You can help Joshua Ogaro bring hope to the helpless.

 

My name is Joshua Ogaro. I am from Sengera in Kisii county, Kenya. When I was five years old, my father got tuberculosis and my mother suffered from malaria. After my parents passed away, I met Jesus. With these words from Psalm 10, God touched me: “The Lord hears the cries of the helpless and comforts them! He will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.”

 

Freely I received

 

I grew up in the care of relatives and started going to a local church. All my brothers and sisters left school because they could not pay the school fees, but my church helped me through primary school and secondary school. The church cared for both my physical and spiritual needs, because James chapter 1 says, “the religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” 

 

The support I received from the church touched my heart. I wanted to give back to the community. I decided to give a home and education to the children of poor families and orphans, like me. My wife, Jane, and I are now caring for 14 children. They help with the gardening and cleaning. They like playing soccer.

 

Jane and I met in secondary school. She is the one who cooks for the children and helps them work on the assignments they are given at school. She gives them life advice. She sings with them. She is a great singer.

 

Freely I give

 

Providing food, shelter, clothing and school fees for the children is challenging. Fortunately, God has given me encouraging friends. I also always find encouragement in Psalm 41: “Happy are those who are concerned for the poor; the Lord will help them when they are in trouble.” God’s word encourages me and gives me joy in my work. 

 

In 2017 I started a small Christian fellowship. Now we are a big fellowship! Reading helps me look after my congregation. I use books to know the word of God better. Books help me to preach in my church, encourage my fellow pastors and serve our community. I also use online sermons and devotions. A recent devotion from 1 John reminded me that God’s love comes first, and then comes our response to him. “We love him because he first loved us.” 

 

What does the Lord require of you?

 

I like each member of our church to have their own Bible. With their own Bible at home they can study the passages I preach on, and reach out to neighbours who have not received the gospel.

 

Please pray that we will love the lost as much as Jesus loves his church. Thank you for blessing us with books and Bibles. May God bless you abundantly. 

 

Joshua Ogaro pastors the Christ Fellowship Church and Orphanage in Sengera, Gucha, Kisii, Kenya.

 

$2,000 will deliver Ekegusii and English language books and Bibles to Christ Fellowship Church in western Kenya.

A new believer encourages magazine publisher Gökhan Talas to keep going.

 

Sezai contacted us online in 2019. He subscribed to Miras magazine and requested a copy of our book Voice of the Martyrs. He was unsure and afraid.

 

Sezai is from Artvin, a city on the Black Sea. Like many families in Turkey, Sezai’s family is half atheist and half Muslim. The conflict was tearing them apart. Sezai belonged to the part that held that there is no god. 

 

One day Sezai was surprised by a call from his elderly Muslim grandfather who asked for help walking to the hospital. Not far into the walk, the grandfather wanted to sit down to rest and took the opportunity to talk frankly about faith and the family tradition. He said he wanted to save Sezai’s soul and gave him a book about Islam.

 

Sezai felt uneasy. He knew his unbelieving relatives would be very angry if they knew about this conversation. 

 

A season of sowing 

 

After a few days reading the book, Sezai began to feel that Islam offered a solution to the suffering in this world. He found in Islam strong conviction for his heart. Sezai accepted more books from his grandfather and began to practise Islam in secret.

 

It was while reading his grandfather’s books that Sezai first encountered the Christian faith. The curses and condemnation directed at this false religion aroused something contrary in his heart. A seed of curiosity had been planted. 

 

All these new ideas and secrecy were creating chaos in Sezai’s mind. He felt empty and adrift. His studies were going badly and some members of his family started to ask questions. Sezai decided to leave them and his ­grandfather behind in Artvin and move to his sister’s house in another city.

 

A season of reaping

 

Sezai studied the life of Jesus. What he discovered shocked him. Jesus was different. His actions and teaching were straight and graceful. Sezai found Miras on Facebook and wrote to us. The first magazine we sent him explains what the Bible teaches about God’s nature. He read more issues online and asked us hundreds of questions. After a year of investigation, Sezai gave his heart to the Lord. We prayed together online and praised God. Now he is waiting to be baptised.

 

This story fills our hearts with joy and our eyes with tears. 

 

For years I have served as an evangelist in different Turkish cities. I know that people want gospel resources that are well-written and well-designed. Miras magazine has been tried and tested. This is more than just a publishing ministry. We work to spread the gospel. 

 

Please pray that our desire will not be quenched.

 

Your prayers and support make stories like this a reality. Will you stand with us?

 

Gökhan Talas is the founding director of Miras magazine. Miras means “inheritance” — because Turkey was home to the first gentile churches.

 

$10,000 will make possible the publication of Miras magazine in Turkish, Persian and Arabic.

You can help Daniela Ortiz take the gospel to every profession in Argentina.

 

My name is Daniela Ortiz. I am 43 years old and I live in the city of Buenos Aires. I discovered my passion for communicating the lordship of Jesus Christ through books while I was a teenager. For more than 20 years I have seen how books take stories and ideas to places and moments where the authors cannot go. Books touch the heart, mind and soul. Just like our Saviour, literature crosses frontiers to reach lonely hearts in surprising and diverse ways. 

 

I have witnessed how God uses books to expand his kingdom. The Holy Spirit uses books to exhort, guide, motivate and enrich us. Books can challenge our thinking, help us break bad habits and develop new patterns of behaviour. 

 

Christian authors from Europe and North America have made an incalculable contribution to the church in Latin America. But we must also raise up local authors who write from the perspective of our own customs, culture and context. This enables us to grow in faith and live out the gospel in our daily lives.

 

I work with the Evangelical University Network. We publish biblical, gospel-centred resources that equip university students and young professionals to become agents of change in their study, work and family. We want each student and professional to see the workplace as a mission field where they offer their God-given talents and passions so that our cities and people will be ­transformed. 

 

Looking back I can see how God has prepared me for this role. God has been weaving a colourful tapestry; intertwining people, knowledge and opportunities. My experience with a national ministry to adolescents, as well as local Christian bookshops and Christian publisher Certeza Argentina, has equipped me to publish books that are biblical, practical and relevant.

 

Please pray that our books will be a redemptive presence wherever and whenever they fall into someone’s hands.

 

Daniela Ortiz manages content creation for the Evangelical University Network in Argentina.

 

$12,000 will enable the Evangelical University Network to publish four books and four training manuals.