Cardiff: hungry students
Hayley Marchant
Date posted: 1 Jan 2019
In November, the Christian Unions of Cardiff
held their annual city-wide events week.
Christian students on six different campuses across three different universities, as
well as an
international outreach
team,
stepped out to ask questions of their peers,
illustrated stories, answered questions and
proclaimed the good news.
Holding on to power
Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Jan 2019
The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) has re-emerged after being somewhat dormant over the last decade.
That it is re-emerging with global participation and recognition among clergy and lay leaders in national groups indicates where apostolic succession truly lies – in the faith deposit entrusted to the people of God. For the news that EFAC was starting up again was met with instant brand recognition and welcome from evangelical Anglicans around the world.
Prayer – the youth key
Scripture Union
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
A report in late September identified prayer and responding to local needs as two of the most important factors in seeing youth mis-sional objectives met.
The study found that prayer makes a significant difference to a mission’s success, identifying clear links between teams that met their mission objectives and those who dedicated time to prayer for the work. Alongside the obvious benefits of God answering prayers, respondents also reported the positive psychological impact of knowing others were supportive of the work. Prayer was also cited as an effective way of increasing support for the mission, providing involvement opportunities for those who couldn’t help practically.
Jesus for Jewish people
Christian Witness to Israel
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
With anti-Semitism on the rise, Christian Witness to Israel reminds us of their work
Kyle was a homeless Jewish drug addict.
Ewart Helyar 1920 – 2018
Tony Thompson
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
Ewart Frederick Bertram Helyar was called
into the presence of the Lord just five days
short of his 80th ‘spiritual birthday’.
Born in 1920 in South East London and
unable to continue his schooling following
the sudden death of his mother when he was
14, he went to live with his grandparents in
East Coker, near Yeovil. His grandmother
was a Christian and encouraged him to attend
the local church. He started going to a boys’
Crusader Class and in 1938 he accepted the
Lord Jesus Christ, under the preaching of
Captain Reginald Wallis. During World War
II he served in Yeovil in the bomb disposal
unit of the Home Guard, being in a reserved
occupation with Westland Aircraft.
Dr Kathleen Berger 1920 – 2018
Stuart Cross
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
On 24 July, Dr Kathleen Berger was called
home aged 98.
Kathleen Berger trained as a doctor and
entered the Army in WWII, rising to the
rank of Captain. When she was demobbed
she joined the Bermondsey Medical Mission.
After
the war, new housing estates were
built
in
the London suburbs and people
were moved out. With no GP practices in
the area, people would walk miles back into
Bermondsey. In 1950, Dr Berger was asked
to become the family doctor to the Coppice
Estate in Petts Wood, south east London.
Hull: building towards 2030
ReNew Hull / York
Date posted: 1 Dec 2018
Around 45 people (including 35 church leaders) gathered together at Jubilee Central church in Hull on 9 October for the launch of Hull 2030.
Hull 2030 is a new movement to pray for, facilitate and encourage the planting of 20 new gospel-centred churches in Hull by the year 2030. It came about through a partnership between the Anglican ReNew and New Frontiers churches of Hull because of the massive need for new gospel-centred churches to reach those currently unreached, and therefore the need to work together wherever possible.
Joy in Hitchin
Grace Baptist Church
Date posted: 1 Dec 2018
On 13 October, Grace Baptist Church,
Hitchin held a welcome service for their
new pastor Tom Forryan.
Around 200 people gathered in The Priory
School, Hitchin as friends of the family and
former church members joined the 20 or so
existing members. Ashkan Sarmadi, current
pastor of Derby Road Baptist Church, Watford
spoke warmly of Tom’s previous ministry.
Richard Lambert, Elder, explained the challenges of their three-year search for a pastor,
mentioning in particular a ‘somewhat sombre’
evening gathering of church officers when they
seemed to be out of options. In the providence
of God, a few days later a phone call suggesting
Tom for consideration was received.
news in brief
Argentina: no to abortion
On 9 August, the Argentine Senate rejected a bill which would have legalised abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.
After a marathon debate, 38 senators voted against it and 31 in favour. Its defeat means lawmakers must wait until next year to resubmit legislation. Some pro-choice campaigners started fires and lobbed missiles at police in Buenos Aires after the vote. Demonstrators on both sides of the debate had rallied outside parliament as voting took place.
More railway chaplains
Railway Mission
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
In August it was announced that the Railway Mission has invested in the chaplaincy service and increased the support to the railway industry to help staff through the recent industrial problems faced by many of the train operating companies.
As well as the addition of five new full-time chaplains to the chaplaincy team, the hours of some of the part time chaplains has also been increased.
Believing in Barrow
Robin Ham
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
A new Cumbrian church plant is giving thanks for six months of life and looking ahead to God’s provision as they face the future…
The joke is often made that Barrow-in-Furness is at the end of the longest cul-de-sac in the country!
Bywyd Llawn (Life to the full)
Evangelical Movement of Wales
Date posted: 1 Oct 2018
The Welsh National Eisteddfod held
in
the first week of August in Cardiff gave an
opportunity for Christian mission by the
Evangelical Movement of Wales.
Footfall past
the
stand
in Cardiff was
heavy, and good conversations were had
each day. As part of a questionnaire pass-ers-by could fill in, people were asked to rate
four sentences from 1-10:
‘I don’t know’: state of UK popular theology revealed
Humphrey Dobson
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
How much do people in Britain today know about God, the Bible, or Jesus Christ?
And what about within the church – do evangelicals think clearly about theological issues, or does confusion abound? The State of Theology survey, commissioned by Ligonier Ministries, has uncovered what people in the UK are actually thinking.
Grace Baptist joy
JEB
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
An Association AGM is usually a duty that
must be done and no more. But that of the
Association of Grace Baptists in the South
East on 6 October, at St Giles’ Mission,
North London, turned into a real joy.
Four new churches
joined
the group,
from Chelmsford, Hythe, Streatham and
Ebbsfleet. The new book Pure Church, show-ing the biblical basis for the Association’s
ecclesiology,
was
launched.
Graham
Nicholls, the director of Affinity, to which
the Association belongs, articulated the aims
of his work for wider fellowship.
To the ends of the earth
Mark Foster
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
Mark Foster brings us news of how the gospel is being taken to the far east of Russia
They’ve been doing it for almost 70 years.
Iraq: believers survive and thrive
Paul Perkin
Date posted: 1 Nov 2018
‘You can say you are not a man or a woman, you can say you are not a Kurd, but you cannot say you are not a Muslim; it’s in your DNA.’
This is according to a Muslim-background believer in Jesus (MBB), who indeed told his family he was now a believer in Isa [Jesus]. He came to Christ through an atheist newspaper telling the accounts of people who had turned from Islam to Jesus (the paper held no candle for any religion but was vaguely interested in those who converted from one to another!)
India: ‘God is on the move’
Langham Partnership
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
For a new believer in northern India, it’s not uncommon to be baptised at midnight, not because it’s more meaningful by moonlight, but because the cover of darkness offers more safety in a region where Christians increasingly face persecution.
For a new believer, gaining ultimate freedom in Christ often means losing other freedoms, like drawing water from the community well or walking down the street without fear of being beaten. Amazingly, churches are growing where many of the 400 million people are in desperate poverty and most have never heard of Jesus.
news in brief
Speaker speaks out
Freedom of religion is less important than homosexual and transsexual rights, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said in early July.
He made the statement while hosting an event for a homosexual website. He said: ‘I respect people’s rights to adhere to and profess their faith, but for me, where there is a clash between somebody’s adherence to faith on the one hand and the acknowledgment of and demonstration of respect for human rights, the latter has to trump the former.’
Chris Wright: a wee Belfast boy
Keswick Ministries
Date posted: 1 Aug 2018
My parents were missionaries for 20 years in Brazil before I was born.
Two of my older siblings were born there. I arrived after they returned to Belfast shortly after the Second World War. So I grew up in a home where Christian faith was inseparable from mission commitment and global interest (aided by a stamp-collecting hobby). I remember asking Jesus to come into my heart as a young child of five or six, when my brother Paul asked me if my name was in the Lamb’s Book of Life; and when I asked how I could be sure (probably not quite understanding which book he had in mind), he told me to do just that.
Please fight for the unborn
Dave Brennan
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
Dave Brennan with a biblical mandate to mobilise against abortion
As the 19th century draws to a close, English missionaries in King Leopold II’s Congo Free State face a heart-searching dilemma.
Culture watching
Where’s my super-suit?
Sarah Allen
Date posted: 1 Sep 2018
Superhero movies seem to be churned out by Hollywood every few months now.
We’ve had Wonder Woman and Black Panther, Iron Man, The Avengers and X-Men all saving the world and defeating evil in their different fashions. Those who enjoy these films (I have to say, they are not my cup of tea) know what to expect – dramatic action sequences; often ambiguous political scenarios; heroes who are like us, but better; heroes who come from another world; personal conflict as the hero accepts their mission, and evil which is a threat to human relationships as we know them.
