Jamida had a bright future—she was young, beautiful and looked forward to a promising nursing career. The 18-year-old Ugandan was also engaged to be married, but her Islamic parents adamantly refused to let her marry a man who was not a Muslim. Jamida broke the sad news to her fiancé.

Over the past few weeks I have had the enormous pleasure of meeting some of the most hospitable people on the globe. In response to my "hello" or "greetings," I keep receiving the words, "Welcome, welcome," from warm, expressive faces. Beneath the sincere salutations and gleaming white smiles is something even more beautiful: incredible tenacity and fortitude. Each day I've been meeting people who live each day in circumstances that I myself would have considered hopeless. All these things are making it very easy for me to fall in love with this place and its people!

Need a door or window frame for your home, or a beautiful table made of teak wood for your kitchen? Chan Awi is not yet shipping outside his home country of Myanmar, we're sorry to say, but perhaps someday he will!

I first met Boaz and Murali on my trip to India for the Leprosy Ministry in 2012. I had come to meet the students we had begun sponsoring for school the year before, and we were eager to start our first Vacation Bible School for about 100 children, some of whom were from a nearby orphanage. Boaz was one of the praise and worship leaders, playing some "mean" drums, and Murali was right at my side directing the activities for the rambunctious kids. We had a spirited time, and these two fine young men became my faithful program directors every year since, including last November.

Whenever I wander through a foreign land, I try to identify with the stark reality that so many live on a razor's edge, never knowing one day to the next how their needs will be met...if at all. Without total faith in our Lord I easily become paralyzed in heartbreak. I ask for your prayers to direct these emotional floodwaters into the channels of the Lord's will so that I can be His instrument and your servant to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.

Did you know that during the last 20 years the largest human migration in history has taken place—and hardly anyone in the outside world knew about it? This migration took place in China, when hundreds of millions of people left their home villages in the countryside to seek employment and a better life in big cities. The city where our training is based—centrally located in a region that contains hundreds of unreached people groups—witnessed a huge influx of people from the surrounding countryside. These are people who have no knowledge of Jesus, and no viable church among them.

My heart was stolen a year ago when I met 9 precious young girls who were rescued from warring Dinka and Nuer tribes in the newly formed South Sudan, Africa. Each of them carries a horrific story about losing their families and becoming orphans less than 2 years ago. They were made to witness atrocities that no child should ever see.

A horde of police officers and government officials poured into the village under cover of darkness. Their mission: to harass and threaten Sister Yang and the other A-Che Christians with severe punishment if they received Pastor Fang every again.

Bahira and her family had to flee from their home in Syria when militants captured their city. They found refuge in another part of Syria, but now live in an unfinished building with only a roof over their heads—no walls, no electricity and no water—an "apartment" they must pay $67 a month for. But it's better than the alternative...and it's winter in Syria now, too.

A broken arm...for 3 years? I thought incredulously. I'd known Katun for almost 5 years—and even used pictures of her to describe life in the leprosy colonies of Hyderabad, India (there she is smiling in the Leprosy Ministry banner at top)—but never noticed her arm was broken! (She had a way of hiding it from visitors.)