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Greetings from here in Co. Mayo in the Wild West of Ireland!

In Acts 16 we read of the Apostle Paul and his entourage seeking to enter Bithynia but being forbidden by the Holy Spirit. Finally they reached Troas where Paul has a vision of a man pleading with him: ‘Come over to Macedonia to help us’. This call changed history by changing the direction of the gospel from moving north into Asia, to moving west into Europe.

During the week November 3-7 2008, 48 Muslim and Catholic theologians met in Rome to discuss a document elaborated last year by 138 senior Muslim scholars.

The document, A Common Word Between Us and You, proclaims itself to be an attempt to find common ground between the two religions in order to bring peace to the world.

The FREE gospel project was officially launched this September at UCCF’s national conference for Christian Union leaders, Forum. Almost 1,000 delegates, staff, volunteers were the first to hold copies of the 400,000 freshly designed copies of Mark’s Gospel set to be distributed to campuses in Great Britain in February 2009.

Since then it has been a fantastic privilege to observe the enthusiasm, commitment and excitement with which the project has been embraced by Christian Unions.

1957 saw three unknown young students take a step of faith that would have consequences beyond their wildest dreams.

50 years have passed since George Verwer, Dale Rhoton and Walter Borchard, then still in their teens, drove down Route 66 from Chicago towards Mexico City in a beat-up 1949 Dodge truck filled with Spanish gospels and tracts. This was the beginning of what was to become Operation Mobilisation (OM). An unlikely spiritual revolution had started.

As, this month, Joel Edwards stands down from his role as General Director of Evangelical Alliance, he gave an interview to EN.

EN: In what ways do you think evangelicalism has changed during your time at E?

In the Autumn issue of Tear Times, the magazine of the relief charity Tearfund, the organisation advertised that they had asked Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak at a conference supported by them on Saturday September 6 in London.

EN was contacted and had conversations with a few evangelicals who felt very uneasy about this and asked us to write and ask Tearfund some questions.

Ray Porter

Date posted: 1 Oct 2008

Alice Compain, the veteran OMF missionary to Cambodia and Laos, died at a nursing home in Pembury, Kent on September 4 2008 at the age of 74.

Alice was prepared by God to be a missionary to Laos and Cambodia. Born into a multilingual Christian family in London. English, French and German were the languages of the home. At the age of six she began to play the violin and that would prove the key to much of her subsequent service.

Back in January’s EN, Michael Reeves wrote about the imminent launch of UCCF’s online theological centre, Theology Network (http://www.theologynetwork.org). He promised all the thrill of an old-fashioned sweetie shop minus the sugar — and he explained the rationale for this website: ‘To unleash the best biblical teaching so that students and all users might come to know and love the Lord Jesus in deeper, life-changing, mission-igniting ways’.

Behind the launch of Theology Network was our hope that UCCF Christian Unions would be theologically driven — that is, illuminated, empowered, and consumed by God’s gracious revelation of himself in his Son. We launched with the conviction that when students are captivated by the great gospel of Jesus they would be propelled onward in evangelism and tooled-up for discipleship.

The Christian work and fellowship started by GAFCON in Jerusalem in June 2008 has only just begun.

We are well aware that it faces plenty of dangers and obstacles as it seeks to renew the Anglican Communion in the work of the gospel. We know that it has already been misunderstood in various quarters. This may lead some to hesitate about supporting it. That is why we want to respond to the particular misunderstandings and historical errors that are stated in the article by Iain Murray in the September 2008 issue of EN, although both of us have enormously appreciated books he has written over the years.

The 600 men who attended the fifth Cardiff Men’s Convention in 2008 are still telling us that it was ‘the best convention yet’. Once more the All Nations Centre in Cardiff was filled with men who brought a compassion to worship, a real hunger for truth in the teaching and, maybe most important of all, the encouragement of being with other Christian men.

The title of this year’s convention was ‘Leaving a Legacy’, the central idea being that Christian men have a significant responsibility to create a positive legacy in their churches, their family, their workplace and in the wider community. The teaching was designed to challenge and inspire, but also to equip men to take on that responsibility.

Tasmania isn’t literally the end of the earth, but you can see it from here, and, like island communities everywhere, Tasmanians are fiercely independent and proud of where they live.

Jenny Cullen defines an island as ‘A place where people are usually nice to each other, nobody’s in a hurry, people stop and talk to each other on the street even in nasty weather, there are no secrets, and life just pretty much works the way it should most of the time. It’s not too complicated’. That’s what it’s like most of the time.

It’s Sunday morning. Not much has changed. You throw on some clothes and grab a coffee on your way out the door. Destination — church.

It’s just what you’ve been brought up doing. No rhyme or reason — just habit. There’s a handshake at the door, then you head for the back pew.