January 3, 2026

On January 4, 2024, we embarked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to begin our Hope for Today Journey: Seeing God’s Hand at Work…Around the World. This was the first time I attempted to Blog our adventures. Thank you to all of you who have travelled with us and took the time to leave comments. That has meant the world to me. Please continue to comment; we love hearing from you as you travel with us.

Monday, January 5 we will begin the 3rd year of this epic journey. We will return On May 16. We are concentrating our efforts in Asia.

Pastor Parviz knew the risk he was taking as he packed the Christian children’s books into his backpack. But as a parent, he knew that no sacrifice was too great in order to provide for his children. The danger was real. In Central Asia, a new law passed on February 21, 2025, banned parents to allow their children to receive any religious education before the age of 18. The secret police can harshly punish anyone they consider to be an offender. Because of the lack of Christian education materials for children, pastors/parents must try to access materials digitally. And since print copies can be a liability, they often teach the lessons and show illustrations only on computer screens.

For that reason, we are once again partnering with Thirdmill (thirdmill.org) Over 1,250,000 individuals have used Thirdmill Christian digital curriculum to assist those in need. The curriculum is translated in the major languages of the world. Thirdmill provides all these materials to everyone at no cost.

The broader question for me is how strange it is that governments feel so threatened by people of faith that they expend significant law-enforcement resources to oppose faith-based materials. All we are trying to do is teach our children humility, love and forgiveness. What are persecuting governments seeing as a threat?

In my travels around the world, I have seen this focus on children manifested as one of the two main objectives of every persecuting government: the other is to restrict access to Bibles.

If you need proof, follow the powerful pattern by the Nazis’ “Hitler Youth” programs/camps which started as early as 1922. The centerpiece of advancing their ideology led to the tragic systematic death of 6,000,000 Jews around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population at the time.

Some may counter that these events could never happen today. You are wrong. I have seen firsthand in my travels that the education of children is a significant area of rising Christian persecution in Western Europe democracies, and it has become important throughout North America, Central America and South America.

Remember persecuting governments may start with one group, but it never ends with one group. Last year in Tunisia, Egypt, and parts of Morocco I saw that Muslim governments have continued to follow this pattern, forcing their ideology on the populace with special attention to restricting what children are taught.

As parents and grandparents Chongae and I need to live boldly and intentionally to raise up and support the next generation of people of faith throughout the world. We believe the most loving thing we can do for people is share with them the only way to true happiness.

Thank you for traveling with us on this journey.