“This man, he was public enemy number one, gang leader for years in the Philippines, and he found the Lord. He started following Jesus in prison,” says Williams.

“Ever since the beginning of World Missionary Press, our goal has been to get the Word out to all nations, and we’ve trusted the Lord to provide day in and day out. And for the past 60 years, He’s provided everything we need to accomplish this mission.”
(Graphic, caption courtesy of World Missionary Press)

From there, he discipled many other gang members and criminals over the years. So when disaster hit Cebu City, these preachers were there to share the Gospel, handing out Scripture booklets—similar to the same booklet that originally led him to Jesus.

“It was the Scripture booklets that were the tools that led him to the Lord, and then he discipled others, and now he’s one of those boldly going to where the people need him the most with the booklets and just doing a great work,” says Williams.

According to her, hundreds of thousands of World Mission Press scripture booklets have been distributed to the area. This isn’t an isolated event for World Missionary Press, which prints and ships free, accessible Scripture booklets in over 350 languages, in large quantities, around the world.

“The Lord has people in place, and when these things come up, it’s our job to keep them supplied.”

World Missionary Press work to keep booklets on the shelves of their partner ministries, providing enough not just for church and congregation use, but also extra for when disaster strikes, like it did in the Philippines—and in Myanmar.

When a 7.7-7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, a local ministry mobilized churches and volunteers to provide emergency relief. Their approach focused on two components: humanitarian assistance and spiritual care, including the Scripture booklets.

Williams shares the testimony of one woman who had lost several family members and her home in the earthquake:

(Graphic courtesy of World Missionary Press)

“She shared that in the days following the disaster, she felt overwhelmed by grief and hopelessness, believing she had nothing left to live for. When she received a World Missionary Press Scripture booklet, she read it repeatedly. She said, ‘Everything I owned was gone and I had nothing left, but the words of this booklet told me that God still loves me and has not forsaken me. It gave mestrength to stand again.’”

World Missionary Press relies on donations to help keep their partner ministries supplied. Williams asks for prayer to help keep their staff focused, but especially for those who receive the booklets and are on the front lines, offering hope to those who need it most.

“When the Word is there, it brings the comfort, it brings the hope, it brings the reality of eternity for those that they have lost,” says Williams.

Learn more about World Missionary Press at wmpress.org.

Header photo courtesy of World Missionary Press.

Beirut, Lebanon (Photo courtesy of Sara Calado/Unsplash)

The media we consume is shaped by the world around us. In North Africa and the Middle East, recent years have been difficult. Tragedies — from war-torn streets and earthquake rubble to economic collapse — have filled the news, radio, and TV. That’s where SAT-7 ARABIC steps in to say: the news might be bad, but there is still hope!

The headlines coming out of the region reflect the same pressure felt by SAT-7’s Arabic media ministry. Every day, the team faces at least four major challenges, explains Executive Director Rami Al-Halaseh.

1. The first challenge is offering hope in the midst of crisis.

“We want to function with a crisis response approach where anybody who’s watching SAT-7, anybody who follows SAT-7, will find something that will help them go through the crisis, go through the struggle, the challenge, with at least some hope.”

2. The second challenge: staying clear of political entanglements.

Called to be a voice for the Church and to shed light on injustice, SAT-7 often navigates complex and controversial stories with wisdom. Still, discussing political topics can be difficult. “We’re a Christian satellite station that presents, and, you know, promotes the message of hope, salvation, and, you know, new life in Christ. However, we cannot really disconnect ourselves as people of the land from the ongoing daily challenges,” he adds.

“If this is unjust, what’s happening, we have to say it’s unjust in our biblical way, not in a political way.”

Woman praying in Cairo church (Photo courtesy of Selim Graphy/Pexels)

3. Another challenge is misinformation, like the claim that no Christians remain in places like Palestine or Lebanon.

Some assume that if there are few news reports about Christians in an area, they no longer exist there. But SAT-7 has interviewed believers living through conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.

“Where we were, we were interviewing Christians, you know, falling under the war itself. Same thing in Lebanon, when people were displaced, and where they had to leave their homes. We interviewed all those people, Christians, who live in the south, but they had to leave because of the strikes.”

“The task,” he adds, “is giving them the voice to share the story!”

4. The final challenge — and a constant prayer request — is for the safety and peace of mind of SAT-7’s team as they serve amid war, inflation, and earthquakes.

“We deal first hand with these things because it’s our people. It’s our staff that is in the studio of Lebanon, where, for example, we’re meeting on Zoom, and then suddenly their windows are shaken because of the air strikes.”

Pray for the safety of SAT-7 ARABIC workers — that they would be protected from persecution, war, economic hardship, and more. Pray for their peace of mind as they continue their mission, and for wisdom as they face ongoing crises.

Header photo courtesy of Alex Azabache via Pexels.

Brian Dennett with AMG International says their longtime partners expect these heavy rains and floods each year — they have known devastating rainy seasons before. But one field leader shared that 2024 has left deep marks. 

“To hear him say that this was shocking and severe and that they couldn’t believe the damage was very troubling to us,” Dennett says. 

“We have a very large network [in India], and so we have a team responding. They have reached out to us for help. Many have lost their homes, all of their belongings. Without the ability to move around, many have not been able to work now, so resources are very scarce.”

(Photo courtesy of AMG International via Facebook)

Monsoon season in India usually runs from June to September. The end may be in sight, but devastation and risk of waterborne illness are present realities. 

“That’s why we are in urgent need of resources for clean drinking water, for food, for temporary shelter and for the medications to treat all of those diseases,” Dennett says. 

“We have medical clinics there, so we are able to respond to that, but we are definitely lacking resources at the moment.”

AMG is seeking to raise $20,000 for resources for flood survivors. Pray for effective ministry, and consider if you can give to their South Asia flood relief fund.

“This is such a tangible way for us to show the love of God to people who are lost,” Dennett says. 

“Our team has given us a very detailed plan on how they would like to go about reaching over 1,000 families in the coming days and weeks. We would just find it a joy to be able to provide for that.”

Header photo of flood-affected area along Kachua river at Chargula, Karimganj, Assam, June 2024 courtesy of KEmel49 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The El Niño phenomenon has led to below-average rainfall across southern Africa, forcing Zimbabwe among other nations in the region to declare a state of disaster earlier this year. 

But even if rain came today, the drought carries long-term consequences.  

“It doesn’t mean they just don’t have food now,” Greg Yoder with Christian World Outreach, “but it [also means] there’s going to be a food shortage in the future.”

Vulnerable children in the “Our Kids” program in Zimbabwe. (Photo courtesy of CWO)

Families in Zimbabwe have lost their crops. They have to spend hours a day securing water, sometimes even digging holes in dry riverbeds for even a bucketful of dirty water. Children are at risk of losing the opportunity to go to school as their parents and grandparents have to focus on getting the next meal on the table. 

In the midst of this, CWO serves families taking care of orphaned children.

“There are times where we’re going to need to supply these families with food that we hadn’t planned on — as well as the pastors of the churches we work with,” Yoder says, explaining that “The people will come to their pastors with their needs, and so they’re (the pastors) going to be swamped with requests for food.” 

October is the hottest and driest month of the year for southern Africa. Would you consider a gift to CWO’s work in Zimbabwe ahead of time?

“If somebody’s hungry and their stomach’s growling, I don’t know that they’re going to hear you share the gospel with them,” Yoder says.

He points to Jesus. “Most of the time, he met physical needs — he met people where they were in their need — and then he shared who he was and shared the gospel with them. We mimic that in what we do. Whether it’s giving food or clothes or medical care, education, we come alongside people and try to meet them right where they are. That opens the door to share the gospel with people.”

Visit cwomissions.org/zimbabwe to make a donation to help serve the people of Zimbabwe’s physical needs.

Header photo contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024 and is courtesy of European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery via Wikimedia Commons. These Copernicus Sentinel-2 images, acquired in March 2023 (top) and 2024 (bottom), show the changes caused by the drought along the borders of Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. See the full image comparisons here. 

Most of the victims were women and children. Even surviving families lost their land and livestock, which meant their livelihood.

Now, many villages in the mountainous region desperately need aid.

(Photo courtesy of Global Catalytic Ministries)

Didi* with Global Catalytic Ministries (GCM) says, “The challenge is with the Taliban regime; they’re not bringing resources and rescue. Actually, it’s a really challenging area for reaching, period.”

The flooding obliterated some roads. One farmer trying to reach his family couldn’t find the road back to his village. His wife and three of his six children died in the floods; one son is still missing.

Although aid is slow coming, Afghan Christians in connection with GCM are mobilizing to the area with relief supplies.

Didi explains, “We don’t identify ourselves on the ground as GCM, but we have Afghan relationships with believers on the ground that we work with. So we have a few people that we know directly that they’re sending.”

Believers in Afghanistan still have to be careful in navigating situations that could lead to spiritual conversations.

“The first generation of believers, so many of them were in the direct line of fire and left the country,” says Didi. “So it’s a new day trying to reengage in the nation and seeing the Kingdom of God go forth.”

Ministry in Afghanistan today often looks like living out the Gospel and meeting the needs of Muslim neighbors, especially in light of natural disasters. The flash floods over the weekend are just the latest in a series of disasters to hit Afghanistan’s impoverished remote villages.

Didi says, “A huge part is just literally being the hands and feet of Jesus and creating relational equity through bringing care and assistance to this.

“From that point, after the relational bridges are formed and they’re past the immediate crisis, then you have opportunity to share the Good News: What’s the hope? Why did they come versus others that didn’t come?”

Pray for grieving Afghan families to ultimately know the comfort of Jesus Christ.

*Psuedonym for security purposes.

Header photo courtesy of Farid Ershad/Unsplash.

Türkiye (MNN) — Türkiye’s death toll keeps climbing as rescuers pull more bodies from the rubble.

Record-breaking earthquakes rocked Türkiye and parts of Syria yesterday, collapsing buildings and burying people alive. The death toll exceeded 3,500 at press time, with more than 10,000 injured.

Paul*, a friend of Trans World Radio, is on the ground with his team in Türkiye. “As you know, there was a huge earthquake,” he tells TWR.

“[The] most damaged city is Antioch; we had a radio station there. I will go with my wife to Antioch [to survey the situation.].”

Some of Paul’s teammates have family members in the quake zones. “One of our workers, whose father lives in the affected area, said they saw some damage this morning. Now, everything around them is damaged or has fallen,” says Priscilla*, one of Paul’s teammates.

“Unfortunately, the southeast is in a horrible state. There are ten major cities affected by this,” she continues.

“There are several believing (Christian) families under the rubble, and we’re still waiting [to find out] whether they’re going to make it or not.”

According to the United Nations, the initial 7.8 magnitude quake hit at the height of winter. Gaziantep – an important UN aid hub for northern Syria – was among the affected cities:

Although the earthquake was felt as far away as Lebanon, closer to home, northern Syria’s Aleppo and Idlib also reportedly saw thousands of building collapse, including two hospitals. Humanitarian needs in northern Syria are already huge, as the region is home to millions of people displaced by the country’s long-running war. Snow and rain have hampered the work of rescue teams, whose families are also among those believed to be buried under collapsed buildings.

Paul sent this photo of quake damages to the TWR team.
(Photo courtesy of TWR)

Earthquakes are common in this part of the Middle East, as the region sits atop several fault lines. However, Monday’s first quake is Türkiye’s strongest since 1939, and the disaster is on pace to become the deadliest on record. Earthquakes of equally strong magnitude killed 18,000 people in 1999.

No matter what records this disaster sets, Paul and his team stand ready to help survivors. Believers are mobilizing aid in the name of Christ. “We are buying some blankets, food, and clothes [to help quake survivors]. Please pray for us,” Paul says.

Priscilla adds, “We want to do whatever we can to help people, and we are praying like crazy for our brothers and sisters in the area.”

For further updates and information, visit twr.org/newsroom.

Ask the Lord to give Paul discernment and show him the survivors who need help for today and hope for tomorrow. Pray also that God would miraculously restore communication in Türkiye.

“We don’t have [a] signal because of the (downed) electricity and other things,” Paul says.

*Pseudonyms

In the header image, rescue workers respond at a shopping center in Diyarbakır, Turkey, after an earthquake struck Monday. The building in the background eventually collapsed. (Photo by Mahmut Bozarslan, VOA via TWR)

Last week, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced that two more people have died from flood-related complications, bringing the official death toll up to 43. One person is still missing.

Due to the widespread flood damage, it will be difficult to determine the final death count.

Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) serves kids in the United States and around the world with Gospel resources and Bible clubs. Kari Ash, state director for Child Evangelism Fellowship of Kentucky, says they visited eastern Kentucky shortly after the disaster.

(Image courtesy of CEF)

“Our first trip to eastern Kentucky was pretty shocking,” Ash says. “We saw vehicles in creeks, houses ripped apart, [and] mountains of debris for miles and miles and miles. We met with people that were rescued from their roofs by helicopters.”

Homes and communities can be rebuilt, but Kentucky families are still feeling the flood’s impact.

“We heard reports of children being afraid every time it rains there. Their schools were just getting back into session after the COVID pandemic [and] expecting a normal school year when the floods hit and disrupted that. A lot of the school buildings had major damage. Houses and a post office we saw [were] all mudded out. The mud was just incredible all over.

“We prayed with a woman that lost her husband in the storm, lost her house, her car, everything that she owned, even her documents, and didn’t feel like she had an identity anymore. She didn’t know how to rebuild and how to start.”

CEF’s booklet, Do You Wonder Why, is an invaluable resource for children and their families as they wrestle with trauma in light of Scripture and God’s truth.

Do You Wonder Why, booklet by CEF. (Photo courtesy of Child Evangelism Fellowship)

Ash says, “We’ve partnered with churches, camps, mission agencies, shelters, disaster relief teams, and even some secular agencies and medical facilities to place the Do You Wonder Why booklets in areas where they can get into the hands of children [and] adults that are questioning as well.”

There is much more work to do, and CEF is rolling up their sleeves to serve as the hands of Jesus.

Ash says they could really use your help! “There is great need for skilled laborers to help in rebuilding, to help people get back into their homes or other safe housing.

“For Child Evangelism Fellowship, we have a need to have a local missionary on the scenes in eastern Kentucky. So we are praying and asking the God of the harvest to send a laborer to serve along with us in this flood-ravaged area of eastern Kentucky.”

If you would like to financially support CEF, click here to give!

Finally, Ash asks, “Pray with us that God will use truths from His Word and from the Do You Wonder Why booklet to help searching individuals find our Savior. Pray for those that are traumatized as they rebuild their homes and their lives and start from the inside out. Many are searching for answers, and we have them through Jesus Christ. So it’s our desire to come alongside the local Church and ministry partners to share God’s Word with them.

“As we pray for them, please also remember the weary individuals that are serving on the front lines, many of whom had great loss themselves, but have given everything to try to help those in need in their area.”

Learn more about CEF’s ministry here.

Header photo of flooding in eastern Kentucky, July 2022. (U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Sgt. Jesse Elbouab, courtesy of Flickr: https://tinyurl.com/bdensy5j)

Pakistan has a monsoon season every year, but this year has been very different. Since July, rain and flooding have killed over 1,000 people and affected 33 million.

Officials have declared a national emergency. But Nehemiah with FMI says the government hasn’t done much to help the situation. “There is no one federal government. Each province has its own government. So there is no harmony between the governments. And we cannot see the government anywhere in the disaster management situation.”

“People are helping on their own, or maybe few private NGOs are helping and rescuing people.”  

Pakistan has appealed for international aid to deal with the damage. Nehemiah describes entire roads and villages washed away.

He spoke to an elderly man affected by the floods. “I met him standing with his wife and five children on a road surrounded by water, waiting to be rescued. He was saying, ‘I have lost my entire life savings, after years of sweat and blood. I have no hope of returning to my village.’”

A country in turmoil

Pakistan faces political and economic turmoil as well. When the nation suffers, its marginalized Christian community suffers even more. Nehemiah says, “Most of the time, the majority people groups have resources. But Christians in Pakistan live in a very, very difficult situation, like walking on the edge of a sword.”

Ask God to strengthen them for difficult days ahead. And pray healing and wholeness will come to Pakistan. Nehemiah says, “Pakistan is trembling, and this society is trembling right now. Emotions are getting out of control. People have no sense of responsibility for any other religion, sect, or group of people.”

Header photo courtesy of FMI. 

Christian World Outreach saw one of their buildings damaged in the flood, says Greg Yoder. “In the ministry Single Moms Raising Sons, part of that ministry is doing Bible studies with single moms. And one specific home where some of our Bible studies were being held I know was severely damaged in the flooding.”

“We actually are trying to figure out ways to help some of these single moms, who were already struggling, to get through another disaster.”

The South African Army has deployed thousands of soldiers to find missing people and also rebuild damaged infrastructure. Yoder says, “We just started up a program using old tires to start some gardens in these limited spaces these ladies have. It’s sad to see those are washed away already. Ladies were working with their sons on a project together that would help feed them, and that’s even gone.”

The floods started after what survivors described as “Sheet upon sheet” of rainfall. The storm delivered almost one year’s worth of rainfall in 48 hours to the region. It’s the latest in a trend of increasingly severe weather events across Africa.

How to help

Christian World Outreach typically holds camps for boys in this region, but those have been canceled to concentrate on aid for the families. You can get involved by donating here.

Pray these families would get enough food and adequate shelter in the days ahead. And ask God to comfort the survivors of this disaster.

The header photo shows a map of the heaviest rainfall. (Photo courtesy of NASA – NASA Earth Observatory, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

It all comes down to geography. “They’re right on the Ring of Fire in Southeast Asia. [They get] lots of volcanic activity and lots of earthquake activity, which makes general infrastructure improvements difficult. They also have a very volatile combination of sea currents that makes hurricanes and things like that a lot more common in the region. It’s not uncommon, both in ancient and modern times, that Indonesia would experience torrential rains and flooding.”

But Indonesia also doesn’t have the resources to build good infrastructure. This can make the effect of disasters even worse. Michael says, “When the population is growing, businesses go in, which means more of the landscape is being concreted. But the infrastructure is not keeping up. It’s lagging behind the growth of the cities. When the rainwater comes in, it has nowhere to go.”

How to pray

FMI supports many Indonesian pastors serving on several main islands. Pray they would have a fruitful ministry as they proclaim the risen Jesus.

Pray also that the Indonesian government would have wisdom as they oversee infrastructure building. It’s a difficult job in such a disaster-prone area.

The header image shows an Indonesia volcano erupting, with lighting strikes. (Photo courtesy of Oliver Spalt, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)