Winnipeg is divided between the central business and commercial districts and the poorer neighbourhoods on the north end of town. Urban Youth Adventures (UYA) is a new Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) inner city initiative with a vision to help youth overcome poverty and its affects. UYA focuses on the north end of the city. Rail […]
Introduction Learning can occur either by hearing and following instructions, or by imitation. For example, to peel an orange, first take the unpeeled orange into your left hand with the lump facing up. Pick up a knife and, clasping the handle in the palm of your hand, have your pointer finger along the back of […]
One of the greatest needs and challenges with all worldwide missions is the ability to communicate quickly, clearly, safely, and more recently, in real-time. While social networks dominate the internet landscape and provide ways to contact people online, private online networks are smaller, secure, intimate communities of people who already know one another and want […]
I was confused. Exploring the depths of poverty can do that to a person. We were coming to the end of our time in the Egyptian garbage community in Cairo. Living in this community for over a month had given us new eyes. What at first was repulsive, was now quite normal. The hot, passionate […]
The teabus is where the author and his co-workers speak with Austrian youth about Jesus. Confronting the Unchurched Youth in Europe It is Saturday evening in Villach, Southern Austria. Thomas and I are engaged in a lively discussion about God with a group of young people in our “teabus.” The converted bus is parked in […]
More than twenty years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a part of a delegation of North American observers to a historic interdenominational missions congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was called by the Spanish and Portuguese acronym, “COMIBAM ‘87” (“Comibam” meaning “Congreso Misionero Ibero-Americano” or the “Ibero-American Missions Congress”). More than three […]
“People group clusters” are groups of individual peoples clustered based on language and ethnic affinity. Worldwide, there are 252 clusters; 113 of these are considered least-reached. In this article, we focus on those in Southeast Asia.1 Southeast Asia is made up of ninety-two clusters, totaling roughly 567 million people. One-third of the world’s people group […]
Globalization has made the world a smaller place and introduced people to a wide variety of religious practices and ideas. Migration from one country to another, international travel for business and recreation, and a variety of communication technologies have contributed to an increasingly pluralistic context, bringing diverse peoples together, and providing an expansive pool of […]
Audio Bibles are reaching the farthest corners of the earth. In the Brazilian rainforest, the small village of Makita sits along the muddy banks of an Amazon River tributary. When the conditions are ideal, the trip takes two days by boat. American church leader Jeff Scott and his short-term mission team arrived at Makita and […]
(Editor’s note: In September, we began a year-long series on urban slum ministry around the world. This month is our second installment. For an overview of the series and an introduction to key terms, click here.) Of the three national capitals situated on the Danube River, Bucharest is by far the largest, with a population […]
In 2003, my wife, children, and I lived in a province of China located in the most southwestern part of the country. We were there to study Mandarin at the local university. During our time there, we noticed the many faces of poverty. One of my teachers, a local journalist, explained many local realities to […]
Next month the Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing. In this issue on ministry with slum communities we are highlighting the poor in Chinese cities. Working Definitions and Facts “Urban poor” defined: Those living on less than US$1 or US$2 per day (Millennium Development Agenda). Those living with inadequate income, shelter and access to […]
A massive growth in Christian presence in the southern continents meant that by the middle of the twentieth century Christian faith had developed into a “non-Western religion.”1 With the rise of churches and prophet movements of African provenance at the turn of the twentieth century, Christianity grew by leaps and bounds in sub-Saharan Africa. These […]
In February 2008, official delegations from thirteen nations in southern and Portuguese-speaking Africa converged in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the MANI SA 08 Consultation. This was a unique moment for the Church in Africa as three hundred leaders of national, regional, and global influence gathered to discuss the next steps involved in completing the Great […]
