Grief inspires ministry of grace in Romania
Slavic Gospel Association
Date posted: 1 Aug 2023
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.
The world’s most daring 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.
Can the Church of England be revived?
Andy Mason
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
It would be easy to answer that question with a quick ‘no’. After all, we Anglicans are facing huge problems: a loss of gospel truth, obstruction from bishops and ongoing spiritual compromise throughout the institution.
This present mess has been a long time coming, and it is, in many ways, no surprise. Surely, then, it is all over with the Church of England, and we should just leave such a moribund institution? There is, after all, nothing sacred about an ecclesiastical institution in and of itself, and we know that denominational borders are not the borders of spiritual Israel. Everything would be simpler if we just came out so that we could breathe freely once again!
PNG: Fifty years of a family’s faithful witness
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.
Questioning students overflow outside at CU mission
Daniel Stafford
Date posted: 1 Apr 2023
An event hosted by Christian Unions in the city of Liverpool was so highly anticipated that students had to stand outside the venue to remain in earshot.
Students in University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, and Liverpool Hope universities (pictured left and centre) came together to host a week of daily, high-profile, evangelistic events entitled ‘Truth Defined’. With students facing a much more unsettled and uncertain future, greater numbers than ever are open to considering faith, with over 100 students crowded into a packed-out venue.
‘I’m in’ – stem cell transplant student comes to faith
Kitty Hardyman
Date posted: 1 Jul 2023
‘What’s stopping you taking the step to become a Christian?’ For Chris, a student at Nottingham Trent University, this Spring was the point at which he was able to answer ‘nothing’ – and give his life to Jesus Christ, writes Kitty Hardyman of Christian student organisation UCCF.
Chris made his commitment of faith attending the Word Alive conference alongside faithful friends from Nottingham Trent Christian Union who had walked with him during the past four years at university. The journey had been long, but surrounded by 800 other undergraduates and the wider church family, it was at Word Alive that the decision was set plainly before him, and he was able to say: ‘I’m in’.
Young French believers meet en masse
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.
news in brief
Kenya: 36,000 hear the
gospel
The Message School of Evangelism (part
of the Message Trust) has held an exciting
week of mission in Nanyuki, Kenya, in
partnership with The Global Network of
Evangelists.
The initiative involved working in schools,
visiting prisons, street evangelism and an
evangelistic festival. During this time the
students
shared
the gospel with 36,150
people and 6,230
responded. One man,
initially
hostile,
eventually
listened
to
the gospel. He changed from being
loud
and aggressive to apologising and
feeling
peaceful. The team prayed with him as he
accepted Jesus into his life.
George Verwer through the decades: an appreciation
David Baker
Date posted: 1 May 2023
The impact of George Verwer, the mission pioneer who has just died (see obituary here), was so extensive that for me, as with many others, he has seemed like a constant influence, even though we never met.
My first encounter with his work was when one of the OM ships visited Bristol, where we lived, in the 1970s. To a small boy, the idea of Christians voyaging round the world giving out books seemed an exotic, alluring and rather exciting one, and I still remember the smiles of those serving on the ship.
New missionaries aim for first Bible
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
Philippines: One year on, a new church plant
Reuben & Cathy Saywell
Date posted: 1 May 2023
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.
Ten Questions: A noisy prayer life!
Andy Bannister
1. How did you become a Christian?
Pain produces church growth in Krakow
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.
Women in hard places
Judith Dennis
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
Book Review
COME WITH ME TO KATHMANDU:
12 powerful stories of women’s
courageous faith in Nepal
Read review
news in brief
Refugee call
Evangelical
refugee
campaigner
and
en contributor, Dr Krish Kandiah, says
Operation Coronation reaches celebrities
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
Coronation Day was unforgettable for the nation, but it will also be remembered by some as the day they met with the King of Kings.
On the weekend of 6 May, hundreds of Christians joined Royal fans around Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and elsewhere in central London handing out gospels and Christian literature. Thousands of tracts and the coronation booklet God Save The King – co-authored by Roger Carswell and Alan Marsden – found their way into the hands of ordinary people, as well as celebrities such as TV hosts Ant and Dec and other guests at the Coronation.
From music to nerf guns: right across the UK - this is mission today
www.apassionforlife.org.uk
Date posted: 1 Oct 2022
What does mission in the local church look like in 2022?
The answer is that it is as gloriously varied as each individual congregation and its members.
A forgotten heroine who should be known today: 60 years of faithful, daily, humble service
Adrian Russell
Date posted: 1 Apr 2023
The province of Sindh in Pakistan suffered appallingly from flooding last year. This province and the people who live there may be unfamiliar to you, but this location was the home of one of the lesser-known Christian heroines of faith, Blanche Brenton Carey.
Blanche, the daughter of a Brixham vicar, joined the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in 1884 and became one of their pioneer missionaries, serving in Karachi from 1885 to 1950. Her deep desire was to tell the women and girls of Sindh about her Saviour Jesus Christ.
news in brief
Church disability support
trebled
A charity’s support for disabled people in
churches across the UK is being trebled,
thanks to a £150,000 grant from Benefact
Trust. It will mean that disability inclusion
charity Through the Roof will be able to
increase the number of disabled people it
can support from 9,000 to 30,000 within
just three years.
The additional
funds will be used
to
recruit three regional co-ordinators to build
up local Roofbreaker networks of volunteers
across the UK; provide specialist resources
and support; and help disabled Christians
in
leading
training and organise events.
According to the Lausanne Committee for
World Evangelization, just five to ten per cent
of disabled people ever hear the gospel in
their lifetime.
‘The car careered out of control’
Kicked out of college and hooked on drink and drugs, Pauline Hamilton drove recklessly towards a cliff near her home to end it all. At the last moment, her tyre blew out, leaving her stunned in the stationary car.
Pauline’s life changed forever. She turned at once to the God who had rescued her and, in grateful amazement, offered her whole life to Him. This dedication would eventually take her to China, where she would serve for over 30 adventure-packed years as a missionary. Through many trials Pauline never lost sight of the God who had promised never to let her go.
letter from Latvia
Ukrainian amputees with gospel hope
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.
The Coronation ... how should this event bring us back to the Bible?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 May 2023
If the King’s Coronation service follows the pattern of that of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, His Majesty Charles III will be handed a copy of the Bible as part of the ceremony. But, out of the hundreds of different English language translations, who knows which version it’ll be?
Imagine you were interviewed or gave an important talk which was reported throughout the world. If it was translated into 723 different languages, you’d probably be flattered.
Inspirational women
Rebekah Brown
Date posted: 1 May 2023
Book Review
CLOTHED WITH STRENGTH:
Women who built the church and
changed the world
Read review
Can the Church of England be revived?
It would be easy to answer that question with a quick ‘no’. After all, we Anglicans are facing huge problems: a loss of gospel truth, obstruction from bishops and ongoing spiritual compromise throughout the institution.
This present mess has been a long time coming, and it is, in many ways, no surprise. Surely, then, it is all over with the Church of England, and we should just leave such a moribund institution? There is, after all, nothing sacred about an ecclesiastical institution in and of itself, and we know that denominational borders are not the borders of spiritual Israel. Everything would be simpler if we just came out so that we could breathe freely once again!