Responding to Turkey and Syria’s Immediate Needs
You’ve probably seen the news about the Kahramanmaras Earthquake in Turkey and Syria. In case you haven’t heard, here’s what you need to know: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on Monday. The death toll nears 20,000 and tens of thousands injured. The World Health Organization estimates up to 23 million people could be affected by the earthquake due to the powerful […]
Why Micro-Enterprise programs?
Our Micro-Enterprise programs intend to impact some of the poorest believers, who live within poverty and are in dire need of financial assistance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Africa is considered one of the poorest continents in the world, and 47% of its population living on the poverty line (The Borgen Project). According to the World Bank, the international poverty line is currently set at $1.90 a day. Poverty is considered “not having enough material possessions or income for a person’s basic needs. Absolute poverty is the complete lack of resources to provide the basic life necessities including food, clean water, shelter, and clothing.”
2020 Recap & 2021 Vision
2020 will go down in history as a monumental year due to the COVID-19 pandemic altering reality, halting many plans, and resulting in many necessary pivots. This was also true for ServeNow. However, we determined early on that we were not going to get caught up in everything we could not do, but stay focused on what we could do. Philippians 1:12 contains a statement written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison. He too faced all kinds of challenges, restrictions, and limitations because of his circumstances imposed on him by the outside. But in that verse, he reminds the Philippian believers of this truth: Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. We feel exactly the same way and have seen the evidence of this verse in the ministry of ServeNow despite COVID-19! Below follows a brief summary/highlight recap of 2020 and vision as we look ahead to 2021.
A Case for Africa
Florence is a woman who lives in Burundi and a recent recipient of a small grant. She shared with us the following: “Every day I wake up to sell my goods on my little table. I gain something for the day and save for the group. Together in the group, we can achieve more even as each is responsible for her own small business in the community where she lives. Before, it was tough for me because I did not have any capital to undertake a business. Bu now, with the small grant I received, I can fill my little table with goods to sell! I am thankful to God that I now have something to do. This new ministry of Basic Things came to support me spiritually, socially, and financially. I feel now that I am living little by little, life has a meaning. As a family and a group, we pray that God will continually help us grow and reach a big capital.”
7 Crisis Considerations from ServeNow’s New Basic Series Book: When Our World Falls Apart!
In response to the current COVID-19 situation, ServeNow’s leadership put together a new resource called: The Basic Things You Need to Know When Our World Falls Apart. You can read it by clicking the link on the title. Below, are seven considerations out of the book that might also be of blessing to you.
COVID-19 Response Update
Durga is 80 years old and lives in a temporary plastic structure in a slum in South East Asia. After her husband died a few years ago, her sons left her on her own and she must take care of herself. To earn some money for buying her daily food, Durga begs on the highway near her hut. The lockdown in the country means that she has gone many nights and days without food. Her neighbors sometimes offer her a meal, but with their own families to take care of, and no income whatsoever, the neighbors too cannot spare much. She was shaking and shivering when we gave her a package of groceries, which is enough to last her for at least another 15 days.
COVID-19 Response
COVID-19 is shaking and shutting down the world in unprecedented and global ways. Here at ServeNow, we remain committed to serving the most vulnerable around the world. We also believe in times of uncertainty, we must guard our hearts against fear, panic, anxiety, and self-preservation. Instead, now is the time to demonstrate compassion, generosity, and selflessness, especially towards those most in need. Therefore, we wanted to take a moment to share with you how some of our teams are responding around the world…
Recap of 2019 & Vision for 2020
We have reached MILLIONS of people literally just this year in 2019 alone through a new video series called the Road to Paradise put together through our Arabic team and pushed out through social media avenues. The Basic Series Discipleship books were launched in new languages and countries, such as KiSwahili (Kenya), French (Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin), Kirundi (Burundi) and some new Asian languages. Thousands of copies were printed and a couple hundred thousand people were impacted by these books. Additionally, being we are living in a time that is seeing a historic global refugee crisis (over 70 million refugees in the world today), I am happy that we were able to help provide aid to refugee’s around the world from a Yazidi refugee camp in Iraq, to legal immigrants at our own border in the US/Mexico, to Sudanese refugee’s living in one of the world’s largest refugee camp in Northern Uganda.
Impact Story Highlights: October 2018-January 2019
Every week, we receive amazing stories of impact from around the world through ServeNow’s efforts. This is only possible because of people of like you getting involved and responding to God’s heart for the world and the most vulnerable. Click here to read just a few of those ways you are making a difference over the last few months: Impact Stories October 2018 to January 2019.
Good Deeds Reveal a Good God
The principle of the school said, “These winter coverings will allow the children to come to school on a regular basis. During the cold weather, many children do not come to school because of lack of warm clothes to wear. Thank you ServeNow Nepal for your great effort in not only providing winter coverings but in also helping and encouraging these children to come to school regularly.”