Eurasia News

By Marc Ira Hooks SOCHI, Russia (BP) — Excitement is mounting in the Olympic host city of Sochi, Russia, where last week the countdown clock in the central square displayed only 365 days until the Opening Ceremonies of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games. On Thursday night, Russian dignitaries and Olympic officials celebrated the event in [...]

By Kate Ryan PLZEN, Czech Republic — Larry and Melissa Lewis stood in Plzen’s town square and watched the woman walk right toward them. Just as they thought she might speak, she brushed past to take hold of the iron gate. She reached out, paused briefly at a row of golden angels and turned to [...]

By Marc Ira Hooks VIENNA — Twinkling lights.  Decorated trees.  The smell of fresh-baked treats coming from the kitchen and the sound of church bells and “Silent Night” floating through the crisp winter air. When we think of Christmas in Austria, these are all things that immediately come to mind.  However, there is a darker [...]

By Ava Thomas BEACHY HEAD, England — For eight years, Ross Hardy has walked the white chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, England, among the thousands who travel there from around the world. Many come to take pictures. Some come to die. And by God’s grace and a keen eye, Hardy said he usually can tell [...]

By Ava Thomas LONDON — Brian Scott sees every day what it’s like to live with hurdles — he’s had a “hurdler” living in his home for the past few years. “Our foster daughter Rachel, who’s 24, is paralyzed on one side, and she has difficulties from a brain surgery she had when she was [...]

By Ava Thomas LONDON — “JESUS! Jesus will keep you from going straight to hell!” The Caribbean lady shouted until her voice went hoarse, parting the multicultural sea pouring out of the mall as she stood preaching in the doorway. I leaned back with a notepad against a nearby coffeehouse and watched. Young girls with [...]

By Ava Thomas LONDON — “We lit the flame and lit up the world.” Doug Shaw had to smile a little when London 2012 chairman Lord Coe closed the Olympics with those words Aug. 12. Because Shaw’s hoping that’s exactly what happened. As part of More Than Gold, a joint effort of Christian churches worldwide, [...]

By Ava Thomas LONDON — José Cárcamo learned the ways of a communist rebel a long time ago. Committed to the cause, he studied in Chile, Cuba and Russia. But it didn’t change his life the way he thought it would. “There was a lot of fighting going on in my country back then, and [...]

By Marc Ira Hooks LONDON — Though the Winter Olympic Games in Russia are still 18 months away, church planters in the host city of Sochi are already hard at work to capitalize on what the “Olympic Spirit” will bring to their city. And they recently spent time in London during the Summer Olympics getting [...]

By Ava Thomas LONDON — Bernard McGraw paused when he saw the man at the pump stacking pennies on the hood of his car. “Hey, man — do you have a quarter? I’m trying to buy a gallon of gas.” McGraw had one. He tucked it in the man’s hand, along with a business card [...]