OM Australia announces a new training base in Sydney from 2010, where participants will experience a balance of theory and hands-on ministry.

Mosaic church in Sydney, Australia began on Easter 2007 and has been growing ever since.

Christian families in Australia have been hosting Koreans learning English in preparation to join OM. The impact has led to 'missions fever'!

A team from South Korea, Ireland, Australia, UK, Switzerland, USA and the Netherlands is participating in a Love Australia outreach in Adelaide – often referred to as the City of Churches! The outreach focuses on evangelism and mission, with Jan Den Ouden (Netherlands) involved in training and preparation along with OM Australia.

The Korean Oceania Team has started an English school for migrants in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Six Korean team members attend the classes with the aim of building relationships and inviting participants to a Café outreach which runs each Thursday evening.

A presentation team will spend the next six weeks touring the East coast of Austrlia to present the ship ministry in churches, Bible collages and High Schools.

Seventy one countries participated in the Commonwealth Games which were held in Melbourne, Australia March 15 – 26. As thousands of athletes and thousands more supporters arrived in Australia for the games, OM Australia welcomed a team who wanted to take advantage of the event to tell many of the love of Jesus.

Children in seven different suburbs of Sydney, Australia took part in a KidsGames event. The youngsters competed in a range of sports and also learnt about Jesus. At one site, 35 children took part in the games and workers had many opportunities to share the Gospel. One worker wrote, “For me, the highlight of the week was when a girl in my small group responded after I told them that God loves them. ‘No one has ever told me that God loves me,’ she said.”

For the closing ceremony around 200 children from across the city came together along with their parents and leaders. The children marched behind banners they had made during the week and took part in the sports finals. Some groups presented drama, dances and songs that they had prepared and the Gospel message was presented clearly. Pray for the follow up of these children and their parents.

Source: OM worker, Australia

The first-ever Europe Presentation Team begins a six-week tour of Australia, this week. The team will promote OM's ministry throughout Europe - presenting the needs and exciting opportunities of the continent and challenging Australians to get involved. Anton (RU) from OM Russia, Adinda (NL) from OM LUKE and Kukka-Maaria (FIN) from OM Kosovo arrive in Melbourne today (18 April). Please pray for a quick recovery from jet-lag and for the OM Australia team as it makes final preparations for the meetings. Pray that God will use this trip to raise up many Australian workers for the ministry in Europe.

Source: OM Europe communications

The Arab World Presentation Team is spending four weeks in Australia presenting the challenge of praying, sending, and going to the Arab World. 'My perspective has totally changed towards Arabs through your presentation', said a YWAM staff member in Canberra.

Two Arabic churches in Sydney showed great interest in sending out people to the area where many had originally come from. Please pray for the people who are now thinking about being involved after seeing the presentation. Pray for the seeds that have been sown to bear lasting fruit.

In Adelaide the team will take 17 meetings in nine days followed by a week of 13 meetings in Melbourne.

Source: Martin Bateman

MILLIONS TOOK TO THE STREETS to declare their faith on May 30th - the International March for Jesus. Some 2,000 communities in 130 nations participated in this annual event. Richard Beaumont writes from Canberra:

Twenty thousand joined a prayer pilgrimage to Canberra, some travelling up to three-and-a-half kilometres to join fellow believers marching into the city. Assembling in three different locations, they converged at Parliament House and walked around it, prayed for the government, for aboriginal reconciliation, and recognising in a fresh way that we are all part of God's family.

Throughout the night four different prayer points were set up in the shape of the Southern Cross. Not only were Australian ministries and peoples prayed for but ministries in other parts of the world were also brought before the Lord.

More Muslims will hear God's Word preached as OM's new work, the Ministry to Australian Peoples (MAP) takes flight. Based in Sydney, where a quarter of a million (50 percent) of Australia's Muslims live, OM is working with three churches in Muslim outreach and another three in cross-cultural evangelism. However, the head office in Melbourne, with four full-time and five part-time staff, still lacks personnel. "Missions is not considered a priority and that makes our work a lot harder," said Alyson Bailey, secretary to field leader Richard Beaumont. Though they are eager to have a representative for all six states, economic and personnel limitations dictate otherwise. "It is much more difficult to raise support for workers within the country, as they are not perceived as 'real' missionaries," Bailey added.