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!

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.

You may recall that a few months ago we told you about Deborah Kalulu from Mombasa, Kenya. Deborah was born with spina-bifida, a disability that requires her to use forearm crutches and leg braces to get around. But these mobility issues have not deterred her in the least from her aspirations to become financially independent so that she can support her family.

Deborah is challenged with a birth defect called spina bifida, which makes her life in Kenya especially difficult. And because of her limited mobility, she has experienced great difficulty finding work to support her family.