Brother Andrew’s Open Doors at 70: Smuggling Bibles and seeing miracles
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 18 Jul 2025
Smuggling Bibles to believers in communist countries – that’s how Open Doors UK & Ireland began. 70 years on, the organisation has become an international ministry working for the good of the persecuted church.
In 1955, Dutch missionary Brother Andrew set off for Poland with a suitcase containing his Bible and hundreds of tracts entitled “The Way of Salvation”. Behind the Iron Curtain (the divide between Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe and the West during the Cold War) he discovered churches desperately in need of Bibles, support, and prayer.
Keswick Convention's McQuoids moving to Canada
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 16 Jul 2025
Jeremy and Elizabeth McQuoid, who have been heavily involved with the Keswick Convention for many years, are set to move to Canada.
Jeremy has served as Teaching Pastor at Deeside Christian Fellowship Church in Aberdeen, Scotland for the past 21 years. He also serves as Chair of Trustees, Keswick Ministries. Elizabeth is Commissioning Editor at Keswick Ministries, and is behind the widely-acclaimed Food for the Journey daily Bible devotions.
Keswick draws delegates from 90 conventions
Jonathan Lamb
Date posted: 16 Jul 2025
Delegates from 16 countries representing 90 different Bible-teaching events and almost 50,000 believers are attending the 150th celebrations at the Keswick Convention.
They are participating in a special track – the Keswick Fellowship International Consultation.
‘But for here, I’d be dying of a broken heart’: help for rough sleepers
Rebekah Carter
Date posted: 6 Jun 2025
A Christian beacon of hope for rough sleepers and homeless people which helps more than 10,000 people a year has a fresh lease of life after renovation work.
Webber Street, London City Mission’s (LCM) Day Centre has been at the forefront of offering practical care and compassion with gospel hope for more than 60 years.
More UK adults exploring Christianity? New report reveals why
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 2 Jul 2025
Amid recent reports of a “quiet revival” and renewed exploration of Christianity in the UK, the question remains: Why the growing interest? A new report from the Evangelical Alliance has helped reveal the answer.
The Evangelical Alliance’s (EA) “Finding Jesus” research, conducted in 2024 and released this June, found that UK adults are investigating Christianity primarily due to a need for meaning and hope – often prompted by a personal crisis.
Is our apologetics ‘frightfully early 2000s, darling’?
Jon Barrett
Date posted: 27 May 2025
Controversial opinion: much of our evangelism and apologetics fails to scratch where non-believers are itching, because it seeks to answer questions they’re not asking.
Or, perhaps more accurately, we remain methodologically committed to answering questions they once were, but are now no longer, asking. With the exception of that old chestnut of theodicy (the ‘why suffering’ question) much of our apologetics output still seems to be looking to undercut the objections born out of the Enlightenment or the era of scientism, and I’m less than convinced that those once-pressing issues now represent the focus of the emerging generation’s attention and curiosity.
His Royal Flyness?
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 24 May 2025
The King has helped the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) mark its 80th anniversary by unveiling the organisation’s latest aircraft.
Pressing a button, His Majesty – who learned to fly with the RAF – raised the hangar doors at RAF Northolt, London, to reveal the latest addition to MAF’s fleet – a new Cessna 208 Caravan. The Christian organisation, which has a worldwide fleet of about 115 light aircraft, will now have 11 planes serving Papua New Guinea’s people.
Crackdown on Christians in China
Luke Randall
Date posted: 27 Jun 2025
The Chinese authorities have increased restrictions on Christianity by effectively outlawing the presence of foreign mission workers, but not much will change about the way the church operates in the country, according to an Open Doors Persecution Analyst.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has taken stronger steps to ensure foreign missionaries cannot work in the country, with revised “Implementation Rules for the Administration of Religious Activities of Foreigners” dictating that they must receive state approval to perform basic Christian activities such as preaching, leading services, and the use of unauthorised Bibles in a public setting.
Great Western Railway project manager: "My faith is central"
en staff
Date posted: 28 Apr 2025
The Railway Mission is appointing Mameri Ese as a new Trustee.
Mameri is a senior project manager at Great Western Railway (GWR), with extensive expertise in finance, project delivery, and strategic leadership.
Ongoing investigation into alleged ‘harm’ at OMF school
en staff
Date posted: 25 Jun 2025
Amid OMF’s anniversary celebrations, “harm caused by several alleged perpetrators” at a school run by the organisation is being investigated.
The OMF website says: “Complaints have been received by OMF UK relating to harm caused to former Chefoo School pupils by a number of alleged perpetrators.
Anglican Mission in England to establish Diaconate
AMiE
Date posted: 10 Sep 2024
The latest Synod of the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE) has seen its three bishops present a detailed paper on why they have Anglican bishops, presbyters and deacons.
Lee McMunn writes: ‘Their substantial report traced the Biblical and historical roots for why we do what we do. We concluded that Anglican orders are very much fit for purpose, are for the blessing of the Church and should be joyfully embraced. As a result of our discussions, we resolved to establish a vocational Diaconate for godly and gifted men and women who have been properly identified and trained.’
Ivory Coast drillers bring water of life
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 22 Jun 2025
Combining social action and gospel proclamation: that’s what an evangelical missionary organisation is seeking to do in Sub-Saharan West Africa.
In Golikoro, Ivory Coast, a group of Christians set to work drilling wells for those without water. But it wasn’t just drinking water they were seeking to bring, it was living water, too, through the sharing of the gospel.
Belfast school students see God move
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 19 Jun 2025
A high school in Belfast has seen a wave of students start exploring Christianity and come to faith – their Christian Union (CU) growing by over 100 people in the last year alone.
Belfast High CU (BHCU) has existed for over 30 years, and nine years ago there were just over 20 attendees. There has been steady growth and encouragements in the years since, until this year the CU jumped from 60 people meeting weekly in a lecture theatre to over 160 in the larger assembly hall.
Ten questions with: Israel Oluwole Olofinjana
en staff
Date posted: 9 Jun 2025
Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is director of One People Commission, part of the Evangelical Alliance.
He is a Baptist minister and has led two multi-ethnic Baptist churches and an independent charismatic church. He is the founding director of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, a mission network initiative that provides cross-cultural training to reverse missionaries in Britain. He is a consultant to the executive team of Lausanne Europe, advising them on matters related to diaspora ministries in Europe.
Gateway to the south for new church plant
en staff
Date posted: 30 Apr 2025
Balham in London was once famously described by the late comedian Peter Sellers as the “gateway to the south” in a much-loved comedy parody of American travelogues.
Now decades later those words are proving prophetic as Christ Church Balham (CCB) seeks to reach out and plant a new church some six miles to its south. CCB is part of both the Co-Mission reformed church planting movement and the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE).
The ‘black hole’ at the centre of the Church of England
John Dunnett
Date posted: 28 May 2025
It is easy to think that the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) can is being perennially “kicked down the road”.
However, en readers are invited to note that we are about to enter a season in which Diocesan Synods across the Church of England are being invited to hold a special discussion on the proposals. Make no mistake – these discussions will be used to give “ballast” to the project – and the juggernaut will lumber on.
Franklin Graham UK tour prompts support – and caveats
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 26 May 2025
American missionary Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is bringing his evangelistic tour to the ExCel venue London this June – despite recently provoking concern among some UK evangelicals.
The event comes as part of Graham’s God Loves You Tour, which aims to partner with local churches to share “the simple message of God’s love”. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) are hoping to draw thousands to the venue, as they did when it was last held there in 2023.
Reformed scholar Gordon Wenham dies
en staff
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Tributes are being paid to renowned Biblical scholar Gordon Wenham, who has died.
Wenham, born in 1943, was a Reformed British Old Testament theologian and writer, and was once described by US academic Tremper Longman as “one of the finest evangelical commentators today”.
Myanmar: Christians acting after quake
Luke Randall
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Churches and mission partners have sprung into action to support the relief effort in Myanmar following the catastrophic earthquake which shook the nation last month. However, military control and violence still persists amid stories of gospel opportunity.
The southeast Asian country was devastated by the 7.7 magnitude quake which has killed more than 3,600, and the nation’s church community has crossed denominational divides to support the relief effort.
Ministry to farmers: sowing and growing
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 May 2025
A Christian association is seeking to fill a reported gospel need in farming communities.
Tony Baskerville, Cheshire-based tenant farmer on the Rode Estate, Scholar Green, and elder at Grace Church, Sandbach, says that farmers are feeling increasingly marginalised. “There is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to them in genuine Christian love,” said Baskerville.
New college with Christian aims and ethos launches
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 May 2025
In response to the increasingly prevalent liberal and progressive ideologies appearing in universities, a “new and unique” Christian college has been launched.
Selden College will be based in Oxford and has a twofold vision: to recover the heritage of Christian higher education, and to glorify God in this arena.
Nigeria: More than 3,000 killed
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 May 2025
Over a hundred Christians have been murdered in a series of brutal attacks by Fulani herdsmen in Plateau State, Nigeria in recent weeks, with Open Doors conservatively estimating that across northern Nigeria more than 3,100 have been slaughtered in the last year.
Alongside those murdered, thousands of Christians have been left displaced, which Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, explained is problematic during the current rainy season, as many will have no way to care for their families or provide food.
The lifesaving flights battling sorcery and snakebites
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 5 Apr 2025
Whether it’s snakebite or sorcery, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights are making all the difference to the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Growing up in Dodomona, in the Middle Fly District of Western Province, PNG, Titus Yabua witnessed many members of his community dying from treatable illnesses, accidents, snakebites and pig bites.
letter from Russia
Gospel hope melts Siberian hearts
Mark Foster
Date posted: 7 May 2025
In Far East Russia, believers endeavouring to share the truth of the gospel face problems which are peculiar to the context in which they work. Harsh wintry conditions, isolated scattered communities, impassible roads and, most critical of all, strong resistance to Christian truth and a suspicion of believers, must all be overcome if the gospel is to take root and conquer hearts.
One approach has been proving encouraging and effective – the building of “Hope Centres” in communities where there is resistance to gospel witness, and no ready acceptance of evangelists from “outside”.
The ‘black hole’ at the centre of the Church of England
It is easy to think that the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) can is being perennially “kicked down the road”.
However, en readers are invited to note that we are about to enter a season in which Diocesan Synods across the Church of England are being invited to hold a special discussion on the proposals. Make no mistake – these discussions will be used to give “ballast” to the project – and the juggernaut will lumber on.