Your GMO at Work … Exciting Stories from Germany, Turkey, and Syria

Kainos Says Thank You

Thank you very much for the difference you will be making in the lives of women and their children!  Our mission has remained the same — God has a new beginning and a new life for every woman and child who has been trafficked.  New Life Haus, a home for these women and children, will be a part of this, and no pandemic can stop God’s plan!

A safe environment to heal and find freedom is needed even more now.  Many women found themselves stranded in Germany, without food or resources that most Germans have available to them.  Because of this, we are reaching more women than ever before.

In Stuttgart and in Kaiserslautern, we are reaching 35+ women and children with weekly groceries.  And every week our numbers are increasing for food.  Most of us do not know what it is like to be hungry.  IBC churches are helping in this area.  Recently an IBC Stuttgart home group provided for all the groceries for 10!  This same home group helped with the delivery of new clothing for the women.  After experiencing what God is doing and being a part of real and practical needs, their eyes were opened.

We also shared with the home groups about the online outreach that we have just begun and the great need for security when we search the web.  One individual from a home group provided two new computers because they “experienced” the need of the women.  This IBC home group is a part of taking Jesus to the women hidden in the dark!  Yes, Jesus has called us to share His love to the ends of the world, and we are seeking to go “to the ends of the virtual world”!

We cherish your prayers, and thank you so much for what you are doing.

Lana Packer and all the Kainos Team

From Turkish Baptist Alliance

Part of our Global Missions Offering went to support the churches in the Turkish Baptist Alliance.  We’ve received copies of some of their recent prayer letters.

One pastor writes, “I am indeed very grateful for all your prayer support as well as the financial support to meet these needs which contributes to all God is doing in this area. From those of us working here in Turkey sharing the Gospel where there’s so very few workers, to see all that God is doing is amazing, and we’re very thankful to all of you for your behind the scenes support.”

Another pastor writes, “The mayor organized a New Year’s Concert in our church.  The church was full and many had to stand.  Many also visited our book table.  What for you is normal is for us a miracle.  Muslims entering a church even though many believe it is ‘unclean.’ In the middle of a Muslim world, God is doing miracles.”

A third pastor writes, “As you know, we have been planting seeds in the region where we have been for about five years. Praise be, we have witnessed that many have taken our Lord Jesus Christ into their lives. We are in prayer that the sown seeds yield abundant crops. And we have started to see the buds as like the first buds of spring appeared. Please continue praying with us so that these buds turn into fruits and grow and develop in the Lord.”

Like IBC churches, the Turkish churches were also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown.  One pastor writes, “It still feels weird as we write these lines, because we are a 10-15-minute walk from some families in our church, but we cannot meet with them in person.”  Their church did a “live” broadcast of their Easter Sunday service.  The pastor writes, “We even had guests on our live event and that was without doubt a good occasion to share the gospel to a greater number of persons than through the meetings indoors.”

Adana Baptist Church Reports on Refugees in Idlib

We loaded the aid packages filled with food, blankets and other materials to the Red Crescent convoy and took them to Idlib province of Syria in April. After waiting at the border for a period, we entered Syria. We encountered a terrible scene in Syria. The buildings are ruined; people are living in tents in fear, under miserable and difficult conditions. There were many children. They caught my attention. The children felt very happy when they saw our convoy; they ran towards us. They were expecting only chocolate from us. We were well prepared. We took some packages of chocolate with us. We delighted the kids, and then we took the food, blankets, and other necessary materials to the houses and tents one-by-one, as we had previously planned.

The help was distributed to about 3,500-4,000 people. We chose food rich in protein to help with nutrition for the children and young mothers who are breast-feeding.  Children in the camps are getting sick and dying because of hunger.  We also think that the blankets were very needed, as there is still cold weather in the north of Syria, and it rains frequently now.

Those living in the tents are also not protected against the current pandemic of coronavirus; yet there is not a current assessment of that. The conditions they live in predispose them to other contagious diseases as well.

After Assad’s forces and the aircraft of Russia bombed, people fled towards the border with Turkey as their homes were ruined.  They told us that the Turkish Red Crescent saved them; they would have died if it were not for the Turkish Red Crescent. My eyes were full when I heard it. I was asking myself why there are so many soldiers in this area. But the Turkish soldiers are there to help provide security and to help those in need as much as they can.

People who were living in tents felt very happy and thanked the people who helped. A few million people live in the area, and they do not have clean drinking water. They boil dirty water and give it to their children to drink. People live in a very difficult situation and have accepted these aids given to them as a miracle of the Lord. We, as people delivering help, are very happy that we deliver these materials to those in need and that we have done a good thing.

Old people wanted us not to forget them, and they told that they need a lot of help. They said that they will eat the food we sent to them little by little; they will cook a lot of juicy food to make it economic. They keep dry foods to eat them later, and they thanked to us.

There are so many tents that you cannot imagine. I did not know that so many people have migrated.  We give aid to people, but both Europe and all the world should really help the Syrians. Otherwise, more people will die because of hunger. There is a huge disaster in Syria. A Syrian told us, “We did not forget the world. The world also shouldn’t forget Idlib. I thank the people who made these donations. They showed us that human being is still not dead. There is hunger, misery, and bad conditions in Syria.”