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Rebels in South Sudan have reportedly abducted eight aid workers with the Christian humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse. The group is led by Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham. According to a military official, the kidnappers are demanding food as ransom. ****snip***** "Samaritan's Purse confirms that some of our South Sudanese staff in the Mayendit area of South Sudan have been detained by armed personnel. We have been in contact with them and they have not been harmed." Late last month, South Sudan's government and UN agencies said several counties, including Mayiandit, were facing severe famine. ***snip*** "The famine...

As the United States debates how to properly vet 10,000 Syrian refugees expected to resettle here, employees with Samaritan’s Purse are stationed on the frontlines in Greece, working to be a “face of compassion” for refugees fleeing war and terror. Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan’s Purse, spent a week in Greece, where the Christian organization has deployed employees and contractors to the region to assist scores of refugees flowing into the country, with hopes of continuing deeper into Europe. There, the group’s workers meet refugees arriving by rubber rafts on Greek islands and provide...

Wells Fargo already lost a multi-million-dollar customer last week. Now, the bank can expect to lose a few more. American Family Association (AFA) has sent an Action Alert to its hundreds of thousands of friends and supporters, urging Christians to close their Wells Fargo accounts, as the financial institution becomes an even more staunch supporter of the LGBT lifestyle. "For years, Wells Fargo has supported a lifestyle that is not in line with biblical standards, so now it's time for Christians to pull their business from the bank," said AFA President Tim Wildmon. "Franklin Graham said it best. Banks should...

The owners of an Oregon bakery learned Friday that there is a severe price to pay for following their Christian faith. A judge for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) recommended a lesbian couple should receive $135,000 in damages for their emotional suffering after Sweet Cakes by Melissa refused to make them a wedding cake. As a result - Aaron and Melissa Klein could lose everything they own — including their home. The Oregonian reports the recommended penalty is not final and could be raised or lowered by State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. The controversy started in 2013...

Last Thursday an emergency hearing in Washington, Ken Issacs, the vice president of Program and Government Relations for Samaritan’s Purse, painted a desperate picture of the situation in West Africa, saying: “We believe that these numbers represent just 25 to 50 percent of what is happening,” “We have to fight it now here or we’re going to have to fight it somewhere else.” In the days since the two American workers have returned to America, Samaritan’s Purse has heard widespread concern about their reintegration. “People are afraid to get around them—husbands, wives, no one knows if it’s safe,” he said....

Ken Isaacs, Vice President of Programs and Government Relations for Samaritan's Purse, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee concerning Ebola in West Africa. Video at http://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/ebola-crisis-in-west-africa/#ooid=F1dmJpbzrnzgK5mVMpziCu5nm8Gz-zNl

This is urgent news from Samaritans Purse This was sent to me for prayer from Chaplains with Rapid Response Team. Pray & pass to others. Dear Friends, Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts. "We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been smuggling food...

ATLANTA (AP) — After nearly three weeks of treatment, the two American aid workers who were infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Africa have been discharged from an Atlanta hospital, officials said Thursday. An official at Emory University Hospital stressed that their release poses no public health risk, and Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, called it a “miraculous day.” “I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary I never imagined myself in this position,” Brantly said. He spoke at a news conference after his release Thursday. Nancy Writebol,...

An American doctor stricken by Ebola in West Africa arrived home for treatment in Atlanta on Saturday, and U.S. government officials are urging the public to remain confident in the health-care system’s ability to keep the deadly disease isolated. A charity organization, Samaritan’s Purse, said two Americans in serious condition with the disease were being evacuated: Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth doctor who had been treating Ebola victims in Liberia, and Nancy Writebol, a missionary from Charlotte. Brantly and Writebol have been hospitalized in serious condition in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. Brantly was brought back to the United States first,...

A spokesperson for the Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse says a Canadian doctor is not in self-imposed quarantine after treating patients in West Africa for Ebola. The group earlier said Dr. Azaria Marthyman of Victoria, B.C., had voluntarily quarantined himself after spending nearly a month treating patients for the deadly disease. “Dr. Marthyman has assured us that (‘self-imposed quarantine’) is not a correct term to be applied to this situation,” spokesperson Jeff Adams told CTV News on Tuesday. Marthyman was among a handful of Canadian health-care workers who travelled to Liberia, one of three countries hit by the outbreak. He...

A missionary from Charlotte and a Texas doctor working for Boone-based Samaritan’s Purse are among the first Americans who have been infected with the deadly Ebola virus while working to combat the outbreak in Liberia.

A second American aid worker in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola, according to the Christian humanitarian group she works for. Nancy Writebol is employed by Serving in Mission, or SIM, in Liberia and was helping the joint SIM/Samaritan's Purse team that is treating Ebola patients in Monrovia, according to a Samaritan's Purse statement. Worst Ebola outbreak in history Writebol, who serves as SIM's personnel coordinator, has been living in Monrovia with her husband, David, according to SIM's website. The Charlotte, North Carolina, residents have been in Liberia since August 2013, according to the blog Writebols2Liberia. They have two adult...

A 33-year-old American doctor working for a relief organization in Liberia's capital has tested positive for the tropical disease Ebola, according to a statement from Samaritan's Purse. Dr. Kent Brantly, medical director at one of the country's two treatment centers run by the organization, recognized his own symptoms and confined himself to an isolation ward. It was not immediately clear how he caught Ebola. The relief group's Melissa Strickland said that he had followed strict safety protocols when treating patients. "It's too early to try to explain it. We will have an intensive and thorough investigation," she said. Across Guinea,...

Franklin Graham defended his controversial remarks about homosexuality, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Islam, saying that he is only following in his father's own activist footsteps. "You talk about controversy – my father (Billy Graham) stood with Martin Luther King in the early 1960s," Graham told The Charlotte Observer. "My father never worried about polls. I don't care about them, either. And with the issues we are facing today – if my father were a younger man, he would be addressing and speaking out in the exact same way I'm speaking out on them." Late last month, Graham suggested that...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Rev. Billy Graham turns 95 next week, and Sarah Palin and real estate mogul Donald Trump are among the 800 people planning to attend his celebration.---snip---Graham spokesman Jeremy Blume says there are ties between the Graham family and Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican presidential candidate. Relief aid headed to Russia provided by Samaritan's Purse, the international charity run by Franklin Graham, is staged in Alaska....

The U.S. Air Force Academy has pulled out of a Christian-sponsored children’s toy drive after commanders were accused of religious intolerance. Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate who runs the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the academy’s participation in Operation Christmas Child is inappropriate because of its evangelical Christian roots. Operation Christmas Child is sponsored by Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham — the son of evangelist Billy Graham. It packs toys and other items into shoe boxes and sends them to needy children around the world, along with a Christian message in each gift. “This is arrogance beyond measure,” Weinstein...

It has long been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Much has been written and broadcast in the past 48 hours about the need to see a certain picture. A picture that some believe could provide comfort, closure, or confirmation of a death; a killing. This is a picture of death. It is bloody and gruesome, yet so many want to see it. Another picture caught my eye today. This was a picture of despair. It was a picture of hope. At its core it is a picture of the greatest hope the world knows. This was...

In 35 seconds, the city of Léogane was almost entirely destroyed by last year’s earthquake. A year after, 80% of the victims are still living in camps surrounded by rubble, without water or electricity. Despite millions in international aid, the rebuilding process is at a standstill.

To Japanese and Japan-based Freepers: What's the best, quickest way of getting aid to people on the ground directly -- via local groups, religious instutitons, etc. I'd rather not give it to an international bureaucracy like the Red Cross (Japanese website was confusing), other NGO's or government. This is being posted Front/Breaking because I imagine a lot of other Freepers want this info and, let's face it, it's an emergency over there and these people need quick, effective help as soon as they can get it. I've seen too many stories of waste, corruption and abuse (Haiti, Katrina, etc.) and...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin traveled to Haiti this weekend as a guest of the Rev. Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse to spotlight the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the earthquake and cholera-stricken Caribbean (half an) island nation. Instead she has found herself embroiled in a scandal, accused of bringing a hair stylist on the trip to make herself look good for the cameras and "photo-ops.".The Associated Press transmitted a photo from Haiti of Palin captioned, "Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan's Purse...