Good news in China
Christian Aid Mission has many Bible schools in China offering one- and two-year programmes, with training primarily focused on evangelism and the cost of discipleship. Seven days a week, faculty led morning prayers at 5 a.m. and evening prayers at 9p.m. Every Saturday, students divide into groups to evangelise their community. Due to the school’s excellent standing, home churches often invite students and faculty to preach and lead worship. They travel in pairs on bicycles to over forty house churches in the school’s vicinity. Over 120 students graduate from this Bible school each year. Students become teachers at the school, return to serve in their home churches, or plant new churches in various regions throughout China.
A phony Christian, now glorifying God in song
Zabbai, son of a Jamaican pastor, used the name of God for his personal benefit. ‘I was a phony Christian, living in sin, knowing I could ask forgiveness.’ At seventeen he came to terms with the Jesus he avoided while he was smoking marijuana and chasing girls. ‘I realised that truth is not a thing but a person.’ He struggled with fitting in with his peers instead of standing out as a church goody-goody. ‘I found my identity within a love for playing the saxophone.’ One day while alone he closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, everyone was frozen. He felt a warmth from God, who said, ‘This is what my love feels like.’ ‘And with the snap of a finger, time began again. I had just encountered the Lord, and it scared me. With reckless abandon, I began pursuing the Lord.’
Coronavirus: church, doctors and police warnings
The Archdeacon of London has published guidance to priests about taking precautions in the light of the spread of coronavirus, principally in terms of the risks of infection arising from administering Holy Communion. Pray for God to give wisdom to churches until the infection risk is over. After a coronavirus case emerged in London, doctors there warned that the London Underground could be a hotbed for spreading the disease across the city’s extensive transport links. After a patient in isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital tried to leave, police have now been given the power to seize people in danger of spreading coronavirus and force them into isolation in handcuffs. The World Health Organisation said that the measurement of the coronavirus outbreak could be ‘the tip of the iceberg', as thousands of cases might be undetected.
Sajid Javid’s resignation overshadows cabinet reshuffle
Sajid Javid has shocked Westminster by quitting as chancellor of the exchequer in the middle of Boris Johnson's cabinet reshuffle. He rejected the prime minister's order to fire his entire team of aides, saying no self-respecting minister could accept such a condition. He has been replaced as chancellor by chief secretary to the treasury Rishi Sunak - who just seven months ago was a junior housing minister. Mr Javid’s resignation follows rumours of tensions between him and the prime minister's senior adviser Dominic Cummings. He said his advisers had worked ‘incredibly hard’, and he could not agree to them being replaced. ‘I felt I was left with no option but to resign’, he said, adding that Mr Sunak and the rest of the government retained his ‘full support’. Downing Street said there would now be a joint team of economic advisers for both the chancellor and prime minister. For full details of Mr Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle, see
