Following on from the recent visit of Chris and Debbie Drew to MBC and their message of Christian Hope and Courage from their work with BMS in Afghanistan and Nepal, I thought it a good time to give the church an update about our connections as a Church with work overseas.
Since the Church was formed we have channelled our main support and interest through BMS World Mission [the Baptist Missionary Society] and over the years a good number of people have been sent out with BMS from Moortown for work in many different parts of the world. More recently we have followed the scheme of having Mission Partners – namely John and Sue Wilson (right) in France and Chris and Debbie Drew. They have kept in touch through letters, emails and video and visits to speak when on Home Leave. As Chris and Debbie have now returned with their family to the UK, they are no longer with BMS and so we have added a new Mission Couple as our Church Partners. They are Mark and Andrea Hotchkin.
The Hotchkins (pictured above) are both Doctors with grown up daughters at University in the UK. They previously worked with BMS for 10 years in Guinea, West Africa, and, since 2010, have been working in the sub-Saharan country of Chad – for six years at a hospital near the capital N’Djamena and now in a remote area in the North of the country. Their home church is Wakefield Baptist. We hope that over time we will get to know them and their work and be able to support them through prayer, along with the Wilsons. We also hope to have them visit us when next on Home Leave.
As a start in finding out about them they run a Blog – Chad Chatter- at www.markandreahotchkin.blogspot.com
Recent prayer letters and information about our BMS Partners are posted on the boards inside the TV cupboard in the Meeting Area. Please have a look and if you would like to receive your own copies of letters please see Roger Robson.
Apart from BMS work we also support our own members Christopher and Bela Singh (left) who work with WEC [Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade] – Radio Worldwide. They are based in Leeds and Rothwell and Chris makes regular trips overseas to train Christians in the use of Radio and Modern Media in Christian work. Their prayer letters are also displayed in the Meeting Area and you can learn about how you can support them more closely and financially from those letters and by speaking to them!
Thirdly, particularly through David Casson, we give support to Mission Aviation Fellowship -MAF- and David gives regular updates of their work in Mission Spots in services.
The Overseas Mission Group meets 3 or 4 times a year to seek ways of promoting more support for the work overseas. Recently some members of the Group have moved away, and we are looking to widen the scope of the group by recruiting new members. To this end we would like to make our next meeting at 7pm on Monday 6th January 2020 an Open one.
Anyone with an interest in widening the Church’s promotion of mission worldwide is warmly invited to come along. More about this later but make a note in your diary.
Roger Robson