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One Polish church in the southern city of Krakow has experienced remarkable growth over the last two years in surprising circumstances: the Covid-19 pandemic and warfare, writes Tim Thornborough.

Christ the Saviour Presbyterian Church (CSPC) currently meets in a converted bank and, as we entered, we were handed headsets to enable us to listen to the live translation of the service from Polish to English. Others picked up the headsets marked ‘Ukrainian’. My main contact in Krakow is Sashko – a Ukrainian from Lviv, just over the border from Poland – who is the assistant minister at the church.

letter from Latvia

John Woods

Date posted: 1 May 2023

One of the questions I am asked whenever I return from Latvia is: ‘What is the mood in Latvia at the moment?’

The question relates to the fact that Latvia shares a land border with Russia and has many historical reasons to be anxious about the intentions of its larger neighbour.

In parts of Far East Russia there are those who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Alexander Balagansky, a missionary sponsored by the Slavic Gospel Association (SGA), in the Buryatia region, is involved in the difficult and sometimes dangerous challenge of reaching them. Villages and communities there are isolated, often cut off and inaccessible due to extreme weather conditions. However, strange as it may seem, the extreme weather can become the missionary’s friend and associate in pioneering gospel ministry!

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Mar 2023

Igal Vender was born in Ukraine but emigrated to Israel with his family in 1988. He began using drugs as a child and later switched to heroin and cocaine.

Igal writes: ‘I was an addict and in and out of prison, but empty inside. I came to faith after meeting an old friend who had become a Christian. Now I am a missionary with IMJP (the International Mission to Jewish People) telling Jewish people about Jesus.’ Igal Vender tells his story to Iain Taylor for en.

A US-based prayer fellowship for ministers is seeking to expand into the British Isles and Europe.

The 6:4 Prayer Fellowship describes itself as ‘a pastor-led, Biblically-based, international and multi-denominational network of pastors rooted in the Biblical paradigm of ministry seen in Acts 6:1-7.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Apr 2023

The new Miss Germany, Kira Geiss, is a committed Christian. She has won a title that, according to the organisers, is no longer about beauty alone, but also about social engagement and the ability to empower other people.

‘I think it is time to not only take care of the healthy maintenance of our planet, but also to actively engage in allowing people to heal and grow internally’, she says on the Miss Germany website, where she is described as a ‘theology student, aspiring religious and community educator, and visual merchandiser’.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Apr 2023

An evangelical missionary in Mozambique says storms and rain were ‘incessant’ and poorly-constructed houses around her were ‘flooding and collapsing’ as a tropical storm battered the country.

Cyclone Freddy, the longest-ever recorded tropical cyclone, which has returned several times, ripped through the country and neighbouring Malawi with over 600 dead and countless people missing, injured or made homeless.

letter from the

Some say that the first few months of long-term mission work are all about survival. Looking back, by God’s grace, we have managed a little more than that. As expected, we’ve had our fair share of highs and lows already.

It would seem that, since our arrival, blessings and trials have been handed out in equal measure. But all in all, we feel very much that the Lord is at work in Santa Maria, equipping us as we seek to be a witness for the truth to those trapped in false religion, and enabling us to take our first steps towards the planting of a church in this spiritually needy district of Bulacan.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Mar 2023

Persecution scores have almost doubled over the last 30 years, the latest 'World Watch List' from Open Doors reveals.

2023 marks the 30th year that the gruesome chart has been compiled. To mark the occasion, Evangelicals Now obtained exclusive interviews with Jim Shannon MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Belief (APPG FoRB), and Timothy Cho, Open Doors UK spokesperson for North Korea.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Aug 2022

The GoodWORD Partnership, based in Minneapolis, USA, has facilitated evangelistic and training initiatives in largely Moslem parts of Guinea, West Africa, and Malawi, southern Africa.

In Guinea, where only 7% of the population is Christian, experienced church leaders from five African countries and the United States undertook three weeks of joint ministry. It included outreach to seven prisons where a total of 3,600 inmates were fed, both physically and spiritually; equipping a Christian medical clinic in a Moslem community; a three-day conference on evangelism attended by 225 church leaders and encouraging the local churches to cooperate in sharing the gospel. One evangelical denominational leader in Conakry, a city of 2 million people, said: ‘We are now ready and committed to cooperate in sharing the gospel in our city.’

The first major Lausanne conference in Europe since a landmark event in 1974 has taken place.

More than 1,000 evangelical influencers listened to plenary speakers and discussed issues like ‘Christian identity in the era of identity politics’, ‘Reaching university students’, and ‘The gospel and the city’.

‘To be honest, some people see EMF (European Mission Fellowship) as a bit fuddy-duddy’, a pastor recently confessed to mission director Andrew Birch.

Well, if the next conference is anything like this year’s, it will be fresh, joyful, challenging, and totally encouraging. ‘Fuddy-duddy?’ Not so much!

Physiotherapist Ruan Swart uses MAF aircraft every week. The flights enable him to provide physiotherapy to the people of Elcho Island, Arnhem Land, one of the remotest places on earth.

For Ruan, the stress-free, 40-minute plane ride saves hours travelling by boat and land.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Feb 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a controversial new package of counter-terrorism measures, including tougher sentences for extremism and heightened electronic surveillance of Russian citizens.

The law also bans evangelism outside church buildings, and anyone involved in a religious event must secure a government permit through a registered religious organisation. The restrictions even apply to activity in private residences and online. Foreign visitors who break this law will face deportation.

The emergency phone call was made to Mission Aviation Fellowship’s Programme Safety Manager.

‘The call,’ Dom Sant said, ‘asked me to take the lead on mapping communities that were affected by the earthquake that struck Markham Valley in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.’

In January 2022, Christianity Explored Ministries launched its latest evangelistic resource, Hope Explored – a three-session course on the hope, peace and purpose found in Luke’s Gospel and the Christian faith.

During the spring and summer, over 500 churches in the UK implemented the materials as part of their evangelism. More recently, it’s had an increasingly international impact.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Dec 2022

The return of Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party, who has just swept back to power in Israel with the aid of new far-right allies, is causing concern amongst mission agencies working with Jewish people.

Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, having been in office for a total of 15 years, from 1996-99 and 2009-21. He has been a controversial figure for many years, not least for facing charges of bribery and fraud whilst previously in office. His main new coalition partner, the Religious Zionists, is led by the right-wing extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who celebrated their electoral success at an all-male campaign gathering overnight in Jerusalem, where supporters waved Israeli flags and chanted ‘death to terrorists’.

Iain Taylor

Date posted: 1 Dec 2022

Following the latest military coup in Burkina Faso, the West’s politicians are apparently now worried that Russian mercenaries may be invited in to quell the jihadist uprising there.

Meanwhile, Western Christians are being asked to pray for their brothers and sisters in the unstable and poverty-stricken West African nation, that they may have the courage to keep preaching the gospel.

If the Church of England moves towards blessing same sex-marriage, or ‘opts into’ allowing gay marriages in its churches as a result of the Church’s General Synod meeting in February 2023, ‘pain and distress will be felt by millions of faithful Anglicans across the globe’, and ‘significant questions would be asked as to whether Archbishop Justin Welby would be able to continue to lead the Anglican Communion.’

So says the Mouneer Hanna Anis, Archbishop Emeritus of Egypt, a global Statesman within the Anglican Communion and an adviser to the primates of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA), whose provinces represent 75% of Anglicans across the globe.

One of the devastating aspects of the war in Ukraine is the huge number of people – the UN estimate the figure at 12 million – who have fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing.

Around seven million people are still thought to be displaced inside Ukraine itself, many in the western region of Rivne and Sarny where Christian charity Mission Without Borders (MWB) is operating.

A 370-mile emergency flight saved the life of a medic’s wife in Chad, the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) reports.

Gary Clayton writes: In 2021, MAF flew 1,443 medevac passengers worldwide. Many of the patients flown were touched by the love of Christ and the care they received from MAF pilots. This year, thanks to MAF planes, many more life-saving medical emergency flights are taking place in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.