ISIS’s reign over Iraq was brutal in the rifts it caused between cultural subgroups and devastation it wrecked on innocents. Civilians were used as human shields; chemical attacks ravaged entire towns; Iraqi soldiers caught in the battles against religious extremists were tortured and executed.
Imagine having to crawl to get anywhere in your home.
Imagine most business owners taking one look at you and shaking their heads, no matter how qualified you were. “No. We don’t have any work for you.”
Rhoda lives in some of the most remote areas of Kenya. During the dry season, “kaskazi” monsoons or hot northeast winds from the Persian Gulf make the normally arid savannahs a veritable dust bowl.
World Challenge is based in beautiful Colorado Springs, in the shadows of the Rockies. Almost every time I or my team members hit the hiking paths around our sunny—or frequently snowy—city, we are bound to encounter intrepid bicyclists aggressively challenging the same mountain trails.
World Challenge’s partner churches in Lithuania have a motto in their city outreaches to widows and those trapped in inner-city poverty: Food kitchen ministries must not stop with feeding people.
Eating will temporarily satisfy a physiological human need, but people who come to the church kitchen should get much more.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is wrestling with freedom from the Russian Orthodox Church—which has often been an accessory to Russian political leaders—and trying to transfer its authority to a new archbishop.
“Shitala” in Sanskrit means “the one who cools,” and among the Hindu gods, she is believed to cure people of skin diseases and fevers, particularly children. Her day of worship comes right after Holi, the festival of love where people are called to forgive others and repair broken relationships.
When Rachana was a baby, her feet were unusually large. Her parents examined them then shrugged. They had no money to take her to a doctor, so like many Cambodian parents, they simply made do as best they could.
