We recently received the following letter from Reva. Ana Isaura Lima de Souza, National Secretary of Diaconal of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB):
MANÁ PROJECT
"I will rain down bread from heaven for you." Exodus 16:4
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Here in Brazil, we are now totally isolated. Cities are closed, no one can enter or leave if they don’t live there. The government decreed a curfew. If someone is caught walking around the city at night, they will be arrested. Almost 3,000 deaths were recorded yesterday (March 18) from Covid 19. Hospitals are in precarious states. There are no more empty beds, there are not enough doctors to serve all those who need care, and there are no medications to treat those who are there. As if this were not enough, politicians do not understand each other and try to take political advantage of the situation. Many pastors are hospitalized and a few are intubated. Please pray for the Brazilian people,
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The Outreach Foundation is in regular contact with partners around the world, many of whom are sharing with us the upheaval that they are experiencing as the COVID-19 virus and the response to it burdens their ministries of medical outreach and compassionate service. We recently received the following COVID Appeal update from our partners in Pakistan and we were able to quickly release $5,000 from our COVID-19 Appeal because of your generous gifts!
Friends of Forman Launches COVID Relief Assistance
The effects of COVID-19 have been felt in many different ways all over our world. For some, it was the swift loss of a job in a shutdown. For others, it was the devastating news of the passing of a beloved relative. There was even the loss of touch with a church family that stopped meeting in person or enduring school from home with faulty internet service. Every change was a challenge, every loss was magnified by this pandemic.
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Your gifts to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal are making a difference...all over the world
When we launched this Appeal almost a year ago, none of us could have grasped what the devasting effects upon the global community would be with almost two million dead and economies devastated. Vaccines provide a glimmer of hope, but we know it will be a long time before large parts of the world can access them.
The Outreach Foundation is grateful for your faithful generosity over these past months as your gifts of over $277,000 have allowed us to respond to urgent needs in 23 countries: Iraq, Syria, Ghana, Rwanda, China, Cuba, Venezuela and so many more. These gifts have provided food relief, tuition help for seminarians so that their studies could continue, salary support for pastors in impoverished villages, and refugee relief for those whose lives were already being lived on the edge of calamity. The Global Church has used these gifts to shine the Light of Christ upon those who might not yet know of him and to encourage the faithful to “hold on.”
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The Outreach Foundation is in regular contact with partners around the world, many of whom are sharing with us the upheaval that they are experiencing as the COVID-19 virus and the response to it burdens their ministries of medical outreach and compassionate service. We recently received the following COVID Appeal update from our partners in Brazil:
Friends and partners, I hope that everyone is well in the midst of the pandemic year. This year was a year of great challenges around the world. It was no different in Brazil. Since the end of March, when COVID-19 started killing people everywhere, churches have interrupted their face-to-face services, avoiding crowds and by order of the government maintaining social distance. Here in Brazil, many local communities have not yet returned with their regular face-to-face services. And others who have returned are suffering from low attendance because many are afraid of being infected. Sadly, the number of people infected with COVID-19 here in Brazil has increased again and people are in a panic. This situation causes uncertainty, and many pastors have no idea what the situation will be like for their churches next year.
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We recently received the following letter from Outreach partner the Independent Church of Brazil (IPIB):
Dear Outreach Foundation friends,
The mission ministry is pleased to inform you of some of the actions carried out by the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil during the pandemic period.
With the support of the Central Office (represented by its President Rev. João Luiz Furtado), the local church councils, partnership with The Outreach Foundation, and members of the IPIB, the denomination was able to provide significant help to people who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPIB developed a project entitled "All Together in Mission" which has helped pastors, missionaries, and seminarians in communities impacted financially by the pandemic.
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With gifts that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, along with other funds on hand, we were able to send $16,000 to support the emergency outreach ministries of Together for the Family (TFF), a ministry partner in Lebanon, which serves Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley.
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With gifts that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal we were able to send $14,000 to support our family of faith of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan - those who are refugees in camps in Ethiopia as well as displaced women and children near Juba in South Sudan - in providing essential protection against the virus and lifesaving food for many families.
Saturday, June 20, was World Refugee Day and we learned that there are now nearly 26 million refugees globally who have left everything behind and crossed borders to escape war, persecution, or terror (20 people each minute). An additional 55 million have been internally displaced seeking safety and basic services. And the COVID-19 pandemic poses an extra threat to refugees and displaced people.
With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, along with other funds on hand, we were able to send over $48,000 to support the emergency outreach ministries of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon.
Long before the pandemic and the shutdowns of schools and businesses which followed, both Syria and Lebanon were experiencing a financial crisis: in Syria, as it slowly recovered from 8 years of war, and, in Lebanon, in the aftermath of months-long anti-government protests which collapsed the financial sector that had been the epicenter for business throughout the Middle East. Post-war inflation has had devastating effects in Syria with 83% living below the poverty line and 1/3 of the population experiencing food insecurity. In Lebanon, the failure of the local currency, relative to the dollar, means that someone who was earning $2000 a month now had the purchasing power of only $500.
With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $1,500 for Presbyterians in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest region to provide food relief in impoverished areas of the capital city of Manaus and several villages located along the many rivers of the region.
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With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send over $23,000 to support pastors and their families in Egypt, and provide food relief in poor areas.
Our partner church in Egypt, the (Presbyterian) Synod of the Nile reported to us of the challenges facing their country, not only from the COVID-19 pandemic but also from heavy rains and flooding that battered the country in the middle of March 2020, causing loss of life and much damage to properties, especially in the villages.
With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $5000 to support pastors and their families in Zambia.
The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) is a Presbyterian denomination which consists of five synods: one in Zambia (Zambia Synod), one in Zimbabwe (Harare Synod) and three in Malawi (Livingstonia, Nkhoma, and Blantyre Synods).
With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $5000 to support Palestinian families in Bethlehem.
As the charitable arm of Bethlehem Bible College---a strategic partner of The Outreach Foundation in the Holy Land---the Shepherd Society was established in Bethlehem in June 1996 when several Palestinian pastors and Christian leaders felt called to extend Christ’s love in a practical way to those in need within their community in response to the Gospel’s call to love our neighbor and care for the poor.
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With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $4000 to support both Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Lebanon.
In Beirut, in the crowded, working-class, mostly-Christian suburb of Bouchrieh (Booch-REE-ah) is one of Outreach Foundation’s precious partners in God’s mission – the Our Lady Dispensary (OLD). You would find this ministry up a dingy stairway to a small and unremarkable second-floor apartment across from a large Syrian Orthodox Church. Whenever Outreach teams are “in town" - for visits in Lebanon, or en route to visit partners in either Syria or Iraq - we always stop there. Upon entering into the narrow, pale-green hallway of OLD’s “office” your eye is drawn to a small plaque, hand-lettered in puffy-paint: “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
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Through your generosity, we have been able to send $2500 to our partners at Shalom Teaching Ministries.
For the last 20 years, Shalom Community Church has been a driving force in bringing about the improvement of Fraijanes, a small town located around 25 miles from the capital of the country. The Outreach Foundation has come alongside the efforts of Shalom Community Church to share with other pastors in the region and other Spanish speaking countries about how to be agents of spiritual and social transformation in their locations.
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With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $2000 to assist Iranian converts in Turkey who are being equipped and mobilized to share the Good News with the Persian-speaking world.
An Outreach Foundation partner, based in Europe, is on the frontline of teaching and resourcing, via online platforms and periodic conferences, new leaders for the growth of Christ’s Church in unsuspected places. Of their “adult students” who live in Turkey, many are refugees there who escaped Iran due to persecution, having lost everything. Life for them in Turkey is acutely difficult, but even more so now since the outbreak of COVID-19:
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With funds that Outreach supporters sent to the COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, we were able to send $4000 immediately to assist the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda (EPR) in caring for the poorest of those whom they are serving in providing food parcels.
Since the confirmation of the first case of COVID-19 in Rwanda on March 14, the number of positive cases has increased to more than 110. The Government of Rwanda has applied precautionary measures to limit the outbreak of the virus among the population. These measures include limiting travels, avoiding mass gatherings including Sunday services, physical meetings, services that gather many people in offices, as well as the closure of all schools (nursery, primary, secondary, and university) until new measures are announced.
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Your gifts for Outreach’s COVID-19 Emergency Appeal have made it possible for us to send $4000 to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPIB).
These weeks and months have affected churches around the world, but GOD’S MISSION IS GOING FORWARD. On March 20, Executive Commission of the General Assembly of the IPIB decided to suspend the face to face activities of all local churches. Under the guidance from the Ministry Health of Brazil and the World Health Organization, all people should stay at home, especially during the period of increased contamination. Following those directives, many of the almost 800 congregations provide spiritual support by way of the internet, which included guidance to celebrate communion at home.
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