No pensions, no government assistance, and in most cases, no family support. When a woman's husband dies in many parts of Africa, not only does she lose any income he previously earned, but her deceased husband's family confiscates most, or even all, of her property, leaving her and her children destitute. Grinding poverty becomes a daily reality.

A Blessed Buffalo: 70-year-old widow Ananda Suvarthamma, a prayer warrior who lives in Andhra Pradesh, India, wept tears of joy when she received this buffalo which she knew would provide milk for her to drink and sell.

"You come with a Bible in one hand, but what do you bring in the other?" That was a question posed long ago to the first missionaries to Kenya. "Our people need food for their souls—and for their empty stomachs!" At Heaven's Family we do our best to remember the Apostle James' words, "Faith without works is dead," and focus on the needs of the whole person. Meeting pressing needs is particularly relevant when you are serving, as we are, in some of the poorest places on earth, where so many struggle to survive from one day to the next. As one missionary succinctly summed up the importance of meeting both spiritual and physical needs: "Dead people can't hear the gospel."