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What does cross-cultural mission mean to you? Brave souls hopping on a plane and flying across the world? But what about Britain? In many towns and cities, different faith communities live cheek-by-jowl.

If you are contemplating mission abroad but have not yet reached out to Asians here in Britain, why not? 'Reaching out to Muslims in Huddersfield' may not have quite the same ring as 'pioneering mission in rural Pakistan' but it is essentially the same thing.

Hundreds were streaming into the Capitol. They call themselves 'Promise Keepers' and by Saturday October 4 1997, approximately half a million participated in the largest evangelical Christian gathering in American history.

For six sunny hours, men (and a fair number of women) from the Empire State of New York to the Golden State of California were planted on Washington DC's 'Mall' (a strip of grass between the United States Capitol and the Washington Monument).

This remarkable woman was born in Aberdeen in 1848, but, when she was ten, her parents moved to Dundee, looking for work as weavers.

Her father was an alcoholic and died young, but her mother was a Christian in the United Presbyterian Church. This church had started a pioneer mission work in Calabar, now part of Eastern Nigeria, and the stories from Calabar were studied in the Slessor house.

‘Sorry, we’re full up. You’ll have to try again next break.’

Ian Fry, Christian schools’ worker in Kingston, often has to say this to pupils queuing up in the playground to get onto the Surrey Good News Bus.