DivorceCare
EN
Date posted: 1 Sep 1997
EN talked to Merrily Richie of DivorceCare, an initiative to train local churches to help people in marital trauma.
Q: When did you become a Christian?
A: I was nine years old when I realised that because of my sin I needed Jesus to be my Saviour. I don't remember much about this decision since it occurred more than 40 years ago. My pastor talked and prayed with me after a worship service in our Reformed Presbyterian church.
Upon high places
Mike Perrin
Date posted: 1 Oct 1997
This extract is taken from Upon high places, stories from the mountains of Wales by Mike Perrin, published by Gwasg Byntirion Press at £6.99, and is used with permission.
From high on the hillside above, only the occasional bleat of a sheep broke the silence of the night. A gust of wind rustled some rushes nearby. I shivered, drew the hood of my sleeping-bag a little tighter and lay there looking up at a host of stars.
Confessions of a Christian psychologist
John Steley
Date posted: 1 Jul 1997
I have a confession to make. It's not that I have done anything illegal or even grossly immoral. It's just that sometimes I question my role.
You see, I work as a psychologist down in the East End of London. That place where the soap opera comes from - except there aren't any cameras. It is not a lack of work that is my problem, there has always been plenty of that. Nor do I question the effectiveness of psychology in helping many of the people I meet.
The man next door
Kathleen Dredge
Date posted: 1 Aug 1997
When I heard that Eric had cancer of the bowel, I felt very guilty. I had lived next-door to this 70-year-old man for seven-and-a-half years and never spoken to him of Christ.
Somehow it did not seem appropriate now to knock at his door and tell him he needed to be saved. How could I reach this dying man with the message of the gospel when I had done little over the years to show him God's love and had hardly ever prayed for him?
Giving their lives to the faith
Mark Haville
Date posted: 1 Jun 1997
For me the past year or so has been a time of diverse experiences and challenges, but the most testing, both spiritually and emotionally, have been the many instances where I have tried to help despondent Christians ejected from the current merry-go-round of the 'signs and wonders' movement.
Those whose lives have suffered under what is described as 'Radical Christianity' need hope and consolation. But worse still is the burden to reach those still held captive by this movement. Most individuals caught up in the so called 'move of God' will only ever have fellowship with like-minded enthusiasts. Their personal experiences become their doctrinal yardstick and the wider picture is obscured to them.
I remember, I remember
Leith Samuel
Date posted: 1 May 1997
Leith Samuel, a former minister of Above Bar Church in Southampton, and senior evangelical statesman looks back on family conversions.
'Janet, are you sure you are married?' the missionary, home from Africa, asked my mother.
How to tackle AIDS - Part 2
Dr Gunnar Holmgren
Date posted: 1 Jun 1997
Concluding his article from last month, Dr. Holmgren details parallels of behaviour change in other social areas.
The best examples of sustainable changes of large population groups come from grass-roots movements. These have often used all available channels, such as the power of small groups and peer pressure to convince people about the value of behaviour change.
How to tackle AIDS - Part 1
Dr Gunnar Holmgren
Date posted: 1 May 1997
AIDS intervention programmes have often been characterised by an obsession with the theory, rather than the practical outworking of that theory.
Thus the two extremes in approach of activists wanting to change sexual behaviour are described as the 'moralisers' and the 'public health fundamentalists'. These are said to be mutually incompatible with a strong polarisation of their approaches and their messages.
Waiting without knowing
Ms Deborah Listo
Date posted: 1 Mar 1997
It is now four years since three Americans working with New Tribes Mission were kidnapped in Panama by Colombian revolutionaries.
In the village of Pucuro, Panama, just 15 miles from the border with Colombia, phase one of chronological Bible teaching was completed. The entire village had been given the opportunity to hear the gospel in their own language. The New Tribes missionaries, Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff were now discipling Kuna believers.
Definitely maybe - can our future be in Europe?
Christopher Idle
Date posted: 1 Mar 1997
Can our future be in Europe?
How fresh manuscript evidence can help us to face today's question . . .
From time to time, scholars poring over fragments of dusty documents startle the world with some amazing new discovery about the origins of the Christian church, and indeed of the faith itself.
Shanty town church
Pastor Daniel Ogutu
Date posted: 1 Apr 1997
Pastor Daniel Ogutu tells of the work in the Mathare Valley just outside the Kenyan capital of Nairobi
This slum is an eyesore, an endemic source of social and moral problems. With a population of 500,000 people, it is located on both sides of the Mathare river. It is only 5km from the city centre of Nairobi. Sadly, due to lack of sanitation, the river has changed into a dump for refuse and filth.
How to help Muslim converts
Patrick Sookhdeo
Date posted: 1 Apr 1997
If you were a shopkeeper in Iran, you would have to put a card in your window stating your religion, ensuring that most customers would pass you buy, afraid to be seen entering. If you were a pastor, you would receive regular summons to the police station and threatening phone calls that you know are serious - another of your colleagues was killed last year.
And if you were a Muslim who had recently become a Christian almost anywhere in the Muslim world, the chances are that you would be living far from your family and home, perhaps in fear of your life.
Evangelists in the team
Mr Eddie Tait
Date posted: 1 Jan 1997
A challenge to Christians to re-orientate their whole way of church life around people who need to know Jesus as Saviour and a removing of the traditional barriers between pastors and evangelists, has come from Stephen Gaukroger and Luis Palau.
Stephen, senior minister at Gold Hill Baptist Church as well as a regular Spring Harvest (Word Alive) speaker, and international evangelist Luis, gave the challenge as they toured Britain to share the vision of city and area-wide missions in the Bristol and Bath area, East Midlands and the North West. Luis will be leading the 'There's More to Life!' mission centred on Bristol's Ashton Gate football stadium this coming June, while the East Midlands regional mission will probably take place in 1998.
