Up until 1994, South Africa had a long history of institutionalized racial segregation. Last month, the nation celebrated the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid, Freedom Day, but long-term effects of that era linger. Those effects include high rates of crime, incarceration, and fatherlessness. 

Men Molding Men camp (Photo courtesy of CWO)

That’s why several years ago, a few South African single moms began meeting to encourage one another. Today it’s a ministry of Christian World Outreach called Single Moms Raising Sons. 

Greg Yoder with CWO says, “We’re working with single moms, helping them know who they are in their faith, their identity with Christ, so that they can deal with being single moms and raising sons — because they’re not men, and there’s just a difference there with fathers relating to their sons and mothers relating to their sons.” 

Moms gather for Bible studies. Their boys attend camps twice a year, where they are mentored and discipled. They learn about their heavenly Father who won’t abandon them. 

“I think that’s the key thing for them, helping them build characteristics that they can grow to be young men that serve the Lord and know who they are,” Yoder says.

A team from the U.S. will be in South Africa from May 17 to the end of the month, participating in the ministry to moms and boys. Pray they will be a true encouragement to the staff, who are passionate about this ministry but are being stretched thin. 

“There’s a lot of people they want to reach and a lot of people who want to be reached. So it’s an exciting time as a ministry grows, but also a difficult time as we grow too,” says Yoder. 

Another way you can come alongside families in South Africa is through financial partnership. 

Single Moms Raising Sons ministry with CWO. (Photo courtesy of Christian World Outreach)

“We need support for this ministry as we create Bible studies, print the Bible studies, as we have our camps,” says Yoder. 

To give, click the Donate button on CWO’s website and choose the “SMRS – South Africa” fund. From there, you can select a sub-fund and sponsor a Bible study group, Bible study printing and translations, teams, or a boy going to a Men Molding Men camp. A gift of $90 sends one boy to camp!

Header photo is of Thembi Myeni, co-founder of the Single Moms Raising Sons ministries, who says the ministry was born out of love for her sons and a need for the Father to be in her son’s lives and her life. Photo and caption courtesy of Christian World Outreach.

Meanwhile, the country’s downward spiral continues. UN authorities report that approximately 1.64 million people in Haiti experience emergency levels of acute food insecurity. 

But there is still hope. Greg Yoder with Christian World Outreach (CWO) says, “Believers still trust that God will intervene, and they’re praying for that.”

Although gangs control around 80% of Port-au-Prince, CWO is still on the ground. Their center opens its doors to children remaining in the city. 

More than 33,000 people are estimated to have fled Port-au-Prince within a two-week period. Yoder says their program hasn’t seen an increase in the number of kids coming in. 

“The increase is with the cost of food,” he says. “The cost of us feeding the kids has gone up.”

(Photo of women’s vocational training courtesy of Christian World Outreach)

The CWO center has also continued offering vocational training for women.

“When the ladies can get there, they get there. The Haitian people are resilient. They will do anything, you know, these ladies, to get their education that they want, this vocational training. It’s amazing to see,” Yoder says. 

Pray that Christians will clearly show God’s love as they meet peoples’ physical needs and share the gospel with them. 

“They’re very receptive. That’s one of the things with the feeding program — we’re still sharing the Bible with the kids. With the Feminine Training Center, they have their daily devotions before class and their chapel once a week,” Yoder says. 

CWO is accepting funds for relief in Haiti. They look for ways to help Haitians, whether by providing food or by helping them relocate. Learn more about that here.

Header photo of Haitian children getting meals courtesy of Christian World Outreach.

Pastor Israel Pochtar of Beit Hallel Congregation says 80,000 Israelis have evacuated their homes in northern Israel, moving to central cities away from the border with Lebanon.

“It’s like we have two fronts. Officially, the war is only in Gaza. But in fact, it’s both Gaza and Lebanon,” Pochtar says.

Meanwhile, in the city of Ashdod, Pochtar’s church lives out its daily mission as the church, preaching and building up the church body. They pray about ways they can reach out to those trapped in conflicts farther away from their region, and they actively serve their neighbors.

(Photo courtesy of Beit Hallel Congregation)

Pochtar thanks God that there is no longer a need in their area to deliver food to people living in bomb shelters.

“We right now (are) focusing on the poor and needy, widows and single mothers, but also aliyah, or immigration. The Jewish immigration keep(s) going, even during the war, praise the Lord,” Pochtar says.

More than 44,000 people, the majority of them Jewish, are estimated to have immigrated to Israel from January to November of 2023. When they arrive in Israel, they are in a key transition time where local believers can share the love and hope of Christ.

This Christian witness is important among rising expressions of anti-Semitism in other parts of the world.

“When you live in Israel, and you see the international social media, you (get) kind of (a) crazy picture, and you feel like ‘all the world is against us.’ So when we help people, we always tell them, ‘This help come(s) from Christians. Christians are with you, they care, they love,'” Pochtar says. 

Praise God for this church’s faithful ministry, and join in praying for the peace of the Middle East in these ways:

“First of all, (pray for) shalom — Israel need(s) peace, Israel need(s) shalom. Number two would be (the) salvation of Israel. Yeshua said, ‘Pray for the workers. (The) fields are ready. They are ready to be harvested but pray for workers in the harvest.’ So we pray for more people with a passion for evangelism,” Pochtar says.

Click here to learn more about Beit Hallel Congregation’s ministry.

Header photo of war relief action teams delivering much-needed essentials to soldiers at the Israeli army bases in the south of Israel, courtesy of Beit Hallel Congregation.

Rob Myers with DOOR International shares the good news that this kind of generational multiplication happens among the Deaf around the world. 

(Graphic courtesy DOOR International)

In 2000, a leader Myers calls Sanji came to know the Lord through the ministry of Deaf missionaries who came to India. 

“Sanji began to share the gospel with his local community. Another person came to faith and Sanji began to disciple him. Then that person ended up moving to a different part of India. As he shared his faith with a number of people, another brother came to know the Lord,” Myers tells us. 

Four or five “generations” down this line, a leader Myers calls Matthew felt the Lord leading him to travel beyond his community. 

“He moved to another country in South Asia, where there at the time were only about 20 believers out of a population of maybe 300,000 Deaf people. He, alongside another brother, began to share the gospel in this new community, and more leaders came to faith,” Myers says. 

Praise God for how He is moving among Deaf communities worldwide! 

Myers says that DOOR hopes to see local churches not only established and strengthened by disciple-making, but also carrying on a vision for disciple-making and church-planting beyond their region. 

“What you’ll often see as the outgrowth of this kind of thing is that disciples becoming missionaries into new communities,” Myers says, adding that there are Deaf missionaries from Kenya now serving in Mozambique, South Sudan and Angola. 

(Photo courtesy DOOR International via Facebook)

DOOR is beginning to plan what they call “outposts” in strategic areas of the world. 

“One of the things we recognize is that there are still major regions of the world where Deaf communities are cut off from the gospel,” says Myers.

These outposts would be launching points into key areas where the gospel isn’t present yet. Missionaries would enter the region to share the gospel and raise up indigenous leaders — “with the hope not just that the gospel would come to those specific Deaf communities,” Myers says, “but that through them sending missionaries out, it would flood into the surrounding communities.”

Would you come alongside DOOR in prayer for these bold, missional efforts by the Deaf to the Deaf? Visit doorinternational.org and find their monthly prayer calendar as well as learn about Deaf leaders who you could specifically partner with. 

Finally, would you share this story with someone today? 

“This might be the first time that you’re hearing about Deaf ministry and others may not be aware of it at all. So it would be a great opportunity for you to spread the word and let others know that they can be praying, that they can be supporting the work that God’s doing in these Deaf communities,” Myers says. 

Header photo is a representative photo courtesy of Dikaseva/Unsplash. 

International Media Ministries already has some experience learning to remember history well. Their Heritage Project chronicles the lives and stories of early Christians. The docudrama video series tells the stories of Cyprian, Tertullian, Perpetua, and other early believers, especially those from North Africa. For the most part, Christian history in North Africa has been forgotten or discarded.

“We can… see things that could be significant to our future if we examine what has occurred in the past,” says Denise Godwin of International Media Ministries. “It’s really intriguing when you start digging into the past to recognize how history of course repeats itself and how much we can learn from that.”

It’s not just about avoiding mistakes of the past; Godwin says we can find hope in stories of God’s persistent support and working plan. Even the most painful experiences often yielded spiritually amazing results.

Photo courtesy of International Media Ministries

“People were martyred, people were challenged, and yet with Christ, all of these things are bearable. All these things have a significance that we cannot achieve as simple human beings,” she says.

Christ’s involvement in our story can push us to show fruits of the Spirit, to trust in His plan, and to cling to the hope of the Gospel in everything we do.

And right now, the hope of these stories rings particularly strong. Even though International Media Ministries continues translation programs, they’re worried about the effects current events around the world might have on their work and their staff. Believers around the world also struggle with encroaching fear, and it’s easy to put prayer and hope on the backburner.

The Heritage Project says differently. The Heritage Project drags these stories to the forefront of our imaginations and teaches us that God’s not done.

“God is at work and he is powerfully using all these strange things in the world to bring people to him right now. It’s an extremely important time that the Holy Spirit is at work changing lives all over the world.”

Photo courtesy of International Media Ministries

Pray for the continued translations efforts of International Media Ministries. Pray for persecuted Christians searching for stories of hope like these ones. Pray for the success of online sharing platforms for the Heritage Project. And pray that God would continue to tell His story through the lives of believers around the world.

Ask God to use you for His will. Maybe someday, your story will be the one Christians tell to inspire one another.

Find out more about the Heritage Project right here.

Header photo courtesy of International Media Ministries.

But, could it be that conversations marked with discomfort and conflict offer the best opportunities to represent Christ?

John Hartley, a guest speaker hosted by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the executive director of Pathways for Mutual Respect, says Christians should be willing to lean into those uncomfortable spaces.

(Photo courtesy of Pathways for Mutual Respect)

“Conflict itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Conflict is something that can help lead us towards something new. It can help us recognize ways we need to grow [and] help life to emerge. It’s kind of ironic thing.”

Hartley has a few tips for talking to your coworkers, friends, and family about controversial topics. “The first step is to ask really good questions. The kind of conflict that happens may not be as troublesome as we might assume it would be.”

Strongly-held convictions have stories behind them. Sharing our stories in conflict and listening to the stories of others can open Gospel conversations.

“We get to talk about our thoughts and feelings about things and maybe it’ll make its way back to that controversial issue where our opinions differ. But we’re meeting the person — the actual person — we’re not just meeting their differing opinion.”

Hartley gives an example: If you were to walk in on two friends arguing over a heated social topic, there are a few ways you could approach the situation.

“If…I just come up and I just share my opinion, I’m probably going to amplify the conflict,” he says.

“But if I go into that situation and I’m seeing this political conflict — who knows, over gender or sexuality or race or whatever it might be — and I take the time to truly ask questions that will help me to understand the person, I might end up talking about that person’s childhood in a neighborhood that was underprivileged rather than talking about, like, racial conflict.

(Photo courtesy of Pathways for Mutual Respect)

“Then there are all kinds of fruitful ways for me to talk about the kind of love and care that I found in Jesus amidst those types of things.”

Hartley says this model really follows the example Jesus gave as He sought to change people’s hearts.

“I think one of the beautiful things about Jesus is He entered into spaces and He actually saw the reality of the people in that space, whether it’s the woman at the well or it’s the woman caught in adultery or it’s Nicodemus. He moves past the topic that they have on their minds to the matters of the heart that are actually moving within them.”

Pathways for Mutual Respect works with Christian and Muslim communities to build bridges and start productive conversations.

“We work trying to find ways that committed followers of Jesus can spend time with committed Muslims, and in the process, recognize what kinds of shared concerns they have for their city,” says Hartley.

(Photo courtesy of Pathways for Mutual Respect)

“When we’ve worked on projects where we’re getting conservative evangelical pastors together with…conservative Muslim leaders, we find, ‘Oh, look, you’re concerned about bullying in school? I’m concerned about bullying in school. What does Islam teach about how we should handle that situation? What does Jesus say about how we should handle that situation?’ And now a new kind of conversation becomes possible.”

These conversations take humility and a willingness to listen first. Hartley suggests if you want to learn to represent Christ in moments of conflict and build relationships, take some time to examine your own heart first.

“What’s really moving you when you think about whatever that controversial topic is that you’re kind of concerned about — something that is happening in the workplace that bothers you and you feel like your faith leads you to want to take a stand? What is it that’s at the heart level driving you in that? Maybe that will provide hints at how you might seek out an understanding of the other person’s heart.

“I think that place of heart is where Jesus most wants to work.”

Header photo courtesy of Pathways for Mutual Respect.

This diverse environment means American Christians don’t have to go overseas to reach the nations with the Gospel. We can be a global witness right in our own backyards.

Joshua Harrison with Audio Scriptures Ministries admits it’s not easy. “I think that reaching across language barriers and cultural barriers is always going to be a challenge. But that’s a challenge that does face us right here and now in our own neighborhoods.

(Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“We are called to bring the Gospel to those around us, regardless of your thoughts on the political situation, regardless of your thoughts on where you could serve better. God has placed you where you are right now with spheres of influence where you can bring God’s Word.”

Ministries like ASM make it easier to share God’s Word in other tongues — without ever taking a language class! Their audio recording teams complete more and more Scripture translation recordings every year. Those Scripture recordings are freely available on apps by groups like Scripture Earth, Wycliffe Canada, and Global Recordings Network.

Harrison says, “Our Latin America Director Jim Loker met someone at a cell phone shop and discovered that this was a native [Mam] speaker [from Guatemala]. They had recorded his language. This man’s face just lit up when he saw that he could play [the Bible] in his own language. He said, ‘I must write, I must call my family and tell them about this back in [Guatemala]!’

“You don’t have to learn everyone’s heart language. You can just point them to God’s Word in their own heart language.”

In your neighborhood or on your travels, you can ask the Lord to connect you with people who would enjoy hearing God’s Word in their heart language.

(Photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries)

“If you find someone who is not a native English speaker, just boldly ask them, ‘What language do you speak? Where do you come from?’ Introduce yourself! When you find out what language they speak, find the resources that are available. You can contact us or there are a lot of good phone apps with audio Scriptures you could download…and listen to right there.”

You can also connect friends with ASM’s audio Bible players. ASM even sees people send audio Bible players to family outside the US or take them on their own missions trips.

“Reach out to us. We’ll be happy to equip you with the tools that you need in your neighborhood [or] that you need on your trip or your church mission trip. We want to help you be able to share God’s Word in audio.”

As ASM equips the Church for the Great Commission, Harrison asks, “Pray for the funds for more audio Bibles as well. The hunger is great and…in many cases, these audio Bibles function as laborers in the harvest field. We’re so blessed to have good tools.”

Between praying, giving, going, and sharing, there are several avenues you can take to have an eternal impact in the lives of others.

Header photo courtesy of Audio Scripture Ministries.

Earlier this week, the US State Department hosted the first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Approximately 350 political, civil, and religious leaders from 80 countries gathered in Washington, D.C., and over three days they listened to personal stories from Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and others targeted for their religious beliefs.

Sam Brownback, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Sam Brownback, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, helped sponsor the ministerial. In his opening statement, Brownback shared, “The right to live according to the dictates of your own soul is under attack in the world…. The lack of religious freedom anywhere is a threat to peace, prosperity, and stability everywhere.”

We spoke with David* from Heart4Iran who also attended the ministerial. He says, “The meeting seems to have twofold implications. On one side, they are talking about the vision for international religious freedom. They’re saying, ‘We want to help promote religious freedom all around the world.’ On the other side, they’re letting everyone hear from victims of persecution.

“Yesterday, we heard an amazing story of a woman who escaped from North Korea four times and was actually kicked back into North Korea, tortured, [and] persecuted for becoming a Christian. That…was highlighted right there from the stage among all these guests from the US State Department.”

The persecution stories shared were not just for curiosity’s’ sake. In giving persecuted Christians and other religious minorities a platform, hopefully, this event will serve as a catalyst for real change and encourage global leaders to prioritize religious freedom in conversations and policies.

David explains, “We’re being asked to participate [and] we’re given opportunities to hear about…grants that are available from the US State Department to help improve international religious freedom issues around the world.”

This year is also the 20th anniversary for the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The act promoted religious freedom as a key factor in US foreign policy.

According to David, the International Religious Freedom Act “had bipartisan support whenever it was passed originally. But we’ve seen, depending on the president, certain presidents have taken a greater interest in it and have [had] an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom that really cares about the issues and stands for it. It makes the difference.

“Since it’s been formed, we’ve seen that when there is a strong international freedom presence in the State Department, people feel like they have a place to go, that they have a place to share.”

This was further illustrated at the first Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom this week. “I was sitting with so many victims of persecution right there with me in the audience and I could just tell right on their faces they were so happy that the State Department had invited them to tell their story. They felt like the US cared about their issues,” David says.

Heart4Iran works with Christians in the West to fuel ministry among Muslims in Iran and serve the Church there. A big part of their ministry is Iranian Christian satellite television broadcasting through Mohabat TV.

Through their ministry, Heart4Iran has witnessed firsthand the religious persecution believers suffer in Iran. According to Open Doors’ World Watch List, Iran is the 10th harshest country in the world for Christian persecution.

(Image capture courtesy of Heart4Iran)

“Religious freedom is very important because it basically means you have the freedom to practice whatever religion you want. In a country like Iran, that is not the case. If you are born as a Muslim, you are not allowed to change your religion. You’re not allowed to have a conscience of your own that leans towards Christianity or any other religion for that matter. That ends up in people being put in prison, people being tortured, all kind of terrible things happen — not just in Iran but all over the world — when there is not religious freedom.”

You can be an encouragement to the persecuted Church today by partnering with Heart4Iran’s ministry in Iran. Click here to learn more!

Finally, please commit to praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering today for their faith. Ask God to strengthen their witness so that through their testimony, others may know Jesus Christ as their Savior too.

David adds, “There [are] a lot of things happening between the US government and the Iranian government and we just pray that as these things are playing out with sanctions and different things like that, that the Ambassador would be there to stand up for religious freedom issues and that Christians would have freedom at some point…in Iran.”

*Name changed for security purposes

Jerry Meadows of Global Disciples says there is something we Christians need to do to prepare for that day. He brings our attention to something Oswald J Smith said about Jesus coming again:

“We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first.” – Oswald J Smith

(Image and header photo courtesy of Global Disciples)

That is why Global Disciples is running their GoGlobal 1Day campaign—a day asking people to pray, share, and give towards reaching every last person with the Gospel.

Meadows explains, “You know, at first glance, you would think it was a giving campaign. And actually, I think it’s a sharing the heart of God campaign—the heart of God for the lost. So, praying, and sharing about God’s heart for the lost, and giving are all part of this campaign.”

GoGlobal 1Day is meant to draw the Body of Christ into being an active part of the Great Commission.

“We want to help church leaders and group leaders really involve their groups or congregations, and especially the next generation,” Meadows says.

He believes that in order for Christians to be an effective part of sharing the love of Jesus, it’s imperative that they are inspired, informed, and involved.

“When we tell a mission story and we simply inspire people, it’s hype and it doesn’t last long. It can lead to disillusionment. People are very interested or intrigued in how God’s working around the world, but they don’t know how to be involved. That really doesn’t activate the heart of God in our congregation. If we inform them, that can actually be a bit boring. Information without inspiration is rather boring.

(Image courtesy of Global Disciples)

“But both of those—information and inspiration—with involvement, leads to transformation.”

GoGlobal 1Day encourages groups of people, be it full congregations, men’s and women’s groups, or even children’s groups to join together and learn more about the people who are without knowledge of Jesus.

“Then they can actually do something together, use their own gifts and their own skills, their own interests, to raise funds and raise awareness and raise intercession for the least-reached people of the world.”

Last year, 1Day encouraged people to donate an entire day’s wage to Great Commission efforts. This year, they’re still encouraging people to do that if they want. But they also have a list of other ways groups of people can raise awareness, prayers, and gifts.

GoGlobal 1Day is on September 7. But really, Meadows says, people can participate on any day. In fact, the resources are available until October 1.

(Image courtesy of Global Disciples)

“It’s not kind of one day of giving or one day of interest or prayer for the least-reached. We need 365 days a year where our heart is towards the least-reached in the world. But this is the one day where we’re noting our hearts are there with the Lord, and the one day we’re working towards when every person on the planet will have heard the Gospel.”

To begin your GoGlobal 1Day journey, head to the website and learn more about this movement and the people who are at the center of it.

“And then form that group,” Meadows says. “Don’t do this alone. And don’t see it just as a giving campaign. See it as a prayer campaign and a sharing campaign and a giving campaign.”

To learn more, register, and find ideas for your GoGlobal 1Day, click here.

Houssney and the Horizons team just finished a training event in Lebanon called Engaging Islam Institute that lasted from June 4-15 and saw almost 140 attendees. Most of the training was done in the classroom, but they also sent people out with bags full of Bibles and Christian t-shirts to share the Gospel with Muslims.

(Photo and header photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“The way that we are engaging Islam is through engaging Muslims one at a time, so our training curriculum has been built to help believers understand who Muslims are, what they believe, and how we can begin practically sharing the Gospel with them,” Houssney says.

“Whether online, through video, audio, in-person training events we do in churches around the world, or our ministry centers, we want them to go out and, wherever they have contact with Muslims, start converting that contact into loving conversations that are bold.”

However, there has been pushback from locals, and even Christians aren’t all pleased to see the work Horizons is doing. Many believers are averse to the idea of loving Muslims so directly. One man even interrupted a conversation between Horizons students and Muslims to rip the Bibles from the hands of the Muslim young men.

But Houssney says that often changes after an intentional conversation. “Many of them, when they realize that Muslims are becoming Christians because of this event, because we’re training hundreds of Christians in how to reach out effectively reach out to Muslims based on our experiences, people get really excited about that.”

And the more Muslims come to Christ, the more people are interested in sharing the Gospel.

(Photo courtesy of Horizons International)

“We actually have dozens of converts from Islam among the 135 people at this training event here in Beirut that are themselves learning how to reach other Muslims for Christ, so it’s a very exciting event.”

But Houssney says it can’t just be about numbers. The Gospel is meant to be lived out.

“It’s not just about learning something hypothetically or theoretically in the classroom, it’s about actually seeing the power of God to change hearts and lives right before our eyes,” he says. “Unfortunately, the church has become focused on the inside, and instead of saying ‘Go out among the nations’ the way Jesus called us to in the Great Commission, we have sat in the churches and said “come to us.’”

That’s why Horizons and its partners are working to equip Christian leaders in Lebanon.

“You can just pray that the Lord continues to open the hearts of Muslims, but honestly the bigger prayer request is that God would move his Church to get out of the four walls of churches and be called out.”

Join Horizons in their efforts by clicking here.