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

OM Greece partners with the Greek Church to help feed the hungry and share Jesus in their own community.

A Greek woman embarks on a lonely journey to the Transform 2013 conference in Rome, a journey that began when she accepted Christ at 19.

After attending Transform 2014 and going on the Greece outreach, a young South African man returns to Greece eight months later to stay.

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

Beyond providing basic relief items, one OM worker spends time with refugees passing through Greece, listening to their stories and hopes.

Following escalation of the refugee crisis in Greece, Greek and migrant churches unite to serve the refugees passing through the country.

A long-term worker overseeing refugee relief work on Lesbos describes the people he’s met on the island, the chances he’s had to share his faith and how God has shown up during the crisis.

In the midst of the refugee crisis in Greece, OM country leader says OM acts as ‘the glue,’ doing behind-the-scenes work to bond churches and other Christian organisations.

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

Greece – a land with a glorious past is today faced with many challenges. OM is working with churches, ministering to the Greek and refugees.

Relationships form and opportunities to share Christ follow as OM workers minister to those seeking refuge in Athens and beyond.

OM seeks to love refugees like family members through starting sports ministry and cooking meals in camps.

Fion Lau, from Hong Kong, shares about her year serving with OM in Greece.

Lila from Argentina wanted to go on a mission trip, but always had a reason not to. Then she found the opportunity to serve refugees.

If God can speak to a national faith believer, and move him to cross continents to share his love for Jesus with other refugees, despite dangers and difficulties, what more might He achieve with more workers prepared to take the same risks for the gospel?

Lives are transformed in Mozambique as OM’s Tabitha Project gives local women training in sustainable handiwork skills.

“God is working in this community,” James said. He and other Christians in his village are challenging the culture by living their lives for Christ.

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.

 

Michel Di Feliciantonio and three other Italian Christians spent a week in Šid, Serbia, helping refugees on their way into Europe.

Christina shares about the love between a refugee man and his disabled son, whom she met while volunteering in Šid, Serbia.

“This publication is a tool to help those who will join Goran in sharing the gospel among Gurbet-speaking Roma, and lays the foundation for future Christian materials.”

Jude, project coordinator of OM's Refugee Relief Serbia describes her busy role, and how OM’s service can be a powerful practical witness of the love of Jesus to hundreds of refugees.

OM Norway Field Leader Willy Andre Meberg expresses condolences and prayer for the people of Norway.

Work of OM Romania, partnering with the church

As Rafael, the leader of OM Romania, lies awake in the middle of the night, he shares about the OM outreach to the Roma people he and his family are taking part in. They’ve set up a mobile clinic in Padureni, and through games, sports and Bible stories, the community is learning about God’s love.

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.

Since 2007, the Bus4Life has visited 150 locations, welcomed 10,000 visitors and touched many lives, including one Romanian teen who comes back to God.

Faith is strengthened when OMers learn how the Lord watches over them, not allowing harm to come to the people or the ministry.

A recap of Bus4Life's ministry in Romania during the summer of 2018.

As they seek to establish a church, God gives OM Spain the opportunity to minister to the community, break down barriers and share the gospel.

Bloody feet. Blisters. That wasn’t the expectation of eager Transform participants who left the conference in Rome to join OM Spain on a unique journey.

Eight young people, five nationalities, one van, one month and one BIG God.

Participants witnessed God at work through the Transform conference in Spain followed by outreach teams to the Mediterranean region and beyond.

In the 1960s, when OM accepted untrained people for short-term campaigns, it was unheard of. Today, it has become a gateway into missions.

Las Palmas, Spain :: Crewmembers distribute sandwiches and coffee to people living on the streets.

Transform staff Esther Banzi (South Africa) loves to share the needs in Europe with people from the Global South and see them moving into missions.

The OM short-term team seek God’s will for their ministry after their move to the outskirts of Zurich. Recent encounters have encouraged and surprised them.

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

Swiss youth are challenged by a group outreach to Hungary.

In 1988, it became evident to leadership that OM needed to respond to the hundreds of millions of poor and marginalised in India, specifically the Dalit-Bahujan people, or ‘untouchables’.

Carrie from Hong Kong was challenged and blessed at the same time as a participant in the Out of the Comfort Zone training in Malaysia.

Since 2005, Rachel Chua (22) has been involved in TeenStreet Malaysia and she attended OCZ for the 2nd time this year. Her passion is contagious.

A recent training course in Malaysia unpacks the subject of financial development and reminds participants that it is a ministry based on biblical principles.

Seventeen participants from nine churches gather for OM Malaysia and OM Singapore's Life Direction Weekend in Port Dickson, Malaysia, from 21-23 March.

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

TeenStreet Malaysia 2015 was attended by over 350 teenagers wanting to draw closer to God.

Teenstreet Malaysia 2016 begins, and teens there are studying "The Art of Living".

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

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.