Lebanon’s Minister of Education recently announced that, instead of a standard five days of school a week, government schools will be open four days a week.

Instead of raising salaries for teachers, teachers in the country are now supposed to teach only four days so that they can find another part-time job on Fridays.

As private schools continue to teach five days a week, there is a deficiency in the education of students in public schools.

In southern Lebanon, the war that Hezbollah started with Israel is wreaking havoc. The six months of severe shelling that occurred last year have left villages destroyed and cities wiped out.

Many schools, both private and government, remain demolished, meaning that many in the south will go without opportunities for education for the second year in a row.

Camille Melki with Heart for Lebanon says that private schools are now carrying the brunt of the work because government schools are not operating properly. However, because of the economy, private schools have been forced to raise their tuition costs by 30 to 60 percent compared to last year.

This economic crisis affects not only Lebanese nationals but also Syrian refugees living in the country.

“Most international donor agencies stopped providing aid in June,” says Melki. “(They) have said there will be no medical support or educational support for refugees who are living in Lebanon anymore. The little aid that the UN and large government agencies were providing to the refugees has stopped.”

Heart for Lebanon will provide education support to 1,300 families this school year.

Six hundred of these students will study in one of Heart for Lebanon’s two schools in the Bekaa Valley or in southern Lebanon, receiving free education. These are students who would not otherwise have an opportunity to study anywhere else.

The other 700 students will receive scholarship support to attend other schools in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon. These are partner Christian schools for families that can afford some, but not all, tuition expenses.

600 students will attend one of Heart for Lebanon’s schools this year. (Photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon)

“It’s our opportunity at Heart for Lebanon to stand in the gap, provide the proper academic education that students need, but also provide a holistic approach to a child’s spiritual, social, and emotional upbringing,” says Melki.

Between the death and destruction in Syria and Lebanon, most of the children that Heart for Lebanon provides education for have experienced trauma.

“We’re providing a safe environment where teachers are loving and caring for, supporting, and encouraging students; providing social care, and emotional care, but first and foremost, also providing spiritual care to the students and to their families,” says Melki.

Please pray for the education system in Lebanon and for the students who will be ministered to through these schools this year.

(Header photo courtesy of Heart for Lebanon) 

(Photo courtesy of Set Free)

Today, thousands of kids attend one of Set Free’s 14 primary schools. Thanks to Light Academy, Set Free’s vocational Christian high school, discipleship doesn’t have to stop at grade seven. More about that here.

“We’re hoping to have 200 kids come into Light Academy this year,” Set Free Global Director Dave McIntyre says.

Light Academy began as a dream and 60-acre land purchase in 2018. The ministry started construction the following year, and that work continues today.

Set Free hopes to reach 2,000 students per year at the project’s completion.

“It’s a huge undertaking. We say around here, ‘If you’re not terrified, it’s probably not God’s will,’” McIntyre says.

“It is humbling to see the people God brought forth to push this forward.”

Donor funding brings more of the dream to life every year. “I go back every six months, and every time, it’s like visiting a different school because there’s so much more [completed,]” McIntyre says.

“We are in phase four of our construction. We’re building several large classroom blocks, the administration block, a health clinic, [and] staff housing because as we increase students, we also have to increase staff.”

Each child surrounded by poverty and death can discover God’s plan at Light Academy, giving them a future and a hope. Support from believers like you makes it all possible.

“Pray for Light Academy, that [it] will be finished under budget and on time,” McIntyre requests.

Header and story images courtesy of Set Free.

Unrest in one of East Africa’s most stable democracies raised alarm earlier this year. At least 20 people have died in police-protestor clashes, though human rights groups say the toll is much higher.

Protestors say the cost of living is out of control. By contrast, Kenyan President William Ruto insists the country’s economic rebuild is “progressing well” and that Kenyans need to “bear the pain” of excessive taxes.

Widows suffer greatly during an economic downturn. “They’re often very overlooked in the society there (in Kenya),” Kenya Hope’s Joy Mueller says.

“It’s a vicious circle cycle of being knocked down and always failing, failing, and never getting ahead.”

There are approximately eight million widows in Kenya. Most rural communities embrace a polygamous culture, meaning it’s normal for a man to have several wives. When that man dies, his family takes over the estate, and each wife is left to fend for herself and her children.

Typically, a woman enrolled in Kenya Hope’s Widow’s Might program meets two criteria. “One, she’s hungry [because she cannot afford food],” Mueller says.

“[Two,] her kids aren’t going to school because she doesn’t have the money to send them to school.”

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Kenya Hope pairs Christian discipleship with job skills training, giving widows hope for the future. Learn more and become a “Widow’s Might” sponsor here.

“Once a woman starts earning an income, she can start breaking that cycle,” Mueller says.

The training varies by location. “The cornerstone training is breadmaking. We teach these women how to make these absolutely delicious rolls Dutch oven style, and then they start selling them,” Mueller says.

“In Nairobi, where we have electricity, we have been teaching the ladies sewing, and this is huge. They are now sewing all the school uniforms for our sponsored kids, and they are making gorgeous canvas leather bags that we sell here in the United States.”

Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.

There are an estimated 258 million widows globally, and nearly one in ten live in extreme poverty. Roughly eight million widows call Kenya “home.”

“Many times, when you think of a widow, you think of someone [old,] bent over, and very wrinkly. But that’s not the case in Kenya. Many of our widows are young,” Kenya Hope’s Joy Mueller says.

“My youngest widow is 22 years old, and she’s looking at a life of never being married. In this culture, women are not allowed to remarry after they [lose] their husband, so it’s a lonely journey.”

Men often take several wives in rural Kenya. “It is a polygamous culture; of course, each wife is younger than the previous one,” Mueller explains.

“When the husband dies, this doesn’t impact one woman. It can impact up to four women and 20 to 30 children that now are left homeless.”

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

When the man dies, his family takes over the estate, and each wife is left to fend for herself and her children. “They take everything [else] – her house, her land, livestock – and it puts these women in a desperate, desperate plight,” Mueller says.

The women “have no income, 98 percent of them have no education [so] they don’t know how to read or write, and they’re at a complete loss.”

Hope for Kenya’s widows

Kenya Hope offers a two-year path to safety through its Widow’s Might program. More about that here. Once a sponsor covers program costs, Kenya Hope “immediately starts providing food assistance each month [and] we start training the widow in a job skill,” Mueller says.

“We’re also doing Chronological Bible training with them; each woman is given an audio Bible to start hearing God’s Word for herself.”

Widows gain a new sense of independence when they complete the program and the tools needed to succeed. “Anytime a widow completes a skill, such as breadmaking, we give her everything she needs [to start a] business of her own,” Mueller says.

“They get a lot of dignity and pride from the fact that they can now support themselves and their family, and they’re not destitute.”

Today on International Widows’ Day, you can give a woman and her children hope for the future. Sponsor a widow through Kenya Hope here.

“We are very intentional about what we’re teaching, and that there’s a timeline because we don’t want them to think this is a handout, it’s a hand up. It’s giving them the skill to provide for themselves,” Mueller says.

In the header image, widows in Nairobi learn how to support themselves through sewing. Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Many parents cannot afford school-related costs. Joy Mueller of Kenya Hope explains that, typically, parents will “take a goat to market, sell it, and pay for the school fees. They don’t use bank accounts like we do.”

Countless families have lost everything in recent years. “Kenya has had four consecutive failed rainy seasons, which has been devastating. So many animals have died because there’s no pasture land,” Mueller says.

At the same time, “there is terrible inflation,” she continues.

“Prices have gone up, but their wages have not. Food prices have doubled in the last year.”

Widows and children sponsored through Kenya Hope can remove one cost from their list – school uniforms. “In Kenya, all the kids wear uniforms. It’s not something [where] you walk in the store and say, ‘Oh, I need that in size [five].’ They’re all done by tailors,” Mueller says.

(Photos courtesy of Kenya Hope)

With training from Kenya Hope, widows make all the school uniforms for sponsored children. More about that here. Plus, widows meet the God of the Bible through local church partners.

“This has been a real boost for our widows. They are just knocking it out of the park with their sewing ability and the level of perfection [they’ve reached],” Mueller says.

“Other people now are coming to them and saying, ‘Hey, can you sew my uniform for my child?’”

Life change begins through sponsorship. As soon as a widow is sponsored, she starts a 24-month course with food assistance, livestock (goats), skills training, and Bible instruction.

“Over 180 women are either currently in the program or have graduated. Each of those women who graduated is now totally supporting their families [through] the skills we have taught them,” Mueller says.

“It’s so exciting to see how they’ve been empowered and the dignity they’re moving forward in.”

Header and story images courtesy of Kenya Hope.

Barb* loved to tell her stylist about the widow she sponsored in Kenya. After hearing so many stories, the stylist decided to investigate one day. Walking into Kenya Hope’s office, she said, “‘[Barb] keeps talking about Kenya Hope and this widows program,’” Executive Director Joy Mueller says.

“‘I just wanted to come and see it for myself!’”

Widow’s Might

Kenya Hope started Widow’s Might, the widow sponsorship program, in 2017. “The program was born out of seeing this desperate need of widows in Kenya,” Mueller says.

“When a woman is widowed, the husband’s family often comes in and takes everything from her. Many times, she’s kicked out of her home, anything of value is taken; she’s just destitute,” she continues.

“These widows don’t have any schooling, so what are they supposed to do to support their family?”

Sponsorship provides a widow with food aid, job skills training, and more. See a complete description here. “First off, we get a Bible into [their] hands, so they’re getting that spiritual food, along with the actual food we give them each month,” Mueller says.

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

Kenya Hope’s two-year program empowers widows with both training and tools. Once a widow receives sponsorship, she “immediately begins getting food assistance every month, and starts being trained in different skills that will provide an income for her,” Mueller says.

“Depending on the location, we teach them [different] skills. We also teach the women about financing: how to set money aside, put it back into your business, [etc.].”

Sewing is one of the most successful job skills. It also supports Kenya Hope’s child sponsorship program. “We’ve been teaching them (the widows) how to sew the uniforms because [school] uniforms in Kenya are all handmade,” Mueller says.

“Our women in the program are now sewing the uniforms for all of our sponsored children.”

Find your place in the story

Remember Barb’s stylist from the beginning of this story? “By the time she walked out the door, that dear woman had paid the sponsorship for three widows for two years,” Mueller says.

Will you be a sponsor? Help change a widow’s life here.

“The widows are so grateful that someone is showering love on them, caring for them, and teaching them. We know they pray constantly,” Mueller says.

“Kenya Hope is lifted to the Lord by the prayers of the widows.”

*Pseudonym

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of cottonbro/Pexels.

Now, your church can sponsor an entire day of Christian programming for only $670. This applies to the SAT-7 Pars channel in Farsi, and the SAT-7 KIDS channel in Arabic. Read more here.

Impact

Rogers says it can often be hard to measure ministry impact, but not with this program. “We have independent surveys telling us we have 25 million people watching on a regular basis. With something like this, it is math, dollars, and cents. [That pays for] airtime and the connection with the satellites. This is literally what takes the programming into the homes of those viewers. Without this, we couldn’t reach them.”

The Church in the MENA region continues to grow as more people look for hope and find it in Jesus. Pray this trend continues. Rogers says, “The Church is trying to encourage people and to serve them. The pandemic has been a real challenge on top of everything else they have.”

(Header photo courtesy of SAT-7 USA on Facebook)

“Our goal is to build relationships within these communities, build relationships with the churches, and also build a relationship with people that sponsor to direct individuals within these communities,” Kenya Hope’s Joy Mueller says.

Churches around the US — including California, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania — are partnering with churches in rural and needy communities in Kenya because of Kenya Hope.

Mueller says the organization often finds partner churches in the US and Kenya through divine serendipity. “Many times, it’s God just bringing people across our path and building that relationship and finding the churches that have that same heart vision to reach the world, not just locally, but globally.”

Naitaiaang, a widow sponsored by Kenya Hope. (Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope)

As Kenya Hope links churches across oceans, they put an emphasized focus on sponsorship for their Widows Might Program in Kenya, which both individuals and churches in the US can support.

Through the Widows Might Program, Kenyan widows receive monthly food assistance, five goats to begin a self-sustaining herd, skills training, and biblical teaching.

Mueller points out the need for widow sponsorship in Kenya is significant.

Poverty in Kenya

While Kenya is an economic powerhouse in Africa, Nairobi is home to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa with about 250,000 people. Furthermore, there are about 200 slums across the country and about 2.5 million people living in them, according to Kibera.org.

“I would say one of the common misconceptions is that it’s a modern country…. The majority of people outside of the capital of Nairobi are extremely poor. The more remote your community is, you’re not going to have a chance to go to school because the government doesn’t build those schools,” Mueller says.

“So, many of these people are poorer than poor. They survive on less than $20 a month and just can’t feed a family and buy clothes and pay school fees [to] send your child to school on $20 a month.”

(Photo courtesy of Kenya Hope via Facebook)

Kenya Hope has found that widows often have the greatest needs. Sponsoring widows and extending God’s love to them can bring the greatest impact.

“Sponsoring widows and training widows and impacting widows has been one of the greatest benefits. It’s benefiting the widow. It’s benefiting the children and the whole community at large…. When you sponsor a widow, you are basically empowering her to support her whole family, which is just huge.”

Join Kenya Hope as they empower churches and individuals in Kenya. Get started on creating a partnership between your church and a Kenyan church by contacting Kenya Hope here.

You can also sponsor a widow here!

Please also pray for Kenya Hope’s work in the nation. Pray for safety and for partnerships to be strong and blessed.

Header photo courtesy of Kenya Hope.

A study by Grey Matter Research and Opinions 4 Good shows 54 percent of current child sponsors think it’s “mostly a gimmick to get donations.”

However, Gary Edmonds, President of Food for the Hungry (FH), says this assumption couldn’t be farther from the truth in their ministry.

“Sponsorship is more than that. The big thing that sponsorship does is, yes, it helps donors to connect in personal, meaningful ways, but it has a major impact on the children and the families of those children where the children have been sponsored by somebody from another country or another context.”

(Photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry)

Child sponsorship is a key part of what FH does. When you sponsor a child through their ministry, you directly improve that particular child’s life.

FH does a lot of monitoring and follow-up with sponsored kids and their families. One thing FH monitors is the measure of hope for the kids — both before and after they are sponsored.

Edmonds says hope assessments look at several factors: “How do they view the future? How do they think about their own life? Is it a fatalistic environment where they seem to feel that it’s helpless or do they believe that they’ve got skills, abilities, [and] empowerment that has come from God to make a difference?”

Their findings show that child sponsors have a significant influence, and it’s not just temporary.

“We have found that where there is child sponsorship…actually, hope rises. They have a growth in [their] sense of self-worth. They have a sense that they can make a difference in their community and in their own lives.

“They tend to go much, much farther in school. These children, all of a sudden, rather than getting only a first-grade or second-grade education as I have seen in some contexts, they have aspirations to go on to secondary school…. Some of them [go] to college and beyond. So education is significantly higher in those who are sponsored.”

(Photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry)

Edmonds continues, “Later, after they finish school, the children who have been sponsored actually seek better jobs. Rather than menial, manual labor kind of jobs, they seek skill jobs. They say, ‘We can make a contribution here.’”

FH works in several extremely impoverished contexts where the average income is less than $1.90 per day. The kids here are often in survival mode, fending for themselves while their parents or caretakers work and sometimes even going to work with them.

“It’s very basic; very hand-to-mouth for most of them,” Edmonds explains. “As I go into those places too, for them to get one meal — hopefully, two meals in a day — that is great. For many of these people too…they are often having to walk one to even two hours to fetch water.

“I remember one time meeting one of the children I was working with, and I [asked], ‘What difference does it make that you have now been sponsored?’ The child and the parent began to cry and their comment was, ‘We know now that we matter to God because you have responded to God’s call and are becoming our sponsors.’”

As FH ministers to impoverished kids and their families, the staff seeks to address all forms of poverty — physical, relational, intellectual, and especially spiritual. Everything FH does is in the name of Jesus and families often end up engaging ministry workers in spiritual conversations.

“One of the things we do in these kinds of environments is we work with the kids [and] we address the issues. This is a part of the rising hope. [We] address the issues of their own belief systems and consequently their behaviors. So it looks at spiritual matters.”

(Photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry)

It only takes $38 a month to sponsor a child with FH. Doing so provides that child with food assistance, clean water, medical care, and an education through their community!

Edmonds explains, “You’re going to get a photograph. You’re going to get something of a biographical sketch of the child, the family, [and] the community where they’re at. You’re going to become known by the child and in the process, the child is going to know you. They’re going to see you as a person who cares for them, who is expressing love.”

Click here to learn more about sponsoring a child with FH!

“If you were to consider sponsoring a child, you can be about literally changing the trajectory of life for many of these young people by being in that kind of a relationship.”

(Header photo courtesy of Food for the Hungry)

On June 23, after practice, the coach and the team entered the six-mile-long cave only to be trapped by rising floodwaters caused by monsoon rains. The first reports of the boys missing came later that night. The team’s gear was found stashed outside the cave. But by time rescuers were able to respond to the situation, the water had begun rising even more.

But finally, over the weekend, waters began to recede slightly, just enough for divers to reach the stranded team on Monday.

Now, rescuers have to try to find a way to get the boys out. But the water is rising again.

(Photo and header photo courtesy of Compassion International)

Noi is Compassion International’s Senior Manager of the program in Thailand. They learned early last week that one of the trapped boys in the cave is a beneficiary of Compassion’s sponsorship program.

The youth soccer team is made up of boys between the ages of 11 and 16 years old.

Noi says of the Compassion beneficiary, “He is 14 years old and he is at eighth grade right now. He is actually a very good boy, very active to participate in the program in the project at the church. He loves sports, of course… he loves football [soccer], he loves running, he.. also love to play guitar. He also [plays] a guitar at the church [and] got to play piano, what.. maybe you call [an] electric keyboard.

“And also he just [accepted] Jesus Christ last March, this year.”

This boy is the oldest of five siblings. While his family doesn’t live in Thailand, they are staying at the church and waiting outside the cave entrance.

Before the boys were discovered, Noi asked for prayer saying, “Please, please pray for every searching team that they can do their operation plan and go through to reach the boys, and all thirteen boys are alive and be rescued safely as soon as possible. And also pray for the strength and hope … about their families of all thirteen boys.”

(Photo courtesy of Compassion International)

This prayer request still stands as rescue teams working around the clock fight exhaustion.

Piyamary, who goes by “Oo,” is a photojournalist for Compassion and she has been on site over the last week covering the rescue operations.

Yesterday evening, local time, she said, “They just announced for further rescue plans or operation, just the last hour. So, the plan is right now, they have to wait for water inside the cave to reduce. Apparently today the water raised up little bit higher than they expected. And they’re facing the weather and flooding water at the moment.

“But what they announced, as soon as they’re ready to deliver the boys out of the cave, they will do that right away, but also it may not be all at once 13 boys. But… whoever has enough strength, if they want to come out, they will do that right away, even if they have to do one-by-one.”

Rescuers are considering teaching the boys to dive. Otherwise, the only option is to wait out the monsoon season and consequent flooding, which could take up to four months. Either way, they now have access to provisions and medical care.

Either way, as they look at different options for bringing the boys out, rescuers have not given an estimate on how long they think this will take.

The family of the Compassion sponsorship beneficiary is thankful to hear that their boy is alive, and they are thankful for all who have been praying.

“They are very happy and can’t wait to see their son,” Oo says.

(Photo courtesy of Compassion International)

And just as there has been a witness for Christ in the cave over the last several days, there has also been a Christian witness outside the cave entrance.

This boy’s family, along with other Christians, has been in constant prayer. Meanwhile, Oo says while rescuers were still searching, some of the families waiting outside were exhausting every spiritual ritual they knew to try and bring about the boy’s rescue. And the Compassion boy’s family was encouraged to join them.

“They’re the only Christian family, definitely, among other’s beliefs. So, a lot of pressure by other parents to involve with what they believe, like meditation or the offerings… but the parents were standing strong in that faith and believe that God would deliver the boys safely. And that’s what I’ve seen. I’ve never seen anyone like that.”

Meanwhile, Oo says she’s been encouraged to see the larger Body of Christ come together in prayer at the cave, throughout Thailand, and even in other nations like South Korea.

Will you join them?

Oo echoes Noi, asking for prayers for the weather to calm down, and for the rescue teams to be reinvigorated as they work out a way to get the boys out of the cave.

“I just constantly keep praying that the boys can come out as soon as possible because like I said, everybody is facing the weather and the water inside the cave. It’s just unpredictable and all I do is just like, nothing else I can besides praying  and even can ask other people, so please keep praying for the boys.”

If you’d like to support Compassion International, click here.