Blythswood, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Blythswood Update – August 1st 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Talita Kum

As pupils from the Inverness academies return home after time in Romania, pray that their vision of serving God in foreign parts will continue to inspire them as they consider their own futures.

 Pray for true spiritual refreshment over the summer for staff at the Talita Kum houses as they prepare to give themselves for another year of dedicated loving to the children from deprived homes during their school days.

 Pray for the children who will return to Talita Kum, for those who will come for the first time and especially for those who may have come to faith in Christ at one of the summer camps.

 Pray for the children who have now finished school and will no longer be at Talita Kum, that the memories of Talita Kum will be an abiding memory and influence in their lives.

 Daniel Centre

Pray God to prepare the hearts and minds of the young men who will join or continue to live in the Daniel Centre this year for a work of His power.  The potential of such men under the influence of God’s Spirit for the future of Romania is beyond our imagining.

 Pray for spiritual refreshment over the summer for staff at the Daniel Centre as they give themselves sacrificially to modelling the life of Christ for the young men that are in the Centre with them.

Barnabas, Missions, The Persecuted Church Across the World

Barnabas Update – August 1st 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Barnabas Fund’s policy on Overheads

Barnabas Fund, 24 July 2018

Barnabas Fund channels money from Christians through Christians to Christians (local churches or Christian organisations already established in the places of pressure, harassment and persecution).

For every £1 we receive in donations, we send more than 88p to our charitable work globally. Charitable work refers to the projects developed by the local persecuted Christians we are supporting, meaning that more than 88p of every £1 directly helps the beneficiaries.

If you allocate your donation to Barnabas Fund to a specific need or project, 100% of your donation will be used for that project and its costs. Nothing will be deducted from your donation for Barnabas Fund’s overheads. The costs of overheads are taken from donations to our general fund.

Jacksons, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Jacksons Update, July 18th 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Casual and unconscious racism is always below the surface in South African society and can be most disturbing as the speakers often don’t realise the attitudes their words betray.

It’s not just white towards black/coloured but can be black towards coloured/white or any other combination. However it manifests, it is a definite brake upon the integration and development of South Africa as a nation.

 An older lady of Dawn’s acquaintance, commenting on the style of the lady who’d led prayers at church, wrote: “the coloured people get a bit wound up”.

 She would probably be horrified to be accused of racism and indeed regularly cares for young coloured students but decades of experiencing apartheid as a privileged white have left deep marks.

Pray for healing from the past for whites, blacks and coloureds, all of whom have been damaged by South Africa’s history whether they’re conscious of it or not. 

Blythswood, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Blythswood Update, July 18th 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Talita Kum

With schools closing for the summer, Talita Kum will also be having a quieter summer.

 Pray for both primary and secondary school children who will be introduced to the Talita Kum houses for the first time this year and that whole new families will be influenced towards Jesus through seeing the love of the Talita Kum workers for their children.

 Continue to pray for the children who will return to Talita Kum after the summer as “old-timers” in the houses, and that the influence of Talita Kum will play an ever-deepening part in their wider family lives.

 Pray for young folks who may have come to faith in Christ at one of the summer camps and will return to Talita Kum with new insights into what the houses are all about.

 

Daniel Centre

Pray for any young men who may be joining the Daniel Centre after the summer that they will quickly feel themselves at home with the other young men and staff who are already in place.

We continue to believe with Blythswood that some or any of these young men may become leaders in their home country and influence future generations for Christ and His gospel.

Barnabas, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Barnabas Update, July 18th 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Egypt – the Return of a young Christian woman

Barnabas Fund, 10 July 2018

Christians in Zefta, Egypt, have celebrated the surprise return of a young Christian woman kidnapped on 24 May.

Amany Magdi, 20, went missing on her way to an end-of-year University exam.  Police told her parents that Amany had converted to Islam and refused to let them see her.

Dozens of Christians protested in the town’s streets, calling for the safe return of the student.

 But Amany made a surprise phone call to her family a month later and told them she was on her way home. Amany’s overjoyed father lifted her on to his shoulders after being reunited with her and carried her home through the streets.

Scores of Christian girls are kidnapped in Egypt each year, before being forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man.

Jacksons, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Jacksons Update, July 03rd 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

We are grateful to God for a positive NetACT AGM this week.  Christian publishers have donated over 600 books for the attendees to take back to the theological colleges in their African countries.  The books have been delayed in transit however, and we are praying that they will arrive before the attendees leave for their home countries. 

 Fraser has made a presentation on the work he’s been doing and will be following up contacts with publishers, hopefully leading to more online resources being made available.

Please remember Ruth as she travels out to South Africa this week.  She is due to arrive on Wednesday morning. 

 On the prison front, one man admitted to a prison worker for the first time that he had lied at his trial. The Restorative Justice course had opened his eyes to the need for honesty and integrity if he really wants to lead a better life and rebuild relationships.

Continue to pray that we will quickly get security clearance to visit many other local prisons.

Blythswood, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Blythswood Update, July 03rd 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Talita Kum

With schools closing for the summer, Talita Kum will also be having a quieter summer.

Some of the children will have been through both primary and secondary school while studying in the area where Talita Kum operates.  Pray for those who move on to fresh pastures.

 For those who will come back after the summer, pray that their summers at home will make them realise anew what Talita Kum has been for them.  Pray that the influence of Talita Kum will reach deeply into their home lives.

If any of the young folks get to summer camps, pray that will be another piece in the jigsaw of faith for their lives.

 Please pray for the teams visiting Romania from Culloden, Inverness Royal and Millburn academies.  Pray for a life-impacting experience at camp for them and the children they work with.

 Daniel Centre

Continue to pray for the work of Daniel Centre and that those who pour their lives into the young men under their care will know God’s continuous refreshment.

Barnabas, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Barnabas Update, July 03rd 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Iraqi Christians rebuilding lives under threat

Barnabas Fund, 26 June 2018

Christians in northern Iraq live with the daily threat of Muslim violence.

Shaqlawa was a Christian-majority town until the 1960s. Today, there are 200 Christian families and 10,000 Muslim ones.

Violence against Christians began years before the rise of Islamic State. In 1997, a Christian man and his father were tortured and murdered by a mob of Muslim Kurds, their bodies cut into pieces and thrown into the garden of a Christian family. The murders were never investigated.

Islamic State desecrated and destroyed Christian homes and churches in northern Iraq.

 “Today there are some peaceful interactions between Christians and Muslims. Face to face all is good, but if an Imam calls a person an infidel, it all changes.”

According to sharia, “People of the Book” (i.e. Christians and Jews) are permitted to practise their faith in areas under Muslim rule on condition they submit to a second-class status in society, keeping many humiliating rules and recognising that they have been subjugated by the Muslims.

Jacksons, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Jacksons Update, June 06th 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Fraser is starting to redo all the work which was lost, a long and tiresome process.  Pray that he would not get discouraged.  There are eight elements to be built and he has now put together the basic structure of six of them. 

Thank God that there are many opportunities for Dawn to get involved in prison ministry. Pray for the continuing follow-up sessions from the Restorative Justice course, that change in the men will be deep and lasting. 

It was amazing to witness how God is working in the prison. Prisoners still need to find the courage with God’s help to go further.  Pray that their families can help them face up to the need for repentance, restitution and real change.  Pray for stamina and wisdom for Dawn. 

Pray for South African society.  Absentee fathers, gangsterism and a lack of good parenting continue the cycle of deprivation and criminality. 

A Nigerian pastor who recently did the InReach programme has written, “In all my studies and learning I’ve never seen anything like this.  I was embarrassed when a woman said to me, ‘Pastor, now I see Christ in you,’ just because I helped her fetch water from the well.”

Barnabas, Mission Partners of Castle Street, Missions

Barnabas Update, June 06th 2018

by Robert MacNaughton

Barnabas Fund and religious freedom, Barnabas Fund, 5 June 2018

Though their major emphasis has been on the persecuted church abroad, Barnabas Fund has warned EU Parliament members, in a first-time debate in the European Parliament, that religious freedom is one generation away from being lost in Europe.

Their Chief Executive stated, “You can’t pick and choose which types of freedom you want to defend.  Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, academic freedom or freedom of religion. You must defend all of them. Those freedoms are only one generation away from being lost.”

He, and other speakers, highlighted recent instances of violence, marginalisation, and discrimination against Christians across Europe.

It was Barnabas Fund’s campaign for “Our Religious Freedom” that prompted the setting up of the meeting at the European Parliament.