In India, discrimination against women is a fact, as is the killing of female fetuses and babies. But facts can be cold. The story of these four sisters pictured is not. It’s heartbreaking. But please don’t stop reading. These sisters are also living examples of God’s grace.

Ages 7 to 11, these girls are fatherless, even though their father, Raju, is alive. When the youngest girl, Krupapriya, was born, instead of celebrating the family mourned.  Raju refused to see the baby. He walked out that day and never returned. They now live with their elderly grandparents because their mother is also absent; she works long hours as a maid.

Almost everywhere in India parents want sons, not daughters, because males are considered more valuable. Males typically have exclusive rights to inherit the family name and property, and are viewed as additional status for their families. Also, many religions have rituals which can only be performed by males for their parents’ afterlife. All these factors make sons more desirable. Moreover, expensive dowries for daughters further discourage parents from having girls.

Studies by groups such as UNICEF show that India is “missing” as many as 50 million women and girls, apparently killed or aborted simply because of their gender. Laws are on the books in India against many of these practices, but are rarely enforced.

God, however, has intervened in the lives of Krupapriya and her sisters, Priyanka, Haripriya, and Surapriya. They are part of a David C Cook J127 club at the day care center they attend. They are finding new life in Jesus and are learning the life-giving principle of freedom through forgiveness.

The clubs meet three times a week with lessons and activities covering life skills, character development and spiritual formation. One recent lesson was called “Down with Anger.” The club’s leaders, Auntie Suneetha and Uncle Ashkay, explained how God has forgiven us of all our sins and so, in turn, we can forgive others. They asked each child in the club to write the names of people who had hurt them on a piece of paper, forgive them, tear up the paper and throw it in the trash.

All four sisters wrote their father’s name, Raju, on their papers but refused to tear them up, so deep was their hurt and anger. Later in a private counseling, the club leaders listened sympathetically as Priyanka told the girls’ story. Auntie Suneetha agreed that forgiving their father was very difficult but, if they could forgive him and let go of the bitterness, Jesus could free them from anger.

One by one, they all decided to follow Christ and forgive their father. Now they remember Raju in their prayers and hope to see him rejoin their family one day.

This is just one of many stories of redemption we hear constantly from Cook’s J127 clubs. Sadly, many abandoned children in India end up in orphanages because of violence against, or murder of, their mothers. The J127 curriculum is custom tailored to address this painful situation. Both girls and boys learn biblical teaching about the value of females in God’s eyes. In the free section of this website, you can download a copy of a lesson that teachs God’s esteem for women and girls.

J127 is an extraordinary program. It dares to bring God’s redemption and healing that counter some of the harshest cultural practices. Your support is making expansion of this program possible. It is reaching new groups of hurting children every month. We just received word that a group of orphanages in Mexico is adopting the program to serve more than 1,000 emotionally wounded children there.

Orphans around the world have new friends: American churches. This surge of interest is less than a decade old, but momentum seems to keep growing. One reason may be that scores of leading ministries united and now speak with one voice through the Christian Alliance for Orphans.

The 8^th annual Orphan Summit of the alliance, held during the first week of May at Saddleback Church in California, drew delegates from 46 states and several foreign countries. David C Cook is both a member of the alliance and a sponsor of the summit.

Well-known Cook author Francis Chan delivered the keynote message, describing how God captured his heart for orphans.

Some of us were self-centered people. It was killing us. But the spirit of God came into us. When spirit of God comes into people, Scripture comes alive.

Then, pointing to his Bible, he added,

 Life makes sense in light of this book.

He spoke of passages like Psalm 68 which reveal how God views orphans: he is “a father to the fatherless” and “sets the lonely in families.” He held up James 1:27 as especially important: “True religion that God accepts is to care for orphans in their distress.” Reflecting on that passage, Chan asked,

How can we be so flippant about this…so casual…

when this is TRUE RELIGION?

To get an idea of the orphan tragedy’s monumental scale, imagine one-half of the U.S. population. That’s about how many orphans live in the world today. Children need and want protection, but millions of them are abandoned to fend for themselves. How can we tolerate this?

Orphanages help, but most fall short of a complete answer. Typical orphanages, even those run by Christians, focus, for the most part, on physical needs. Yet nearly all orphans have broken hearts, or “distress” as James 1:27 puts it. These boys and girls suffer personal trauma and deep spiritual wounds.

This is where David C Cook makes a unique contribution with a comprehensive intervention that teaches local Christians how to counsel and nurture these hurting children. Cook representatives spoke at sessions of the Orphan Summit and offered free resources to international ministries at a booth.

Everyone registered for the Orphan Summit received an offer of free curriculum and a sample lesson. You can you can instantly download both from the “free download” section of this website.

The curriculum, the David C Cook J127 Orphan Initiative, is unique and effective. We regularly post individual stories of children changed forever by this ministry. Your support is making the program available, at no cost, to orphan ministries in India, Uganda, Mexico, Bangladesh and Romania. Soon, even more countries will have it as a result of the recent Orphan Summit.

The way the Christian Alliance for Orphan sees it, solutions branch in three directions: foster homes and adoption in the United States and orphan care internationally. While all three interventions are valuable and deserve encouragement, the reality is, however, that 99% of orphans will never be adopted. Also, most of the neediest children do not live in Western countries. That’s why we urge the greatest support for underserved orphans in foreign countries. When you give to the J127 Orphan Initiative, 100% of your donation goes to help and heal orphans in the developing world.

Your church may want to join in the nationwide Orphan Sunday campaign this year on November 4, promoting discovery and support of  the orphan cause.  Learn more about Orphan Sunday from the Orphan Alliance or contact us for stories, videos and other materials you can use in your church.

Chernobyl, Ukraine made headlines worldwide when nuclear reactors melted down there 26 years ago. Now there’s good news spreading across that region through the Story of Jesus.

The Chernobyl explosion was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. That incident and the recent disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan are the only two Level 7 events ever recorded on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The explosion and fire at Chernobyl released a huge plume of radioactive contamination that spread over much of Europe and the western part of the Soviet Union. A UN report estimates that 4,000 people will eventually die of cancer-related illnesses resulting from the accident. A quarter-million people were forced to abandon their homes. An area extending 19 miles in all directions is now an “Exclusion Zone” where people are forbidden to live.

Now there’s another, better story for this area in northern Ukraine: David C Cook’s The Story of Jesus is spreading across the area. A church worker named Andrei told us about a 10-year-old girl who became an orphan when both of her drug-addicted parents died. She is HIV-positive, but her blue eyes brightened when she received a copy of the Story of Jesus.

Two languages are commonly spoken in Ukraine. One half million copies of the Story of Jesus have been distributed during the past six months in the Russian language. Another 200,000 copies in Ukrainian, currently in production, will be given out before the end of this year. Similar outreaches are underway in neighboring Moldova, Belarus and Russia. In all, more than 17 million copies in 47 countries have been distributed over the past 12 months. The number is even higher counting from the program’s beginning in early 2011. At Cook, we thought it would be well-received, but it is exceeding our expectations. The pace is three times the forecast of one year ago.

What makes this outreach so powerful is the combination of a compelling full-color booklet with the personal touch of local Christians who deliver it. The Story of Jesus is always provided by someone from a local church who is available for conversations later. And it is working.

Alyona is 13 years old and in the 6^th grade. She lives in the village of Korolevka not far from Kiev, the capital. She told one of the local believers,

I have been to Christian meetings three times already. I like singing Christian songs. My friend Bogdana and I were given booklets called The Story of Jesus Christ. It is very interesting, easy to read, and colorful. I was able to learn a lot through it and now I want to learn more about God.

Alyona’s friend Bogdana said,

The booklet The Story of Jesus Christ helped me understand why Jesus came to earth and now I understand the resurrection of Jesus better. I hope to read the Bible in the future.

Roman is an enthusiastic believer who, along with friends, spends time visiting orphans and other children who have never heard about Jesus. He considers the Story of Jesus an essential part of their ministry,

These booklets are invaluable as they serve as a reminder in between our visits of the truths we share with the children about Jesus. The pictures and bright colors make the children actually want to read them!

How is all this possible? Christians in Ukraine and other international ministries pay about one-third of the cost. Cook and donors like you pay all the rest. Put another way, it cost less than a dime to get a copy of the Story of Jesus into the hands of Alyona, Bogdana or each of the boys pictured at the top. Did spending a dime ever accomplish more? This deserves strong support. Without your support, we cannot fill all the requests we are getting from other countries. Give all you can so the Gospel can spread through the Story of Jesus.

Rupa, the sweet-faced little girl pictured here, was sold into slavery by her mother…for less than 20 American dollars. This is common in India, a country where girls are considered a burden to the family. Rupa, being a girl, could fetch her mother some money. At six years old, the child was a good deal: old enough to be a virtual slave, young enough to push around.

A rich family bought Rupa. Her day began early, but not to attend school. Instead, she had to clean the entire house, wash clothes, make beds and wash dishes. She ate cold and stale leftovers, and that was on the good days. Her heart full of fear, she learned to hear little but the call of her owners. She was beaten mercilessly for the slightest infractions such as spilling a little milk, or maybe someone was just in a bad mood. As punishment she was locked in the bathroom, deprived of food for days. Sometimes it was just easier to pour boiling water on her hands.

Yet, somehow, Rupa was rescued and put in a Christian orphanage. Still lonely, scared and insecure, she bravely fended for herself. Her entire life experience, of horrific rejection and abuse, presented her with only two choices: be the victim, or be the oppressor.

Up to this point, Rupa’s story is a litany of hopelessness. But then the Lord Jesus Christ came into her life through a so-called “Happy Club” at her orphanage. That’s the nickname the kids gave to the J127 Orphan Initiative from David C Cook. Here’s what happened.

At first Rupa would intentionally disturb the club and get into fights. As mental health experts now understand, abused children become bullies and, in adulthood, often become abusers themselves. But that isn’t the way of Christ. As months passed, Rupa slowly grew close to her auntie, Elizabeth, who led the Happy Club. She told Elizabeth about her life as a slave servant. She grew close to Elizabeth and told her details of her experiences. She shared pain that she’d buried for so long. As time passed, she felt safe, sheltered and loved.

Rupa is now ten years old, in the second grade. She still belongs to the Happy Club. In her orphanage, as in most Christian orphanages in India, there’s little money, barely enough to feed, clothe and educate the children. The Orphanage Initiative comes alongside such homes with programs designed specifically for traumatized, abandoned, and abused children with no families to take them in. In three weekly sessions, they grow spiritually, learn insights from Bible study and develop practical life skills.

Rupa became a Christ follower, giving her a clear choice other than being a victim or oppressor. Instead, she can live at peace with herself and others. She faces a much better future today, as a caring and nurturing person. Perhaps she will someday be a mother herself, completely different from the twisted person that, sadly, was her own mother.

Rupa is indeed living proof of Colossians 1:13.

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

David C Cook underwrites much of the Orphan Initiative costs, and raises the remainder from generous donors. In addition to lesson materials, leaders of the clubs, called “aunties” and “uncles,” caring adults from local Christian communities, receive special training and a small stipend. The clubs are completely unlike classroom learning. In the clubs, children form close personal bonds and receive intimate love from their leaders that becomes similar to that of healthy families.

Be part of this life-giving program. We encourage you as you think long and prayerfully about your giving. You can give one-time or become a sponsor long-term which enables you to become acquainted with the stories of the children in a specific group. It is thrilling to watch them trade their brokenness and pain for new life in Christ. Take an orphan’s hand in yours and give generously with your other, as together we rescue children from the dominion of darkness.

A typical church in rural Africa: eager children, with willing adults to teach them, but little else. This group, meeting under the shade of a big tree, is one of 25,000 congregations of the Church of Uganda. The size and history of this denomination is impressive, larger than the entire Mormon Church globally or, by another comparison, as many members as there are Jewish people in the whole world. One-third of all citizens of Uganda belong to this church. That’s 13 million members, of whom, 74% are age 30 and under. David C Cook is working with the church to develop its first-ever comprehensive children’s curriculum.

Uganda demonstrates God’s great move across the African continent. In 1900 Christians were a tiny minority. A study by the Pew Research Center found an enormous change in just one century in the number of Africans who follow Jesus

…soaring almost 70-fold from about 7 million to 470 million. Sub-Saharan Africa now is home to about one-in-five of all the Christians in the world (21%).

The big change began in 1877, when the Church Mission Society sent British believers to Uganda to share the faith. Many Africans turned to Christ but, within fewer than ten years, martyrdom began. Scores of young Christians were thrown live into a giant fire for refusing to worship the local king or participate in his sensual ceremonies. Since then, Ugandan Christians have often paid with their lives for their faith. The martyrs of Uganda are among the greatest examples of courage in recent Church history.

Yet for all their momentum and fervor, Christians in Uganda are often empty-handed, “making do” with barely any resources. A drum, a few wooden benches and the shade of a big tree are enough to gather a crowd. According to local customs, there’s nothing wrong with this, but just what do the children learn? The Church of Uganda has churches everywhere and operates over 5,000 schools across the country providing a basic education. Until now, though, there has never been a comprehensive program to ground its millions of children spiritually.

Janet Muhindo exemplifies believers who work tirelessly with children in the Church of Uganda. She heads the entire children’s ministry nationally, but also can be found on most weekends somewhere in the countryside teaching crowds of kids.

She’s so passionate about children growing into mature disciples that she’s stayed on the job for years past her scheduled retirement. Around church headquarters in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, she and other leaders often quote an African proverb:

Bend a twig while it is green

During the past year Uganda Christian University conducted an extensive survey of pastors across the country. Overwhelmingly, most of them felt ill-equipped to deal with the problems brought to them by people in their communities. Life expectancy is so short…only 53 years…that every family copes with grief. Promiscuity spreads AIDS. Acute poverty plagues most of the population, 80% of whom are subsistence farmers. Then, making hardships even worse, cultic sacrifices of children began showing up again over the last four years.

David C Cook is a ministry with 137 years of experience crafting materials designed to grow children in the faith. In addition to books, curriculum and worship music sold in First World countries, we take our best content and give it away in many parts of the world, like Uganda, where Christians cannot afford the resources they need. Offering the content free, however, is not enough. To be effective, it must fit local realities. In Uganda, for instance, children should learn about the faithfulness of martyrs in their country so they develop the same resolve to follow Christ, no matter what the cost. Cook has materials that deal with fear and trauma, but those require adaptation to help children and their families who are terrified of the kidnappings and bizarre ritualistic child murders that are becoming common. Children must be taught, specifically, how to avoid becoming victims.

Local advisory groups review and edit each lesson to make sure it addresses all the critical issues; content must fit cultural understanding. Teams in Africa and Colorado work together to assure that the life-giving message of the Gospel reaches deep and sticks.

There is a lot of material involved. The Church of Uganda wants enough content to use three ways: children’s church programs, Bible classes for weekday schools, and clubs. Each lesson is designed to capture the interest of children and then deliver an enduring message about how to build a positive life walking with Christ.

Church of Uganda leaders and their chosen advisors from clergy and several universities reviewed a variety of David C Cook children’s programs. They liked what they saw, but quickly agreed that the one they wanted was the J127 Orphan Initiative series that Cook created to heal the extreme hurts and address acute problems that orphans have. Ugandans told us that the heart-breaking issues orphans face are the very ones that pastors said they felt unqualified to help. The leadership team of the Church of Uganda enthusiastically told Cook representatives,

We want this!

Right now, editorial revisions are under way. Experts in Uganda are inserting local insights. The David C Cook team is checking learning design and packaging the lessons to be easy for village teachers to use. First editions are being published now. Later this year, these lessons will undergo extensive local testing, with plans to distribute them widely throughout Uganda beginning January 2013.

This is a project of historic proportions, requiring collaboration and hard work by Christians in both Africa and North America. Ugandans are doing their part. To make it possible, David C Cook is donating all the content, supplying editorial assistance and design, plus tens of thousands of dollars for out-of-pocket expenses. To make the materials available widely across Uganda by next January will take another $100,000. Be part of this major initiative; give generously.

This child’s face is sober, much too serious for his age. But he knows the booklet he holds so protectively carries his best and, possibly, only hope for the future. The colorful, high-quality Story of Jesus compellingly tells the life of Jesus Christ and, even more important, describes the way to salvation.

Even if they’re healthy, these children are handicapped in so many ways. They live in deep poverty in the poorest parts of Pakistan, Through the Story of Jesus, this boy will hear the Good News that God knows he exists, considers him important, and even loves and wants to connect with him.

The Story of Jesus first became available one year ago and is now in distribution throughout the world. Because circulation numbers are growing so fast, figures keep climbing. Since launch, the total is escalating past 22 million booklets. Worldwide, the specific circumstances of each group of people is different, but the Story of Jesus is bringing the message of salvation and hope to millions trapped in hard conditions.

The lives of the children pictured here are hellish even by the lowest standards. Their families and whole communities work making bricks by hand in a system called bonded servitude. Most will probably never leave the system, which, for all practical purposes, is slavery. Here’s how it works. A family, without money for food, clothing or shelter, borrows money from the brick kiln owner and agrees to pay back the loan by making bricks. The catch is that workers never earn enough to pay off the debts, and can remain in the system for generations.

Eighteen years ago Pakistan declared such a system illegal, but local politics and lax law enforcement allow the brick kilns and their miserable work forces to continue. According to UNICEF statistics, more than a quarter million Pakistani children are bonded laborers, some as young as 5 years old. They receive poor food, clothing and shelter, but virtually no education or other care. Without intervention, they usually remain illiterate slaves their entire lives.

Jesus told us in Matthew 25 that he takes it personally when we care for the “least of these.” It takes so little for these poor children and their families to discover that they are more than the bottom class in a poor country. They are actually the beloved of God.

Because of the volume producing the booklets and printing in low-cost countries, it costs ten cents or less per copy, yet each copy can become someone’s prized possession. Please give so that even more children and adults can discover the Good News.

People often ask us whether the Story of Jesus is available in North America. As of May 2012 it will be, in packets of 25 in English or Spanish, which you can buy in your local Christian bookstore or online.

The Gospel changes lives. The Story of Jesus powerfully communicates the Gospel. Be a part of spreading this life-giving message.

When you visit his church, you will meet a pastor who is missing one leg. Yet he greets everyone with a smile that stretches across his entire face. Years ago he lost a leg during the “American War” (as the Vietnamese refer to what we call the Vietnam War). While recovering in a U.S. military hospital, Truong (not his real name) heard about Jesus and chose to follow him for the rest of his life.

That life has not been easy. In 1980 he settled in a village and became an evangelist and church planter.  Early in his ministry there, he was thrilled to have two other church planters at his side. All was going well until both of them became ill and died, one leaving behind a young daughter. Truong and his wife, childless despite many years of marriage, took the girl into their home and formally adopted her.

The family has survived severe persecution, even a hand grenade attack once as they fished near their home. The reality of persecution remains strong, but dozens of new Vietnamese Christians attend services in the latest church Truong built. That gathering is growing steadily. In Vietnam, churches are intentionally built close to each other so people can reach them easily. Also, keeping each congregation relatively small lowers the risk of their becoming a target of hostilities.

What is missing for these budding fellowships is teaching materials. On a survey trip last month, David C Cook program officer Brad Quicksall found these believers had great passion and courage, but no other resources to grow their faith. Pastor Truong himself has nothing other than his Bible. Now is an urgent time to get discipleship materials to Vietnamese who are hungry for them.

David C Cook has a long history of supporting the growing Church in Vietnam, but the need is urgent now to step up these activities. Over the past decade, Cook provided valuable resources to 367,000 Vietnamese believers and seekers. Truong and his congregation are literate and desire to grow in Christ. But they are very poor, living a subsistence existence in a rural area with no transportation other than narrow waterways.

As with all our work, we have a trusted local ministry ally in Vietnam. We cannot name them for security reasons, but this is an outstanding, proven ministry group that is, fortunately, able to reach the most rural churches.

Right now we are mounting another campaign to supply more Vietnamese churches. Between now and April we are raising the final funds required to provide the resources the Vietnamese are requesting. This includes thousands of Bible commentaries, along with books on leadership, counseling and parenting. They will be delivered at no cost.

So far, a restaurant owner in the Minneapolis area and Vietnamese Christians have provided most of the money needed for this next shipment of materials. We remain short $17,500. Will you give so we can go to press? Just note that your gift is designated for Vietnam. There are few places where your giving will go further.

Pastor Truong has strong desire to reach the many small villages in his area. This next wave of materials we are sending includes 100,000 copies of the Vietnamese version of The Story of Jesus. The attractive art and clear Gospel message captures the attention of children and adults alike. Vietnamese Christians are enthusiastic about these booklets for outreach, after seeing samples, and tell us they will use them all by the end of this year and be ready for more next year.

Resourceful South Korean Christians are spreading the Gospel as they seal copies of the Story of Jesus into individual plastic packages, attach a balloon, then release the bundle into the air heading north. When the booklets release over North Korea, chances are good that someone who has never heard the Good News will pick up one.

The airborne booklet is a new, special edition of the Story of Jesus. As with all David C Cook programs, it is a joint project: this time in cooperation with Seoul USA, a group that has extensive experience working with defectors from North Korea. Seoul USA knows how to present the Gospel to the closed society of the North, where an atheist and totalitarian government blocks all contact with the outside world.

North Koreans are so isolated that they speak a dialect quite different from the Korean spoken in the South, and so the North Korean version required special translation skills, and is also organized differently from other versions of the Story of Jesus to make certain the message communicates well with its readers.

Stacks of cartons filled with the booklets have just arrived at Seoul USA offices in Korea. In coming months the Story of Jesus will enable at least 100,000 North Koreans to receive a clear presentation of the Gospel.

Reaching so many people requires multiple strategies. 70% of the people escaping the repressive North do so by crossing the border into China. So, 70,000 copies of the 100,000 are for those refugees, mostly women, many of them victims of human trafficking. At border crossings, Christians quickly come to their aid with temporary housing and food, and then help them find permanent residence in a third country, often South Korea.  The people also receive copies of the Story of Jesus. (NOTE: CNN on March 25 posted a front-page story of a woman and her daughters who escaped from North Korea through China and became Christians in the process. It is a pattern we see with tens of thousands of  people and the reason for this outreach.)

Another 15,000 copies are for those escaping North Korea via Russia. Yet another 5,000 will go to the North Koreans arriving in South Korea by other means, yet never having heard the Good News.

The remaining 10,000 copies, filling out this year’s total for Korea, are those in the airlift. The picture at the right shows the flight “vehicles,” similar to weather balloons.  Each carries a payload of 120 copies of the Story of Jesus individually sealed in airtight, thick plastic for protection (see top picture) so they arrive in good condition if it rains or they land in water.

The launch team checks wind direction and sets a timer for the drop to happen after one to three hours of flight. Following prayer over the payloads, the balloons lift off.

In mid-March, Eric Thurman, president of David C Cook’s Global Mission unit, met with North Koreans in training to establish them in their new faith and develop skills for new lives in Seoul. Eric was able to question them about their experiences. All had escaped North Korea within the last five years, some becoming believers only recently. Several said they had seen materials and Bibles dropped from previous balloon flights.

Worldwide Story of Jesus distribution is now one year old, proving to be a favorite tool for communicating the Gospel in a wide range of languages and cultures. Over 16 million copies are now circulating in 14 languages. Booklets for many more countries and languages are in current and constant development. Your giving makes it possible for even more people to discover the Gospel. Send us a note below to learn which countries are asking for more copies. Give generously to this effective evangelistic outreach.

Life as we know it will end, possibly quite soon. That prediction comes from sources as diverse as atomic scientists, superstitious people and groups, even Christians. Each believes cataclysmic change is on the horizon. However, the reasons for their thinking, and how it will happen, have little in common.

2012 is the year of destiny according to some who try to interpret the ancient Mayan calendar. They say the fact that the remarkably accurate Mayans stopped their calendar at December 21st this year means either the end of the world or, at least, a wrenching restart of the cycle of life. Hollywood tried to imagine this in a sci-fi blockbuster movie named 2012.

Atomic scientists at the University of Chicago have long believed that we are nearing proverbial midnight and, since 1947, keep moving the symbolic minute hand of their Doomsday Clock to show how close they think humanity is to self-annihilation.  Will the end come from nuclear war, climate change, some other ecological cataclysm, or biogenetic engineering? None of those possibilities is appealing.

Every few years a high-profile Christian preacher defies the explicit teaching of Scripture and sets a specific date when Christ is supposed to return. Claims about such an apocalypse made headlines repeatedly last year. It is remarkable that any Christian would dare to make such a prediction in light of Jesus’ clear teaching in Matthew 24:36 (NIV),

No one knows when that day or hour will come – not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

No wonder that all the claims to know the date of Christ’s return have proven wrong.

Yet, it remains an authentic, core Christian belief that colossal change is coming. Jesus will return. Once again, different people have widely varied notions about what will trigger Christ’s return. Some say that evil increases to a point that God must act. Others think that current instability in the Middle East escalates until an attack on Israel ushers in a new age.

The end times is an important subject for many reasons. What you believe can scare you, depress you or even drive you to build a survival shelter. Consider this instead. Let a sound understanding of what the Bible says about the end times fill you with anticipation and inspire you to constructive action. Look closely at the single clearest statement about God’s intentions for the future. These words came directly from Jesus in Matthew 24:14 (NIV).

 this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

That’s the biblical prediction: words directly from Jesus. So, rather than descending into dread, leaping into political action or military intervention, the Bible teaches that the way to look at the future is to focus on getting “the Gospel of the kingdom…in the whole world.” What could be a better cause?

David C Cook is committed to this objective. This year we are giving and subsidizing resources to churches in 135 nations. We are not quite “to all nations” yet but we are reaching more every year. We work , so far, in more than half the countries on Earth. Your giving, together with our giving, will present the Gospel to more than 15 million people this year through the Story of Jesus. Once people turn to Christ we build churches by developing leaders.

Sensational newspaper headlines, movies and radio talk shows can distract us from what is most important. Jesus told us to take this gospel “as a testimony to all nations.” Be part of taking the message. Have a part in the climax of history.

A central principle for making disciples is Life on Life. It is the personal counseling and mentoring, whether one-on-one or in small groups, that enables people to face their weaknesses and step into a new, stronger life of faith.

This is especially true for orphans. In David C Cook’s J127 Orphan Initiative, the adults who serve as “aunties and uncles” to orphans provide loving relationships for children who never had such experiences. Of course, it can take time for an abandoned child to trust any adult. Yet, through the Orphan Initiative with its gentle, personal adult involvement, young broken hearts often heal, flourish and flower remarkably quickly. Cook provides training, a detailed program and extensive support for the adults who commit to working with broken children whose parents may have committed suicide, died of AIDS, live as lepers or prostitutes or simply abandoned the children on the street.

Recently a group of willing Christians came together in Hyderabad, India to prepare for leading eight new orphan clubs in their area. These new clubs all start during March. They are nothing like educational classes or Sunday schools. Rather, they meet three times weekly in a festive atmosphere to provide spiritual formation and life skills rarely available in their dedicated, yet chronically underfunded, orphanages.

One presenter, Ravi, received his J127 training only two months ago. He shared about the transformations he’s seen among his club’s 30 participants in that short time. In one exercise he asked the children to write down names of people they wanted to forgive. One six-year-old girl wrote down 20 names of older girls who had bullied and even beaten her. Ravi, now aware of how to counsel in such situations, called all the girls together and spoke to them about God’s love and how he forgives us and so we forgive each other. Afterward came confession, forgiveness, tears, smiles and budding new friendships.

Ravi’s wife leads the club with him. He described how she realized, while reading supplemental material Cook provided on Anger Management, that she was still carrying bitterness toward a schoolteacher from years past. Her experience, he added, of working through her personal bitterness now gives her increased love and tenderness for young children overcoming bitterness from their suffering.

A visible “before and after” transformation occurs during these clubs which shows in snapshots of the children’s faces. The picture at the right is in an orphanage where one of the clubs is just forming. Visit them in a few months and you will see different, relaxed and cheerful expressions.

The aunties and uncles from the Hyderabad training will begin work immediately with 382 orphans in the eight new clubs. Eight local churches are also participating with them, an important part of bringing the orphans into healthy communities and normal life outside the institutions where they live.

The picture below is the entire group that received their initial leader training earlier this month. You can be part of this life-giving movement too. Each of these new clubs needs a sponsor. You get to know the kids, the leaders and the progress that comes from this Life on Life ministry. There’s so much in it for you, your family and friends when you get to know these children and witness their journeys. Contact David C Cook to learn how quickly you can join hands with the orphans, the aunties and the uncles as the clubs begin.