Worthy of your prayers and consideration:
The Cause: Today we spoke with our director in a war-torn Middle Eastern country. (You know which one I am speaking about). He has often been arrested, electrically shocked, beaten, stabbed, shot, violated with broom handles, and separated from his family; still, we have never heard him shed a tear. But today on the phone, as he described the situation in his homeland, he wept profusely. Their currency continues to crumble. Right now, banks will give customers only a maximum of $1 a day (1.7 million in their currency). Many merchants refuse to accept it, demanding currency from other countries they can trade or barter with. Even small amounts of handheld food bought from street vendors are no longer affordable. ONE falafel or samosa (not an order, just one), which we would consider a fraction of an appetizer, costs an average of $2. That’s like an American family sharing a McDonald’s hash brown as their only meal. If you are fortunate to have a job, 67% of your earnings are needed to buy adequate food for your family.
The Effect: Our Christian families are now desperately hungry, and many have no food. Our house churches recently sent twenty children out to scavenge garbage cans because an adult doing so would be shot. Imagine surviving on the garbage discarded by people with no job who have suffered through nine months of bombing and have no electricity or water! After seeing the children picking through the trash, gangs formed that now charge them a tax to do so. Unable to pay the extortion fees, they now have nothing to eat. To survive they make tea, boiling rainwater (the only water available) and add any leaves they can find for flavor. Some now eat rodents, insects, and tree bark to survive.
The Solution: We can feed them. It costs $86.34 to feed a family for a month. (Inflation rises daily.) That comes to $14,507 to feed all 168 families for one month. We expect this need to last for five months because, “rumor has it,” there will be peace and international help by then. But what about now?
The Request: Nolin and I can give $86.34, and we have given that and more, but we cannot give $14,507. Neither can most of you. But any amount you can spare will help. You may save a family’s lives. And yes, these are all Christian families, and they are ALL without a husband/father due to martyrdom. Most have children, while some are alone, childless due to their father’s death or because their adult children have abandoned them because they follow Jesus. All are converts from Islam to Christ and are marked for immediate execution if discovered.
Brothers and sisters, we cannot abandon them. If not for their sake, then for the sake of the Name of Christ in that land. As James 2:14-17 teaches, let us not simply pray that our Father will bless them while we ignore them, when He has already given us the means to be His blessing.
FYI: We are grateful to the several pastors who are taking an offering to help, especially those who pledged to do so for the next five months. Still, the need remains. Please be a blessing and be blessed.
Jon
