‘Your money & your life’ – but he lived
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Although John thought they only wanted his goods, they also wanted to take his life.
Early one morning, John was walking back from the market to his home in Habai village, in Papua New Guinea’s isolated Highlands. He was carrying three bags of flour and eight litres of oil, which he was hoping to sell so he could pay for his sons’ school fees.
news in brief
USA: SBC not to ban women pastors
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has just failed to achieve the two-thirds majority vote needed to place a ban in its constitution on women being church pastors.
Issues impacting women are prominent at this year’s annual meeting of the SBC, taking place in Indianapolis. Church leaders also approved a resolution condemning in vitro fertilisation. The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the US, with over 50,000 churches and over 14 million members, and is now a serious political force in the country.
letter from Spain
Seedy clubs, drugs & alcohol... but the gospel too!
Trevor Ramsey
Date posted: 18 Jul 2024
Located on Spain’s sunny Costa Blanca, the town of Benidorm is known for many things - only a few of them are particularly healthy! Through popular TV programmes, such as Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun, A Place in the Sun or the sitcom Benidorm, many UK citizens have got a taste of life on the sunny coast.
Benidorm is still a very popular holiday destination - indeed nearly 800,000 UK tourists flock there every summer, seeking the perfect holiday of sun, sea and sand. Parts of the town are beautiful and peaceful but certain areas are awash with decadence and immorality, fuelled by excessive alcohol and a lax drug use policy, particularly on 'The Strip', the notorious street full of bars and seedy clubs. It’s a veritable hive of activity and noise and depravity, especially when the sun goes down.
Albania: 3,000 people hear the gospel
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jul 2024
Over 3,000 people have heard the gospel in Tirana, Albania, at a major event organised by evangelicals in the country.
Before the mission, about 800 evangelicals met to focus on the church’s evangelistic imperative and to remember that ‘Jesus teaches us that we as a church should be lifted as a city up on the mountain top,’ Evangelical Focus reported.
In the rainforest, something is stirring... the gospel
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Spiritual battles continue day and night across the globe, including in the heart of the remote rainforest. The following example was featured in The Washington Post recently.
Rupert Shelley, Director of Mission Partnerships at international mission agency Crosslinks, says it reminds us how ‘the gospel is indeed growing and bearing fruit in extraordinary ways across many parts of South America’.
Churches destroyed, thousands displaced
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Christians working in Mozambique are becoming increasingly concerned about the human cost of the wave of violence now sweeping south across the country.
The persecuted-church agency Open Doors reports that over 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced from their homes in northern Mozambique following a sharp rise in attacks by Islamist militants.
Mission in one of the remotest schools on earth
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jul 2023
Deep in the heart of the jungle lies Nomad Mougulu High School (NMHS), one of the remotest schools on earth.
Mougulu lies in the heart of a rainforest in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) Western Province. The nearest secondary school is a week’s walk away.
Pilot Ping to the rescue!
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
‘It’s a privilege,’ say staff with the Mission Aviation Fellowship, ‘to be the sole air ambulance service for the entire population of Timor-Leste.’ The Christian aviation charity responds to multiple medical emergency flight requests every week, flying to and from Dili to save hundreds of lives.
Because her village has no roads and no electricity, pregnant Marcia Pereira de Sousa was forced to walk for four hours to receive help from a rural health clinic on the eastern side of Atauro Island.
Gaza: can Christianity now survive?
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 May 2024
Thirty out of the estimated 1,000 Christians still left in Gaza have been killed, according to local church sources.
And as Gaza’s Christian population continues to shrink, down from about 3,500 before the war began, commentators fear that one of the oldest Christian communities in the world may be literally dying out.
letter from Mongolia
Gospel opportunities in the land of Genghis Khan
Mark & Gillian Newham
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
We are privileged that God called us to live and minister amongst the Mongolians in Mongolia. We first moved to Ulaanbaatar in April 1993. Then, we were young naïve Christians with a heart to be involved in what God was doing, although we weren’t exactly sure what that was.
We arrived to find a country in transition. Seventy years of Soviet Socialism had ended in 1991 and people were hopeful that the nation would pass through the lean times and grow into a robust democracy. The church, which had been very small, was growing at an amazing rate as God brought gospel seed, planted years earlier, to fruition.
Haiti: missionary evacuation plan
en staff
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
Missionaries trapped amid escalating violence in Haiti are to be evacuated under a plan by Florida Governor Ron De Santis.
Speaking on television, DeSantis said: ‘I have authorised rescue flights like we did in Israel after the 7 October (Hamas attacks) because we’ve got a lot of folks who are part of Christian missionary groups and they do things to try to actually help a very troubled country.’
letter from America
‘In wrath, remember mercy’
Josh Moody
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
It was an unusual Sunday. A group of Ukrainian pastors had been in conversation with the missions leadership of the church to see if we might be able to partner with them.
Their ministry in Ukraine was very active. Church planting. Training pastors. Fruitful evangelism. Baptisms. As they were meeting that weekend with the church, news emerged of war breaking out in Ukraine. The Ukrainian pastors were prayed for in a new context, and they bravely made the hard decision to return to their homeland to shepherd their people.
The gospel was preached – then a bomb exploded: this is what happened afterwards in Ukraine
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
A Russian bomb exploded near a Christian mission worker sharing the gospel in Kherson, causing him to dive for cover, en has been told.
Daniel Rus is a Romanian working with the Global Network of Evangelists (part of the Luis Palau Association), who has organised and led 24 humanitarian trips to Ukraine. In December 2023, on day two of his most recent visit, he and his team visited five villages surrounding Kherson. While distributing food parcels at the third, a mortar bomb exploded 40 metres away, in the garden of the house they were in front of, and the team were forced to run to their cars.
Javier Milei: Do cry for me, Argentina?
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
The Church Mission Society (CMS), which absorbed the South American Mission Society (SAMS) in 2009, has responded to the election of far-right populist outsider Javier Milei as the new President of Argentina.
Speaking exclusively to Evangelicals Now, CMS spokesperson Naomi Steinberg commented: ‘From a mission point of view, we can see that the political, economic and environmental situation in Argentina is precarious and needs much prayer. Our people in mission in the region are praying that the new President will be surrounded by a leadership team that is wise, compassionate and full of integrity’.
Orthodox Jew wants Gazans to ‘get a little Jesus’
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Mar 2024
An Orthodox Jewish writer Jonathan Feldstein is currently ‘praying for Gazans to get a little Jesus in 2024’.
Feldstein is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation, whose declared mission is to ‘build bridges between Jews and Christians with Israel in ways that are new, unique, and meaningful’. He made the call as he believes ‘the best and safest way to change the situation and bring peace [in Gaza] is for the masses of Gazans, and Palestinian Arabs in general, to convert to Christianity’.
PNG: Mission in one of the remotest schools on earth
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Jun 2023
Deep in the heart of the jungle lies Nomad Mougulu High School (NMHS), one of the remotest schools on earth.
Mougulu lies in the heart of a rainforest in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG’s) Western Province. The nearest secondary school is a week’s walk away.
The pastor saving lives in North Korea
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
Twenty-four years ago, Kim Seongeun witnessed dozens of dead bodies floating down the Tumen River, which separates North Korea from China. Ever since, he has been committed to helping people escape Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime.
Pastor Kim, as he is known, organises these dangerous escapes from his base in Seoul, through a charity and church named Caleb Mission. They have rescued 1,012 people since it began in 2000, taking defectors on an ‘underground railroad’ through Southeast Asia to safety. The very first to be rescued was a woman named Park Esther, a lieutenant in the North Korean Army – who later became Kim’s wife.
The Bible comes to Balimo
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
Thanks to MAF, nurse Reena Delesae was able to get hold of a Bible.
Reena is a senior nurse at Balimo Hospital in Western Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), where the hospital is extremely short-staffed and the nurses must carefully manage the medication available because there’s a real danger of it running out.
Moldovan believers mark 30 years of Biblical training
Slavic Gospel Association
Date posted: 1 Feb 2024
Thirty years of a Biblical leadership training scheme in Moldova are being celebrated.
Recently, Slavic Gospel Association staff members had the joy of joining with church leaders, and past and present students of the Mission School in Balti, Moldova, to mark the anniversary.
Middle East: ‘Jesus can change terrorists’ hearts’
Luke Randall
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
While world leaders have devoted a countless number of hours to finding a seemingly impossible solution to the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis, Misha Vayshengolts, who serves with International Mission to Jewish People in Israel, believes that ‘Jesus is the answer’.
In an interview with en, Misha spoke about what life is currently like in Israel, how recent events have impacted his work as a missionary, and why he thinks Jesus is the solution to the crisis.
letter from Mozambique
Growing hope in the land of tears
Janet Phythian, Mission Associate with Church Mission Society, writes: During my recent visit to Sofala, central Mozambique from July to September, I gave much thanks for abundant vegetable harvests grown on the Africa Naturally farm at our base in Mezimbite, for orphans in care.
This followed a slow start in April due to extensive flooding caused by cyclone Freddy (see en April 2023 for more details). We were also able to support Pastor Pires to start a children’s ministry at his church, Seed of Abraham, following the amazing training he had received from Rory Bell of TnT Ministries/Mustard Seeds.
Job done, says missionary to Africa
Charles Gardner
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
Ex-Muslims are making disciples among a largely unreached people.
After 25 years of sharing the gospel in sub-Saharan Africa, a previously London-based physiotherapist feels able to say that her ‘mission is accomplished’.
Palestinian Christians urge Western believers to repent
Nicola Laver
Date posted: 1 Dec 2023
Palestinian Christians have urged Western church leaders and theologians to repent of voicing ‘uncritical support for Israel’ and ‘re-examine’ their positions.
A group of Christians, including Kairos Palestine, Bethlehem Bible College, and Christ at the Checkpoint, has published an open letter saying they ‘grieve and lament the renewed cycle of violence in our land’.
Climate hope – if promises are kept, say evangelicals
Iain Taylor
Date posted: 1 Jan 2024
Even as it opened, the UN Climate Change Conference COP 28 was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The BBC revealed claims that hosts, the United Arab Emirates, were planning to make oil and gas deals with 15 other countries at the event. Despite that, many Christian groups were represented there, some as part of the Christian Climate Observers Program, a non-denominational Christian presence advocating for God’s creation. All are, perhaps, encouraged by the fact that COP28 for the first time featured a ‘faith pavilion’. Evangelicals Now spoke to four leading Christian environmental organisations about their hopes and fears for the conference.