Where residents of Mayfield, Kentucky, lined downtown streets to watch a Christmas parade just days earlier, the sidewalks are now strewn with the debris of a flattened city. More than 70 people died in Kentucky alone last weekend as tornadoes ripped through the community in the nighttime hours of Dec. 10. At least 88 people…
Crisis & Disaster Response
Homeowners Share Stories of Horror; Volunteers Hard at Work After Tornadoes
Crisis & Disaster Response
Airlifting Medical Supplies to Ukraine
The scene resembled something out of a movie. Bomb craters pockmarked the front lawn of an institution meant to bring healing and care. “A lot of sick people had to evacuate,” Dr. Tamara explained as she looked out over the property of the recently-shelled hospital in her hometown in central Ukraine. “This hospital was really…
Discipleship, Education & Training
God Answers Prayers to Save a Military Couple’s Marriage
Sean and Brandy Karpf’s teenage romance began one summer as they both worked the late shift at their local McDonald’s. They spent until the early hours of the morning breaking down equipment, cleaning, and closing the store. Some fleeting high school crushes are quickly forgotten, but this one lasted three years and culminated in an…
Operation Christmas Child
Sailors Brave Difficult Seas to Deliver Shoebox Gifts in the Pacific
A team of seven recently set sail on a 57-foot boat named Cloud Nine with cartons of Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts on board. Their destination? An isolated part of Kwajalein Atoll. Home to some 11,000 people scattered across 100 small islands, Kwajalein Atoll is a part of the Marshall Islands, a nation located in…
Embracing Joy Again Together
Marine Sergeant Austin Dickinson and his wife, Cass, an Air Force Senior Airman, stood just out of reach of the thundering waterfall where they had hiked—from the boat to the remote pebbled shore of Alaska’s Lake Clark and up the trail lined with devil’s club to the cove where the water gushed from a high…
Checkmate!
While preparing for a mission trip to El Salvador, Dr. Heidi Moore prayed fervently that God would use her skills to minister to the children she would encounter there. Sure, the pediatrician knew she could impact lives through her medical expertise. And speaking Spanish—at least the basics—was also a bonus. But she never imagined God…
Operation Christmas Child
Delivering Grace
“We want to help make disciples. We want kids to know that they are loved by the creator of the universe. We want kids to know that Jesus died for their sins and they did nothing to deserve it. It’s unconditional.” Kimberly Hahn, director of operations at Orange Lutheran High School in California, overflows when…
Discipleship, Education & Training
The Heart of a Chaplain
In 2009, the Rev. Mark Sukulao lay in a hospital bed in Zimbabwe, very ill, discouraged, and in almost constant pain. This hospital was the third one he had been admitted to in less than two months, and now he was facing another surgery. Many anxious thoughts churned through the pastor’s mind. What was God’s…
Health & Medical Ministries
Restoring Sight in South Sudan
Chiray, 24, walked many hours, guided by a cousin, from his village to Mankien, South Sudan, because he’d heard there were doctors there who could help him to see again. He’d been blind for more than a decade. At 10 years old, Chiray began to lose his sight. For the longest time he’d blamed it…
