Christmas is marked as a season where families are reunited after a long year of hard work, and can finally enjoy a period of stillness together. Christmas allows us to reflect on everything that was accomplished during the year, and to prepare for the new challenges that 2021 will bring. This year, Christmas will feel completely different for most people. Because of Covid-19, many families will be seperated, while others continue to deal with the trauma of loss. In darkness, hopelessness is unavoidable, but in the everlasting light of Christ, we can find living hope.

“And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

This year, many countries, that previously experienced unrestricted freedom, got a small taste of what life is like when freedom is abruptly taken away. As a result, the number of people dealing with depression, fear and suicide has increased dramatically around the world. Where circumstances have returned to normal, and especially in countries where people do not know Christ, this Christmas will just be another day on their calendar.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, Rica Rahim desperately sought out an escape from an endless feeling of fear and anxiety stirring within her.

Rica found herself longing for peace that she could not find. She had a Christian friend who led a life of peace, but she could never understand it. One day she decided to visit a church;

“Finally, I visited a church in my city. I went in, that day was a very strange day for me. I didn’t know anyone in church. I sat in the back seat, I listened to the songs and the word. The second week I did the same thing again,” Rica explained.

On the third week that she had intended to return to church, Rica fell ill, was hospitalised and could not attend church. It was on that day that she lay in the hospital bed that her whole life changed.

“I experienced something that was beyond all reason. I cried in the hospital, not because of my illness, but I felt a deep longing to meet the figure that I felt when I entered the church. I don’t know, I never saw that figure because the figure was not visible. All I felt was at the church there was peace that was unlike what I felt before.”

Rica’s illness restricts her from attending church services, but because of the radio she is able to hear the Word of God and grow in her faith.

She said, “Now every night I listen to the radio broadcasts, I am growing stronger in Christ.”

There are millions still out there in the world like Rica, who have never known Jesus Christ intimately, who have never had the opportunity to surrender their lives to Him. No alter calls, no street evangelists, no 1500 – seater churches around every corner, no sound of worship filling the streets at open air conferences. If it was not for her Christian friend who was one of our listeners, and introduced her to Christianity… She may have never found the peace she was desperately looking for.

Will you help us give the greatest gift of discovering peace in Jesus Christ to someone this Christmas?

You can be the one to give the greatest gift you could ever give this Christmas and help share the gospel and provide access to God’s Word in areas where there is minimal or no access to the gospel and even less religious freedom. If you give the gift of knowing Jesus Christ to someone who is living in total darkness, not only will you transform one life, but the lives of entire communities, for generations to come.