Updated September 11, 2026

Our God has a tender heart for the hurting people of this world. Read updates about our ongoing efforts to deliver gospel-focused relief to those in need: Venezuela, Ukraine, and a Creative Access Nation.  

Your gifts are greatly appreciated by us and especially by those being helped. 

Earthquakes: Venezuela, Peru, Columbia

From June to August 2026, major earthquakes rocked South America’s northeast coast. World Relief gifts sent help to churches in the affected countries, allowing God’s people to deliver physical aid and the gospel to those in need. 

Venezuela

A June 24 quake brought devastation to the La Guaira area in north-central Venezuela. Among five Venezuelan churches with BMM connections, 52 church members died. More than 100 believers lost their homes, experienced housing damage, or had to move out of the area.  

Using World Relief gifts, Pastor Rafael, the leader of the five-church fellowship, organized food distributions and ongoing meals to earthquake victims and workers. He and his church members regularly give the gospel to those they help. The pastor also had funds to buy a jackhammer to help workers recover bodies. Because the government’s help has run out, this assistance has been invaluable. The people of La Guaira have become more open to the gospel in this time. 

Peru

The state of Junin experienced a July 19 earthquake that killed several villagers and left a significant number of others homeless. A BMM Trujillo Bible college graduate, Pastor Samuel, supplied food and blankets using World Relief funds. His church in Huancayo, The Potter’s Baptist Church, aided people in the villages of Pumpunya, Chonta, and Chupuro.  After receiving the aid, the villagers gathered to hear Pastor Samuel preach the gospel.

Pastor Samuel is a Peruvian missionary pastor sent out by Victory Baptist Church in Trujillo, which was started by father-and-son BMM missionaries Stephen Stilwell and David Stilwell. 

Columbia

On August 11, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Columbia’s Chocó province. We received word that Pastor Kevin of Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Pereira, experienced the loss of his rented church facilities. Many of his church members’ homes were damaged, and they had almost no spare funds to meet the church’s expenses. Many in the area lost their jobs due to damage in the city’s commercial center. 

World Relief funds helped Pastor Kevin and his church share food with displaced people and recovery workers, and funds were used to help rebuild facilities. The gospel was shared with those receiving the aid. 

A gift to World Relief will allow our trusted contacts to assist churches as they care for their people’s needs. We honor your contributions by using them to the fullest extent to help those for whom they are given. For accountability, our contacts send us detailed reports of their use of World Relief funds.

Ukraine

In the four years since the start of the Ukraine War, relief efforts continue to meet the needs of Ukrainians trying to live with the brutal, ongoing effects of the conflict.

From the beginning of the war, BMM Slovakia missionaries Don and LeAnne Waite have delivered supplies to Ukrainians. In November 2025, they made yet another delivery to their Ukrainian ministry partners. This time, the Waites’ larger goal was to bring a new necessity: encouragement. After four years of dangerous, nonstop ministry to hurting people, Ukrainian Christian leaders are growing physically and emotionally weary.

Refreshment that keeps them going

The Waites spent several days with a Ukrainian missionary family, Vova and Laura, on a mini retreat in a more peaceful part of the country. Sightseeing, hiking, and spending the Thanksgiving holiday together refreshed them all, even while they dealt with rolling blackouts.

Efforts like this help Ukrainian Christian workers keep going in their essential work. Because of the hardships, they are having unprecedented opportunities to counsel and share Christ. Vova and his team regularly visit hardest-hit areas. In one ongoing opportunity, they meet with three groups of 200 men each, with freedom and receptivity to share the gospel. Leonid and Natasha, another couple that the Waites have helped, continue to host displaced people in their small home—often 20-40 people at a time. Through Leonid and Natasha’s Bible studies, at least 16 have been baptized and added to their local church.

Creative Access Nation

In an Asian Creative Access Nation, a wearying civil war has stretched on for several years, forcing many ethnic minorities—most of whom are Christians—to flee to the jungles and mountains for safety. Prior to the conflict, BMM missionaries had worked incountry to translate the Bible and teach literacy in partnership with nationals.

In the absence of missionaries on the ground, national pastors and church planters have been serving as our trusted contacts to provide relief aid to their internally displaced countrymen. Through generous donations, World Relief has provided food, cottages for shelter, and medicine to believers and unbelievers alike. Some of the recipients were blind people who had no way of acquiring food. Like the other recipients, they received sacks of food, cooking oil, blankets, mosquito nets, and tarps. Along with physical relief, our national partners distributed 450 Bibles, 1200 New Testaments, and 1200 Gospels of John and other Christian books.

In one district, the war turned more than 40 villages into battlefields. Our national contacts had previously planted six churches among these villages. When aid was distributed, the unbelieving villagers became interested in knowing about God and salvation. In the last two years, six national missionaries have conducted evangelistic crusades and carried out more than 20 Bible teaching campaigns for the villagers. 

Praise the Lord that so far 98 people have accepted Christ and been baptized. Among believers, the relief made them feel that God remembered and cared for them. These Christians became like missionaries to those around them, sharing God’s goodness even in the jungles.

Can you help?

God never brings suffering without a desire to lead people to salvation or to cause His believers to grow. He is using our missionary teams in these pivotal locations to be a living testimony of His compassion to hurting people. Your gift to World Relief equips them to bring God’s light into their darkness.

Give to World Relief through our Projects page (choose #4).

To give by mail, make checks out to Baptist Mid-Missions Foundation with “World Relief” in the memo line. Mail to:

Baptist Mid-Missions

PO Box 308011

Cleveland, OH 44130-8011

Count on us

Our goal is to be ready to bring relief both to Christians and to unsaved people that the Lord wants to touch with the gospel. We honor your contributions by using them to the fullest extent to help those for whom they are given, and for accountability our missionaries send us detailed reports of their use of World Relief funds.

Please keep our missionaries in prayer for wisdom and endurance in their efforts. They want to effectively provide for and comfort the hurting, even while balancing existing ministries in their already-busy schedules.

Thank you for helping us help others in the name of Christ.