The Sahara Desert in North Africa is the largest desert in the world. Its greatest length stretches 3,200 miles from east to west.

The desert is on the move. Right across Africa the Sahara is creeping south at an average rate of half a mile a month—in some parts four times as fast.

A 4000-mile belt below the desert is affected by drought. Animals die, crops wither, people starve. Survivors crowd into a dwindling area of Savannah grassland, where overgrazing speeds the process. When rain does fall, it comes in sudden downpours which do more harm than good by washing away what little topsoil there is.

Whole countries in the Sahel, the semi-arid zone below the Sahara, are threatened with extinction. Weather experts predict that the earth is in for decades of low rainfall, which may turn richly cultivated areas into dustbowls.

These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. – Revelation 11:6

*Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.