05/04/2023 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – When we read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, we see it as an act of love and satisfying their need for food. They were hungry and left with nowhere to turn for food. He didn’t provide them with food with a stipulation of repayment or conversion into becoming his followers. He healed, fed, and performed miracles simply out of love for the brothers and sisters He saw in need.
Though we can’t perform miracles in the same way, when we see our suffering brothers and sisters, we meet them in their time of greatest need – whether it’s providing aid packages of food to feed the hungry, medical care to bandage the broken, or household supplies and rent to the homeless.
We often have the privilege to serve as a lifeline to believers of the persecuted church. Though these situations of need come from severe pain and distress, the work that follows is filled with hope for a better tomorrow, and ultimately points to hope in a better, more perfect eternity.
In the Bible, Paul so clearly and eloquently writes this to church members in Corinth, saying, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV).
Though trials of persecution are heavy on all our hearts, compared to the eternal weight of glory, they will only be a memory of momentary affliction. This is the good news that propels us to bandage persecution’s wounds of our brothers and sisters.
In the following pages, you’ll read stories of persecution survivors from all over the world who have been helped by International Christian Concern (ICC). In the Middle East, one Christian family began to struggle financially after the husband’s radical Islamic employer refused to promote him unless he converted to Islam. ICC provided the family with a small business.
Upon receiving the help to start the business, the wife expressed to ICC that our visit was like a visit from Christ. One that was undeserved but something they’re grateful for beyond words.
In Nigeria, we empower Christian widows to provide for their families after the loss of their husbands and breadwinners.
“All my life I’ve never seen the kind of Christian heart as exhibited by ICC; because since the death of my husband, no one has shown up to render the kind of help my children and I have received from ICC,” said Monifa, a widow you will read more about in the following pages. “I know that generally, life is difficult, but this help would enable me and my children to get other things that we would not have been able to.”
We strive as a ministry to provide Christlike care to as many suffering brothers and sisters as we can, and that is all fueled by supporters, including you. We are beyond grateful for the work you enable us to do—together—throughout the world.
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