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About us

Challenge Literature Fellowship is a non-profit organisation. We publish an evangelistic newspaper to encourage and help Christians to share their faith regularly and to give readers the opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ.

Challenge started in 1978 with small print editions of the paper produced on a photocopier. The first tabloid edition was printed in August 1980.
When Challenge started we printed 5000 papers per month predominantly for Western Australia. Slowly but surely we expanded into the Eastern States and at our peak we were printing 63,000 papers per month.

Today we produce the paper for 20 plus countries in partnership with the UK Goodnews Paper. We have moved from doing a total yearly print-run in the early eighties of around 60,000 papers, to approximately 4,000,000 papers.


Eric Evans

Founded by Eric Evans in the late 1970s, the ministry story is a miracle in itself. Eric served in the British Navy during World War II, then continued to work at sea, first from the UK and then after migrating to Australia.

Making a commitment to Jesus Christ in his 40’s, Eric became a lay-preacher, always on the lookout for suitable material to take on door-to-door visitation. His suitcase of Bibles was heavy, to say the least! Eric was inspired by a verse from Habakkuk 2:2-3 which was eventually to lead Eric into founding a print shop. It should be made clear that Eric had no working experience in print; rather he trusted in God to give him the skills, resources and people to get the job done.


Carl Carmody – Editor

The team began to form, first in workers homes, then to rented premises in Perth’s southern suburbs. Like Eric, many contributors had minimal print experience. Within a few years of conception Eric invited Carl Carmody onto the team. Carl, trained in TV and Film media took a step of faith in accepting the offer and remains to this day committed to the ministry as editor of the newspaper. He also promotes Challenge world-wide.


View from the front of premises

As we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord Challenge is familiar to most Australian evangelical churches. We are blessed to have our own premises in Perth; and a stable team of full and part-time workers who have gifts that enhance various aspects of the ministry.

Mission Statement

The vision of Challenge is to clearly communicate Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation for mankind to all people.

Front page

Challenge Literature Fellowship is a non-profit organisation. We publish an evangelistic newspaper to encourage and help Christians to share their faith regularly and to give readers the opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ.

You can read many of our more recent articles on our online article site.

The TV interviewer asks: How are you feeling now?

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

It’s an inevitable question with TV interviewers. ‘How did you feel when you realized your parachute wouldn’t open?’ ‘How did you feel when you heard that all your money had been ripped off you?’ ‘How did you feel when you lost the match?’

My own feeling at that point is sympathy for the poor souls who have been through some sort of trauma and who are asked a pretty silly question about their feelings.

It’s the age

The world around us seems to live in the area of feelings. The preface ‘I feel… or ‘I felt…’ is so common. Sometimes it means ‘I think…’ But then, I’m not sure that thinking is all that popular these days.

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What did you get? Gold? Silver? or Bronze?

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

You can bet your life many TV viewers qualified for a medal in the recent games. They sat up into the small hours, cheering Aussie heroes between mouthfuls of coffee, then, after a nap, headed off to work trying vainly to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

London was a viewing marathon. The total number of people hours occupied in watching the spectacle is a figure we will never know. What stands out in your memory?

The winners

We are all the same. We are interested in the winners, especially the winners from our country. Then we can say, “We won the medal!” We share the thrill of standing on the winners’ podium listening to the music playing, while starry eyes turn heavenward and tears of joy flow earthward.

The ‘also rans’ are soon forgotten; their faces and names mean little to us.

The losers

There are, of course, some losers that stand out: Those who were sent home, those who were disqualified, those who were injured, those in despair over some unforeseen turnaround. Faces were twisted into a picture of pure agony, while tears of frustration and bitter disappointment flowed freely. Years of preparation had come to nothing. Hopes and dreams were dashed to little pieces. Helplessness prevailed.

Life’s like that

Winning and losing is almost what life is all about. Every day we experience both to some degree. The feeling common to most of us is that we don’t get our own way easily. Losing is easier than winning — in fact you can lose without even trying.

The conclusion that seems very common today is that ‘luck’ or ‘fate’ dictate what happens in life, so If you happen to be one of those unlucky in life, so to speak, too bad for you. Everything will go wrong. If someone seems to be successful, either they are lucky or they cheated.

Thinking in a groove

This same mentality rules people when they think about the end of life. Too bad, we die. Too bad if there is a heaven and we don’t make it. Good luck if we do.

However, the truth is that pleasing God and making it into heaven have nothing at all to do with luck. Nor has it anything to do with being a personal achiever — a winner. It is altogether different with God. The only one who appears before Him on the winner’s stand is Jesus Christ. Only He is worthy of it.

How badly understood this is! The vast majority think they will go to heaven if they are good enough. Yet the Bible teaches something quite different.

The people who find full acceptance with God are those who are acknowledged failures. They come to the point of seeing that there are no truly good (perfect) people, no true winners. They see that they have utterly failed to please God and that all the trying in the world won’t bring success.

Heaven will be full of people who have reached out empty hands to a God of generosity. They will be there because of His love and kindness and for no other reason. Christ won the crown for them. All they did was receive it. For it is by grace (God’s undeserved love) you have been saved through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

It is true that you can’t win without Christ. It is true that you can’t lose with Him.

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Beware: anger is boiling everywhere!

BY ALAN BAILEY

It’s not hard to see. For some reason, anger is alive and well, roaring like an escaped lion.

On the news we see people becoming enraged on the roads for some triviality, ready to smash people and their motor cars. I saw an all-in brawl among youngsters at a skateboard park. Then I noted the uncontrolled passion of an ex-husband who wants to murder all who have opposed him.

Anger is also stalking the sports field among players and spectators. Earlier this year, a professional tennis player smashed no less than four racquets in a temper tantrum. There they were, all pathetically wrecked, fit only for the rubbish bin.

So what is going on? Why are so many people so quickly aroused to boiling point?

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NO-ONE CARES FOR ME!

Tips for Life

By Alan Bailey

I think it is fair to say that life can be described as a struggle. Survival seems to be the name of the game. People appear to look after themselves as best they can, leaving everyone else to find their own way.

Protecting oneself and one’s belongings is all important, for theft and violence abound. So, many barricade themselves in, to keep the world around them out.

We can’t live in isolation

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Benefits of saying goodbye

by Andrew Lansdown

A fortnight ago I conducted a funeral for a friend. It was a graveside service and I stood at a lectern at the head of the coffin in which my friend’s body lay. The coffin rested on three chromed bars bridging the two-metre drop of the grave.

At the conclusion of the service, I spoke the words of committal: “Forasmuch as it has pleased almighty God in His great mercy to take out of this world the soul of our dear brother … we therefore commit his body to the elements, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust …” As I spoke these words, the six pallbearers lowered the coffin into the grave and out of sight.

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Keeping love alive and well

Tips for Life

by Alan Bailey

As I stood admiring a lovely home the other day I was told that the previous owners, in their seventies, had split up and were going their separate ways. How often do we hear of it? Couples who have lived together for most of their lives, having brought up a family and been through thick and thin together, deciding that they can’t stand each other any more.

Not only is the change of heart hard to understand but the aftermath of the break-up must be so painful as to threaten any future happiness. Property splitting, new family relationships and other changes would hardly be all sweetness and light.

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Delivered from bondage

by Andrew Lansdown

ANZAC Day offers an opportunity to reflect on the wars that our nation has participated in. One war that deserves to be remembered is the first war that America and its allies (including Australia) fought against Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded the small Arab nation of Kuwait. The international community responded by placing a trade embargo on Iraq, and issued ultimatums through the United Nations for Iraq to withdraw. Iraq ignored all economic and diplomatic pressure, took hundreds of innocent Westerners hostage, and dug its troops in to the occupied territory.

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Sons laid down their lives

by Andrew Lansdown

Something heartbreaking happened to a family at Black Point one Easter.

Black Point is an isolated place, accessible only by four-wheel-drive, on the south coast of Western Australia, and the Stallard family travelled there to fish.

The parents, Ron and Debbie, lived in the south-west of the state, but their two sons, 25-year-old Paul and 19-year-old Andrew, lived in Perth. So the fishing trip was something of a family reunion, too.

But it all went terribly wrong that Easter Saturday while the family was fishing from the rocks.

Debbie slipped and fell into the sea, and a wave swept her out.

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