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letter from Russia

In Far East Russia, believers endeavouring to share the truth of the gospel face problems which are peculiar to the context in which they work. Harsh wintry conditions, isolated scattered communities, impassible roads and, most critical of all, strong resistance to Christian truth and a suspicion of believers, must all be overcome if the gospel is to take root and conquer hearts.

One approach has been proving encouraging and effective – the building of “Hope Centres” in communities where there is resistance to gospel witness, and no ready acceptance of evangelists from “outside”.

Luke Randall

Date posted: 28 Apr 2025

There are encouraging reports of new gospel growth in France – with evangelicals claiming one church is being established every ten days, and a new study revealing younger Protestants are increasingly likely to identify as evangelical.

Data collected by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) on behalf of the Protestant Federation of France reveals that younger people and those on lower incomes who regard themselves as practicing Protestants in France are increasingly likely to identify as evangelical Christians.

letter from America

Josh Moody

Date posted: 27 Apr 2025

I recently returned to the UK for a preaching tour. I preached 13 times in about as many days. Godcenteredlife.org had a conference in London. We did a missions conference with Crosslinks in Belfast. And more.

It’s made me reflect, with renewed up close and personal experience, on the differences, strengths and weaknesses of the different church scenes. Obviously, there are many more, and much bigger, churches in the USA. Right before I came to the UK, I heard of another church in the USA of about 15,000 people in attendance – a church that previous to that brief awareness moment I had never heard of. If there was a church in the UK with 15,000 people in attendance I would have heard of it and been quite familiar with it. But the size difference is not the most notable, nor in some ways, the most important distinction.

Luke Randall

Date posted: 24 Apr 2025

Following the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, which has killed thousands and destroyed many buildings, evangelicals are reporting a desperate need for aid – and glimmers of gospel opportunity.

The 7.7 magnitude quake has prompted an immediate humanitarian crisis in a country which has been gripped by civil conflict for four years, with missionaries in the nation already experiencing a “tenfold increase” in requests for missionary aid even before the earthquake.

Emily Pollok

Date posted: 18 Apr 2025

President Trump is on a mission to get rid of “anti-Christian bias” in the US, creating a task force especially for the purpose.

Headed up by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the task force is to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government”, Trump announced in Washington recently during National Prayer Breakfast events.

A South Sudanese pastor is rejoicing – two years after a honey-harvesting accident left him facing a lifetime of pain.

Elisama Edward, rural dean for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan, Maridi, was flown to hospital after his plight came to the attention of Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).

Anniversaries give opportunity to look back with thankfulness, and forward with hope and confidence. This year marks the 75th ‘birthday’ of Slavic Gospel Association (UK).

From relatively small beginnings the work has grown and prospered through God’s hand of blessing on it, so that today in the lands of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Far East Russia, hundreds of missionaries and Christian workers are helped prayerfully and financially by the supporters of the Mission. The Mission’s sponsorship scheme enables prayer partners to direct their support and their prayers to the work of faithful and trusted men and women, labouring to advance the cause of the gospel.

Luke Randall

Date posted: 29 Jan 2025

A Ukrainian-born Jewish missionary says his evangelistic approach to Jewish people has changed since the attacks on 7 October 2023.

Misha Vayshengolts, who works for International Mission to Jewish People and lives in Tel-Aviv (interviewed by en last year), revealed that he has had to change how he communicates with Jewish people since Hamas attacked and killed over 1,200 Israelis.

A series of remarkable conferences, including the Puritan Conference – Dubai 2025, have been held in the United Arab Emirates, for the first time, in January.

The first conference of the series saw a gathering of 106 ministries from 46 nations who collaborated to bring excellent Reformed resources to the world through the Global Resources and Training Initiative.

letter from America

Josh Moody

Date posted: 23 Jan 2025

A former marine, Daniel Penny, was recently acquitted of all charges - despite putting a black homeless man, Jordan Neely, in a chokehold and killing him while they and others were travelling on a New York underground train.

Neely, apparently well-known locally for his Michael Jackson impressions, had allegedly made violent threats against other travellers on the subway car (as carriages are known). But he reportedly says he could not have lived with his conscience if any harm had come to his fellow passengers.

Luke Randall

Date posted: 21 Feb 2025

Church services have been cancelled as fighting continues to intensify in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – with 70 Christians found beheaded in one church.

M23 rebels, who have been seizing territory since early 2022 with the help of around 4,000 Rwandan troops, now control the two of the largest cities in DRC - Goma and Bukavu.

An evangelical church has been planted in Serbia’s fourth largest city, with ministry in Serbian and Portuguese.

The new congregation in Kragujevac consists of around 25 people and is the fruit of collaboration between Serbian believers from other towns, missionaries from Brazil, and the Scotland-based Christian organisation Blythswood Care.

letter from Uganda

In November 2023, my wife Heidi and I pulled up our roots, leaving our Essex home and the church I had pastored for 28 years, for Koboko, North West Uganda.

Our mission? To help the team of Keliko believers who are translating God’s word into their mother tongue. The work is supported by Wycliffe Bible Translators and Grace Baptist Mission.

letter from Latvia

John Woods

Date posted: 6 Jan 2025

I am writing this letter while in Latvia on one of my regular visits to teach at the Latvian Biblical Centre (LBC) in Riga.

Over three weekends I am contributing to four of LBC’s programmes. So far, I have been teaching on Identity for the School of Christianity, Work and Society, Introducing the Prophets for the foundation course: Theology and Ministry, and The Kingdom of God on the Missional Church Programme. This is an example of the range of things that LBC offers. My final weekend in Latvia will be with the School of Preachers Course that I started in 2018. This is a two-year programme consisting of eight weekend teaching sessions with regular cluster group meetings for application in between these weekends. There have been 44 graduates from the course so far. It is a joy to see some of our students coming back to preach at our weekend sessions and field questions on how they approached their preparation.

Thanks to MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), three vulnerable infants received urgent medical attention in Papua New Guinea.

‘One Monday afternoon,’ reports MAF Pilot Tim Neufeld, ‘I was thinking it was time to wrap up, but was asked to do a 15-minute flight to Nomane. A small baby was struggling to breathe, and recent heavy rains had caused several landslides, making it impossible to reach the nearest medical centre.’

letter from Australia

David Robertson

Date posted: 1 Feb 2024

A national student mission in Australia is getting underway after more than 2,000 undergraduates attended a special conference in preparation.

The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) is the largest student campus ministry in Australia. At the end of 2023 over 2,000 students (across Australia and many parts of the world) were transformed by, trained in, and sent with the gospel of Jesus at the AFES National Training Event.

letter from America

Josh Moody

Date posted: 4 Nov 2024

At time of writing, Hurricanes Helene and Milton have had significant impact on parts of America.

The regularity of natural events like this (the ubiquitous insurance moniker ‘Acts of God’) is surprising for those who grew up in the more placid weather patterns of the UK. Yes, hurricanes can hit there too – I remember the one that (as the joke was) turned leafy Sevenoaks into ‘One oak’. I actually slept through that hurricane, awakening to the sound of other teenagers rushing around with hilarity at the mild effects of broken glass and the like where our dormitories were.

Luke Randall

Date posted: 1 Nov 2024

The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has called for the Nigerian government to strengthen religious rights, following their discovery that Christians have been the most violently persecuted group in Nigeria during the last four years.

A study by ORFA revealed that 16,700 Christians have been violently killed out of an overall civilian total of 55,900, mainly by Islamist extremists. This makes them the most discriminated-against people group in the country. Other groups to feature high on the list were security forces and terror group members.