A four-year-old Egyptian boy sits in a funeral service. The Eastern Orthodox priest speaks in Coptic, and he can hear his relatives crying. He’s cried a lot as well, painful sobs. His sister passed away, then his father, and then his other sister immediately afterward. He feels sad, lonely, and scared. He’s also confused. Why did this happen? Over time, anger begins to fester in his heart. God is now his enemy, and he hates Him. From Empty to Saved Wagih Boutrus was born in Egypt in 1960 to a Coptic family. Copts are an ethnoreligious group, indigenous to Egypt…
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Update: 80 Backpacks Distributed in Rochester Missions Door missionaries, Marvin and Denise Robinson, report that they were able to supply eighty backpacks and school supplies with scripture messages in Rochester, New York. This was done through gifts from their supporters. They are planning their Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas outreach events for the homeless and families in need. Support the Robinsons here.
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WATCH HERE Missions Door missionary, Jessie Fox, sent us this video, showcasing how her team at Signs of Love search for Deaf people in Argentinian villages. All of the Deaf people you’ll see in this video have never had access to learning sign language or the gospel. Deaf people who don’t know sign language typically live in isolation, unable to communicate with the world. Their neighbors often don’t know they exist. From Jessie: “Once we arrive in a village (right now we drive between 1 – 2.5 hours), we begin knocking door to door, asking individuals, shop owners, clinics, and whoever…
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Missions Door missionary, Radha Manickam, reports that the Cambodian pastors being supported are all doing incredible work in God’s kingdom! Here are some of the highlights: Pastor Cheam Rin is up to nine worship services with 130 people in bible study. He’s baptized five people and is training twelve leaders. Pastor Phan Sophun is averaging 122 people on Sundays and is up to nine services. He is training twenty leaders and led ninety-eight people to the Lord last quarter. Pastor Mam SamOeun pastors a village church of forty-five people. He’s up to two services and even after his stroke, is…
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Friends of Internationals, a ministry that supports international students at Arizona State University, is seeing a high number of international students after years of covid. Since the school year started, FOI has met and interacted with over three hundred new international students. A recent Friday night dinner and bible study had over ninety students in attendance. All of them were non-Christians, and a majority had never seen a bible before and didn’t know the basic teachings of Christianity. Many of these students come from restricted nations or nations that are antagonistic to the gospel. They are often Hindu, Muslim, agnostic,…
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Campus Ambassador, Elizabeth Cernoia, shares some good news! Her campus, Fitchburg State University, lost a key student leader. Within days of their last prayer time, a new student agreed to take on the role and saved their club’s status on campus. FSU also had fourteen people at their first bible study despite the university cancelling events, and ten were new students. Pray for student S. Elizabeth met her at bible study where the student confessed that she was once told by a minister that she’ll never be good enough for God’s love and still struggles with this till this day.…
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Victor Almendarez, Missions Door missionary in Western Honduras, has an amazing praise report! Virgilia Almendarez continues to disciple women and children in the Honduran mountains. Five house churches are outgrowing their meeting places, meaning five new churches need to be planted. Thirty-five people have been baptized. Forty-five children living in poverty have been given backpacks and school supplies. Fifty ministry leaders are being trained. Sixty-five people have made professions of faith. One hundred extremely poor families have received prayer and a bag of food. Pray that Victor’s team is able to raise $5,000 for each of the new churches that…
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Missions Door missionary, Louis Mann, is the dean of education at CB Matrix, a free distance-learning program that trains lay church leaders and planters. Because of generous donations, CB Matrix has been able to produce 28 videos for their curriculum this year! They have also been able to procure new equipment. Over 30 students (and counting) have registered for the courses. Support Louis here.
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Isaias Cantarero and his team are continuing to plant churches in the Lenca area of Honduras. In July, his team visited houses in Carrizal and Cedros Opatoro, La Paz for five days. They planted two fruit trees in each house and shared the gospel. They also helped replace roofs and floors of homes. Children and adults came to Christ! His team also recognized and appointed five pastors in the Comayagua area. These pastors will work in Cane, Monte Cristo, El Ciruelo, Lejamaní, and La Paz. They are continuing to support pastors in four areas of Honduras by visiting and maintaining…
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Abby and her student sit together with a bible open, pouring over scripture. Her student has three times the number of papers and tests coming up than the average college student. That’s what academic life is like for students at the University of Denver, an elite private school with world-renowned prestige. Abby lets the student know how much she appreciates the time she’s sacrificing. Most students at this university wouldn’t dream of giving up a night of studying. She also makes sure to remind her that in Christ’s eyes, she’s more valuable than the brain in her head and future…
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Nicaragua, 1995 – Rigo Reyes is twenty-two years old. He manages around 1,500 people. He has a wife, a good salary, and a lot of power for someone his age. So, why is he destroying his life? Young and Power Hungry Rigo was born and raised in Nicaragua. He got married at twenty years old and held a high-ranking position at an international company. “I was young with too much power and money,” he says. The company would send him to different countries. He would leave home early and come home late. He became infatuated with alcohol. “My wife suffered…
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A little girl smiles brightly at Jose. She’s on the thinner side and the collar of her t-shirt is a little dirty. Jose hands her a green shoe box, and it looks like she’s about to burst with happiness. “Gracias!” she tells him, walking away and finding a spot on the ground to sit. Jose watches her open the box and take out a Barbie doll. The girl gasps and kisses the doll, then hugs it tightly. Dozens of children talk and giggle around her, comparing their new presents. For many of these kids, Operation Christmas Child is the only…
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Haiti, 2010 — the ground begins to shake underneath Francklin’s feet, while objects fall around him with a loud clatter. He looks at his students and sees the fear in their eyes. Francklin guides them downstairs as fast as he can, trying not to fall. Car horns and shouts for help fill the streets. Pieces of the house break off, crashing loudly. If he and the others can’t make it outside, they’ll die. A Childhood without Parents Francklin Alexis grew up in Haiti without a father. His mother raised him and his siblings on her own until she sadly passed…
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Click. The door’s lock echoes in Bob’s ears. He can practically hear his heart beating. There are only two people in the room now. Himself and a police officer. When his phone rang earlier, Bob never expected to hear his friend say the following: “I’ve got a cop here who’s threatening to hurt himself.” His eyes lock with the officer’s gun. He takes a breath. Work with Campus Ambassadors Bob Lehman was raised in a moral home, but not necessarily a Christian home. He didn’t live for the Lord, but he managed to get a full ride sports scholarship to…
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“I can’t.” Josh Joiner’s heart beats out of his chest and his hands tremble. He sits in the passenger seat of his car with his wife, struggling to breathe. She drove him to the store in an attempt to leave the house. His constant panic attacks have left him bed-ridden for a month, unable to stand without getting dizzy. Even the idea of going into the store and having to see people seems terrifying. He wasn’t always like this. All he wants to do is go back to normal. Passion for Young People Josh grew up in Mesa, Arizona. He…
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1988 – Steve Robenalt sits with his wife of three weeks, Patty, in a Christian conference. It’s his first year working full-time as a Campus Ambassador at Arizona State University, and they’re both excited to learn more about how to serve their students. A staff member at the conference teaches about ministering to people with AIDS. Not relevant to Steve and Patty’s lives, but you never know on a college campus. The next day, they receive a phone call from Patty’s mother. The words out of her mouth knock the wind out of the newlywed couple: “I have AIDS.” Entering…
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Wind River, Wyoming is a reservation with incredible people, plagued by two heartbreaking issues: post-colonialism and meth. It’s the fifth largest Native American reservation by population. Almost 27,000 people live on the reservation, and around 12,000 of them are from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes. The community has a horrific colonial history. In the past, Natives were dispossessed from their land, forced to assimilate, ripped away from their families, and had to watch their culture be destroyed. While they’ve managed to revive and keep their rich traditions alive today, the legacy of colonialism has led to generations of…
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“Do you know anyone in this village who’s deaf?” It’s a question Jessie and her team ask regularly in rural areas of Honduras. The person at the door tells them about a deaf gentleman who lives with his parents and gives them directions to find his home. “Do you know his name?” Jessie also asks. As expected, the person shakes their head. Jessie and her teammate, a Honduran deaf man, go search for him. They arrive at the steps of his humble home and knock on the door. A woman answers, looking a little tired. Jessie warmly introduces herself and…
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“Mama?” Ramon’s mother looks up from her sewing. She’s sitting on the step of their front door. “Yes, mijo.” “Who made everything?” Ramon was only in six years old, but he was already pondering life’s biggest questions. How did man come to be? Is there a creator? “God did,” his mother replies. She points to a patch of dirt in the area he likes to play in. “See that? God took the dirt, and He made a man out of it. He gave the dirt a nose and eyes. Then He breathed into the dirt and the man started to…
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The light from the projector flickers on the enchanted villagers’ faces. They’re huddled close together, sitting outside on the grass or in chairs. Many of the communities in the Honduran mountains don’t have electricity, so an animated movie brings much excitement. On the screen is a Man with a complexion like theirs. They gasp when He heals the sick, weep when He’s crucified, and cheer when He resurrects. He says He loves everyone so much that His death was to pay for their wrongdoings. If they worship Him as God, they can be in a relationship with Him that lasts…
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Liberia, 1989 — Torli shoots up from his bed at four in the morning, wide awake and in a cold sweat. He hears fists pound heavily onto his door and windows. Barely breathing, he sits still in the darkness as his heart nearly beats out of his chest. “Open up! Come out!” voices bellow from outside. “We see your car, and we know you’re in there!” A recent newspaper headline flashes in Torli’s mind: THREE REBELS DECAPITATED. They bang harder. “We’re coming inside if you don’t open!” Shaking with fear, Torli gets out of bed and opens his front door,…
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Lush, green trees envelope a small riverboat crossing the brown Amazon. Fish jump from the river and splash back down, possibly Arowana. A river dolphin peaks its long beak out of the water and in the distance, Elmer can see a large bird that looks like a stork or heron walking. But Elmer Terrazas isn’t looking for animals. He’s looking for souls to save in one of the most remote parts of the world. The Trip In Isaiah 49:6, God declares that He desires His salvation to reach the ends of the earth. For Elmer, this is literal. He’s a…
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Elizabeth Cernoia sighed. Her student had cancelled. Now she was at campus hours early for no reason. It wouldn’t make sense to go all the way back home and come back to Fitchburg State just a few hours later, so she’d just need to kill some time. She had some reading she needed to get done anyway. Unfortunately for Elizabeth, her unofficial office was in “The Hub”—a commuter lounge filled with students. As a campus minister, it was the perfect place to jump into the action of people’s lives. But as someone trying to get work done, it was less…
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Cambodia, 1973 – a young man wakes up in darkness. It’s three a.m. and he’s lying down on the hard floor of a semi-truck, enveloped by the pungent smell of raw fish. Radha Manickam is twenty years old and was kicked out of his father’s home a few months ago. He could put up with Radha’s recent conversion to Christianity, but his baptism was the last straw. In his father’s eyes, he’s embraced the colonizers’ religion. Every night Radha sleeps here, and every day he works up early so the truck can be used for the fishermen’s work. Today, Radha…
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Luis Magandi and his family live in Melchor, Guatemala—a village on the Belizean border. They run a small pizza shop to help support their church-planting ministry. Last week, a young man named Estuardo walked into their shop hoping to find work. As they talked, Estuardo revealed to Luis that he had just left his home 400 kilometers away, searching for somewhere safe to live. In his home town, he had been approached by a local gang who wanted him to join them. When he refused, they shot him…four times. It’s a miracle that he survived. Estuardo said he believes there…
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Edwin Colon is the co-founder and pastor of the Recovery House of Worship in Brooklyn, New York. He describes his church as a refuge for the marginalized and his congregation being filled with murderers, prostitutes, and drug addicts. But Edwin tells his church regularly that he’s the worst sinner of them all. Edwin’s downward spiral to addiction started when most children were still watching cartoons. At eleven, he began his relationship with alcohol, dropped out of school after 6th grade, and started using cocaine before he became an adult. When he turned eighteen, he qualified for a twelve-step program. It…
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