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Logos Hope volunteers connected with people in front of Antofagasta’s hospital, to tell them the gospel and pray with those who are unwell and their visitors.

The crew members approached people and relatives waiting for treatment outside the hospital. After introducing themselves, they asked if there was anything they could pray for. When people accepted prayer, they spoke with them more personally, prayed for their requests and told them about their faith.

On 1 September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas. The Category 5 storm, with 185mph winds and storm surges of up to 23 feet, is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall.

Regarded as the worst natural disaster in the country’s history, the storm caused widespread flooding and destruction. It killed at least 50 people and left more than 70,000 people homeless.

A 134-page report released in September, shows that some 35 million youths raised in Christian families in the USA will give up on Christianity by the year 2050.

Greg Stier – founder of the youth ministry Dare 2 Share – says the report, called The Great Opportunity, is a chance for Christians to ‘flip the switch’. ‘How about not just slowing down the bleeding, what if there was a revival that flipped those stats? That is what we are praying for. How do we flip the switch?’

Next year, Slavic Gospel Association [UK] will celebrate its 70th birthday. In 1950, Peter Deyneka, the founder of the mission in the USA some 13 years earlier, visited churches in the south of England. Believers caught the vision for reaching Slavic peoples for Christ and the UK branch of SGA was formed in that year.

The initially small efforts to bring encouragement and help to Eastern European people displaced by the Second World War and living in camps in England, Germany and Austria, quickly blossomed. It then burgeoned into a ministry which took Christians through the Iron Curtain, and into situations where the churches were severely persecuted for their faithfulness to Christ and the gospel.

John Stott is one of my heroes and I had the privilege of meeting him several times. Among the vast number of signifi-cant things that he achieved in his life was the founding of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion in 1961.

EFAC has the clear aim and purpose to encourage and develop biblically faithful fellowship, teaching and mission throughout the Anglican world. Such an all-encompassing purpose must necessarily be honed down to goals that are realistic.

According to Unus Walilo, pastor of the church in Apahapsili, a village high in the mountains, the Yali people ‘didn’t know anything about the outside world.

‘We lived in the Stone Age, killing each other, eating our enemies. We didn’t know any other life’, said Unus.

A woman was divorced by her Muslim hus-band after he discovered she owned a Bible, it was reported in August.

The husband of the 32-year-old mother of two children discovered that his wife was a Christian and owned a Bible. He demanded that she reveal who had given it to her.

North Carolina-based global humanitarian organisation Operation Blessing sent a relief team on 4 September to Nassau, Bahamas, to bring emergency aid after Hurricane Dorian’s devastation.

Dorian ripped through the Bahamas destroying or severely damaging over 13,000 homes. The death toll is still unknown.

Theologians from Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda gathered as the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion Theological Resource Network.

They met in Kampala, Uganda from 10-13 June to consider developing moral leadership in church and society. They also studied Paul’s emphasis on nurturing character in young leaders based on the biblical gospel of Jesus.

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) returned to Plano, Texas, 17-19 June to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its formation under the leadership of Archbishop Bob Duncan.

The Assembly theme was ‘Discipleship: Renewing Our Call to the Great Commission’ with cross-cultural mission and church planting very much to the fore. Over 1,100 attended, including ten Anglican Primates, Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria and General Secretary of GAFCON, and representatives from some 23 countries.

Robert Bruce, a Scottish missionary to Iranian Muslims in the late-19th century, wrote home to his supporters: ‘I am not reaping the harvest; I scarcely claim to be sowing the seed; I am hardly ploughing the soil; but I am gathering out the stones. That, too, is missionary work; let it be supported by loving sympathy and fervent prayer.’

For many years, Iran was one of the most difficult regions of the world to reach with the gospel. In 1979, with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the ruling monarch Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown. In his place an Islamic Republic was birthed, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Sharia law became the law of the land, and Muslim clerics became the heads of state.

Burundi is a country of 12 million people to the south of Uganda and Rwanda. The Anglican Church of Burundi was started in 1935 by the Church Missionary Society and Ugandan and Rwandan missionaries. It is known for standing on three pillars : evangelism, medical services and education.

The Church, now numbering about 1million members, has been able to grow and make an impact from its foundation up to today because of the influence and fruits of the East African Revival Movement. This movement emphasises the love of God and love of one another, salvation, walking in the light with one another, and staying in fellowship as brethren.

Following consistent efforts to reach Spanish-speaking Latin America, Christianity Explored (CE) announced in April that 1,250 people have been trained in mission using the course.

That figure represents an average of 100 evangelists in nine countries: Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Chile.

War-torn Abkhazia, a partially recognised republic of Georgia, has seen a number of children coming to Christ in recent months.

Many in the area are involved with crime and suicide attempts are frequent. Children also live under the spiritual oppression of the pagan traditions. In such conditions, the teenage club at the church is a beacon of light for teenagers in the town. It is a place for children to develop, learn new things, and spend quality time together.

On 11 February, Baldaeus Theological College (BTC) opened its new semester with a simple worship service and a few local pastors.

The message given at the service addressed the importance of producing Bible-learned servants of God whose lives reflect the holiness and goodness of God in character and conduct.

3,200 teenagers and adults from all over Europe (and beyond) came together to TeenStreet (TS) 2018 in Oldenburg for a week full of worship, Jesus, passion, life and fun.

As different as all the countries, cultures, backgrounds and churches might be, one thing connects everyone at TS: they know Jesus and want to grow closer in their relationship with him.

One hundred people plus Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Church in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, were arrested over the weekend of 8-9 December.

Sensing that arrest was imminent, the pastor drafted a letter, asking that it be made public two days after his arrest. In it he expresses his ‘disgust’ for Communist persecution of Christians, but says he is not interested in changing the country’s social system. His goal is to bear witness through non-violence and to denounce violations of religious freedom. God will bring down the Communist regime. The church has existed for thousands of years, but no political power has lasted thousands of years.

In December, the Revd Dr Andrea Zaki joined the South Sinai Governor to lay the foundation stone for the first evangelical church in the Red Sea city of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Dr Zaki, President of the Protestant Churches in Egypt, said the church will seek a holistic mission by serving everyone equally.