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.

"HOOPS OF HOPE," an American Christian semi-pro basketball team specialising in basketball events for kids, is visiting Rome, Italy, from March 25 to April 3.

Even though the official language of the OM Moldova team is Romanian, lots of English is spoken around the OM centre in Chisinau these days. Native English-speaking team members hold English classes several times a week for Moldovans and a Brazilian on the team.

A 12 page, full color, glossy magazine is filling a unique gap in reaching out to Israeli young people, thanks to one worker’s creative imagination. 7,000 copies of the 4th edition of “Lo B Mikre,” which means Not By Chance, will hit the streets this March.

In February, an OMer on the SportsLink team was invited to lead three days of seminars at the Pentecostal Seminary in Ukraine. Church leaders from around the region took part. Traditionally a conservative seminary, these leaders had the chance to learn about what the Bible says about Sports and how churches can use Sports Ministry in their communities.

OM leaders in The Philippines are considering the best response following the tragic mudslide that devastated an entire village and killed an estimated 2,000 people on February 17. Caused by unusual prolonged rain, the mudslide flattened the barangay (village) of Guinsaugon.

OM’s Greater Europe Team in Austria recently took a shipment of orthopaedic shoes to a ministry working in Kosice, Slovakia. Karla, GE’s partner, said the shoes from Switzerland were a great hit. Karla and her husband Brad were able to witness to their neighbours as they distributed the shoes.

The neighbourhood is called “Las Violetas” - Violets - but it’s one of the toughest areas in Cordoba, Argentina. Taxi drivers refuse to take their vehicles within its boundaries. And few would contemplate walking the streets after dark, when crime, violence, and drug abuse reign supreme. Adding to the criminality is desperate poverty. According to statistics, approximately every second person in Argentina lives below the UN’s official poverty line. That means they survive on less than a Euro per day, if that. But there is hope.

Seven people are taking part in OM New Zealand's Training, Evangelism and Adventure programme (TEA) 4 February - 13 April, 2006. The three men and four women from the UK, USA, Switzerland and Germany will start with several days hiking in the 'bush' followed by intensive evangelism training which focuses on building confidence in sharing the Gospel.

Forty-one men from 12 different cities in Pakistan plus one from Afghanistan participated in OM's Sports Ministry Leadership Training Conference in Lahore in January, 2006.

Around 500 teenagers gathered in Maringa, Brazil for TeenStreet in January 2006 - double the number at the 2005 conference.

Martin Brand was headed for a career in musicals before he came face to face with Jesus. His life was turned upside down. Today Martin, 25, works with OM Netherlands, singing and preaching in youth services all over Holland.

Over 160 new recruits (including children) gathered in Mosbach, Germany in January 2006 for the "GO" conference in preparation for joining OM ministries around the world.

The team working to help those affected by the Pakistan earthquake insisted on spending Christmas with the people they are helping. On December 24, 25 and 26, team members went to three different places to share in a special Christmas-cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

OM Russia hosted a special short term outreach during the Russian Orthodox Christmastime from 3-20 January in the Far East of Russia.

Teens from across Latin America gathered for the TeenStreet congress in Uruguay in January.

OM Germany’s Generation Hope Team, which works with teenagers, held “Extreme Days” in Mosbach during the week before Christmas. During “Extreme Days,” German teenagers and Generation Hope Team members lived together at the OM office.

In November, a Mobile Bookbus visited five cities in Romania bringing Christian books to people who would not normally come to a Christian bookshop or to church.

Life is reduced to the basics for refugees from Burma, living on the Thai side of the border. That's why last December's visit from Mercy Teams International was such a surprise.

This Christmas season, the Vinnitsa team of OM Ukraine plans to visit schools and orphanages to present a Christmas programme of songs, drama and poetry. Over the next two months, the team hopes to share this programme with 1000 children and many teachers, with the vision to give hope to the hopeless. Last year, during Christmas and Easter, the team visited 15 orphanages. This year, they hope to visit the remaining 16 that are in their region.