Throughout the year Bus4Life provides encouragement to local pastors and OM teams in Eastern Europe, partnering with them to share the Gospel.

OM Greece

A speedboat approached the gritty beach of the Greek island of Lesbos carrying around a dozen people. It quickly dumped their luggage into the choppy sea before racing away. After some emotional greetings, the OM Greece team and others offered the newcomers towels, water and bananas. The team soon discovered that they were three generations of Syrian Christians, grandparents to grandchildren, fleeing to Europe's safety.

The team's hearts sank when the Syrians told them that the same boat, which charged them a steep 2000 € per person for the 30-minute trip was to make another journey to bring the rest of the family from Turkey. The team had seen the harbour police arrest the pilot and had to break the bad news to them that their relatives' fate was uncertain.

And so the trials and difficulties continue for the hundreds of thousands fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan making their way to Greece's shores in the hopes of moving onward into Europe. OM Greece continues to demonstrate God's love and compassion there.

The OM Greece team on Lesbos has enjoyed chatting with the refugees—something not many other relief workers are doing.

"A young Iraqi guy approached us and excitedly told us the he, too, wanted to become a Christian," recounted the team leader, heading up efforts on the island, where many of the refugees land.

"Stunned, we immediately gave him a Christian tract in Arabic we had picked up earlier that day, and those gathered around began reading it."

Waves of new arrivals of Syrian and other refugees to Greece's shores are overwhelming relief groups and authorities in the biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II.

Despite the early onset of autumn's rains, more than 2,500 mainly Syrian and Afghan refugees, soaked and exhausted, reached Lesbos in just a matter of hours this week alone. This marks a sharp rise in the rate of arrivals making the dangerous sea crossing from Turkey, aid officials said.

Most refugees traveling in unsafe dinghies and boats, squeezing about 40 to 45 people aboard, came in the pouring rain. Some suffered from hypothermia.

Over 430,000 refugees fleeing mayhem in the Middle East already have worked their way this year from Turkey to Greece. Despite Greece's dire economic crisis, many Greeks have been welcoming the refugees even though resources are scarce and many Greeks are also looking for help.

Gabby Markus, OM Greece country leader, also coordinates humanitarian assistance provided by numerous churches in the Athens area to ensure more effective cooperation and aid on behalf of the fleeing refugees.

Government and local officials have appreciated OM Greece and the local churches' quick ability to organise Arabic and Farsi/Dari translators to help communicate with the refugees as well as the practical provision of badly needed water, clothing and cooked meals. A clothing bank, shower facility, possible WiFi/Internet access points, and a potential campsite for temporary stay by the refugees are also in the planning.

"You tell us and we will get the people," Gabby told an official of Greece's Migration Policy Ministry. As a registered Greece-based organisation and with work in 110 countries worldwide, OM is strategically placed to help the refugees in their hour of need.

This week, the Athens team has helped numerous Afghans, including Harazas, sheltering in a sports stadium after a torrential downpour drove them out of one of Athen's outdoor parks.

Inside the stadium, where colorful pup tents lined the floor, young Afghan men danced to a throbbing, ethnic beat. Their arms sliced the air and bodies spun, enrapturing Afghan and Greek onlookers alike.
Greek doctors were on hand to carry out health checks on those who made the strenuous journey from their war-torn homeland.

"We had 45 people packed inside our flimsy rubber dinghy," 20-year-old Habib told OM. It was a dangerous journey and we were very frightened. Now we're exhausted, but we must continue to move on," said the youth, with dark, intense eyes.

Other OM Greece workers participate in cooking and serving meals to refugees gathered at churches in a food-share project. They also assist in meal distributions in parks where refugees congregate in the Greek capital.

"We must help these people who have left everything behind," Gabby said.

OM Greece needs your prayer and financial support to continue and intensify its aid efforts for Syrian and other refugees fleeing conflict to Europe.

A developing OM project, called Safe Passage, focuses on meeting refugees at their initial entry points, providing information as well as water, food and essentials. To give specifically to projects in Greece, please mark your gift to be given to Greece. To give to OM Europe's general relief efforts, or for more information about how to get involved, please contact your local OM office.

Their desire to help leads a Love Moldova outreach team to a woman whose loss of her toes leads to the salvation of her soul.

A woman found not criminally responsible for fatally stabbing a stranger in the heart at the makeup counter of a Toronto drugstore five years ago could ultimately be allowed to live in the community if the mental health facility where she is staying decides she can, the Ontario Review Board says.

Mayor John Tory, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city's medical officer of health, and Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, head of the city's emergency response team, spoke at a city hall news conference Thursday afternoon.

A sports writer covering the strange return of South Korea's baseball season says fans should brace for similarly odd experience in Toronto, if and when the 2020 season begins.

Region of Waterloo Public Health says there are 44 positive cases of COVID-19 at the Breslau meat processing facility Conestoga Meats.

Despite sharp differences in the impact of COVID-19 in different parts of Ontario, the Ford government is rejecting a region-by-region approach to loosening emergency restrictions.

Some provinces are moving to allow people to double their so-called COVID-19 social bubbles. Chris Glover looks at why that's not yet happening in Ontario.

Karla Bell was outside an Orangeville hospital waiting to start her nursing shift when she heard a cry for help from a car in the parking lot. She ran up to find a woman in labour in the passenger seat. Natalie Kalata tells us the incredible story of how this baby was born.

Toronto’s islands are closed to the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and there’s no word on when tourists can return. Ali Chiasson looks at the impact the pandemic will have on the islands.

Toronto officials reported 180 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a figure that represents a dip when compared to the more than 200 cases announced daily this week. 

Hanna Jovin and Adrian Morphy say many, including themselves, have been experiencing strange and vivid dreams since the pandemic began and the pair decided to illustrate and share them on social media.

Approximately one out of every seven Ontarians who were working before the coronavirus pandemic hit the province have now lost their jobs, according to Statistics Canada's latest national labour survey.

Leonard Rodriquez's grieving loved ones say he was a man who would drop everything to help those in need. But they say his death could have been prevented if he'd had the personal protective gear he needed to do his job.

Living on a 10-acre plot of land 100 kilometres outside Toronto, David Stevens thought he and his family were well prepared to ride out the COVID-19 quarantine. But after a call from his mother, he learned that even the best laid plans can go wrong.

Lindsay Forsyth Brochu thought by now she'd have the double-lung transplant she's been waiting for. But she had the misfortune being put on the waitlist the day after most surgeries were suspended in Ontario due to COVID-19.

CBC Toronto wants to introduce you to all the people making a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic through a series we're calling Front-line Heroes.

Poor visibility from winter-like weather has put a halt on the Snowbirds aerobatics team's plans to fly over southern Ontario on Saturday.

Ontario reported its lowest new COVID-19 case count of the week on Saturday with 346 new confirmed cases of the virus. Meanwhile, the government has issued an emergency order allowing school board employees to be voluntarily redeployed to hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes and women's shelters.

The Citizens for an Accountable Mega Hospital Planning Process are in court trying to get leave to appeal a ruling that dismissed their appeal to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal over the location of the mega-hospital.

Located on Huron Church Road, the lab was one of 12 such facilities run by the Ontario government, and processed tests for diseases like tuberculosis and West Nile virus. But it was demolished to make way for the Herb Gray Parkway.

Paramedics who come back from COVID-19 related calls have to remove and either discard or wash their PPE. They are getting help from students called doffing assistants.

The province's networks of labs processed 15,179 tests in the last 24 hours, more than any of the three days previous but still short of the 16,000 tests per day target set back in April.

Lambton County resident Joeleen DeGurse-MacDonald still has memories of the fatal vehicle collisions she's witnessed at the intersection of Kimball Road and Petrolia Line. Now in her 50s, DeGurse-MacDonald said she vividly remembers an accident that took place when she was only five-years-old, eating a pear picked from an orchard on her family's farm at the northest intersection of Kimball and Petrolia. 

With proms cancelled across Canada, an online resource for kids called the Student Life Network has organized a national virtual prom.

If you think it's cold this morning, just wait — the forecast low for Friday night is –3 C.

As automakers look to restart the industry, union representatives are looking to ensure safety is the number one priority for workers.

OPP are investigating a fatal crash that took place in Lakeshore Thursday night.

After several days in which fewer than 400 cases of COVID-19 were added to the provincial tally, Friday's report was up again, with 477 new cases reported.

An Essex County OPP officer has been slapped with a cut in pay because of "inexplicable" investigative delays into a fatal collision, allowing the at-fault driver to "evade criminal prosecution."

Of the 58 people who have died due to COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex, 14 of them were patients at Windsor Regional Hospital's field hospital.

Windsor's unemployment rate soared even higher in April, according to Statistics Canada numbers released Friday. 

According to OPP, a man allegedly pulled over a woman on April 23 driving on Naylor Side Road near the intersection of North Talbot Road, while "wearing clothing resembling the uniform of a police officer."

Former Windsor high school drama teacher John Nabben was found guilty on Thursday, May 7 of professional misconduct, and has had his teaching licence revoked. 

Making a film when you can't leave home means being creative — with everything from the scenery to your cast. C.J. Bernauer talked to Windsor Morning host Tony Doucette about his new short horror film, called 'You're It.'

Documents created by the top disease investigators in the U.S. meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day care centres and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic have been shelved by the Trump administration.

A train killed 14 migrant workers who had fallen asleep on the track in India on Friday while they were heading back to their home village after losing their jobs amid the coronavirus lockdown, police said.

Scuffles broke out at Hong Kong's legislature Friday, with security guards ejecting several pro-democracy lawmakers, including one who was carried out by medics on a stretcher after he was injured.

Madagascar is putting its self-proclaimed, plant-based "cure" for COVID-19 on sale and several countries in Africa have already put in orders for purchase, despite warnings from the World Health Organization that its efficacy is unproven.

Late Thursday, Georgia father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael were arrested in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man.

The White House says it is conducting contact tracing after the U.S. vice-president's press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Vatican's liturgy office, claims he never signed a petition claiming the coronavirus is an over-hyped "pretext" to deprive the faithful of Mass.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Friday the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing "a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scaremongering" and appealed for "an all-out effort to end hate speech globally."

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose sharply in April, government data showed on Friday, as the coronavirus outbreak keeps many environmental enforcers out of the field and the country prepares to deploy troops to fight illegal logging.

The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation's top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press.

Russia marked 75 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War on Saturday, but the coronavirus outbreak forced it to scale back celebrations seen as boosting support for President Vladimir Putin.

Villagers placed the bodies of three victims of a deadly gas leak from an LG Polymers plant in southern India at the gates of the site on Saturday and demanded the factory be shut down immediately and its top management arrested.

A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in B.C. Supreme Court which, if successful, could mean every ICBC-insured motorist and crash victim will be in line for a share of almost $1 billion. 

Kevin Khungay played high school basketball. His friend's older brother Sunny Basran was his coach. Years later, their unique designs are worn by some of the sports biggest stars.