Ministries Making a Difference: Sharing Hope This Easter This week’s roundup spotlights a cheesecake-fueled ministry helping women in recovery, plus feeding families, advancing Scripture translation, and training future missionaries

At MinistryWatch, we help Christians become more faithful, generous, and effective stewards by advocating for transparency, accountability, and efficiency in Christian ministries. That means we often report on waste, fraud, and abuse—not only to expose wrongdoing, but also to offer lessons ministries and donors can learn from.

But we also want to highlight ministries doing excellent work. That’s the purpose of this column: to spotlight ministries making a difference in their communities and around the world. We hope this weekly roundup encourages you and reminds you that faithful stewardship is often simple, steady, and quietly fruitful. And with Easter this week, we are especially mindful of the hope of the gospel and the importance of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

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

An Oklahoma pastor and members of Alpha Phi Alpha are continuing a community tradition more than a decade in the making, pairing Easter meal distribution with scholarship support for local students. Pastor Stephen Wiley, a member of Beta Chi Lambda, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Muskogee chapter, plans to help distribute 500 Easter dinners. Beyond the holiday outreach, the organization also invests in students’ futures by awarding five $1,000 scholarships each year to Muskogee seniors planning to attend college.

Word for the World is framing its work around a simple message: “Let’s end Bible poverty,” pointing to the more than 3,000 language groups that still lack access to God’s Word in their heart language. The ministry says its approach is to provide Scripture “through the local church,” emphasizing an indigenous model in which language communities take ownership of translation, training, and long-term access. Founded in 1981, Word for the World envisions helping bring first-time full-Bible translations to 1,000 languages by 2050. Word for the World USA has a 4-star efficiency rating, an A Transparency Grade, and a Donor Confidence Score of 100 in the MinistryWatch database.

In southeast Missouri, cheesecake is serving an unlikely new purpose—bringing hope and recovery to women battling addiction. After failing to open another thrift store to support Deborah’s House, a new Adult and Teen Challenge Mid-America home for 25 to 30 women, CEO James Bolin instead bought My Daddy’s Cheesecake and turned it into “Cheesecake for a Cause.” The café’s proceeds will help fund the women’s program, and eventually, some residents will train there for restaurant work as part of their recovery. Deborah’s House, set to open by June 1, will also offer equine therapy, a donated beauty salon, local community support, and lasting hope in Christ. ATC has 1 star and a “C” Transparency Grade in the MinistryWatch database, and a Donor Confidence Score of 69.

In Chad, Jeremiah* initially dismissed that unfoldingWord® Open Bible Stories (OBS) could use his help. But after reading them, he quickly saw the value of telling the whole story of Scripture and Christ in simple, accessible language. Working through Chadian Arabic, a gateway language for broader translation efforts, Jeremiah joined a project connected to Whole Word Institute that helps equip translators from Chad’s 78 unreached people groups to begin with evangelism and move toward Bible translation in their own languages. During one outreach, his team presented audio Bible stories in the heart language of a group known for resistance to Christians—the first strategic effort to bring the gospel into that region. Jeremiah later prayed with a local king, who professed faith in Christ, was healed, and is now being discipled. unfoldingWord has an A Transparency Grade and a Donor Confidence Score of 80 in the MinistryWatch database, as well as a 2-star efficiency rating.

Last week, Vision School of Missions held a Preview Day, inviting young people interested in its missionary training program to learn more about God’s call to missions and the school’s approach to preparation. A key part of that approach is what VSM calls “life-on-life discipleship,” a mentoring philosophy modeled after Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Founded in 2006 out of Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, the school prepares missionaries and Christian leaders to reach the world with the gospel. Now part of Vision Baptist Missions, VSM draws on the teaching and mentorship of church-planting missionaries serving in more than 20 countries. VSM is also promoting its “World’s Cheapest Mission Trip,” a three-day, three-night, all-inclusive event for $200, with the next trip scheduled for July 14–17, 2026.

*Name changed for security

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