Dear Friend,

As this is written, I’m on my way to North Korea, where we have been working for over 15 years. God has opened a new door for Samaritan’s Purse to join with four other international organizations in providing food for more than half a million people. Pray with us that our efforts there will be a strong testimony to God’s love and compassion.

At the same time, Samaritan’s Purse is responding to urgent food shortages in more than a dozen countries around the world. Experts say we are in the midst of the first global food crisis since World War II. In recent months, we’ve witnessed not only rising prices in America’s supermarkets but also food riots in cities across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Higher oil prices are driving up the cost of fertilizer and food transportation, while droughts and conflicts are wiping out the meager crops of countless farmers who live hand-to-mouth.

The UN calls this a “recipe for disaster”—and there’s not a single organization on earth that has enough resources to feed all those who are starving. However, we can do something to make a difference in Jesus’ Name.

Samaritan’s Purse has expanded our emergency feeding programs in vulnerable areas, focusing on malnourished children and young mothers. We are also providing farmers with the help they need to feed their families and communities. Right now, over half a million people depend on this ministry for food.

We are trusting that the Lord will supply the resources to meet their needs just as He did when He fed the multitudes. Even faced with overwhelming needs like these, our God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV).

Not long ago, I visited Kenya, where Samaritan’s Purse has been providing special high-nutrition food to malnourished infants and children among the Turkana people who live on the edge of the desert. Through this feeding program, God has made a way for evangelistic outreach to people who know little or nothing about the Gospel. Many of them have come to faith in Jesus Christ, giving up their traditional African religions, and are now involved in local churches. One village chief said, “The mothers of the children are thanking God for this program.”

Neighboring Ethiopia is suffering its worst drought since the mid-1980s, and as many as 7 million children are at risk of starvation. “I was afraid my son would die,” one mother named Amina told our team. When she brought 4-year-old Ahemedin to a therapeutic feeding center set up by Samaritan’s Purse, our nurse described him as “skin and bones.” After four weeks of care, Ahemedin is fully recovered and Amina has experienced Christ’s unconditional love.

One of our largest programs is in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan. We deliver food to about 150,000 people each month and are supplying many thousands with farm tools and seeds so they can eventually feed themselves. Our efforts there present a powerful example of Christian compassion to black African Muslims who have suffered at the hands of the Islamic, Arab-controlled government.

Wherever we work, our ultimate aim is to earn a hearing for the Good News of Jesus Christ, who alone can satisfy the deep spiritual hunger of the human heart. He declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry” (John 6:33b, NIV).

Knowing that the high prices of food and gas are affecting many of you personally, we are especially grateful for your faithful support and prayers. May God bless you.

Sincerely,

President
Samaritan's Purse

FEEDING THE MULTITUDES

How Samaritan’s Purse has been helping to fight hunger

Bolivia: Food for malnourished children and mothers, school lunches, agricultural projects
Cambodia: Vegetable gardens, fish ponds, feeding program for impoverished children
Ecuador: School lunches in the nation’s two largest cities
Ethiopia: Therapeutic feeding (high-nutrition meals for dangerously malnourished children and mothers)
Honduras: Feeding orphans, school lunches, livestock projects
Kenya: Therapeutic feeding in Turkana region, plus food for families displaced by political strife
Liberia: Food distributed to families recovering from civil war, agricultural projects
Mozambique: Food for flood victims and families affected by HIV/AIDS, agricultural projects
Niger: Therapeutic feeding in villages near Sahara desert
North Korea: Food to replace crops destroyed in floods
Sudan: Food for people displaced by the Darfur conflict, agricultural projects
Uganda: Food in region where farms were flooded
Vietnam: Meals for hospital patients

Ways You Can Help

PRAY

Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Pray that people will learn to trust Him for their physical and spiritual needs as they receive food from Samaritan’s Purse and our church partners. Ask God for generous harvests—both in terms of farming as well as the response to the Gospel.

HELP FEED THE HUNGRY

Nearly a half a billion people live on no more than a dollar a day and can’t afford the spiraling price of food. For $40, we can give a family a month’s supply of food, or provide a farmer with seeds and tools. For just $7, one of our community feeding centers can provide meals and care to help bring a malnourished child back to health.