Prayer and Events: .




The World Mission Group (WMG) Committee at All Saints, Judy Acheson (chair), Adam Thrift, Catharine Allen, Katharine Fairbairn, Janet Galt, Graham Riddall and Stephen Dennison are passionate about seeing world mission becoming central to the way the church family think and is prayerfully seeking to encourage the church as a whole to consider its role in God’s great commission and to help anyone who feels that God is calling him/her/them to serve Him overseas. Their contact details can be found on My Churchsuite.  Pathway to Mission
   The WMG appreciates the changes made by the PCC to give a percentage of the money received by the congregation as this means the whole church is involved in the support of worldwide mission through our Mission Partners and mission agencies.
   Each year, All Saints gives generously to a World Mission Appeal;  last year, enabling a Christian family from Afghanistan to make a living in Pakistan through owning a tuktuk and this year helping a church expand in Central Asia by buying an apartment. 
 

Prayer and Events:

Our Mission Partners are reaching out with the Good News of salvation in Christ.  As a result people of different nations and ages are finding peace and new life in Him. They need our prayers. Join us monthly from 12.15-1.30pm in the Picture Room on the second Monday. This is a precious time, praying for each family and individual.  We need to partner each one in this way. The prayer updates are then sent out with the newsletter that week.  Download them, pray for our faithful Mission Partners, often involved in spiritual warfare, and be encouraged to read how many of our prayers are being answered.




Our mission partner Bisoke from D.R.C visits UK.: The Mission Committee give thanks to All Saints for enabling Bisoke to visit the UK for five weeks in April-May.  He was desperately in need of  time away to recover from ill-health, deep weariness, his wife’s serious illness and trauma through hearing so many heart-rendering stories of suffering from the displaced people that turn up at the Peace Centre he established on the outskirts of Bunia, NE Congo.  He so appreciated meeting many new friends in All Saints and time with friends around the country.   He was very grateful to Sara Bishop for hours of counselling helping him to work through many deep issues and to re-evaluate his life/work balance. Thanks also go to Pat and Peter Lockley for hosting him and for all the others who had time with him. He went back rejoicing at God’s goodness.  
Please continue to pray for Bisoke and Furaha and her family to make the right decision about whether or not she should have the operation to remove her brain tumour.  This would have to be in Uganda.

 

Holidays with a difference / Short mission trips:

At any age going on a short term mission or outreach as an individual, couple or family can be really rewarding; valuable for you, for our church and for those who you visit. There are many opportunities in the UK or abroad to suit length of time available, skills you have to offer and whether you are young or older. Do talk to Judy Acheson or any member of the world mission group if you are interested in a short term mission as we would love to support you.  If you are interested in the practical missions offered by Mission Direct please talk to Sarah Bell as she had an amazing time in Haiti. Please click on this link to see what different Mission Agencies offer Short term mission or outreach opportunities.
Do you remember how excited the young people were on their return from visiting iServe Africa in Nairobi, Kenya? Ask Adam and Sarah to show you the film.

World Mission Sunday 7^th July 2024

This year Adam will be concentrating on the Persecuted Church in all the services. This should be a challenging Sunday for all of us with recommended books for sale. How would we respond to persecution?
  These past few months we have been able to study in our home groups four different aspects of living in lands where there is persecution for Christians.  How would we stand strong?  How can we support our brothers and sisters? On 5th June at the prayer and praise evening the mission slot challenged us to imagine what it would feel like to live as Christians in different countries.  And on 16th June at 6.30pm evening service we heard how it feels for a mission partner working in a closed country.

World Mission Appeal:
Now throughout July we have an opportunity to show our support in tangible ways, through prayer and  by giving to Open Doors through this appeal in church. Through their local partners Open Doors’ organisation seeks to support our brothers and sisters in whatever situation they find themselves in whilst living under persecution. Do go to My churchsuite to give on-line or collect an envelope from the Welcome Desk in church to give cash or a cheque.
  Open Doors (www.opendoorsuk.org) also provides useful prayer material. Their World Watch focuses on the 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted showing us how we can pray. Copies can be obtained through their website or from church.
 

Mission Partners 

Graeme and Bequi Innes (Iona, Joshua and Ella), Preaching and Outreach, Moldovia https://www.crosslinks.org/mission-personnel/graeme-and-bequi-innes
All Saints so enjoyed Graeme, Bequi and the family’s visit in July 2023 for our World Mission Sunday. They shared about their work and life in Moldova. Over lunch Graeme was able to speak in Russian to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in our church and mention places they had visited in Ukraine before the war and food they enjoyed.  Graeme also spoke of the many opportunities he has had with others to minister in that country.
From 2017 – 2023 God richly blessed Graeme and Bequi’s involvement with the Oastea Domnului Church, Chisinau. Increasingly Graeme has had a major role, training and mentoring a number of pastors who have discovered Reformed theology, realising it is by grace alone that we are saved. In the autumn of 2022, with some of these pastors, he founded the Reformed Evangelical Alliance of Moldova (“Alianta Evanghelica Reformata”). There are now 10 churches in the Alliance, which is very exciting, with many of the church leaders hungry for good, deep Bible teaching. 
From September 2023, Graeme has been devoting more of his time to mentoring and training these pastors; preaching in their churches and giving them sermon feedback. Bequi will be getting alongside the women. The first national conference for church leaders and those in their churches was organised in May 2024. 
Graeme and Bequi are now members of the Reformed Baptist Church in Chisinau called Imago Dei Church led by Pastor Mihai, who has been mentored by Graham over recent years and is now one of the Crosslinks study partners studying the online theological training course Crosslands. 
Pray for God to lead them in the way they should serve within the AER and the opportunities He gives to disciple believers and share the Gospel with unbelievers. 





Dr Mihai Malancea, left, Director of the Research Centre, a department the University of Divitia Gratiae (UDG) Chisinau, Moldova. 
Dr Iurie Malancea, right,  has taken over as Rector of UDG. This has freed up Dr Mihai to focus on the development of an exciting programme of research, organization of scientific conferences and doctoral colloquia in collaboration with other institutions of social and theological education, as well as post-graduate programmes and organization of the local and international mission department of UDG.
  Dr Mihai’s intimate knowledge of the needs of the countries throughout the area will enable the centre to select and train students at UDG in international mission in partnership with mission agencies and prepare them for cross-culture ministry. 
  Pray for wisdom for Mihai and his colleagues as this centre grows, supports other Institutes and equips an increasing number of graduates to be sent out across the region, often into difficult situations.




A family from Central Asia. Both graduates from University Divitia Gratiae (UDG) in Moldova, this family serves the Lord back in their home country. God has opened many different ministries to help meet some of the many needs amongst the Muslim-majority population. As Christians they reach out to children, many of whom are orphaned, to women and widows, to those caught up in sex trafficking, to prisoners and Bible ministry and church planting, all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. A tough, challenging ministry! Spiritual warfare is real.




Ron and Nan George, Teaching and outreach in Central Asia  https://www.eurasia.org.uk
For over 50 years Ron and Nan have worked in different countries, sharing their love of Christ with Muslims. Based in the UK, Ron continues in partnership with the University of Divitia Gratiae, Chisinau, Moldova, in particular planning and organising the annual Summer School of Mission held at UDG for graduates and pastors and their wives to explore together ministry needs they meet in the field and to be refreshed as they study God’s Word together. They also advocate for Christian refugees and help support them in their needs.
  Eurasia Education Foundation (EEF) is helping to meet the need for relevant Christian literature to support the exciting ministry, particularly in Central Asia and more recently India. Relevant books are being translated into many of these languages and made available on-line. 






Sarah Baldwin, Translation Team, MissionAssist  https://missionassist.org.uk/services/digitisation/bible-digitisation-project
Sarah has recently moved to her own house in Derby becoming more involved in her church and other local activities when her health and workload allow.  She works for many hours each week with WEBBS (The Worldwide Electronic Bible and Book Service) and needs our prayers and financial support to make this possible. WEBBS is a major project to produce digital text from printed documents in support of the ongoing task to translate, update and publish a version of the Bible in every spoken language on earth.  She and her team type up different portions of the Bible in a vast variety of languages using very different scripts.  She also edits (checks) other teams’ work.  A taxing job and yet such a great ministry, bringing the Bible/NT portions to so many more through modern technology, some for the very first time. Sarah is also the bookkeeper for MissionAssist (MA).  
  Sarah now also works as an MA volunteer for All the Word (https://alltheword.org). The work is very exacting and involves writing a first draft of English text (known as Phase 1) in a linguistic form so that it can be understood by TBTA (The Bible’s Translation Assistant) which is a specialised programme. The final text is developed so that translators around the world can have a basic script in whatever language they are working in, thus cutting their workload by about 40 per cent.




Harrison and Rhodah Mungai (Tim (14), Philip (12) and Chris (8)), Director of iServe Africa, Kenya
Following an apprentice here at All Saints and elsewhere, Harrison Mungai became strongly convinced that the African Church was in great need of gospel workers with a strong biblical knowledge and true servant-heartedness. To respond to this challenge, he started iServe Africa in 2007, an indigenous, gospel-driven organisation whose vision is “To entrust the Gospel to the next generation for transformation of the whole person, whole churches and whole communities in the whole world” through an apprenticeship programme for fresh graduates for 1-2 years of ministry training. https://iserveafrica.org
  Another programme called TransformD was established in 2017 as a discipleship programme for school-leavers. This seeks to equip young people with the knowledge of God’s Word, expose them to cross-cultural mission and help with basic life skills in the hope that they would follow Jesus faithfully and be dependable in society. 
  The growth of leadership for both programmes is encouraging. With over 500 people having been trained, his prayer is that this will have a generational impact in both corporate work spaces and in ministry. 
  Harrison also serves as a pastor at GracePoint Church in Kikuyu, 26kms from Nairobi City, where he seeks to model those very values he teaches at iServe Africa. 




Gerald and Louise Mwangi (Daniel, Jeremiah and James) Training youth and children’s workers 
Give thanks that Gerald and Louise have been able to pass on the leadership of the TransformD course with iServe Africa and now, in conjunction with the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) are using their passions, skills and training by helping to meet the need for more properly-trained youth and children’s workers in Kenya. This country has a very high proportion of the population under 24 years (0-14 years: 40.87% and 15-24 years: 18.83%) which underlines the importance of these ministries. 
  The Archbishop of ACK has invited them to establish courses at St Julian’s Theological College and is delighted for them to have support the work in the unreached areas of Kenya, starting with the Diocese of Marsabit in the far north of the country. Relevant material needs to be written for both age groups.
  From April 2024 Louise has begun home-schooling Jeremiah and Daniel, whilst James attends pre-school to allow for greater flexibility for her training courses and the freedom to take the children with them as they travel around the country; a great opportunity to broaden their education.



Rev Bisoke Balikenga, Provincial Youth and Children’s Worker for the Anglican Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, living in Bunia. https://churchmissionsociety.org/people-in-mission/bisoke-balikenga
Bisoke is passionate about children’s and youth ministry. He longs to see them come to faith and become active members of the Church by being taught in age-appropriate ways. This means youth and children’s workers need to be trained and encouraged and appropriate material provided.
  DR Congo is a very volatile country, particularly in the East. https://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/democratic-republic-of-congo/violence-in-northeast-drc-the-authorities-and-the-international  Militia groups have been active since the late ‘90s with many massacred. This has caused thousands to flee their homes and their livelihoods. Bunia has become a major centre for such people. Bisoke has established a Peace Centre on the edge of town near a big camp for the displaced. Sunday services, discipleship, practical courses, counselling and seminars on peace and reconciliation give Bisoke many opportunities to teach people about Jesus and display his love through practical service. Only in Jesus can these traumatised people find peace and the ability to forgive.
  Watch the video produced by MAF showing Bisoke's involvement with their outreach and mirroring the work he is doing with his team in the Peace Centre:
https://youtu.be/FnyjEajE_0s?si=gsSuCyJE49LxSdGH
Story: The plight of the displaced - Semiliki Trust  https://www.semiliki-trust.org.uk




Alice Cornes, Staff Member, evangelist and women’s worker, St Philemon’s, Toxteth, Liverpool  www.stphilemons.co.uk
Alice is part of this vibrant multi-cultural church in a deprived part of inner-city Liverpool. She gets to share how brilliant Jesus is with women and children from all sorts of countries and religious backgrounds. God gives her opportunities to lead seeker Bible studies, 121 Bible reading partnerships, assemblies, Farsi-language Bible group, Sunday club etc. She loves training up leaders to do more of the same. It's exciting seeing Christians equipped for lifetimes of serving Jesus, and particularly believers from minority groups learning to teach the Bible to their own people. 

“What an exciting list!  Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, cross-cultural church outreach in the UK, work with WEBBS and TBTA to make digitised Bibles available to many – what a wonderful example to our church family of the sheer variety of ways to be involved with mission! We are grateful for our Mission Partners and are privileged to walk with them in their various ministries through prayer and financial giving.”  Adam Thrift