“The rates of maternal and infant mortality in this country are horrific: 1 child in 10 dies before the age of five, and 1 mother in 8 can expect to die of a complication during pregnancy or delivery. What makes it worse is the fact that they say that God has “written” this for them, so there is no hope of improvement or change. The clinic and health education programmes that we run are a response to the physical needs of the people but our goal is also to address their spiritual needs. I frequently pray with patients and try to bring a conversation about Jesus into as many consultations as possible. When we were walking around the shanty town recently one member of our team felt called to pray for physical needs in people around us, and several were healed of longstanding pains in their hands or necks, and one women suffering from a kidney infection said that she felt the presence of “a heavenly being” when she received prayer in Jesus’ name.”
These words, written by an Interserve Partner serving in one of the most strongly Muslim countries in the Arabian peninsula, are representative of the way that God has used Interserve since its beginnings in British India in 1852: a concern for both physical and spiritual needs, and a determination to address both in the name of Jesus. This “wholistic” ministry, and this commitment to serve Jesus in some of the hardest countries in the world, have characterised the work of Interserve for over 150 years. Interserve now works in all the countries of Asia and the Arab World and has been working among Asian people groups across England and Wales for over 25 years. The countries in which Interserve works are the least evangelised on earth: several are effectively 100% Muslim, many have no indigenous church, and several are suffering from the effects of war, famine, and political turmoil. Christian outreach is often opposed, sometimes violently. Yet we feel that God has called us to this work in order to see “lives and communities transformed through encounter with Jesus Christ”.
Ian Morris, Interserve’s regional manager for the north of England, says: “Mission is an important element of church life. As part of the world church we have much to offer; we just don’t realise it yet . I see my role as assisting the church where I can to help them engage in the mission process, whether that be overseas or over here.”
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Neil says; ‘Many children in this age group are malnourished and we believe that this programme has helped to reduce deaths in pre-school age children.’ After three years, the mortality rate had reduced to just under 20%. This is still staggeringly high (in the UK, the rate is less than 1%).