A young couple who met on the Internet answers God’s call to missions to help others find Christ using their IT and web design skills.

Four years after a member of OM Russia befriended her, an Uzbek lady in Novosibirsk came to faith.

The church in Russia is facing a new threat-HIV/AIDS. OM Russia works in rehab-centres to show God's love and compassion.

A Discipleship centre student from an unreached people group meets a girl with the same ethnic background and tells to her about salvation.

During outreach to a Tatar village, the team met a woman at the well and introduced her to Jesus.

Although a flash flood inundated most of Metro Manila, Central and North Luzon in the Philippines, recent earthquakes have shaken up the nation even more.

OM Philippines sees signs of hope in the midst of tragic loss while extending help to churches wrecked by Typhoon Pablo (Bopha).

Nineteen boys and girls graduated from Fishport Kids Tutorial Club's day care programme in Manila, Philippines, this month.

OM Philippines partners with the local church to provide water and food in areas hit by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 15 October.

OM SportsLink hosts a local R4TW race to engage those involved with OM Philippines-Cebu Ministries and encourage people to pray for the nations.

After taking inventory of the relief effort, OM Philippines workers, in partnership with churches, distribute relief necessities to some of the least-reached disaster sites.

As local markets begin to re-establish themselves, the OM Philippines crisis response team takes steps towards reconstruction in Tacloban, Bohol and Northern Cebu.

How OM Philippines is making a long-term difference in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

OM Philippines hosts micro-business workshops that offer a future with hope.

OM Philippines hosts camps for children affected by recent trauma that facilitate emotional restoration through dance, songs, crafts, Bible stories and more.

OM Philippines’ Alternative Learning System teachers visit the homes of students in an effort to connect with their parents and encourage further education.

Three boys who sell fish become “men of peace” for the DreamAsia+ team in three of the poorest Muslim communities in the Philippines.

OM Philippines celebrates 25 years of transforming lives and communities.

OM Philippines helps train and provide school drop-outs with the opportunity to earn their elementary or high school diploma.

In 2008, the Greek Evangelical Church in Athens opened a community centre, in a suburb where many Albanians live. OM worker Martha describes how she and other staff are reaching out with God's love to local young people.

OM Team Leader Theo picks up litter during a Transform outreach and thinks about how God deals with the sinful rubbish in our lives.

Jemina (Finland) joined the Transform team in Athens. Changes in travel plans meant she used the metro system—between stations with very special names.

Instead of staying with OM Greece’s leaders for the holidays as planned, a visitor stays in a local church, which changes his life.

How OM is partnering with Greek churches to address the growing immigrant and trafficking situation

After working with the needy on a Transform 2012 outreach to Greece, Anthony (UK) returned to Athens to continue in that ministry.

OM Greece and partner organisations help Syrians and other refugees as they reach the island of Lesbos from Turkey and disembark from dinghies.

OM worker witnesses a new openness towards God and the Gospel amongst the thousands of refugees on their way to Europe.

OM Greece's involvement with refugees is always evolving. This summer the team is able to work in more camps and connect with more people.

God brings a young boy back to life and his parents recognise Jesus as Lord.

A shepherd from a Muslim background comes to Jesus thanks to a goat ministry started by OM Mozambique.

Focusing on one person at a time, John uses everyday life as a way to meet people where they are and journey alongside them.

Lima, Peru, May 9, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Peruvian congresswoman Luz Milagros Cayguaray Gambini has demanded the country’s health minister provide the legal and scientific basis for a directive that would allow abortion when a pregnant woman is infected with the novel coronavirus.

Abortion is illegal in Peru except when pregnancy would cause death or permanent harm to a pregnant woman.

On April 22, Peru’s Minister of Health Victor Zamora issued a directive calling for provision of emergency contraception in the country, and allowing abortion for pregnant women who test positive for the coronavirus.

In a May 5 letter, Cayguaray demanded Zamora to “Indicate what the legal basis” is for the directive that allows doctors to “end the pregnancy,” if the mother has contracted COVID-19.

The legislator also challenged Zamora to indicate “the scientific and medical basis the norm is based upon.”

At issue is whether a positive test for coronavirus is sufficient to establish that a pregnancy threatens the life of a woman. Gambini says that assertion is unproven and unfounded.

Cayguaray has also written to Dr. Enrique Guevara Ríos, director of the country’s Perinatal Maternal Institute, asking him to report how many pregnant women with COVID-19 have been treated to date, “how many have had their pregnancies terminated,” “on what grounds,” and “what current regulation has been applied to carry out the interruption of those pregnancies.”

The Arequipa Doctors for Life Association has criticized the health directive in a statement.

"At this time in which all our efforts as a nation should be aimed at improving our precarious health system to mitigate the serious impact of the pandemic, the circumstances are being used to dictate measures that threaten the lives of Peruvians in their most vulnerable stage, life in the womb,” the group said.

Regarding the “morning after pill,” the group expressed surprise and concern “that the Ministry of Health promotes the irresponsible and reckless use of this drug in the general population and particularly for minors, and even worse, dispenses with obtaining the person’s medical history, which is an essential tool for the responsible practice of medicine, thus seriously exposing the users to danger."

Aborting a child because the mother has COVID-19, the doctors said “is contrary to the principles that govern medical practice, which must always be based on the application of therapies that are based on rigorous scientific studies and with respect to elementary ethical principles” which guide medical science in providing the best strategies to protect patients.

When a woman is pregnant “we have two patients to take care of, the mother and the unborn child," the doctors association stressed.

Concerning the babies themselves, five newborns whose mothers have COVID-19 were recently discharged from a government hospital in Peru. A sixth, also born of a coronavirus patient who is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, was born prematurely and remains hospitalized. None of the babies have tested positive for COVID-19.

In a May 5 interview with the El Comercio daily, Dr. César García Aste, who heads the hospital’s neonatology department, explained that there are strict protocols as to how the baby is to be fed in order to avoid infecting it.

A doctor from the hospital is assigned to follow up daily by phone on the baby’s condition for an average of 14 days, and “so far we haven’t had a problem with any of the five babies,” Garcia said.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Work of OM Romania among the Roma population

A Roma man’s cry to God for mercy to spare his son’s life transforms his future and the future of his small town.

Michael (Kenya) participates in a short-term mission trip to Romania and gives an account of God's transforming power at work amongst the Roma people.

Newlyweds Sam & Lena joined Transform as part of their honeymoon, because they wanted to honour God from the very start of their life together.

Transform in Europe inspired a dance ministry in Australia - dance, discussions and discipleship.

Lawrence and Susan Tong encourage the OM Switzerland team during their annual retreat.

An OMer from Canada shares about different encounters she had during an outreach to Arab tourists in Switzerland.

A man shares his story of living with HIV at an AIDS workshop aboard Logos Hope, which opened hearts for ministry to others with HIV.

The second batch of Timothy Trekkers met for the first time in Seremban, Malaysia, on 1 July to begin the 12-month leadership development course.

This year, on 9 August, OM Malaysia celebrates 30 years of ministry with former OMers and friends of OM from all generations.

In June, 162 people from 28 countries participate in Out of the Comfort Zone Asia 2014, followed by outreaches to 12 countries.

On 9 August 2014, OM Malaysia held an open house to celebrate 30 years of ministry, with OM International Director Lawrence Tong as the guest of honour.

The varied teaching styles at Teenstreet Malaysia 2016 helped teens to connect with the theme of discovering their identity.

Young believers among the indigenous people in the rural areas of Sabah, Malaysia are impacted through discipleship.

Traders have discovered the benefits of coordinating option expirations with the release of economic data focusing on the impact of certain indicators.

Two lifelong friends from the US bring a message of hope, friendship and a future to marginalised locals during OM Zambia’s first-ever wheelchair camp.

An English nurse embraces the challenge of a lifetime on Lake Tanganyika.

Meet one woman who serves God as the only community health worker for over 2,000 people in six remote villages of Zambia.