“We don’t have rice on on the shelf of any supermarket or stores. Everybody’s doing stockpiling, and we cannot buy rice,” says Takeshi Takazawa with A3.

(Photo of Typhoon Shanshan’s path August-September 2024 courtesy of Supportstorm via Wikimedia Commons.)

The panic buying isn’t simply a response to one storm. In August alone, Japan endured effects of typhoons Maria, Ampil and Shanshan, as well as a 7.1-magnitude earthquake followed by warnings of a possible megaquake. Although the warning has since been lifted, authorities say the risk of a massive earthquake still exists. 

In the face of these dangers, Takazawa says people in Japan are asking, “Who takes care of me?” He says they have been noticing a decrease of help coming from the government after disasters — most recently the January 2024 quakes in Noto. 

“They (the people of Noto) continue to struggle because [the] government didn’t do [aid] the same way we had in [the disasters that happened in the] northeast and Kumamoto and other places,” says Takazawa.

“People are getting little bit more nervous about, ‘How can we take care of ourselves?’ Sixty-five percent of our food [comes] from outside [the country], and if delivery and import stops, we can be starved to death.”

Local churches have stepped into part of this gap. Takazawa says churches have been able to build networks to respond to crises such as the 2004 Niigata quake, the “triple disaster” in Fukushima in 2011, and the 2016 Kumamoto quake.

“[In] each [of these] cases, local communities saw Christian churches actually [stay] and continue to support and pray, both physically and emotionally and ultimately spiritually. That testimony has been going forth, and that’s great,” Takazawa says.

(Photo courtesy of A3)

You can be part of this story through your prayers.

“Pray for our people so that we don’t have to go through major suffering through these disasters,” says Takazawa. “But at the same time, pray for our souls so that we don’t rely on the stockpile [of resources], but ultimately God who takes care of us and loves us.”

A3 serves in Japan and other nations to encourage and equip leaders to serve their people even better in the name of Christ. Learn more about their ministry here. 

Header photo of Typhoon Shanshan August 31, 2024 courtesy of MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC via Wikimedia Commons. This image was catalogued by Goddard Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: 2024-08-31., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152018243.

Scott Clifton has been serving as the Assistant Director of FARMS International since May. Before that, he served as a board member.

“Previously I worked as a design engineer for an aircraft company and so I left that job to pursue ministry with FARMS as I felt God was leading.”

After he came on staff, Clifton joined executive director, Joe Richter, on a 25-day trip to the various projects FARMS has.

Clifton says, “The most remote location on that trip was to a village in Nagaland, and we weren’t even sure if we would be able to go, but the rains held off long enough and we thought we could make it without getting stuck.”

They were able to visit the village, but it was close call with monsoon rains. During their visit, they met with a pastor who received a FARMS loan sometime in the past few years.

Clifton explains that this pastor had been serving the community for the last 25 years.

“He talked about how before he received a FARMS loan, he couldn’t pay expenses for his family—he had three kids and his wife, and they couldn’t make ends meet.”

(Photo and header photo courtesy of FARMS International)

In other words, this pastor had a growing debt. But with the FARMS loan he received, he purchased a rice mill—a huge advance in technology for the area. Without the mill, people had to either shell their rice by hand or transport it far away.

“Through this loan, he was able to increase his income, personally, by a significant amount, where as he’s able to pay off all those debts. He also receives a very low monthly wage from the church, so he’s able to supplement that. And, in fact, it’s enough income from this project, that he’s able to give more to the church.”

Microloans through FARMS are interest-free, and loan-holders agree to pay tithe back to the church once their loan project begins to turn a profit.

In this way, there’s less burden on the church to support the pastor, and more funds available to do ministry outreach. But, the rice mill has been beneficial in other ways, as well.

“It’s also a really significant project in that it’s beneficial to the entire community. So, if someone doesn’t have enough money to pay… to have the rice milled, they can give a portion of the rice itself so that anyone who wants rice milled will have the means to have it milled.”

This creates an economic advantage for rice farmers in that they no longer have to spend as much time milling their rice.

Strengthening Church Outreach

There are a couple of ways that FARMS loans impact the Gospel. In this story, we see that the loans make it possible for ministry workers to spend more time in ministry. This pastor was able to pay off his loan and his debts, and now he’s able to take adequate care of his family, financially.

“The pastor is really carrying out ministry in addition to other responsibilities that everybody else would have. He has the same burdens of putting food on the table and trying to provide education for his kids, which is a significant hurdle for such a remote location as this. And so, he has those burden. But in addition, he feels that God has burdened him for ministry. And so, that’s a lot of commitments to try to balance.”

Increasing his income means he can provide for his family, and focus more time on ministry.

(Photo courtesy of FARMS International)

“He’s able to do his work as a pastor more effectively. He’s freed up with the time and the resources to pursue that.”

The second way these projects impact the Gospel is that they give non-Christians a glimpse at what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ.

In this village, Clifton says, “Many were Christian, but there were also families who were not, who are part of a tribal religion.”

John 13:35 says that others will know Jesus’ disciples by their love for one another. This means that the members of the Body of Christ are in relationship with one another, and therefore care for one another. The FARMS program encourages just that—for the Body of Christ to use its resources to help those in need. The very act of caring for other Christians is a testimony to those who see these actions.

Clifton says, “When they see the people come out of the poverty that everybody in the village is in, and they ask questions, we pray that it creates an attractive response to the Gospel, to the Christian message, knowing that those people, those believers in that village, are supported by a large community of believers who are both praying for them, but also seeking to partner in ways that help to bring them out of their poverty.”

Do you feel like God is asking you to get involved with this? There are quite a few ways you can respond.

“There’s always a greater need that we see, more places that we can go, more programs that we can expand than we have the financial resources available to do so.

“And one of the things we’re passionate about is educating about giving. It can be easy for very well-intentioned believers to understand that God calls us to give, to want to experience the joy of giving. And so we give and we feel good about that, but we don’t always look into what we’re giving to, or how that operates. And so, we are really passionate about educating believers who are in a position to give financially, that we also have a responsibility to look into how that money is used and to have some intentionality with where we place it.”

If you’d like to support FARMS International financially, learn more here.

And, here’s how you can pray:

“Some of the countries that we’re working in are very difficult scenarios for a number of different reasons. Pray for the believers who have received loans that it would improve their situation and that there would be good payment and that the churches would be empowered to pursue the ministry that’s on their hearts—to share the Gospel with those around them.”

Indigenous Papuans have the lowest life expectancy rates in the country, especially for infants and children. Currently, Dennis Bergstrazer with Mission Aviation Fellowship says around 29 villages in Papua are suffering from a famine caused by excessive rain and flooding.

“Over the last three months — particularly in this one area where the famine is taking place — we’ve had an awful lot of rain. Just constant. So it saturates the ground to a point where the gardens which are on the sides of the mountains, they’ll get so heavy and they just start to slide down. They don’t have the structure for trees and things to hold the ground in place. So that’s one of the problems,” he explains.

“The other problem is that when the ground gets so saturated with water from the rain, the crops cannot grow. Or in other cases, they just rot in the ground.”

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

Papua is an Indonesian province on the island of New Guinea. It’s marked by steep mountains and plunging valleys. Many of the villages are extremely difficult to get to and don’t even have roads. The few roads that do exist are in danger of being clogged by landslides and have rough terrain. This makes getting aid to the villages problematic.

Bergstrazer is a pilot and manager of MAF’s Timika base in Papua, Indonesia. He says MAF has been flying food and aid into the area affected by famine.

“There [are] a lot of churches up and down the valley. Typically what they do is I fly food into a place called Bugapa and then the church leaders from these villages, they send in folks from their church and then they pick up the food and they hike over the mountains.”

This journey across the mountains for villagers can take days. The steep slopes already prove difficult to traverse. But the rain provides an obstacle along with the added weight of food they carry.

“Rice is primarily what we’ve been flying in and that’s pretty heavy. We get 50 kilo bags, which is about 120 pounds per bag, and then we divide that up into about 20 pound bags. So, still, that’s pretty heavy carrying over steep, slippery trails.”

In addition to rice, the MAF pilots also fly in seeds for corn and spinach to replant gardens. Most of the local people live on sweet potatoes, but these are difficult to regrow when one crop has been destroyed.

(Photo courtesy of Mission Aviation Fellowship)

“One of the problems is that once the sweet potato crops are ruined from heavy rains, it takes six months from the time you plant another sweet potato plant to when it matures. So the rains have a long-term effect on people’s food supply and their livelihood.”

Corn, on the other hand, takes just 90 days to grow and spinach takes a month. They hope these alternate crops will serve as a new source of food soon in the villages while they wait to harvest re-planted sweet potato crops.

Bergstrazer says, while it’s a lot of work, it is absolutely worth it to act as the hands and feet of Christ and empower the local churches to serve their people with aid.

“It’s a tremendous response, at least the stories that I hear…. The other day, I flew into Bugapa where we’re dropping off the food. There was a lady there and she was in tears. Her husband is the head of the school in the village where she is from. She said, ‘The people are so hungry here.’ She was just in tears trying to describe the situation.”

To support MAF’s aviation ministry into isolated and hard-to-reach areas, click here!

And please, meanwhile, commit to praying for the villages in Papua, Indonesia. Bergstrazer asks, “Particularly, [be] praying that we can identify where the food is needed the most and that it gets to those folks.”

(Photo courtesy of Sophia Valkova via Unsplash)

In the past few years, Christmas Blessing packages were sent to Christian families in Syria and Jordan. This year, VOM Canada’s Levi MacGregor says they’ll send the Christmas Blessing packages to Egypt.

“The reason we are picking Egypt this year is due to the fact that there has been a lot of attacks in Egypt this year in particular — a lot of churches have been attacked, a lot of bombings, a lot of fires set, a lot of damage to churches. So the Christian community there really needs some encouragement.”

Minority Coptic Christians and Muslim-background believers in Egypt face increasing hostility from their Muslim neighbors. This year, twin bombings in two Egyptian churches on Palm Sunday killed 45 people. It was the worst terror attack on Christians in Egypt’s modern history and a reflection of the growing hatred against this religious minority.

(Photo courtesy of Open Doors USA)

MacGregor adds, “Something else we found out was that there is actually a lot of Christian refugees coming from Iraq and Syria and actually taking refuge in Egypt, and they could use some encouragement as well.”

Christmas Blessing gifts mainly have items for children such as school supplies and a children’s picture Bible. But they also provide the family with food items like bags of rice. Their goal this year is to encourage 3,000 Christian families in nine Egyptian villages with Christmas Blessing packages.

“Really the focus is on letting them know they are not forgotten, they are loved, cared for, and prayed for.”

VOM Canada has also found in years past those families who receive Christmas Blessing gifts will often multiply them.

“We’ve heard of a number of families in Syria and also in Jordan a few years before where the families that are blessed by this project take the extra rice and extra food we give them in this project and they host a Christmas dinner and invite their Muslim neighbors over. This has an overflow effect into allowing our persecuted brothers and sisters to actually have an impact and to evangelize those Muslims around them that are often one of the causes of the persecution that they face.”

Christmas Blessing is one of VOM Canada’s largest projects in the year and provides significant encouragement at Christmastime to Christian families who may be struggling or suffering persecution.

If you would like to support Christmas Blessing with VOM Canada, click here to give at their website. You can also make it a family effort!

“There are some families that we have even heard of who, instead of doing Christmas presents for themselves, they will choose to make a donation to a non-profit organization,” MacGregor shares. “I’ve experienced that myself. There was one time where my own family decided we were going to make a donation to a non-profit organization and help encourage someone else at the end of the year rather than use that for ourselves, and I just remember the blessing of that.”

(Photo courtesy Gospel For Asia)

SE Asia (GFA/MNN) — Have you ever had a dream that changed your life? For a woman in SE Asia the answer is yes! Tambura, a mother who firmly believes in worshipping higher deities, cleansing herself and burning incense in front of a god’s image, experienced a life changing moment.

Tambura’s daughter, Paadini, also believed in the gods and rituals to please the gods, but nothing seemed to give her peace. Paadini became very ill and none of the gods her family believed in healed or helped her. Paadini went to talk to a neighbor who shared Christ with her, but it only confused her more. Intrigued by this Jesus talk, she started to attend church led by a Gospel for Asia pastor. Over time she began to understand who Jesus was and when God healed her sickness, she decided to follow Him.

Once healed, Paadini continually prayed for her mother to know Christ and fasted twice a day hoping her prayers and actions would change her mother’s heart. Tambura, disappointed in her daughter’s new faith, constantly refused to believe in what she thought was a lesser being than her gods, and would not budge in changing her beliefs.

Day after day Paadini set aside a handful of rice so that she could fast and pray for her mother to come to know Christ. After getting tired of watching Paadini’s actions of fasting, Tambura decided to put the rice back in the jar, but in the process she mysteriously slipped and fell breaking her right hand. Paadini still continued to pray for her mother and shared the news of Jesus with her, but Tambura refused to listen. God decided to get ahold of Tambura’s attention. Tambura suddenly began to have difficulty breathing and medicine or appeasing the gods didn’t do the trick.

One night as Tambura slept she had a dream. In her dream, three beggars stood knocking at her door. When she opened the door, Tambura told them she had nothing to offer them because she was very poor herself—and she was sick to boot. Still the men insisted that she offer them something to eat, so she welcomed them inside and told them that if they were willing to eat just a handful of rice, she would be happy to serve them. After eating the rice, the beggars began to leave, but one turned back toward Tambura. “For the kindness you have shown toward us, I want to reward you,” the man said. “You will be healed from your sickness. Do not harden your heart anymore, but trust in Me. I am Jesus Christ, whom you refused to welcome into your heart.”

Tambura woke up and told Paadini of her dream and then prayed and accepted Jesus Christ into her life. Just as Jesus came to Paadini when she was ill, He came to Tambura in her sickness as well.

While Tambura and her daughter rejoice in their new faith, other believers across Asia continue to fast and pray for their families to know Christ as well. You can team up with our partner, Gospel for Asia, and pray that God will bring the people into God’s light. To get connected, you can visit

Those remaining in their homes are living in water-filled houses, most swimming in sewage.

Vehicles are backed up for miles on exit ramps, most resting vacant, abandoned by their hopeful owners attempting to keep their cars away from water damage.

It's nearly impossible for most to get to work. Kids can't get to school. Water in the nation's old capital, Ayutthaya, is neck-high.

The flooding has been getting worse in most areas since August. It's slowly been creeping into Bangkok, forcing the government to manipulate water ways so that flooding affects smaller villages rather than larger cities.

The water damage is so widespread that many rural areas have yet to receive assistance of any kind. Villagers wait patiently, most confident that their government is trying, but they are frustrated over the devastation and loss of livelihood.

Thailand's current state of crisis is already messy, and estimates say without anywhere for excess water to go, flood waters will remain high for at least another month. But disheveled Thais unfortunately have more damage ahead of them that's, in some ways, even more substantial than homelessness.

"Where a lot of the flooding has been is prime rice farming fields," notes Caroline Anderson, an International Mission Board journalist living in Thailand. "Much of Thailand's production of rice comes from this central area, and Thailand also exports a lot of rice throughout the world."

Flooding has destroyed a substantial number of rice crops already. According to Reuters, the Thai government estimates the nation may lose a quarter of the main rice crop to flood waters.

It's bad for local hunger needs, but worse is the effect this could have on international trade. Already Indonesia is looking to other sources for their rice, Reuters reports. Devastation could spread years even down the road if enough paddy seed isn't recovered.

"Many Thais are also worried about tourism–one of Thailand's main industries," adds Anderson. Although tourists were still wandering throughout Bangkok as of Friday, future tourists are being warned to cancel their plans.

The long-term effects will be brutal, but already Christians have been able to provide hope in the midst of a dark time. Even believers who are suffering from flooding themselves have joined relief teams. Various missionary groups and local church groups have gotten on board for relief efforts and are boldly explaining to other Thais why they are doing what they are doing.

It's a huge open doorway for Christians. "It's commonly said, ‘To be Thai is to be Buddhist,'" says Anderson. Thus, when Thais convert to Christianity, they can often have a difficult time maintaining relationships with family and friends who view their decision as a betrayal of cultural identity.

Pray that this disaster would allow Christians opportunities to speak back into the lives of those they may have been distanced from in the past. Pray that many Thais will cling to Christ in this desperate time, that this awful situation might be used for eternal good.

Since rice prices have tripled in the last few months, it has been increasingly difficult for these low paid pastors to buy enough food for their families. Each recipient of World Hope's gift was given a 50 kilogram bag of rice, about enough to feed a six member family for a month. This took the burden of finding food off for a little while so pastors could refocus their attention to their congregations.

What makes this generosity so significant is that Sierra Leone is one of 33 countries across the globe that has either "alarming or extremely alarming" levels of hunger, according to the 2008 Global Hunger Index.

The Global Hunger Index of 2008 was released on October 16, World Food Day. According to their studies of countries with the highest child mortality rates and the most malnutrition, Sierra Leone received the fifth-lowest score on the list.

Clearly, any gift given to the Sierra Leone is well-needed. World Hope is also working Sierra Leone's neighbor, Liberia, who scored just a bit higher than Sierra Leone on the Global Hunger Index.

To help World Hope bring nourishment to the hungry, or simply to learn more, click here.

The rains reportedly caused people to flee from their homes and rice paddies to be further submerged.

Food for the Hungry continues to help survivors of May's Cyclone Nargis that killed as many as 140,000 in its path. The ministry has supplied four boats to four different villages to transport youth whose families can still afford to send them to school across the river. Many other kids have been forced to put school aside to work for their family's survival.

In one news report, a teenage girl expressed a severe sadness that she could not attend school as she sees others going each day. Instead, she collects empty plastic water bottles to sell to a dealer in town, which earns her about 3,500 kyat, or US$3, per day. With the money her mom makes at a roadside noodle shop, the family lives on about US$4 a day. 

The mother will not allow her daughter to leave their village to get a job in the city for fear that she will be attacked or kidnapped as a sex slave. She said her situation is just "destiny."

Food for the Hungry is also helping to replant rice crops, fish, and restore a settlement where migrant workers live. They've rebuilt homes there, added access points to the city water line,
and given out cooking utensils.

Even with workers in place and utensils to cook with, there is little food available. Food for the Hungry reports that pictures reveal that people are losing weight. The late November/early December harvest seems a long wait for people in need right now. Food for the Hungry is working hard
to offer consistent food until then.

The U.N. World Food Programme has had to cut in half the 20,000 metric tons of rice that were headed for the Irawaddy Delta area in an effort to make sure their supplies are stretched  enough for the rest of the country. Rice prices have dropped since the spike following the disaster in May, but they still stand at 20% higher than before.

Pray for those families in desperate need. Pray that rice supplies will last until the harvest. Pray that God will provide and that His name will be glorified in
the assistance that Food For the Hungry has given.

Without their draft animals, the farmers will not be able to
plant. If they cannot plant within the
next four weeks, the rice harvest will be minimal at best. 

Duane Zook, CEO of Global Aid Network (GAiN), recently visited Myanmar
personally. He assessed GAiN's relief
work in six villages, made plans for the future, and conferred with staff
members and partners. He also used a
boat to travel to remote regions of the country. 

While the people of Myanmar are still deeply in need of
many things, Zook concluded that the need for tractors to plant rice is the
most urgent need. 

Literally the "rice bowl" of Southeast Asia, Myanmar
is the seventh-largest producer of rice in the world. It harvested 25.2 million tons of rice in
2007. The Irrawaddy Delta, in
particular, supplies the surrounding regions with rice. 

If the next rice harvest is poor, the people of Myanmar could
face shortages and starvation.  Also, it
will be even more difficult for the farmers to plant the next crop of
rice. 

Zook has learned that it costs only $2,000 to provide
farmers in Myanmar
with one simple tractor, much like an over-sized, motorized tiller. If each village where GAiN is focusing its
relief efforts receives at least 5 tractors, the farmers will be able to
share. GAiN needs to raise at least
$60,000 as soon as possible, so that the rice farmers will be able to plant
before it is too late.

More than 134,000 people are dead or missing since Cyclone
Nargis struck Myanmar
on May 2. Millions more lack shelter or
clean water. Global Aid Network has
agreed to take the lead in providing relief for six villages with a combined
population of about 30,000 people.  

Click here to learn how you can help. 

According to a published news source, 50 extra Dominican border guards are being put to work stopping people who attempt to smuggle rice, eggs and poultry out of the country. 

Eva DeHart of For Haiti with Love says it is a protective measure on the part of the Dominican government. "They're trying to stop Haitians from going into Dominican Republic, which gives them more people to feed, and to prevent their food from going into Haiti because they need their supplies for their own population."

Rice prices have shot up in Haiti. For Haiti with Love has been looking for rice for the last week, but none is available. "The price isn't an issue because there is no rice," DeHart explained.  Buying rice by the cup from street vendors is poor people's only option now. But vendors may soon find that importers don't even have rice available. The Dominican government is making sure that this void isn't being filled with their rice. They've put 11,000 pounds of their state-subsidized rice into bright red bags so they are easier to spot at the border. 

DeHart says other price factors are playing into the unavailability of food for their food program. "Even when it's donated, our domestic shipping prices to get it to the
port have sky-rocketed. The sea shipping is increasing every time you get a quote because fuel prices are going up, and economic impact in the U.S is affecting contributions.

"It's a matter of really intense prayer because God is the only one who knows how this is going to turn out."

Questions about the future of ministry and how they will provide are hard to answer for DeHart. In addition, Haitians begin asking hard questions, she said. "If
they've got no food, they equate that to ‘Where is your God?' Preaching faith in times of starvation is a really challenging task."

You can help by giving what you can to their ministry to cover the cost of rice when it
becomes available, or to help with other needs. For Haiti with Love is currently in need of more diesel to fuel their clinic and 24 batteries for their inverter. It is impossible to ship these batteries from the U.S. because of new regulations since 9/11. 

Pray that Haiti will be able to come out of this especially difficult time. Pray also for missionaries who are trying to provide the basic needs for people. And, pray that the country as a whole would return to Christ.