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Freedom 61 is a Christian organisation based in Latvia’s capital city, Riga, and is an initiative of Youth With A Mission (YWAM).

Taking its name from Isaiah 61.1, Freedom 61’s mission is to proclaim freedom to victims of human trafficking, freedom to men who are buying women for sex, and also to protect the freedom of those who are at risk of being trafficked.

As a land-locked country, Switzerland doesn’t seem the most obvious place for United Beach Missions to operate.

But in the first fortnight of July, thousands of people visit Montreux for the world famous International Jazz Festival. The ‘Kiosque Biblique’ is a permanent small wooden chalet, built in 1965, situated along the lake front and open from March to October each year. It is owned by the local Christian bookshop and run by volunteers. The kiosk sells drinks, postcards and souvenirs, but its main purpose is to sell Bibles and Christian books in many languages. Everybody who buys something is offered a free leaflet about the Christian faith in their own language.

Each summer UCCF sends teams of Christian Union (CU) students from all over Britain as a tangible expression of one of the core values of being generous in world mission.

Some teams remain in British towns working alongside local churches in their outreach to communities, while others travel further afield. During June and July this year, eight UCCF summer teams headed to places like Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine and Slovakia, to join alongside the CU movements in those countries. Our prayer is that God has used these summer teams powerfully to bring the nations to praise him.

Nyankunde is a small town near the Ugandan border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which I visited in 1989 on my very first trip to Africa.

In March I was responding to a request for training and technical help from a young man who has started a radio station to bring a ‘message of reconciliation’ to this war-torn area.

An Islamic State militant has reportedly converted to Christianity after dreaming of a ‘man in white’, who he believed was Jesus, it was reported in early June.

The ISIS fighter had killed many Christians before the dream, and had confessed that he ‘actually enjoyed’ killing the Christians.

The generosity of British Christians who saved a penniless Jewish child from Nazi-occupied Austria has prompted support for a rescue mission to save Christians from death at the hands of Islamic State.

Lord Weidenfeld arrived on a Kindertransport train in Britain in 1938 with only a few shillings in his pocket. Now aged 94, he is helping Barnabas Fund to rescue up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq and resettle them elsewhere.

In July I found myself in the city of Hiroshima in Japan.

This August sees the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on this city from the US bomber named Enola Gay. There is now a Peace Park at the site under where the weapon was detonated 600m above the city. The museum has a scale model where the bomb is represented as a small ‘sun’ – which in some respects it was – exploding in the air at 8.15am on the morning of 6 August 1945. There will no doubt be ceremonies to mark the anniversary of this ghastly event, which in many ways sadly marks the advent of ‘the nuclear age.’

‘We are expecting a massive earthquake someday.’

A Christian leader told me this when I visited Kathmandu a couple of years ago. Nobody knew when, but they knew it was coming: the seismologists predicted it.

Despite logistical and financial difficulties, the organisers of a mission in Kinshasa in October were full of praise for God.

The mission had three phases: a forum of evangelists; a church leaders’ training on evangelism; and stratified evangelism in nine venues. The size of the city and the mission being organised with very little finance made it a challenge, especially mobilising the local church congregations. But still 22% of the mission budget was raised locally.

In early March it was reported that, in recent weeks, over 220 Iranians and Afghans have been baptised in two cities in the Iran region. Elam Ministries says: ‘Please join us in praying for these new believers, and for the churches as they disciple them.’

The baptisms were joyful day-long occasions, full of worship, prayer, fellowship over meals and the sharing of testimonies. One new believer at one of the ceremonies recalled how finding a New Testament by accident had started him on his journey to Christ. Remarkable stories of the Lord’s providence abounded during both days.

On 7 March the Free Methodist Church USA announced the release of its kidnapped missionary in Nigeria, Phyllis Sortor.

In a statement signed on behalf of the Board of Bishops of the church, David W. Kendall said 71-year-old Sortor was released by her captors on Friday evening, 6 March. He said armed gunmen abducted Sortor on 23 February from Hope Academy school in Emi-Oworo village in the central Nigerian state of Kogi.

Carl Chambers

Date posted: 1 Apr 2015

The island of Cuba has recently hit the news again, because the US has finally overturned its 50-year policy of isolation by re-establishing diplomatic relations with this state socialist country.

World politics is not the only area where fundamental changes are happening – the church in Cuba is another one.

Hundreds of extremist Islamists attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh on 5 November in response to locals who were outraged by rumours stating that the school, which welcomes children of all faiths, was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity.

The mob comprised about 200 people. The students were not physically injured, but 12 of its 14 members of staff were beaten. A female teacher endured a serious head injury. Another teacher said that he managed to run away from six Madrasa students, armed with knives and machetes, after being forced out of his classroom.

It is 30 years since the Communist regime forced Fabiano to leave his home country of Mozambique with nothing. He was already serving the church there and was recognised by the African Inland Mission as a potential leader. They were his only contact on his arrival in Britain, knowing no English.

He immediately entered Moorlands College in Hampshire – learning Greek and English. Subsequently he obtained a degree at London Bible College and in 1988 married Suzana, who had emigrated from Mozambique to Portugal.

Megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll announced to his Seattle-based congregation, via a pre-recorded message in late August, that he is taking a six-week leave of absence from his position as lead pastor of Mars Hill Church while various charges against him were formally investigated. Driscoll said he would take the time to seek council about the next season of his life.

Driscoll, along with Mike Gunn and Leif Moi, planted the church in 1996. Mars Hill grew to more than 13,000 people and stretched across 15 locations in five states: Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Arizona. Attendance has slumped over recent weeks to between 8-9000, and the church has announced the closure of at least three of its locations, and staff cuts of 30-40%. This leave of absence has come after a series of events which found Driscoll being confronted with significant questions about his character and leadership.

‘Unless immediate action is taken in Liberia – including isolating patients, a quarantine programme and protective gear – the death toll will likely reach into the thousands,’ says Dr Frank Glover, a medical missionary who partners with SIM International (known in the UK as Serving in Mission).

Glover was testifying before a US congressional subcommittee on August 7 about combatting the Ebola threat in Liberia.

This was a core element in the Communist strategy to suppress and destroy the evangelical churches in the Iron Curtain era.

It was a plan which had deeply damaging consequences for the cause of the gospel, resulting in thousands of leaderless churches and countless communities throughout Eastern Europe without a glimmer of gospel light. Moldova was one such country. Patrick Johnstone recorded, in his 1993 edition of Operation World, : ‘Training for pastors is the greatest need. There are 185 Baptist pastors – none of whom have received any formal training. Pray for the founding of a Bible school. Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) is seeking to help in this.’