’ve utilized to give back is known as the Handful of Rice Project.

“And they’ve had a policy that started there over 100 years ago of every time people cooked a meal, they would put a handful of rice into a bucket that was collected eventually and give it to the Church and the Church sold the rice to support missionary activity of the Church. And it’s amazing how that tradition has continued on to this day. And it has been a main supporting mechanism for outreach evangelism and especially mission work around that whole region and in the world.”

(Photo courtesy of rajkumar1220 via Flickr)

This, Richter says, is something the Western Church could learn from—a commitment to giving in order to boost missions.

“Basically the Church in Mizoram is self-supported without foreign monies coming in, which is an exciting thing. But there’s also more that could be done. And I think, you know, increasing the income of families also increases incomes of the Church. But, it also teaches that true lordship of Jesus Christ and how that manifests itself in everyday life of the Mizo. And so, we’re looking for those opportunities and feel that FARMS will be a real blessing to many people that right now are looking at life sort of hopelessly. Even though they might be believers, there’s so little opportunity.”

With this new program, there is a need for support– and lots of prayer.

“It’s a place of the world that very few of us have probably heard about. And we just need people to come alongside FARMS and pray with us for this new program, and we’re excited about it, and we’re looking forward to the start.”

Ask God to bless this new program, to protect those involved, and to guide it forward. Pray for the Mizo people to gain a richer understanding of God’s love for them.

If you’d like to give to this program, click here.

(Header Photo courtesy of  Sandro Lacarbona via Flickr)

Tent Schools International is one group face-to-face with refugees every day. And as they work to meet the various needs of people who have fled dangerous situations at home, they begin to learn their stories.

Dale Dieleman of Tent Schools International says internationally, the attitude has been “looking at refugees only as people who are looking for a handout or are looking for an escape or [are] sitting in camps and [have] nothing.”

There’s another attitude: fear. How will accepting refugees into our country change our lives?

It’s time to address these attitudes towards refugees, Dieleman says, and “look at them in terms of who they are as people, their former lives before they [became] refugees, and also the great potential that they offer the world if we would simply take a look at what their talents and skills are and look at them from a holistic perspective.”

One of these aspects was recently brought to light in a study done by Talent Beyond Boundaries.

(Photo courtesy of Tent Schools International)

Dieleman explains, “They conducted a study between July 12 and August 15 of this year in Lebanon and Jordan, interviewing refugees of all [nationalities]—mostly Syrian but also from other countries, Iran, Iraq, etc. And they were able to collect out of thousands of interviews over 9,685 profiles during that time.

“And in those profiles people have indicated what their educational levels are, what their professional experience has been before having to flee their homes and countries.”

Many of the interviewees had post-secondary education. Because of the tendency to only view refugees as victims, we might find the results surprising. Instead of a doctor, we see a broken man with nothing. Instead of a professor, we see a woman who survived but is still struggling to keep her family alive. We see need without potential.

Among the people the group interviewed, they found “engineers, business administrators, educators, information technology experts, people who are experts in law, accounting, languages, computer science. Over 80%, for example, of these professional level people have some level of proficiency, either professional or functional… in English,” Dieleman says.

And just as they were an asset in their home country, they will have a lot to offer whatever society they become a part of going forward. For now, their lives have been put on hold.

“I was really struck by these findings particularly because it is high time … that we take a new look at the contributions that refugees can make in whatever host country that they are led to. And I think within our country, we need to take a closer look at the potential that refugees can have when they do come here.”

Some nations have already caught on to this idea and are finding ways to integrate refugees into their society.

Dieleman says the study also pointed out that a large portion, 40 percent, of employers worldwide are having trouble filling professional positions with qualified people.

But even more than someone with something to offer, Dieleman reminds followers of Christ that these people are valuable simply because of who created them.

“I think we just need to see that refugees are children of God who have all kinds of talents, backgrounds, families, educational levels, who we really need to help our country, not only the USA but other countries as well. And by doing so, we are giving them an opportunity to use their talents, their abilities, their God-given experience, and talents that they have so that they can, again, contribute to society in a way that is meaningful to them [and] brings more hope and meaning in their life.”

There are a number of ways you can plug into this story. One of the ways is to walk with Tent Schools as they meet the changing needs of these people and make sure they’re helping for the future.

Tent Schools International is helping by providing education wherever children are. They also help to connect families with technology and technology training. Additionally, they’re working with partners who are resettling refugees to help provide them with the technological tools they might need to get a jumpstart at starting their life over again. Not only are they helping the next generation see the potential for their futures, but they’re helping the world see the God-given value these people have.

“I think in that way we are also reaching out in Jesus’ name, compassionately, to see and to help people … realize their full potentials. In that way, they will see God in us.”

If you’d like to join them in this effort, click here.