Christmas Appeal 2011

Help us feed hungry Christians this Christmas

“The Good Lord has seen us. This food has come from God himself.”

Starvation and desperation

This year the Horn of Africa has been gripped by the worst drought for 60 years. More than 13 million people, including many Christians, have been affected across Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and parts of Uganda. In desperation, families have resorted to eating leaves and poisonous wild fruits.

Monthly food parcels for Christians in Pakistan can help families to get out of grinding poverty

South-east Asia has also been hit by severe natural disaster this year; seasonal rains and back-to-back typhoons have devastated parts of the region, destroying homes, livelihoods and infrastructure. At least eight million people have been affected by severe flooding and landslides that have killed hundreds of people, over a quarter of them children. The flooding is already estimated to be the worst in 50 years.

As Muslim extremists attempt to “cleanse” Iraq of Christians, thousands of families have fled their homes to relatively stable parts of northern Iraq or to the nearby countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. But many struggle to obtain legal status in neighbouring countries and are not allowed to work there. Without jobs, they cannot afford food for their families.

Elsewhere, Christian communities are becoming increasingly needy after decades of discrimination and persecution. Some of Egypt’s poorest Christians earn a living from collecting, sorting and reprocessing garbage in Cairo. Many Christian families in Pakistan barely have enough money for food, so they cannot afford to send their children to school. Children remain uneducated, keeping them in the life-destroying cycle of poverty and illiteracy.

Tears of joy

Barnabas Fund has been helping thousands of Christians around the world who are hungry and in dire need. From emergency famine feeding in times of crisis to monthly food parcels, we are helping to change lives.

Across drought-stricken east Africa, we have helped to feed 82,000 Christians. After one distribution to 630 Christian families at a refugee camp in famine-ravaged Kenya some people responded with tears of joy as they received rice, beans, sugar and cooking oil. Parents were also given porridge flour to provide additional nutrition for their children. One church leader said, “This is a true demonstration of how much the Lord cares.”

In Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines, we are providing emergency supplies, from food, blankets and mosquito nets to boats, seed and fertiliser for farmers who lost their rice crops in the floods.

We also supply Christian families in Pakistan and Egypt, as well as displaced Iraqi Christians, with monthly food parcels to help them survive.

Help us to help them

Our Lord calls us to assist our hungry brothers and sisters as they struggle to provide for their families. We would like to invite you to prayerfully consider giving a Christmas gift to our Feeding Fund, to enable us to direct help to Christians who are in desperate need at this time. If you have recently given to Barnabas Fund, please do not feel pressured to do so again, but please do pray for Christians who are in desperate need at this time.

With our Lord’s blessings at this special time of year as we celebrate our Lord’s birth,

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo
International Director, Barnabas Fund

PS. This year we have decided not to mail copies of our Advent prayer booklet to all our supporters. However it can be downloaded from our website here. Alternatively, you can order a paper copy by contacting our Coventry office on 024 7623 1923.

Give Today

£18 helps a needy Christian family in Pakistan with nutritious food for one month

£45 provides food for a family of Iraqi Christian refugees in Syria for three months

If you would like to donate please send your donation to:

Feeding Fund (00-636)  Donate 00-636 .

Alternatively, you may give to the General Fund (00-000)   Donate 00-000
and allow Barnabas to use it wherever the need is greatest.

If you prefer to telephone, dial: 0800 587 4006 from within the UK or +44 1672 565031 from outside the UK. Please quote project reference 00-636 (Feeding Fund).

If you prefer to send a cheque by post: Click this link for the address of our regional office. Please quote project reference 00-636 (Feeding Fund).

For a quick donation of £3.00 by SMS (see terms and conditions here) text Barnabas/636 to 70007 (Please note: This facility is currently available only to UK supporters).