Christmas in Japan: fried chicken and Jesus
Posted on: 7th December 2021
CMS missionaries Adam and Helane Ramsay work in church ministry in the Japanese city of Chiba. Helane shares what Christmas is like for their family in a nation with little exposure to the message of Jesus but lots of fried chicken. Christmas in Japan A boy and a girl stroll through the city hand in hand on a chilly night, looking at the Christmas […]
Grace, the undeserved reward
Posted on: 6th December 2021
CMS missionaries Sam and Shan-Shan Chrisp serve in Taiwan. They share their surprise at the practice of rewarding good behaviour in many areas of Taiwanese culture. One thing we’re learning about in Taiwan is what we call the ‘reward’ culture. Elijah often comes home from preschool with new small toys or food snacks. When we ask him […]
Equipping leaders to serve the nations
Posted on: 3rd December 2021
CMS missionaries John and Deb serve at a large international church. Deb shares how training and equipping men and women for gospel ministry is an essential part of their church’s work. Despite international delays and restrictions due to COVID-19, our church now has apprentices for the 2021/22 ministry year. Two women and five men from […]
Understanding honour and shame through Coronavirus
Posted on: 1st December 2021
CMS missionaries Dave and Leoni Painter teach at Phnom Penh Bible College in Cambodia. Here they explain how COVID works in a culture of honour and shame. Different responses to COVID Like most places in the world, mask wearing in Phnom Penh is now ubiquitous, well almost. In early March, masks became compulsory along with a heavy […]
Checkpoint Summer 2021: Communicating grace
Posted on: 15th November 2021
CMS worker B serves in the Middle East, teaching English and learning about her adopted culture. Here she speaks of the challenges in communicating grace to Muslims. My lecturer drew her chair closer to mine. It was the last class for my course in formal Arabic at university, and she was conducting a conversational review […]
Checkpoint Summer 2021: Grace that frees
Posted on: 13th November 2021
CMS missionaries Chris and Karen Webb serve at Broome Peoples Church in the Anglican Diocese of North West Australia. In this article Chris shares how grace lifts the burden of self-condemnation. Over a cuppa, Jenny*, an Aboriginal woman from the East Kimberley, tells us that one of her nieces is now a Christian. “How long […]
Checkpoint Summer 2021: Knowing God
Posted on: 9th November 2021
CMS missionaries Dave and Leoni Painter serve in Cambodia, where the dominant Buddhist religion values ‘acquiring knowledge’ as a good work. How to help students of the gospel understand grace? The lesson was proceeding well. I followed the Khmer language textbook on this subject that I had been developing over the last few years. The […]
Challenging tradition with hope
Posted on: 26th October 2021
CMS missionaries Chris and Grace Adams serve in the predominantly Catholic nation of Timor-Leste. They share how the Catholic celebration of All Souls’ Day (2 November) has been integrated with local traditional practices into the annual observance of Loron Matebian (Spirits of the Dead Day) and the challenge this poses for Timorese Christians. The joy of faith We recently celebrated the commitment of 19 young Christians who publicly […]
Grace against the grain
Posted on: 9th October 2021
CMS workers Jon and Deborah have served in theological education and training in South East Asia for more than a decade. In this article Jon shares the challenge of teaching grace in a culture that values ‘works’. I teach in a rural Bible College in South East Asia, and every year I meet new students who have been brought up with a ‘works theology,’ that emphasises being good and doing […]
Living out the gift of grace
Posted on: 7th October 2021
CMS missionary Kellie Nicholas has served in Japan for 13 years. In this article she explains how difficult it can be to comprehend the concept of grace in a culture of reciprocity. The exchanging of gifts is very important in Japanese culture, and for relationships to be maintained, it must be continuous and reciprocal. (1) Gifts are given in order to carry out giri (2), and the […]
