As the Church, we are the vessel that co-labors with God to deliver the loving and hope-filled message of Jesus Christ to the world.

Our mission at World Compassion is to equip and train the local indigenous church living in hostile and restricted environments around the world to reach their communities with the message of Jesus.

Investing in the local church in hostile environments creates a sustainable approach to the programs designed to meet the practical needs of people, while also giving the church the opportunity to disciple believers and continue reaching more people.

Our hope for this post is that it gives you an overview of the impact you make every month through your giving to World Compassion. Thank you for your faithful and generous partnership in seeing God’s Church built in nations hostile and restricted to the Gospel message.

Burma

World Compassion helps provide what church planters in Burma need to get their church off of the ground, literally. World Compassion is preparing to help launch three church plants in the coming months. These pastors will be impacting unreached communities in southern Burma.

We still need $41,000 (£26,961) each for two of the three church plant opportunities, a total of $82,000 (£53,922). This amount includes purchasing land, building a sturdy church out of concrete and wood, and equipping the pastor with some “seed money” to start his work.

Planting a church isn’t about the building, although they cost money to construct. It’s about the people that can be reached through the programs that a local church offers. Just like in the parable of the talents, we are providing opportunity and resource for Burmese pastors to reach their community.

Pray and ask the Lord what your part might be in planting a church in Burma.

China

We typically enroll 1,000 new ABC Bible Training students throughout China each year in the two-year program, but this year, we have had approximately 2,000 applications submitted, and it’s only September!

One of our long-standing partners in China, who has 1.5 million believers in his network, told us, “The greatest need we have is to train up pastors to plant churches.” ABC fills this gap in training believers to become leaders and pastors.

We desperately need to print an additional 1,000 sets of ABC before the end of the year and meet the demand from 2,000 new students awaiting ABC all throughout China. It costs $141 (£93) to train an ABC student in the two-year study program. Please consider helping World Compassion reduce the number of waiting students and make a donation toward ABC today

Iraq

Our team from World Compassion has just returned from serving refugees in northern Iraq. We are taking more ground and making a bigger impact than ever before, but this mission continues to be very dangerous with ISIS-controlled territory only a few miles from where we serve.

Our team was joined by a team of doctors from Sweden to perform medical clinics in a new town we are targeting. Because of this team of doctors and other like-minded organizations who continue to partner with us, we are able to open this new location for medical clinics in conjunction with our current food distribution program. In this area, we currently feed around 5,000 refugees.

On this trip, our team also conducted a food distribution, preaching the Gospel through the local church, reaching roughly 2,000 refugee children through creative children’s ministry, and providing Christian counseling and prayer to refugee families who have endured tragedies and significant loss through this crisis.

You can help us continue to reach refugees in Iraq by making a donation today towards refugee relief. We always need more food, aid, and partners to help preach the Gospel!

Iran

World Compassion has increased shipments of Bibles to underground churches in Iran during 2015, thanks to your support and the hard work of our team on the ground. Despite resistance, we have continued to press on and build a network of people to smuggle Bibles into Iran and distribute them to pastors of underground churches.

Right now, we have over 5,500 Bibles making their way to a “distribution center” deep inside Iran. Please pray for our shipment of Bibles to arrive safely and be distributed to churches throughout Iran without detection.

You can help deliver the remaining 20,621 Bibles before the end of 2015 for only $2.50 (£1.60) a Bible!

Give & equip the local church in hostile nations

I hope you can see the impact we will make together this month as we continue to equip, train, and mobilize the local church in these target nations! Thank you for your partnership and giving that makes this all possible!