Although a flash flood inundated most of Metro Manila, Central and North Luzon in the Philippines, recent earthquakes have shaken up the nation even more.

OM Philippines will host three training sessions this month in an effort to see sustainable, transformational and developmental ministries grow in Cebu City.

Home to many mountain tribal people, most of whom practice animism, Banaue will host this year’s Go Extra Mile outreach from 9-24 April.

The OM Philippines-Cebu team, in partnership with the local church, touches the lives of young and old through a five-day Bible class.

Marie Reyes from Australia led the Out of the Comfort Zone Cebu team, and shares lessons she learnt during the two-week outreach.

OM SportsLink hosts a local R4TW race to engage those involved with OM Philippines-Cebu Ministries and encourage people to pray for the nations.

One of the strongest typhoons ever to hit land slammed the Philippines on Friday, 15 November, forcing millions to take shelter. OM Philippines responds.

On 24 December, OM Philippines-Cebu witnessed the overflowing joy of about 135 families during Christmas parties they hosted in two typhoon-affected areas.

Seven thousand were reported homeless after fire destroyed homes in Lorega cemetery, Cebu City, on 18 March. OM helps provide basic relief.

Over 50 pastors and family members from Tacloban enjoy a weekend getaway organised by OM Philippines from 7-9 March.

OM Philippines hosts micro-business workshops that offer a future with hope.

OM Philippines’ relief operations reach a significant milestone with the completion and handover of its first housing project in Northern Cebu.

20 A-frame houses and a Sunday School building destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan have been built by OM Philippines these past three months.

Cebu, Philippines :: Pastors and their wives who serve in the region affected by Typhoon Haiyan are invited on board for a time of rest and refreshment.

OM Philippines celebrates 25 years of transforming lives and communities.

OM Philippines helps train and provide school drop-outs with the opportunity to earn their elementary or high school diploma.

One hundred Filipino teens, aged 12-18 are expected to come to the five-day event of fun, learning and life-changing encounters in Cebu.

After over 10 years of praying, the Philippines had its first-ever TeenStreet!

Many Albanian couples are in crisis in their marriages and life situations in Greece. Prayer is really appreciated for these couples as well as for the people who try to help these couples in their struggles!

Testimony of a Greek woman.

A story about a day in a refugee center in Athens.

OM in Greece with other organizations and locals are trying to do something to help the gypsies.

In 2008, the Greek Evangelical Church in Athens opened a community centre, in a suburb where many Albanians live. OM worker Martha describes how she and other staff are reaching out with God's love to local young people.

Instead of the two families they had hoped for, seven families from Katerini attend the Christian camp for Albanians in Greece.

After working with the needy on a Transform 2012 outreach to Greece, Anthony (UK) returned to Athens to continue in that ministry.

Believers from different nations and denominations gathered to worship God together in Athens, promoting unity amongst the city’s believers.

As Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees pour onto the beaches of Lesbos, OM Greece and partner organisations offer water, essential items and, more importantly, hope.

OM partners with a Greek aid organisation to run the only Christian camp on Lesbos, offering help in Jesus' name.

A long-term worker overseeing refugee relief work on Lesbos describes the people he’s met on the island, the chances he’s had to share his faith and how God has shown up during the crisis.

OM worker witnesses a new openness towards God and the Gospel amongst the thousands of refugees on their way to Europe.

Day after day, OM volunteers staffed transit camps meeting and loving refugees on Lesvos. After roughly nine months, the ministry is closing down.

Relationships form and opportunities to share Christ follow as OM workers minister to those seeking refuge in Athens and beyond.

Lila from Argentina wanted to go on a mission trip, but always had a reason not to. Then she found the opportunity to serve refugees.

A group who started a funeral cooperative but registered it as a church learns what it means to be a real church.

God is working to transform lives in Mozambique through the efforts of the local OM team.

Antonio Nipueda (Mozambique) recollects his journey to ministry with OM in Mozambique and the ways their prayers have impacted one village there.

Lima, Peru, May 9, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Peruvian congresswoman Luz Milagros Cayguaray Gambini has demanded the country’s health minister provide the legal and scientific basis for a directive that would allow abortion when a pregnant woman is infected with the novel coronavirus.

Abortion is illegal in Peru except when pregnancy would cause death or permanent harm to a pregnant woman.

On April 22, Peru’s Minister of Health Victor Zamora issued a directive calling for provision of emergency contraception in the country, and allowing abortion for pregnant women who test positive for the coronavirus.

In a May 5 letter, Cayguaray demanded Zamora to “Indicate what the legal basis” is for the directive that allows doctors to “end the pregnancy,” if the mother has contracted COVID-19.

The legislator also challenged Zamora to indicate “the scientific and medical basis the norm is based upon.”

At issue is whether a positive test for coronavirus is sufficient to establish that a pregnancy threatens the life of a woman. Gambini says that assertion is unproven and unfounded.

Cayguaray has also written to Dr. Enrique Guevara Ríos, director of the country’s Perinatal Maternal Institute, asking him to report how many pregnant women with COVID-19 have been treated to date, “how many have had their pregnancies terminated,” “on what grounds,” and “what current regulation has been applied to carry out the interruption of those pregnancies.”

The Arequipa Doctors for Life Association has criticized the health directive in a statement.

"At this time in which all our efforts as a nation should be aimed at improving our precarious health system to mitigate the serious impact of the pandemic, the circumstances are being used to dictate measures that threaten the lives of Peruvians in their most vulnerable stage, life in the womb,” the group said.

Regarding the “morning after pill,” the group expressed surprise and concern “that the Ministry of Health promotes the irresponsible and reckless use of this drug in the general population and particularly for minors, and even worse, dispenses with obtaining the person’s medical history, which is an essential tool for the responsible practice of medicine, thus seriously exposing the users to danger."

Aborting a child because the mother has COVID-19, the doctors said “is contrary to the principles that govern medical practice, which must always be based on the application of therapies that are based on rigorous scientific studies and with respect to elementary ethical principles” which guide medical science in providing the best strategies to protect patients.

When a woman is pregnant “we have two patients to take care of, the mother and the unborn child," the doctors association stressed.

Concerning the babies themselves, five newborns whose mothers have COVID-19 were recently discharged from a government hospital in Peru. A sixth, also born of a coronavirus patient who is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, was born prematurely and remains hospitalized. None of the babies have tested positive for COVID-19.

In a May 5 interview with the El Comercio daily, Dr. César García Aste, who heads the hospital’s neonatology department, explained that there are strict protocols as to how the baby is to be fed in order to avoid infecting it.

A doctor from the hospital is assigned to follow up daily by phone on the baby’s condition for an average of 14 days, and “so far we haven’t had a problem with any of the five babies,” Garcia said.

 

A version of this story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

 

Slobodan never thought he could be free, but Jesus gave him a new start. Now Slobodan urges Roma in Croatia and Serbia that there is a better way.

In January 2013, OM Norway and Norwegian Naval Training Agency agreed on internship programme for deckhands and motormen on board MV Logos Hope.

As Rafael, the leader of OM Romania, lies awake in the middle of the night, he shares about the OM outreach to the Roma people he and his family are taking part in. They’ve set up a mobile clinic in Padureni, and through games, sports and Bible stories, the community is learning about God’s love.

Since 2007, the Bus4Life has visited 150 locations, welcomed 10,000 visitors and touched many lives, including one Romanian teen who comes back to God.

Rafael Nastase is the field leader of OM Romania. He tells his story and describes the current work of OM Romania.

OM uses an educational programme called KidsGames to share Bible stories in a public school.

OM Spain's traveling team is back at base after nearly two months on the road visiting and serving in various churches.

In the 1960s, when OM accepted untrained people for short-term campaigns, it was unheard of. Today, it has become a gateway into missions.

Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain :: Speakers talk about the destructive power of negative words at a ladies' conference on board Logos Hope.

A group from the Sharing Lives Course visits a mosque in Lausanne, Switzerland, and learns that greater awareness can lead to greater sensitivity.

As workers wonder how to reach people with the good news, they find God has already prepared the way.

OM Hope for Zurich’s kids’ club brings together immigrant children from a local neighbourhood in hopes of sharing God’s love with them and their families.

some testimonies from Aussies who attended the 2010 OCZ and outreaches