There’s nothing more special than receiving a brand-new book, especially when you live where they are hard to come across. In America, we are fortunate to have a plethora of books to choose from in local libraries or to buy, but for some people in developing countries, that simply isn’t the case. Students at Lutheran High School North in St. Louis wanted to help send books to Africa to spread the joy of reading to those who might not get the opportunity to have books.

You may remember that during the 2019 National Youth Gathering, participants from around the country helped us to pack twenty-six tons of Bibles, books, and other Christ-centered resources. These boxes were sent out to the 1,500 congregations that participated in NYG to encourage evangelism within their own communities.

We all have different talents. We know this; we experience it daily. It’s an incredible thing to watch different people with different skills work towards a united goal. The Word speaks to this concept by saying: “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body” (1 Cor 12:17–20). St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington, Illinois, and their recent mission trip to Belize provide a great example of this message in action. Because of your gifts to Concordia Gospel Outreach, we were able to play a small role in God’s work in Belize.

Imagine asking 22,000 youth to take roughly twenty to thirty minutes, or even more, out of their busy National Youth Gathering schedule—a trip they’ve planned for and anticipated for years—to pack boxes with forty pounds of books each. And not one box but many. And more. And more and more. And then to stack those boxes on pallets so they can be sent to complete strangers throughout the United States. Easy, right? They’d jump at the opportunity, wouldn’t they? Well, they would—and they did!

Just a few weeks ago, stories of Nebraska flooded headlines around the United States. The combination of melting snow, heavy rain, and flat farmland resulted in catastrophic flooding across hundreds of miles of the state.

Imagine struggling to find community, but you can’t afford housing and need to keep moving. You’ve had a cough for a month, but you don’t have health insurance so you can’t afford to see a doctor. And you have a Bible, but it’s in a language you don’t understand.

It was the day before Christmas break, and the whole school had come together in the gym for chapel. There were young wiggly kids and kids who had lost several baby teeth and the more mature preteens, all dressed in their uniform pleated skirts, slacks, and polos. With the excitement of Christmas break ahead, the usual semi-organized chaos was ticked up to another level.

When Christ Community International (CCI) sent a group to Kawete, Uganda, this past spring, they wanted to help the community in a variety of different ways.