UK missionaries kidnapped in Nigeria
20 Oct 2017
On 13 October four Britons were snatched by gunmen in Nigeria’s southern Delta state. The region holds most of the country’s crude oil and is Nigeria’s economic mainstay. Kidnapping for ransom is common in parts of Nigeria, and several foreigners have been taken in the past few years. The abductors have not yet made contact. Those kidnapped are reported to be former GP David Donovan and his wife Shirley who run New Foundations, with their two sons. They have run Bible classes, a boat clinic and health care centre there for fourteen years. Four suspects have been arrested, and a joint task force will attempt to rescue the family . Travellers to Nigeria are currently warned to avoid going to areas of Delta state. See:
Children in care
20 Oct 2017
Ninety children a day are taken into care in England and Wales, and currently there are 72,670 children in care - up 3% from 2016. Social workers are ‘firefighting’ the most serious cases late into the night. Professor Ray Jones, working in social services improvement, says that staff fear that children slip through the net as they try to keep up with rising pressures. Local government associations say children's services will face a £2bn a year funding gap by 2020. Social workers are spending a lot of time, late at night and during weekends, preparing for court proceedings. They are closing down work where children are unhappy and distressed because they have to concentrate on those in immediate danger. This causes considerable stress over concerns that they may be missing something.
Child trafficking victims vanishing from care
20 Oct 2017
Scores of Vietnamese children rescued from traffickers and placed in council care have gone missing, and are feared to have fallen back into the hands of slave masters. Figures suggest that gangs are re-trafficking victims, and local authorities are failing in their duty to safeguard children. Over 150 Vietnamese children have disappeared from care since 2015, but the true figure is likely to be higher; almost ninety others went missing temporarily. Most go missing within two days of entering care. At least 21 have vanished this summer, including 12 from Rochdale, a council whose child protection record is already under intense scrutiny. Children of other nationalities have suffered a similar plight, with growing concern about the number of missing Albanian children. Baroness Butler-Sloss described the figures as ‘very disturbing’, and said she believed there were far more at risk.
Christian counsellors oppose gender therapy
20 Oct 2017
The Association of Christian Counsellors has spoken out against using conversion therapy to try to change a person's gender identity. The association has joined other professional bodies in saying this method of encouraging someone to identify as a different gender (male, female, non-binary or gender-fluid) is not supported by any evidence; whether in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity, it is unethical and potentially harmful. Studies into the use of conversion therapy should be kept under regular review, and healthcare professionals and psychological therapists must be aware of ‘ethical issues relating to conversion therapy’. They added, ‘This position is not intended to deny, discourage or exclude those with uncertain feelings around sexuality or gender identity from seeking qualified and appropriate help.’ See also Europe article ‘Gender: times are changing’.
Student loans and debt
20 Oct 2017
Former education secretary Nicky Morgan will lead an inquiry into the rising costs of the student loans system in England and its possible replacement by a graduate tax. The investigation is needed because of the steeply rising levels of debt carried by graduates after leaving university. It will run alongside similar hearings on personal finance by the House of Lords economic affairs committee. A recent report from the Gambling Commission found that some students have £10,000 gambling debts. A 24-year-old who got into gambling at university said, ‘It went from spending a few days after coming home from lectures and going onto my laptop to suddenly saying no to going out with friends, maybe saying no to going to uni. I think you can be very vulnerable. I'd never budgeted before, and money was a whole new concept to me.’ See also:
Austria: election result
20 Oct 2017
The commanding victory of populist parties in the national election will reverberate beyond Austria. Sebastian Kurz, when foreign minister, closed routes through the Balkans for immigrants, and his party spearheaded laws banning full-face Muslim veils in public spaces. His political rise follows the far right gaining influence in Germany last month. Nationalist and anti-immigrant forces across the EU are feeling emboldened by the vote, which could bring the Islamophobic Freedom Party to power in a coalition government in Vienna. The People's Party want to fine migrants who refuse to attend integration and language classes, but the Freedom Party calls for dropping such classes completely. It has also pledged to deny migrants access to welfare payments altogether. If the two parties became coalition partners, Austrian politics would take a seismic shift to the right.
Gender: times are changing in Europe
20 Oct 2017
Children are dealing with questions like ‘You look like a boy or girl, but do you feel you really are a boy or girl? You can choose who or what you want to be’. On trains in the Netherlands the announcer no longer says ‘ladies and gentlemen’, but ‘travellers’. Many churches avoid the gender-neutrality topic, hoping they will not have to deal with it; in other churches the ‘law of relativism’ has entered and everything is possible. Christians believe that God created man and woman, and marriage is for a man and woman. We are living in a broken world, but when the brokenness becomes the normal standard, we should be awake as a Church and stand up and fight. There is more going on than we can see with our natural eyes and our pastoral hearts.
Albania: prayer needs
20 Oct 2017
In this Islamic country, only 0.4% of Albanians are evangelical Christians; 14.3% live below the poverty line, and there are over 8,000 refugees. We can praise God for the relatively good sense of unity and peace among people of different religious faiths, and the Church continues to grow. Many claim that concentrated intercession is responsible for Albania’s openness to ministry. May a prayer movement be raised up within the country, to pray for all the region. Pray that unsaved members of Christians’ families will come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. There are three complete translations of the Bible in Albanian: one literal, one paraphrased, and one Catholic. Pray for widespread use of the Scriptures.