Not a vestige of the influence of selfish, worldly monopolies is to make the slightest impression on the people who are watching and working and praying for the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 16LtMs, Ms 16, 1901, par. 16
ELLEN KNICKMEYER, SAMY MAGDY and DAVID BILLER
Mon, April 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM GMT+35 min read
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Trump USAID
FILE – Food parcels provided by the World Food Program, part of the humanitarian aid shipments into Syria, are stacked at the Reyhanli border crossing with Syria, near Hatay, southern Turkey, Wednesday, May 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici, Pool, File)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has ended funding to U.N. World Food Program emergency programs helping keep millions alive in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries, many of them struggling with conflict, according to the organization and officials who spoke to The Associated Press.
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Numbers 14 : 4
We were not to be guided by men who want their word to be the controlling power. The development of the desire to control has been very marked, and God sent warning after warning, forbidding confederacies and consolidations. He warned us against binding ourselves to fulfil certain agreements that would be presented by men laboring to control the movements of their brethren. PUR November 19, 1903, par. 18
The World Food Program, the largest provider of food aid, appealed to the U.S. to roll back the new cuts in a social media post Monday. The unexpected round of contract cancellations has targeted some of the last remaining humanitarian programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to two U.S. officials, a United Nations official and documents obtained by the AP.
The agents of Satan are formidable; we shall meet them and must combat them. Our labors are not to be confined to our own country. The field is the world; the harvest is ripe. The command given the disciples just before he ascended was, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” RH December 15, 1874, par. 29
“This could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” WFP said on X.
An Educational Center. The Lord is not pleased with some of the arrangements that have been made in Battle Creek. He has declared that other places are being robbed of the light and advantages that have been centered and multiplied in Battle Creek. It is not pleasing to God that our youth from all parts of the country should be called to Battle Creek, to work in the sanitarium, and to receive their education. When we permit this, we are often guilty of robbing needy fields of their most precious treasure. PUR November 19, 1903, par. 19
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The agency said it was in contact with the Trump administration “to urge for continued support” for lifesaving programs and thanked the United States and other donors for past contributions.
Christ is to be our example. The mission of Christ was to live out the law of God. On one occasion when Jesus and his disciples went through the corn, they were hungry, “and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.” Jesus immediately brought forward an illustration to vindicate his action, and showed that what they had done was in complete harmony with the law of God. He said to the Pharisees: “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” “But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” He sought to convince them that while they were so scrupulous in the performance of their ceremonies, they neglected the weightier matters of the law, and failed to exercise mercy, judgment, and the love of God. RH August 13, 1895, par. 3
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials had pledged to spare emergency food programs and other life-and-death aid from deep cuts to U.S. foreign assistance. There was no immediate comment Monday from the State Department.
The projects were being canceled “for the convenience of the U.S. Government” at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency who was appointed to oversee the elimination of USAID programs, according to termination notices sent to partners and viewed by the AP.
Nothing so distinguished the Jews from surrounding nations, and designated them as true worshipers of the Creator, as the institution of the Sabbath. Its observance was a continual visible token of their connection with God, and separation from other people. All ordinary labor for a livelihood or for worldly profit was forbidden upon the seventh day. According to the fourth commandment the Sabbath was dedicated to rest and religious worship. All secular employment was to be suspended; but works of mercy and benevolence were in accordance with the purpose of the Lord. They were not to be limited by time nor place. To relieve the afflicted, to comfort the sorrowing is a labor of love that does honor to God’s holy day. 2SP 193.2
Programs targeted by Trump administration
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True missionary workers will not colonize.
And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.
2 Kings 20 : 15
In Syria, a country battling poverty, hunger and insecurity after a 13-year civil war and an insurgency by the Islamic State group, some $230 million in contracts with WFP and humanitarian groups was terminated in recent days, according to a State Department document detailing the cuts that was obtained by the AP.
The single biggest of the targeted Syria programs, at $111 million, provided bread and other daily food to 1.5 million people, the document says.
“True missionary workers will not colonize. God’s people are to be pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The investments of large sums of money in the building up of the work in one place is not in the order of God. Plants are to be made in many places. Schools and sanitariums are to be established in places where there is now nothing to represent the truth. These interests are not to be established for the purpose of making money, but for the purpose of spreading the truth. Land should be secured at a distance from the cities, where schools can be built up in which the youth can be given an education in agricultural and mechanical lines. PUR November 19, 1903, par. 10
About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said all U.S. aid to WFP food programs across Yemen, another war-divided country that is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, has been stopped, apparently including food that already had arrived in distribution centers.
The resolution for consolidation will never be blessed of God, for it is to bring about things that God will not endorse. Those who adopt it know not what they are doing. They are not walking in the counsel of the great I AM. 10LtMs, Ms 56, 1895, par. 2
WFP also received termination letters for U.S.-funded programs in Lebanon and Jordan, where Syrian refugees would be hit hardest, the U.N. official said.
Representative men connected with the work and cause of God will bring a heavy retribution upon themselves if they mislead the people by their spirit and action, and misrepresent the principles of the law of Jehovah. If they weave into the work that which springs from their own natural temperament, and mar the cause by disorders of their own natural disposition, they will cause to appear in the work of God the attributes of the fallen foe and his confederate angels, rather than the attributes of Jesus Christ. The fashion of the work coming forth from every soul that is born of God has been clearly pictured before us. He who is truly a child of God will experience the transforming power of grace upon mind and heart, and his character will develop after the divine similitude. The description of the work of Christ will be the description of the work of every one who is born of God, who walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The apostle says of such, “Ye are laborers together with God,” representing the holy law of God to heaven, to worlds unfallen, and to the fallen world. RH August 13, 1895, par. 6
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For His own name’s sake God will not permit the forward and independent to carry out their unsanctified plans. He will visit them for their perversity of action. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” PUR November 19, 1903, par. 24
Some of the last remaining U.S. funding for key programs in Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe also was affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, one of the U.S. officials said.
Those churches who are the most systematic and liberal in sustaining the cause of God, are the most prosperous spiritually. True liberality in the follower of Christ identifies his interest with that of his Master. In God’s dealing with the Jews and his people to the end of time, he requires systematic benevolence proportionate to their income. The plan of salvation was laid by the infinite sacrifice of the Son of God. The light of the gospel shining from the cross of Christ rebukes selfishness, and encourages liberality and benevolence. It is not to be a lamented fact that there are increasing calls to give. God, in his providence, is calling his people out from their limited sphere of action, to enter upon greater enterprises. Unlimited effort is demanded at this time when moral darkness is covering the world. Worldliness and covetousness are eating out the vitals of God’s people. They should understand that it is his mercy which multiplies the demands for their means. The angel of God places benevolent acts close beside prayer. He said to Cornelius, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” RH December 15, 1874, par. 26
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
[34] But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils. [36] But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. [37] Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Matthew 9 : 34, 36-37
We feel anguish of spirit because some gifts are lost to us that we might now have if we had only been awake. Laborers have been kept back from the whitening harvest. RH December 15, 1874, par. 36
Current and former USAID experts and partners said some $560 million in humanitarian aid was cut to Afghanistan, including for emergency food assistance, the treatment of severely malnourished babies, lifesaving medical care, safe drinking water, and emergency mental health treatment for survivors of sexual and physical violence.
Another of the notices, sent Friday, abruptly pulled U.S. funding for a program with strong support in Congress that had sent young Afghan women overseas for schooling because of Taliban prohibitions on women’s education, said an administrator for that project, which is run by Texas A&M University.
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The young women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be in danger, according to that administrator, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Larger impact of cutting aid
The abrupt end of WFP programs threatens some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, many of which depend on such food aid, according to humanitarian groups. The U.S. and other donors long have seen efforts to ease humanitarian crises as being in their strategic interest by stemming mass migration, conflicts and extremism, which struggles for resources can bring.
The special system of tithing was founded upon a principle which was as enduring as the law of God. This system of tithing was a blessing to the Jews, else God would not have given it them. So also will it be a blessing to those who carry it out to the end of time. Our Heavenly Father did not originate the plan of systematic benevolence to enrich himself, but to be a great blessing to man. He saw that this system of beneficence was just what man needed.
Those churches who are the most systematic and liberal in sustaining the cause of God, are the most prosperous spiritually. RH December 15, 1874, par. 25 – RH December 15, 1874, par. 26
WFP chief Cindy McCain said in a posting on social media that the cuts “undermine global stability.”
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Rubio had notified Congress and courts last month that USAID contract cuts were over, with about 1,000 programs spared worldwide and more than 5,000 others eliminated. That added to the shock of the new cuts.
The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.Psalm 68 : 11
The Trump administration has accused USAID of wastefulness and advancing liberal causes.
There are many who have looked upon the Jewish nation as a people to be pitied, because they were constantly taxed for the support of their religion; but God, who created man and provided him with all the blessings he enjoys, knew what was for his best good. And he has, through his blessing, made their nine-tenths worth more to them than the entire amount without his blessing. If any through their selfishness robbed God or brought to him an offering not perfect, disaster and loss were sure to follow them. God reads the motives of the heart. He is acquainted with the purposes of men, and will mete out to them in his own good time as they have merited. RH December 15, 1874, par. 24
Trump’s freeze on all foreign assistance through USAID and the State Department led to a brief shutdown of services at the al-Hol camp, where tens of thousands of alleged Islamic State fighters and their families are kept under guard.
Co-workers with Christ, men who feel the need of extended effort, are wanted. The work of our presses should not be lessened, but doubled. Schools should be established in different places to educate our youth preparatory to their laboring to advance the truth. RH December 15, 1874, par. 34
That shutdown raised fears of an uprising or breakout at the camp. U.S. officials quickly intervened to restore services.
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The State Department document obtained by the AP identifies two newly terminated contracts, run by Save the Children and the U.N. Population Fund, which provided mental health services and other care to women and children at al-Hol. It was not immediately clear if any other services were affected at the camp.
The U.S. had been the major funder of the WFP, providing $4.5 billion of the $9.8 billion in donations to the food agency last year.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Biller from Rome. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report
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