Starting this year, the Acton Institute is planning to give out the Samaritan Award every other year. This will allows us to better streamline the award process as well as to more smoothly integrate the results of the award into our Samaritan Guide database.

In recent years the Samaritan Award finalists have been profiled in a special issue of WORLD Magazine (here’s the link to the 2008 issue). But this year the folks at WORLD are taking the opportunity to highlight some other ministries. To that end they’ve announced a contest, and here’s what Acton senior fellow and WORLD editor-in-chief Marvin Olasky has to say about it:

During the past three years WORLD, working with the Acton Institute, has reported on and helped to evaluate finalists in Acton’s Samaritan petition.

Those organizations do great work and deserve attention, but as journalists we don’t want to be repetitive. Acton is not having petition this year, so we have the opportunity for stories about some unconventional ministries.

Olasky goes on to point out that “Our approach will be journalistic rather than scientific: We’re looking for good stories of God’s grace to feature in WORLD.”

You can read more details about the petition on their site, but we’re also taking this opportunity to highlight ministries and nonprofits that hold a special place in our hearts.

This week’s PBR question is: “Which ministries do you make a special point to personally support?”

Share your answers in ments section and look for answers from PowerBlog contributors throughout the week.