We at Compassion Radio call your attention to this emergency notice, believing that some of your hearts will be touched by this crisis.

If you do not have $5.00 which you might relinquish to help save a life, do not feel obligated to read any further. 

Because our radio programming is done several weeks in advance, we cannot bring this information to you on the air immediately. But, those of you visiting the web site are in a position to help immediately, if you will. 

Many of you prayed for our safety during our recent visit to Pakistan. Our programming preceded the world's attention to this need by a full year. Now, finally, everyone is aware of the incredible need for help with the Afghan situation, both in the refugee camps and in the population at large.

Many of the incredible Christian workers with whom we spent time are focused almost exclusively on this growing horror. The numbers in the refugee camps are growing by hundreds each day. This next week, in just one camp, they expect to receive another 18,000 people! (3500 families). These will be added to the tens of  thousands who have already arrived in the last few months. The UNHCR is trying to supply tents, but there are just too many people and not enough tents, and it takes time. So the people just use whatever bits of plastic sheet, cardboard or cloth they may be able to find to fashion small makeshift shelters.. 

We quote here a communication received on Friday:

“We have a full-fledged emergency on our hands: hundreds of new refugees continue daily to pour across the Pak/Afghan border, fleeing from the double-barreled shotgun of the region’s worst drought in living memory, and in northern Afghanistan, from never-ending internecine warfare which is as senseless as it is brutal. It is the middle of the winter, and it is unbearably cold for exhausted families with undernourished children who’ve been forced to forsake their small mud-walled homes and have traveled a week or more through hostile territory, often on foot, finally to land here on a desolate patch of dry desert with the few belongings they were able to carry (their load lightened, though by no means mercifully, by what the Taliban and border guards extorted or outright stole from them along the way.) The families now huddle together out in the open on the ground with nothing underneath and perhaps a bit of plastic sheet overhead. Many are sick and most have had very little food for days. The children are the hardest hit: nearly two dozen have died in the past week; one family alone has lost three little ones. 

“We are trying to mount up an emergency relief effort to provide quilts and food for these poor people. We can provide quilts for about $3.10 and a hot cooked meal for about $0.15 per family.” 

Friends, we have personally been to these sites. We have seen the incredible work being done to save lives and to share God’s love. We have seen the love shown by the refugees to these “foreigners”. They are seeing the love of God displayed so graphically.

We have sampled the amazingly tasty hot beans and rice mixture, mixed in huge vats, which is served to the families once daily! We have looked at the defeat in the eyes of fathers who cannot provide for their families. Among those mothers whose eyes you could see (most being in full burqa with not even the eye slit) you could see both desperation and appreciation. We hugged these mothers as they clung to us. We played with the children. We helped carry their heavy loads of steaming rice and beans in their plastic pans. We can attest that any money given for this cause will be used prudently and well. 

Would you help try to save a life still in need of knowing Jesus by providing a thin $3.10 quilt and 15 cents for food? $40 would give the average family of six members 2 quilts each, one for protection underneath from the frigid ground, and one above. And for $50, we can serve a hot, nutritious meal to more than 330 hungry people! Every gift of $5.00 will be a step in the direction of saved lives. Think of the lives a gift of $50, or $100, or $500 or even $5,000 could save! 

You can give by Visa or MasterCard. Simply follow the link below to make your donation. All gifts designated will be used for that purpose.

Or, you may call our office at (800) 868-2478 and make your gift. You may also mail your donation to Compassion Radio, Post Office Box 2770, Orange, CA 92630, with a note designating your gift for Pakistan.

We pray for God’s leading in your mind and life.

Faithfully,

Norm and Cher Nelson

Compassion Radio

CR@CompassionRadio.com  

SEPTEMBER-11 2007 | JULY-27 2004 | JANUARY 2004 | JUNE-5 2002 | JUNE-4 2002 | JUNE-3 2002 | JUNE-2 2002 | JUNE-1 2002 | MAY 2002 | MARCH 2002 | SEPTEMBER-1 2001 | AUGUST 2001 | JUNE 2001 | JANUARY-3 2001 | JANUARY-2 2001 | JANUARY-1 2001