Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 18th Oct 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – October Update 2

Barnabas Fund in countries worst for press freedom

5th October 2017

The 2017 Press Freedom Index, (from Reporters without Borders), shows that Barnabas Aid is helping suffering Christians in countries which most restrict journalists from reporting what is happening there.  Countries are colour-categorised for press freedom in the map below as good (white), satisfactory (yellow), problematic (orange), bad (red), or very bad (black).

(Image by Reporters Without Borders)

The index indirectly shows the influence of a country’s Christian heritage on developing freedom. All 49 countries in the first two categories, except for Burkino Faso (42nd) and Comoros (44th), have a predominantly Christian heritage. All countries in the “very bad” category, except Burundi only just in that category, are either Muslim-majority or Communist/former Communist countries.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update 4th Oct 2017

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Blythswood – October Update 1

Talita Kum

With the new school year now underway, please continue to pray for all the children now enrolled in Blythswood’s after-school programme for children from low-income homes.

Pray particularly that their days and years in Talita Kum will be times that they will never forget as they grow up, times that will lead them to the Saviour and to adult lives that will be for the glory of God.

Daniel Centre

Continue to remember the young men who are currently part of the Daniel Centre as they learn skills that enable them to transition from secondary school to the job market.

Pray for the staff members who have the awesome responsibility and privilege of living out the reality of Christ for these young men so that their adult lives will continue to bear the influence of their time in the Centre.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 4th Oct 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – October Update 1

Barnabas Fund

Despite the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and her winning a parliamentary seat in April 2012, little has changed for Burma’s Christians.

They face severe abuse for both their ethnicity and their faith. In ethnic regions, the Burmese military continues to intimidate and harass pastors and other Christian workers, disrupt worship services and destroy churches.

In impoverished areas, Christian children are enticed to join government-run schools, prevented from practising their faith and beaten for failing to recite Buddhist scriptures.

Barnabas Fund assists with projects in Burma, including:

  • Bible distribution,
  • support for orphans,
  • widows and refugees,

the construction of churches and Christian schools.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons Update 4th Oct 2017

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Jacksons – October Update 1

 We had a positive experience at the visa application centre in Manchester. We need another letter from South Africa clarifying that Fraser would be a volunteer.  

The application forms and documents will be forwarded to the South African High Commission in London for a decision by October 24th. We’re aiming for November 1st as a departure date.

A one-bedroom flat is waiting for us in Wellington, Western Cape.

Ruth has decided to stay in England to continue her A levels. This will be hard for us but seems to be the best option. Thank God that her grandparents are willing to let her live with them.

As for spiritual accountability, we expect to get involved in a church in South Africa but we consider we’re accountable to our prayer supporters in general and in particular a few people with special gifts of insight.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 20th Sept 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – September Update 2

Global One

 An estimated a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees have been forced to flee Myanmar due to conflict and burning of villages. No choice remained but to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. Without basic everyday essentials, the Rohingya are living in squalor without food, shelter or even vital medical attention.

The Rohingya are considered some of the most persecuted minorities in the world, and the current atrocities only demonstrate their continuous suffering. Rejected and unwanted, this ethnic minority group face ostracization. They are denied basic citizenship rights in a country which they have called home for generations.

Yet Christian Rohingyas are doubly disadvantaged. The country refuses to acknowledge them and the Rohingya tribe rejects Christians who’ve converted from Islam.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update 20th Sept 2017

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Talita Kum 

Wary and bemused, 4-year-old Madalina squats in the doorway of her home.  Who are these people?  And what’s in these brightly wrapped boxes that they have brought?

 The knitted hat and mitts that Madalina has found in her box will help to warm her up.  The sweets will give her energy and the toys will stimulate her hands and her imagination.

Come September, four of the children from this family will be enrolled in Talita Kum, Blythswood’s after-school programme for children from low-income homes.

Madalina should be joining them by the time she is seven, if her mother agrees to let her go to school.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons Update 20th Sept 17

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We have booked an appointment for a visa interview in Manchester for Friday 22nd September.  Pray that we’ll get clarity over which category of visa would be best to apply for. The letter of invitation from South Africa is currently being couriered to England and should arrive any day now. 

 Pray for the lives and attitudes being changed through InReach groups continuing in Nigeria. 

James, now at Glasgow University, and Ruth, at college in Scunthorpe, are both settling into this stage of their education. 

Check our latest leaflet in the rack which describes what we hope to do and includes a helpful little map showing the countries that benefit from NetACT’s work at present.

Thanks for all your prayers.  The mountains that arise are moving out of the way one by one.

Barnabas, Missions

Barnabas Update 1st Sept 2017

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Myanmar (Burma) – September Update 1

Tearfund

Hours from the nearest town, lies a flourishing healthcare training centre, situated in the Chin State of Myanmar. The immense challenges of the topography surrounding the centre testify of people’s yearning to learn, inspired by the vision of one man, Dr Sasa.

Too many mothers weren’t surviving childbirth, children were dying from diarrhoea and other preventable diseases were claiming lives.

Driven by a God-given determination, Dr Sasa set about developing a training centre where people could come to study as community health workers.  ‘It was about being able to support people spiritually and socially as well as medically – a totally holistic approach to healing.’

His passion rubbed off on hundreds of locals who have helped him construct a mini-campus in the jungle, complete with training hall for 500 people, dormitories and offices.

The centre has trained more than 300 community health care workers from 150 villages and provided them with basic medication – the first time these villages have been able to access any form of healthcare at community level.

Jacksons, Missions

Jacksons Update 1st Sept 2017

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Jacksons – September Update 1

Thank God that our police clearance certificates from both the UK and Nigeria have arrived.

Every time we look at the requirements for South African long-term visas, we find another document to be acquired or certified at a cost. Pray we’ll see clearly what we need. 

Fraser will apply for either a long-term volunteer’s or a visitor’s visa.  We are unsure whether Dawn should apply for a visa as a volunteer in her own right or apply for an accompanying spouse visa.

Please pray that we’ll know which is best – to go as an accompanying spouse we’d have to get an apostille (government proof) to our marriage certificate at an additional cost – as we don’t want to apply for the wrong category and be declined.

The South Africans are busy drafting invitation letters for us to present at the visa hearing.  Pray that they will arrive safely in the UK and will say all that needs to be said.

Blythswood, Missions

Blythswood Update 1st Sept 2017

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Blythswood – September Update 1

Talita Kum

Adrian Popa was brought up by Christian parents and came to faith himself as a teenager.

After studying Theology in Bucharest, he came to Wales to continue his studies and was introduced to Blythswood through a student there. 

 Returning to Romania, he was profoundly affected by how an old man, a new Christian, cared for poor children in his building.  Through that experience, he was eventually led to start Talita Kum with the help of Blythswood.

Daniel Centre

Balazs Csiszer was the son of atheistic parents but began to seriously question Marxism as a teenager. 

Through his experiences in the army at the time of the fall of Communism and his getting to know active Christians, he finally came to full faith in Christ when it sunk in that Jesus had died for his sins.

After working for some years with alcoholics at the Bonus Pastor Foundation, he met Blythswood in 2002 and is now their Chief Executive in Romania, spending much of his time in the Daniel Centre.