When a small team decides to focus more on church planting, God brings people into their lives in unusual ways.

Since the Syrian war began, OM workers have served alongside locals, including Muslim background believers, to spread hope amongst desperate people.

Two workers share their motivation to keep going when they encounter disappointments in ministry.

Ofentse Mokwena discusses what's needed for opening transport markets and unbundling transport SOEs.

Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize has won such praise for his handling of the coronavirus crisis that he’s being touted as a possible successor to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Travel and tourism have become casualties of coronavirus lockdown, but one travel writer has found a new way to highlight Scotland's beauty, writes Deborah Anderson

The Chaotic Scots Traveller Kay Gillespie delivers her Top 10 places She's dreaming about in Scotland

By James Campbell

IN dark times, begin by giving the Prime Minister a bit of credit. Unlike a certain predecessor, David Cameron has accepted that there needs to be an honest, public argument over the case for an escalated war in the Middle East.

Award-winning Herald and Sunday Herald columnist Ian Bell has died at the age of 59.

Ian Bell, the award-winning Herald and Sunday Herald writer and columnist, died last week aged 59. Here are excerpts from 10 of his finest pieces of writing.

MSPS were really quite excited last week to be taking part in a largely symbolic vote with an entirely predictable outcome.

NICOLA Sturgeon was at her best during the new, extended First Minister's Questions on Thursday when she spoke about the sickening murder of Liam Fee.

THE warning is becoming louder. It was raised by the Leave team during Thursday's TV debate and, on the same day, by the Chancellor, George Osborne, and two former prime minsters, Sir John Major and Tony Blair. Brexit, they said, posed a serious threat to the Union.

It didn't take long for the list of warnings about Brexit to start coming true.

The accepted unit of measurement for long books is War and Peace. Library shelves bend and buckle under the weight of bigger doorstops, but it's Tolstoy's classic that has become the shorthand for a hefty tome.

When Theresa May declared "Brexit means Brexit," Nicola Sturgeon's response was pithy and to the point. "Remain means Remain," she said, making an apparently all-or-nothing commitment to securing Scotland's place in the EU after the country voted decisively to stay.

Cairngorm National Park has moved online to give armchair visitors a flavour of a Highland spring, finds Sandra Dick

By Deborah Anderson

LEARNING from the problems and delays over PPE and testing will be essential to getting the vaccine strategy right, experts say.

Grief

Wise words

SOMETIMES I appal myself. But I cannot deny that a small, reprehensible part of me will regret the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown.

What if the lockdown was lifted and nobody came? A lot of people seem quite happy with life under Covid, especially educated middle-class people on social media who are happily swapping Spotify playlists and recipes for sourdough bread.

The paths around Hoolet are hard trodden these days, as the village takes its daily gulp of fresh air. Along hedgerows, down tree-lined avenues, through the woods and by the stream, legions of boots have stomped, marking out time. With almost no rain for six weeks, the lanes are dusty and tracks that were made by tractors, horses and bikes in the February mud have solidified into treacherous ruts.

One size fits all? How wrong you are

IT could have been a warm welcome home for a conquering comedy hero when Billy Connolly appeared before an audience of Scottish school children at the BBC in Glasgow.

Source: ftw.usatoday.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Justin Gaethje put on a show in front of zero fans Saturday night at UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Fla., winning the interim lightweight belt with a fifth-round TKO victory over the legendary Tony Ferguson after referee Herb Dean called the fight with just over a minute to go. But when it was time to get the belt from UFC boss Dana White, Gaethje wanted nothing to do with the impressive hardware as he quickly tossed it aside before talking to Joe Rogan in the Octagon. Why would he do that? Because interim belts in the UFC are pretty silly and Gaethje doesn’t want to waste his time celebrating an accomplishment that now sets him up to fight for the real lightweight belt against Khabib Nurmagomedov who still owns the belt and is one of the greatest fighters of all time. Look at how Gaethje treated his belt: Justin Gaethje tossed aside the interim lightweight title belt he won at #UFC249 "I'll wait for the real one." pic.twitter.com/GBxD1RUemj — ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2020 Seriously, he wanted nothing to do with that thing. He evenly let his coach leave Octagon with it: . @Justin_Gaethje truly wants no part of that interim belt. His head coach Trevor Wittman had to carry it out of the octagon. #UFC249 | More: https://t.co/N8mXceTwxO pic.twitter.com/MBDvMIHG1h — MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) May 10, 2020 Now that is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the fight game for quite some time. Sure, we haven’t seen fighting in quite some time, eithe

Source: www.washingtontimes.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
BEIJING (AP) - Yao Ming, the former Houston Rockets star and now president of the Chinese Basketball Association, says the league has three options for resuming the season that has been on hold since Feb. 1 over the coronavirus pandemic. Yao said the league might play out the full schedule; ...

Source: boxden.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
via Remember when KD had Lebron scared to fight? @ sports

Source: www.reuters.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Malaysia's government extended the time frame for movement and business curbs by another four weeks to June 9, amid a gradual reopening of economic activity stunted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: www.wellingtondailynews.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
The Freewill Baptist Church will be giving away food and other items to people in the community, starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 16, but you have to make an appointment by calling the church office at 326-5521.Non-perishable food items and brand new items, such as fashion accessories, swimwear and home decor has been donated, Charlotte Brooks, church administrative assistant said. Shelter Insurance donated $1,000 worth of food.“Every donation is by the community [...]

Source: www.reuters.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the coronavirus in England on Sunday when he outlines the government's plans to begin slowly easing lockdown measures, British media reported.

Source: www.justjared.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Kristen Wiig is the host of the season finale of Saturday Night Live ! The 46-year-old Wonder Woman 1984 actress hosted the Mother’s Day episode remotely from her home. During her monologue, Kristen took the opportunity to wish her mom a Happy Mother’s Day. “This is the Mother’s Day show and at SNL it’s a very special time to celebrate moms,” Kristen said. “Unfortunately, like a lot of you, I can’t be with my mom this Mother’s Day so I hope it’s okay I tell her I love her.” “You know I’ve been thinking lately, I don’t know if I truly appreciated my mom the first 45 years of my life, but this year I’m feeling especially grateful for all the things she taught me, preparing me to be a mom myself,” Kristen said before showing a plate of raw chicken breast. “Things like breastfeeding, babies love that chicken, she would always say that.” Kristen ended her monologue by thanking all the parents supporting their families during the pandemic. “So I do want to thank my mom and all the moms out there helping us get through this and have been there,” Kristen said. “We thank you so much, happy Mother’s Day. Thank you moms and thank you dads.” Find out when Wonder Woman 1984 will be out in theaters .

Source: spectator.org - Saturday, May 09, 2020
You have to give it to the enemies of the Constitution. They are clever as hell and they never stop trying. In the three plus years of the Trump administration, the left has made up the most outlandish, insane allegations against Mr. Trump. He’s a Russian agent. He’s a rapist. He takes bribes. He conspires to thwart the FBI. They libel and slander him in the one party media endlessly. When they took the House, they made up literally screaming schizoid paranoid accusations against him to try to impeach and convict him. They have utterly corrupted the FBI. They are well on their way to corrupting all of the “Intelligence” gatherings of the government. None of it worked. The truth saved Mr. Trump and the Constitution. The truth and Fox News and Rush and our own beloved American Spectator and the GOP Senate kept America whole and lawful. Now comes the latest challenge: the use of Covid-19 to demolish the Bill of Rights. This time it has worked. Yes, the virus is real and it’s truly horrible. Just gory and awful. But it’s being used to destroy Freedom of Worship, the right to assemble, the right to travel, the right to bear arms. In most states, the right to worship in groups has been killed dead while the “right” to go to Walmart remains intact. We, the people, cannot go to rallies for getting our rights back. But we can go to immense drug stores to buy eyeshadow. We cannot see our children and parents. But we can have unlimited rig

Source: www.justjared.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Alec Baldwin is back as President Trump on Saturday Night Live ! The actor once again impersonated the president on the sketch show’s season finale on Saturday (May 9). Alec as Trump made an appearance during the cold open, which featured a virtual graduation for college students. “I’m so honored to be your vale-dictator,” Alec as Trump said. “But today’s not about me. It’s about you. Although I should spend a little time on me first, because I’ve been treated very poorly, even worse than they treated Lincoln.” “You’re actually lucky to be graduating right now there are so many exciting new jobs out there, like grocery store bouncer, cam-girl, porch pirate, amateur nurse and coal,” he continued. “Don’t forget about coal. It’s in the ground, and you just dig down and grab it.” At the end of the cold open, Alec broke character, suggesting that this is his last time playing Trump . “And taped from my home, one last time,” Alec said, “it’s Saturday night.” Alec has been playing Trump for the past four years since the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

During his years as a heroin addict, Muhamed wrote a song that is now a celebrated worship song in his local church.

Teens attending TeenStreet Europe in July will raise money for a project to bring reconciliation to the ethnically divided youth of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Providing disadvantaged children with backpacks brings the gospel into homes in remote Muslim villages of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Daniel Ottoson (US), who serves as a site leader at an international congregation in Finland, enjoys seeing Finns and foreigners serving and loving Jesus together.

In postmodern Finland, an international church in Helsinki preaches God’s Word as it is and challenges its congregation to ‘get into the Bible’ daily.

OM strives to give 'church' a whole new meaning in the land of the Finns.

As the Bus4Life begins its seventh tour, former driver Tuukka Linkopuu reflects on his two-year ministry while Esa Tuuri prepares to take the wheel.

“I am more excited about God now,” says one young Swiss lady after three months working alongside OM Finland to reach youth in Tampere.

OM's work in Finland began 50 years ago in 1965. Since then, approximately 3,000 Finns have participated in OM’s work.

An Iranian refugee surprises a long-term worker by stating his desire to become a Christian.

Teemu Laitinen (Finland) serves as the Bus4Life driver in Ukraine, Hungary, Moldova and Romania.

Members of OM El Salvador started offering the 'Life at the crossroads' programme in the community of El Rosario in their country. The team shows students in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade what norms and values are and that there is a God that cares for them.

Recently, a team of 32 OM volunteers from the UK, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador worked together in an outreach to bring gifts and the Gospel to La Ceiba, Corozal in Honduras. For a week, they ministered in a community with a high percentage of people infected with HIV and a high mortality rate due to the consequences of AIDS. Many families in the area have suffered the loss of a father or mother. OM El Salvador took the initiative to respond to the needs of many kids and share about the love of Jesus in the outreach ´Changing gifts for smiles´.

A team from Guatemala, El Salvador and the US build a church for a new congregation and share the gospel in San Marcos, Honduras.