transforming lives and communities

globaloperation mobilisation magazine 2012 • Issue No.2

Contents

DearFriends

OM Regional Co-ordinators & Local Representatives

Greater LondonC/o UK National OfficeSouth East London (local representative)Mike Van VuurenOMPO Box 660Forest HillLondon SE23 3ST07702 193706

South West EnglandTrevor Brain19 Dover StreetChippenhamWiltshire SN14 0EE07718 031332

South East EnglandC/o UK National Office

MidlandsSteve Chedgzoy2 Grant RoadCoventryCV3 1GQ07970 458 823

Central North EnglandAndy CookC/o UK National Office07854 186117

North East EnglandC/o UK National OfficeTyneside (local contact)Derek & Judith Evans12 Owlets CourtIngleby BarwickTS17 0QE01642 766395

WalesC/o UK National Office

ScotlandSharon RoseOMC/o International Christian College110 St. James RoadGlasgow G4 0PS0141 572 0050

Northern IrelandJohn O McIlvenna218 York StreetBelfastN. Ireland BT15 1GY07816 969350

transforming lives and communities

3 World News4 OM Ships5 Brazil6 Partnerships8 Bosnia9 OM Arts10 United Kingdom11 Azerbaijan12 India14 Just Christmas15 Japan

Editor: Paul BeckStories and images: Credit: OM International ©2012 OM International Designed and produced by:Sovereign Creative MarketingTel: 0161 485 4488 www.sovereign.uk.com

© Global magazine 2012. No part of this magazine may be copied or reproduced in any form without written approval from the publishers. Country file information taken from Operation World, 21st Century edition.

Operation MobilisationThe Quinta, Weston Rhyn, OswestryShropshire SY10 7LTTelephone: 01691 773388Fax: 01691 778378Email: info.uk@om.orgWebsite: www.uk.om.orgOperation Mobilisation. Registered office: The Quinta, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, Shropshire SY10 7LT. Registered as a company limited by guarantee no. 2564320 and charity no. 1008196 (England & Wales) and SCO40988 (Scotland)

- Mobilising and supporting this generation for local and global missions in partnership with the UK Church.

- Training and placing international teams with churches around the UK, partnering with them to bring life and hope to their communities, reaching and discipling people from many nations.

- OM’s outreach, church planting and training ministry amongst the UK’s Arabic, Turkic and Iranic speaking communities, which are people groups from North Africa to India; based in London.

transforming lives and communities

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Recently, I found myself absorbed by a television programme about life in the UK during the 1970s; these were my teenage years and full of memories. They were not all pleasant memories through. The programme relayed the difficulty of our economic situation, with the three-day-week, a country on the brink of bankruptcy and needing loans from the International Monetary Fund. I am sure that recollections of these times will bring equally painful memories for many of you. Forty years later, these conditions are sadly not consigned to history but are a reality in countries across Europe and include a growing hardship here in the UK.

Ecclesiastes tells us in 1:9, as the writer expresses despair and the meaningless of it

all, that ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is

nothing new under the sun’. It is easy to feel this way with our recurring boom and bust

economy. It is natural that it may leave us in despair and concerned about providing for

our loved ones during difficult times, but our challenge as God’s people, is greater than

our own welfare and the welfare of our loved ones. As Ecclesiastes 12:13 continues,

after an extensive moan about the state of affairs, ‘Now all has been heard; here is the

conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole

duty of man’.

We are commanded in Matthew 28:19 to “go and make disciples of all nations...”.

Through your partnership, we are doing this together and as you read and pray through

this edition of Global, I trust you will be encouraged and challenged. However, it is how

we live our lives in holiness and worship, and our daily relationship with God that is

often the greatest challenge to obey. As we navigate through the turmoil of uncertain

days, this is also the source of our greatest blessing.

Gary Sloan

UK Director

Front Cover: One of the many young people who workers with OM’s Logos Hope encountered whilst ministering to children who live around Smokey Mountain, a huge rubbish dump in Manila, the Philippines.

SYRIA.....GREECE.....RUSSIA.....www.uk.om.org

worldnews

Finding So Much MoreWhilst Russia’s unstable political situation has received much media attention in recent months, ongoing discrimination against ethnic minorities from neighbouring countries

often goes unreported. Amidst this background, OM workers find such immigrants are very receptive to the Gospel, including Ona*, a native Uzbek who moved to Novosibirsk, Russia, in search of better-paid work. Ona not only found a job though; she also found Jesus through the friendship of two OM Russia church-planters working to establish an Uzbek fellowship in the city. After believing in Jesus, she attended the house church meetings and grew in faith. Last year, Ona returned to her native country and was baptised by a local pastor. Since Ona has been home, two relatives have also come to faith. Ona is now planning to ask a few of the senior women in the church to visit her mother too and share more of Jesus’ message.

As the protests in Syria continue, the numbers fleeing across the country’s long border with Jordan have increased. Not all those making the crossing have relatives on the other side though, resulting in an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation.

In conjunction with local churches in a northern Jordanian city, an OM partner-organisation has been distributing essential supplies to hundreds of Syrian refugees. These donations of simple stoves, gas cylinders, mattresses, blankets and food parcels were extremely well-received and the team were offered as much hospitality as possible in the cramped living conditions. One young family explained how they had lost five relatives in the fighting and one of the brothers lifted his shirt to show the scar of a bullet wound above his hip. They said that not only is safety a key issue in their city in Syria right now, but also food resources, a reality which was painfully evident in the family’s emaciated appearance.

Serving Syria’s Refugees The economic crisis in Greece has turned the nation upside

down. Kees den Toom, who leads OM’s presence in the country, finds being a missionary in such an environment both an incredible challenge and an awesome opportunity. “OM Greece is seeking to respond by sharing the message of hope through Christ, while meeting the basic needs of the neediest—the homeless, Gypsies and immigrants… We are trying to work as much as possible with the local Church, but these congregations are often small and challenged by the crisis themselves,” he explains. “Overall, we know that only Christ Himself can bring restoration and healing to this country.”

Hope Amidst Greek Tragedy

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Browse OM’s breaking

ministry stories at

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There are few countries in the world more open to the Gospel than the Philippines. As Logos Hope docked in the country for the first time, those on board knew that this degree of freedom was also far greater than in many of the destinations the

vessel had called at in 2011. On board and on shore, the crew therefore seized every opportunity to boldly proclaim the hope they had in Jesus and how He had personally changed their lives.

Although Logos Hope was scheduled to be in the country for a matter of months, one resource in particular guaranteed that a lasting legacy for the Gospel would remain after the visit. ‘The Most Important

Story Ever Told’ is a children’s comic which tells the life of Jesus in a way that young minds can relate to and with the Philippines’ youth population burgeoning, crew could distribute this evangelistic aid wherever they went. Children who received a copy were especially overjoyed when they realised that it was written in the Tagalog language, native to many of the country’s 7,000 islands.

Sarah Vos (Netherlands) was part of a team from the ship who took copies of The Most Important Story Ever Told to Marikina Christian Integrated School. In total, 200 children aged five to 12 accepted copies after they watched the crewmembers perform an evangelistic drama. There was time too to play with the children before returning to Logos Hope. As Sarah left, one of

the young students gave her a note that read ‘Sarah, I love you and God loves you too.’ Sarah pinned this on her cabin wall to remind her to pray for the children at Marikina. “I was a lot more blessed by them than they were by me,” she explained.

Not all the children in this south-east Asian nation are fortunate enough to go to school though, or even have a roof over their heads. Sam Scott (Northern Ireland) was aware of the tremendous needs that the Logos Hope crew would confront as soon as they stepped off the gangway in Cebu. Alongside existing OM workers in the city, he asked the crew to volunteer their time and money to buy and distribute food to homeless children in the area. Despite the 5am start, more crew wanted to take part in this initiative than could be accommodated. “I’m sure they had moving moments as they saw little babies lying in the street asleep besides their mother or father,” said Sam.

Much of the visit to the Philippines centred on fulfilling extensive renovations to the vessel as part of the Logos Hope Power Up Project. Members of the ship’s company however, found time to complete numerous practical projects in impoverished neighbourhoods too. Added together, these actions meant that the crew’s goal of bringing knowledge, help and hope were more than met during Logos Hope’s first visit to the Philippines.

www.omships.org

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Great Commission nutBrazil’s evangelical Church is going from strength-to-strength and by some measures includes a quarter of the country’s population. Whilst this tremendous growth presents many exciting opportunities and openings for the OM team based in the country, one major challenge remains; now that the country’s economy is booming, how can local Christians’ perception that Brazil receives rather than sends missionaries be changed?

In an effort to break this mind-set amongst the next generation of Brazilian believers, OM participated in Transmission, a four-day mission-awareness event in the south-eastern city of Santos. Over 400 young people attended this conference, listening to messages about developing their own walk with God and serving in the Great Commission.

OM was invited especially to minister to teenagers, to present opportunities for missions to young people, to give training on creative ways of sharing the Gospel and to preach during the services. The team is now praying that increasing numbers of young people in Brazil will be motivated to serve in missions and that this will be the generation to take the glory of God to the nations.

“For sure we will see some of the results of our involvement at Transmission directly,” says OM Brazil leader Julio Moromisato. “We have faith that several people will get involved in missions through OM. At the same time, we cannot measure all that God will do in the lives of those who were challenged to serve Him with their lives and talents.”

www.omlatinamerica.org

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“We cannot measure all that God will do in the lives of those who were challenged to serve Him with their lives and talents.”

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If a picture says a thousand words, how about a mime, dance or song? OM has a long history of expressing the Gospel through creative means and this involvement has just stepped up a gear with the launch of the OM Arts School of Mission in Italy.

Students on this ten-week course will gain a deeper understanding of how to share their faith through the gifts God has given them. The difference this training can make became very real to one artist in particular who joined a recent short-term outreach with OM in a Muslim-majority country.

Initially she had struggled to render the concept that the OM Arts leaders had asked those on the team to paint: “I am the door”, those beautiful words of Jesus that invite us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But she had painted a lock—a heavy, massive medieval kind that looked impenetrable and imposing. Through the keyhole another door was visible, slightly open with light emanating from it. ‘What did this communicate?’ she asked herself. ‘How could God take that which she had painted and use it for His glory?’

As an old man strolled slowly through the open-air art gallery that had suddenly appeared in the plaza, he surveyed the beautiful pictures of doors and gates. There was one that captured his attention; it was of a lock. He stood stunned, as the revelation hit him. Someone had painted his life, his longing, his desperate condition of being locked out from the light. Light that he just knew was there for him, but had been so elusive in his own religious tradition. He knew the moment he saw the painting that the artist who painted it had the insight and wisdom he had been seeking his entire life.

The young artist approached the old man and through an interpreter asked him why he was staring spellbound at her painting. Through tears, the man said to her, “My entire life I have felt locked out from all God had for me. I can see it through the keyhole, but I can’t get to it. Can you please tell me, what is the key that will unlock the door of my life and let me run into the light of God?” At that moment, the young artist had the privilege of sharing the love of Christ with this man right there in the plaza. The Holy Spirit had used her painting to unravel this man’s heart and draw him to the Father heart of God.

www.arts.om.org

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Our 2011 Just Christmas campaign asked you to join with us to give the hungry something to eat. Your response was quite amazing! As a result we were able to send funds to feed the hungry in …. Romania, Poland, The Balkans, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Hungary, Jordan, Syria, Sudan, Mauritania, East Africa, Nepal and India.

Our teams were able to provide food for; poor widows, vulnerable children, drug addicts, street boys, HIV & AIDS sufferers, famine victims, handicapped children, war victims, orphans… and many others simply too poor to buy a decent meal!

In Romania, large rubbish trucks occupy the streets of Sterea and Bucsani every day. Later, people watch with anticipation as the household and industrial rubbish is emptied onto the ground. The stench of waste is overwhelming but not for the people living in severe poverty. For them it is the sweet smell of provision of daily needs.

Relieved to find a few bits of metal, some plastic bottles and pieces of copper, adults and children alike sell what they have scavenged to recycling centres. With the tiny sums this produces, they buy enough bread and water to keep themselves alive.

Mina, a 28 year-old mother of four, is typical. She lives off the rubbish landfills. Every day she trudges through the piles and piles of scrap, even though it has caused the skin on her hands to crack.

OM Romania and two local churches recently took up the call to meet the needs of the poor and have started a food project with the one aim of feeding the poverty-stricken all around them.

The project provides Mina and her children and many others like them with one hot meal every week. That day is their rest day. That day they sit in a warm room. That day they are cared and provided for.

A gift from our Just Christmas campaign helped OM Romania and the local churches to provide for Mina, her children and many others.

Thank you for helping us respond to the cry of the hungry last Christmas.

www.justchristmas.om.org

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‘….I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…’

Matthew 25 v 35

transforming lives in the world’s port communities

Help OM Ships impact over 1 million people every year with the Gospel

Operation Mobilisation Registered office: The Quinta, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, Shropshire SY10 7LT.

Registered as a company limited by guarantee no. 2564320 and charity no.1008196 (England and Wales), and SCO40988 (Scotland).

people on board since 1970

Scripture portions have been distributed

young people have been trained on board for future life and service

have come to faith in God

For the last four decades, the vessels Logos, Doulos, Logos II and now Logos Hope have travelled the world supplying literature, helping people in need, motivating Christians, training people and sharing the Good News of the love of Jesus Christ at every opportunity.

Over 1 million people from all cultures and walks of life – princesses and presidents, street children and the homeless, visit OM’s ships every year.

For many, the experience is a unique and often life-changing encounter that brings them closer to God.

A commitment to give through Direct Debit would help ensure Logos Hope continues sailing for many years to come, enabling the staff and crew to share the message of the love of Jesus with people around the world.Please join with us in touching the lives of millions with the Gospel.

Find out more about OM Ships at or request the monthly giving form by calling 01691 773 388 or emailing

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