The Christian aid group Christian Aid Mission is calling on the world’s believers to pray for the Christians of Kenya after a crackdown by the government on charity groups within the nation.
Amie Cotton with CAM says that al-Shabaab sympathizers had been using charity and non-profit organizations as a way to funnel money to the terrorist organization. As a result, the government has banned all groups in the country.
A result of the ban is that churches in the region are closing down as terrorist groups intimidate those in the communities and the churches have no funding to try and fight the groups. However, Cotton says God’s work is still going forward.
“Despite all of this, we still have reports that ministry is ongoing in multiple cities,” says Cotton. “They go out every day, on the edge, knowing that terrorists have infiltrated. But they’re willing to go for the cause of Christ.”
Cotton says that despite the ban of NGOs, the group is still going to work through relationships with residents of the country.
“We have been in existence for over 60 years, and we have relationships with grass-roots Christian ministries that are indigenous to their cities and to Kenya as a whole,” Cotton answers.
A church that gave each member $500 with orders to bless their community are reporting a big difference in the lives of thousands.
LaSalle Church had made a real estate deal that provided significant funding. The church gave $500 to each member in September and pastor Laura Truax says the ways God has used the money is amazing.
One couple, Janet & Jim MIlkovich, donated their money to a program called Breakthrough Urban Food Ministries that provide healthy meals to seniors.
“It was wonderful,” Janet Milkovich told Christian Post. “The manager of the Fresh Market Pantry said that there are a lot of senior citizens on the west side of Chicago that depend on the fresh market and are so appreciative of produce and they were going to make sure that they were able to get healthy food.”
One member contributed his money to a missionary in Ivory Coast who was helping a woman that was cast out by her family. The woman had lost a leg due to an infection.
“What he was struck by was the amount that was needed which was exactly $500,” Pastor Truax said. “So Eric’s money went to this woman in the Ivory Coast who needed a prosthetic leg. This is just the way God does it though, right?”
“That’s the economy of God, we weren’t created to be tight fisted people, we were created to be open handed people,” she said. “To move past our fear. That’s what’s going on.”
The Guinness world record for the longest speech marathon has been broken by the Word of God.
Pastor Zach Zehnder of theCross Mount Dora in Florida broke the record with a 53 hour, 18 minute sermon. The pastor under took the quest to break the previous mark of 48 hours, 31 minutes to raise funds for a non-profit that helps addicts.
“The Idea was to break the Guinness world record for the longest speech ever and I’m a pastor obviously, and so I chose to speak on the Bible and kind of cover the entirety of the story from Genesis to Revelation,” said Zehnder to The Christian Post. “My goal of the whole sermon was to talk about God’s ridiculous commitment to his people, even though we give up on him that he never gave up on us and kind of trace that theme throughout.”
Zahnder had prepared 50 sermons for the event but only used 45.
The event raised more than $100,000 for a recovery house for Powerhouse Recovery.
Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse announced they will be airlifting almost 90 tons of aid and supplies to those who have been forced to leave everything behind to flee the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
“Winter is coming to the area, making a difficult situation even worse for these families,” read a Samaritan’s Purse press release. “The airlift will bring critical supplies to the region, including winter coats for children, blankets, warm socks, sleeping bags and shelter materials.”
Items in the airlift include over 2,500 kerosene heaters for families to keep their makeshift homes warm.
Christian groups working in the area have decried the lack of support for Christians and other minorities that are fleeing the murderous Islamic group.
“I think you’re seeing the rise of ISIS because of a lack of attention to the freedom of expression within the Middle East. You have extremist groups within Islam, like ISIS. It’s not true of every person who is Islamic. But there are extremist groups like this who want to force people to convert to Islam at the point of a gun,” David Curry, the CEO and president of Open Doors USA, told The Christian Post in an interview in September.
“Unless we understand that threat, not just to Christians in the region but to people worldwide, we’re not going to respond properly. I think it has risen because of a lack of attention and a lack of concern for Christians and other minority groups.”
A video from a man trying to call attention to Lou Gehrig’s Disease by dumping a bucket of ice water over his head went viral and launched an unusual fundraising campaign that’s raised millions in research funding the ALS Foundation.
The phenomenon has gone worldwide and now leaders in Israel are stepping up to be a part of the fundraising.
The first major leader to take part of Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. He posted pictures online August 19th showing him pouring the ice water over his own head. He then issued challenges to other leaders including members of the Knesset and the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman jumped on the challenge and not only did the bucket of water but also made a large donation for the research.
Then Wednesday morning, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. accepted his challenge. Ron Prosor had a staff member pour the ice water on his head outside of the Israeli embassy in New York. Prosor then nominated the U.N.’s secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to do the challenge.
Prosor joked the water was only slightly colder than the reception Israel gets at the U.N.
A new study has shown that giving to charity has been increasing among Americans but that overall giving to churches is in decline.
The Giving USA Foundation released their annual research report Tuesday and said that Americans gave about $335 billion to charity in 2013, a 3 percent increase after adjustments for inflation. In the same time period, giving to churches was down 0.2 percent, 1.6 percent if adjusted for inflation.
Gregg Carlson, chair of the Giving USA Foundation, told The Christian Post that just 10 years ago giving to churches accounted for 57 percent of all giving. Now that total is just 31 percent and falling.
“It continues to be a pattern trend of giving being a lower and lower percentage of the overall philanthropic pie,” Carlson said. “It’s not that [churches] haven’t had some years of increases but it is to say that religion is a smaller and smaller percentage of the philanthropic pie.”
Carlson noted that overall, the giving by Americans was higher than the Gross Domestic Product of some entire nations like Denmark and Ireland.
In a day and age where most high school students spend their time focused on getting the latest iPhone or seeking out the latest party, a group of high schoolers in Lancaster, California are spending their time making a difference in the life of an American hero.
Jerral Hancock is an Iraq war veteran who lost an arm and suffered burns all over his paralyzed body after his vehicle in Baghdad hit with an IED on his 21st birthday. A piece of shrapnel lodged in his spine leaving him paralyzed below the waist so he couldn’t escape the burning truck. Hancock was scheduled to leave the service just a few months after his injury.
He had bought a mobile home for his himself, his wife and their two kids after he returned from the war. When he came back, the home was too small for him to take his wheelchair down the hallway. He also spent almost six months trapped at the house when his family’s truck broke down keeping him from being able to attend appointments at the nearest VA facility.
When students in the U.S. History classes of teacher Jamie Goodreau heard about Hancock’s plight, they resolved to make a difference in this American hero’s life. They began to hold fundraisers and charity events to buy land for building a new, wheelchair-accessible home for Hancock and his family.
In six months, the students raised enough to close escrow on a $264,000 piece of property where they will be breaking ground on a house next month.
“We had no doubt it could be done,” senior Joseph Mallyon told Fox News. “Older people, the people who have jobs, who go through life and know the harsh reality of things, those people doubt us. But we just accept it and say ‘watch what we can do!’”
Students who graduated and are attending colleges have continued to raise funds for the home in what they’re calling Operation All The Way Home.
Two Chicago women’s shelters who were facing closure because of more than $30,000 in overdue bills have received a reprieve from an anonymous donor who paid the bills.
The charity’s owner Clara Kirk told the Chicago Sun-Times she was struggling to pay the utility bills for a South Side shelter and another nearby facility. The 72-year-old Kirk said the financial problems arose because the group is having difficulty securing new grants.
The anonymous donor stepped up Thursday and said they would cover the bills for the West Englewood United Organization.
Kirk said that she’s learned people care more than she thought they cared.
Peoples Gas had turned off gas to one of the shelters on October 16th but turned it back on the day after the donor paid the bill.
