We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Christian Aid Mission for supporting our ministry to orphans and children left without parental care in Ukraine. Thanks to your support, many children have found new loving families. One of them is Valya.

Valya came to Father’s House in 2009. We have seen children who have experienced difficult life situations, but Valya’s history was shocking. From birth she lived in a room with animals and rodents: more than 20 cats, several rabbits and even more mice. Valya ate, slept and played in this room. There was a man living with Valya and her mother, sharing the pension her mother received, though she never worked. She was sad. The child was constantly alone, sharing only time and space with the animals. She showed mental and physical rejection, bruises and abrasions. She was afraid.

When we first met Valya, she growled like a puppy and bounced like rabbit. She did not know the names of objects, days of the week or even seasons. She was afraid to wash. She often hid and did not speak. She cried and played with no one.

And with all of that we started working with Valya. It was very difficult, but with time came the first results in development: Valya learned to sleep in a bed, eat with spoon and fork, take showers, dress neatly and even communicate with children and adults. She caught up with their peers in development – learned letters, numbers, colors, and soon was able to attend school.

By the court’s decision, Valya’s biological mother had been deprived of parental rights. We tried to help her mother improve and restore order in the apartment; we encouraged her to go to work. Unfortunately there was no positive change. Valya’s mother periodically visited Valya in the Father’s House. In the beginning, Valya went to her mother when she came for a visit, but over time when her mother came Valya did not want to see her.

Under these good conditions, Valya has begun to bloom – she often smiles and stays in a good mood, she loves to draw and she studies well in school. This is a story of just 1 of the children that live in the Father’s House; we are greatly thankful for all of your support.

If you would like to learn more about the Father’s House or if you would like to support their ministry click here. Please share this story with your friends and family. Let it resonate and remember how the Lord loves and cares for you.

Christopher Djatta was born into the Islamic Kotokoli tribe, the second largest people group in the West African francophone nation of Togo. When Christian Aid Africa Director Rae Burnett met him in 2001, he was one of only 200 professing Christians among his tribe numbering 600,000. In 1992, he established Warriors for Christ, with the goal of sending a gospel witness to every village in Togo, especially to the remote northern villages. The journey to reach this goal has proven a long, dangerous, and discouraging one, fraught with persecution and betrayal. Though he is grateful for the many souls set free from Islam through his ministry during the past two decades, he has watched in dismay as Muslim missionaries, backed by massive amounts of power and money, have flooded the small country to successfully convert multitudes of people. Christian Aid recently received this letter from him.

The great challenge of the century is the power of Islam. Muslims are the least evangelized people, and their numbers are increasing every day worldwide.

Although we work hard and are prepared to die for Christ if necessary, we lack the numbers and the financial support of our enemy. After 20 years, we remain weak and challenged while the Muslims have only grown in strength, money, influence, and power.

Traditional churches filled with nominal Christians are apathetic to this tragedy. They have closed their eyes to the great need for gospel workers in our nation, and have refused to help us. In fact, they persecute us. Foreign missionaries have tried to take over our work. Christian Aid is our only support.

After training our missionaries, we send them only to the unreached, not to those who have already heard the gospel. This is how we reached almost all of northern Togo in less than eight years of mission work. We have suffered greatly for this labor and are disheartened that the body of Christ is not behind us. If the bride of Christ is not fighting with us, how can we resist the enemy and fight until the final victory?

Our needs have increased but our finances have not. Not only do we have familial responsibilities, but we also have 102 Muslim converts under our care, including 30 of them in total financial dependency upon our mission. Because of the dangers of confessing Christ from Islam, we must shelter and care for new Christians while we disciple them. We need $45 per person, per month. We also have 14 missionaries on the field, most are married with children. Ten of these fulltime workers receive no support. Those missionaries who we have enabled to start small businesses within the communities they are reaching need equipment and supplies ($900 each). In many cases, having a small shop is the only way to successfully enter an unreached tribal village.

Each missionary has up to 50 house churches in his charge, some which are more than 20 miles away. They try to visit each group at least twice a week to ensure proper teaching and discipleship. Transportation is essential for them. We are in desperate need of ten motorcycles ($1000 each), and to repair seven of our motorcycles ($500 each).

We also need approximately $4,500 monthly to meet the financial needs of our mission center, where we are secretly receiving and discipling converts from Islam, printing teaching materials, and recording our radio broadcasts. Christian Aid sponsorships have helped to provide some stability here, but we have yet to reach this minimum monthly need. A powerful computer to centralize all of our data ($1,500) is essential as well.

We have been training missionaries every year in the Missions Center Christian Aid enabled us to start building in 2003. It is still not finished.

God has opened our eyes to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It is clear that we will be persecuted, but God has raised Christian Aid to help us in this final battle for soul winning. We don’t want to build our own kingdom, but the Lord’s Kingdom. We need your help.

If you have questions about this post, or would like to give to this ministry, please feel free to email the Africa Area Director (rae@christianaid.org) or call our home office and ask for Rae (800-977-5650). If you would like to give to this ministry click HERE.

“We give praise to God that we were able to have so many activities for the children during the Christmas season. As a result, almost 200 children and parents accepted Jesus. Glory to God! The Lord has enabled us to finish 2011 in victory and we declare this New Year will be very glorious.  

 The month of December is always a great time to teach about the true reason for Christmas. We had six seperate Vacation Bible Schools running at the same time for four days at a time. It was a real time of glorious testimony among the children and their parents. Most of the attendees, almost 200 children and some parents, accepted Christ. 

In the following weeks we went to visit those who had made a decision for Christ and we had beautiful experiences. All of them asked us if we could continue with these activities. This made us think about starting some Bible schools in many of those neighborhoods and towns in March. We thank God, because we saw more than 80 collaborators and volunteers working with the children with a lot of enthusiasm, and now there are others to be added to the group.         

In February we plan to have training for all the collaborators and volunteers in order to begin an intense work among the children during the whole year of 2012.” 

If you have kids of your own, don’t forget to sign up to the Prayerline for Kids - a great tool in mentoring your children to pray for kids their own age around the world!

Uzbekistan is defined as “an authoritarian state with limited civil rights” and there is profound concern about “wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights.” The most widespread violations are torture, arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly.

We have about 500 evangelical churches in Uzbekistan. Mostly they are very small. There is no freedom for preaching publicly, only in official church buildings. By law, it is not possible to preach in the Uzbek language about Jesus Christ. Charity and humanitarian ministry are not allowed if it gives witness of the Lord.

Though Uzbekistan proclaims freedom and democracy, the Muslim religion is dominating. The majority of the leaders are of Muslim religion with a strong foundation. If someone has the Bible, he can get up to three years in jail, according to the law.

The UCF has a vision to open a church in every small city and region. Our vision is to bring the gospel from heart to heart. Mainly there are home churches and they affect relatives and neighbors of the local people.

One story: One sister invited Christian people to visit her house in one small village. After that the police officers came and demanded she pay the penalty of 50 monthly salaries. Her husband was very angry at her (he is not a believer) and said that he is going to kill her. And from that time she is in a lot of trouble. It is very difficult for local Uzbek people to be Christians.

Another story: Deaf-and-dumb people were spreading the gospel through their parents and relatives, and after a while all of them were converted and started to visit the church.

The third story: Two ladies have visited our church and a pastor. He gave a New Testament (Injil in Uzbek) to one of them. She brought the book home, and when her husband saw it, he beat her up. He asked her, “Who gave you the book?” She said,“The pastor!” Now the pastor has got to pay the penalty of 100 monthly salaries and to stay in prison for three years, since the police officers had an interview with her. But those ladies were touched by the power of the Holy Spirit so much and began visiting the church services regularly. They are very active in the church ministries now.

Zhenya was an alcoholic and drug addict for the last five years. He came to the meeting because his relatives invited him. He listened to God’s Word, decided to take God into his heart, and in the very first meeting got freedom from sins and bad habits. Now he is full of life and happiness. The family is together again, their life is getting better, and they go to church.

Nuriza thought that Christ was the last chance in her life. She has cancer in the developing stage. She came to God and now she is aware of the fact that if she dies she will be with God in heaven.

Makhabat has been praying for her sisters for eight years. Her sisters said that the main religion of their nationality is Islam, though they often asked her to pray for them in difficult situations. They saw God’s miracles, but they kept on rejecting Jesus as God. But during those meetings, their hearts were healed and they came to God. Now they are attending home groups meetings and tell their families about coming to God through Christ.

We request your prayers for those who came to God.

“The Lord has blessed us abundantly with His grace, which leads us from glory to glory every day in the ministry. Things in the Middle East may look complicated and not well. Chaos permeated most Arab countries because of the demonstrations and protests against the repressive regimes. The dead were falling every day for this reason, but the Lord works in the midst of crises to raise up for Himself a people who lift up His name. 

Iraq 

The Lord’s work is continuing to bring about substantial freedom in the center of Iraqi society, which is recovering from periods of tough wars. The Iraqis today are more open and more receptive to hearing the gospel. A lot of churches have been started and a lot of houses have opened their doors to home church meetings.

Brother Fadhil started another work in the house of one of the brothers in northern Iraq. This work is a result of Brother Fadhil inviting people to the services while distributing Bibles and tracts in the middle of a tribal people in northern Iraq. His efforts led the people to ask, “Who is Jesus?” 

We are praying for God to provide for the Bible Distribution Ministry this coming Christmas. In every part of Iraq there is a great need for more copies of the Bible.

Syria 

Things in Syria have become more complicated with the constant protests against the government of current President Bashar al-Assad. The emphasis on security has become more intense, and there is more difficulty in movement throughout the country, especially at the government checkpoints on the streets. Everyone is affected, as the security forces strive to determine who is against the regime. The meetings of the church have been postponed due to these trying conditions of insecurity. But through all of this, the salvation of souls and the Lord’s work continues to grow in the midst of His church. 

Jordan 

Things are stable in Jordan and the believers are continuing to meet without harassment, yet still with reservation, because of the current government’s stance against preaching the gospel among Muslims. My wife is making arrangements to visit Jordan at the end of the year. She will be recording several programs for ladies to be broadcast through Christian channels and on the internet. 

Oman 

Our plan is to serve with the church in Muscatto help spread the gospel. 

Prayer

Please lift us up in your prayers as we are preparing for the Bible Distribution Ministry. We need a lot of help and support to raise funds to print as many Bibles as possible.  We need Bibles, New Testaments and DVDs of the Jesus film for reaching Iraqi people in Iraq, Syria, and Oman. These will help with church planting, evangelism, and discipleship. They are very effective tools to be used to witness to Muslims. We hope to distribute 20,000 Bibles ($2 each) and 5000 DVDs ($1 each). True freedom for our Iraqi people will only come through the gospel as found in God’s Word. Foreign governments spend billions in our country, but only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as found in the Bible will give us true freedom. Until Christ comes, we are reaching Iraqis for Christ.“

For more stories and information about the Middle East and updates click HERE.

We went to visit a new house group that we had started. As we approached the house, a young lady ran toward our car and asked us to change our plans. She said, “Please, brother, don’t come to our house today. Just wait for us at our neighbor’s house and we will come in an hour.” 

An hour passed and no one showed up. While we were preparing to leave, we heard someone at the door. Three brothers came in, followed by four new girls who had come to faith in Christ two weeks ago. We all sat down and started talking with each other. One girl kept her face covered all the time.  She was just sitting and was not saying anything.

I felt there was something wrong going on so I asked her what it was. I asked her, “Why did you stop us from coming to your house?” She did not answer. I looked at her, and asked the question again. “Please tell me what is going on.”  She started crying like a little girl.

We were confused, but started praying for her. Suddenly she took her cover off her face and it shocked us all: seeing her bludgeoned face. She said “Please don’t come to my house any more. My family wants to kill me because they know about my faith in Christ.”

I asked her how her family knew that she was now a believer, because we had counseled her that she needed to be very careful how she handled her new faith in Christ. She looked at me and said, “It is something that we cannot hide. I wanted to share the good news with my family. I cannot stand to see them going to hell and doing nothing.”

The story then came out. As soon as she shared the gospel with her parents, they called her uncle and asked him to come. He came with several other people, and asked the girl what she had done and what she now believed. She again shared the good news with all of them.

While she was speaking, her uncle asked her if she still believed in Islam. She said, “I am sorry, but I now believe in Jesus.” As soon as she said that, they all jumped on her and started beating her.  They also burned her hands, because her hands had touched the Bible. 

She explained to me, “That is why, brother, I don’t want you to come to our house any more, because they are planning on killing you, as well.” We prayed together and asked her not to come to the meetings any more. Her face was so sad. She cried even more, just by hearing that.

I really felt bad that I told her that. But I know she will be killed if she is ever caught attending another meeting or ever hinting anything about being a Christian or expressing any biblical truth. But then, she may be killed even if she never does any of these.

I can’t breathe, thinking of this young girl. My heart is always torn open and totally crushed when I confront these situations. I don’t know who to share my heart with these days. Please pray for us, because we need the strength of God these days.

Thank you very much for your prayers and financial support. For the last few years we had many significant political and economic changes in the countries of the Former Soviet Union. In some regions the opposition increased between Protestant churches and so-called religious leaders of the “government church.” Ukraine is still the only country that has an absolute right to conduct evangelization on the streets.

In Central Asia, especially in Uzbekistan, if any person who attends the church will tell anyone about Christ on the street, he will be immediately arrested and his pastor will be arrested, too. According to the law of the country, the pastor has to teach in the church and not to spread the gospel to people outside on the streets.  But the believers are burning in their hearts to save people and to tell them about Christ. They pay penalties for witnessing and are arrested very often. The vision of the church leaders of Uzbekistan is that in every village and every city a new church will be organized.

The Lord allowed us to visit Uzbekistan and meet their leaders. I had an opportunity to preach to the youth who came to church in Tashkent; 90% of them were Uzbeks. I preached in the Russian language and needed a translator because they didn’t understand Russian. Young people listened to the message with tears in their eyes. In two months of being in Ukraine, I had an opportunity to visit Uzbekistan and Russia three times. I spoke in one conference in Moscow that gathered more than 800 leaders from all over the country. I was also present in another conference in the Ural Mountains, Siberia, with more than 3,000 people in the tent.

In two months, traveling with a team of TV camera men, 18 crusades were conducted and we visited 6 churches, 7 conferences, and 8 orphanages. During this time about 37,000 people attended the evangelistic outreach, and hundreds of people, especially youth, came up to the front crying to receive salvation. There were 52 TV programs and 13 radio programs produced.

There are many testimonies of the people who were present at the evangelism services.

After one service, a lady came up to me and told about the adventures of her life with tears in her eyes: “I just came to Christ. My husband and my son began to abuse me. My husband used to beat me up very often, and I was praying all the time and was waiting on the reply from God. One day my husband turned on the TV, where the program with Slavik Radchuk was on. This sermon touched his heart so much that he repented before the TV set. I was away from home at that time. When I came back, I couldn’t believe my eyes; there was a bouquet of flowers on the table and all kinds of cooked food. My husband was smiling at me and came up saying, ‘My dear, I am so sorry for everything. Now I am not only your changed husband, but also your brother in Christ. Thank you for your love and patience.’”

The Scripture indicates that God allows the suffering which millions of believers are going through right now in order to provide an opportunity for us who are spared to minister to those in need. When we stand before Him He wants to say, “I was hungry, and you gave me food” (Matthew 25:35).

Virtually all of the 800 native missions assisted financially by Christian Aid in poorer countries try to care for the poor and suffering in their midst. They help famine and disaster victims, those sick and in prison, homeless refugees, orphaned or abandoned children, and many more who are destitute and suffering. So whenever you send a gift to Christian Aid for any one of these works of God you are ministering to the needs of our Saviour as He lives on earth today in His body, the church.

Let me put in modern English a paraphrase of what I think our Lord wants to say to every affluent Christian when we stand before Him in our resurrected bodies at His coming:

You saw how I was hungry, and you sent a check to provide food for me. You saw that I had no clothing or blankets or bedding or firewood to provide heat for my tiny hut, and you gave for an indigenous mission that provided these things for me. You saw that believers in my little church had to walk five miles to get one can of drinking water, and you gave $600 to drill a well for them.

You saw how entire church congregations were driven from their little homes by invading rebels and religious extremists, and you sent funds to provide food and housing for them.

You saw how I was put into horrible dungeons because I steadfastly refused to deny the living God, and you sent gifts that enabled local believers to provide food for my helpless children and to bring some for me also, along with blankets and clothing.

You saw me stricken with leprosy, and tuberculosis, and malaria and other infectious diseases, and you sent love offerings that enabled native missionaries to provide shelter from the sun and rain, cots on which to lie, and life saving medicines that restored my health so I could continue to advance the kingdom of God among my people.

Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

It’s not because we minister to our Lord’s body that we will share His heavenly kingdom forever. It’s the other way around. We give to Him (not just at Christmas but all year ’round) because He first loved us and gave Himself for us. If we really be lieve He died for us, and has accepted us purely on the merit of His blood shed for our sins, we will love Him and give ourselves for Him. And the way we do it is to minister to the needs of those members of His body who are suffering because of wars, famine, disasters, diseases and persecution.

“There are many Syrian refugees in Lebanon escaping from the turmoil in their home country. I can understand why our government will not want to share what is really happening in northern Lebanon.

I have been involved in the relief ministry among the Syrian refugees with a group of local believers since the first of June 2011. We are still involved in ministering to the Syrian refugees. We are also supporting the Lebanese families who are hosting the refugees, since they are also facing a difficult economic situation due to the border closing with Syria.

The numbers of refugees has varied since the problems started in Syria. The official estimates were from 5,000 to 7,000 refugees. When we started to minister among them, we could identify around 1,600 Syrian families located in 16 villages.

As we were distributing Bibles, food and clothing, many Syrian men returned to their homes in Syria since they felt that the danger had ceased and they needed to make an income to support their families. When conditions grew worse again, they wanted to return to Lebanon but the Syrian troops had already closed the borders. Many of those who returned to Syria could not get back into Lebanon when the fighting started up again, and consequently many women and children are separated from their husbands/fathers.

We have hundreds of families to help. They live in a difficult situation because even the men who stayed in Lebanon cannot find work in northern Lebanon, and the Lebanese host families have very limited resources to support them.

The most essential need in these days is the ability to support the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese host families during the winter season. It is very cold these days in northern Lebanon. Most of these people do not have enough winter clothes, blankets, or carpets.

We are the only ministry supporting the Lebanese host families, as well as the Syrians.  Now that the border with Syria is closed, the Lebanese host families are in a bad economic situation because these families had lived on an income from  smuggling fuel, food items, and other things out of Syria and selling them in Lebanon for a higher price.

Some of the Syrian refugees are staying with Christian families, but the majority of the villages on the border are Sunni Muslim, thus most of the refugee families are living with Muslim Sunnis. This gives us wide open doors to reach both the Lebanese Muslim host families and the Syrian refugees who are living with them.”

Prayer requests:

1. Pray for these hurting people, as their loved ones have been killed and most of their homes and belongings are gone. We are helping the refugee families with clothing ($6 each), a couple of blankets ($2 each), and a carpet for sleeping ($6 each).

2. Pray for the children who are no longer in school. They cannot go to schools in Lebanon because the local schools have no place for them, and they don’t have the money to pay for the tuition fees, books, and stationery.

3. Pray that the people who accepted the gospel message will remain in the faith and grow as they follow Jesus. Pray that more people will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. For our evangelistic outreach, presently we need 1,000 New Testaments ($4 each), 300 Bibles ($8.50 each), audio resources (MP3 Bibles in Arabic – these have been provided), and 500 picture Bibles for children ($7 each).

4. Pray for the local believers in the northern part of Lebanon who are serving the refugees and sacrificing their time and money. Their efforts often prevent them from their normal means of making a living. We have two local believers involved full-time in this ministry. They need $500/month for the next several months to offset what they would normally be earning.

5. Pray for jobs for the Christian refugees. Some of those who fled from Syria are believers who were being persecuted. As Scripture states, when one member suffers, we all suffer with them. The believers who are fleeing Syria have left everything behind. At best, most will only be able to find menial labor in Lebanon. There is a role for us in taking care of these brothers and sisters who are in need.

6. Pray for the women and children whose husband/fathers have been killed or are still in Syria. Pray that we will know how to show them the love of Christ.

7. Pray that the Holy Spirit will draw thousands of Syrian refugees and Lebanese to Christ. We know God is sovereign. We know He cares for Muslims. We observe countries in the Middle East going through great upheaval. We do not yet see many Muslims turning to Christ. But maybe the long turmoil in Syria is God’s way of beginning to bring this about. Could it be that the refugees from Syria will be what God uses to break open the heart of Islam? If so, we are helping those who are on the frontlines.