Thank you for your commitment to share Christ’s compassion with others. Your generosity has made it possible for countless lives across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East to tangibly experience the love of Jesus. Here are some of the ways your partnership made a difference for the Kingdom in 2023:

You Helped the Hurting Receive Aid through Relief Efforts

Through your support of CAMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, you gave over $947,000 toward relief efforts worldwide. You extended Christ’s compassion into hard-to-reach places that were hit by earthquakes such as Syria, Turkey, Morocco, and Nepal. You helped multiple communities in West Java continue to recover from the November 2022 earthquake. In places experiencing armed conflict, such as Ukraine and the Middle East, the local church was empowered to meet tangible needs while sharing the light of the gospel. People who experienced violence at the hands of religious extremists in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Africa were able to receive aid. You brought relief to the orphaned and homeless in Libya after severe flooding destroyed homes. Food insecurity was addressed in West Africa. In South Asia, the houses of 33 women were able to be repaired after a cyclone. The Mongolian Winter Relief Project was able to come alongside 100 families for a month with emergency food supplies and other goods. In Senegal, three single moms found housing assistance after flooding destroyed their homes. In one Southeast Asian country, a Rohingya man who was paralyzed and unable to work received financial support to purchase food and medical care. 

You Transformed Lives through Trainings, Education, and Mentorship

You made it possible for 20 students at the A. B. Simpson Missionary Training Center to participate weekly in ESL classes. Through Seeds of Hope, over 30 students from marginalized communities were able to receive believer-based academic assistance to help them pass critical exams. In Kosovo, 34 students were empowered with English language skills through two summer camps, and over 40 children improved their English while evaluating their beliefs, values, and motives through the Kids Character and English Language Program. CAMA staff member Meredith Hoffman said, “One of our themes at camp this year was designed purpose. As campers heard about the life and faith of George Washington Carver, they also learned about how they have a designed purpose—that they are loved and that their lives have meaning. During small group time, campers were invited to reflect on the story and theme of the day. One camper shared how she wasn’t sure before that day that God loved her, but she now knew that He does.”

Young adults in Cambodia received mentorship as they took steps toward launching a coding school within their community, and two local churches were enabled to incorporate coding into their Sunday school programming by having children animate Bible stories. CAMA staff member Ruth Kim said, “Setting up coding classes as a part of Sunday school has created a close partnership with local churches, formed opportunities for teacher trainings, reactivated dormant Sunday school programming, and brought children back to their churches.” One hundred vulnerable adolescent girls were assisted by Hands of Honor (HOH) this year as the project celebrated its 10-year anniversary. CAMA staff member Becky McCabe said, “Arida* was 12 years old and recently employed as a child laborer when she joined HOH. During her years with us, she learned to read and write, heard and accepted the good news of Jesus, was kept from child marriage, and just received her vocational degree. Because of you, Arida now has HOPE for today and eternity!”

You helped CAMA staff members open the Mongolia Storyline Learning Center to empower those experiencing poverty and social disadvantages to obtain self-sufficiency through training and educational programming in Mongolia. Twenty-five relief and development trainers from the Indonesian Alliance were able to grow through a Training of Trainers workshop facilitated by a CAMA staff member in Bali. You made it possible for a local partner in South Asia to train pastors and church leaders living in remote areas to better support themselves through a training involving record keeping, raising livestock, and more. You made it possible for the Guinea Agropastoral Project (GAP) to better equip local farmers by making infrastructural improvements to existing GAP sites and by helping develop new sites. Local farmers throughout Senegal, the Congo, and Guinea were able to learn about better agricultural practices through Farming God’s Way seminars. CAMA global partner Tom Brane said, “We are teaching people so that they can be empowered to carry the torch without our hands attached to it.”

You Empowered Communities by Meeting Tangible Needs

Through the Africa Wells Project, nine communities were provided with clean water through new deep borehole wells. Becky McCabe said, “A recent CAMA water project allowed an aXcess team to begin building and developing a ministry location for our region’s largest unreached people group. Your help finding water and providing a deep well made the site a go. We trust the Lord to pour out His blessing through the work that will be carried out from this location.”

In South Asia, a widow and her family were able to secure a piece of land and build a new home. You made it possible for CAMA staff members in Vietnam to provide counseling services at both a local middle school and a Bible college. In Kosovo, an office for occupational therapy consultation was located and furnished. In Southeast Asia, a CAMA staff member was able to partner with a Rohingya woman to distribute sanitary napkins and train over 90 other Rohingya women in women’s health education and sanitation practices.

CAMA staff members running a tourism establishment in Mongolia were able to pray for and come alongside an employee whose family experienced a pregnancy crisis. One of these CAMA staff members said, “Because of Alinur’s* work with us, his family was able to afford travel to the capital city where the facilities were better equipped to handle a premature or difficult delivery. Because of our relationship with Alinur, we were able to walk with him daily throughout this difficult time. We were able to help practically with finances, time off, as well as with diapers when the twins came. Alinur continues to work with us as a trusted team member.”

In Senegal, a man suffering from intense pain for over 20 years due to kidney stones received treatment and became pain free, a lady in her late thirties who had severe osteoarthritis in both of her hips was able to receive a hip replacement, and a man bedridden for a year and a half was able to get three surgeries and is now walking. In South Asia, you provided the funds that helped local partners address several medical needs, including helping a boy in need of treatment after falling off a roof, a woman who was kicked by a horse, a boy crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, and a woman who needed treatment at a psychiatric center. A CAMA staff member serving in South Asia said, “In our context, the phrase ‘word and deed’ typically reflects that doing a deed opens the door for saying a word. We and our local partners want to be intentional about carrying through with a verbal message that expresses the good news. Otherwise, we may too easily let our part end with just the deed.”

You Equipped Others to Minister through Wholistic Relief and Development

Your support enabled CAMA staff members across Asia to partner with The Alliance Word Fellowship, Gereja Kemah Injil Indonesia (The Alliance of Indonesia), and The Alliance Canada to create the APAC Relief & Development Conference—the first gathering in the Asia-Pacific region of Alliance-affiliated relief and community development workers. You made it possible for one of CAMA’s staff members to provide 10 relief and development training seminars across six Latin American countries to equip local churches with a more wholistic understanding of poverty, salvation, and community engagement. A book on relief and development published by this same CAMA staff member in December 2022 was also taught in seminaries and missionary schools across the region.

A local partner was able to teach on development in Conakry, Guinea, which led to the youth of the local church banding together to create a project so that other young adults could also learn how to do development. CAMA staff members in Indonesia were able to provide support and consultation to the relief and development arm of the Indonesian Alliance. Two CAMA staff members were able to assist with three relief and development trainings in Bali, Indonesia, and participate in a three-day Training of Trainers event where they educated over 20 pastors, lay people, and practitioners in disaster response, long-term wholistic development, and creation care. One of these staff members, Buzz Maxey, said, “We are receiving reports from a recent training we were involved in that the material is being applied now across Indonesia. . . . We are convinced that our best investment is into people—disciples who will in turn teach others.”

You Strengthened Relationships and Formed New Friendships for the Kingdom

CAMA staff members in Mexico built a relationship with a local mother-daughter duo to pray for others and to visit the homes of those in need. CAMA staff member Sue Davis said, “The mother has been leading small Bible studies in her house for several years but felt she was lacking needed spiritual and emotional support. It is a hard and dark place. They had been praying that God would send them someone. We had been praying for Christian women who had hopes of reaching out to their community and who we could begin building a relationship with through regularly meeting for prayer. When we approached this mother and daughter, they tearfully and excitedly responded positively.”

While doing language study, a CAMA staff member in Guinea worked to establish relationships with women in her neighborhood and is now acquainted with nearly a dozen of her female neighbors. CAMA staff member Jessica Chapman said, “Getting to know my neighbor women better, hearing their life stories, and getting to know their joys and challenges has helped me to engage in the community and to begin to dream of ways to further grow meaningful presence after language learning.” Another CAMA staff member in Guinea partnered with a local friend to conduct outreach events and initiatives for the women and children of her community. CAMA staff member Chelsea Anderson said, “We were able to see that many in the community have hope for what could be as a result of friendships and projects that took place with them.”

A CAMA global partner in Senegal spent time networking and building relationships with key specialists and medical institutions. A CAMA staff member in Kosovo collaborated with key individuals who lead occupational therapy associations to create a plan to further promote occupational therapy within the country. A relationship was developed with a local domestic violence center in the Middle East. One CAMA staff member in Indonesia connecting with struggling farmers through an experimental garden and goat program said, “We have other godly orgs around us, other Alliance workers, as well as simply good-hearted people. We seek to work well with others to accomplish what is mutually beneficial.”

You Provided Prayer for Those in Need, Shared the Gospel with the Lost, and Discipled Those Drawing Near to Christ

CAMA staff members in the Middle East saw five people come to faith and a young man get baptized. A majority-faith patient that a CAMA global partner in Senegal came alongside accepted Christ as Lord, publicly professed his faith, and was baptized. You made it possible for two CAMA staff members to be present in Mexico for weekly prayer walks in their local neighborhood. Sue Davis said, “Everyone has always welcomed prayer and is grateful for the opportunity to share a burden that has been heavy on their shoulders. Some admit that they are lost and don’t know what to do about their brokenness, repetitive patterns of destructive behaviors, or their unmet needs. Praying over them or with those who believe changes them and gives them peace, hope, and a connectedness they lack.” These walks enabled Sue and her husband Mark to pray for a family in need and witness a previously mute six-year-old girl speak. CAMA staff member Mark Davis said, “They could clearly see this as a miracle that God had chosen to bless their family with, and they were overjoyed at God’s clear answer.”

Your support of CAMA staff members in Guinea enabled ailing women and children within their community to also receive prayer. A CAMA staff member in Kosovo was able to pray with Kosovars in need of healing. You also made soul care and discipleship seminars accessible across Guinea, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast. Stephen Albright, a CAMA staff member who has helped lead these events, said, “A young lady who had attended a soul care conference the year before testified how God had healed her eyes from continuous headaches and migraines after she was prayed for. She was also freed from a curse that her whole family has suffered from for a long time. She is now free of headaches, and her vision has returned to normal for over a year!”

With the help of CAMA staff members, the full Ngalik Bible—a project begun the 1970s by Alliance international workers—was completely translated, printed, and shipped to Indonesia to provide others with further accessibility to the Word. CAMA staff members in South Asia were able to disciple Rohingya and Bengali individuals through meaningful conversations and by studying the Word together. One of these CAMA staff members said, “Although there is great material need here, there is equal—if not greater—spiritual need, which these conversations feed.”

Thank You!

This is just a snapshot of how you made it possible for others to experience Christ’s love and compassion in 2023. We are so grateful for how the Lord moved, and we can’t begin to thank you enough for your commitment to extend the gospel in both word and deed to the unreached, underserved, and overlooked. Your heart to see lives transformed and communities restored through Christ is making a difference.

Gratefully,

Ron & Lisa Ramsey

*Name changed