World Challenge believes that caring for people’s most basic needs like food can be the most loving thing we do when they cry out for help.
The Bible speaks regularly and strongly about how God’s people are to care for those who are less fortunate, and it’s clear that we are meant to care for each other in times of need.
“If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother” (Deuteronomy 15: 7, ESV).
“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).
“If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18).
At World Challenge, we are incredibly blessed by the many churches and nonprofits who are passionately caring for others and partner with us in this mission.
Caring Hearts Around the World
Our companions in God’s call to care for those in need around the world collectively offer over two million meals to people who would otherwise go hungry.
World Challenge’s partners in Nicaragua work with very economically depressed communities in rural areas where people eke out a living working on coffee plantations or with other crops that will be exported globally. This ministry serves over 25,000 individuals, especially focusing on children whose health and education can be severely affected by the lack of food.
Our partners in Lithuania collectively serve about 8,600 people, many of whom are still wrestling with the economic depression that resulted from the Soviet Union’s fall and the country’s scramble to create a new government.
The Cork Church in Ireland has been a longtime World Challenge partner, and they faithfully serve around 3,000 people in the city of Cork who are caught in a depressed economy and tough job market where making enough income to provide for their families is a constant battle.
Our other fellow workers serve all around the world — Armenia, Lebanon, El Salvador and the United States — offering hope and food to families as a sign of God’s care for their situation.
Prophetic Words for Then and Now
We have the honor of working with wonderful people who are dedicated to being our Father’s hands and feet to those in need.
The food they offer is almost always part of education programs for children and vocational training to help adults build a new life for their families. Above and beyond all that, it comes with God’s love. They are fully committed to God’s words to the prophet Isaiah concerning our most vulnerable populations and neighbors.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
“Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily…. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am’” (Isaiah 58:6-9, ESV).