Welcome to a country where there's not a whole lot of English spoken but people you meet at the traffic lights invite you home to stay. Where cold nights are warmed inside many a tea house by the glow of a 'qalyan' pipe. Where the church at a glance is small - the faithful prefer to meet in the seclusion of their homes - and where fuel is the right price at just over 10c a litre. What can we say, Iran has been a pleasure...

The MTC team are heading out for Australia, with their final blog detailing a whirlwind of stops in the Holy Land before they hit the plane.

Put simply, the question is: "Who decides on RU486?" Do we want our elected leaders deciding on whether this drug should be approved in Australia? Or do we want to give that decision-making power to unelected bureaucrats?

With the Senate approving the RU486 bill yesterday, Christian and Muslim students are urging members of the House of Representatives to vote to retain the Health Ministers oversight of the potentially dangerous abortion pill as debate begins this week.

When U2 visit Australian shores next month, Sydney theologian Dr Greg Clarke says you too can use the Irish rockers as a platform to generate gospel conversations.

With Jerusalem as their base, our intrepid students venture to the lowest point on earth, followed by an ascent to a mountain-top fortress - all the way dodging the sharpest Bedouin souvenir salesmen...

It might be the Year of the Dog but Chinese congregations across Sydney are hoping to make God 'mans best friend' as they use Chinese New Year events to reach non-Christians.

The MTC crew have left Galilee behind and are heading for the desert with their sights set on Qumran, home of the Dead Sea Scrolls...