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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.

letter from the

Some say that the first few months of long-term mission work are all about survival. Looking back, by God’s grace, we have managed a little more than that. As expected, we’ve had our fair share of highs and lows already.

It would seem that, since our arrival, blessings and trials have been handed out in equal measure. But all in all, we feel very much that the Lord is at work in Santa Maria, equipping us as we seek to be a witness for the truth to those trapped in false religion, and enabling us to take our first steps towards the planting of a church in this spiritually needy district of Bulacan.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Aug 2022

The GoodWORD Partnership, based in Minneapolis, USA, has facilitated evangelistic and training initiatives in largely Moslem parts of Guinea, West Africa, and Malawi, southern Africa.

In Guinea, where only 7% of the population is Christian, experienced church leaders from five African countries and the United States undertook three weeks of joint ministry. It included outreach to seven prisons where a total of 3,600 inmates were fed, both physically and spiritually; equipping a Christian medical clinic in a Moslem community; a three-day conference on evangelism attended by 225 church leaders and encouraging the local churches to cooperate in sharing the gospel. One evangelical denominational leader in Conakry, a city of 2 million people, said: ‘We are now ready and committed to cooperate in sharing the gospel in our city.’

The first major Lausanne conference in Europe since a landmark event in 1974 has taken place.

More than 1,000 evangelical influencers listened to plenary speakers and discussed issues like ‘Christian identity in the era of identity politics’, ‘Reaching university students’, and ‘The gospel and the city’.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Dec 2022

The return of Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party, who has just swept back to power in Israel with the aid of new far-right allies, is causing concern amongst mission agencies working with Jewish people.

Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, having been in office for a total of 15 years, from 1996-99 and 2009-21. He has been a controversial figure for many years, not least for facing charges of bribery and fraud whilst previously in office. His main new coalition partner, the Religious Zionists, is led by the right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who celebrated their electoral success at an all-male campaign gathering overnight in Jerusalem, where supporters waved Israeli flags and chanted ‘death to terrorists’.

The emergency phone call was made to Mission Aviation Fellowship’s Programme Safety Manager.

‘The call,’ Dom Sant said, ‘asked me to take the lead on mapping communities that were affected by the earthquake that struck Markham Valley in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.’

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Dec 2022

Following the latest military coup in Burkina Faso, the West’s politicians are apparently now worried that Russian mercenaries may be invited in to quell the jihadist uprising there.

Meanwhile, Western Christians are being asked to pray for their brothers and sisters in the unstable and poverty-stricken West African nation, that they may have the courage to keep preaching the gospel.

In January 2022, Christianity Explored Ministries launched its latest evangelistic resource, Hope Explored – a three-session course on the hope, peace and purpose found in Luke’s Gospel and the Christian faith.

During the spring and summer, over 500 churches in the UK implemented the materials as part of their evangelism. More recently, it’s had an increasingly international impact.

One of the devastating aspects of the war in Ukraine is the huge number of people – the UN estimate the figure at 12 million – who have fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing.

Around seven million people are still thought to be displaced inside Ukraine itself, many in the western region of Rivne and Sarny where Christian charity Mission Without Borders (MWB) is operating.

A 370-mile emergency flight saved the life of a medic’s wife in Chad, the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) reports.

Gary Clayton writes: In 2021, MAF flew 1,443 medevac passengers worldwide. Many of the patients flown were touched by the love of Christ and the care they received from MAF pilots. This year, thanks to MAF planes, many more life-saving medical emergency flights are taking place in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2022

Indian church-planting missionary Elavatta Abraham has an extraordinary experience of how God has worked in his life.

He told his story exclusively to Evangelicals Now during a brief trip to the UK to attend the Cambridge Leaders Network conference.

Gary Clayton of Mission Aviation Fellowship writes:

In 1 Corinthians 15:32, the apostle Paul refers to fighting wild beasts in Ephesus. Although it’s unclear whether this is a reference to enraged opponents of the gospel or an allusion to a particularly cruel form of Roman punishment, for many MAF passengers the organisation’s light aircraft are the only way they can avoid the peril posed by man and beast.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2022

David Eastwood is Field Director for OMF in Taiwan, where he has been working for 30 years, and now oversees 70 missionaries.

OMF’s focus in Taiwan is on working-class and marginalised communities, such as prostitutes, the homeless and orphans, who are often overlooked by those agencies who concentrate on reaching the middle classes. Evangelicals Now spoke to him exclusively about the current situation there.

A few weeks ago MAF pilot Roy Rissanen flew a team of American missionaries from a remote part of Guinea – the journey representing the first operational flight of MAF’s latest African programme.

With only 5% of Guinea’s roads being paved and the country’s railway network no longer running, the severe lack of transport makes life difficult for aid and development agencies, churches and missions in isolated areas.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Aug 2022

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February Evangelicals Now has been inundated with stories about how UK churches and Christian groups are helping refugees and reaching out to them with the gospel. But Christians in other parts of Europe have been busy too.

Here is how Message Germany (an international hub of Manchester-based The Message Trust) has responded to the crisis.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2022

A preaching workshop being held in the Italian capital is expanding rapidly.

‘Workshop Predicazione’ looks set to double the numbers attending in 2022.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2022

Christianity’s future is likely to be shaped by African women, new research says – but there is a danger of false teaching being influential as well.

New research by American scholar of the history of mission, Gina Zurlo, shows that women are the majority in churches nearly everywhere in the world, and that Christianity’s future is poised to be shaped by African women in particular.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2022

International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP), has announced its most ambitious evangelistic programme yet.

Its 2022 ‘In the Cities’ mission series will visit London, Paris, Amsterdam and Budapest, before heading further afield to Pittsburgh, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Sydney, with the potential to reach over 1million Jewish people living in ten major global cities.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2022

During the first 90 days of the war in Ukraine, over 6million refugees fled to other nations, A further 7million were displaced internally, making this the largest movement of people in Europe since World War II.

In response, 72 Christian leaders from 22 European countries recently gathered in Krakow, Poland, to focus on the war and refugee crisis. The five countries that have received the most refugees (Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia) admitted they are overwhelmed and can no longer handle the ongoing flow of highly-traumatised women and children.

letter from Japan

If you have ever read the Chronicles of Narnia you may remember reading the words ‘Aslan is on the move’.

As you did so, perhaps a chill went down your spine as the prospect of the coming victory over evil becomes a palpable reality. Well, as I write, a chill goes down my spine as it would seem that the Lord is on the move here in Japan.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Aug 2022

Even before the invasion of Ukraine, many of the poorest nations of the world were suffering the catastrophic impact of climate change.

Earlier this year the island of Madagascar, for example, experienced its ‘worst drought’ in 40 years. UNICEF says half a million under-fives will be ‘acutely malnourished’ this year; in the south, where 80% of the people depend on agriculture to survive, the UN World Food Programme estimates that half of the population now faces hunger. The drought has decimated crops and dried up water sources, resulting in little sustenance for communities and cattle. The pandemic, deforestation and Madagascar’s cyclone season have further exacerbated their woes. According to UNWFP, this could become ‘the first famine to be caused by climate change’.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Aug 2022

Seeking to encourage and equip emerging Christian film-makers from Egypt and the Middle East – and allowing them to focus on the issues that most concern them – were the goals of the first-ever Salam (‘Peace’) Film Festival, which has taken place in Alexandria.

The brainchild of Christian TV station SAT-7 and the Evangelical Church of Egypt, the Festival comprised 26 films which were shown and competed for a series of awards.