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In 1560 Oda Nobunaga, known as the Great Unifier of Japan, fought a crucial battle in Owari Province that was to change the course of Japanese history. Some four and a half centuries later, over 1,000 evangelical church and ministry leaders of the church in Japan gathered in the same area, longing for a similar turning of the tide in the history of the church in Japan.

The theme of JCE7 (Japan Congress on Evangelism), which took place from 19-22 September in Gifu, was ‘Beginning from the End’ – Working together in the Mission of the Church. Aside from the pun (‘Owari’ is a homonym which can also mean ‘the End’) this title was an expression of the way that the current culture of the church is at something of a dead-end.* With the average age of a Japanese pastor close to 70, and with many churches facing closure before the next Congress planned in seven years’ time, this was a remarkably courageous acknowledgement of the dangers facing the church. But it was also a rallying cry to return to the Bible: ‘We want to examine the customs and cultures that have become embedded in the Japanese church. We want to take this as an opportunity to begin to sift these through the filter of the Bible, discarding what should be thrown away, and begin a movement to put an end to the customs and practices that don’t ‘make the cut.’

Loren Cunningham, the founder of international mission agency YWAM (Youth With A Mission), has died.

US magazine Christianity Today described him as a ‘charismatic visionary’ who ‘mobilized millions of young people for short-term trips’. He was 88.

Joseph Steinberg

Date posted: 1 Nov 2023

Isaiah 40:1 ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’

When I was eight years old, I remember sitting in front of my family’s black and white television while watching the Yom Kippur war unfolding in front of my eyes. It was exactly 50 years ago and, as a Jewish boy growing up in the USA, it was my first realisation that there was a country named Israel that Jewish people call home.

Misha’s story in his own words: I was born into a family of Jewish atheists in Ukraine. My parents and my grandparents were all Jewish atheists. As a result, I grew up embracing atheism, following Communist ideology and believing that there was no God.

Being Jewish, I thought that any Jewish person who believed in Jesus was a traitor to our people, even though I hadn’t explicitly been taught this. Our family didn’t celebrate Jewish holidays, but we held to a strong Jewish identity based on intellectual and moral pride. If I had to describe myself back then, I would say I was ‘a Communist Pharisee’.

The Gaza War, triggered by the murderous Hamas attacks on Israelis on 7 October, has polarised communities and nations. However, Malaysia, a multi-religious nation with a 65% Muslim majority, provides a unique example of how the narrative can be shaped by mainstream media, activists, governments and their agencies.

Two days after the Hamas attacks, the mainstream broadsheet New Straits Times, in an article by Luqman Hakim, summarised a ‘complex attack’ by the Hamas military wing on Israeli settlements which were taken over. The ‘Israeli Occupation Army’ then launched an operation against the Hamas groups. No mention was made of the massacres of Israeli civilians by the Hamas attackers. Attention was, however, directed to a mosque funded by Malaysian sources that was destroyed by Israeli bombing. The article concludes with the declaration that: ‘Despite the destruction, the jihadist spirit of Muslims will never fade.’

In the West, it’s fairly easy to see a doctor, dentist or vet. In a remote, drought-stricken area of Kenya, however, the inhabitants are not so fortunate, Gary Clayton writes.

Earlier this year, Mission Aviation Fellowship partnered with friends from Christ Is The Answer Ministries (CITAM) to fly a team of doctors, dentists, veterinarians and missionaries to Olturot in northern Kenya.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2023

UK mission agencies Crosslinks and European Mission Fellowship are hailing the astonishing growth of evangelical churches across Portugal over the last few years, driven mainly by highly intentional church planting.

Data recently published by the Portuguese Evangelical Alliance shows a remarkable increase in church plants by evangelical churches. Fully 44% of the evangelical churches in the country were started after 2001 and over 60% have ‘defined plans and locations to plant new churches in the next five years’. A large majority say their church is growing. These churches range in size from less than ten members to congregations of over 300.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Nov 2023

South Sudanese Christians caught up in the ongoing civil war have been sharing their few possessions with others – and seeing people give glory to God.

Tut Kony, director of a South Sudan-based umbrella mission organisation says:’ Our organisation is partnering [Bible translators] unfoldingWord [sic] in translating the Bible into Sudan’s unreached-people group languages. It also runs a school for believers from a Muslim background who are leading house church networks. Since the start of the war, we have also provided 562 families with food, and basic medical supplies.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2023

The summer heatwave across the northern hemisphere has seen almost uncontrollable forest fires break out from Canada to China, Algeria to Greece, as soaring, record temperatures hit the high-40°sC.

But as soon as the flames were doused, the question on many people’s minds was – to what extent are these record thermometer levels the result of human-made climate change?

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

Christians from around the world are on the ground bringing urgent relief in Morocco, following the huge earthquake there. The epicentre of the quake was in the Atlas Mountains, about 40 miles southwest of the busy tourist city of Marrakech. Thousands are dead and injured.

A representative of the Bible Society in Morocco said: ‘Your prayers and concern mean a lot to us here in Morocco … I am in the affected area, working alongside teams from different churches. We are delivering food supplies to believers and their families, and we are also assessing the needs for the near future.’

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

A Christian nurse who was kidnapped in Haiti has been released, saying she ‘holds no grudges’ against her abductors and forgives them.

She added: ‘My clinic doors are always open to you or anyone in need when you’re sick or wounded, without any problem.’

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Oct 2023

Evangelical group Torrents de Vie has attracted the hostility of the media and the government in France after a journalist covertly recorded images and conversations at one of the organisation’s summer camps.

Torrents de Vie means ‘Streams Of Life’. Part of a larger international inter-denominational Christian ministry, it is active in ten French cities offering seminars, pastoral counselling and conferences. Its website says it ‘offers spiritual support, combining teaching, listening and prayer, to Christians of all denominations seeking help for their personal difficulties. Our values are based on Biblical love and grace’.

Niger Christians are asking for prayer as the country continues to face turbulence.

Mission organisation Open Doors UK says people should pray for the safety of the churches, and especially believers who have converted from Islam.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2023

An innovative gospel outreach in Jerusalem has sparked great interest among hundreds of Jewish people wanting to know more about the claims of Jesus.

The brainchild of the International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP), the five-day initiative was specifically designed for those who had lived through the Holocaust. It comprised four tours of Biblical sites in Galilee, ending with a concert featuring performances by local musicians (all Jewish believers in Jesus), and a gospel presentation by IMJP missionary, Aviel Sela. It formed part of a strategic plan, developed over a number of years, to reach Jewish people with the good news about Jesus. More than 200 people joined the site tours, to places such as the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, and 185 Jewish people attended the concert, 156 of whom gave their contact details and took away Christian literature.

In 2019, website devpolicy.org told the story of Sally’s life and background. Cleo Fleming wrote:

Sally’s family has lived and worked with the Bedamuni people of PNG since the late 1960s, when her parents, Tom and Salome Hoey, went to Western Province to establish a Christian mission there. Raised in farming families from Queensland, they were both immensely practical people who had a range of life skills to add to the training they received at Tahlee Bible College before leaving Australia.

The tragic early death of a young man, Filip Faragau, after a long battle with cancer, is providing the inspiration for a unique ministry in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Violeta, Filip’s widow, carried out their shared desire to provide affordable accommodation for cancer patients and their families in the city. In the months leading up to Filip’s death they met many who could not afford the cost of staying there, either to access treatment themselves or to care for loved ones receiving cancer care. The seed was sown for what is now ‘Casa Filip’, in Violeta’s own words, ‘a nice, comfortable place, where people could come and stay without having to spend a fortune for their accommodation’. Slavic Gospel Association (UK) have supported this vital work prayerfully and practically from the start. Filip and his family were valued, long-term friends of the mission.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Sep 2022

An international humanitarian organisation whose director was previously imprisoned in a freezing cold metal container by the Taliban has become the first Christian group permitted to return to Afghanistan.

Shelter Now International (SNI) has been invited to return by the hardline Islamic regime to help with relief efforts in the country. And it has already provided humanitarian aid in the provinces of Khost and Paktika after severe earthquakes struck there recently.

In 2019, website devpolicy.org told the story of Sally’s life and background. Cleo Fleming wrote:

Sally’s family has lived and worked with the Bedamuni people of PNG since the late 1960s, when her parents, Tom and Salome Hoey, went to Western Province to establish a Christian mission there. Raised in farming families from Queensland, they were both immensely practical people who had a range of life skills to add to the training they received at Tahlee Bible College before leaving Australia.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Jul 2023

Around 6,500 teenagers and young people from churches across France gathered in Zénith d’Auvergne at a large triennial congress – Echo 2023 – that seeks to encourage young members of evangelical churches to discover God’s calling. The theme of Echo 2023 was ‘See, I Am Doing Something New’ (Isa. 43:9).

The programme was based on three areas: ‘Me and God; Us and God; You and Me’. It included preaching, worship, workshops, concerts and special programmes for Ados (12–17 years old) and Jeunes (18 and over). Christian youth workers also offered training and connections. Seminars addressed issues such as Bible reading, Christian ethics, science and faith, and sexuality.

Nicola Laver

Date posted: 1 May 2023

Five years ago, a translation of the New Testament into Keliko – a South Sudanese language – was ceremoniously and joyfully carried into a Ugandan refugee camp church.

Today, new missionaries are preparing to fly to Uganda later in the year to join the Bible translation team. Philip and Heidi Knight will be working with the Keliko people – an ethnic group who have never had the Bible in their own language.

letter from the

One year here and the Lord has not only given us a clear mission to keep us busy, but also continued provisions to keep us going and countless blessings to keep us praising.

Just before our family took the big step onto the mission field, we were reminded at our commissioning service that the God who sends is also the God who supplies. The same Jesus who was described as Immanuel at His incarnation is the One who, at His ascension, was self-identified as the God who will be with us always, even to the end of the age. What a comfort to have studied, sensed, and seen that promise to be true over the past 12 months as missionaries, thousands of miles from home.