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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’.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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’.

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’.

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.

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

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

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

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’.