July – Crosslinks
Pray for Nia as she spends six weeks over the summer in England. In early July, she attends a selection panel and has a medical to see if she can serve overseas for two more years.
She is planning to teach English at a university in the autumn.
June – UCCF: The Christian Unions
The Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship
This time of year sees students all across the country busy revising for exams. But how do Christian students use this time to glorify God?
Living distinctive lives can present great opportunities to share the gospel with friends and the CU can make use of the exam period.
Please pray that…
• Christian students would trust and treasure Jesus during exam time, with its many pressures and distractions
• the way Christian students approach exams would be a distinctive witness to their friends
• students would present their concerns and anxieties to God and not be ruled by them
• students would make the most of every opportunity to share the gospel
• the work of CUs would not be put on hold, but that they would continue to work hard to reach campuses for Jesus.
May – Arab World Ministries ‘Focus on Morocco’
In March, a crackdown on Christian expatriates resulted in the expulsion or refusal of re-entry for some 40 workers, many of whom have served in Morocco for many years. Most heart-wrenching is the situation at the Village of Hope orphanage, where 30 children suddenly found themselves bereft of their adoptive parents. US citizens appear to be the main target, but two AWM workers from Britain and their families are affected and other long-term workers live under the stress of knowing that the next knock at the door might signal their expulsion.
Please pray for:
• the thirty children who have suddenly had their lives turned upside down
• the foster families, whose hearts have been torn as they have been forced to leave within the space of a few hours
• all believers in Morocco, who are facing uncertain times.
April – Church Pastoral Aid Society
Have you planned your summer holiday yet? This summer CPAS is planning for 3,500 volunteer leaders to run 120 Venture holidays for 4,500 children and young people.
But it is no use just waiting for July to start planning these holidays. Now is the time to be concentrating on the leaders, who are going to run the holidays.
For example, Sam Corley, a vicar in Lancaster is committed to developing young leaders on Venture holidays. When Sam first helped lead a Ventures holiday in 2000 he had only been a Christian for 18 months. Now, he is serving as a vicar at a church in Lancaster and is committed to the development of young leaders, especially as now he is the overall leader of two Venture holidays this summer.
’Ventures were a wonderful opportunity for me to test my call to leadership and to explore my gifts,’ he said. ‘It was the first place I ever gave a talk and provided me with hands-on practical ministry experience.’
Pray for new leaders and those who train them, that they will receive the gifts to lead the camps and that it will help them grow as Christians.
March – Tearfund
You’ll survive 40 days without food, three days without water and eight minutes without air. But how long can we go without faith, hope and love? Material and spiritual needs are best met as one.
At our Tearfund lunch* this year we will hear more about Tearfund’s ‘Make life flow’ campaign which forms part of Tearfund’s ten-year ‘Be part of a miracle’ vision to see 50 million people released from material and spiritual poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 churches.
We will follow thirteen-year-old Stidia, who lives in Kigazi village in Uganda. Every day she makes two trips down a steep, dangerous mountain to fetch water from a spring. In her short life, she has walked more than 13,000 miles, collecting water. Yet, she’s never left her Ugandan village.
We will learn how Stidia’s life and those of the rest of the community are being transformed, thanks to Tearfund’s church partners and their mission to make access to clean water and decent sanitation a reality. Large rainwater tanks are appearing as Tearfund’s church based partners train groups of village mums to build them.
*March 7
February – CrossLinks
If you are not on the PCC, you may wonder how we decide on our giving to missions each year. All the societies we supported have had a St C’s member working for them. We then tend to support that society until another link opens up. This is why we are having a change, as Nia Early is now working in South East Asia with Linc Ministries.
Linc Ministries is a branch of Crosslinks. The name changed from BCMS (Bible Churchman’s Missionary Society) to Crosslinks in 1992 to emphasis the fact that for Crosslinks mission is no longer ‘the west to the rest’ but ‘everywhere to everywhere’. Also, a fair number of the missionaries are women!
The cross of Christ is the main link between God and human beings, and the cross also links race to race, nation to nation and culture to culture.
The name also helps to make possible work in some of the 60 or so countries where ‘Bible’, ‘Church’ and ‘Missionary’ are not acceptable.
We’ll say more about Nia in the future, but meanwhile there are newsletters from her in church on Sundays.