February 19, 2007
Paul‚Äôs shipwreck on the island of Malta in AD60 was probably no accident in the providential scheme of things. Whether or not the islands were then converted to Christianity‚Äìwhich tradition holds but Luke doesn‚Äôt actually say‚Äìthe Maltese are proud of their direct association with the apostle. Today the small archipelago remains overwhelmingly Catholic. Both divorce […]
February 12, 2007
Here we go again! And we’d love you to come too! My wife Romkje and I will be hosting another ‘Share the Heritage’ Trip this summer, June 30 through to July 14. We’ll travel by bus from Amsterdam to Geneva, via numerous historic sites including Wittenberg, Herrnhut, Prague, Dachau and Zurich. These two weeks will […]
February 5, 2007
Marriage offers by far the best chances for raising children in today’s society. That was the clear message from several leading British citizens this week at the launch of Britain’s National Marriage Week in the Houses of Parliament. National Marriage Week runs annually over the week prior to Valentine’s Day, February 14. Former YWAMer Richard […]
January 29, 2007
In his book ‘Without Roots’ Pope Benedict XVI stresses that Europe needs creative minorities. He quotes the English historian Arnold Toynbee, saying that the fate of a society always depends on its creative minorities. His interlocutor in the book, the president of the Italian senate, Marcello Pera, agrees: ‘You could claim that Europe disappeared through […]
January 22, 2007
Last year I shared the platform at a YWAM conference in Canberra, Australia, with an American pastor who told me he had lost a thousand church members because of a sermon series he preached! These messages appeared in book form last year. Sally Frahm writes as follows about this book, responding to my request last […]
January 15, 2007
A tradition we have developed is to start the year with a Weekly Word on books we are reading. So here are a number of titles on Europe I read over the past year. I invite you to tell me this week about books you have found worth recommending to other readers. All these books […]
January 8, 2007
‘Happy’ New Year? How many people have we wished a ‘Happy New Year’ to over the past week? And what exactly were we wishing them? What, after all, makes people happy? Many westerners assume that happiness increases with wealth and dream of winning the national lottery. Yet studies show that there is little corresponding rise […]
December 18, 2006
The Way of Love One thing struck me this week as I sorted through newspapers that had piled up at home during my recent travels. Religion is back! One prize-winning Dutch author, quoted in the secular NRC Handelsblad, suggests we may even be experiencing the re-Christianisation of Holland! Another writer dared to suggest that secularism […]
December 11, 2006
The Road to Terror ‘Jesus this song you wrote, The words are sticking in my throat, Peace on earth Hear it every christmas time, But hope and history won’t rhyme, So what’s it worth, This peace on earth?’ Bono’s words from Peace on Earth stick in my throat too as we approach yet another Christmas […]
December 4, 2006
When an invitation came recently to address an ecumenical gathering in Vienna on how to respond to radical Islam, a huge painting I had seen this summer in the Vatican came to mind. The canvas showed the Polish King Sobieski arriving with his troops in Vienna to rescue the besieged city from the encircling turkish […]
November 27, 2006
Imagine following in Paul’s footsteps, sailing on a mediterranean adventure, evangelising and planting churches in each port of call-but without the riots, floggings and shipwrecks! This dream of Marine Reach-YWAM’s maritime ministry-is now becoming reality. The 42-metre ketch, t/s Elida IV, is being purchased from a Swedish foundation by Marine Reach and YWAM England, and […]
November 20, 2006
A major shift in missions thinking is needed for effective engagement with an unreached people group numbering millions in Europe and other western nations, according to a Lausanne network task force which met last month in Hong Kong. Ole Skjerbaek Madsen and Lars Johansson, two members of this task force, reported this insight to participants […]
