When the Verwey family of Japan Missions visited rural South Africa in 1971 they would have had no idea that a 6-year-old ponytailed girl might be stirred for world missions through their stories and slides. The Holy Spirit stirred me for missions even at that tender age. Weekly mission-focused Bible clubs continued to nurture the seed already sown, while devoted Christian parents would visit mission stations while we were on holidays. God’s call to the unreached in my first year as university student therefore came as no surprise. The challenge of Paul Smith “Why should anybody hear the Gospel...

The special relationship between Portugal and South-Africa, started in 1488 when Bartolomeu Dias managed to round the Cape of Storms and landed at Mossel Bay. This enabled Vasco da Gama, in 1498, to explore a new trade route as far as India. For the following 150 years, the colonization of Angola and Mozambique were the focus points of Portuguese development in Southern-Africa. They navigated well and served the world, looking for new means of survival. Much later, in 1974 and 1975, South-African Churches were involved in a huge humanitarian effort to help tens of thousands of Portuguese refugees,...

With wars and rumours of wars filling news headlines many Christians have again asked, “Is the second coming of Jesus at hand?”  Inevitably Matthew 24 enters the conversation – the famous chapter in which Jesus gives us a glimpse of what times will be like towards the end of the age. One thing is clear. No one knows exactly when Jesus will return. What is evident is Jesus’ instruction that we will have a role and a responsibility to play in the end times. What stirs our excitement? During this discourse, Jesus urges his disciples to keep watch (v. 42) and be ready (v.44)....