First founded for the purpose of providing programs for Syrian refugee children, the Compassion Community Centers continue to provide a safe place for children to learn and to grow.

Operated by Compassion Protestant Society (CPS), the diaconal arm of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL), the Compassion Community Centers have long been providing programs each morning for Syrian refugee children. In the last year, in response to the rising need during the current regional crisis, the centers expanded their impact by launching a new afternoon program for Lebanese public-school students affected by conflict and educational disruption.

Radmard, which means “man of purity,” is a one-of-a-kind ministry that focuses on healing Muslim background believing men of their addictions and showing them how to replicate this healing among family and friends. Reza, the ministry’s leader, and his team do all this in the name of Jesus Christ, spreading Christ’s light in one of the darkest spaces in the world as one of our Persian Diaspora partners. Radmard cultivates safe spaces for men, empowering them to confront their histories of rejection, abuse, and addiction.

In June, the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo, Egypt (ETSC) honored 86 graduates during its annual commencement ceremony. Graduates completed degrees across seven unique programs. While the classes and components of each program are unique, their purpose is the same: prepare pastors and leaders to serve the church in Egypt and Christian communities in the Arab world and beyond.

The variety isn’t just about the degrees. As ETSC continues to stretch its impact and reach, these graduates came from all over the world. In this graduating class, in addition to Egypt, graduates represented eight countries including Canada, Lebanon, Kuwait, Sudan, Italy, the Netherlands, Oman, and Syria.

Across the Arabian Gulf region, uncertainty and rapid change have touched every generation.

For the youth in the Gulf, life had generally been predictable. Weekdays were busy with studies and scrolling through social media. Weekends offered time to hang out with friends.

While they could read news updates about war and political fractures, it felt like distant, low-definition background noise – tragedies happening to other people. It was all safely contained behind a screen.

Until the night the sky changed.

The mission of The Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) in Rwanda is to provide well-trained graduates who are committed and equipped to serve the Lord and share His Good News with others. Essentially, the students are answering the call to action found in Romans 10:14:

14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Students in the Bachelor of Theology and Religious Studies program are thoroughly trained from a theological view and become skilled in the practical application of biblical lessons in their unique context. Scholarships provided by The Outreach Foundation have helped students answer their call.

The Rwanda Governance Board was clear last year: houses of worship that didn’t meet its new standards would be forced to close. The standards include changes like adding freshwater tanks, adequate safe parking, handwashing stations, toilets for men and women and pastors with theological degrees.

The Presbyterian Church in Rwanda (EPR) faced a great challenge following these new government mandates. Ninety-nine parish temples were closed.

The experience of Jesus and the apostles at this point in His ministry closely resembles the daily lives of many pastors today. They simply longed for time alone, a pause from ministry responsibilities, and an opportunity to rest.

With this in mind, the SARA (Serving as Support, Refreshment and Friendship) Institute has been fulfilling its mission of providing a place of care, encouragement, and spiritual formation for hundreds of pastors throughout Brazil. Over the years, countless pastors have found renewed strength, refreshment, and a healthier rhythm for ministry after participating in a retreat.

We are overjoyed to share with you the community building and restorative work happening in the South Sudanese refugee camps in the Gambella region. In an area that is often overwhelmed by challenges and under resourced, there is a fledgling hope for healing.

For more than a decade, leaders of the Eastern Upper Nile and Nasir Presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan have been divided. The two administrations built a figurative wall between them. They had given up on each other. But God never gave up on them.

When an individual lives far from home and family, it can be challenging to find a sense of belonging or an anchor for the complexities of life. There are many barriers to this, but one is language. The simple act of communicating is suddenly difficult.

So, what happens when an individual like that gets access to the Bible in their heart language (native vernacular)? The Bible Society of the Gulf sees it regularly. Lives are changed.

“You remembered us.”

These powerful words were spoken by a believer from Central Asia in acknowledgement that we not only returned to visit but also told of ongoing prayers for Central Asia within our churches.

The words acknowledge something else; they have, at times, felt forgotten.

Being a Christian in Central Asia is challenging. With a population estimated around 83.7 million, only about .3% are evangelical Christians. Believers face increasing persecution from authorities and ever-present social pressure from their communities. Most Central Asian countries are constitutionally secular, and Christians often encounter discrimination or even violence. Moreover, conversion to Christianity from Islam is illegal and can result in being rejected by one’s own family or expulsion from one’s community.

Most students, whether just starting out in school or nearing the end of graduate school, look forward to summer vacation. It is a chance to take a break, get some much-needed rest, or catch up on all the things that get pushed to the side in the midst of the rigors of academic pursuit.

For a Master of Divinity student at Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo (ETSC), summers look a little different. Rather than a break, summers are a time for internships, or as ETSC describes them, “the classroom of life.” Summer internships provide an intentional opportunity for students to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to ministry.

The Outreach Foundation has partnered with Novus Foundation in Warsaw, Poland, since the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Leaders Piotr and Stasha Nowak, and Pablo and Aneta Montano are engaged in full-time theological training of church planters while also providing professional counseling to war refugees, cancer patients, and others. They recently shared two stories that exhibit the impact of their work.

Estimates are that more than one million people are currently displaced in Lebanon. Most are from southern Lebanon, having been forced to flee the latest hostilities. Many went to Beirut, but 50 miles north, people in the town of Tripoli saw waves of displaced people arrive.

The National Evangelical Church of Tripoli, one of the churches in the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL), sought ways to offer relief. At the same time, the Compassion Protestant Society (CPS), the diaconal arm of NESSL, discerned how local churches could respond meaningfully to the growing humanitarian needs of the crisis.

In the hard neighborhoods surrounding Comas, Perú — where extortion, prostitution, and drug trafficking shape daily life — children grow up with few role models and even fewer opportunities. When two 11-year-olds were asked, “What do you do for fun?” their answer was heartbreaking: “Breaking into houses and stealing.”

Into this reality, the Reflejo team has stepped with the hope of Christ.

Two days. Two locations. More than 400 women.

It was a busy weekend in early May for some of the staff of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) as they traveled to Syria for two, one-day women’s conferences. The events were something of a regional mini retreat, a glimpse of the larger gathering that occurs each year in Lebanon.

In total, these spring gatherings brought together more than 400 women; the first in Latakia and the second near Homs, both locations in Syria. Under the theme “standing firm with unwavering courage, God is forging a new path,” the conferences were time for women to connect, to share stories, to worship, and to pray.

The rainy season is finally over in Tete Province, which means work is getting underway on big improvements at the Holistic Evangelism Project’s Leadership Training Center (LTC).

Seminars are held at the LTC, which was built about 10 years ago and consists of a church, a dormitory, a kitchen, some latrines, and a well and water tank. God has blessed the program with increasing attendance each year, and it has outgrown the original LTC. Now underway, stage two of the building’s construction will add a skills training hall, a fellowship hall (where seminars will be held instead of in the church), a guest house for seminar facilitators, a new kitchen, another well, and some bathrooms.

Outstanding in their field…literally. The Chongwe church planted roots in a field, and now, through faithful prayer and gifts from The Outreach Foundation supporters, their efforts are yielding fruit.

This Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Zambia Synod congregation began as a prayer meeting launched by the Mtendere Church, 28 miles to the east of the capital city, Lusaka. After planting the seed of the Gospel through evangelistic efforts, they witnessed a harvest of two prayer meetings with 25-50 members at each.

When you wake up on Sunday morning and begin getting ready for church, you probably don’t think, “I’d better pack a lunch—it’s going to be a long drive.” And as you sit down for worship, you likely don’t wonder, “Will I understand the sermon today, or only understand half of it?”

But for many believers in northern and central México, these are weekly realities. Some travel hours to reach the nearest Presbyterian congregation. Others sit through services in Spanish even though their heart (primary) language is Otomí, Mixtec, Tzeltal, or another indigenous tongue — and understand only fragments of the message.

This is why our partner, the National Presbyterian Church of México (INPM), is working diligently to plant new churches in underserved regions and to establish congregations where indigenous believers can worship, learn, and grow in their heart language.