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Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Nov 2023

South Sudanese Christians caught up in the ongoing civil war have been sharing their few possessions with others – and seeing people give glory to God.

Tut Kony, director of a South Sudan-based umbrella mission organisation says:’ Our organisation is partnering [Bible translators] unfoldingWord [sic] in translating the Bible into Sudan’s unreached-people group languages. It also runs a school for believers from a Muslim background who are leading house church networks. Since the start of the war, we have also provided 562 families with food, and basic medical supplies.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2023

The summer heatwave across the northern hemisphere has seen almost uncontrollable forest fires break out from Canada to China, Algeria to Greece, as soaring, record temperatures hit the high-40°sC.

But as soon as the flames were doused, the question on many people’s minds was – to what extent are these record thermometer levels the result of human-made climate change?

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

Christians from around the world are on the ground bringing urgent relief in Morocco, following the huge earthquake there. The epicentre of the quake was in the Atlas Mountains, about 40 miles southwest of the busy tourist city of Marrakech. Thousands are dead and injured.

A representative of the Bible Society in Morocco said: ‘Your prayers and concern mean a lot to us here in Morocco … I am in the affected area, working alongside teams from different churches. We are delivering food supplies to believers and their families, and we are also assessing the needs for the near future.’

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

Evangelical group Torrents de Vie has attracted the hostility of the media and the government in France after a journalist covertly recorded images and conversations at one of the organisation’s summer camps.

Torrents de Vie means ‘Streams Of Life’. Part of a larger international inter-denominational Christian ministry, it is active in ten French cities offering seminars, pastoral counselling and conferences. Its website says it ‘offers spiritual support, combining teaching, listening and prayer, to Christians of all denominations seeking help for their personal difficulties. Our values are based on Biblical love and grace’.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

A Christian nurse who was kidnapped in Haiti has been released, saying she ‘holds no grudges’ against her abductors and forgives them.

She added: ‘My clinic doors are always open to you or anyone in need when you’re sick or wounded, without any problem.’

Niger Christians are asking for prayer as the country continues to face turbulence.

Mission organisation Open Doors UK says people should pray for the safety of the churches, and especially believers who have converted from Islam.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2023

An innovative gospel outreach in Jerusalem has sparked great interest among hundreds of Jewish people wanting to know more about the claims of Jesus.

The brainchild of the International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP), the five-day initiative was specifically designed for those who had lived through the Holocaust. It comprised four tours of Biblical sites in Galilee, ending with a concert featuring performances by local musicians (all Jewish believers in Jesus), and a gospel presentation by IMJP missionary, Aviel Sela. It formed part of a strategic plan, developed over a number of years, to reach Jewish people with the good news about Jesus. More than 200 people joined the site tours, to places such as the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, and 185 Jewish people attended the concert, 156 of whom gave their contact details and took away Christian literature.

In 2019, website devpolicy.org told the story of Sally’s life and background. Cleo Fleming wrote:

Sally’s family has lived and worked with the Bedamuni people of PNG since the late 1960s, when her parents, Tom and Salome Hoey, went to Western Province to establish a Christian mission there. Raised in farming families from Queensland, they were both immensely practical people who had a range of life skills to add to the training they received at Tahlee Bible College before leaving Australia.

The tragic early death of a young man, Filip Faragau, after a long battle with cancer, is providing the inspiration for a unique ministry in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Violeta, Filip’s widow, carried out their shared desire to provide affordable accommodation for cancer patients and their families in the city. In the months leading up to Filip’s death they met many who could not afford the cost of staying there, either to access treatment themselves or to care for loved ones receiving cancer care. The seed was sown for what is now ‘Casa Filip’, in Violeta’s own words, ‘a nice, comfortable place, where people could come and stay without having to spend a fortune for their accommodation’. Slavic Gospel Association (UK) have supported this vital work prayerfully and practically from the start. Filip and his family were valued, long-term friends of the mission.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2022

An international humanitarian organisation whose director was previously imprisoned in a freezing cold metal container by the Taliban has become the first Christian group permitted to return to Afghanistan.

Shelter Now International (SNI) has been invited to return by the hardline Islamic regime to help with relief efforts in the country. And it has already provided humanitarian aid in the provinces of Khost and Paktika after severe earthquakes struck there recently.

In 2019, website devpolicy.org told the story of Sally’s life and background. Cleo Fleming wrote:

Sally’s family has lived and worked with the Bedamuni people of PNG since the late 1960s, when her parents, Tom and Salome Hoey, went to Western Province to establish a Christian mission there. Raised in farming families from Queensland, they were both immensely practical people who had a range of life skills to add to the training they received at Tahlee Bible College before leaving Australia.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2023

Around 6,500 teenagers and young people from churches across France gathered in Zénith d’Auvergne at a large triennial congress – Echo 2023 – that seeks to encourage young members of evangelical churches to discover God’s calling. The theme of Echo 2023 was ‘See, I Am Doing Something New’ (Isa. 43:9).

The programme was based on three areas: ‘Me and God; Us and God; You and Me’. It included preaching, worship, workshops, concerts and special programmes for Ados (12–17 years old) and Jeunes (18 and over). Christian youth workers also offered training and connections. Seminars addressed issues such as Bible reading, Christian ethics, science and faith, and sexuality.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 May 2023

Five years ago, a translation of the New Testament into Keliko – a South Sudanese language – was ceremoniously and joyfully carried into a Ugandan refugee camp church.

Today, new missionaries are preparing to fly to Uganda later in the year to join the Bible translation team. Philip and Heidi Knight will be working with the Keliko people – an ethnic group who have never had the Bible in their own language.

letter from the

One year here and the Lord has not only given us a clear mission to keep us busy, but also continued provisions to keep us going and countless blessings to keep us praising.

Just before our family took the big step onto the mission field, we were reminded at our commissioning service that the God who sends is also the God who supplies. The same Jesus who was described as Immanuel at His incarnation is the One who, at His ascension, was self-identified as the God who will be with us always, even to the end of the age. What a comfort to have studied, sensed, and seen that promise to be true over the past 12 months as missionaries, thousands of miles from home.

One Polish church in the southern city of Krakow has experienced remarkable growth over the last two years in surprising circumstances: the Covid-19 pandemic and warfare, writes Tim Thornborough.

Christ the Saviour Presbyterian Church (CSPC) currently meets in a converted bank and, as we entered, we were handed headsets to enable us to listen to the live translation of the service from Polish to English. Others picked up the headsets marked ‘Ukrainian’. My main contact in Krakow is Sashko – a Ukrainian from Lviv, just over the border from Poland – who is the assistant minister at the church.

In parts of Far East Russia there are those who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Alexander Balagansky, a missionary sponsored by the Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), in the Buryatia region, is involved in the difficult and sometimes dangerous challenge of reaching them. Villages and communities there are isolated, often cut off and inaccessible due to extreme weather conditions. However, strange as it may seem, the extreme weather can become the missionary’s friend and associate in pioneering gospel ministry!

letter from Latvia

John Woods

Date posted: 1 May 2023

One of the questions I am asked whenever I return from Latvia is: ‘What is the mood in Latvia at the moment?’

The question relates to the fact that Latvia shares a land border with Russia and has many historical reasons to be anxious about the intentions of its larger neighbour.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Mar 2023

Igal Vender was born in Ukraine but emigrated to Israel with his family in 1988. He began using drugs as a child and later switched to heroin and cocaine.

Igal writes: ‘I was an addict and in and out of prison, but empty inside. I came to faith after meeting an old friend who had become a Christian. Now I am a missionary with IMJP (the International Mission to Jewish People) telling Jewish people about Jesus.’ Igal Vender tells his story to Iain Taylor for en.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Apr 2023

An evangelical missionary in Mozambique says storms and rain were ‘incessant’ and poorly-constructed houses around her were ‘flooding and collapsing’ as a tropical storm battered the country.

Cyclone Freddy, the longest-ever recorded tropical cyclone, which has returned several times, ripped through the country and neighbouring Malawi with over 600 dead and countless people missing, injured or made homeless.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Apr 2023

The new Miss Germany, Kira Geiss, is a committed Christian. She has won a title that, according to the organisers, is no longer about beauty alone, but also about social engagement and the ability to empower other people.

‘I think it is time to not only take care of the healthy maintenance of our planet, but also to actively engage in allowing people to heal and grow internally’, she says on the Miss Germany website, where she is described as a ‘theology student, aspiring religious and community educator, and visual merchandiser’.