In Yombo, Tanzania, the local church, in partnership with Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, has developed a creative idea to support local ministry—a car wash that is staffed by young people who are connected to the church and need income.
In the remote corners of Myanmar, the lack of access to clean water has been an arduous challenge for countless families. The journey to retrieve water from distant sources often stretches over many kilometers, leaving individuals grappling with the scarcity of this basic necessity.
God is doing incredible things through creative and hope-filled churches around the world. Most often, these congregations are small, rural, and scattered across continents in some of the most remote pockets of our planet. These congregations are comprised of entrepreneurial pastors and devoted disciples who are community leaders; they are often teachers, farmers, mechanics, and more. They are Christ-followers who devote their lives to teaching kids and who work tirelessly when a storm strikes or crops fail.
After 26 years of brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, a new era of peace, reconciliation, and development began in May 2009 when the conflict ended. But in a small village called Iruttumadu, people were left with the worst scars from the war. The village was largely destroyed, and healing seemed impossible.
“My kids were sick, always sick,” says Sylvane.
Sylvane lives in Kagazi, Burundi. A mother of several children, Sylvane recently spoke about the past health condition of her family and compared it to their health now. She and her children have been changed by an integrated project designed to their community thrive through economic and agricultural development.
There are many Venezuelan families arriving week after week to Colombia in search of refuge, help, and the hope of starting a new life. Many flee from the violent situations and inequality at home, but above all, they flee from hunger. If they have the financial means, families arrive by bus. But those who have enough are few. In reality, the majority come by foot—with a backpack, their newborn babies, wives, husbands, uncles, grandparents, and anyone who can get out. They carry only what they need to survive, hoping to find help along the way.
As medical volunteers from Global Care Force visited churches and villages across Ukraine over the fall and winter of 2022, they prayed that God would help them find at least one person in each location that would be the right fit for an inaugural trauma-care training.
It has been three years now since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the whole world. The pandemic affected billions of lives globally with disease, death, debt, and distress. It has seriously complicated an already broken world. But in the midst of so much brokenness, we have seen many churches become hands and feet of Jesus, salt and light to the world.
Compassion is the essence of how our faith is shown in action. Treating people with dignity, generosity, and open hearts, minds, churches, and homes—each of these is welcoming and honoring others in the same way we would welcome Jesus. This is the shape of our Nazarene life.