Grandmother Maria is from Donetsk Oblast, about 10 kilometers from the Ukrainian war front. Twice rockets have landed by her house, and she has survived. World Challenge teams visited and gave her an audio Bible. She listened to it and prayed for Jesus to come into her life!

Precious women like Maria know the love and care of not only their own church body but also believers worldwide who are lifting them up through World Challenge’s widows and orphans programs.

World Challenge is looking to expand its care for these vulnerable individuals in 2025. We want to extend care to 3,000 more widows and orphans and make the new year a safer place for them to rest and celebrate God’s goodness.

Pastor Gilbert oversees five churches in rural Ghana, a largely Islamic region. He had just held a successful prayer meeting and was riding home on his motorbike when a gang of men jumped him in the dark. Several were wielding machetes. They clearly intended to try to kill him.

Gilbert miraculously survived, and he was brought to the intensive care unit at a local hospital. Our team is supporting the church planters and churches in this region, particularly Gilbert’s churches while he recovers. In fact, the attack has strengthened their resolve to continue sharing the gospel and serving their communities.

Join us in prayer for Pastor Gilbert’s recovery, for the protection of church planters in areas of high persecution, and salvation for all those who plot evil against believers. In 2025, World Challenge is sending our teams to new regions in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

World Challenge’s heart for pastors and church leaders extends all around the world, from Africa and Asia to the Americas.

After this year’s conference in New York City, Brian Harkins and his wife, Darlene, told our team, “You might think that if you’ve been to one pastors conference, you’ve been to them all; but that’s not the case. The Lord knows what season you’re in and what you need in that season. Sometimes it’s healing or refreshment or encouragement. This year, it was about connection for us. As a pastor of a smaller church, sometimes it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I’m fortunate that our senior pastor is also my older brother, but there’s so many pastors of small churches who don’t have that. This is a
chance to connect with kindred spirits.”

We believe God wants to minister to his people who lead the church in every season,
and in 2025, we are expanding our leadership events to 7 new locations around the world.

One of our supporters wrote in about how one of Gary Wilkerson’s sermons to believe what God says about us deeply encouraged him. He had gone through a dark season after a back surgery that led to addiction to the pain medications. As a pastor, he felt deep shame for this addition but finally confessed it to his staff and church.

Through the intense process of healing, counseling and restoration, he had clung to the fact that God called him a forgiven son. A last, he was able to step back into ministry.

Testimonies like these fuel World Challenge’s calling to share a pure gospel and real hope with believers through our online resources, sermons and podcasts. This year, our online audio and video content has more than 3.3 million listens and views. In 2025, we want to extend that reach to bless more of God’s people!