Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making it one of the most critical chokepoints for global energy. Even the threat of disruption can send ripple effects worldwide — including ministry operations.

Strait of Hormuz (By MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC – Image by Goddard Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: 2018-12-10., Public Domain)

Stan Unruh, Vice President of Aviation for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), says, “MAF’s vision is to reach isolated people. So it makes sense, of course, that our aircraft and crews are positioned in remote regions…to reach isolated people. That means that, by default, we’re exposed to fragile supply lines for our fuel products.”

Those vulnerabilities are now being tested. For example, Unruh explains, “Africa gets 80% of their crude and refined products through the Strait of Hormuz, so we’re quite concerned about the potential supply disruptions because of the conflict there.”

While fuel supply isn’t suffering yet, the price tag for jet fuel is already up and MAF is feeling it.

In East Congo, MAF has a team based in Bunia where they use aircraft to support humanitarian and missionary efforts.

(Photo courtesy of MAF Guinea)

Unruh says, “At the end of the day, supply disruptions and cost increases have an impact on Gospel ministries that we’re supporting. So it’ll have a direct impact on [Bible] translation work, on famine relief work, some conflict mitigation that our teams are involved with there in East Africa, and medical work.”

Despite the uncertainty, Unruh encourages believers to remain prayerful.

“My prayer would be that the effects of this crisis in the Middle East…is mitigated, and that we come to a peaceful conclusion soon,” Unruh asks. “But also, [pray] that the long-term effects of that are mitigated for the people that we serve.”

Pray for MAF’s Gospel work to continue without interruption, and for stability in a region whose impact reaches far beyond its borders.

Learn more about MAF’s ministry work and ways to come alongside at maf.org.

Header photo courtesy of MAF.

But it didn’t have to happen this way. Pastor Adrian with A3 says flooding is common in Sri Lanka, which tempts some people not to take flood warnings seriously. That kept many from warning others and taking proper precautions for the cyclone.

Cyclone Ditwah on 27 November, 2025. (Photo by VIIRS image from NOAA’s NOAA-21 Satellite – NOAA View Global Data Explorer, Public Domain)

“In certain areas, the rainfall was about 400 milliliters of water within a single day,” Adrian said. “One of our churches went down completely underwater. And [that] church is situated about 50 feet above the river level. We had never heard of a flooding of this nature before.” 

Adrian serves as A3’s country director for Sri Lanka. He says that for churches in some regions, “I’m unable to contact them by phone or travel to these places because of the landslides. The bridges have been washed away. I don’t think even the government is aware of the scope of the damage that has happened due to the cyclone.” 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 1.1 million Sri Lankans were affected by the cyclone and that over 15,000 houses were destroyed.

Local Christians are working to provide immediate needs — like food, potable water, clothing and shelter. Then will come the long work of rebuilding homes, says Adrian. 

“It’s a huge concern, because our country and our churches don’t have that kind of infrastructure,” he says.

Find your place in the story

Pray for God to bring eternal good from the devastation across Sri Lanka. Pray for hope to be found in Christ.

Weligama, Sri Lanka (Photo courtesy of Devin Woody via Unsplash)

“We are also getting ready to carry out a strong prayer ministry, moving to every district, gathering the believers, praying, because I believe that this devastation has also brought about receptivity in the hearts of people,” says Adrian. 

He says they are also looking to establish medical camps, because waterborne diseases will arise. 

“We are inviting people to contact us and send us teams of doctors and nurses who could come and serve,” he says. “We are also asking churches to stand with us financially, because we will have to provide [much]. It’s almost with some people starting life all over again.” 

Learn how you can partner with A3 to help local Christians bring relief and true hope to Sri Lanka.

Header photo from Galle, Sri Lanka is a representative stock image courtesy of Fredrik Öhlander via Unsplash. 

“We’re very glad to serve there because it’s untouched. They would never see a doctor there,” says MAF’s Dave LePoidevin. “The more difficult cases we fly back to Nampula, the big city where we’re based.”

(Photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique)

MozMed flights serve communities in the Niassa National Reserve, a vast, underdeveloped region of Mozambique where healthcare access is nearly nonexistent. MAF pilots fly teams of Christian doctors to these isolated villages, partnering with Bethesda Mission and local conservation groups that help maintain the airstrips.

However, the service had to be suspended for most of the past year. LePoidevin explains, “For quite some years, we’ve had the insurgents there — a branch of ISIS — and so they’ve been moving in from the north and attacking there. That’s been a constant threat, and we were always watching, ‘Is it safe to fly where we want to fly?’”

The danger only escalated when national elections last October brought political unrest.

“People wanting to make a statement or insurgents, they would just love to see a burning airplane,” says LePoidevin. “So we got kind of nervous that we might be a target, so we pulled the airplane out.”

(Photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique)

Now that conditions have improved, MAF has returned to the skies — carrying both medicine and Christ’s compassion.

LePoidevin says, “We can love the people with medical help. Even small diseases or wounds or difficult pregnancies or something like that, [which] would be relatively small for us, is a big deal for them there.”

The Niassa region is predominantly Muslim and animist, and direct evangelism is difficult. Still, LePoidevin says the love of Christ can be felt in every flight.

“We’re focusing on material needs and medical needs, and we’re glad to be doing that,” he says. “Nearby here, we have had some opportunities to show the Jesus film…. Some went well, some not so well with objection from the local Muslim community. So we’re focusing on loving our neighbors here.”

Pray for continued safety as MAF flies MozMed teams into Mozambique’s conflict-affected north. Ask God to open hearts among Muslim and animist communities to the hope of Christ.

“If anybody would pray for us in our work in this area in the north, to find opportunities to show Jesus in a respectful and kind way, we would appreciate your prayers for that.”

Header photo courtesy of Dave LePoidevin/MAF Mozambique.

Protests have spiked all around the country as people call for Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation. Henry signed a non-binding accord in 2022 that general elections and a transfer of power would happen by February 7, 2024. That did not happen.

(Photo courtesy For Haiti With Love)

Henry says Haiti’s national security needs to be brought higher before elections can take place. This is not the first call for Henry’s resignation, nor the first time elections have been pushed back during his time in office since 2021. 

In the midst of the national turmoil, For Haiti With Love’s doors remain open. 

Roseline DeHart with For Haiti With Love says their clinic helps anyone who needs it, whether from cuts, bullet wounds, burns or other needs. They also give out food when possible. 

“We are there to help them whoever they are. No question asked,” DeHart says. 

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, 2.5 million Haitians live on less than $1.25 USD per day. 

“If they can eat today, they thank God. But they might not be able to eat tomorrow,” says DeHart. 

“One egg costs 50 cents, but not everybody is able to get that 50 cents. With the riots happening this week, the food prices went up even higher. They might eat one time a day, or two times a week. It’s whatever they can afford.”

There are some 300 gangs present in the country, but For Haiti has the respect of their community.

(Photo courtesy of For Haiti with Love).

“They know that we help people, that’s what we do. And we’ve been doing it for so long and in the same place, so if somebody tell them they need to go to For Haiti With Love, they will let them pass to get to the clinic.” DeHart says. 

“When we do something for somebody, (such as) give them a bag of food, they always ask us why are we doing this? We (tell) them that Jesus paid the price for them already. It’s all because of Jesus. A lot of time they ask us, ‘Who is this Jesus?’”

You can come alongside For Haiti through prayer and partnership to help those who have nowhere else to go. 

“We do pray there (are) election(s) someday. But we don’t know when it will (take place). We just keep praying and keep doing our jobs,” DeHart says.

“We ask people for prayers, too. We ask people for help so we can continue to help the people in Haiti.”

Header photo of cross over Cap-Haitien courtesy of For Haiti With Love.

She tells the story of two women (named S and V for security reasons) who were refugees from the Middle East staying in Greece.  “On our virtual trip we were actually able to share the Gospel with S. And she became a believer via zoom, which was pretty incredible,” Lucas says,

“About two weeks later, we were able to watch her be baptized in a bathtub, in another refugees’ apartment.”

Now, Lucas has resumed traveling in preparations for more mission trips. She returned to Greece and met S and V in person.

One day, V began weeping from the trauma she had endured. Lucas says S began to share the hope of Jesus with her. “We talked and shared with her, sharing the Gospel with her. And she said, ‘Yes, I want Jesus.’ We all broke down crying. It was so exciting.” Both women now attend Bibles studies and stay in contact with e3 Partners.

Want to get involved? You can join an e3 Partners medical mission trip this fall, or in early 2022. Keep an eye on this page for more information, or to register for more upcoming trips.

Header image courtesy of e3 Partners.

In some parts of the world, the confusion isn’t just about the science of COVID-19. In the Middle East and North Africa, people are asking spiritual questions about God’s role in the pandemic. Rex Rogers, President of SAT-7 North America, reports that “People have asked questions like, ‘Does God hate us? Is He trying to punish us? Is He trying to kill us, to wipe us out?’ You know, those kind of fears and a lot of superstitions that rear their head.”

Plus, living conditions make traditional preventive measures difficult for locals in the Middle East. “In the Middle East, you have 50% of the world’s refugees in that region. And that’s probably 40-45 million people, half of them children, and many of them are in refugee camps. Well, how do you social distance in a refugee camp in Jordan or Turkey or Lebanon? It’s very difficult, if not impossible.”

SAT-7 is developing focused programming to address these challenging medical and spiritual questions. They’re airing broadcasts in Arabic, Farsi, and Turkish for adults and kids.

Photo courtesy of SAT-7

“We try to share with them biblical theology and biblical teaching about who God is: a God of love, and justice and holiness and righteousness who loves them,” Rogers says. “And through Christ, they have salvation.”

God’s not unaware of the pandemic or its affect, and it’s important to remind kids that God has the power to bring good out of a terrible crisis.

The program provides practical advice, too. SAT-7 brings medical experts onto the program to discuss hand-washing and other hygiene awareness topics so kids and adults alike can stay safe and healthy.

The bottom line: SAT-7 is “trying to speak to refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as others, to encourage them and give them practical advice on how to respond to what is a ravaging virus and disease until such a time as we can get our way past it.”

If you want to support SAT-7 directly, you can find a link to their website right here.

Header photo courtesy of SAT-7

Sponsorship

These 200 kids are in AMG programs across the globe and range from ages 5 to 13. Each child has a different circumstance and level of need. Sponsorship can fund medical treatment, education, food, and access to the gospel message.

The nursing school operates in conjunction with AMG’s Hope Medical Center. (Photo courtesy AMG International)

“We want to create a long relationship with the sponsor and the sponsored child,” says Bethany Dameron of AMG International.

“Our tagline is to inspire hope and change your future. And we want to do that not just for the kids that we’re sponsoring, but also those that ARE sponsoring as well.”

For those interested in lending one of these children a hand, AMG is featuring all 200 kids on their website in a push to get them sponsored. Some of the kids have been on the website for some time without a sponsor, while others are new additions.

“We’ve reached out to the field and asked for kids that further information so we can post them on the website for this particular event.”

Sofia’s Story

Sofia poses for a photo (Photo courtesy of AMG International)

AMG sponsors have been supporting kids for years. One of many success stories, 14-year-old Sofia survived a major heart condition and surgery thanks to AMG. AMG was able to get her the treatment she needed for a hole in the upper chamber of her heart.

“We found a special donor who was also able to help support the surgery, and now she’s healthier than ever. And she’s doing well she’s still in the program in the Philippines and doing well in school…The big thing about that is she would have never been in contact with these people that helped save her life had she not been sponsored through the program. And we have dozens of kids like that and stories like that…because they’re in this program. They’re able to be met not just spiritually, but also their physical needs as well, to help either save their life like Sofia or just provide for a better life in general,” Dameron says.

For kids like Sofia, sponsorship through AMG is a life-changing and sometimes life-saving opportunity. Read Sofia’s full story here.

How to Get Involved

An obvious way to help support these 200 kids is to become a sponsor yourself, but there are other ways to chip in. For those near the Chattanooga area, AMG is holding its inaugural Day of Sharing event to sponsor the 200 children. Set for October 5, the fundraiser and fall festival will include events for the family. Locals can enjoy live music, not to mention a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, and free lunch. Learn more here.

For the many readers not in the area, sign up online to sponsor a child and stay in touch with AMG via social media. Your story could inspire someone else.

Pray for the kids and their future success and that they are able to develop relationships with their sponsors. Ask that all 200 children will find sponsors and those who are moved to support them will heed that call. Consider what part God wants you to play in meeting this need.

Header photo courtesy of AMG International

The Shepherd Society

The Shepherd Society began 21 years ago to provide food and medical treatments to less fortunate families during the Intifada. Based in Bethlehem, an area known for conflict and closed off by a wall, this group is one of the main institutions providing help in the area. Here Palestinian Christians, a minority within a minority, answer the call to care for the widow and the orphan, to feed the hungry, and to share Christ.

(Photo courtesy of the Shepherd Society)

The Shepherd Society has four main programs to accomplish this work. These include medical aid,  microfinance projects, and family to family sponsorships.

In Bethlehem, the Shepherd Society’s medical program is the main medical program. However, the medical program is meeting only a fraction of their need. With the right funding, it could double the number of people it currently serves.

“This is our vision, to help anybody who knocks on our door…I want them to know that we care about every single person in this whole world,” says Sari Zeidan, Head of the Shepherd Society.

Living in Conflict, but Serving Those Fleeing it

The fourth program is refugee aid. Earlier this year the Shepherd Society and a group of volunteers traveled to neighboring El Malfrak, Jordan. Here the team offered encouragement, support, and hope to Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

“We visit them at their houses, through a church there, and we hear their stories,” Zeidan says.

“We tell them our stories. We give them food packages, and blankets or anything they need…One of the things that we share [is] the Bible…or at least we share some stories of the Bible that reflects similar situations of the refugees…For example, when Jesus went out from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and we talk about a lot of stories that reflect the patience, the passion that they need to survive.”

(Photo courtesy of the Shepherd Society)

During outreach, the Shepherd Society invites refugees to church and offers to pray with them. However, Zeidan says most of the Syrian refugees the Shepherd Society encounters are Muslims. Muslims often mistake the Trinity as representing three Gods. The confusions offers believers a chance to explain how Christians worship one God and one God only.

Prayer is also different in Islam; Christians have the freedom to open their hearts to God at any time.

“They started to come…to pray with the people of Jordan and with us in the church. This is a success story and it’s a blessing to let them pray the way we pray,” Zeidan says.

An Unexpected Education

These outreaches also teach the volunteers, who are usually youth or students from the college, how to serve. The experience provides a stark contrast between self-focus and what it means to selflessly love and serve others.

(Photo courtesy of the Shepherd Society)

“They learn through the stories that…the most important is to help these people who suffer and in a way that they believe that God is sending them or Jesus is sending them there, to learn about the world and what is happening in the world. This is so important for us and for them,” Zeidan explains.

Zeidan says this mindset of loving those who are suffering is a call from God. It is a faith which surrenders to God and is obedient even during trials.

Please, if you would, pray for the Shepherd Society’s multifaceted work. Pray for peace between Israel and Palestine, for the refugees in the region, and for God to supply the funds for the Shepherd Society work.

To learn more about the Shepherd Society and how to get involved, click here.

Financially support the Shepherd Society here.

Header photo by Sander Crombach on Unsplash.

Set Free Ministries works both in the United States and overseas. Domestically, they’re primarily focused on bringing spiritual freedom and healing through God’s Word and what they call freedom appointments. Internationally, they’re bringing these principles into the work they’re doing to build stronger communities and educational opportunities.

A year of hope

Looking back on the year, Pete Noor of Set Free is grateful for the hundreds of people who came through their door and were able to grasp at hope once more.

“We daily have people coming in here, right, that are broken, hurting, struggling with depression and anxiety and so forth.”

Noor says that when these individuals arrive in the lobby at their headquarters in West Michigan, you can see that they are downcast and depressed. The team regularly starts the day by praying for everyone who will come in that day. They ask God to reveal himself to the hurting.

Volunteers take participants through the freedom appointments. These one-time counseling sessions help people identify harmful lies in their life and replace them with the promises of God.

“Often times we will have the opportunity just to see these individuals and to see the actual difference in their countenance as they leave, the hope that’s in their eyes,” Noor says.

The volunteers walking these people through the freedom appointments, exposing the lies that are dragging them down and sharing the truths and promises of God, are blessed to be used by God to bring spiritual and emotional healing. Just about every day, Noor says, they get to see God transform lives in a big way.

Noor recalls how this year, they received a letter from a woman who tahenked them for helping her husband find healing through the Gospel. He had once more assumed the role of spiritual leader in their household.

“Hope. Hope is just something everybody needs, right? And it’s just, so many are searching for it in all the wrong places. And so when they come here and get connected to the true Healer– what a great thing.”

A growing ministry

This ministry offers freedom appointments free of charge to participants. They feel strongly about this because they don’t want to put up any barriers to God’s free gift of mercy and grace. Noor says they often have people break down in tears of gratitude because they didn’t know there was anyone who could help them in their financial difficulties.

But providing these free services requires the time, talent, and treasure of others.

Jim Faber of Set Free says as they finish out the year and look ahead, there are a few ways they are asking God to provide. First, he says they want to meet their basic budget and finish the year in the black. Second, they are raising funds to build a high school in Uganda. And third, they are planning to build a new ministry building so that they can expand their operations in West Michigan.

All of these financial needs have come about because of the growing demand for what Set Free provides. But time and time again, they’ve seen God provide, and they’ve seen the people involved in that provision greatly blessed.

So, what exactly does it look like to be blessed through giving? Noor gives an example.

Lives changed

Several years ago, there was a man who accompanied their executive director, Dean VanderMey, to Uganda to visit the schools Set Free supports there. During their visit, they met a student named Robert whose leg was so deformed, he was unable to walk. His future was bleak.

“The gentleman that accompanied Dean on this trip saw this, and they inquired about the possibility of having surgery done, found out how much it was. And he committed on the spot to take care of this boy’s surgeries,” Noor explains.

The boy went through quite a few surgeries to try and fix his leg. Last year, a team went back to visit the school he attends. Dean was excited to bring the news to this donor that Robert not only walked up to him, he ran across the classroom!

Robert underwent several corrective surgeries.
(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Today, Robert is the top academic student of his class. Noor believes this boy will one day be a leader due to his personality and drive. His donor is blessed to know he was part of making that possible.

Another example from Africa involves the rescue of 18 young girls from an area where they would have become victims of female genital mutilation. These girls were taken in by the schools that Set Free supports, but they needed to be enrolled in high school. This meant that tuition funds needed to be raised.

Set Free approached one of their donor couples and told them about the girls and their need for school. This couple decided to pay for their tuition. They’ve been able to give these girls a hopeful future and a chance to succeed, and to know the love of Jesus through all of that.

Faber says God is working through donors and prayer warriors all the time, and he’s doing incredible things.

“It’s a joy to come in every day and to work with these people. They have such tremendous hearts. And God is using Set Free Ministries in a tremendous way.”

How you can help

If you want to be a part of this incredible work, there are a few ways to get involved. First of all, consider becoming a prayer warrior for Set Free. You can learn more about that, here.

Second of all, consider supporting them financially so that they can achieve their exciting goals for the near future. Learn more, here.

And finally, Noor says, “We need more volunteers, frankly… We’re becoming more known. And we’re getting referrals from a lot of different sources now. We’re having people come here from out of state. And we see a real need for more people whose hearts are moved by this type of ministry. Who would like to be used, to be the hands and feet of Christ.”

Volunteers just need to be willing to be trained and go through their own freedom appointment. They need to have a desire to “get in the trenches and experience the rewards that come when you answer the call,” Noor says. “And you are able to actually experience the power, the grace of God, flowing through you to others. It’s unlike anything you’ll ever experience.”

For more information on this, click here.

If you are looking for some help to work through addiction, depression, anger, or any other emotional or spiritual difficulty, you can reach out to Set Free here. 

Header photo courtesy of Pixabay.

“A lot of the places that we try to go aren’t necessarily friendly towards Christians or friendly towards people that are coming solely for that purpose. So, having an additional purpose to be there in the country opens up opportunities for more evangelism,” Johnston explains.

Trips and Causes

However, e3 is also concerned about meeting the physical and mental needs of individuals, too. In a way, these trips bring holistic love in Jesus’ name.

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

“If you can heal someone spiritually, then that’s huge. Having that rock of Jesus, that foundation underneath you is huge. But there [are] also physical needs. Our medical trips can help with those and that’s kind of an opportunity for us to take people who have a love for Christ and have an expertise in the medical field…and really show the love of Jesus,” Johnston shares.

E3 has other causes related to sports, refugees, human trafficking, community transformation, the least reached, family, and orality.

During sports camps, e3 attendees have the chance to invest in kids’ lives. Community transformation trips provide an opportunity to address physical health, community function, farming, and more. In communities where they Gospel has yet to finish being translated, the orality trips offer a time of encouragement while sharing God’s Word and His story.

However, when e3 teams show up to answer physical needs, people usually begin asking questions. “Why are you here? Why are you helping? Why do you care?” This conversation starter ultimately leads to Jesus, His love, and His sacrifice on the cross.

Sharing Christ in Russia

In fact, this happened during an e3 medical trip to Russia just last year. A woman named Diana had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. At 75-years-old, Diana had high blood pressure and had already suffered several mini-strokes. Diana came to the e3 medical clinic to see if there was any way they could help her.

After hearing Diana’s story, the team asked if they could pray for her. Diana’s response—“How much does prayer cost?”

(Photo courtesy of e3 Partners)

“That was her mindset going into all this was how much is this going to cost me. The team kind of smiled when she asked that question and just felt like it was a perfect opportunity to share the Gospel with her,” Johnston says.

“They explained to Diana that prayer is a gift from God, just as salvation through Jesus is a free gift of God’s love and grace. They said that Diana was shocked when she heard this…she was expecting them to give her a financial amount…she was not expecting to hear that.”

Afterward, Diana kept asking more about Christ’s love and grace. It was clear to the team God was at work in Diana’s heart. Caring for her physical needs, the medical team referred Diana to a local Parkinson’s specialist. The team also connected her to a local church. Johnston says a woman from the church has committed to discipling Diana.

Interested in taking a trip? Connect with e3 and see how your talents can be used to meet physical needs while opening doors for the Gospel.

Learn more about e3 Partners’ causes and opportunities for upcoming trips here.