Mission

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You can also use our Reboot Campaign video and discussion guide to explore with others how you are experiencing the pandemic, and how you can play your part in building a better world. We’d love to hear how you get on.

Following on from last week’s video from Andrea and Mark Hotchkin in Chad two more of our BMS Mission Partners, John and Sue Wilson make a prayerful plea from their home in Paris and report on how after spending three weeks recovering from the Covid-19 virus they are not only using this time of lockdown to be “church online” but also to complete some essential building and restoration work. 

As many of you know, and as Shona reminded us during last Sunday’s Church at Home Service Phil Commons has strong connections with the village of Jhum Para.

Historically Jhum Para was established as a village in the 1970’s by former MBC stalwart Michael Flowers. Michael was a doctor and for many years he, his wife June and their family lived and worked in Bangladesh. There’s a link here to a story which was published on our website back in 2010 which tells you a lot more about how and why the Jhum Para Project started  https://www.moortownbaptistchurch.org.uk/mission/the-bangladesh-fund/jhum-para-project

But basically, at the time the Flowers family were living with them people with leprosy were regarded as outcasts. To counter this the idea came about that by housing them all in one village everyone became equal. Over time the villagers were encouraged and helped towards gaining access to clean water, to growing and eating the right food, to educating their children and even through doing menial jobs to generating a small income.

Despite these interventions the people of Jhum Para remain extremely poor. However, right now with the added strain of the Covid-19 lockdown many are completely destitute.

In total there are fifty-three families living in Jhum Para, and as we say many are currently living hand to mouth. If you can help just £20-25 will feed a family for a week, providing them with rice, potatoes etc.

Fortunately Phil has had a long term friendship with Anup, a Christian nurse who works in the area and has been heroic in linking with the village, bulk buying food and transport etc. And again we are blessed in that any donations we receive and subsequently pass on to Anup are sent through Western Union who unlike many organised charities who can use up to 30% of a gift for admin, fund raising etc. guarantee that 100% of any gift we send to Jhum Para goes straight there.

Currently Phil is staying in Lancashire but if you can help she would love to hear from you. Her contact numbers are either 0744 36 123 82 (mobile) or 01282 694 068. Another option is to ring Rod Russell on 0113 2692590. Rod has all the necessary information you will need regarding donating and/or transferring money.

Thank you.   

As we share new experiences of Christian living and of how God is working in the Coronavirus crisis in the UK, it is good to widen our vision and recognise that this is a global issue. We have recently been in direct contact with our BMS Mission Partners in France and in Chad who have shared some of their experience.

First John and Sue Wilson in Paris where they pastor the Avenue du Maine Baptist Church, have many similar experiences to ours as France continues in strict lockdown. The church building has had to close and their majority older congregation are often less tech connected, so that each Sunday John sends out by email (which most have) an Order of Service with pauses indicating the relevant moments when “someone will speak, read, or share prayers”. This is not ideal but John says that it looks like public gatherings will not be allowed in France until mid-July, so that ,even though some will return to work on 11^th May, churches will remain firmly closed for the foreseeable future. A further issue is that the Church’s regular help to the homeless and poor is severely restricted.

Both John and Sue have themselves had bad bouts of the virus and had to isolate for lengthy periods – though happily they are now much recovered. Like us they are in much more regular contact with their adult children and thankful for that.

Please pray for their health; for finding new ways to keep the church together; and for those who depend on the church spiritually and practically.

Second Mark and Andrea Hotchkin in Chad where they are 2 of only 4 doctors in Bardai – a remote outpost in the northern Tibesti region near to the Libyan border. Their experience has been very different.

As the UK and most of Europe was going into lockdown Mark and Andrea sent a graphic account of how they had to “make room for the unexpected” when up to 20 badly injured soldiers were brought in after a 300km drive from a battle on the frontier. They spent a week dealing with bullet wounds and desperate injuries with head torches and no operating lamps. This really is the frontline of surgery.

There have been very few cases of Covid -19 registered in Chad so far, but the Government has called for a serious lockdown. This might work in cities like N’djamena but in the remote north the local people feel it does not yet concern them. Some schools remain open and on a recent Saturday “ a big wedding took place – with people coming in dozens across the officially – closed border “  Mark and Andrea have been producing leaflets to explain the dangers of a pandemic and a brief film to pass round on mobile phones. They work in the hospital with home – made surgical masks and limited hand-washing facilities and with all the regular medical and surgical cases continuing.

The Hotchkins are due to be on Home Leave in the summer and to visit MBC in September. However, they have put this on hold at present – volunteering to stay on as they want to help when the pandemic really strikes in their area. They clearly are missing their adult daughters in the UK but feel God has placed them in Bardai at this time.

Please pray for their safety; for success of the health education about the virus; that coronavirus may not spread further in Chad; and for their daughters Ruth and Rebecca.

Appeal

BMS has mission personnel around the world facing situations like these. The churches they work with are our brothers and sisters in Christ and their self-giving is an amazing testimony to the love of Christ.

Please remember them in your prayers and – whilst some of our usual ways of supporting BMS financially through the church cannot function at present – perhaps you could send help directly to BMS either:

• By card via the website bmsworldmission.org
• Or by Bank Transfer to BMS World Mission Sort Code 20-01-25 Acc no 40132322
• Or by cheque to BMS World Mission

PO Box 49, 129 Broadway

Didcot OX11 8XA

Thank You

There will be a coffee morning and table top sale in support of MBC’s Romania Fund between 10am and 1pm on Saturday 21st of March. Please see Karen Ross if you would like to book a table; tables cost £10.

Spring Harvest, a brilliant teaching and worship event is running in Harrogate from the 14th to the 18th of April. For more details visit www.springharvest.org

In the old days this coming Sunday would have been called Mission Sunday, and it would have been a time when we would have listened to stories – some full of daring do, others more mundane from the mission field. 

Today, however, whilst we do still hear lots of first hand accounts of how the work people are engaged in through or by affiliation with BMS World Mission is providing both spiritual and practical support across the globe, what we will pick up on Sunday is much more personal: it’s a glimpse at how the support we here at Moortown Baptist Church provide for our named Mission Partners has and continues to be playing out in Afghanistan, Nepal, France and Chad as well of course as via Radio World Wide over the air waves.

In 2019 this church by way of tithe and a number of different gift schemes sent BMS World Mission a fraction short of £14,000. How you can help boost this total is one of the things Roger Robson will be speaking about on Sunday.

Hilary Willmer has just sent us this. It is a winter newsletter from PAFRAS (Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers). In a note accompanying the newsletter Hilary adds her thanks to all those people at MBC who by donating food and toiletries continue to support this important charity. You can find out more about PAFRAS by visiting www.pafras.org.uk and of course you can always make a personal donation by placing it in the PAFRAS box in the MBC Meeting Area.