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Christine Moyes reports on floods, field officers, and future plans in Teso

It’s exciting to think that this time next month I shall be back in the Teso region of Uganda with the TDT visiting team. We were last there in October 2018 and I remember being so amazed to see such positive changes in the country and in the attitudes of the people.

Since that time, there have been devastating floods, causing loss of harvests and homes, and bringing many challenges to health, safety, and the livelihood of villagers in so many locations. Animals have been lost to the cold, especially the young ones. One community leader records that around 72 calves, 32 goat kids, and 33 lambs have died.

This is a testing time for many, but, as always, our partners in the Church of Uganda and the Pentecostal Church have risen to the challenge. There are many dedicated field officers who are just that. They work out in the field with the people and have a good understanding of the problems faced. They are not afraid to get their hands dirty and will work tirelessly to bring relief to those who are most vulnerable and who are suffering. What a response to God’s calling. Just seeing the action of these church workers brings not only practical help, but also hope in dark times. Thank you to everyone who has supported the recent TDT Flood Appeal. There is no doubt that every £1 you have given has helped to save lives.

Our annual visits to Teso can be challenging, with long hours of travelling every day, busy programmes of meetings, and report writing. We will be visiting affected villages and fields to see the devastation of the past few months, which will be emotionally draining. We aim to bring encouragement and love to all we meet, as well as gaining an understanding of current needs and future plans of our partners, so that, as a charitable trust, we can be ready to respond appropriately. Please pray that our planning and time in Uganda goes well. As a team, we are looking forward to being reunited with our brothers and sisters, to share time with them, pray together, and give thanks for all that God has done.
Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’

‘Let the light of your face shine upon us O Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord make me dwell in safety.’ Psalm 4, verses 7-8

Christine Moyes, TDT representative

Antoine Thenin explains the reasons behind Friends International’s motto

Friends international is a nationwide Christian charity, with Friends International Dorset being one of the branches.

The vision of Friends International is to see international students transformed by the Good News of Jesus so that they fully engage with the mission of the church in the world.

Did you know that one million international students come to the UK each year to either study English or enrol in higher education?

Most of those students come from countries that are closed to hearing about the Christian faith. However, when students come here, the cultural and religious pressures of home aren’t as present, and they are keen to hear about our hope and faith.

Here in Bournemouth we have sixty thousand international students all year round. Almost every evening in Bournemouth, a church reaches out to these students to welcome, befriend, and share God’s love. We have had hundreds of Muslim students from the Gulf hearing about the true identity of Jesus. Roman Catholic students have heard that our faith is based on grace and not on works. Some students have never heard the true story of Christmas and Easter, so what a wonderful opportunity we have here.

I myself was an international student when I came to Bournemouth. I was already a Christian but had many questions in mind. I was welcomed and loved beyond words. It led me to stay in Bournemouth and do an internship with Friends International, before gaining a degree from Moorlands Bible College, completing a two-year position with OM in Myanmar, and returning to Bournemouth where I am now a staff worker for Friends International. Since my return I have married a British lady and we have just welcomed our first child. This is just my story – imagine how the lives of sixty thousand other students could be transformed by Jesus.

Friends International Dorset’s mission is to work with the local churches to communicate the Good News of Jesus to international students in both word and deed and in whole life cross-cultural discipleship. This is why our motto is ‘transforming students, transforming nations’ – so students who have made a commitment to follow Jesus will go home and be a light to their families, communities, neighbours and nations.

The world is coming to our doorstep. Will you join us is showing God’s love to the lost?

Antoine Thenin, Friends International

You can find more information about Friends International here.

When preparing a talk recently, it struck me how many wonderful passages there are in the Bible around the theme of joy. For example:

The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3 verse 17

I find it encouraging that Father God rejoices over us – and with singing (or even dancing as one interpretation suggests!). However, as we learn from the Bible, God’s nature includes joyfulness. Even, God’s creation reflects the nature of the creator, as we discover from this, and many other passages:

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55 verse 12

Yet, as Christians, we often experience a journey that is punctuated with trials and testing. However, at times like these we understand God to be compassionate, empathetic and someone who brings comfort.

Shout for joy, you heavens;
rejoice, you earth;
burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people –
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. Isaiah 49 verse 13

As we move into a New Year,

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15 verse 13

Andy McPherson, vicar

Clare Shearing looks forward to Compassion UK visiting in January

So what is Compassion UK?

Compassion UK’s website says it ‘is a Christian charity passionate about empowering all children to overcome the obstacles poverty puts in their way’. For me this is only the starting point. As one of the UK’s leading Christian charities, it offers opportunites to sponsor a child, and to give each sponsored child a hope and a future. But its approach is very personal to each child, and this is what makes it so special.

This is how Philip and I got involved. When we attended a concert at Bournemouth Community Church, we hadn’t expected to begin sponsoring a child through Compassion. However, God made all the connections (hearts and heads) and by the time we left, we had signed up to sponsor a six-year old girl called Abigail from Bolivia. Sponsorship gives Abigail life-changing support, including food, education, health checks, and the care of the local church. But also, after over seven years of writing to and receiving letters from Abigail, we have developed a relationship, through which we are able to convey our hope in Jesus, encourage her in faith and life, and express love and care through our letters and prayers.

What’s happening in January?

On 12 January 2020 Michael Robins from Compassion UK will be visiting St Saviour’s to tell us more about the work of Compassion and how we can partner with them in releasing children from poverty. To make this more meaningful to us all, if any of you are already Compassion sponsors, please provide the office with your name and postcode (if you did not do so earlier in the year). Mike can then produce anonymised but bespoke data about the difference our sponsorship is making. Your data will be used only for the purposes of linking you to St Saviour’s Compassion Partnership. We hope this will be an encouragement to all of us by revealing the bigger picture about the incredible difference our sponsorship makes.

If you would like to begin sponsoring a child through Compassion, you can do so via their website https://www.compassionuk.org or there will be opportunities when Mike visits, so do be praying about whether God might be asking you to get involved.

As I have mentioned, the name of our sponsored child is Abigail. Appropriately Abigail means ‘Father’s joy’ or ‘Father rejoiced’ and for me our child’s name confirmed that we were to sponsor her. But thinking about it now, it seems to me that our Father rejoices over all children, and that the Father’s joy knows no bounds when a child steps out of poverty and into hope. Let’s make our Father joyful as we find out more about Compassion UK.

Clare Shearing, Compassion sponsor

Christine and Bev have a Christmas wish list for St Saviour’s!

Now that we are in the time of Advent, the Christmas season is well and truly here. Do please look out for information about all our up and coming special services and events – and don’t forget to invite your family and friends to come along.

Christmas, traditionally, is the season for giving and, as a church, St Saviour’s is always so good at responding to appeals for help both far and near. A big ‘Thank you’ to all those who have supported the recent shoebox and Foodbank campaigns.

It is said that charity begins at home. Of course, another word for charity is love. Our church is our family, made up of us all sharing in our love for God and each other. Let us not forget, however, that we have a special place, which is our spiritual home where we meet and worship together. As we look around “the estate”, it is a sizeable plot comprising church, halls, Link, and grounds. All of these take considerable time and money to maintain and look after. Thank you to all who give their time and money regularly to help this happen.

Also we give thanks to those who have donated an extra gift recently. If you have not yet thought about giving of your time and/or making that special donation during the November gift month, it’s not too late to get involved. Please pause for a moment and consider what this place means to you and the love gift you would like to make in order that we may continue with the work God has assigned to us. Our community knows us as a church “that cares for each other”, but please do not let us neglect the fact that we need to care for our church buildings also.

We have our Christmas Wish List ready with all things we would love to be able to do, including in first place new church doors. These are expensive and without your gifts we are not able to move forward with getting them done. God, and churchwardens, love cheerful givers! All gifts large and small are so welcome and appreciated. With our love and prayers for a peaceful and happy Christmas.

‘And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.’ 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13

Christine Moyes and Bev Collum-Mills, churchwardens

Pat Smart asks us to remember times for gifts.

Remember, remember, November, November

November is a time for remembering and reminding ourselves of things. To take us into November we celebrate All Saints/All Souls with a spectacular Light Party (no Halloween or witches allowed here). We remember Guy Fawkes with wonderful colourful firework displays – the large organised ones are the best and safest. Armistice Day is where we remember our fallen service personnel at Remembrance Sunday services all round the country, and on the day itself at special services in local churches. In our own benefice we remember those recently bereaved at a small intimate service held at St Barnabas. Many of us give to the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas shoebox appeal and the special postage donation. This year our church has been a collection point for this worthy cause.

Also about now, we remember to bake the Christmas cake (or give it that brandy top up for the early bakers); make a list of all the Christmas cards we need to send, remembering to add on the son/daughters latest beau and crossing off those that have moved on (in more ways than one). We have to make time to go out and choose Christmas gifts for our loved ones, a chore for some, but an absolute delight for others, not forgetting the wrapping paper, gift tags, and specially decorated bags. And does your family have a tradition of a new Christmas jumper?!! Then it’s time to climb into the loft to get down the box marked ‘C’mas decorations’ – phew! all that dust – maybe you add to your box each year with a new one. We write and post the Christmas cards especially for those in far off places. Next it’s time to order, then load up the freezer with turkey, trimmings, and sprouts (lovely), decide on the starter (smoked salmon this year or soup?). Well, what a busy whirlwind of time we have in November, with all that we have to remember and organise.

STOP!!

Please can I ask you to take some time out of your busy lives and consider your gift to the church? As you may know we would like to employ a new Youth Worker in the New Year, which we feel is a very important person to have in our church, especially for all the outreach that happens. Also, we would really like to replace some very old and worn out church doors.
So please prayfully consider what you would like to gift to the church at this time. If you are able to Gift Aid, that makes your gift go further. One-off gifts or an increase in regular giving are most welcome. Remember that all gifts come from God – so we are only giving it back to him.

God bless you in your generosity.

Pat Smart, Honorary Treasurer