Five Minutes To Midnight

Description

Late in the year 1934 a young man arrived in Riga, which was then the capital city of the small but independent Baltic republic of Latvia. Fatigued by the long third-class journey in draughty and densely packed trains, he found the severe cold of the Baltic winter more than his inadequate British clothing could withstand. Emerging from the station at four in the morning he fainted from hunger and weariness, but, clutching a lamp post, he pulled himself up and began to pray with some desperation...

James Alexander Stewart was just twenty-four years old when he travelled from Glasgow to Latvia. He knew only the English language but he had come believing that God had called him to preach the gospel in eastern Europe.

Omi Jenkins tells this compelling story of an unknown evangelist, sent by God in answer to prayer, whose labours over five years were attended with revival in several countries up to the outbreak of the Second World War. There were trials and difficulties and James' brother, Douglas, who had helped him in the work, was interned in Nazi Germany.

In the aftermath of the war, with a continent split down the middle by the spread of Communism and fear that the opportunities for evangelism in Europe would soon cease, the work continued in Western Europe. Five Minutes to Midnight tells how the vision and work of James Stewart subsequently developed into what is now known as the European Mission Fellowship.

T. Omri Jenkins was pastor of Salem Baptist Church in Barry, South Wales, when he became acquainted with James Stewart. He became British Home Director of the European Evangelistic Crusade in 1952, which later became the European Mission Fellowship. He remained as the General Secretary and Director of the EMF until his retirement in 1988. He went to be with the Lord he so loved in September 2003.