Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Rosario, Argentina :: Crewmembers with experience working with least-reached people share a message of unity between churches.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

French pastor believes that today a new generation in France is rising up with passion to serve God.

God works in the hearts of those who attend an event at a local church in northeast France.

Participants experience a special outreach, Retro-Extreme, in France where they rely on God alone for daily food, housing and ministry opportunities.

Two guys with the Transit Challenge team step out in faith to share the gospel in an unfamiliar city.

David’s role on the Riverboat is to act as a homeless man. In reality, he is acting out a familiar life he used to lead.

"At the end of the class, over tea and mini-cakes, we take time to get to know them, to help them with administrative tasks or to discuss Bible stories," shares Louise.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Rosario, Argentina :: Crewmembers with experience working with least-reached people share a message of unity between churches.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

By Bishop Arthur Serratelli

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher who lived four centuries before Christ, proposed the scientific theory of horror vacui. Based on his observations, he concluded that nature fills every empty space with something, even if it is only air. In his works Gargantua and Pantagruel, the Renaissance priest, doctor and scientist Rabelais popularized this idea with the phrase Natura abhorret vacuum (“nature abhors a vacuum”). Where there is a void, either mass or energy rushes in to occupy the empty space. In truth, this theory applies not merely to physics, but to life.

For the last thirty years, the secularization of culture and the banishing of God from the public forum have created a great religious void. More and more Americans have been abandoning the practice of religion. Since 1990, the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has tripled from eight percent to twenty-two percent. 

Today there are about five million fewer mainline Protestants and three million fewer Catholics than there were ten years ago. For every new convert to Catholicism, six others leave the Church. Young people between the ages of 18 and 30 are much less interested in religion than their parents. As Alan Cooperman, the director of religion research for the Pew Research Center, has observed, “the country is becoming less religious as a whole, and it’s happening across the board.”

Nonetheless, the human person is innately religious. More than just being a material creature on the same level as irrational animals, the human person has reason and is always in search of meaning. “Nature abhors a vacuum.” And, so into the void created by abandoning religion as a source of meaning, other forms of discovering meaning have rushed in. 

In an attempt to respond to the spiritual dimension of human life, some people are turning to New Age beliefs. New Age adherents, now nearly one-fourth of the population, have replaced the personal God of revelation with a spiritual energy that animates the cosmos. They are making use of crystals, tarot cards, astrology, psychics, and even yoga as a spiritual exercise to tap into this impersonal energy in order to manage their lives and find self-fulfillment. 

For New Age adherents, there is no absolute truth. All beliefs are of equal value. And, since they deny the existence of sin, they do not accept the need for a Redeemer. At best, New Age adherents trade the transcendental for the immanent, the spiritual for the physical. At worse, they reject God and unwittingly fall into the hands of the Adversary. 

And, then there are others who reject God and consciously choose to turn to one form or another of the occult. It is astounding to realize that there are almost 1.5 million people who are involved in Wicca, a pagan form of witchcraft. Ever since the Garden of Eden and our first parents’ sin of attempting to be like God, people have been looking for ways to have the same knowledge and power as God himself. Today there are more witches than Presbyterians, more people involved in the occult than there are Muslims in the United States. 

The more individuals extol themselves as self-sufficient and exalt reason over faith, they turn from God and enthrone Satan. Attempting to control their lives through the use of the occult, they hand themselves over to Satan who uses them to destroy the peace and harmony God plans for us. Satan is the great deceiver. He makes people believe that they have absolute control of their lives. As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “[Satan’s] logic is simple: if there is no heaven there is no hell; if there is no hell, then there is no sin; if there is no sin, then there is no judge, and if there is no judgment, then evil is good and good is evil.”

It would be foolish to close our eyes to the unmistakable increase of the devil’s activity in our society. Lack of civility. Hate speech. The tearing down of people’s good name. The blood shed on our streets. The breakdown of family life. The widespread extolling of vices contrary to the gospel. The delight in exposing the sins of others. Abuse in all its forms. Abortion. The persecution of the Church. All these are born of anger, hatred, envy, pride, greed and lust. They cause division and are the fingerprints of the Evil One.

On the day after his election to the papacy, Pope Francis shocked the cardinals who had placed him on the Chair of Peter. He said, “Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil. When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil.” The Pope courageously acknowledged the reality of Satan that day and many other times thereafter. And the Pope provided the only way to banish the devil from our midst: professing faith in Jesus. Professing our faith means quite simply staying close to Jesus within the Church, attending Mass at least each Sunday and Holy Day, receiving the sacraments and practicing charity. In other words, the only permanent antidote to evil in the world is the presence of God who leaves in us no room for evil.

The team in Bangladesh comprises mainly national believers in Jesus, one of whom brings vocational training and God’s light into a refugee camp.

A young Bangladeshi man combines his faith and passion for football after experiencing God’s transforming power in his and his family’s lives.

A team leader in Bangladesh has experienced God’s love and plan for salvation, changing him and enriching his marriage and ministry.

Jose, an Argentinian worker serving in Southeast Asia, tells of how he entered overseas service and what he has seen God do through his not-so-typical ministry.

Rosario, Argentina :: Crewmembers with experience working with least-reached people share a message of unity between churches.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

OMNIvision works behind the scenes at TeenStreet, OM’s international youth congress, providing top quality video for thousands of teens.

TeenStreet 2015 encouraged thousands of participants from around the world to be HOME with God, experiencing His presence in their daily lives.

In its’ fourth year at TeenStreet, Global Village is an innovative and interactive project that allows teenagers and adults to have a living missions experience.

Christa planned to travel around Europe for fun, but OM mobilised her to instead share Jesus with people in Europe, Turkey and India.

At this years TeenStreet Europe 1,800 teenagers experienced a week that brought them closer to God and mobilised them to be lights in their communities.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

Several Brazilians are now interested in serving full time with OM after attending a missions conference hosted by OM in Rio de Janeiro.

An OMer in Kazakhstan tells of a Kazakh friend and believer who, finding herself pregnant again before she is ready, wrestles with cultural norms.

Running a business in Central Asia with godly principles isn't easy, but God brings one couple faithfully through what could have become a critical situation.

An electricity cut offers an opportunity for a Central Asian believer to share stories from the Bible with her family, who normally wouldn’t listen.

A girl from Central Asia shares her testimony about how she became a believer after seven years of hearing about Jesus.

An OMer shares with a local Muslim man through the concept of earning merit with God.

Jennifer Lam from Hong Kong experiences the love of God transforming the lives of children during OM Chile's Intensive Mission Training.

Worker Mirjam Hoolsema, from the Netherlands, talks about her experience with a woman she saw every day during her daily devotion.

A volunteer from OM Chile expresses deep joy after being used by God during a recent outreach.

A volunteer from Switzerland serving with OM Chile shares about a special experience she had when doing ministry in the streets of Santiago, Chile.

When asked to share his testimony, a participant of OM Chile's Adventure Team realises just how much God has worked in his life.

A participant of OM Chile's Adventure Team shares about a man who was deeply affected while they visited the homeless in the streets of Santiago.

Madhav Godbole's statement has caused a political stir. He said, "Rajiv Gandhi went to the extent of opening locks of Babri Masjid." This statement is in his book which has talked about Ram Mandir and Babri Masjid dispute in a detailed manner.

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