DeHart says many Haitians they serve are exhausted by the struggle for daily needs.

“Sometimes they don’t want to hear the gospel. So we show them love. We show them what the gospel is,” she says. “Then they will listen when we tell them about Jesus, when we tell them about the gospel.”

Food distributions
(Photo courtesy of For Haiti With Love)

The ministry provides food, clothing, shelter, medical care for burn victims, and more. That work can only be done with God’s help, given the chaos in Haiti today. The nation has lacked a stable central government since the assassination of its president nearly five years ago in July 2021.

“A lot of people are leaving the cities where the gangs are, for safety. Nothing they can do about it,” says DeHart. 

In the northern city of Cap-Haitien, the infrastructure can’t handle the influx of people fleeing gang violence. 

“Kids on the streets, families on the streets — and trash has doubled. There is so much trash in Cap-Haitien now,” DeHart says. 

Haiti’s reality continues to be sobering, but God’s promises remain.

“We need people to pray for Haiti,” says DeHart. “Without God’s help, Haiti cannot change at all.” 

In this hard season, For Haiti With Love continues to see glimpses of God’s work. DeHart says former patients from the burn clinic have returned to say they are now attending church. “All because of showing them God’s love,” she says. Another story that encouraged DeHart was when one of the ministry’s security guards shared that he had become a Christian.

Survivors from a boat explosion receive treatment at For Haiti’s burn clinic. (Photo courtesy of For Haiti With Love)

“It’s all because of contributors helping us to do what God is sending us to do in Haiti,” DeHart says.

Remember the people of Haiti in prayer. Ask God how He may want you to take part in His work there. 

“Haiti is a beautiful place, and its people are even more beautiful,” says DeHart. “They’re being forgotten. But they’re God’s children too, and they need help.”

Header photo courtesy For Haiti With Love.

But Floyd Brobbel with Voice of the Martyrs Canada says idolizing a leader isn’t just a North Korean issue. 

“Children of God have always faced times in their lives where someone rises up to be kind of like a god-like, savior-like figure,” he says. 

In some cases, the societal pressure to worship is explicit — like when early Christians were required to treat the Roman emperor as divine. Or in the case of North Korea’s Kim dynasty.

Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea, depicts Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il (Image courtesy of Peteranta of Pixabay)

“Instead of the 10 Commandments, [North Koreans] have the 10 Principles,” says Brobbel. “They have hymn books, and the tunes will be very familiar, except that they’ve changed the wording and it’s all pointed to the Supreme Leader.”

But in other parts of the world, societal pressure to idolize a leader can take subtler forms, calling for great discernment. 

“There are tensions that we have in place as Christians,” says Brobbel. “The Bible urges us to respect the governing authorities. But also recognizing that that respect is not limited [to total acceptance], right? So this means that real authority always needs to be accountable.” 

Brobbel reminds others that God calls His people to be lights and witnesses to the truth, in whatever earthly kingdoms they live in (Matthew 5:13-16; Acts 1:8).

“Christians have a responsibility, therefore, to stand up to recognize when power is stepping into places it’s not meant to. We serve as an example and a witness to the world of the power of God, the glory of God, the supremacy of God in all things,” Brobbel says. 

“We do so, again, gently with love but boldly with truth. And we pray that that would make a difference to those that we’re speaking to, or those that are watching.”

Take a moment for a heart check. Are you placing your hope in Christ alone? Do you worship Him in the way Romans 12:1 calls for, with your entire being as a living sacrifice to Him? Pray for greater boldness and truth in your Christian witness, wherever you live.

“We’re not disparaging others, but we simply call in truth into the situation. We readily recognize that when we do so, there needs to be a willingness to suffer,” says Brobbel. 

“I think the average person we meet on the street is just as confused and searching as other people are. There’s an opportunity to engage them.”

Header photo courtesy of Amir Mortezaie via Unsplash.

But that data only counts those registered with the UN. The real number is undoubtedly much higher — and every one of these children, women, and men needs so much more than just food and shelter. 

“They are coming just to find hope in our country, and they fear the future. So we have to give them hope and comfort,” says Marihan with Kasr El-Dobara Evangelical Church (KDEC) in Egypt. “That’s why we are expanding our ministry to reach out to them and give them hope and a future.”

School in Cairo, Egypt (Stock photo courtesy of Primrose Murahwi via Unsplash)

After two years of hard work,  KDEC is ready to open a new education center for around 80 children in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. 

“It was a long journey of success and failing and frustration,” Marihan says of the process. “It wasn’t easy at all. Sometimes we were learning new things, because it’s our first time to establish an education center for refugees.”

But God opened the way, bringing both government permission as well as a local partnering church that can legally staff the center.

The center will meet a critical need. For Palestinian refugees in Sinai, for example, Marihan says, “they cannot go anywhere else in the country, and they cannot use the local school.”

Showing the love of Christ to families opens the way to share His message. Please join in praying for the ministry of this new center to dozens of refugee families. Ask God to keep the door open for this way to serve. 

“Pray for protection — protection for the people who serve with us. And even pray for the local church there who will be responsible for the education center,” says Marihan. “Pray for the teachers. Pray for the people who will receive the message.”

Header photo courtesy of KDEC.

For Ilya Butolin with Beit Hallel Congregation, his first response when he hears of attacks like this against Jewish communities is something like panic. “What’s going on? Why? Why do they hate the Jews that much, and why in the holidays?” runs through his mind.

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia (Photo courtesy Larry Snickers/Pexels)

Yet Butolin reminds us that Scripture teaches there is a spiritual battle playing out in the physical world.

“We can see that it’s two Muslims who did this terror attack,” he says. “But on the other hand, another Muslim stopped the attack. That’s how you can see that it’s really a spiritual thing. It’s not that all the Muslims are bad. But it’s really [in the] spiritual realm. It’s really demons that [are] leading these people to this thing.” 

Australia has seen more than 3,700 antisemitic attacks since the Israel-Hamas war started two years ago. The timing of the Bondi Beach shooting — right before the first night of Hanukkah — sent a message of fear in direct opposition to what the festival means.

“First and foremost, it’s the holiday of light. Funny enough, it’s the only feast that is not mentioned in the Old Testament, but Jesus mentioned that. Jesus celebrates Hanukkah,” says Butolin, referring to John 10:22. “So it’s really a powerful feast for us, for Messianic Jews, for Jews in Israel. It’s a feast of light, of happiness, of victory over the darkness.”

As the Body of Christ, please engage in this spiritual battle by praying. Pray for the families of the 15 victims, that God will reveal the comfort of Christ to them. 

“Nothing can fill up this hole — nothing except Christ, nothing except God, and that’s a time for us to pray for these families, that God will comfort them,” says Butolin. 

“It’s important for us to stand in love and in prayer also for the Muslim people, that they will see the truth as well — not only the Jews — but [that] they will see Jesus as well.”

Header photo of a menorah courtesy of Cottonbro Studio via Pexels.

The UN World Food Programme reports that from May to September 2025, nearly a quarter of Gaza’s 2.1 million people will be in level 5 catastrophic hunger. Now in July, the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry reports that dozens of people have died who showed signs of hunger and malnutrition. Still, famine hasn’t yet been officially declared.

In the controversial narratives, how should believers respond with God’s Kingdom in mind? 

Number one, keep talking.

“God is merciful and compassionate and loves all people. We should be speaking about the challenging things,” says *Brother Y, a former IDF soldier serving with Global Catalytic Ministries. 

To him, Palestinians are oppressed by the unelected leaders of Hamas. He says concerning the war, “Could it have been avoided 100% if Hamas was not there? Yes, 100%. [It] could have been avoided altogether, completely.”

(Photo courtesy Global Catalytic Ministries)

A second Kingdom response is to seek the truth.

“Since there [are] so many casualties and real trauma, obviously emotions are going to be high,” says Brother Y. “It’s very difficult with what you’re being fed in the media to be balanced.”

He believes Israel and the region are in the world’s spotlight for spiritual reasons. “But there are political, geopolitical, [and] financial reasons as well why this get[s] spoken of in global media more than other conflicts with much higher death toll[s] and other issues.”

The furor makes it even more critical to stay grounded in prayer.

“We are crying that Maranatha cry: ‘Let your kingdom come,’” says Brother Y. Many times, that will mean something different than we expect.

“[In prayer] we go above and beyond our own ethnic background and our own geopolitical background, our preferences. We ask God, ‘What are you saying? What are you doing? Where are you going, and could you please take us with you? We want to collaborate and cooperate with you.’”

*Name withheld for security

Header photo courtesy of user Pastor Matt via Unsplash. 

Mission 66 from Trans World Radio is a conversational, modern-day study through the Bible. Adapted from its original Portuguese (as created by Dr. Luiz Sayão), it now reaches the English-speaking world today, with plans for more languages on the horizon.

Unathi Sithole is the voice of Esther Sisulu on the Mission 66 program (Photo courtesy of TWR)

The two co-hosts of Mission 66 in English are eager to help Scripture come alive to you. Meet Unathi Sithole with TWR Global, the voice of Esther Sisulu on the program. 

“I’m so passionate about the work that I do with Mission 66 because of seeing the tangible change in my own life through what God has done for me,” she says. 

“You know, I have my own testimony about how God reached me, how He saved me and He set me free — knowing what it feels like being someone who was living in bondage, living in sin, struggling with insecurities, struggling with identity and all kinds of things.”

Now that Sithole has experienced the transforming power of Christ through the Holy Spirit, she wants others to know it too. Her hope is for you to discover in Scripture your freedom in Christ and His deep love for you. 

So, what is Mission 66? 

Each 25-minute episode of Mission 66 covers a chapter or two of the Bible. In the first half, John Mathews (voiced by John-Paul Davies) reads Scripture and offers commentary. In the second half, Esther Sisulu (Sithole) joins in.

(Photo courtesy of Trans World Radio)

“I ask [John] questions about some pertinent points that pop up as a result of the reading. So we discuss these things and we try to apply what we’ve read into our daily lives, so that our listeners can truly be encouraged to implement the Word of God in their daily lives,” says Sithole.

“It’s just a journey with friends through the Word of God with some explanations on some concepts that might be difficult to understand, or even answering some of those difficult questions that we very often ask in our lives, about what the meaning of life is, or why we’re here, or what we’re supposed to do, what our purpose is,” she says.

You can learn more about Mission 66 by tuning in online here. 

“Through listening to Mission 66, I hope that you’ll get a true sense, a deep sense, of how much the Lord is willing to do to just reach you,” says Sithole. 

“The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ will leave the 99 to find the one. And that’s exactly what He’s done for each and every one of us. It’s what He’s done for you.”

And if you’ve already joined the Mission 66 audience, please pray for the remaining episodes being recorded. Pray with Sithole that God prepares the hearts of those will hear, to receive His hope in the gospel, come to know Christ, and be changed. Pray also that the Mission 66 team continues to be used by God and that He will glorify Himself through this program. 

Header photo of the Mission 66 team courtesy of TWR.

These uncertainties are disrupting ministry as well as family life. One gospel worker with FMI says, “I’m not able to make any solid or concrete plan with our overseas partners.”

He adds that it’s not only international travel in question. “I’m not even sure that I would be able to go and defend my PhD paper to [an]other state next month, because it’s unsure that I would be able to participate in my PhD graduation or not.”

Green card example (Photo courtesy of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

An upcoming FMI conference in Pakistan will likely be impossible for him to attend as originally planned. Meanwhile, his family carries copies of their documentation wherever they go. They are also preparing to give a power of attorney to a colleague in case the unexpected happens.

It’s caused serious conversations around their family dinner table. What country should they go to if they were to be deported? What should their kids do if they were to be stopped by an officer? 

“As a Christian, I have only two commands: you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, and you should love the neighbor as yourself,” he says. “But the question is, as an immigrant in America, who is my neighbor? Because that’s going to be defined ideologically, territorially, nationally, and all these series of divisive elements.

“I think one of the problems we have right now [is] that we have to have an enemy to create a national policy. But as Christians, we do not have — or we cannot have — any enemy.”

For others who are caught in these same uncertainties today, he points to the hope found in Joshua 1:9: “The last part of this verse is ‘for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’” 

Find your place in the story through prayer. Ask God to give FMI and this gospel worker discernment and protection to navigate complex circumstances. Pray with him that his kids will be strong Christian witnesses as they respond to comments and questions from classmates. 

For his ministry, he says, “Pray especially for clarity and favor as I plan ministry-related trips for FMI and to expand the Kingdom.”

Header photo is a stock photo courtesy of stokpic via Pixabay.

A new report is out from a UN fact-finding mission. It adds more evidence to the documentations of human rights violations surrounding Iran’s 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, some of which carry through even to today. 

Among the concerns it highlights are gender-based violence, executions and imprisonments of women, men and even children in Iran. Some of the evidence, the Mission affirms, amounts to crimes against humanity. 

Also noted in the report is the Iranian regime’s increasing surveillance and criminal prosecution of women who defy the mandatory hijab laws. (More on that here — an ominous warning text to the woman’s personal cell phone is the least worrisome thing in this scenario.) 

The sobering reality 

“[Women in Iran are] more treated as possessions, tools to get what men want from them. For that reason, women go through a vicious cycle of despair from the beginning,” says Lily Meschi from Iran Alive Ministries.

(Image courtesy of Mostafa Meraji on Unsplash)

Education and marriage offer no escape. 

“Education is very important for women in general in Iran, in the Middle East. That’s why Iranian women are among the most educated in the Middle East. So they pursue education to find their identity. Then after they land a job or they start their career and whatnot, they’re mistreated by men,” Meschi says. “Most superiors are men, and most do not shy away from making advances and doing things like that to women.”

For middle- or lower-income families, education may be less attainable. For these girls, “they’re usually given into marriage [to] the first person that shows interests in the women. They usually get into toxic situations because of that,” Meschi says. 

These toxic realities include abuse, divorce, and temporary marriages. Child marriages and “honor killings” are also present in modern-day Iran. 

“It’s a vicious cycle. Women generally depend on men for provision, and so they’re emotionally abused, verbally abused and they’re physically abused,” Meschi says.

The only way out

The political and cultural climate of Iran appears hopeless for women, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly where Meschi says the gospel is a counter-cultural light. 

“When they find Christ, when the gospel is shared with them, they find true freedom. They find true identity, and they cling to that,” Meschi says.

(Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)

“That’s why women that are Muslim-background believers are so on fire for the Lord. They’re so bold. They are at the frontlines of the protests that are happening in Iran, and they want change for others as well. They want the identity that they have found in Christ, as daughters of the Most High God, for others to experience the same thing.

“They’re saying that, you know, to live in Iran under such oppression is to die every single day. Why not die for the sake of the gospel? To a new believer and to a woman that came to Christ in Iran, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Please pray for women in Iran. Pray for the good news of God’s LOVE for them to penetrate their worlds. Pray for political and cultural reversals to open Iran up to the gospel!

You can join Iran Alive Ministries to share gospel hope. Their team ministers to underground and online churches in Iran. They also broadcast gospel hope into Iran via satellite TV.

“We basically let people know, and especially women, that you’re not enslaved to God. You are a child. You are a daughter [or son] of the Most High God. You are crowned with a crown of life,” Meschi says. 

Visit Iran Alive’s website here. You can also sign up to receive updates and testimonies from inside of Iran — simply text “Iran” to 85789. 

Header photo courtesy of Hasan Almasi via Unsplash. 

And while we wait, we worship. 

Church services during Advent traditionally center on four themes: hope, peace, joy, and love. Denise Godwin of International Media Ministries says Christians can point lost people around us to the source of these universally desired gifts. 

“I believe we have a great gift in engaging with hope and peace and love – knowing that what we have we can share. It’s a privilege that we can bring with us as part of the gifts of Christmas season,” she says. 

Sharing can take many forms: conversations, media interactions, formal ministries, or simple acts of generosity. During this Christmas season, and always, Christians can offer the world an extension of the love that Christ offers us. 

“We see a demonstration of a different kind of love in Jesus Christ,” Godwin says, “and I think it’s a faith and a peace and a hope that we need in the times that we live in.” 

In our dark world, many Christmas traditions incorporate the dawning of light: Jesus Christ, the life and light for all mankind. 

Yet in the midst of our lighted celebrations, 3 billion unreached people still walk in darkness. In many countries around the world, there is no Christmas season: no celebration, no symbolism, no meaning. No light. 

“There’s no purpose behind this season for them,” Godwin says. “They don’t understand the light of the world.”

Photo courtesy of Valeriya via Pexels

Primarily through media initiatives such as radio and tv programming, International Media Ministries works in the world’s darkest places to bring Gospel light. Godwin recalls the significance of one of the first projects she worked on: a Christmas program that went into the Eastern Bloc countries after the fall of communism.

“To bring the whole concept of Jesus to a culture that’s been absent Him: they have been waiting for years and years to find hope,” she says. “Each person that comes to Jesus Christ in a closed and dark country is so enthusiastic to share with others despite the risks to themselves.” 

In the midst of our Advent meditations this year, Godwin asks: 

“What does it look like as we wait for this hope to be revealed in our own hearts and lives?” 

In our homes, churches, workplaces, and communities, let’s remind our dark world that light has come, treasuring the gift of Christ in our own hearts as we share Him with others. 

“It’s a lovely privilege that we can incorporate into our Advent as we wait and dwell on the birth of Jesus Christ and what that means,” Godwin says, “as light came to the world in a unique way to save us once and for all.”

Featured photo courtesy of Gareth Harper via Unsplash

Christians wonder how the new administration will respond to their presence in the Muslim majority nation of more than 280 million. They hope for greater favor than in the past.

Juserdi Purba with A3 explains that there are different levels of persecution Indonesian believers go through.

(Representative stock photo courtesy of John Ragai on Flickr: https://goo.gl/HVMTRr.)

“Commonly, we face opposition from non-believers because they believe that we are in the wrong way. So they try to convince us (to convert),” Purba says.

Another level he identifies is physical persecution. However, it’s important to note that Indonesia is composed of more than 17,500 islands. The degree of social, legal and physical persecution a Christian might endure varies from one family, community or region to another.

No matter the circumstance, Purba says the church’s first move needs to be Christ-like love, godly living and a relationship-building approach to Muslim neighbors. He says in many cases, people have actually asked why Christians aren’t responding with hate to the pressure or mistreatment they suffer.

“That is the door open for us to say what we do, because we have love in Jesus, and we want to show to them that Jesus also love them,” Purba says.

Join Indonesian believers in praying for deeper godliness and a winsome witness to God’s love.

“We have prayer meeting[s], and we hope that one day the door is open for us to to preach the good news,” Purba says.

“[But] I think this is the first [step]: we display Christ, [a] good example, good life. We show love to them.”

Header photo of an Indonesian Bible is a representative stock photo courtesy of Yosi Prihantoro via Unsplash.