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As an unprecedented virus disrupts the planet, MAF’s planes and people are helping to prevent the spread of coronavirus in some of the world’s poorest places.

Implementing every precaution possible to protect its personnel and the isolated areas MAF serves, the organisation has been quick to offer support wherever possible.

Six leaders of the Early Rain Covenant Church were removed from their homes and detained by Chinese authorities whilst watching an online service on Easter Sunday. Taking place via Zoom, it was interrupted as police raided members’ homes. Someone watching the service said: ‘I thought it was the network connection issue at first, but I soon heard a quarrel erupt.’

The electricity was disconnected in one of the homes and others received phone calls warning them that the police were coming. All six leaders were later released.

A spokesman for the Al-Shabaab terror group active in Somalia declared coronavirus as a ‘punishment visited by Allah upon the disbelievers’ in an audio message reported on 27 April.

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Mogadishu began to climb, the militant, known as Ali Dhere, called on Muslims to gloat about the ‘painful torment’ inflicted on any non-Muslims who contract Covid-19.

In the 1960s, a diffident young Korean, who was an ex-refugee aspiring to be a pastor, knocked at the door of Swiss L’Abri. Cynthia Stanton, Edith Schaeffer’s long-serving worker, opened it and greeted him. In due time, they were to wed.

It was a chalk-and-cheese liaison, but it was to produce much unobtrusive fruit. She was a Londoner, her father running a fleet of black taxi cabs. His father had fled North Korea to Beijing, where he and his wife sheltered refugees. Both Kim’s parents were freedom fighters in a volunteer Korean army against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). They suffered torture and witnessed atrocities. Kim was born in Beijing one year into that war.

Every year, in the 26 countries MAF serves, pilots from the Christian aviation charity carry out hundreds of medical emergency flights for ill and injured people and women facing pregnancy complications.

In Suriname, the organisation’s experience of life-saving medevacs proved vital when MAF Country Director and Chief Pilot Andy Bijkerk had to carry out an urgent flight.

At the time of writing, the seemingly never-ending summer of bushfires continues to take a devastating toll. Some 33 people have been killed in the fires, and over 2,500 homes across the nation destroyed, with the heaviest loss occurring in the state of New South Wales.

Losses among wildlife and livestock are inestimable in number, with some sources stating that perhaps 1.25 billion animals have been destroyed. The landmass devastated is equal to one and a half times the area of Scotland. Australian home territory has largely escaped the ravages of war over the decades, but is now experiencing something similar to a devastating military attack.

Chris Sugden

Date posted: 1 Jan 2020

The executive committee of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) (Global) together with the trustees of the English charity EFAC met for three days in November to confer about the opportunities and challenges facing the gospel witness of the Anglican Church around the world.

They affirmed that EFAC is defined by theology, not by a relationship to a bishop. Through fellowships, fora and resources EFAC builds on the five marks of mission:

Nearly four years ago, Chancellor George Osborne claimed that the UK’s exit from the European Union would be ‘a shock to the world economy’. Thus began what became known as ‘Project Fear’, but with Brexit imminent there is no sign of financial panic nor of the other dire consequences foretold.

This is not to say that Remain had a monopoly of misleading claims, but it is a reminder of how politically-driven communication can stretch facts and evidence. Sadly, the Anglican Communion is not exempt. It has its own ‘Project Fear’.

Logos Hope volunteers connected with people in front of Antofagasta’s hospital, to tell them the gospel and pray with those who are unwell and their visitors.

The crew members approached people and relatives waiting for treatment outside the hospital. After introducing themselves, they asked if there was anything they could pray for. When people accepted prayer, they spoke with them more personally, prayed for their requests and told them about their faith.

On 1 September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas. The Category 5 storm, with 185mph winds and storm surges of up to 23 feet, is one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall.

Regarded as the worst natural disaster in the country’s history, the storm caused widespread flooding and destruction. It killed at least 50 people and left more than 70,000 people homeless.

Josué Sánchez, 32, from El Salvador, knows all about risk.

‘I grew up in the most dangerous town in Central America,’ Josué said. ‘There are violent gangs who fight for territory and will kill for no reason. Everyone in El Salvador faces this every day. It’s a matter of knowing how to survive. It’s like: “Welcome to the jungle”.’

A 134-page report released in September, shows that some 35 million youths raised in Christian families in the USA will give up on Christianity by the year 2050.

Greg Stier – founder of the youth ministry Dare 2 Share – says the report, called The Great Opportunity, is a chance for Christians to ‘flip the switch’. ‘How about not just slowing down the bleeding, what if there was a revival that flipped those stats? That is what we are praying for. How do we flip the switch?’

Next year, Slavic Gospel Association [UK] will celebrate its 70th birthday. In 1950, Peter Deyneka, the founder of the mission in the USA some 13 years earlier, visited churches in the south of England. Believers caught the vision for reaching Slavic peoples for Christ and the UK branch of SGA was formed in that year.

The initially small efforts to bring encouragement and help to Eastern European people displaced by the Second World War and living in camps in England, Germany and Austria, quickly blossomed. It then burgeoned into a ministry which took Christians through the Iron Curtain, and into situations where the churches were severely persecuted for their faithfulness to Christ and the gospel.

John Stott is one of my heroes and I had the privilege of meeting him several times. Among the vast number of signifi-cant things that he achieved in his life was the founding of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion in 1961.

EFAC has the clear aim and purpose to encourage and develop biblically faithful fellowship, teaching and mission throughout the Anglican world. Such an all-encompassing purpose must necessarily be honed down to goals that are realistic.

According to Unus Walilo, pastor of the church in Apahapsili, a village high in the mountains, the Yali people ‘didn’t know anything about the outside world.

‘We lived in the Stone Age, killing each other, eating our enemies. We didn’t know any other life’, said Unus.

A woman was divorced by her Muslim hus-band after he discovered she owned a Bible, it was reported in August.

The husband of the 32-year-old mother of two children discovered that his wife was a Christian and owned a Bible. He demanded that she reveal who had given it to her.

North Carolina-based global humanitarian organisation Operation Blessing sent a relief team on 4 September to Nassau, Bahamas, to bring emergency aid after Hurricane Dorian’s devastation.

Dorian ripped through the Bahamas destroying or severely damaging over 13,000 homes. The death toll is still unknown.

Chris Sugden

Date posted: 1 Sep 2019

Theologians from Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda gathered as the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion Theological Resource Network.

They met in Kampala, Uganda from 10-13 June to consider developing moral leadership in church and society. They also studied Paul’s emphasis on nurturing character in young leaders based on the biblical gospel of Jesus.

The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) returned to Plano, Texas, 17-19 June to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its formation under the leadership of Archbishop Bob Duncan.

The Assembly theme was ‘Discipleship: Renewing Our Call to the Great Commission’ with cross-cultural mission and church planting very much to the fore. Over 1,100 attended, including ten Anglican Primates, Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria and General Secretary of GAFCON, and representatives from some 23 countries.

Robert Bruce, a Scottish missionary to Iranian Muslims in the late-19th century, wrote home to his supporters: ‘I am not reaping the harvest; I scarcely claim to be sowing the seed; I am hardly ploughing the soil; but I am gathering out the stones. That, too, is missionary work; let it be supported by loving sympathy and fervent prayer.’

For many years, Iran was one of the most difficult regions of the world to reach with the gospel. In 1979, with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the ruling monarch Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown. In his place an Islamic Republic was birthed, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Sharia law became the law of the land, and Muslim clerics became the heads of state.

Burundi is a country of 12 million people to the south of Uganda and Rwanda. The Anglican Church of Burundi was started in 1935 by the Church Missionary Society and Ugandan and Rwandan missionaries. It is known for standing on three pillars : evangelism, medical services and education.

The Church, now numbering about 1million members, has been able to grow and make an impact from its foundation up to today because of the influence and fruits of the East African Revival Movement. This movement emphasises the love of God and love of one another, salvation, walking in the light with one another, and staying in fellowship as brethren.