In Brief

Short news items from around the world...

Prayer & Fasting, South Africa, October 2006

The year was 1519; the quest was no less than to be the first person to sail around the world. Five ships and 260 men set sail on the Atlantic towards the Americas. But only one ship and eighteen men would return four years later. Now here we were at Prayer and Fasting in Johannesburg, South Africa, nearly 500 years later, 25 churches and 140 people. Our quest was also to sail around the world. But what took Magellan’s crew four years to do, took us only two days – and with no casualties.

There is much to pray for in South Africa, we have two new church plants rising from the seeds that have been scattered across our borders. We prayed for fertile ground in Swaziland. Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland are three new countries opening up for Newfrontiers in Africa. Prayer was also focused on a new church plant in Tableview, near Cape Town, and one in Durban on the south coast.

Zimbabwe wasn’t neglected as Scott Marques led us in the kind of ‘faith-against-all-odds’ type of prayer that could only be done by a man who’s leading flourishing churches in that suffering country.

Kenya Floods

Rain has now come to Kenya but this has resulted in floods which have become another national disaster. Several people have lost their lives, and over 500,000 people have been misplaced. In the last 8 months or so over 10,000 precious and very needy persons have been kept alive through the efforts of Newfrontiers churches in Kenya and the generosity of churches around the world. The programme of restocking cows and goats has been delayed due to the current rains. This programme is supposed to be completed by the end of February 2007.

Life Change Teams

In the past four years, more than 30 teams have headed off to seventeen different locations worldwide, including India, Ghana, North Africa, Kenya, the Middle East, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and Zimbabwe. God often seems to use the time when people are out of their own setting to speak to them about what He wants then to do when they return to it. This has resulted in many getting involved in their churches and local communities in new ways, serving in and initiating new ministries. To find our more see the Short-Term Mission, Long-Term Impact article.

Church Plant In Perth, Australia
Wellspring Christian Centre became a Newfrontiers church plant on 15 October 2006 under the leadership of Terry Nightingale.
The church currently meets in a community building in Bibra Lake, a suburb of Perth. At this time we have nineteen adults, seven youth and four children attending. We are regularly seeing new faces on Sundays. There is already an expanding youth group being reached through the community, links being established with residents’ associations, schools and other churches.

As we look to the New Year we are excited as to what God will do through us and we are aware that even now others are in the process of obtaining visas to join us in this work. Being in the family of Newfrontiers brings an expectation that with God we can do even greater things.

Russian Revolution!

A real desire has developed over the last few months to see Russian and Ukrainian churches involved in mission, in terms of church planting within their own culture, reaching into Islamic groups within Russia and Ukraine, and beginning to send church planting teams to other parts of the world. A church in East Ukraine is currently training a team who are keen to start church planting in a Muslim country. To read more see the Russian Revolution article.

Reaching The Unreached

Ron Johnson, who used to lead the Ottery, UK church, is now based in the USA leading a 3,000-member church. Visiting Terry recently, he reported that in 1997 he had dreamed of a place known for its bridge somewhere in China. In the dream, he saw the bridge and he was told to lead an evangelistic outreach to that place. Through a series of supernatural events, God led him and a team to the bridge and to the unreached people group that built it. Through the church's missions efforts, twelve churches have been planted, indigenous leaders have been raised up, eight preaching points have been established, a training centre has been started, and over 3,000 unreached people have heard the gospel.

Northern Europe Conference

3–6 May 2007 will see a larger Newfrontiers Stoneleigh-style Northern Europe conference held in Delden, Holland. Terry Virgo and Edward Buria will be among the speakers. With accommodation for up to 1,500 it is hoped that many European countries will be represented. Anyone interested in involvement in Northern Europe is welcome to attend! For more information see click here or see the North Europe Leaders' Conference article.