by Ed Lyons

Chaos is not restricted to Sudan’s borders. The author of confusion and disorder runs rampant throughout the world. We find disunity, distractions and disharmony everywhere.

There is only one solution to all the chaos, and that is Jesus Christ.

Jesus brings peace where there is turmoil, truth where there are lies, and direction where there is uncertainty.

Thus, Christ must be the foundation from which all of PPF’s ministries originate.

Recently, I had the privilege of sharing that message with over 100 teenagers at Virginia’s Camp Red Arrow, a summer Christian camp where young people were drawn out of the “chaos” of the world for a week. With no access to Internet, television, radio, or social media, campers focused exclusively on hearing from God.

I was there to share with the campers what God is doing through PPF, and what He can do in and through them.

I related various aspects of Persecution Project’s ministry to Jesus’ own ministry in chapters 4 through 7 of the Gospel of John. For instance, PPF’s Safe Water Projects flow from Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. As we repair Nuba boreholes, these locations become wonderful places to share the Good News. Wells are natural gathering spots for people, who pass the time with conversation.

In John 4 and 5, Jesus heals two individuals of illnesses and infirmities. As a result, those who are healed (and in one case, the person’s entire household) believe in Him. Likewise, PPF delivers medicines and medical supplies to the Nuba region, and we are helping construct Gigaiba Hospital, all in an effort to point people to the life-giving, life-sustaining love of Christ. In fact, our hospital chaplaincy program enables Nuba pastors to share Jesus with patients and staff and heal souls while the medical staff heal bodies.

From Scripture, we understand that Jesus was often moved with compassion when He saw the multitudes, who were like sheep without a Shepherd. In John 6, the crowds are fed by Jesus through a miracle of provision. All of PPF’s Relief and Shelter outreaches support our Active Compassion for the Persecuted. Whether providing emergency food, relief packs, hygiene kits for women, tarps, mosquito nets, cooking utensils, clothing, school supplies, dairy goats, or any of the other items that we distribute, PPF hopes to encourage Christians by letting them know God has not forgotten them. By showing compassion and presenting the Gospel, we also hope to bring unbelievers to Christ.

Finally, in John 7, we find that Jesus’ own brothers did not yet believe that He was the long-awaited Messiah. Later in that chapter, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (vv 37-38)

“Rivers of living water” flowing out of us, just as they did the Samaritan woman in John 4 when she immediately shared Jesus with members of her village… and many of them believed in Him because of the words she had said.

Thank you for allowing His living water to flow through you. Overcoming evil with good – one word and one deed at a time.