How Everyday People Live Out Their Christian Faith

Illustrating how men and women display their love for Jesus in their day-to-day lives.
Little things that may have an eternal impact. Might these stories motivate you to use your talents?
  • Children Overcoming Obstacles

    CUDDLES FOR CLEFTS

    When I was pregnant with my second child, I went in for a routine doctor’s appointment at 19 weeks. I was stunned when the doctor came back and told me our son would be born with a cleft lip and possibly a cleft palate. I instantly became a pool of tears. The doctor really didn’t know how to handle such a diagnosis. He told me to pick a strong name for my son and then hurried me out the door. Our family was shocked. I felt alone and desperate. I could only focus on the television images I’d seen where they’re asking for support for children overseas who needed surgery. A turning point for me was when I connected with a mom who had a cleft-affected daughter. She opened my eyes to the incredible cleft community. How they support one another. In fact, a member of that community sent us a care package when our son went in for his first surgery when he was four months old. And that’s when the idea for my ministry began. Cuddles For Clefts is a nonprofit organization with the mission to provide comfort and support as you or someone you love goes through a cleft-related operation. We want to come alongside you to show that you are not alone in your journey. We do this by providing a care package, called a Cuddle Pack, that is sent to the individual undergoing surgery. Each Cuddle Pack includes four items: a t-shirt or onesie which says, “Every Smile Has a Story”, a teddy bear with a scar… Read More

    May 25, 2022
  • Adoption/Foster Care Children

    ASSISTING FOSTER FAMILIES

    I understand how important a loving, stable environment is to the well-being of a child. I grew up with parents who were continually trying to figure out their marriage and careers. Because of that, I was often left alone. Except during summer! The excitement and anticipation grew throughout the end of the school year, knowing that I would soon board the plane that connected me to my grandmother’s world; a world of consistency, encouragement, and fun! As I grew older each year, the excitement of those months never diminished. I still cannot wait for the time to come to visit Grammy with my husband and two teenage children every year. In the chaos of my childhood, my grandmother laid a solid foundation for much of who I am today. As a mother, it is a joy to see my own children growing up with an environment that allows each of them to safely and successfully grow into adulthood. As an individual who has overcome an unstable childhood, I have always desired to provide for children with similar situations as my own through fostering. Because of certain circumstances, my family and I are not able to provide this ministry in our own home. God has led us to a church that sees fostering and adopting children as important. I have several friends who do just that. After obtaining my certification to babysit children placed in foster care, I am able to love on and help care for the children my friends and church family are providing a more stable environment to. I run errands,… Read More

    May 18, 2022
  • Adoption/Foster Care Hospital Loss Of Loved One

    FULFILLING HER PATIENT’S DYING WISH

    I was a nurse in the oncology unit of a hospital when one of my cancer patients asked me a question that took me completely off-guard. She asked if I would take care of her eight-year-old son, Wesley, if she passed away. We had only known each other for 10 days. Tricia had some stomach pains and a CT scan revealed she had an extremely rare form of vascular cancer. She had undergone a number of difficult chemotherapy treatments which had some devastating side effects. She got extremely sick very quickly, and had to be hospitalized. As her nurse on her first day in the hospital, I knew her condition was serious. She wasn't my patient after that first day but I felt a nudge to continue checking on her after taking care of my other patients. I enjoyed our chats and learned a lot more about her situation. After being around her, I could sense that she didn’t have many people in her life that could help. Tricia’s parents had passed away and Wesley’s father wasn’t active in his life. She had moved to Pennsylvania because she was the victim of domestic violence and needed a fresh start. So she didn’t know a lot of people here. She was due to check out after a 10-day stay, so I stopped by to say goodbye. Tricia had just gotten the lab report from her biopsy. It was a terminal case of cancer and doctors had told her there was nothing else they could do for her. That’s when she asked if I would take care of Wesley… Read More

    May 11, 2022
  • Overcoming Obstacles Prison Ministry

    MALACHI DADS

    My husband Jimmy and I have been working with a prison ministry called “Malachi Dads” for the last five years. It is different from other prison ministries in that we meet as couples with men in the prisons who have children. Our weekly discipleship program starts with the salvation message, and then focuses on the verse in Malachi 4:6: He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. We teach the men about healthy marriages and how to be good fathers to their children, encouraging them to write to them on a regular basis. My husband and I also take time to write each of them on a regular basis. Relationship is the key to the ministry, and the thing that we believe brings transformation. Our year-long program ends with a “Returning Hearts Day.” The prison allows one day for all family members to come for a full contact visit, with everyone eating, playing together and enjoying one another. At the end of this day, we have a graduation ceremony where each person receives a graduation certificate. One of the things that impacted me most through the years of working with these men is that no one is irredeemable. God can do anything, and He can change anyone. Often times, we see that unforgiveness is something that haunts many of them. One inmate we worked with seemed to be struggling with this in his life, so Jimmy wrote him a letter to bring it before God. When we saw him a month… Read More

    May 4, 2022
  • Overcoming Obstacles Unique Ministries

    FIGHTING WITH HOPE

    Unfortunately, I have become an expert on the side effects of chemotherapy since I’ve had 35 brutal rounds. I know firsthand what this does to your body. I’m now trying to use this knowledge to help my fellow cancer patients and make Jesus known in a unique way. I was a healthy 27-year-old when I was first diagnosed with colon cancer. Then the wonderful world my husband and I had built was suddenly rocked to its core. Surgeons removed a foot of my colon and all of the nearby lymph nodes after a colonoscopy revealed a “mass” blocking most of my transverse colon. When the pathology report came back, 13 of the 23 lymph nodes were cancerous. I was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer. Even though the surgery removed all of the known cancer, I immediately began 12 rounds of devastating chemo. At the end of those 12 rounds, I was declared “no evidence of disease” and remained that way for about 6 months until a PET scan showed that the cancer had spread to my lungs and I was now considered to be in Stage 4. In my three years of battling cancer, I’ve been through about a dozen surgeries, 35 rounds of chemo, and two months of chemo in pill form. Being on chemotherapy really takes a toll on your quality of life and eventually each treatment tends to no longer be effective. So, I'm now on immunotherapy, a relatively new therapy. A standard chemo attacks and kills all your cells, good and bad. With immunotherapy, the medicine can target specific genetic markers to determine if a cell is healthy or cancerous. If the… Read More

    April 27, 2022
  • Loving Your Neighbor Mission Work Verbalizing the Gospel

    VISION BEYOND BORDERS

    Vision Beyond Borders grew behind the desire to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to those who have no hope. We go into oppressed or impoverished areas all over the world and simply ask them what they need. We then try to help and serve them in any way we can which opens up the door for us to share the good news of the Gospel. Our ministry started 30 years ago by providing Bibles in native languages to people around the globe who were persecuted for their faith. I was in southeast Asia and met a pastor who had spent 22 years in a Chinese prison for his faith in Jesus Christ. I asked him how we could help the church in mainland China. He said to pray, but also to supply Bibles. So, we started raising money and smuggling hundreds of Bibles to them every time we visited. There is no greater joy than giving someone a Bible in their own language. What greater gift can we give someone than the Word of God that they can understand? It is truly life-changing. China is saying one thing to the outside world, but what we’re seeing on the ground is that persecution is increasing. It is dangerous for both us and those receiving the Bibles. But we continue to spread God’s word. During the last three decades, we have brought over two million Bibles and 15,000 hand-wind tape players containing the Gospel into closed countries. When I was in these countries, I felt a great urge and then… Read More

    April 20, 2022

Browse all categories

Adoption/Foster Care 38
Children 157
Church Activities 59
Financial Help 18
Food 40
Homeless 33
Hospital 44
Labor 162
Loss Of Loved One 38
Loving Your Neighbor 66
Mentoring 48
Mission Work 51
Other 12
Overcoming Obstacles 111
Prayer 57
Prison Ministry 11
Recovery 46
Senior Citizens 22
Special Needs 47
Unique Ministries 160
Verbalizing the Gospel 73
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