Jonah’s Tree
Two flame trees below the balcony flash into bloom every year in summer. I look forward to it because it is the prettiest time of year in this beauty-starved concrete city.
Doing business, doing life
It piqued our interest that our city is known for being a ‘business’ city.
On Track to Pakistan
Sustainable mission is about a team, not individualism, and if you can help prevent others from burning out by covering for colleagues to go on a long-deserved holiday, reducing patient waiting-lists or changing the frequency of on-calls from one-in-three to one-in-four, then this should not be underestimated.
Second chances
For the first time Sarah didn’t feel despised or discriminated against. Gradually she started to smile more, chat with other parents and, most importantly, enjoy her relationship with her son.
Learning the language of discipleship
Perhaps with the exception of natural linguists or extreme extroverts, language learning for most people is slow, hard work.
An ongoing creation
I yearn for a fruitful life, where I know my purpose and can see God working through me in tangible ways. The problem is that my life doesn’t exactly look like that at the moment. Right now I don’t ‘do’ very much at all.
Feeling frustrated and fruitless?
It is a strange relief to find that I am not the only one working cross culturally who feels it is often fruitless and profoundly frustrating.
University Witness
At a university in Australia, we have a witness among Muslim students, with a weekly Bible study and a bookstand. Students from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and other countries join us to hear about Jesus.
When Mum and Dad migrate without you
In Thailand, one in five children don't live with their parents due to internal migration. Parents work long hours and live in basic conditions while their children remain in the care of relatives or orphanages. In partnership, Interserve Partners are proactively working to keep families together through wholistic support.
The housewife and the shopkeeper
Saule worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day. She worked hard to support her family back home. “What’s your dream, Saule? If you weren’t working in this job, what would you rather be doing?”
Serving God without leaving home?
I am no hero of the faith, but I trust God used me as a stay-at-home mum.
On the far side of the sea
Heading to the Middle East with four kids under seven, including a baby on my hip and a toddler at my knee, there was not a lot of fighting I could do. I did, however, need to do a lot of trusting.
A lifetime’s service
Hundreds of babies grew into womanhood watched over proudly by a woman who would never be a mother herself.
Towards an Unshakeable Kingdom
The team took the opportunity to explain why they, as Christians, were doing disaster relief and explained how many people around the world loved the villagers and had contributed generously.
Social work and software
Administrative things don’t sound particularly exciting, but they have knock-on effects for the quality of social work generally.
In a temporary place
Speaking and sharing with some of these asylum seekers, we realised the there were common questions we all shared about our lives. We were all in a temporary place, wondering about our and our children's futures.
God went ahead of us
We were absolutely delighted with the amazing, warm hearted and friendly responses from asylum seekers.
Your Kingdom Come
King Jesus, we pray for our leaders.
Imitating God’s kindness
“Khruu sought to imitate God’s abounding grace and kindness to Nong by purchasing a new uniform for him to wear to school.”
Contextualisation or syncretism?
“It was their church that was at the brink of being birthed, and they must come up with their own contextualised way of conducting baptisms.”
