Faith That Shows Up Leaning into urgent needs through building trades, action sports, community service, rescuing children.  

At MinistryWatch, our mission is to help Christians become more faithful, generous, and effective stewards of the resources God has entrusted to them. It’s why we advocate for transparency, accountability, and efficiency in Christian ministries. Because of that, we cover a lot of stories we’d rather not have to—stories of waste, fraud, and abuse. We do it unapologetically because, aside from exposing evil, we also believe these stories offer lessons and examples for ministries and donors to learn from.

But we also seek to amplify stories of ministries doing excellent work. That’s what this column is for—to spotlight ministries making a difference in their own communities and around the world. We pray this weekly roundup is a blessing to you—an encouragement to keep going and a reminder that faithful stewardship is often simple and steady, and that for every story we publish about poor stewardship, there are many others prayerfully laboring to steward well.

With that, here’s this week’s roundup of ministries making a difference:

One church had outgrown its building, while another was struggling under the weight of one too large. So they each made a simple decision: swap buildings. Southside Baptist Church in Carthage, Texas, was down to about 50 people in a 46,000-square-foot building that strained its resources, while nearby Faith Assembly of God was bursting at the seams, with no room to grow. In October 2024, Southside Pastor Kirby Hill proposed a building swap to Faith Assembly pastor David Baze. Baze said his first reaction was shock—his board’s, too. But after months of prayer, both congregations and both boards voted overwhelmingly to move forward. They completed the swap in 2025 without any money changing hands.

In November 2009, Mark Koch felt God’s call into full-time ministry and looked to the world he knew best: action sports. A lifelong skateboarder who taught snowboarding in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Mark and his wife, Shannon, launched Ride Nature to put boards in the hands of kids and local leaders and to partner with churches to share Christ through outreach, evangelism, and discipleship. Ride Nature says action sports are a “universal language,” with participation outpacing Little League baseball and growing in places like Cuba, Japan, and Germany. Seeing an estimated 400,000 people involved globally as its mission field, the ministry has visited 65 countries, given away 10,042 boards, and led 167 trips—using skateparks, beaches, and board culture to make disciples, with a special concern for the 1 in 4 U.S. youth growing up in single-parent homes.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine stretches into its fifth year, humanitarian workers say the suffering of children in occupied territories remains both widespread and deeply traumatic. One of them is 17-year-old Maxim Trebushnyi, a Deaf teenager from the Zaporizhzhia region who was repeatedly abducted and beaten by Russian soldiers after they refused to believe he could not speak. His mother later died, leaving Maxim to care for his disabled grandmother while enduring ongoing threats. Maxim is now among more than 1,169 children rescued by Save Ukraine from Russia and Russian-occupied territories since 2022. The ministry says Russia’s system separates children from their families, strips away their Ukrainian identity, and indoctrinates them through propaganda, fear, and isolation. Save Ukraine founder Mykola Kuleba says each rescue requires careful coordination and significant risk. Alongside reunification efforts, the group offers shelter, counseling, rehabilitation, and church-based support to help children and families begin to recover.

Earlier this month, teams from various Vapor Ministries centers went out into their communities to serve their neighbors with Bibles, care packages, trash cleanup, and the gospel during its Community Service Week. Vapor Ministries is a Christian nonprofit that fights extreme poverty and advances the gospel by building holistic ministry centers in under-resourced communities. Through these centers, it provides clean water, meals, medical care, education, and job training—alongside evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development. The ministry operates in Kenya, Togo, and Haiti, and uses soccer leagues as a bridge for mentorship, health education, and outreach. Vapor says 100% of individual donations go to program expenses, with overhead covered by partner “Cornerstone” churches, board support, and business profits. Vapor Ministries has a 2-Star Financial Efficiency Rating and an A Transparency Grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a Donor Confidence Score of 80.

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