A global cost of living crisis: your response

A global cost of living crisis: your response

Thank you for bringing hope

In the midst of a global cost of living crisis, you helped people like Richard to survive, thrive and have hope. Read on to find out how your gifts have helped families across Uganda, Lebanon, Nepal and beyond.

Relief, hope and delight. When Benon Kayanja first heard about the response of BMS World Mission supporters to our Global Cost of Living Crisis appeal, launched back in July, he couldn’t have felt more encouraged. Benon is one of BMS’ mission workers based in Uganda, and, like many of our workers, he’s seen first-hand the devastating impact that the Ukraine war has had on families around him. Fuel and food prices were on the rise, sometimes more than doubling. Wisdom from leaders was that the only way to handle the crisis was to live more frugally. But people like Richard, a farmer living in Gulu, were already struggling to feed their families, sometimes surviving on just one meal a day. With exploitative middlemen ready to make a tidy profit from farmers who could no longer afford to transport their crops to market themselves, it felt to Benon and his colleagues that bridging the gap to meet essential needs was impossible.

Benon Kayanja is one of BMS’ mission workers based in Uganda.
Benon Kayanja has seen first-hand the devastating impact that the Ukraine war has had on ordinary families.
Richard, a farmer in Uganda, stands in front of his crops.
Your gifts will help farmers like Richard to support their families through the crisis.

Wonderfully, BMS supporters read Richard’s story and responded with incredible generosity – despite many families in the UK facing their own worries about escalating living costs this autumn. You raised over £96,000 to support projects in Uganda, Lebanon and Nepal that are helping families to weather this crisis – as well as shoring up similar work right across the world.

“As the planting season begins again in Uganda, my team is excited for all the support we can bring to small-scale farmers,” explains Benon. “Thanks to the incredible amount raised through this appeal, we are able to increase the number of farmers we can provide seedlings to. This will have an amazing knock-on effect, meaning a greater number of farmers can provide vital food and help generate income for their families.”

But Benon’s plans to bring transformation don’t stop there. Together with his colleague, BMS Agriculturist Genesis Acaye, he’s devised a way to help farmers avoid exploitative middlemen altogether, protecting their precious profit margins. They’re calling the project Cek Cam, meaning, fittingly, ’abundant food’.

How does Cek Cam work?

Cek Cam cuts out the middleman and buys produce at a good price. Excellent storage facilities mean communities of farmers are able to store their produce, wait until they have a large enough quantity and identify when the market prices are high. Produce sold through Cek Cam results in a competitive price which is split fairly between the farmers so they can buy more seeds. In fact, farmers like Richard earn as much as 35 per cent more when they sell through Cek Cam. Thank you for making all this possible. The plans are to help over 1,000 farmers by the end of the first year!

“Seeing the farmers doing better gives me joy,” adds Genesis, who uses his extensive agricultural experience to mentor farmers out in the fields of Gulu, northern Uganda. “Richard is among the farmers who have worked really hard to help their communities. We have given him the skillset to grow his sugarcane, and I’m also really happy that we have been able to help him with transporting his crops to market at a reduced cost. Thanks to your support, initiatives like Cek Cam are really making a massive difference.”

BMS Agriculturalist Genesis uses his extensive experience to mentor farmers.
BMS Agriculturalist Genesis uses his extensive experience to mentor farmers.
Doreen, Richard's wife, smiles with her crops.
Richard and his wife, Doreen (pictured), have been able to transport their sugarcane to market at a reduced cost.

But in a crisis with a truly global impact, your gifts have stretched beyond Uganda to support vulnerable families in places like Lebanon and Nepal, too. In Nepal, farmers have been given access to veterinary training and breeding goats that will boost their income. And in Lebanon, families are feeling hopeful for the first time in years. “I am 100 per cent sure that God is here and he listens to our prayers,” says Maha*, a Syrian mother whose family you supported through the appeal.

When Maha and her husband Mahmoud* fled Aleppo in 2013 with their three small children, they left behind everything they had ever known. Their first winter in Lebanon, the family of five slept on one mattress with a single blanket to keep them warm. Things haven’t been easy in Lebanon since their arrival, but there have been two big changes that have given Maha renewed hope. One is the presence of a BMS-supported Church Learning Centre that has given her children back the education that was snatched from them when they left Syria. The other is the family’s faith in Jesus. “The kids are still at the centre,” says Mahmoud, “and are very happy there. They feel valued and they love their teachers dearly. They’ve kept on learning English, Arabic, and mathematics, and they have art lessons. The centre has been our safe haven.”

A BMS-supported Church Learning Centre in Lebanon has given Syrian refugee families renewed hope.
A BMS-supported Church Learning Centre in Lebanon has given Syrian refugee families renewed hope.

“Jesus does not give up on us,” Maha continues. “Now I have faith that God has a better plan for me.” As the war in Ukraine continues and other economic factors add their own pressures, it’s clear the cost of living crisis isn’t over yet. And yet your generous response means that vulnerable people across the world will still be reached with life-changing help. Please pray that God would guide our finances and our prayers as we continue to support the most vulnerable families in Uganda, Lebanon and Nepal. Thank you again for your generous gift and for standing with Richard, Mahmoud and Maha in these desperate times.

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*Names changed.
Words by Hannah Watson
Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

The only safe haven

“The only safe haven”

Syrian refugees in Lebanon still need your help

Julie’s family fled Syria for the safety of Lebanon back in 2013. So why, in 2022, does Julie’s dad Mahmoud* describe a BMS World Mission-supported learning centre in Lebanon as the only safe haven for his children? The truth is that life in Lebanon remains tough, and Syrian refugees desperately need your help.

“We faced the same situation as the Ukrainians, and we feel for them. We passed through war, and it is very difficult to leave your home and become a refugee in another country. In times of war, people die, and others get injured. You lose people you love.” – Mahmoud, Julie’s father.

For Mahmoud, news of the war in Ukraine felt intensely personal. It reminded him of his family’s own experiences, fleeing the Syrian capital city of Aleppo back in 2013 and narrowly escaping a life-threatening interrogation from violent ISIS soldiers. It showed him once again the way in which war brings out the best and the worst in people – Mahmoud knew what hardships Ukrainians were going through but was genuinely pleased to see them being so well looked after by their European neighbours. More than anything though, it made him worry for his family’s future. For every Ukrainian person he saw being welcomed as a refugee, he could think of many Syrian families who had been rejected, turned away and discriminated against as they tried to cross into safer nations. He also saw the costs of living in Lebanon skyrocketing as a direct result of the invasion.

Group photo of Julie's family
A BMS-supported Church Learning Centre in Lebanon has given Syrian refugee families renewed hope in 2022.
Could you support Julie and her family through the cost of living crisis in Lebanon?

£160 could provide a young Syrian refugee like Julie with vocational training and schooling, giving them the chance to forge a new future. Families are desperate and the needs are so urgent. Please fill out the form to give today.

“We witnessed and are still witnessing the effect of the war in Ukraine on Lebanon,” says Mahmoud. Julie’s family owned their own home in Syria, but in Lebanon they needed to pay rent on their accommodation – rent that has doubled in the past two months. The family has also limited their use of electricity, switched off their internet connection and stopped buying fruit, dairy products and meat in order to make ends meet. Julie is 14 years old now, but she first arrived in Lebanon at the age of six. “Life was beautiful in Syria,” she told BMS partners back in 2013. Life in Lebanon promised safety, and now the increased costs of day-to-day life have threated that safety more than ever before. “Our situation was difficult to start with and I already had trouble providing for my wife and three children,” Mahmoud says. “The increase in prices has become very hard to live with.”

A graphic showing the cost of living crisis in Lebanon.




The family’s one lifeline has been a BMS-supported learning centre that Julie and her siblings have attended since arriving in Lebanon. Back then, ten-year-old Julie dreamed of becoming a pharmacist and living in Australia, somewhere far away from the war. The possibility of attending school after two years of unrest was a miracle for Julie’s family. “My wife and I were overwhelmed with joy and hope when our children could finally get an education again,” said Mahmoud at the time. “The biggest reason why we fled Syria was to give them an education and a chance of a better life.”

The school has done all that and more, giving Julie and her siblings the chance to enjoy subjects such as English, Arabic, maths and art. In fact, Mahmoud describes it as the only safe haven his children have experienced while living in Lebanon. “We tried to enrol them in public school for a while but there was verbal and physical abuse there,” says Mahmoud. “The teacher would hit the children and use foul language.” At the learning centre, Julie and her siblings are safe and cared for. “They feel valued and they love their teachers dearly,” Mahmoud continues. “They tell me they wouldn’t mind being there all day from morning to night!”

A photo of a young Syrian girl
At the age of ten, Julie dreamed of being a pharmacist.
An image of Syrian refugee Julie at the age of 14.
Now aged 14, Julie still loves her school and teachers.

Life may not be easy for Julie’s family. They live day-to-day not knowing whether they’ll be able to afford the next day’s bread. They still hear of terrible violence happening back in Syria too, including the kidnapping of Mahmoud’s brother. Julie’s family and other relatives were forced into paying what they could to guarantee his safe release. But there are things that give them hope: the learning centre, the food vouchers they receive through BMS’ partner, and most of all, their faith in God. “We believe in Jesus Christ, and we hope that what’s happening and what’s coming is all for the best. Jesus does not give up on us,” says Mahmoud. “We believe that even after all this sorrow and hardship, there will be happiness and relief.”

Could you help bring some of that happiness and relief to Julie and her family, and others like them? Any amount really does make a difference. Give today using the form at the top of the page, or head to the BMS World Mission Global Cost of Living appeal to find out more.

*Name changed.
Words by Hannah Watson, Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

Global Cost of Living Crisis appeal

Global Cost of Living Crisis appeal

Support global communities crushed by the conflict

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, out-of-control food and fuel prices are driving vulnerable people across the world to starvation and deprivation.

Wide view of refugee camp in Lebanon
Can you help your neighbours in places like Lebanon who are facing devastating price rises?

Your gift to support the first wave of Ukrainian war survivors was priceless. Thank you so much for helping those fleeing the conflict. But now the war in Ukraine has driven the cost of living through the roof. We’re seeing fuel and food prices skyrocket, leaving the most vulnerable families reeling from the increased cost of living.

It’s hard to imagine how a war in Europe can have such a terrifying global impact.

For Richard, a small-scale sugarcane farmer who lives in the north of Uganda, it means reducing his family’s meals to just one a day – and sometimes all they eat is a piece of bread with a cup of tea. Vulnerable Syrian refugee families like Julie’s are unable to pay the transport costs to get to work, let alone afford rent or food. And it’s the same story in places like Nepal too.

How can I help?
  • £29 could give a family in Nepal access to breeding goats and veterinary training to rear healthy and productive animals
  • £88 could buy the seedlings that Richard and ten of his fellow farmers need to provide vital food and help generate income for their families
  • £160 could provide a young Syrian refugee in Lebanon with vocational training and schooling, giving them the chance to forge a new future
Give now

And it’s not just in Lebanon. Communities in Nepal, Uganda, Chad, Mozambique and Sri Lanka are already contacting us in real fear of what the coming weeks and months will look like. We’re already supporting projects helping people make enough money – or grow enough food – to help sustain themselves and their families, and to keep their children in school.

But even as their income increases, rising fuel and food prices mean it almost makes no difference. We need your help, right now, to double down on these projects and make a lasting impact on the poorest people in the world.

Will you give today?





Other ways to give

  • Call the BMS donation line on 01235 517641, Monday to Friday, between 10 am and 4 pm
  • Send a cheque made payable to BMS World Mission with a note that this is for the Global Cost of Living Crisis appeal
  • Give regularly and provide support in the longer term through BMS’ work across the world
I'd like to give regularly
Richard with his crops in the background
You can help farmers like Richard provide food for his family.
Photo of Julie with her family
Young Syrian refugees like Julie need your support in Lebanon

Can you help shield the world’s poorest communities from the effects of the war in Ukraine?

Whatever you can give today will make a difference.
But these countries also need our urgent prayer.
Download this prayer PowerPoint to guide your church’s prayers this Sunday.

Give now
Download the prayer PowerPoint

Your gift in response to the global cost of living crisis will be used to support communities in the world’s most marginalised countries
that are affected by the impact of the war in Ukraine.

The Beirut blast: heartbreak and hope

The Beirut blast: heartbreak and hope

You stood by Lebanon in a year of mourning

Last August, a deadly explosion ripped through the port area of Lebanon’s capital city, shattering a nation already at breaking point. On the anniversary of the Beirut blast, you’re standing with a heartbroken people who are still picking up the pieces.

I'm praying for this

On 4 August 2020, the Beirut blast’s engulfing power devastated Malak and Walid’s lives. Although a generation apart, they discovered the source of their healing in the same unlikely place: a new playground built with funds donated by BMS supporters to help children suffering from psychological trauma.

Walid’s struggles were those of so many Lebanese graduates. His dreams of working for a news station in Beirut had crumbled against the hard reality of unemployment, economic struggle and feelings of shame.

Walid’s trip to visit his parents in Beirut on that fateful day should have been a time of encouragement. Instead, he found himself clearing the debris of his family home off his own body so he could reach his injured mother.

“Carrying my mother to the hospital and running through the wreckage was the hardest thing I had to do in my life,” he says.

Two girls and a woman looking at a colourful book in the playground
Alia estimates that 600,000 children in Lebanon risk long-term negative psychological impacts after the blast.
A small boy learning to do push-ups in the playground
As children enjoy the playground you helped support, they’re healing deep wounds.

But Walid feels hopeful again thanks to his time volunteering at the children’s playground. He’s seen little ones like Malak, whose instant developmental regression so worried the adults around her, become more like their happy chatty selves again.

Walid has regained a sense peace helped by seeing children go from being silent and withdrawn to cheerful and smiling, and all through the activities put on by psychologists at the playground. “The children got me out of my state of stress. I finally found a purpose,” he says.

Like a passenger in a car with no brakes

Malak and Walid lives were altered beyond imagination on that August day. Over 200 people lost their lives and an estimated 300,000 others were left displaced and, one year on, people in Lebanon are still asking questions. Some have been immediate and practical: how should you commemorate an anniversary like this? Some run much deeper, threaded through with feelings of anger, injustice, loss of hope and despair.

“Some groups have been calling for demonstrations to take place,” says Alia Abboud, Chief Development Officer for LSESD, BMS World Mission’s partner in Lebanon. “Some people said it’s better not to hit the streets on 4th August. ‘Stay at home’. Others are saying we need to go down to the port to show solidarity with the families who lost loved ones.”

Smashed cars and buildings on a Beirut street
The shock of an unexpected yet devastating explosion has left people in Beirut fearing the worst.

Not everyone is ready to revisit the port, though. Reminders of the damage remain graven into the cityscape after 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded there last year. Shockwaves ripped indiscriminately through the city, with the impact felt as far away as Cyprus.

The blast was one of the planet’s biggest ever explosions and one of its most horrific industrial accidents. The many broken silos had been full of grain that was meant to feed a nation. That grain remains rotting in mounds at ground zero, a potent symbol of a crippled country still coming to terms with the aftermath of the explosion.

The answers many feel they are still waiting for makes the process of healing harder. Alia describes it as being like a passenger in a car with no brakes, careering into rocks as it hurtles down a steep hill.

The rocks that Lebanon is navigating are huge: forest fires and Covid-19, a population where one in three is already a refugee in a foreign land, and an economic and political crisis, where the cost of basic household items like sunflower oil has risen by over 1,000 per cent. Vital medicines are out of stock, there is not enough fuel to supply the electricity sector and the country’s central bank is running out of money. Alia’s friends, family and neighbours live in expectation of the worst.

Planting seeds of hope

BMS World Mission’s partner in Lebanon is not immune to this crisis. Its staff are living through it: some experienced the blast themselves, and now all exist in its aftermath, doing what they can to get by. Last year, Alia and her team chose a theme for the year ahead: planting seeds of hope.

“We try not to keep our eyes as much as possible on the bad things that are happening around us, but on what God is doing both through us and within us,” she explains. And as a BMS supporter, you’ve enabled Alia and her team to keep their eyes on the good their Heavenly Father is doing amidst it all.

Your generous gifts to the BMS Beirut appeal last year have brought hope back to the child given an emergency meal so they don’t go hungry, to the family given shelter after the blast destroyed their home, and to the church given food vouchers so they can distribute them amongst those in need.

Thank you for standing by people like Walid, Alia and Malak during one of the hardest years of their lives. One year on from the Beirut blast, it’s still making all the difference as the seeds of hope begin to grow. “We are grateful,” says Alia of BMS supporters. “We thank God for your generosity. That enabled us to stand by our people in the hour of need and plant seeds of hope. So, thank you so much.”

Three women set off down a street carrying brooms
Despite the destruction, Alia hopes people will remember Lebanon as she does: as hospitable, fun-loving and community-focused.

Thank you for your incredible response to the 2020 Beirut relief appeal. Because you and many other Christians gave over £110,000, you’ve been part of providing:

  • 40 families with emergency accommodation
  • 2,200 vouchers for households in need
  • 7,800 hot meals for affected families
  • 200 children with a new playground
  • 18,000 hygiene kits
Please keep praying for the nation of Lebanon:
  • Pray that Christians in Lebanon would be agents of hope and transformation, and that members of the church in Beirut would be encouraged to stay despite the current brain drain as many working people leave Lebanon.
  • Pray that families who have lost loved ones would feel justice is being done and that their questions are being addressed. Pray that they would finally be able to heal after the blast.
  • Pray that families in Lebanon are sustained through the current crises, and that aid agencies can effectively support people in need.
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Words by Hannah Watson

A tale of two crises

Ten years on:

A tale of two crises

Ten years of fighting. Ten years away from home. Ten years with the constant threat of danger and death. But also, in spite of the heartbreak, ten years of God’s incredible love. This is the Syrian civil war, ten years on.

It may have largely disappeared from our news feeds, but the Syrian civil war and subsequent refugee crisis are still raging on – and in many ways, are worse than ever. According to the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD), BMS World Mission’s partner in Lebanon, the number of Syrian families in Lebanon now living in poverty has increased from 55 per cent to 90 per cent over the last year. But even in the midst of these devastating crises, our partner has seen God at work.

It's estimated that one in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee.

Crises within crises

BMS World Mission has been supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon since 2011, when we first provided vital food and hygiene kits to families in desperate need. Over the last decade, we’ve continued offering crucial food support, and have also helped get Syrian children back in education at BMS-supported learning centres. But since the Syrian crisis began in 2010, the situations in both Syria and Lebanon have grown more and more desperate with each passing year. Today, around one in four people in Lebanon is a Syrian refugee. And Lebanon itself has faced a financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the tragic Beirut blasts, all over just a couple of years.

Our partner tells us that these challenges mean that both Syrian and Lebanese families are struggling more than ever to find work so they can afford basic necessities like food and rent. Rabih*, a Syrian man, told our partner that, “I believe that the refugee crisis has worsened the economic crisis… If I make any money, I feel that a Lebanese person is more deserving of it.”
In the midst of such tragedies and despair, it’s hard to see how this situation could come to any kind of positive conclusion. But that’s where you come in.

A father stands in the centre surrounded by his two young sons and daughter in a camp supported by BMS partners LSESD.
"If I make any money, I feel that a Lebanese person is more deserving of it.,” said Rahib, a Syrian man supported by LSESD.

Your faithful generosity

Throughout these crises and tragedies, BMS supporters have responded with incredible compassion and generosity. You might remember our Syria’s Forgotten Families harvest appeal back in 2016, which raised an incredible £435,479.90 – the biggest response to any of our harvest appeals to date.

Because you refused to forget Syria, you’ve made a real difference to people like Nour*. Nour and her family regularly struggled to get enough food on the table, and in the tough economic climate, her husband often can’t find work. But thanks to your generosity, her seven-year-old daughter Samia* was able to start school at a BMS-supported learning centre back in 2019. Even though the Coronavirus pandemic struck a few months into her schooling, Samia was still able to keep learning with lessons sent over WhatsApp. “I thought they would not care about our family much,” said Nour. “I was surprised when […] the teachers actually called to help with the lessons.”

Not only is the centre providing Samia with the education she deserves, it’s also a lifeline for Nour herself. She receives food parcels from the centre every week, and it’s also become a place she can go to unburden herself of her worries.

“I eagerly waited for one of the staff to call me because I can cry and laugh and vent to someone,” said Nour. “My husband is burdened already, I cannot add to his sorrow, so whenever the teachers called, I felt relieved.”

Nour’s is just one story from among many who have received vital help from the centre. And without your support, that just wouldn’t have been possible.

*Names changed

Thanks to your support, we were able to get food parcels to struggling Syrian families.

Another decade of despair?

  • Despite the light of God clearly shining in the lives of many Syrian refugees in Lebanon, the conflict in Syria and the fragile situation in Lebanon are both far from over. Please keep praying for Syria, and for the work of our partner in Lebanon, that we might see God’s powerful justice at work.
  • Pray for the many families receiving relief from the BMS-supported learning centre. Pray that the Lord will provide for both Syrian and Lebanese people involved in this project. Pray also that they wouldn’t struggle to find work or put food on the table, like Nour’s family did.
  • Pray for the children receiving schooling at the learning centre, that the ongoing economic crisis wouldn’t cause children to drop out of school in order to find work.
  • Pray for our partner in Lebanon, that they would feel God’s presence with them as they work through so many challenges.
  • Pray for the ongoing situation in Syria, that discussions with the UN would be constructive and that peace would soon become a reality.
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Words by Laura Durrant
Photos: MERATH

Our God who hears

Our God who hears

A testimony to answered prayer in 2020

I'm praying for this

We stand at the beginning of a new year, more aware than ever how little our country, our global neighbours and our world leaders know about what lies ahead. So, what better way to begin 2021 than in prayer, with the BMS annual Day of Prayer on 31 January? And what better way to come to prayer than to come encouraged by this story, all about how God answered our prayers in 2020!

Last week, we asked BMS World Mission’s General Director Kang-San Tan to pen a prayer for the year ahead. It was a big ask. What do you pray for when faced with a year as uncertain as 2021? And where do you begin, with a world still in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic?

Thankfully, our General Director was more than up for the challenge, and we shared his beautiful prayer in our email update (if you don’t receive them, sign up here!) And as we did so, we knew we weren’t asking without basis or confidence. We’ve been so privileged to see firsthand how our prayers for our world, our work and most importantly, for those we work with and for, have been answered.

Kang-San Tan

Kang-San’s prayer for 2021 asked for three things: flourishing for new communities, for our workers to be the fragrance of Christ in everything they do, and for God’s Kingdom to come, his will being done on earth and in heaven. Let’s take a look at how we saw God working powerfully in each of these ways in 2020 and allow this to give us confidence as we ask again for his provision in 2021.

Flourishing communities

CHURCHES AND SUPPORTERS

This past year has undoubtedly posed extreme challenges for churches, seeking to livestream services, record online talks and set up ‘Zoom coffees’ in place of meeting together. It seemed impossible to replace the easy fellowship we enjoy from mingling in our church halls or working together on a Harvest offering table. So it was wonderful to hear that, across the year, so many had found ways to adapt and meet the challenges. Over 230 churches found ways to raise money for the BMS Harvest appeal, Operation: Chad, many of them remotely. Some churches organised online collections, and many superstar fundraisers set themselves unique sporting challenges they could do within their four walls to raise money – you can check out Will and Tom’s achievements on our Facebook page, or Ana Sophia Clark’s garage 10k in Issue 48 of Engage!

Will and Tom, two fundraising heroes

PROVISION AND PROTECTION

From our mission workers to our UK staff team, across our supporters and in churches, so many have faced serious challenges to health, disruptions to normal working conditions and difficulty in travelling throughout 2020. It would be wrong to overlook how difficult it has been for all of us in each of our individual ways, but in all this, it’s also been remarkable to see God’s provision and protection. Whether it’s been upholding people in their physical needs, putting loving community around the lonely or sending his Spirit to sustain and to guide, we’ve heard some wonderful stories of God’s strength keeping people throughout this year.

Sharing Christ

A woman holding her baby.

THE CHRISTMAS PRAYER CAMPAIGN

In the midst of lockdowns and social distancing, outreach events seemed like an impossible dream. That is, until four BMS partners across Asia came forward with a plan to reach their neighbours across India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand with the gospel at Christmas. You joined us in prayer for these Christmas outreach events, and we’re now hearing exciting testimonies about the fruit of this incredible endeavour. There have been baptisms, gifts and Bibles handed out and the proclamation of gospel hope in a time of real crisis. We hope to share more in the upcoming issue of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine, so subscribe here to ensure you don’t miss it!

ONE MILLION LIVES

A huge answer to prayer in 2020 was seeing that the faithfulness and generosity of supporters has enabled us to reach our goal of transforming one million lives worldwide!

Back in 2016, BMS launched an ambitious plan. We wanted to transform the lives of one million people by the end of 2020. The last of those five years posed challenges none of us could have foreseen, but with God’s guidance and your support, we amazingly saw that target achieved. You equipped the global Church to reach out and share Jesus’ love with one million people in some of the world’s least evangelised, most marginalised and most fragile places. Stay tuned to hear more over the next few months about all you’ve achieved!

Four BMS workers engaged in evangelism and church planting across India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand gathered in a group montage against a blue background.

Doing God's will

CORONAVIRUS AND BEIRUT

In 2020 alone, we handed out more relief grants than ever before – and it was all down to the generosity of BMS supporters. In moments of real trial, nations around the world dealt with the devastating effects of Covid-19, many on top of other political, economic or humanitarian crises. Thanks to your gifts, over 36,000 people received practical aid and spiritual support, all in the name of Jesus. You helped build a satellite Covid-19 hospital in Bardaï, Chad and shored up other hospitals across Chad and Nepal. You handed out face masks, PPE and soap, and provided psychological support to those in despair. After the blast in Beirut last summer, you rebuilt broken homes, enabling 40 families to be rehoused, and gave out emergency meals. We praise God for your joyful obedience to his will and calling to give, even out of hard personal circumstances for many in the UK.

Food distribution in Beirut after the blast

Last but not least, we’ve also had the privilege of praying with you, our supporters. As the UK entered its first lockdown back in March of 2020, it became clear to the BMS team that asking for requests and praying for the things on your hearts would be an absolutely essential part of our work this year. Our weekly prayers for supporters and churches have been a real time of encouragement and blessing. And if you saw prayers answered this last year, we’d love to hear how you are doing.

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We pray that seeing these answers to prayer in 2020 has encouraged you for the year ahead. Please do join us in prayer for our Day of Prayer on Sunday 31 January 2021. Follow the link to our Day of Prayer page  for all the information you’ll need, as well as for handy resources like a PowerPoint and PDF download, designed to be easily shared in your church service.

Words by Hannah Watson

Top Stories of 2020

You've done amazing things this year:

Top Stories of 2020

Well. It’s been a year. While we’ve all faced serious challenges in 2020, we don’t want to overlook all the incredible work God has done. Check out the top BMS World Mission stories of 2020 to see how God has been at work across the world this year – and how he’s used you to make a difference!

1. Pictures from the frontline: An oasis of healing

God’s light is shining in the Chadian desert thanks to the BMS-supported Guinebor II hospital, and we’ve so loved sharing stories of its staff and patients with you this year. Take a look behind the scenes of our Operation: Chad appeal and meet the people whose lives you’ve transformed.

Take a look behind the scenes

2. Surviving lockdown: tips from Afghanistan

Our workers in Afghanistan are no strangers to lockdowns, which is why we turned to them when the UK went into lockdown earlier this year. It’s humbling to remember that this is the norm for many people in Afghanistan, so as you enjoy checking out their tips, please continue to pray for people living in this fragile nation.

Read the story

3. The accidental pastor

Pastor Humberto holds up the keys he was handed to an empty church. He is wearing a blue t-shirt. Behind him is the green door of the church, and the blue and white painted wall.

Everyone loves a love story! And we loved sharing the story of how Pastor Humberto’s life was transformed through looking after the keys to the church in his village – and how it saved his marriage.

What happens next?

All these stories are just the smallest example of the impact your giving has had around the globe in 2020. Thank you so much for your faithful support of BMS work during this challenging year! If you want to continue to change lives in 2021, and in years to come, why not sign up to give to BMS regularly as a 24:7 Partner? Find out more right here.

Make more stories like these possible Sign up to become a 24:7 Partner!

4. Sahel surgeons: The most dramatic day

A man and a woman outside a hut in the desert.

Have you met Andrea and Mark Hotchkin? Because they are amazing. Seriously. Earlier this year, they were thrown into action when 23 injured fighters arrived at their hospital in northern Chad without warning. Stitching up bullet wounds, mending fractures, and donating units of their own blood – no task is too small for these medical heroes!

Meet the Hotchkins

5. Picking up glass: the human stories behind the Beirut blast

Hot food is handed out to people who have lost their homes due the blast in Beirut

Hearts broke across the world after the tragic explosion that rocked Beirut in August. Thank you to all the amazing BMS supporters who gave to the BMS Beirut appeal to help with the immediate relief effort. Take a look at this story to hear from the resilient people affected by the blast – and how they’re beginning to rebuild.

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Even more powerful stories from 2020

Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for BMS this year! Share this story with your friends and family, so they can see the amazing things you’ve achieved!

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Words by Laura Durrant.

Covid-19: Thank you for saving lives

Covid-19:

Thank you for saving lives

You have helped more than 36,000 people in 24 countries across the globe. And you’re making a difference right now.

Yemen. Afghanistan. Chad. Nigeria. South Sudan. Bangladesh. Ghana. Mozambique. These are some of the least developed countries in the world. These are some of the places where your gifts to the BMS World Mission Coronavirus appeal are making a huge difference.

Coronavirus global response: you helped more than 36,000 people

You are part of a global effort to respond to the Coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 continues to threaten livelihoods, push people further into poverty, and disproportionately impact our world’s most vulnerable communities. While the pandemic rages on, BMS will continue to respond. And we can only do that because of you.

Key facts: your response so far
  • You’ve helped more than 36,000 people in 24 countries across four continents
  • You donated more than £288,000 to the global Baptist response
  • You enabled BMS to give 30 relief grants so far, in our most complex and wide-reaching relief effort ever

How you have made a difference

  • You’ve provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers, given emergency food supplies, provided soap and handwashing guidance, helped to build a satellite Coronavirus hospital, provided phone credit to pastors to reach their congregations, counselled patients and frontline workers… and more! And you’re still helping right now in some of the world’s most fragile communities

Right now, you’re part of co-ordinated responses in Lebanon, Greece, Turkey, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Yemen, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Chad. You’re providing food parcels, hygiene supplies, face masks and medical support. You’re standing with refugee communities and displaced people who lack the basic resources they need to survive this pandemic. And you’re also helping people in South America get back on their feet by providing small grants and training for people to re-start and strengthen businesses.

The food parcel you provided for Mashura was an absolute lifeline for her whole family.

Mashura lives with her husband and three children in a small one-room house in the Satkhira District of Bangladesh. This is her story, in her own words.

“Before this pandemic, our family was doing well. I used to support my family by raising cattle and chicken. Recently, we are in a crisis of food scarcity due to this Covid-19 pandemic. Earnings are completely cut-off due to the lockdown.

“I had to sell everything because of the Coronavirus outbreak. My husband lost his work and there was not enough food for everyone. We needed help so much and we were waiting for help from someone. We prayed to God to help us.

“When this situation was going on, we heard about the [BMS-supported] project providing food items for many people in need. Thanks to the infinite grace of God, I was also included in the list of food distribution. In such a situation, after receiving this food package, my family’s food needs have been met. There is no need to go to the market with risk. Me and my family have benefited a lot.

“I would like to thank the concerned donors for their help with food during this pandemic.”

A Bangladeshi woman receives aid from BMS' Coronavirus appeal
Thanks to your support Mashura was able to feed her family.
You've provided so much across the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic

By sacrificially supporting BMS in this time of global crisis, you have partnered with Baptist organisations across the world to help where it was and is needed most.

Some of the things you made possible this year include:

  • Providing food and soap for 1,200 people in Uganda, who were not only facing the threat of Coronavirus but were also affected by flash floods.
  • Empowering 8,770 children and teachers in Mozambique to help stop the spread of Covid-19 through the provision of soap and handwashing lessons.
  • Ensuring medical workers in Nepal and Chad had the PPE and face masks they needed to tackle Coronavirus in their hospitals.
  • Providing 2,604 people in Peru with vital food parcels.
  • And so much more!
Coronavirus response in Bangladesh
From Bangladesh to Peru, Uganda to the Philippines, you've made a huge difference across the world by supporting our Coronavirus appeal.

Thank you for saving lives across the world during this pandemic. And thank you for enabling us to continue responding to the needs our partners are sharing with us. You really are still making a difference.

Read in-depth stories of the way your gifts to the BMS Coronavirus appeal saved lives in Afghanistan and empowered women in Mozambique on pages 8 to 11 of Engage, Issue 48.

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The Power of Play

The Power of Play

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I could have spoken with them for hours. Creative therapy is making a difference across the world, from Lebanon to Mozambique, Uganda to Thailand, and although each context is different, with every BMS World Mission worker and partner I spoke to, I discovered the same thing: children who have been through unimaginable pain. And how you’re making new ways of healing possible.

She sat in the corner and stared at the wall in her first session. Fatimé was completely disengaged from the world before she started music therapy. Her epilepsy medication makes it difficult for her to stay awake for a whole session, but at least it stops the fitting. BMS music therapist Bethan Shrubsole has been working with Fatimé for seven months. She’s made real progress since the beginning: now she can look directly at her family.

For the uninitiated, music and play therapies might seem like a modern fad, only available to those in the West, and involving expensive, luxury items like sensory toys. But by speaking to BMS therapists from Chad (where Bethan works with Fatimé) to Thailand (where Judy Cook works with Sam), I’m finding the truth is much more encouraging.

Thousands of miles away, lives a little boy whose experiences are very similar to Fatimé’s. Sam is blind and has epilepsy. He also has a brain condition similar to cerebral palsy. He’s been at Hope Home for almost all his life, where BMS worker Judy Cook can give him the support he needs. He’s non-verbal and doesn’t know how to play with the other children. But he likes feeling different textures in his physical therapy sessions, he likes laying on his mat and making scratchy sounds with his fingers. And he loves music. More specifically, he loves The Beatles.

A boy with severe disabilities receives therapy.
Music makes Sam's physical therapy so much more effective.

“He’s quite hard to calm down sometimes,” says BMS worker Judy Cook, who founded Hope Home. “But music has always helped.” And for a boy with wild emotions like Sam’s, who can sometimes get so cross he hits himself, keeping calm is an incredibly important part of his therapy. “We put Hey Jude on and it was like a switch went on in his head,” Judy says. The music makes him smile and laugh, and stops him screaming. Playing Hey Jude isn’t going to cure Sam of his epilepsy, but, along with the other therapies Judy and her team are giving to Sam and the other children under her care, it is already making his life better.

A sensory playground helps support trauma victims in Lebanon.
Play therapy is helping children recover after the devastating blast in Beirut earlier this year.

And it’s not only children with additional needs like Sam and Fatimé who can benefit from creative therapies. BMS partner the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (LSESD) has been helping children in Beirut in the aftermath of the devastating blast that rocked the city earlier this year. Many of Lebanon’s children have never experienced trauma like this before and don’t have the coping mechanisms to deal with it. So LSESD has started with one of the basics: play.

Daniella Daou and her team at LSESD have set up a sensory playground for children in Beirut, with stimulating play stations, art and storytelling spaces. “The point of the playground is for children to have fun, to de-stress and to express what they’re feeling,” says Daniella. They also have a psychologist present who watches the children’s behaviour and looks at their artwork to see if they’re showing signs of trauma. And the playground isn’t only there to help the children, it’s there to give respite to their parents.

They can take a break while their children play, and can speak to the on-site psychologist to see how their children are coping. Giving their children the opportunity to play in the face of such a tragedy is a key part of their healing process.

Play therapy can also help parents and children to bond and to express love and care in a beautiful way. BMS speech therapist Lois Ovenden tells a story of a mother and son who came to a play therapy session she was running in a clinic in Uganda a few years ago. The boy’s condition was too severe for Lois to give him all the help he needed. “He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t see,” says Lois. “He couldn’t have been more than two.” But for one session, Lois showed his mother some play therapy techniques she could use to interact with her son. “It was so beautiful watching them together,” she says. “The incredible love she had for her child – it almost filled the room.”

A child receiving play therapy Uganda
Lois Ovenden was able to show parents in Uganda how play could help them bond with their children.

Lois only showed the mother some simple techniques, like how touching her son’s face and letting him feel different textures could establish a connection and help him experience fun and beauty. Small things. But they made the boy smile and he started to make soft cooing noises. Lois could tell that he knew his mother, how much he loved her. The beautiful bond they shared, expressed in the only way he could.

Many other parents were sceptical though. They thought that play therapy was only available to those who could afford expensive western toys. But according to BMS play therapist Liz Vilela serving in Mozambique, the opposite is true.

“The best way to connect with a child is for them to use what they’re used to,” says Liz. And BMS therapists are showing this across the world. In Uganda, Lois encouraged parents to make toys out of banana leaves so they can play together with their children. In Chad, Bethan uses an Arabic song in her sessions with Fatimé, because it’s the language her family uses, and it’s what she engages with the most. Meeting people where they are helps families build stronger relationships and it makes creative therapies accessible to so many more people.

A child in Chad receiving music therapy
For children like Fatimé and Mohammed (pictured), Bethan's music therapy sessions have made a real difference.

Talking to Lois, Judy and Liz, I was constantly reminded of Fatimé. A child disengaged from the world, brought to a fuller life through music and play. Before she started therapy, she did nothing but sit in the corner, separate from everyone around her. But after seven months of sessions, she can now look at her siblings. She claps along to songs. They’re small steps, but for Fatimé and her family, they mean hope. I ask Bethan about her hopes for Fatimé. How would she like to see her progress? “I want her to be able to say ‘Mama’,” she says. For Fatimé, that’s a huge ask. But for a mother to hear her little girl say ‘Mama’ for the first time? That makes all the effort worth it.

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Words by Laura Durrant

Picking up glass: The human stories behind the Beirut blast

Picking up glass:

The human stories behind the Beirut Blast

I'm praying for this

On 4 August 2020, a huge explosion became the latest tragedy in a string of devastations for the nation of Lebanon. But hope has not left Beirut, in part because Christians around the world have been a light in the darkness to those in need. Here are the human stories behind the blast – and here’s how BMS World Mission supporters can keep hope alive in Lebanon.

“We all went to help her pick up the glass the next morning. Claudette was very emotional. She was saying that they were sitting right where the glass fell just ten minutes before the blast happened… if it had happened ten minutes earlier, we would’ve had people injured, or even dead…”

Gateway bookstore in Beirut, Lebanon after the blast
Just ten minutes earlier, and the shattered glass at the GateWay Bookshop would’ve splintered over the heads of customers.

Daniella Daou is picking up the pieces of the last few months, turning them over in her mind and trying, gently, to put them back together. It’s been seven weeks since the explosion in Beirut’s port area that killed at least 200 people and injured thousands. There’s the memory of clearing broken glass from the floor of the GateWay Bookshop, where store manager Claudette Jarjoura and her customers narrowly escaped horrific injury. Then there’s the past year for Lebanon, punctuated by political protests and gunfire in the streets. Between the Covid-19 lockdowns, and all the shifting unrest, there is so much brokenness, so many painful shards of glass to reckon with. But restoration and recovery, picking up the pieces for herself and for so many other Lebanese citizens, is exactly what Daniella and her team feel called to do. Even when they’re hurting too.

“Until [the explosion], we thought we’d been through it all…” says Nabil Costa, President of BMS World Mission partner the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD) where Daniella works. Coronavirus cases are back on the rise in Beirut, and Daniella estimates there are now more than 600 new cases a day. With tens of thousands of people made homeless by the blast, the idea of self-isolating in separate family units is woefully unrealistic. How can you, if your home has been destroyed? “Forest fires and financial crisis,” Nabil continues, “Bankruptcies, unemployment, a refugee crisis, revolution in Lebanon, Covid-19…” The explosion was devastating, but it came on the heels of so much else. Daniella’s friends are understanding more of the trauma their parents – the civil war generation – lived through.

Nabil Costa, CEO of BMS partner LSESD shares how you can bring hope back to Lebanon.

“We haven’t had any blasts in a while,” says Daniella, explaining the state of confusion so many were thrown into after the explosion, unsure if this was the sound of terrorism, an assassination, or old echoes and ghosts of war resounding in their heads. At a counselling session for LSESD staff, a psychologist explains the idea of ‘intergenerational trauma’: children growing up with inherited anxiety and stress from parents raised in a warzone. It’s a concept that resonates with the team. Daniella thinks of the young people she knows just finishing university, hoping to get married and find work – and terrified for their future. They can’t bring themselves to go downtown to near where the blast happened, or sleep near glass windows. They’re not sure whether they can, or should, stay in Lebanon.

LSESD staff in an emergency prayer meeting after the Beirut blast
Staff at LSESD pray at an emergency meeting called to discuss the relief effort.

But it’s the generation after Daniella’s that worries her the most, a generation who have never lived through such things before. It’s the happy, confident toddlers in LSESD’s educational outreach programme (SKILD) who have suddenly stopped talking, who are back to wearing nappies and who cling to their mothers’ legs where they used to roam carefree. The children who display worrying signs of trauma in the sensory playground set up by the SKILD team to support vulnerable families. The teenagers who don’t have the right language to communicate how they’re feeling. “Because you’re not injured, part of you feels guilty… so you want to help others,” Daniella says. But when you see little being done on a national scale to help those suffering, it can be hard to stay positive. “Of course,” Daniella adds, “we know there is hope, because we know where our hope lies”.

Calssroom after the blast in Beirut
Despite the damages, the LSESD team still see this school as a beacon of hope.
You can support the vital relief work through our Disaster recovery fund. BMS World Mission raises money before disasters happen so that when they do, we’re there as soon as possible: working with local partners on the ground to restore and rebuild. To be one of the Christians making a difference when it matters most, give below today.

Any money raised through this, or any other disaster recovery appeal in excess of the amount required will be used by BMS World Mission to support other work in areas of significant need.

Hope is what’s galvanised the team on the ground – hope in God and hope brought about by the incredible generosity of Christians around the world and in Lebanon itself. Partnering with BMS World Mission, the LSESD team is able to ensure that relief programmes are in place to support people in need, to bring help in whatever form it’s needed. The past month has been spent locating vulnerable families who can be rehomed in LSESD’s buildings and getting hot meals to people whose homes have been destroyed. There’s also a commitment to restoring a sense of security by repairing doors and windows and handing out PPE. The scale of the need makes it a momentous task. LSESD is contending with the damages done to its own buildings, too – the bookshop and their educational centre, Beirut Baptist School. Wonderfully, generous BMS supporters have raised an astounding £85,000 towards the effort so far, enabling 40 families to be housed and many more to receive psychological and practical support.

Hot food is handed out to people who have lost their homes due the blast in Beirut
Hot food is handed out to people who have lost their homes, allowing them to enjoy a comforting meal.

Hope, beyond all things, is what is keeping Daniella and her colleagues looking beyond themselves, despite all they’re going through. Beyond themselves to a nation in need around them, and beyond themselves to the Saviour who promises to walk with them through the storm. At Beirut Baptist School, glass crunches under Chaplain Tony Haddad’s feet. “Even with the damages around us, this is still a unique setting,” he insists. The school is just one of LSESD’s buildings seriously affected by the blast, but Tony isn’t seeing ruins, he’s seeing redemption. “This will remain a lighthouse, because the keeper of the lighthouse is our Shepherd the Lord Jesus Christ.”

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Words by Hannah Watson
Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

Pray for Beirut

Pray for Beirut:

Huge blast rocks Lebanon

Supporting this

On Tuesday 4 August, reports emerged of a huge blast which has killed at least 200 civilians and injured around 5,000 in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Please join us as we pray for Beirut.

We are now accepting funds for our Disaster recovery fund. Please give here.

At least 200 people are reported dead after a huge blast rocked the Lebanese city of Beirut on Tuesday 4 August. The incident occurred in the city’s port area and is suspected to have originated in a warehouse storing 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. The blast also injured 5,000 civilians, and hospitals already struggling to contain the tide of Coronavirus cases are said to be overwhelmed. President Michel Aoun said that the chemical had been stored unsafely after reportedly being unloaded from a ship in 2013.

The aftershocks of the huge explosion registered as a reported 3.5 magnitude earthquake whose effects were heard and felt in Cyprus, over 200km away across the Mediterranean Sea.

Support Disaster recovery: give now

At an already fraught time for Lebanon, this new unexpected devastation will contribute to rising tensions caused by the economic crisis, political protests and rising Covid-19 cases. The explosion has also caused huge damage to Beirut’s port, increasing fears of food insecurity in the country. BMS World Mission is in active contact with our partners and friends in the country, and has ensured that our brothers and sisters in Lebanon are safe and accounted for, though understandably shaken. Many thanks to all those who have been in touch to ask after our partners in the area.

A message from BMS' partner on the ground in Beirut

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You can help today by joining us as we pray for Beirut:

  • Please pray for all those who have lost loved ones in the explosion, that they would know God’s comfort.
  • Pray for those who have been injured, or whose homes and offices have been damaged by the blast.
  • Please pray for the doctors, nurses and paramedics who are caring for the injured. Pray that they would have energy and wisdom, and that hospitals would be able to cope with the number of patients they are taking in.
  • The people of Lebanon have already faced so much this year – from a collapsing economy to the spread of Covid-19. Please pray for hope for those who are feeling hopeless, and that Christians can be a positive witness in this immensely challenging time.
  • Our partners at the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (LSESD) are under a lot of stress (both mentally and physically) as they seek to support the most vulnerable in an increasingly volatile context. Pray for wisdom, energy, protection and strength for this dedicated team.
  • Pray for refugees living in Lebanon, who may be reminded of past trauma following the explosion. Pray for BMS work supporting Syrian refugee children in Beirut.
  • Pray for staff and students at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (a department of LSESD), based in Beirut. Pray that they would experience the peace of Christ and would be used as vessels to bring that peace to others.
Pray for Beirut after a devastating explosion
Please pray for Beirut and for our brothers and sisters in Lebanon.
Download the prayer points powerpoint
Download the prayer points PDF
Please give to Disaster recovery here. Disasters like the recent explosion in Lebanon need a quick response. That’s why we value every gift for our Disaster recovery fund. BMS World Mission raises money before disasters happen so that when they do, we’re there as soon as possible: working with local partners on the ground to restore and rebuild. To be one of the Christians making a difference when it matters most, find out more, or give now.

BMS World Mission has been working and partnering in Lebanon for two decades, most particularly with the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development (LSESD). Our work in the country centres around supporting theological education and social development projects, including ensuring access to education for Syrian refugee children.

Sign up for our weekly email update for more updates, and to keep up with all the latest news from BMS.

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From 2009-2019: The lives you’ve transformed

From 2009-2019:

The lives you’ve transformed

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God’s done incredible things through your support over the past ten years. Join us as we look back on the last decade of BMS World Mission work, to revisit some of the wonderful people whose lives you’ve changed forever.

2009: Bringing the light of God to France

Two pages from a magazine next to a pen pot on a table.

Back in 2009, Engage magazine looked a little different! Way back in Issue 4 of Engage, we caught up with BMS workers John and Sue Wilson, serving in France, who introduced us to four people who had come to Christ through your support!

2010: Fighting drug addiction in Thailand

A man in front of a sign.
Our 2010 Harvest appeal video, Redemption, introduced us to Deekley, who was fighting his opium addiction to help his family.

We visited our partners the Thai Karen Baptist Convention back in 2010, to meet some people you helped raise out of addiction. Your generous gifts were used to buy medicine for recovering addicts, as well as fertiliser which helped give addicts and their families a way to grow food and fight poverty.

2011: Planting seeds of faith in Peru

A man stands in a field.
Your support helped Peruvian flood victims replant their crops in 2011.

You came with us to Peru in 2011, and we showed you the village of Yucay where 350 people lost their homes and 400 farming families lost their crops after devastating flooding. But your support for these families allowed us to provide seeds for them to plant and rebuild their lives.

2012: Celebrating the undefeated

A magazine and a leaflet on a table with a cup of coffee.

In 2012, Engage got a makeover, and we celebrated the excellence of Paralympians, along with the rest of the UK, with the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Our Undefeated resource shed light on some of the global injustices facing people with disabilities across the world. Your support also helped three Haitian athletes compete in the Paralympics!

2013: Lifting up North Korea in prayer

A country that lays heavy on many of our hearts is North Korea, one of the toughest places in the world to be a Christian. We know how much our supporters want to see release and revival in this closed nation, which is why in 2013 you joined us in prayer for North Korea as part of our Project Cyrus initiative.

Feeling nostalgic?

We’re looking for pre-2012 editions of Engage for our archives! Do you have any? We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch by emailing ldurrant@bmsworldmission.org to let us know which issues you have.

Two hands and the words Project Cyrus! Pray for North Korea.

2014: Standing with women across the world

A woman in profile and the words: "Dignity. Taking a stand against gender based violence."

The 2010s was a decade where the struggles of women across the world were brought to the fore, which is why we launched our Dignity resource in 2014, to campaign against gender-based violence (GBV). Your support enabled us to equip and educate leaders and congregations across the world to handle the harmful impacts of GBV.

2015: Sending relief to Nepal

A house in ruins surrounded by rubble.
BMS supporters responded incredibly after the devastating earthquakes that struck Nepal in 2015.

Two devastating earthquakes struck Nepal in April and May of 2015, killing over 8,000 people and directly impacting over 8 million others. You gave over £650,000 – the biggest relief response of the decade! Thanks to your generous giving, you provided trauma victims with necessary counselling, and rebuilt schools destroyed by the earthquakes.

2016: Stepping out in faith in India

A man talks among a crowd.
BMS worker Benjamin Francis is bringing the light of Christ to some of the least evangelised communities in India.

In 2016, you gave to the incredible work of BMS evangelist Ben Francis, planting churches in some of the least evangelised communities in India. Ben’s team and many other Christians living in these parts of India are faced with horrific persecution from religious extremist groups, but your support made it possible for them to continue to step out in faith.

2017: Sharing art from Syria

Children's drawings.

Another tragedy facing the world this decade was the Syrian refugee crisis. In a newly designed issue of Engage magazine in 2017, we showed you some artwork created by Syrian refugee children you supported in Lebanon. Their work might reveal the trauma they faced in their home country, but your support showed them how much UK Christians care about their future, by getting them back into school.

2018: New life in Afghanistan

A woman holding her baby.
Taban, featured in Life's First Cry, and her young daughter, Chehrah. Thanks to you, Taban didn't have to worry about losing Chehrah in childbirth.

We couldn’t talk about 2018 without mentioning Life’s First Cry. With an award-nominated feature video, we introduced you to Andisha, Taban and Laalah: three mothers from Afghanistan, all of whom have had to watch their children die in childbirth. You enabled them to learn safe birthing practices and now they all have children who are thriving.

2019: Chosen by God in Uganda

A boy holds a yellow balloon.
Innocent has Down Syndrome. Your support means that he is growing up knowing that he is loved by God.

And last but not least, in 2019 we introduced you to Innocent, the God-given boy of Gulu, Uganda. Innocent has Down Syndrome, and his mother was told to abandon him when he was young. But she knew that he was special, and now, thanks to your support, he’s able to attend a group with other children with Down Syndrome, where he can feel loved, accepted. He knows he has a part in God’s plan.

We can’t wait to see what God has in store over the next ten years, and beyond! If you want to be part of God’s work, please give to BMS work. This is your chance to make a lasting change across the world.

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Words by Laura Durrant.

‘Bring me a teacher’- the Syrian girl who demanded an education

‘Bring me a teacher’

The Syrian girl who demanded an education

I'm praying for this

BMS World Mission supporters like you are helping to get Syrian children back to school.

Bombing, fighting and the threat of being kidnapped forced Shakala* and her family from their home in Syria. When they arrived in Lebanon, Shakala spent two years out of school because her mum was too scared to let her leave the house. But now, she goes to class and has dreams of becoming a detective. This letter she wrote to her teacher shows how much her life has changed.

“My beloved teacher, despite the distance between us, your image is in my heart and in my mind and it will never leave.”

Shakala didn’t know if she would survive until nightfall most days when she and her family lived in Aleppo, Syria. Bombings, fighting and kidnappings were part of daily life. In all the chaos, Shakala herself was almost kidnapped. A man tried to carry her away, but her mother found her and took her back just in time. “It took her four years to get over that,” said Ashti*, Shakala’s mother. “She started having nightmares and crying at night saying, ‘They came for me.’”
Ashti had to lock her children in the house whenever she went out to buy food to stop people getting in and taking them. Eventually, they were forced to flee Syria and try and make a new life in Lebanon.

Shakala and her family live in a single room in Lebanon. Y
Shakala and her family live in a single room in Lebanon. Your support is giving her hope of a future different from her past.

“As hard as the days might be on us… you are healing my wounds.”

Shakala and her family left Aleppo in 2012, when she was just eight years old. They were supposed to find a better life. But life in Lebanon was almost as hard as the one they’d left. When Shakala’s mother found work, she wasn’t accepted by the people she worked with. “They started saying bad things about me and I used to come home and cry,” she says. Only the hope of finding a better life for her children could convince her to stay. But Shakala and her siblings weren’t finding their new life any easier than their mum. Haunted by Shakala’s attempted kidnapping, Ashti kept her children in the house without education for two years. But Shakala was determined to go to school.

“From you I’ve learnt that everything is possible.”

“Bring me a teacher!” Shakala asked her mother over and over again. Her mother didn’t know what to do. She knew how important it was that her children had an education and that school would bring some stability to their lives. But she was terrified of letting her children go. For two years, Shakala asked for school and her mother had to say no. But then some neighbours told her about a BMS-supported learning centre, held at a nearby church. This was the chance that Shakala had been dreaming about. She started school. And she thrived. She loved it so much that she asked for school during the holidays, and the church was able to set up camps for the children to go to. Her teachers didn’t just teach her about maths and English, but about commitment and working hard. Things were starting to look up for Shakala. But her future was still uncertain.

“You’ve taught me a lot about perseverance and sacrifice.”

From Shakala’s letter you might think that she was leaving school. The reality is that she knows it’s likely she will leave the area soon and have to say goodbye to her beloved teachers forever. Her letter shows how uncertain her life still is. Her father and extended family are still in Syria, but if Shakala were to go back there, she might be forced to abandon her education and marry her cousin. She is 14 years old. Her mum doesn’t want that to happen: “I want her to study and pursue her dreams,” she says.

“I will go with my head up to face the world.”

Shakala is determined to achieve her dreams. “She wants to continue studying and travel abroad and become a detective,” says Ashti. Shakala’s letter shows how much her school means to her. They’ve taught her to believe in herself. Because of Christians like you across the UK, this learning centre can employ more teachers to inspire children every day. Your support is bringing stability back into the life of a child who would otherwise have been forgotten. Your support has allowed her to have dreams and has given her the ability to make them a reality. But there are still children that need help.
“I want to thank you a lot for not forgetting us,” says Ashti. “I wish that you would continue and maybe make the projects bigger because there are some students that are not registered and there’s no place for them.” With your continued support the learning centre can be expanded. And more forgotten children can be found again.

A letter of thanks written from a student to her teacher
Shakala’s beautifully written thank you letter to her teacher. She wrote it in Arabic, but we’ve translated it into English for you below.

“You will always be my teacher, the one that I love, and I will never forget what you’ve done for me.”

Please pray

  1. For peace and justice in Syria.
  2. That all the Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, and across the world, receive education, and that they will be as passionate about learning as Shakala is.
  3. For the teachers at the learning centre in Lebanon. Pray that they know that the hard work they are doing has an amazing impact on the children they teach.
  4. That the learning centre will be able to expand and that more teachers will be trained so that they will be able to accept all the children that come to them and give them the education they deserve.
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You can see from Shakala’s letter how much her teacher means to her. With your continued prayer and support, more children will be able to write letters like Shakala’s. Because more children will be getting the education they deserve.

Download below the prayer points and a full English translation of Shakala’s letter, and use them as a daily reminder to pray.

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*Names changed

Their homes have been destroyed. Don’t let that happen to their education.

Their homes have been destroyed

Don’t let that happen to their education

Christians like you are giving hope to Syrian refugee children. But much more can still be done.

We can’t help them. The situation’s hopeless. Syria – it’s a basket case. The people who’ve left it are best not thought about: unfortunate, sure, but not our problem. Not like us. Them. Refugees.

Praise God, most Christians BMS World Mission knows don’t feel this way – nor do they think of refugees as ‘swarms’ or terrorists. But it’s easy to fall into the habit of obscuring human beings with that word: refugees. And it’s easy to think there’s nothing you can do.

But there is. You can help refugee children today.

Children with names and personalities and potential. We’re excited because we have the privilege of introducing you to two of them.

We asked their teachers (who you can help support) to introduce us. We asked their parents if they’d let you get a glimpse of two funny, charming, big-hearted boys from Syria called Gabi and Maher.

Gabi and Maher are half-brothers. Gabi is ten and Maher is 11. They come from Homs in Syria and today they live outside Beirut in Lebanon – a country they’ve been living in for seven years.

Two Syrian refugee boys sit in a classroom in Lebanon
So many Syrian children like Gabi and Maher have had their school years ripped apart. You can give them hope of a better life.

Our temptation when we meet children like Gabi and Maher is to treat them like statistics. Case studies, defined by the worst parts of their stories and the story of their country: the bombings and beheadings, the murdered family members. That’s not what we want. Gabi is not a victim, he’s hilarious. He loves English and learning new words, and while he likes playing football, he’s not nearly as good at it as Maher. And Maher is cheeky. And confident. And says he gets in trouble a little more than his brother – but their teacher tells me they’re both good boys.

Their family lives in a tent. That’s not life for all refugees, but it is for their family. They sleep on mattresses on the floor and when I ask them to describe the tent, Gabi looks impatient, like I’m a little slow: “It’s just a normal tent,” he says. And to him it is.

A Syrian refugee boy stands in front of a classroom whiteboard
We want to help more refugee children like Maher get back into the classroom, where they can learn, be inspired, and get their childhood back.

Children like Gabi and Maher have had their entire lives disrupted and uprooted by war. They’re living in a country that was once invaded by Syria. They’re in danger of missing years of school, of losing all hope for a future of employment and fulfilled potential. And that’s where you come in.

You can give right now to help us support the learning centre that is changing their lives. You can make sure other children get the chance they’re getting.

There are so many Syrian children who we haven’t yet been able to help. So many not yet blessed with what BMS supporters have given Gabi and Maher: a supportive, caring environment where they can learn and grow and hear about God’s love.

Here's what you can do

Give £15 – this can pay for a desk and chair for a child

Give £32 – this can pay for one child’s school transport for half a term

Give £113 – this can pay for a teacher for a week

By giving now you can make a real difference, stepping into the gap and helping children like Gabi and Maher, as well as children and adults around the world whose lives God is transforming through BMS work and UK Christian support. And you can help other human beings in need around the world, too.

Be a part of that miraculous story today. Reject the message of hopelessness and make a donation – every amount makes a difference – and show that no child, no human being, should be defined by a label.

I want to give today

Gabi and Maher’s names were changed by request.

The war in Syria took his faith. God restored it. You are sending him out.

The war in Syria took his faith. God restored it. You are sending him out.

Supporting this

A former atheist is going back to Syria to serve the Lord, thanks to your support.

The shell killed every one of the children, and Yaccoub watched it happen. Some of them were as young as four, the oldest no more than seven. “I was walking home and a bomb fell on a school bus, right in front of me,” he says, in a matter-of-fact way that you get used to when talking to people who’ve seen war in their own countries. Yaccoub’s country is Syria. He was about 14 when the war started, and not much older when he came face to face with killing. “The whole bus blew up and burned,” he says. “And all the children inside died.”

Today, Yaccoub is one of the most quietly inspiring people I’ve met. Softly spoken, but with a strength and kindness that shines through in his patience with my questions. He needs it on a hot afternoon in Beirut. He’s missing lunch for this. He’s sitting at a desk in a world-class theology college in the heart of the Middle East. A place for sending people out into the mostly Muslim world. Behind him is a geometric design in green, made of beautifully painted words in Arabic, which say: to see communities restored. By the time you read this, he will have graduated.

Yaccoub is committed to going back to Syria, he’s committed to making a difference in his community and he’s passionate about reaching out to seekers in love. He’s getting ready to be used by God in a country that desperately needs hope, but the road to get to this point has been hard. It started before the incident with the schoolchildren. Before the war.

“It was a very nice country, everyone lived in peace and we had a really good life,” Yaccoub tells me about growing up in Syria. “Then religion went into politics, which started the conflict, and it ruined everything.” Yaccoub grew up in an Orthodox Christian home and was just beginning to explore faith seriously when Syria’s civil war began. “That was the turning point in my life,” he says. “The war started, and for me there was no God. I became a total atheist.” He even got a slogan tattooed on his arm proclaiming that there was no life after death.

His disillusionment culminated in the experience of watching innocent children killed on their way to school. And yet it also left him hungry for a kind of clarity about what life might mean. “It reinforced my atheism, because I saw that God created those children and then he took their lives,” he says, and yet it also left him thinking: “that there was some kind of power at work,” but one he didn’t understand.

Yaccoub’s aunt invited him to church and he started meeting with an evangelist who, at one point, made Yaccoub so angry he threw him out of the house. “I went back to church convinced that there was no love there. But when I got there, the person I had kicked out of my house was the first person to greet me. And after the service he was the first person to come and hug me. This really touched my heart.”

The war started, and for me there was no God. I became a total atheist.

Thanks to the prayer and love of his aunt and his own research into the Bible, Yaccoub came to Christ. “When I was intellectually searching for God I also had the life example of my aunt with me and that was the main reason that I decided to follow Jesus,” he says. And today he has a vision to take both the intellectual and the loving, life example to his generation back in Syria.

“Most of my friends are outside of the Church, and I was like them. I know how they think and I know why have this hatred inside of them towards God and towards religion in general,” he says. “My studies here have provided me with the tools to work with those people. It’s also helping me enlarge my vision so I can reach out to them in a correct way.” Yaccoub has a passion for reaching out with love rather than some of the rough treatment he encountered on his way to Christ. And he has a vision to use social media to impact people his own age. Yaccoub is 21 years old.

BMS provided four grants of £7,500 each over 2018 to pay for a full year’s study for students like Yaccoub. Every person who supports BMS, through prayer or giving, has been a part of his year of preparation for going back to Syria and serving God. You are an encouragement to Yaccoub and the other students like him.

The Body of Christ is united across different nations and we’re all connected

“I want to thank the people who give without knowing us,” Yaccoub says. “In my opinion that is great. I would like to thank them for the opportunity they are giving us to study here, to let them know that we are being transformed at many levels, theologically, spiritually and in our characters.”

When Yaccoub goes back to Syria he’ll be starting an organisation that will help women whose homes have been destroyed by war in Syria to develop sustainable ways of supporting themselves. He’s also helping in a ministry to provide financial aid to university students whose studies have been interrupted by the conflict, and plans to start outreach based on Facebook, YouTube and social media platforms popular in the Middle East. He’s 21, he’s been through education and formation, and God is going to use him.

“We need leaders in our churches and our ministries,” Yaccoub says, “and people supporting us in this seminary are helping us to send out these leaders to areas where they are needed. They are sending prepared leaders.”

Yaccoub is not going back to a country at peace or that hasn’t been wounded. There has been far too much destruction and far too much death already. But we have hope in the resurrection. Be it in a faith that dies in the face of death and gets reborn, or a new hope in young people prepared and supported by their brothers and sisters around the world.

“The Body of Christ is united across different nations and we’re all connected somehow,” Yaccoub says. Thank you for supporting him. Thank you for being part of a new hope.

I want to thank the people who give without knowing us

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Update

Great news! Following his graduation, Yaccoub has been accepted for a second year of study. Praise God for this opportunity to prepare even more deeply for ministry in his country, and pray that God gives him all the skills and formation he needs for the tasks prepared for him!