Immigrant: ‘God helped me’
31 May 2018
Mamoudou, a Malian migrant living in Paris, caught the world’s attention when he bravely saved a child who was dangling over the edge of a balcony of a high-rise apartment complex. He has been nicknamed Spider-Man for the incredible way he scaled four floors of the building and lifted the child to safety. When asked why he undertook such a dangerous climb, he simply replied, ‘I didn’t think about it, I climbed up and God helped me.’ He added: ‘I like children. I would have hated to see him getting hurt in front of me. I ran and looked for solutions to save him, and thank God I scaled the front of the building to the balcony.’ Mamoudou has been awarded French citizenship. The child’s father is under investigation for neglect, and the child has been placed in care.
Teachers and sexual harassment
31 May 2018
For newly-qualified teacher Maya, sexual harassment started in her first week at a prestigious London state secondary school with a culture of misogyny thinly veiled as banter. Senior colleagues made inappropriate comments about her body, and she and her female colleagues experienced a barrage of abuse from male students. Many times over, female staff who reported problems saw no action taken. Maya’s close friend had her phone stolen by children, who rang her father saying, ‘We’re going to rape your daughter outside school.’ She wasn’t supported by the school at all. A year later Maya left the school, and soon afterwards she left teaching altogether. A recent study of over 1,200 female teachers by a teachers’ union revealed that one in five has been sexually harassed at school by a colleague, manager, parent or pupil. Nearly a third of these were subjected to unwanted touching, two-thirds to inappropriate comments, and over half to inappropriate sexual remarks.
White fields across the Channel
31 May 2018
Mainland Europe is a mission field on our doorstep. Jean Darnall and Smith Wigglesworth both prophesied God’s Spirit would flow from the UK to mainland Europe. Some from the UK and other European nations have relocated to France as ‘missionaries’. The evangelical church in France has seen remarkable growth equivalent to one new church every ten days. There are now 650,000 evangelical Christians in France. At the same time, the Roman Catholic church has declined, but there is a thriving RC charismatic movement. Social despair, mistrust of political leaders, and high unemployment, combined with a cultural willingness to discuss and debate have created conditions favourable to evangelical church growth. Now a Paris-based ministry with a vision for France and Europe called Jesus2Europe invites UK intercessors to join in prayer for France between 1 and 7 June. You can sign up for a prayer slot at
NHS resources - 1
31 May 2018
A survey of 2,195 GPs in England found that 39% were likely to leave by 2022, and 61% of those over the age of 50 planned to quit within five years. Pressures in general practice have reached an all-time high. Workload has escalated by at least 16% over the last seven years, but the share of the NHS budget general practice receives is less than it was a decade ago. GP numbers are falling, and many GPs are burnt-out. GPs have increasing workloads, too little time to do justice to the job, and a pile of paperwork to meet external bodies’ requirements and increasing patient demands. A representative from hospital trusts said that the figures reflect a gap between what the NHS is asked to deliver and the resources available, following almost a decade of austerity. There are not enough staff, ambulances, community and mental health capacity or hospital beds to cope. Also see the next article.
NHS resources - 2
31 May 2018
Many are saying the ‘hostile environment’ policy is damaging the NHS. The current visa rules place a cap on how many non-EU workers can come to the UK, and this ceiling has been hit for six months in a row, preventing more overseas doctors from coming. Many believe the visa rules aren’t working in the best interests of NHS patients, and think that ministers ought to do more to ensure hospitals get adequate numbers of staff. Labour’s shadow health secretary said that we are turning away trained doctors who want to come and work in the UK while the NHS has a workforce crisis with 100,000 posts unfilled. Vacancy rates for nurses and doctors are rising every year. Health trust bosses raised concerns over the visa scheme recently when it emerged that 100 Indian doctors had been denied visas to work in the UK. See also the previous article.
Another forced marriage attempt
31 May 2018
Last week a Birmingham mother was jailed for forcing her daughter to marry a relative almost twice her age. This week a Leeds couple were found guilty of luring their 19-year-old daughter to Bangladesh in 2016, in an attempt to force her to marry her first cousin and have a baby with him. She was rescued after she texted her location to her boyfriend, who then told West Yorkshire Police.
Small talk saves lives
31 May 2018
The path to suicide is usually gradual, progressing from suicidal thoughts to planning, then attempting, suicide, and finally death. Mark Harris of the Samaritans recently commented on ways of talking and listening that can help others in crisis. He said that making small talk with a stranger might save their life. Walking up to someone who seems distant or distressed and asking ‘Are you OK?’ or ‘Do you fancy a coffee?’ might be enough to break the chain of suicidal thinking and move them to seek help. He said people should not worry about saying the wrong thing. Often, someone in crisis is looking for an intervention and saying something, however small or seemingly silly, is better than walking on by. ‘By asking questions you are eliciting a response from someone, and you are at once engaging with them.’ In 2016, there were 4,941 suicide deaths in England and Wales - but a much larger number consider taking their own lives. See
Abortion in UK and Ireland
31 May 2018
The Taoiseach’s comments in February when the 8th amendment referendum announcement was made were that abortions should be ‘safe, legal and rare’. In the United Kingdom abortion is not rare. The abortion law currently being proposed by Ireland's government goes even further than the already very permissive UK law. The British law allows one in every five pregnancies to end in abortion each year. An article written by the Iona Institute sets out exactly how what is on offer in Ireland is more permissive than the British law. To read the article click the ‘More’ button. The most recent statistics on abortions carried out in England and Wales are for 2016; when there were 190,406 carried out for residents and 4,810 for non-residents.