Valverde Vega Sarchí is filled with sadness after suffering a 7.9 earthquake in September, but even amidst the sadness are a few smiles.

Through the OM Costa Rica team and volunteers, God provides water to an indigenous community in Talamanca.

OM teams in Costa Rica and El Salvador take Christmas to approximately 2,000 children during the run up to Christmas.

Costa Rica's indigenous people, hidden to the world, have found a new window of hope.

OM Costa Rica team members and volunteers share in the joy of giving more than 1,000 indigenous children a dream Christmas.

Widowed, with two sons in wheelchairs, Doña Angela struggled to care for her 10 children, until the Lord brought OM Costa Rica into her life.

One couple takes a step of obedience to get married, after living together for 15 years.

During an outreach in the indigenous region of Costa Rica, a participant blesses a local believer by washing his feet and praying for his family.

Meet Linda Villanueva, the first missionary sent out from the rural area of Talamanca, Costa Rica.

An OM Arts student shares how picking up trash led to sharing the gospel in Israel.

Puntarenas, Costa Rica :: A group of indigenous people from the Talamanca region have a horizon-expanding visit to Logos Hope.

Whenever I tell people that I’m involved in beauty pageants, they immediately think of the stereotypical beauty pageant contestants on TV show Toddlers and Tiaras. They imagine everyone involved has false teeth, artificial hair and fake tan which is far from true. The ethos at Miss Scotland is always to be yourself.

To try and make life a little easier for you when trying to navigate the minefield of skincare, we’ve compiled a list of some of the companies out there making an effort to have cruelty-free products.

Choose a fragrant gift for your gardening mum, whether it's plants, flowers or botanicals. Hannah Stephenson sniffs out 10 ideas.

WHEN we eventually emerge from lockdown the first thing most people will want to do is hug their nearest and dearest, but for some they will be running to their hair stylist to sort out the unruly mass of top of their head.

Prudence Wade chats to self-confessed 'skincare junkie' Dominic Skinner, one of MAC's top make-up artists.

Give your skin a tasty treat and cook up your own beauty recipes, says Sandra Dick

RESEARCHERS have called for a two-track approach to easing lockdown which would strengthen protection for the most vulnerable but relax restrictions for the majority of the population.

NICOLA Sturgeon hopes to reopen IVF clinics “as quickly as possible” to stop the closure having a “devastating” impact on families’ lives during the pandemic.

THE people of Scotland have been offered a “light at the end of the tunnel” in the form of various potential relaxations to lockdown - but warned they will only get there if they double down on their compliance.

A PUBLIC health professor has warned that the Scottish Government’s strategy to escape the lockdown will encounter “a big problem” unless test results can be provided quicker.

AROUND five people a day are being seen at Covid hubs across Scotland as demand for the service declines.

The nutritional and immunologic properties of human milk, along with clear evidence of dose-dependent optimal health outcomes for both mothers and infants, provide a compelling rationale to support exclusive breastfeeding. US women increasingly intend to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. Because establishing lactation can be challenging, exclusivity is often compromised in hopes of preventing feeding-related neonatal complications, potentially affecting the continuation and duration of breastfeeding. Risk factors for impaired lactogenesis are identifiable and common. Clinicians must be able to recognize normative patterns of exclusive breastfeeding in the first week while proactively identifying potential challenges. In this review, we provide new evidence from the past 10 years on the following topics relevant to exclusive breastfeeding: milk production and transfer, neonatal weight and output assessment, management of glucose and bilirubin, immune development and the microbiome, supplementation, and health system factors. We focus on the early days of exclusive breastfeeding in healthy newborns ≥35 weeks’ gestation managed in the routine postpartum unit. With this evidence-based clinical review, we provide detailed guidance in identifying medical indications for early supplementation and can inform best practices for both birthing facilities and providers.

SCOTLAND is struggling to meet its targets for new affordable homes despite government funding.

The flow of homes coming on to the UK market is at its weakest level in three years as "endless wrangling about Brexit" continues, according to surveyors.

Farmfoods, a Scottish family business, has served the nation for over 60 years - and has never faltered in selling the finest farm  produce the country has to offer.

SCOTLAND'S capital is coming to terms with the "heart-breaking" news that its summer festivals will not go ahead this year - costing the city hundreds of millions of pounds.

HOUSING bosses in Scotland’s capital have finally moved all homeless families with children out of unsuitable B&Bs after Airbnb properties and hotel rooms were left empty by the coronavirus lockdown.

NICOLA Sturgeon said she does not expect police to be “routinely patrolling office blocks” as sweeping new enforcement powers come into force to include workplaces flouting social distancing rules.

SCOTS have been urged to give up smoking and cut down their alcohol consumption in a bid to reduce “complications linked to conroavirus”.

I’ve been longing to eat Korean food ever since seeing Bong Joon-Ho’s phenomenal Oscar-winning film, Parasite, his interrogation of class and wealth on the plate. The wealthy mother tells her housekeeper to prepare jjapaguri, essentially an everyday dish, commonly made with two sorts of instant noodles. What makes this one exclusive and upper class is its topping of steak, from indigenous, highly prized Hanwoo cattle, which is way more expensive than Waygu beef would be here. Only the Korean

Dandelion Cafe

Baker’s Delight

The ingenuity of Scotland’s independent food sector, and its determination to keep feeding us in these testing circumstances, is remarkable. Restaurants and cafés have gone down the takeaway route, small artisan suppliers who lost overnight all their catering customers have rapidly reconfigured their business around home delivery. Farmers who previously struggled to attract supermarket shoppers have never been so busy. Farmer’s markets have adapted to sell delivered or collected vegetable b

MY mother was known for her pizza but they were never round, not when we were growing up anyway. She would pull them from the ancient coal-fired cast iron range in the living room on long blackened oblong trays, the dough she had spent the day making puffed and undulating but always thin and super chewy.

Calabash African Restaurant

LEARNING from the hands of her grandmother in Italy, it was perhaps always going to be Giovanna Eusebi's destiny that she would go on to create culinary masterpieces of her own one day.

During lockdown I’m less busy than normal so I have started making marmalade. It’s a lot of fun. Choose small oranges, lemons, grapefruit, limes…whatever you find. The rule of thumb is to use the same quantity of fruit to granulated sugar.

Big Zuu is headed back out on tour - but not as we know it.

Soda bread is a quick and simple treat to make. I think most of you will have all of these ingredients in your cupboards right now. Soda bread is traditionally made with bicarbonate soda instead of yeast. Here I have added honey and oats for a slight flavour difference.

At the heart of missions lies a passion for justice. In every community in which OM is involved, working for justice for the oppressed and vulnerable is part of ministry.

"In order to fulfil our mandate, there are several needs we must invest in," says Stephan Bauer.

Pamir Productions, formed in 1991, passionately uses all forms of media to spread the gospel to Afghans worldwide.

As a young organisation, OM challenged the status quo of world missions and has since evolved into a global movement seeking to share the gospel with the least reached.

OM is known for action, not reflection; for pioneering, not reminiscing. Still, we are wise to celebrate milestones and learn from our past, whatever will serve us well for today and tomorrow.

OM Director's Update from Lawrence Tong, International Director

In a village in Serbia, OM workers see Roma believers reaching Roma, encouraging them to let God put a new song in their mouths.

"How can we honour these 'mothers and fathers' [of OM]," asks David Greenlee. "Inclusion is one way, encouraging their ongoing participation, not forgetting them in our concern."

"Everyone in the kingdom of God is essential to the mission that He has called us to," I'Ching says. "Unfortunately, while we may profess this, often we don’t practise it."

"Do we sometimes feel uneasy that our business-as-mission and vocation models are so dependent on the very people that we are trying to reach? Does this make us feel powerless and needy?" asks Seang Pin.