| World Challenge

  • The Passover Controversy

    World Challenge Staff
    April 19, 2019

    One of the biggest holidays surrounding Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection is polarizing people.

    Whether you’re settling in to watch Ten Commandments or Prince of Egypt with the family to kick off this pre-Easter weekend, the part of the story most likely to invoke questions among children or just generally inquisitive viewers is the angel of death and the Passover feast.

    What is this ritual of covering the door lintels with blood and eating a very specific meal that one night? 

    Passover as a Symbol

    If you’re a Christian who has had the opportunity to join a Seder meal—the traditional night of celebration on Passover—or a messianic Jew, then you are no doubt well aware of the wealth of symbolism pointing toward Christ and his sacrifice.

  • The Widows of Guatemala

    Rachel Chimits
    April 18, 2019

    Those who have lost loved ones need extra compassion, and sometimes that love can take very practical forms.

    In the United States, there are nearly 14 million widows and widowers, and over 11 million of these are women.

    Beatrice Schwartz, a healthcare professional and widow, commented to The Guardian, “The world is not sympathetic to what you’re going through. They don’t give you any time to grieve properly.”

    Guardian writer Carla Stockton points out, “The moment a woman is at her most vulnerable, she must make choices that will have an enduring impact on her wellbeing.” Piles of paperwork and legal action face a new widow to make sure assets are taken care of or properly put in her name.

  • A Man Reborn

    Rachel Chimits
    April 17, 2019

    “The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.” —John Chrysostom, "Doctor of the Church"

    “Hopeless as a penny with a hole in it.” These were the words of some Kamdini residents to describe Robert Moro as they knew him a few years ago. 

    You would be hard-pressed to recognize him anymore based on that description, and these days his neighbors are the ones seeking him out for help.

    Survivors of the LRA

    In the wake of Joseph Kony’s uprising and the Lord’s Resistance Army’s rampage across Northern Uganda, Robert and his family settled in Kamdini, battered and stripped of almost all their earthly belongings.

  • Preparing for Easter

    Rachel Chimits
    April 16, 2019

    Some of the great symbols of our faith have been sadly misused in history, but this doesn’t make them any less important.

    My mother observed Lent and always wore all black to church on Good Friday. One time, shortly before we left the house, I asked her why. 

    “Today is kind of like remembering Jesus’ funeral. Of course, we know he’s alive and waiting for us in heaven, but first he had to die.”

    As a child who’d already attended several family funerals, the connection of the dark clothes and those memories made a stark impression on me of the early disciples’ emotions and seriousness of Jesus’ sacrifice.  

  • Compassion’s Light in Kenya

    Mark Buzzetta
    April 15, 2019

    One woman lost everything and turned her loss into blessings for others.

    Mathare is the third largest slum in Africa and sixth in the entire world. It is here, though, where God’s love is shining brightly through a lady whom I had the honor of meeting in person.

    A Season of Loss

    If anyone had reason to give up hope, it should have been Selin. She worked extremely hard, washing clothes to earn about $2 a day. Then her four children became ill and all of them passed away. If that were not enough of a blow, she also lost her husband to AIDS.

    How would she respond to this overwhelming devastation in the midst of what many would consider abysmal conditions? It was enough to make anyone feel as if God had turned against them.

  • Heart of Healing for Burundi

    Iteka Santi
    April 12, 2019

    Burundi is called the heart of Africa, and when you look at it on a map, you can see why. The small country is shaped very much like our body’s most vital organ. 

    Learning to Lead by Serving

    When I was in school, I thought I would be a doctor because I was good in science.

    Since I was doing well, my parents sent me to a private high school that was also a Christian school, and the director, Freddy, was also the president of Youth for Christ. Freddy taught us a lot about leadership and the purpose of our lives. 

    I didn’t know that God had a plan for my life. 

    My parents weren’t believers, and I’d never thought about God designing me for certain things in life. 

  • New Life in Uganda

    Rachel Chimits
    April 11, 2019

    One village sent out someone to track down help for them, and today their lives are transformed.

    In February, heat shimmers over the road. This is Uganda’s summer season, and temperatures soar to 95 degrees or higher at midday. This heralds the beginning of the Lira sub-region’s rainy season. 

    Orumo’s residents are gathered under a mango tree as Steve Voyen, World Challenge’s director of Sub-Saharan development programs, and Dan, Uganda’s development director, pull up. 

    An adult literacy lesson is taking place beneath the mango’s broad canopy that cuts the stifling heat. Students labor over a passage of scripture as Samuel, a local community trainer, teaches them to pronounce each word on the page. 

  • The Word in Your Language

    Rachel Chimits
    April 10, 2019

    “I have also undertaken to translate the Bible into German. That was necessary for me; otherwise I might have died someday imagining that I was a learned man. Those who think themselves scholars should try to do this work.” —Martin Luther

    From the time of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Erasmus and Tyndale until now Bible translation has been one of the foremost evangelistic tools and revolutionized societies on multiple levels as it increases literacy and encourages personal investigation of God’s Word.

    One of the great challenges of the 20th and 21st centuries has been expanding translation into the languages of more remote people groups, whole-heartedly believing that God speaks in every tongue.

  • Helping Hands for U.S. Students

    Rachel Chimits
    April 9, 2019

    Local churches, nonprofits and businesses have joined forces with their school district to help underprivileged students with spectacular results.

    A few years ago, the Federal Department of Education found that 94 percent of teachers pay for classroom materials or students’ supplies out of their own pocket.

    On average, these teachers spent around $480 with some footing a bill as large as $1,000 for school necessities.

    While many teachers are finding outside grants and other innovative ways to raise funds for their classrooms, it can still be deeply disheartening to run out of extra pens, pencils, and notebooks and then find a student on the first day of school whose third- or fourth-hand backpack is empty.

  • Lost in Cambodia’s Jungle

    World Challenge Staff
    April 8, 2019

    One woman fought a tremendous but losing battle to provide for her family alone until she met the God who saves.

    Sokun, her husband and their three young children lived a village near the border of Cambodia and Thailand. The family had little income but were still making ends meet; Sokun sold vegetables in the local market, and her husband worked as a logger. 

    The family was rattled, however, when Sokun’s younger sister showed up on their doorstep with her three daughters, all under 5 years old. Her husband had divorced her, and she now had little means with which to care for the children. 

    She abandoned her daughters with Sokun. 

    The family’s food store and already meager income simply couldn’t keep up with six children, most of them toddlers.