The most affected population by the Coivd crisis are the daily-wage workers and their families who live one-day at a time. A typical labor family of three or four lives on an average earning of less than $6 per day. Many families have no food to eat as their means of income are limited as many cottage businesses are almost shut down.  Similarly, many rural church pastors are financially struggling, if not starving, as they did not have church gatherings for seven months since the lockdown in March 2020. The rural church pastors usually live on the weekly offerings of raw rice, vegetables, grain and tithes that were brought to church on Sundays. They are not capable of conducting online worship services or receive online offerings due to technological limitations.

A Helping Hand

A pastor and his wife had been faithfully serving the Lord in Pune, Maharashtra, for the past 15 years. They have two teenage children. They live in a rented house and run the worship service in a rented facility. The pastor’s wife financially provided for the family and ministry by working as the principal of a private school but recently lost her job. They sent SAI a prayer request and asked us if we could help them pay rent for their church facility. We sent financial help to them twice during the pandemic.

They are immensely thankful to the donors.

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Since the contributions to the churches have dried up due to the lockdown, a pastor in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) started stealing motorbikes to pay for the monthly rent of his prayer hall. When caught, he was arrested. What a shame!  It is our prayer that no servant of God will go begging in the streets or steal due to their desperate need. In the past several months we extended one-time help to hundreds of financially struggling pastor-families in Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Telangana states with financial gifts of $100 to $400 each, according to their need.

We also helped over 1500 starving families with food supplies and other necessities that would last for two weeks or longer. In some places when possible, our ministry teams prayed with the recipients and gave them hope in God. This project helps our pastors create a gospel connection with the local people.

Every day we are receiving hundreds of requests from pastors seeking our assistance. We would like to help as many people as possible as the Lord provides. We are thankful to those who have sent us special gifts recently.

As a Christian ministry, people look up to us for help and have reached out to us. We are doing whatever we can. Would you please pray for these people and consider a special gift to help a family in need? A gift of any size is highly appreciated. Thanks to the donors who have generously given to this cause generously. As our relief efforts continue, we welcome your donation of any size to touch one life at a time!

 

You can read more field stories from our recent newsletter here

Below are some of heartwarming responses.