We spoke with Edwin Keshish-Abnous, executive director of Heart4Iran, a ministry spreading the Gospel in Iran through Christian programming and Bible distribution.

He says, “Even though the protest has quieted down, the people are still chanting out of their rooftops…and recently, the students have started protesting on their campuses and in the major cities.”

(Photo courtesy Heart4Iran)

Meanwhile, grief continues to hang like a cloud over Iran as families mourn the loss of loved ones killed since the protests erupted on December 28. In Iranian tradition, you mark the 40th day of someone’s death, and many of those commemorations took place this week.

According to Keshish-Abnous, the killing of protestors hasn’t stopped. “One crazy story that happened recently was a 13-year-old boy. He was injured [and] in the hospital. His brother goes over there to take care of him in the hospital; they come kill both that teenager and also the brother…. Later on, [the father] comes to collect the bodies, and they kill the father. So almost every family is affected somehow by losing someone.”

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince, Reza Pahlavi, has garnered support from many Iranians, but it hasn’t been enough so far to enact regime change.

From Keshish-Abnous’s perspective, “There is one major element that is necessary for revolution – defection from inside the government. If that does not happen…there’s a good chance that [revolution] won’t happen until there is a military and outside foreign intervention.”

Amid the conflict and fog of blocked communications, Christians and other minorities are under particular pressure.

(Photo, caption courtesy of Heart4Iran)

“We need to pay attention to the Christians inside the country because not only are they going through the same pain and the challenges and persecution, but also they add to that their faith because they are easily targeted,” says Keshish-Abnous. “The Iranian government has a perfect opportunity and excuse to label them as a enemy of the state and put them in jail. That happens regularly. We have lost some Christians during this latest revolution.

“But even though we’re afraid and worried about them, the reality is they’re continuing their mission.”

Heart4Iran knows of new Iranian believers getting baptized even in the last few weeks. God is still moving.

Keshish-Abnous asks for prayers “for the Church to stay strong – because when the challenges come, when the problems arise, the Church is the one entity that is sacrificial to step forward and help the rest of the world. That is where our humanitarian efforts, our charities, and love that we have towards other people will set us aside from the rest of the faiths, and will show and prove to them that Christianity is about love.”

Also, he asks, “Pray that this can be negotiated or something happens within the country…. And also, I want to pray for the economy not to be affected more than it is affected now, because at the end, the regular population [is] being affected and their livelihood is in danger. They’re really struggling to have a regular, safe life.”

Learn more about Heart4Iran’s critical ministry here.

Header photo: Iranian protest in Canada. (Photo courtesy of Sima Ghaffarzadeh via Pexels)

“One aspect is, depending on your estimate, over a million men and women that have been killed or seriously injured [on both sides of the war]. That translates to maybe millions of families that no longer have a father,” says Mock. “It’s brutal to look at what this war has done to so many young lives, leaving the families broken and fractured.”

Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association

Children and adults carry invisible scars, the war within the war. 

“They’re going to be dealing with the horrifying sights and sounds that this war for four years has brought into their hearts and lives,” says Mock. “This trauma means that any political process for peace really is irrelevant when it comes to peace within the heart.” 

Although the United States has tried to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, Mock says the fundamental differences between the two nations are land, authority, and control. 

“And also security guarantees,” he adds, “because they know an American president is a president for a limited time. So any peace agreement that they have may be transient or temporary.”

Please pray — but not only in the way you might think. 

“I am not going to ask you to pray for peace in Ukraine,” says Mock. “I’m going to ask you to pray for peace in the hearts of many Ukrainian families and many Russian families.” 

How the Ukrainian church is moving 

As peace talks concerning Russia and Ukraine continue to flash across daily headlines, Mock says the real question is this: “Both on the Ukrainian side and on the Russian side, will people caught up in the torment of this war turn to Christ and His saving grace?”

Relief and pastoral training are two of the ways that SGA helps Ukrainian Christians serve in this spiritual battle. Mock says compassion ministry builds bridges. 

“It is not about just having a warehouse full of compassion items that we’re distributing to people and feeling good about the distribution,” Mock explains. 

“It is equipping local churches to reach the people in their own community, or people who are fleeing to their community, that people would find lasting peace through the gospel of Jesus Christ.” 

You can help support this work by giving to SGA’s Ukraine Relief fund. In the past four years, SGA has helped churches provide more than 27 million meals, at least 500 generators, and thousands of blankets, heaters, medicines, and more. They estimate over 2.6 million people have heard the gospel who wouldn’t have otherwise.

SGA church partners prepare meals for displaced people from the Kursk region. (Photo courtesy of Slavic Gospel Association)

Pastoral training is another critical need, so that when Ukrainians connect with a church, they will hear true, biblical teaching that helps them grow their faith. Mock says many pastors have fled Ukraine. Others have been conscripted into the army.

“They forecast as many as the need of 1,000 pastors in the next 10 years,” he says. “So SGA, in 19 locations across Ukraine, we’re taking the training to them, working through pastors and teachers in Ukraine, as well as some Americans coming over to teach. We’re trying to train up as many young people as possible.”

Learn more about supporting pastoral training with SGA here at their website.

Header photo of Kyiv park (Photo courtesy of Nadiia Yahaha via Pexels).

At one point, India was seeing 40,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. The second wave that began in March claimed many lives in a country where social distancing is often difficult. Over 436,000 COVID-19 victims in India have died. And analysts even say these numbers are likely vastly undercounted due to lack of resources.

Bartholomew* with Mission India says, “With the amount of spread and all of that, we saw an extreme amount of people passing away and perishing from the COVID Delta variant. So what happened was lot of children lost their parents and caregivers.

“So not only are children trying to stay healthy during that spread and now, but now they lost their way to have income because their parents can’t bring money in. They lost their parental leadership. And they lost that love and that support they had.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

The most heartbreaking question for these kids is, “What now?”

Bartholomew says, “We have a children’s rights group. They said they are getting 70 calls a day for help for children whose parents have died or are hospitalized with COVID-19.

“You can just imagine the ramifications for a child. Even if they didn’t get COVID, what is one to do now that you’re orphaned?”

In the midst of this, Mission India is standing in the gap for these kids.

Mission India works with local Indian believers to run Children’s Bible Clubs. Both their 10-Day Children’s Bible Clubs and Year-Long Children’s Bible Clubs introduce these kids to God’s love and let them know they are never alone.

“Our Children’s Bible Clubs have come around these kids who have lost that support of their parents — whether the parents have passed away or are hospitalized,” Bartholomew says.

“They’re there to provide that love and that support and a listening ear. And they also get to provide the love of Jesus to a kid who’s just reeling and desiring to find that love that they so desperately need at a time like this.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission India)

Mission India has also distributed over 150,000 Relief Kits to families impacted by COVID-19. Those Relief Kits provide a family of four enough food for four weeks, as well as critical supplies like masks, vitamins, and hand sanitizer.

You can donate here to support Mission India’s Relief Kits or Children’s Bible Clubs.

Also, Bartholomew asks, “Be praying for those children, that they would find peace, that they would find the love of Jesus, and that our leaders in India would be guided by Jesus as they look to say, ‘What can I do next to help these communities that we operate in?’”

Header photo courtesy of Mission India.

*Name changed for security purposes.

Ron Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries knows grief. His wife, Karen, died suddenly four years ago. He had loved and lived life with her since he was 19 years old.

If you want to show Christ’s love to a grieving friend, Hutchcraft suggests the time you take to listen is just as important as the words you say.

(Photo courtesy of Lina Trochez via Unsplash)

“Let them talk to you about their memories of the person they lost,” Hutchcraft says. “I think there’s something helpful and therapeutic in just talking about funny things that happen in your life with them, hard things that you went through together. It might seem like, oh, that’s sad. But you’re helping them process this person’s life.

“We tend to focus so much on the circumstances of someone’s death and ‘what if’ — if only he had left five minutes later, if only the doctor, if only. And you just rehash the last days of their life. But they had a life that was a lot more than just the end of it. So help them begin to celebrate that person’s life and not just grieve their death.

“If they cry, if they speak doubts, hurt, anger, whatever, let them. That’s part of the process of not letting this go in where it morphs into anger and depression and a hard heart and bitterness. Get it out and let them talk about it.”

Also, go with your grieving friend or family member to Jesus — the “man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.” (Isaiah 53:3)

“When you say, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ well, thank you, that’s good,” says Hutchcraft. “But when I pray with you, there’s something that goes to your soul with that, that allows you to hear someone else representing your need and your grieving and your loss to a Heavenly Father.”

And even if you can’t pray with them in person, Hutchcraft suggests, “You can text a prayer! I’ve texted a prayer to many people. Email a prayer to them. What’s on your heart to pray for them? Go ahead and put it into writing if you can’t be in a position to do it verbally.”

(Image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

Finally, you can get a deeper lens into the grief experience – and the hope Christ offers – through Gospel-centered grief resources.

Learn more about Hutchcraft’s new book, “Hope When Your Heart Is Breaking” here.

Header photo courtesy of Ben White via Unsplash.

“Hope When Your Heart Is Breaking” is his honest, broken, and faith-filled look at the difference Jesus makes when your world is falling apart.

Below, we’re sharing part of the interview with Hutchcraft discussing his book in a Q&A format. Listen to the full interview here.

(Image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

Koh: Ron, you recently wrote a book, “Hope When Your Heart is Breaking”. It just recently came out, and it’s your story of grief and also your story of hope. For me, personally, aside from wanting to talk to you as a ministry partner, I wanted to read your book because I’ve suffered grief recently in the loss of my baby Gideon last year. And you suffered grief in the loss of your wife, Karen, [four] years ago. So thank you for being willing to talk about this book today, Ron. I’m sure it’s going to be a significant encouragement for anybody else listening who’s going through something like this.

Hutchcraft: Well, that is my hope and that is my prayer. Thank you for wanting to do this. And I think the personal-ness of this will be just right for somebody who’s listening.

Koh: Absolutely. So my first question, Ron,…what inspired you to write this book? And who inspired you to write this book?

Hutchcraft: Well, it’s a book I never would have thought I would write. It started, you might say, on the best day of my wife’s life and the worst day of mine. Because that was the day she got to see Jesus and she got to see Heaven. And it’s the same day that I was left here without the person I had loved since I was 19.

Let me take you back to May 15th, 2016. It was a great day. Our oldest grandchild was graduating from high school valedictorian. He gave a wonderful, Christ-honoring talk in a stadium full of people. Now I had to leave right after that and be driven to another state to speak the next day.

So we’re sitting in the bleachers and I said, “Honey, I love you.” And she said, “Well, I love you.” And then, uncharacteristically, she had tears in her eyes. I thought that’s not usual and I said, “Honey, what’s going on?” She said, “Well, I’m really gonna miss you.” And I said, “Well, you know what? It won’t be long.”

I was wrong. I was really wrong.

The next afternoon, while I was in another state getting ready to speak, my son called and told me that Karen was in Heaven. And suddenly, in the room that I’m doing this interview in right now, the Lord took her home.

Ron Hutchcraft (Photo courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

I got back as fast as I could. And I felt like a lost little boy. I mean, you had to know what a life force Karen was. She was my mirror. She was my compass who let me know when I was drifting. She was my encourager. She was my very best friend, my wisest counselor, and had the greatest laugh you’ve ever heard — picked up on seismographs I think! And in an instant, she was gone.

How could I have known I was saying “I love you” for the last time? You never know when you’re saying “I love you” for the last time.

So that started me on a journey that I had traveled with others. But this was the other half of me, the only person I’d ever shared my whole adult life with, who knew all the same people. We had prayed, laughed, cried over the same things, been through the same battles. Suddenly gone. Irreplaceable. I knew how to do life with Karen. I had no idea how to do life without her.

A couple days later, I started a grief journal. I don’t even know, that idea must have come from God. I wasn’t coherent enough to think that straight. And I started to pour my heart into that journal. I mean, it’s Ron in the raw. All the pain, all the grief, all that I had lost was coming out.

You wouldn’t have to go very many pages in and you’d see this page that had big bold letters at the top. I wrote these words: “I will not waste this grief.”… And I then prayed, “God, if it’s going to hurt this bad, please, somehow, use it to make me more useful to You and more helpful to other people.”

All I can tell you is the past four years have been Him powerfully answering that prayer in so many ways. And I will tell you just upfront that as deep and dark as the grief was, there was something on the other side of the scale. Because if you look at it as a scale, the grief is just totally all on one side. There’s nothing on the other side.

But when there is Jesus, hope has a name. It’s not an idea. Not a concept. Not positive vibrations. Hope has a name. And His name is Jesus.

(Image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

If you’ve got hope on the other side, then you’re experiencing what the Bible says when Paul wrote to people who had lost loved ones. He said, “We do not grieve…” and if it stopped there, I’d shut my Bible and probably never open it again. That’s a lie. But it says, “We do not grieve as others who have no hope.”

That hope factor [was] embodied in the man who walked out of His grave under His own power. Out of billions of people on this planet who’ve ever been here, only one ever walked out of His grave under His own power and conquered death. It’s what the Bible calls our living hope. And all I could tell you is that anchor holds.

Does it erase the grief? As you know, no, it doesn’t. But that hope balances, outweighs, and in a sense, envelops the grief to make the unbearable bearable, the undoable doable one day at a time.

Koh: So in your book, one thing that really struck me — it’s kind of a thread that runs through the whole thing — is a phrase…. Defiant hope. Could you describe what defiant hope is? Why is that so important in this journey of grief?

Hutchcraft: Well, it’s a strange combination of words, isn’t it? I had never put them together before. I have a mental picture of it.

Back on September 11th, [2001] at about five o’clock that afternoon when it was clear that there weren’t going to be very many survivors, another building across the street was about to cave in. USA Today, I think, called it the darkest hour on the darkest day. It was at that point we’ll all remember it because the picture is iconic. Three firefighters got an American flag off a boat in the East River and raised that flag over the rubble.

That flag over the rubble said, “We’ve had great loss. There’s a lot of dark, dark feelings right now. But this flag signifies that this will not be the end of this story.”

(Image courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

So defiant hope is a choice. As you know from the book, I believe it is not ultimately the loss that determines whether we have more grief, sadness, and hurt — or whether we have hope and healing. It is the choices we make….

I call it a fist in the face of surrender that says I am not going to deny this grief [and] I’m not going to be defined by this grief.

That’s the second choice. So I’m not going to deny it. But I will not revolve my life around this loss. As much as it’s a magnet pulling me down, I’m not going to let this be the defining factor of the rest of my life. I won’t deny it. But I choose not to be defined by it. I choose to anchor my hope to something that I know is real even though I can’t see it….

So what this great loss has done, and the way God answered that prayer to “not waste this grief” — to sum it up, I think I’d say that I feel Jesus. Not just know, not just know about, not just have the theology and the beliefs. But I feel Him. Because my broken heart opened so deep that He went there. And I feel Him more deeply than I’ve ever felt Him before.

You can purchase “Hope When Your Heart Is Breaking” by Ron Hutchcraft here.

Header photo courtesy of Cherry Laithang via Unsplash.

Ron Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says that global circumstances right now give Christians a unique perspective and opportunity. “It’s the COVID Christmas. It’s the pandemic Christmas because it’s the 2020 Christmas. I think we have an uncommon opportunity to really share our Jesus with people. They are hope starved. They really are hope starved and Jesus is all about hope.”

A Year of Loss

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased rates of depression and other adverse mental health situations in the United States. Isolation has increased these struggles. To those without the hope of Christ, the losses of the year can feel unbearable.

(Image courtesy of Sander =van der Wel on Flickr https://bit.ly/3heOwWM)

Hutchraft reminds Christians that even when it feels like important things are being taken away, Christ brought us a salvation that is unlosable. “The key word here is unlosable. In a year of loss, what do we have because of Jesus that’s unlosable? It’s unlosable love. Nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord – Romans 8:39. There is one love that is disease proof. It is desertion proof. It is death proof.”

What a comfort in a broken year of loss and disappointment! However, that love comes with the command to share it. Christ did not save his Church to sit on the good news they’ve been given. He commands His people to go out into the world and share hope with those who are headed for despair without Christ.

Sharing the Truth in Love

Hutchchraft says that Christmas 2020 is an amazing time to share the good news of Gospel because people are seeking hope and coming up empty in circumstances that feel foreign. He encourages Christians to share why a relationship with Jesus matters. “All the eruption of things day after day, all of the torrent of news coming at you. What’s the difference Jesus makes? Share it.”

For many Christians sharing Jesus with family or friends can feel intimidating or awkward. Hutchcraft says that one key to sharing your faith is authenticity. Talk about your struggles and how the year has been difficult for you. But don’t stop there. How has your relationship with Christ impacted those difficult times?

Being honest about your relationship with Christ without arguing about the other person’s faults opens the door for dialogue. Sharing your experience helps keep conversations open and leaves room for questions.

“Share it in a story, your story,” Hutcraft says. “That doesn’t threaten them. They don’t have to get defensive that you’re talking about ME being a sinner. You’re talking about YOU being a sinner. You’re talking about you being separated from God and the difference it’s made, since Jesus took that wall down.”

A Call to Reconciliation and Hope

The truth is that the Gospel isn’t just a feel good story. The love of God infiltrating day to day life makes a difference on Earth and for eternity. A person’s relationship with God is totally changed when they accept Christ as Savior.

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” – Romans 5:10.

People need to hear the truth of the Gospel and be reconciled to Christ.

(Image Courtesy of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries)

“I’ll just summarize it this way,” Hutchcraft says. “When that first 90 something year old lady got the first injection of COVID vaccine in England, there the newspaper headline was two words, injecting hope. That’s what we have the opportunity to do this Christmas, is be the ones who inject hope into people we care about. Don’t miss this moment.”

Pray and look for opportunities to share the unbelievable hope of the Gospel with someone this Christmas.

To read more from Ron Hutchcraft about Christmas 2020, click here. To learn more about Ron Hutchraft Ministries click here.

Header Image Courtesy of Navy Medicine on Flickr https://bit.ly/3p91rMD

Ron Hutchcraft with Ron Hutchcraft Ministries says, “It’s pretty staggering [because] all of the sudden your nightly news programs, the lead story wasn’t North Korea. The lead story was not the White House. The lead story was suicide.”

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates in the US went up by 25 percent from 1999-2016. Half the states even saw suicide rates increase over 30 percent.

A suicide epidemic in the United States is growing like a thick, dark cloud snuffing out the light of hope in the hearts of men and women, girls and boys, from every walk of life.

If this is your struggle, Hutchcraft has a deeply important message for you: “I wanted people to know why leaving is not the best option — living is the best option — and why you would choose living when you feel like leaving.”

You Hold Deep Value

“First of all, you need to consider your value,” Hutchcraft implores. “You are made in God’s image, God’s workmanship, God’s treasure, He says. You are not a paper plate that you discard. You are fine china — too valuable to throw away because of who made you.

“Your value is demonstrated [and] proven by the fact that God’s Son, Jesus thought you were worth dying for. You just don’t throw away something with that kind of value.”

An oft-quoted verse from the Bible illustrates God’s deep, abiding, raw love for you. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

If you insert your own name in place of “the world”, it makes this verse even more personal. “For God so loved [Your Name]….” You have inherent, priceless worth in God’s eyes and are loved more than you can possibly know.

Because of this, Hutchcraft says, “I know that Jesus loves you more than anybody could in ways you never dreamed, that Jesus can heal you at a level where no one else can heal you because He can go places in your heart no one else can go, and He can carry you when you can’t walk another step.”

You Have Dear Treasures

Another thing Hutchcraft encourages is to remember the beloved treasures in your life.

“I consider your treasures to be not the stuff you own but the people you love and the people who love you. I have actually heard people say, ‘They’ll be better off without me. I’m such a burden.’

“I have never known any loved one — I have hugged and held so many loved ones of people who did end their own life — and I have never known one who is better off because their loved one died that way.”

God Has Your Tomorrows

“God has tomorrows for you that you have not seen…. I have been on an airplane with a lot of turbulence that lasted for quite awhile and it was a little scary. People would react — some screamed, some were frightened, some grabbed somebody, some prayed, but nobody jumped out of the plane. And the reason they didn’t jump out of the plane is because they knew it was temporary and even though it shook us up, it was not the whole story. It was not the whole flight. We would come through that,” Hutchcraft shares.

“The fact is, the Bible tells us that our time is just part of a big thing called eternity where we’re going to be forever. At worst, this is temporary. So don’t throw away all your tomorrows. Don’t trash something of such great value. Don’t trash the people you love. Don’t trash the future, the tomorrows that God has planned for you.

“It’s always better to choose living [rather] than leaving.”

Jesus Feels Your Pain

The poignant chorus from Tenth Avenue North’s song “Hold My Heart” goes like this:

One tear in the dropping rain

One voice in a sea of pain

Could the Maker of the stars

Hear the sound of my breaking heart?

One life is all I am

Right now I can barely stand

If You’re everything You say You are

Would You come close and hold my heart?

This song speaks to the truth that Hutchcraft echoes: Jesus knows your pain. Let Him hold you.

“I think the most important hotline is to reach out to the one who has grieved more deeply than any human ever grieved: Jesus. He carried all of the sin and depression and despair and brokenness — not only all of yours but all of the world…. He carried all of that in His soul when He died on the cross, so much so that the Bible calls Him a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,” says Hutchcraft.

“Therefore, [Jesus] is uniquely qualified to hear the cry of your heart and go where no one else can go and begin to heal the pain, to love you where you have not been loved, to give you a love that no human could have given you at best, [and] to give you a reason to live and a purpose to live for.”

If You Have Lost Someone…

Maybe your story is marked by the severe pain of losing a loved one to suicide. If so, Hutchcraft reflects, “I would say to someone who has experienced this horrible loss, it is terrible to lose someone you love. It is maybe, if possible, more terrible to lose someone you love who is young. Number three, it is really perhaps the worst to lose someone when they chose it themselves. It is a deep, deep, deep grieving.

“I was able to assure people through my own experience, not so much with suicide, but with grief and the broken heart of losing in a moment my lifetime love, my very best friend. Two years ago, my wife [who] I did my whole life with, suddenly my life [would] be without her.”

He shares, “What has sustained me in the greatest heartbreak of my life has been that wonderful promise in Psalm 34:18 that says, ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and…saves those who are crushed in spirit.’ Let Him be close. Let Him into the depths of your grief and let Him begin to restore those holes in your soul that are there.

“He will then begin to turn — through a process — the darkest, most hurting moments in your life into compassion for a world of hurting people. We are surrounded by hurting people who are covering a deeply wounded life and a deeply wounded heart and maybe even a desperate heart with a facade of smiles and maybe success. Somebody needs to be there for them.”

God’s Word affirms this in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 where the Apostle Paul writes: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Hutchcraft says, “When you allow Jesus to begin to turn your hurt into hope for other people, it not only provides some healing for them. You become a channel for God’s love into their wounds.

“Through credentials you wish you never had, you become now strangely, painfully, expensively credentialled to be one of the agents of God’s comfort in a hurting world.”

If you want to learn more about Jesus’ love for you and how you can share His love with others, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries has several resources for you. Click here to visit the ministry’s website.

But the consequences of such a wide-scale crisis go much deeper than just starvation or even death. While it is easy to believe that things will settle down once the food situation gets back to normal, Pat Melancon with Baptist Global Response says the damage done by this catastrophe will far outlast today's hunger.

"The side effects are just astronomical, and they don't go away once people have food in their stomachs," Melancon, Managing Director of Disaster Response and Training for BGR, tells Mission Network News. "Some of the long-term side effects can be devastating, I think, to a community for probably a decade or more."

The list of "side effects" is miles long. Entire nations will be rearranged by the end of the crisis.

For one thing, notes Melancon, there has been a massive migration of people within the affected nations. People have left their homes to find food, but even those in "food secure" areas are moving to areas with no food security when they hear that organizations are handing out meals elsewhere.

When people choose to migrate, their land is often seized by others. This, says Melancon, results in a loss of livelihood. People who, up until the crisis, had been pastoral herders or agriculturists suddenly have no land with which to continue their work. On top of that, there has been a significant loss of livestock in drought-affected areas, robbing pastoralists, in particular, of their livelihood.

Those losses encompass entire families, who also will have to struggle with the loss of family members, and, indeed, entire generations.

"Even if you could go back to a perfect situation, where they're back in their home environment, they still have their land and still have their livelihood," notes Melancon, "in many cases, they've lost two generations of people: the older generation who were there to teach the younger generation how to live off the land; and the younger generation who should be coming up to learn from those in that middle age group, and who have actually lived through it."

Many children who have survived have lost their opportunity for education–a way to a better life. Melancon reports as high as 80% drop out rates in available education venues since the famine struck.

Children, in particular, are at an even higher risk now of inhumane treatment. "People begin to resort to things that are going to enable them to survive," Melancon explains. "So you'll have an increase in the amount of prostitution. You'll have an increase in the amount of trafficking of children. You'll have an increase in the number of child soldiers. When you have children who are starving and you offer them food if they're willing to join your ranks, then it increases the number of children that are available."

Add to that the economic troubles that nations are sure to face as a result of migrations and a responsibility to aid relief. Without Christ, the situation is utterly hopeless.

BGR knows the Truth, though, and is working tirelessly to share it with those suffering in these nations. Currently, BGR is focusing on addressing the immediate need of hunger, but the ministry has been developing self-sustaining programs in that part of the world for 40 years. In the days, months, and years to come, BGR will work to create more of these programs, while spreading the message of Christ–the only One who can truly redeem such a tragic situation.

Melancon encourages you to do the same. "The way that Christians can get involved is, of course, to look at what the needs truly are, and then try either to contribute to or participate in projects that will address the needs that are there right now–but in such a way that it will allow the people to be self-sustained."

In the meantime, pray. Pray for access–which can be difficult in a complex crisis and in nations that have warring factions–for BGR. Pray for safety for distribution workers, who face more danger from desperate people than do even UN peace keepers. And most importantly, pray that Christian workers can effectively share Christ's love in word and deed with people who need that message of hope now more than ever.

If you would like to give to this crisis through BGR, visit www.baptistglobalresponse.com.