Engage autumn 2014

AUTUMN

2014

JIM WALLIS, REVIEWS, 24 HOURS IN BEIRUT

CAREY’S HAIR

FRANCINE RIVERS

Weird and wonderful BMS artefacts

Faith in fiction

YOUR GARDEN Top tips for autumn and winter

THE FREE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FROM BMS WORLD MISSION MISSION STORIES / PRAYER / NEWS / OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE

HIGHLIGHTS

Engage

Chris Hall

WELCOME One of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met is BMS World Mission worker Annet Ttendo.

Her story is heartbreaking to read (see page 14), but her courage and desire to help others through her experience is truly humbling and inspiring.

The reason we are telling Annet’s story of abuse now is because of a new initiative we are launching to counteract gender based violence (GBV). I know that GBV is not an easy topic for us to discuss, but it affects one in three women in the world and it is time that we face up to it.

I urge you to find out more (page 10) and get hold of the Dignity resource when it becomes available in early November.

Have a great autumn.

10

THE SILENCE OF VIOLENCE How our new Dignity initiative can help you take a stand against the war on women.

16

14

I WEPT WHEN MY RAPIST’S FAMILY CAME FOR MY SON Annet Ttendo never thought she would reach the age of 14. Now, working for BMS, she helps others get the justice she was denied.

20

YOUR GARDEN: THE NEXT SIX MONTHS

THE BIG INTERVIEW: FRANCINE RIVERS

Top gardening tips for autumn and winter from BMS horticulturalist, Sarah McArthur.

Bestselling novelist Francine Rivers on Christian romance, taboo topics and writing God’s story.

REGULARS BMS World Mission PO Box 49, 129 Broadway, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 8XA Tel: 01235 517700 Email (general): mail@bmsworldmission.org Email (editorial): magazine@bmsworldmission.org Website: bmsworldmission.org General director: David Kerrigan Managing editor: Jonathan Langley Editor: Chris Hall Regular contributors: Vickey Casey, Fiona Castle OBE, Nabil K Costa, David Kerrigan, Jonathan Langley, Aidan Melville, Sarah Stone Guest columnist: Lina Andronoviene Design editors: Pepperfish.co.uk and Ruth Povall at BMS World Mission Printed by: Halcyon Print Management, Tunbridge Wells, TN3 9BD The views and opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of BMS World Mission.

Baptist Missionary Society Registered as a charity in England and Wales (number 233782) and in Scotland (number SC037767)

03 06 07 07 08 09

MISSION NEWS LETTERS KEEP ENGAGED POSTCARD FROM THAILAND 24 HOURS IN… BEIRUT BIG PICTURE

18 TOP TEN: FASCINATING THINGS YOU’LL FIND IN THE BMS ARCHIVES

22 23 24 26

OVERSEAS PARTNER: CARLA CRUZ GO PRAY GO SERVE IDEAS FOR YOUR CHURCH

28 OPINION: DAVID KERRIGAN, NABIL COSTA, FIONA CASTLE AND LINA ANDRONOVIENÉ

30 5 MINUTES WITH JIM WALLIS 31 REVIEWS

© Copyright 2014 BMS World Mission ISSN 1756-2481 Printed on material from sustainable forests

Sign up to receive Engage magazine for free four times a year at bmsworldmission.org/engage

MISSION NEWS

/news

BMS

BRAZIL

BUILDING SOLOMON’S

TEMPLE

An 18 storey, 10,000 seater replica of Solomon’s Temple has opened in São Paulo, Brazil.

Brazilian President, Dilma Rouseff, attended the inauguration on 31 July of the building constructed by Pentecostal megachurch, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, at an estimated cost of £178 million. The temple was built using stone imported from Israel, and includes a replica Ark of the Covenant. Within the temple complex is a garden of olive trees, similar to the garden of Gethsemane, and a helipad to allow the founder of the Universal Church, Edir Macedo, to fly in to preach sermons. The temple is almost twice the height of the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio.

PHILIPPINES

BMS APPEAL

REBUILDS LIVES

Generous donations from BMS World Mission supporters have helped to rebuild communities on the Filipino island of Panay devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.

Money raised by the BMS Philippines appeal has bought food and water that has been distributed through BMS partner Asia Pacific Baptist Aid (APB Aid).

It has also enabled APB Aid to support the building of over 570 houses, with 650 more due to be constructed. This has been done by supplying families with the equipment and tools to build new homes, along with help from local volunteers. APB Aid is also helping people recover their livelihoods. Farmers’ fields, livestock and equipment were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan – so, as they prepare to plant new crops, APB Aid are supplying them with crop seeds as well as livestock and poultry.

“We are so thankful to BMS for all of your support,” says Feraz Legita, acting director of APB Aid. “It is appreciated so much by the families here.

Thank you for your continued prayers for us.”

BMS ACTION TEAM EXCHANGE For the first time ever, BMS Action Teams will include two Jamaican members, and a UK team of four will be serving in Jamaica.

JAMAICA

In celebration of 200 years of partnership between BMS and the Jamaican Baptist Union, Jamiko Yapp, from Montego Bay, will be serving along the Thai-Burma border with BMS mission workers Bob and Charmaine Trendell and Christina Howell, from Kingston in Jamaica, will be in Kolkata, India, working with various BMS partners. “I’m really excited about the diversity coming to Action Teams in a way we haven’t had before,” says Team Programmes Administrator Tabitha Leask. “Hopefully this year will build lasting relationships for future teams.”

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

3

MISSION NEWS

/news

IRAQ UK

ENDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE

IN CONFLICT

Thousands gathered from all over the world to discuss how to prevent rape being used as a weapon of war at the End Sexual Violence in Conflict Global Summit.

Angelina Jolie, former Foreign Secretary William Hague, BMS World Mission staff, 350 representatives from conflict-affected countries and Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, were among those in attendance at the 10-13 June summit in London. “This is not mission impossible,” said Bangura at the opening plenary of the largest gathering ever to focus on this issue. “This is the moment, the best moment we have ever had and will ever have, and we cannot afford to let it slip by.”

For four days those in attendance listened to the harrowing stories of women and children victimised first by their attackers and again when forced to stay silent or face being ostracised by their communities. But among the stories of despair, was a message of hope. “This is an issue in which we [the Church] can make a significant difference,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in a special video address at a panel discussion hosted by the We Will Speak Out coalition, of which BMS is a founding member.

UK

CHRISTIAN SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES AT RISK

UK legislation requiring schools to hold daily Christian assemblies is at risk of being abolished.

The National Governors’ Association has declared the 1944 law requiring assemblies “meaningless” because few schools can meet the requirements – it says, however, that religious education in schools is important. The Church of England responded by saying assemblies “deepen spiritual awareness.”

4

bmsworldmission.org

CHRISTIANS FACE

PERSECUTION

IN MOSUL For the first time in 1600 years, no mass was celebrated in the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, as Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) fighters seized the city on 10 June.

New Sharia regulations imposed by ISIS silenced the churches on Sunday 15 June, forcing believers in Mosul to worship in secret or suffer severe punishment or death. An estimated 3,000 Christians fled the city, mostly taking refuge in the Christian district of Erbil, Ankawa. The District Director of Ankawa Jalal Aziz says, “We hope, we trust, that the government will protect us.”

UK CATALYST LIVE

STRIVING TO

INSPIRE Esteemed theologian Miroslav Volf is heading up a list of worldwide speakers at Catalyst Live 2014.

The event, now in its second year and hosted by BMS, is being held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on 23 October and at the Concert Hall in Reading on 24 October. For tickets visit bmscatalystlive.com

NEW

UK

DIRECTOR FOR BMS FINANCE The new BMS Director of Finance and Corporate Services has been announced.

Val Stevens will succeed David Locke who, after 14 years with BMS, left in July to become Support Services Team Leader at the Baptist Union of Great Britain. Val previously worked for HelpAge International as Finance and Corporate Services Director. She also has overseas experience, having worked in Afghanistan, Indonesia, Liberia and South Sudan. “Val brings a breadth of experience, significant qualifications and a strong Christian faith,” says BMS General Director David Kerrigan, “and I’m looking forward to introducing her to the BMS family in the autumn.”

LEBANON

MINISTRY FLOURISHING

IN THE MIDDLE EAST In the Middle East, the Church is growing like never before.

To explore discipleship in the region, BMS mission worker Arthur Brown and Dr Martin Accad (of BMS partner the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary) organised the Middle East Consultation on 16-20 June at the Institute of Middle East Studies in Lebanon. Five theologians joined Christians and Muslims from across the region at the event as they shared experiences and exchanged ideas to help others meet Jesus. “It was an opportunity to listen, not judge, not critique, but to just explore what God is doing and be wowed and amazed by what he is doing,” said Arthur Brown.

FEEDING SYRIAN REFUGEES IN LEBANON Over 400 men, women and children will have clean water, food and hygiene supplies thanks to a grant from BMS World Mission to local Christian partner organisation, the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development.

LEBANON

The money will be given to families who currently do not receive food aid and will allow ongoing dietary support for 60 families as well as nutritional and hygiene aid to 100 families with young children for a period of six months. Over 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon have registered with UNHCR and 2,500 more register every day since the conflict in Syria began.

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

5

Info

LETTERS

Have something to say about Engage magazine?

Email us at magazine@bmsworldmission.org or write to us using the address on page 2.

Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

In your review of The Art of Celebration

by Rend Collective [Summer 2014] you refer to “Grumpy Christians”. Who are these people? Possibly those whose musical preference is for the rich heritage of hymnology from earlier times? Whoever they are, this description does not seem very charitable – unless of course we are all expected to bow down at the altar of modern worship songs.

I am a keen reader of Engage magazine and am encouraged by many of the items in it. However it concerns me to read the interview with Ruth Mawhinney [Summer 2014] where she says about being so involved in your church that you can get stuck in a bubble and your social life revolves around the church. This is how it should be, sharing with Christian friends and encouraging each other in our walk with the Lord and also getting into the social life outside the church to meet and share God’s love with non-Christians!

Also in the item, it says “your Christianity becomes a hobby basically”. This could be taken as an insult by people, as it says that Christianity is an easy thing to pick up in your spare time, which I am sure you know it is not. Being a Christian is a daily work with commitment to the Lord, it is by no means a hobby.

Yours in Jesus

Keith W Fern

Dear Sir, I read your article Mission in a war Zone [Summer 2014]. It is sad to see you are still putting out the David Livingstone image and not balancing it with the Joseph Conrad observation of watching the developing world being “abused” by the West for its resources. Any good work being done by an overseas family on mission is undone a thousandfold by the silence of comfortable church goers back home who remain silent in the face of its own Government’s evil and aggressive foreign policies towards poor nations. Killing thousands of innocent people directly or indirectly through our foreign policy isn’t going to enamour us to foreign peoples or to God.

Wendy Thomas

Hi, I just wanted to say that the latest magazine is great. Having served with BMS in one of the “dangerous places” and having had some near misses, it was great to read the articles focusing on this. I too found BMS to be supportive at all times. This new format of Engage is the best ever and it is not hard to recommend it to all at my church.

Thank you Carol Turner

I am a preacher and a refugee lawyer.

Paul Warburton

A wonderful Christmas gift!

We do not have the space to include all readers’ correspondence that we receive and letters that are printed may be edited for publication.

More letters are online at bmsworldmission.org

The gift of life-saving healthcare and schooling for disadvantaged children through CHILD’S LIFE gift tags.

Order from the Christmas catalogue or online at bmsworldmission.org/tags

6

bmsworldmission.org

KEEP

ENGAGED

POSTCARD FROM

Find us on facebook BMS World Mission Show some love for Sarah Stone and Kat Wagner representing BMS at the End Sexual Violence in Conflict conference today.

Click like now!

Like · Comment · Share 99 people like this

BMS World Mission What do you think are the biggest obstacles for non-Christians becoming followers of Jesus?

Like · Comment · Share Arthur Magahy Would it be wrong to suggest that sometimes the answer is Christians?

Robyn Shepherd so much of (western) Christianity still operates from a modernist mindset and is preoccupied with absolutes, ethics and dogma – ideas and values that no longer resonate with many unchurched people today.

Michael Shaw Christians!

YOUR TWEETS Holland Road Church @HollandRdChurch

Happy Birthday Mary! 30 years as a missionary in D R Congo with @BMSWorldMission and smiling for her 90th birthday! pic.twitter.com/R2thB33Gui

Martyn Travers @mptravers

Love the latest Engage from @BMSWorldMission – The safest place you can be is where God wants you to be @OrpingtonBC

Thailand

Our main role over these past ten years has been to support and encourage Karen young people to be faithful and committed followers of Jesus. However, we have also had the privilege to host three BMS Action Teams.

Each six month placement was busy – from meeting each team at the airport, orientating them to Thailand, introducing them to their weekly schedules, liaising with local leaders, dealing with various issues as they arose, to finally debriefing each team and saying emotional goodbyes.

One of the highlights was the time we spent together in Bible study and prayer. It was great to see each young person being challenged

by God in an unfamiliar and sometimes hostile environment, and watching them emerge with a stronger, more mature faith.

We saw each team develop great relationships with local young people in their schools, hostels and churches. Through their hard work and perseverance, they made a valuable contribution to the local churches and set an example for others to follow. In fact, it was spending time with Action Teamers that inspired some of the Karen young people into mission themselves.

So, for these reasons and more, we are thankful for the Action Teams.

Keep engaged at

With best wishes

facebook.com/bmsworldmission

Pete and Lizz Maycock

twitter.com/bmsworldmission and @bmsworldmission

BMS workers in Thailand 2004 to 2014 See the back page for more on Action Teams

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

7

24 hours in… BEIRUT SEE THE GLAMOUR AND GRIT OF THE LEBANESE CAPITAL ON THIS ROUTE BY BMS MISSION WORKERS ARTHUR AND LOUISE BROWN. STARE OUT TO SEA From downtown, walk towards Raouché, with its wide cornice, and enjoy the views of the Mediterranean and the snowcapped mountains. This is where people come to escape the claustrophobic feeling of densely populated Beirut.

GO TO COLLEGE

From Beirut Airport, go through the southern suburbs of Beirut including Dahiyeh. This predominantly Shi’ite area was badly damaged during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. You will pass by Bourj-el-Barajneh (Tower of Towers in Arabic) Palestinian Camp, one of 13 official Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and probably the most densely populated square mile in the world at present, due in part to the massive influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon.

This is also where Louise Brown used to work, teaching English to preschool teachers in the camp.

EXPLORE DOWNTOWN Once you’re ‘downtown’, an area decimated during the civil war (1975-1990) and now re-developed, you will see Roman ruins, old and new churches and mosques, next door to exclusive shops selling highend international brand fashion and jewellery. Enjoy a coffee in one of the many Parisian-style streets, and watch the world go by – people watching in Lebanon is always fascinating.

8

bmsworldmission.org

GO TO SCHOOL From ABTS, visit Hadath Baptist Church and the Learning Support Project (LSP) that Louise Brown manages. The LSP provides highquality education and life skills training for up to 30 Syrian and Lebanese children. The children are at risk of failing the school year or of becoming illiterate and dropping out of education altogether, particularly the Syrian refugee children.

EAT MEZZE… A LOT In the evening, head up into the mountains and enjoy a Lebanese mezze in one of the restaurants offering amazing views over Beirut and the Mediterranean coast.

Make sure you arrive hungry, and pace yourself, as the food will keep coming!

© Heather Cowper

MEET REFUGEES

After visiting the stunning campus of the American University of Beirut, take a taxi up to Mansourieh to visit the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) where Arthur Brown works, and where BMS partner organisation, the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development, is based. ABTS trains leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa.

THE BIG PICTURE

This is the winner of the 2013/14 BMS Action Team photo competition. It was taken by Charley Lloyd of the Nepal Action Team at a women’s empowerment project. Charley was excited to see bags being made.

making, from them receiving the yarn and dyeing it, to it being weaved, cut, sewn and finished off. The women all get fair wages and the bags and other stuff they produce are shipped all over the world.”

“We had been to a shop in Pokhara quite a few times and the owner of the shop told us to visit their factory, so we did,” says Charley. “We saw the whole process of bag

To see this year’s complete Action Team photo competition top ten and to find out more about BMS Action Teams go to bmsworldmission.org/actionteams

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

9

Why it is time to take action in the war against women You don’t see the violence. You don’t hear the violence.

It is hidden, but it’s there. Occasionally it makes headline news. It shocks us when we see an Indian woman hanging in a tree after being raped, a woman stoned to death with the approval of her husband or 200 girls kidnapped for wanting a decent education. But then the story goes away, the silence descends and we move on with our lives. For the victims of gender based violence (GBV), life does not easily move on; the pain, the shame and the reverberations continue.

Breaking the silence of violence is difficult. It can be very hard for the victim to talk about, it’s so easy for us not to discuss it. Sexual and gender based violence can feel too intimate a topic to raise in our churches – it feels like something best left for the pastoral visit, rather than an issue affecting one in three women (UNFPA) which needs to be dealt with in our services or home groups. Referrals to expert support services are responsible actions for a church, but avoiding wise biblical teaching on the subject just perpetuates the problem.

Over the next 18 months BMS World Mission will be rolling out a worldwide initiative called Dignity, to counteract GBV. So what are we going to do and how can you get involved?

You’re a 12 year old boy in Mozambique. You’re bright and passing your year at school should be easy. It is.

You’re a 12 year old girl in Mozambique. You’re bright and passing your year at school should be easy. But for you, success depends on your teacher. Some male teachers require a little extra from their female pupils and, if they don’t get it, they will have no qualms in failing you. The Ministry of Education has zero tolerance of teachers asking for sexual favours, but there is a quiet impunity and often the pupil will get punished rather than the teacher.

“As a girl student, you can’t know how many teachers you are going to sleep with before you get to university,” says a BMS worker in Mozambique. “And it doesn’t stop there.

It affects how women are then looked at in the workplace.

People are thinking, ‘She had to sleep around to get where she is.’”

Through the Dignity initiative, the Association of Mozambican Christian Advocates (AMAC), which includes BMS lawyers Annet Ttendo, Damien Miller and Kathy Russell, will be addressing this issue from several different angles, talking to students, teachers, pastors, village chiefs and elders to raise awareness of the problem and to change

What is GBV? The United Nations’ definition of violence against women provides a helpful overview to the understanding of gender based violence that BMS is working with as part of its Dignity initiative.

The 1993 UN Declaration on the elimination of violence against women became the first international instrument explicitly addressing violence against women, providing a framework for national and international action. It defines violence against women as any act of gender based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

10

bmsworldmission.org

“

teachers require ‘a “Some little extra’ from students

There are laws against GBV in Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe but they are not widely enforced. The problem is twofold: victims don’t always know their rights and the authorities don’t have the resources or the inclination to prosecute what can be seen as a culturally acceptable practice. BMS and our partners will be attempting to address this in two ways. We will work with victims, making them aware of their rights and arranging representation by a Christian lawyer if they wish to prosecute the perpetrator.

We will also work with the police and authorities to make them more aware of how they can enforce existing anti-GBV laws, by giving helpful education and resources to make arrests and taking cases to trial easier.

final beating from her “The husband left her maimed

“

Our partner in Uganda, the Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF), has been doing this for many years – helping women like Sarah*, who was battered for over 25 years in her marriage and had suffered in silence. The final beating by her husband left her maimed, with a dislocated spinal cord. Despite the horrendous abuse, Sarah was

reluctant to leave the marriage. Her husband was the breadwinner and she had no means of making a living for herself and her seven children without him. To leave would potentially have jeopardised her children’s education and her relationship with her husband’s family. Culturally, breaking her silence and involving her husband in court proceedings was not socially acceptable. It looked like there was no way out, but there was. UCLF helped Sarah report the matter to the police and obtain a divorce from her abusive husband. She was able to move out with her children and rent a small house.

She was encouraged to join a women’s group and start a small business as a food vendor in the local market in order to support her family. UCLF, through the Dignity initiative, will be continuing this life-saving and life-enhancing work.

Many women in Zimbabwe experience domestic abuse just like Sarah’s. In a recent survey in the country, 69 per cent of women reported experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime and 41 per cent of men admitted to committing IPV. Our partner in Zimbabwe, Family Impact, will be concentrating on helping families who have gone through it, enabling them to move forward.

of women experience “69% intimate partner violence

“

attitudes towards it. They will also be assisting victims through legal aid, so they can afford justice. Outside of education, AMAC will be empowering communities to report cases of GBV against women of all ages and to take action against the perpetrators.

“Unfortunately, prevailing gender attitudes are conservative and violence against women and gender inequality are generally not challenged,” says Lynne Knight, Family Impact Africa Director.

“Within the Dignity initiative we want to reach women, girls and families with the truth of ‘life in all its fullness’. What we have seen here over the last three years is that providing women with fairly basic knowledge has had an amazing impact and really freed them and in some cases saved their lives.”

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

11

One in three women will be a victim of gender based violence in her lifetime.

That’s one billion women around the world.

Another aspect of GBV is prostitution. For a few women it is a choice, but far too many feel forced into it or struggle to see other options. Some come to the city in search of work to escape poverty, and are lured into it. Others have been tricked by someone they trusted (shockingly sometimes by family members) and are trafficked to work in an industry which traps them and robs them of their dignity. Their bodies are commodities, sold at a demeaning price.

BMS worker Sarah Brown meets many of the women caught in the sex industry in Thailand as part of her job at BMS partner NightLight, which helps women escape prostitution by giving them a new trade like making jewellery or baking cakes. She says women who are trafficked are often duped into coming to Bangkok.

“They are subjected to horrendous violence when they come into Bangkok,” she says. “The countries they tend to come in from are Dubai, China and Malaysia. They are often raped, beaten and groomed into working in the sex industry.”

Sarah finds working with these women at NightLight hugely rewarding.

are often raped, “They beaten and groomed for

“

the sex industry

“It is a wonderful thing to be helping these women,” says Sarah. “There are many times I can’t believe that I am there, partnered with God, helping these women find freedom.”

The Dignity initiative will not only continue to support

12

bmsworldmission.org

anti-trafficking projects like NightLight in Thailand and Freeset in India. We will also be supporting a new project here in London called Ella’s Home. Headed up by former BMS and NightLight worker Emily Chalke, Ella’s Home will be helping traumatised victims of trafficking to rebuild their lives by offering them accommodation and care.

For Annet Ttendo (whose powerful story of gender based violence is on page 14) calling our BMS initiative Dignity has a powerful resonance. “We are all created in the image of God and we are all beings of worth,” she says. “You are worth something – that is what dignity means. It is going back to creation where God says what I have created is beautiful, it is good. It is that beauty and redeeming that beauty and restoration to the victims of abuse, that is really what Dignity is all about.”

Join us, as individuals and in your church communities, by choosing to avoid the issue of GBV no longer. Explore UK Christian attitudes to the issue with us, how the rest of the world thinks, and then start to address both. Together, let’s start to understand the realities for both survivors and those enduring GBV in all its forms. And let us respond by helping to put in place attitudes and structures which stand against the culture and patterns of GBV in a way which will be acceptable to Christ. In this, as in other areas, let us create a culture where we see everyone like Jesus does – beautiful and loved, made in the image of God. Join us, as we seek to make dignity a reality for thousands of women worldwide.

Words: Chris Hall

*(name changed)

TAKING A STAND AGAINST GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

What BMS will be doing to counter GBV

Enabling a co-ordinated education and advocacy outreach in Uganda (UCLF), Mozambique (AMAC) and Zimbabwe (Family Impact)

Tackling the problem through established BMS projects in Thailand (NightLight) and India (Freeset)

Co-funding the launch of Ella’s Home, a safe house and rehabilitation project in the UK

Raising support for mission personnel who are active in this area

Advocacy work as part of the We Will Speak Out coalition

Equipping leaders, individuals and congregations to understand the level of abuse encountered in communities worldwide, and to think through their response

Take a stand against GBV Sign up to the BMS’ weekly email update to receive Dignity updates, related stories and news of BMS Mobilise your church by using the Dignity DVD resource available from the end of October. It includes a theological overview of GBV

by Dr Stephen Holmes, small group discussion material from David Kerrigan and others, and stories that unpack how GBV is affecting women and girls in a cross-section of countries where BMS operate Join the BMS 24:7 Justice Partners scheme Get updates on the initiative by liking the BMS Facebook page and following our Dignity blog

For more information on all of these action points,

go to bmsworldmission.org/dignity

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

13

BMS WORKER PROFILE Annet Ttendo

I WEPT WHEN MY RAPIST’S FAMILY CAME

FOR MY

SON Annet Ttendo never thought she would turn 14. Being raped at a young age left her uncertain if she would live or die. Now, with a BMS World Mission partner organisation, she helps others get the justice she was denied.

”You could have an abortion and go back to school,” my devoutly Catholic mother said. When I was in secondary school, a stranger had raped me. No one knew, until my mother realised I was pregnant. Even today, I’m still surprised she gave me a choice. In my Ugandan culture, our parents tell us what to do. There are no equal levels where you would sit and discuss these things.

I asked for a night to think and decide. If my father found out, I’d be married off and my education would be over. He would not believe that I’d been raped. Then he would throw out my mother, thinking she had arranged the pregnancy to lower my bride price.

I could not sleep that night. I knew it didn’t matter if I kept the baby or not, there was no way I would survive this.

“Let me die honourably,” I told my mother the next morning. If I died while she helped me to have an abortion, she would be blamed and carry a stigma for the rest of her life. But, if I died giving birth, no one would blame her. So we made a plan.

Let me die honourably.

My mother and I confronted the family of my attacker.

Of course he denied responsibility. My mother threatened to take him to court. “You’ve destroyed my daughter’s education,” she said, angry and bitter, “you’ve destroyed her life.” Eventually, they made an agreement and talked out the details in front of me. They decided that I would 14

bmsworldmission.org

carry the pregnancy to term and after the child was born and weaned, my attacker’s family would support it and take care of my education.

Then, my mother found a friend in the next village who would hide me. “If God helps us and you live through the birth, then maybe you could go back to school,” she said.

I was 13 years old and so small. I never, ever thought I would survive.

My mother packed my things and took me to this village. That’s where I had the baby.

God lift up my head, make me somebody.

I raised him for a year and a half while I went to school.

I woke up early, fed him, changed his nappy, went to school from eight o’clock until noon and then I did the housework and my homework. This was my life until they came for him. But I’d grown so attached to my son. When they took him, I cried my heart out. I pleaded with them to care for him like he was their own.

When he turned four, my son was enrolled at my mother’s primary school, also part of the arrangement. She let him call me “aunt” to protect me. “Bond with him or he will never know his maternal side,” she told me. When he turned 14, I told him the truth, the entire story. I told him that his name is Ebo and regardless of the circumstances, he is my son and I love him. We are friends now and despite everything, I thank God for my son.

It was really for vengeance that I studied law. To me, seeing my attacker get away with rape didn’t feel like justice.

I told myself that if I studied, I’d become a lawyer. I actually wanted to be a judge, so I could get retribution against any sex offenders who came before me. I would be able to sentence them, even give harsh punishments, like death.

Another reason I wanted to study law was because I kept asking God to please lift up my head and make me somebody.

I’d been shunned by the village for being an unwed mother. Even while I studied, people would tell me, “You can’t go around saying ‘oh this happened to me’.

No one can give you a platform to tell your story.” So I always kept my head down.

My prayers were answered. I did become a lawyer but I realised that God wanted me to use what I’d learned to help people, not punish them.

Today, I am still humbled to know that God heard this prayer. I’ve only been telling my story for the past three years. Before, I was ashamed of what happened. Now, it feels like a burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

A burden has been lifted from my shoulders.

GOD TOLD ME TO

WORK HERE I almost didn’t stay with the Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF). I’d been given a two year position with the EU that offered five times the salary, a car, a television and a house. I had a week to decide and I thought I might as well try UCLF. The office was very small. I kept asking myself, “Is this where I want to work?” On my first day, a lady walked in and I started filling in her form.

I asked, “Who referred you here?”

“The Holy Spirit,” she said. After I’d written the words, I realised what they were. “Hold on, tell me the truth, who sent you here?” She looked at me and said, “I was told the person I’m supposed to see is going to leave.” That made me pause. I listened to what she had to say. During the meeting we talked more and prayed together. “You have studied law,” she said, “but God wants you to understand biblical justice, that’s what he’s teaching you. He wants you to go to different nations.”

The next day, after a colleague met with her they told me, “Annet, she is mad!” And that’s when I realised what God was telling me. I stopped looking for other positions. I’d found his calling for my life and UCLF is where he wanted me to be.

Annet is a Ugandan lawyer and BMS worker who began her work with the Ugandan Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity in 2006. In 2012, she moved to Mozambique to lead the launch of a BMS supported legal ministry there.

Annet Ttendo was talking to Vickey Casey

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

15

GARDEN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS

DON’T ABANDON YOUR GARDEN THIS AUTUMN AND WINTER. BMS MISSION WORKER AND PLANT PROPAGATION EXPERT SARAH MCARTHUR GIVES YOU ADVICE ON HOW DOING A LITTLE EACH MONTH CAN DO WONDERS.

P

eople say gardening is relaxing, but if you don’t know what you’re doing it can be quite overwhelming. So where do you start? Don’t panic, just make yourself up a chart or wheel to help guide you in all the tasks needed in your garden and enjoy the great outdoors. Below are my tips for keeping your garden ticking over in the next six months:

OCTOBER Clearing up fallen leaves regularly is a must so as not to spread diseases. It will also make great leaf mould later on for your garden. Plant spring-flowering bulbs with the anticipation of an amazing show. It is a good idea to raise patio containers onto bricks or pot feet to avoid them sitting in water or cracking. Stop feeding plants this late in the season, as this will encourage soft, sappy growth that is easily damaged.

NOVEMBER Bare-root deciduous hedging plants, trees and shrubs are available now. They are a better, cheaper way to fill your garden. They can be heeled into the soil for a short period if conditions are not suitable for planting. It is also an ideal time to plant roses.

16

bmsworldmission.org

© Paul Maguire - Fotolia.com

YOUR

© shootingankauf - Fotolia.com

This is also a good time to transplant trees and shrubs growing in unsuitable positions. Pruning and renovation of many deciduous trees, shrubs and hedges can be carried out from now on throughout the dormant season.

DECEMBER Check that greenhouse heaters are working and add insulation if needed.

Prune apple and pear trees and also acers, birches and vines before Christmas to avoid bleeding. If you did manage to plant some veg, they should be ready for harvesting so leeks, parsnips, winter cabbage, sprouts and remaining root crops can be picked and stored for a later time. If there is snow in your area, then you may need to brush it off plants so as not to damage branches.

JANUARY Dig over any empty plots that have not been dug already, as the frost will help break down the soil. You will need to firm back any new plants that may have been lifted by frost or strong winds.

Now is also the time to prune ornamental vines, ivy, Virginia creeper and Boston ivy. It’s a good idea to keep them back from your windows and other structures.

FEBRUARY You can start to prepare vegetable seed beds and sow some vegetables under cover in warmer areas. Make sure to net fruit and vegetable crops to keep the birds from getting all your hard work. Prune hardy evergreen hedges and overgrown deciduous hedges. Cut back deciduous grasses which were left uncut over the winter for decoration. Lots of summer-flowering deciduous shrubs can be pruned between February and March – usually those that flower on their current year’s growth.

MARCH It’s time to get busy! Protect new spring shoots from slugs and late frosts if you live in the north of the UK. You can plant shallots, onion sets and early potatoes in southern regions. Summer-flowering bulbs can be planted and it is a good idea to lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials for a better display in the coming year. Weeds are starting to grow again, so deal with them before they take over.

To give everything a boost start mulching and feeding shrubs, trees, hedges and climbers.

From Perthshire to Peru: Sarah Mc Arthur will be using her plant knowledge she developed in Scotland in the Amazon jungle with BMS.

Sarah McArthur:

Planting seeds in people’s lives I have been working in garden centres and garden nurseries for over 15 years and for the last five years I was a plant propagator at Glendoick Gardens in Perthshire. My general job included propagation from cuttings, seedlings and grafting. I loved my job and working outside in the amazing surroundings I felt was such an honour. I looked after plants in the nursery, watering, feeding, planting and pruning.

I now find myself in Peru with BMS, just finishing up my language learning and getting ready to head off into the Amazon jungle. I have been asked to be involved with various tasks, including planting of vegetable gardens, propagating cashew trees and some teaching along the lines of creation care.

I love to teach people about plants and how they grow as I see God’s amazing creation through it all. To be able to work in the Amazon is such a blessing and I believe it will be more about learning from the locals than anything else.

Plant pots and garden gloves: © Africa Studio - Fotolia.com Digging garden: © Monkey Business - Fotolia.com

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

17

TOP TEN:

BMS artefacts From swords to journals and deathbeds, you might be surprised at what you’ll discover in the BMS Archives! We took a trip to find out just what quirky and captivating treasures they hold.

Here are our top ten artefacts:

1 Medallion made from the hair of founding BMS missionaries in India A serene island scene formed from the hair of William Carey, Joshua Marshman and William Ward – yes, seriously, that’s their hair.

3 Bangladeshi school children’s paintings Beautiful artwork from Immanuel Baptist Church, Bangladesh, sent to BMS in 1965.

2

4

Chinese and Indian medals Medal of the Fifth Order of the Tiger presented to a BMS missionary by the Chinese government for caring for wounded Chinese soldiers.

Grenfell’s pioneering Congo maps

Modern-day River Congo maps are based on these, drawn by BMS missionary George Grenfell. He was the first person to map many of the tributaries of the Congo Basin.

Kasir-i-Hind silver and gold medals presented to remarkable BMS doctor Ellen Farrer in the early 20th century, for her services to India.

5 Lantern slides from Burma Scenes captured by BMS missionaries in Burma between 1910 and 1916 are contained within these fragile glass sides.

18

bmsworldmission.org

7 The Careys’ teapot No Englishman’s home is complete without a tea set, and legendary BMS missionary William Carey was no exception. He and his family brewed their tea in India in this extraordinarily well-preserved teapot.

6 Bamboo book Bamboo leaves, now partially eaten away, make up the pages of this 19th century book from India, which is fastened with string. The script is still decipherable.

8

10

‘PEACE’ from legendary BMS boat

Letters from The Peace, the steamer George Grenfell used as he explored the River Congo, assessing the best locations for mission stations and laying the foundation for Christian witness in tropical Africa.

Angolan swords Still scarily sharp, these swords belonged to Rev Sidney Bowskill – a Baptist missionary with a bit of a rebel streak, who got into a few scrapes during his time serving with BMS in Africa.

9 First ever BMS minute book Written, with excellent penmanship, on October 2, 1792, this book contains the accounts of the very first meeting of the ‘Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel amongst the Heathen’ – as BMS was once known.

Fancy a private tour of the BMS Archives and lunch at the historic Regent’s Park College?

For your chance to win, take a BMS selfie (a photo of you reading one of our publications) and email it to magazine@bmsworldmission.org The more creative the better! You could even earn yourself a spot in the Archives as well as win a tour of them.

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

19

Q&A

THE BIG INTERVIEW BESTSELLING NOVELIST FRANCINE RIVERS ON CHRISTIAN ROMANCE, TABOO TOPICS AND WRITING GOD’S STORY

RIVERS Q

Francine Rivers captured the hearts of over one million readers with her 1991 novel Redeeming Love – a poignant retelling of Hosea and a profession of her newfound Christian faith. A New York Times bestseller, Rivers has won critical acclaim around the world, has written over 20 bestselling Christian novels and speaks to BMS.

20

bmsworldmission.org

You talk about being a Christian writer rather than a writer who happens to be a Christian.

How did you choose between the two?

A

I worked in the general market for years writing historical romances before I became a Christian. And then God took writing away from me for about three years. I think God was saying that I had an idol in my life, and that idol was writing, because I felt like I had control of it.

Hosea changed everything for me – I saw how much God loves us through that story. Out of that came Redeeming Love, which changed the whole direction of my writing. My writing now is a form of worshiping God and a way to go before him and try to find out what his perspective is about issues that I’m not sure about. About questions I can’t answer.

My whole focus and the entire structure of my novels has to do with Christ.

He is the centre. It’s a completely different way of writing. When people pick up a book, they know that I’m a Christian and I’m going to be writing from a Christian point of view. And that comes into play for all the characters, because God is God of everyone whether they believe in him or not.

Photos by Elaina Burdo © 2014

FRANCINE

There are elements of romance, from your earlier writing, in your Christian novels. Do Christians have something special to bring to the romance genre?

Well, we have the Lord and I think the world is hungry for the kind of love God offers and the kind of direction that he offers. Every other religion in the world requires people to earn their way to a higher plane. But Christ, he did it all, it’s a free gift.

What’s your latest book, Bridge to Haven, about?

Why do you think it’s important to interpret the Bible through fiction?

Reading the Bible is really like reading a newspaper today, because you see that mankind hasn’t changed at all. We’re still the same as we were in the Garden of Eden, and so the lessons in the Bible are as important today as they were thousands of years ago. That’s why it’s important to tell the stories. Of course I’m fictionalising them, so my point of view is just one person’s point of view, but hopefully it’ll create a thirst in people who are reading the stories to go dive in the Scriptures themselves.

The intent of Biblical fiction, I think, is to get people back into the Word.

It’s not to replace it, it’s to make people look at it with new eyes and study it for themselves.

I FELT LIKE GOD WAS RIGHT IN THE ROOM WITH ME, TELLING ME THE STORY

The plot line comes from Ezekiel 16. I started out to write an allegory but then I realised very quickly that it’s impossible to present God as a character in a book, it just doesn’t work! But it is about a pastor, his son and this town, Haven. A little baby girl is found under the bridge, abandoned there. And the story centres on her and her struggle to find out: who is she? Is she of any value?

It’s about how God works in very different ways. Sometimes he works through our pain and our mistakes and sins. He can use all that as a way to draw us back. Sometimes the worst stuff we experience ends up being the greatest blessing in our lives.

You write about some really harrowing subjects. What’s that like, and is there anything you wouldn’t write about?

With Redeeming Love, the hardest part for me was to write the beginning of the book about the child abuse. It was difficult for me to get into [Angel’s] mind, painfully so.

You get so involved with your characters, you experience what they do as you’re writing about them and they kind of take over the story. Sometimes, I just have to get up and walk away, read something else, go out for a ride, watch movies, decompress. But then sometimes you have to stay in that in order to keep the story going and bring it through. Redeeming Love, as hard as it was to write, was probably one of the most exciting years I’ve ever spent as a writer, because I felt like God was right in the room with me, telling me the story, telling me his story – because it comes straight out of Scripture, from Hosea. It was just really an incredible experience.

As far as topics that I wouldn’t touch, there are some things, like sex trafficking, that I don’t think I’d want to go back to. I’ve done a lot of reading and research about it and I’m involved in a ministry locally. It’s not that I wouldn’t tackle it because it’s too hard to write about or because it shouldn’t be presented in a book, I just don’t feel drawn to it at this point.

It would be nice to write a comedy. I haven’t done that.

Why do you think God has given you the gift of writing?

I think he’s given it to me, number one, to draw me close to him, because I can’t do what I do without staying in a close relationship with him.

And he takes it from there, because people learn things from my stories that I didn’t put in them, which is kind of fun. So once I do the work I hand it over to the publisher and then whatever happens, happens. And then I don’t read the books that I’ve done in the past, I move on to the next project.

What one message would you pray people would take away from your books?

It would be that no matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve fallen, God is waiting for you to come back to him.

That he offers grace upon grace. The bottom line of most of my stories is that people are flawed and they sin and they fall down, but you can still go back to Christ. There’s no unforgivable sin except rejecting him and rejecting what he offers you. The door is always open.

Francine Rivers was talking to Sarah Stone

Francine Rivers’ latest book Bridge to Haven is available to purchase now from Tyndale House Publishers.

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

21

OVERSEAS PARTNER

Carla Cruz

FROM LOST SHEEP TO SHEPHERD NOT EVEN DEPRESSION COULD PREVENT CARLA CRUZ FOR FULFILLING GOD’S PLAN FOR HER LIFE.

“T

he Lord brought me to his feet eight years ago through a crisis in my life when I suffered from depression,”says Carla Cruz, a single mother from Cuzco, Peru. After years of struggling, Carla found purpose and vocation in the Church and is now a BMS World Mission supported partner worker.

In 2009, after leaving a church, she was looking for a place to worship. She was introduced to BMS mission workers Anjanette and Scott Williamson through their Radical Peru team of young people. Since then, Carla has been deeply involved in the ministry at Scott and Anjanette’s El Puente Church. She works with the young people and children through Qhali Winanchis, El Puente’s

Pre-order your free DVD now at bmsworldmission.org/dignity

22

Dignity Advert.indd 1 bmsworldmission.org

social project; and helps with administration and leading ladies’ Bible studies. When the Williamsons leave in December, Carla and another BMS supported partner worker, Amilcar Pantigozo, will take over the church’s leadership.

To improve her ministerial abilities, the church supported Carla’s studies. Last year, she completed a Bachelor’s degree at a Seminary. Now, thanks to financial support from BMS, she is studying the New Testament at a Master’s degree level at the Seminario Evangélico de Lima.

Carla is looking forward to her new responsibilities and hopes to meet the standards that Scott and Anjanette have set. “They are not just our leaders, but an important part of our family,” says Carla.

Think further at the Dignity blog: dignity-gbv.tumblr.com

08/08/2014 09:35

CONTINUE EARNESTLY IN PRAYER, BEING VIGILANT IN IT WITH THANKSGIVING (COLOSSIANS 4: 2 NKJV) We would encourage you to photocopy this page, or to cut out the sections to use in your regular prayer times.

PLACES: France There are a few cultural differences between us, but life over the Channel isn’t too dissimilar to that in the UK. The opportunities for mission are there, but there are obstacles to overcome.

In France the state will run social programmes that churches may do in the UK. As a secular country, it is suspicious of the Church’s involvement in local communities and often bureaucracy can get in the way. Christians must find innovative ways of communicating the gospel to a fairly affluent and self-reliant western culture which does not naturally embrace spirituality.

PROJECTS: Dignity

PRAY FOR: • The French Baptist Federation as it encourages churches and church planting initiatives • The challenge of political extremism and social divisions between ethnic communities • BMS workers Claire-Lise and David Judkins, John and Sue Wilson, Phillip and Vivienne Hatton and Philip and Rosemary Halliday

bmsworldmission.org/dignity

We may not know it, but we have all met people who are victims of gender based violence (GBV). A staggering one in three women worldwide have suffered from some sort of abuse, and sadly that statistic doesn’t change within the Church. It’s not an easy subject to talk about, but it is one that we can no longer ignore. For us, it is a fundamental issue of justice.

This autumn, BMS is launching the Dignity initiative at the Baptist Assembly in Scotland. Our aim is to raise awareness of the issue and resource churches to take a stand against it.

PRAY FOR: • BMS workers around the world involved in tackling GBV • Open hearts and minds in our churches as the issue is raised • The millions of people who have been victims of GBV – for healing, forgiveness and protection in the future

PEOPLE: Kathmandu International Study Centre staff Kathmandu International Study Centre (KISC) is an international Christian school which mainly teaches the children of mission workers from around the world. It has been transformed over the years from a failing secondary school into one of the best educational establishments in Nepal. KISC also runs a training programme for Nepali teachers.

There are a number of staff changes underway at KISC. Up until June this year, BMS worker Judith Ellis was principal. Dan Parnell, another BMS worker, will be taking over as school director this autumn in an interim capacity.

Get regular prayer points and resources from BMS at bmsworldmission.org/prayer

PLEASE PRAY FOR: • Judith as she settles back to life in the UK and Dan as he takes over • The teaching and training staff: for strength, wisdom and encouragement • The children who study at KISC, that their lives will be enriched both academically and spiritually

Aidan Melville is sub-editor for the BMS Prayer Guide

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

23

LEARNING (AND TEACHING)

THE LINGO LANGUAGE IS KEY IN MISSION, WHETHER YOU ARE LEARNING OR TEACHING.

Parlez-vous Anglais? Habla usted Inglés? That may be the level of your language skills when going on holiday, but if you were to move overseas and to serve in mission, you would need to know a lot more. If you were to become a BMS World Mission worker, you would need to embark on some language training.

Brad and Ruth Biddulph were BMS mission workers in Zimbabwe but are currently in France, where Brad is learning French at Massy Language School so that in 2015 they can go out to serve in Frenchspeaking Guinea. For Ruth, who is fluent in French, language learning is no problem. For Brad, it is incredibly hard.

“Learning a language is very difficult for me. It is a daily struggle,” Brad admits. “I’ve never been good at French.

In school it was my worst subject. I spent more time in the corridor than in the classroom.”

Philip Halliday, BMS Regional Team Leader for Europe, Middle East and North Africa, was at Massy 20 years ago and has served in France ever since. He can relate to the struggle language learning can be.

“The people that come to study here [Massy] have been very competent professionals and then they are reduced to being like children, barely ordering anything or saying anything,” Philip says.

Despite the difficulty, as with all things, the more you practise, the easier it becomes. With BMS you learn the language where it is spoken, so you can put into practice what you learn in the classroom outside of it. Jemima*, a BMS worker in Afghanistan, found this when she was first learning Dari.

“The exciting thing that I found would be that we would be learning words that morning and going to the bazaar, the local market, in the afternoon and you would hear that word and say, ‘Oh I just learnt that word and I have just heard it,’” Jemima says.

It is not only learning the language but also understanding the context in which it is used locally.

Mark and Suzana Greenwood have found this as BMS workers in Brazil.

“Suzana worked in community health in Ceará, and constantly had to battle with the use of otherwise ordinary words to describe certain health conditions or procedures,” says Mark. “These words were quite often based on a different cultural understanding of what was happening to the person physically through the illness or procedure. A simple example would be that the exact same phrase for a woman making a phone call in the south of Brazil means a woman being sterilised in Ceará (fazer ligação – literally, to make a connection).”

All agree that despite it being difficult at times, language learning is essential for mission.

“It’s absolutely critical. It is non-negotiable – you have to be good at the language if you want to communicate with people,” says Philip. * Not her real name

24

bmsworldmission.org

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES

© aaabbc - Fotolia.com

Teaching English overseas

Jemima agrees. “However much it takes, try and learn the language and then you can communicate at the heart level,” she says.

Brad is determined to keep going, however hard he finds it.

“I know there is a goal to this and the ultimate aim is to get out to Guinea and be able to communicate properly,” says Brad. “It is something I have to do and I will do it because of that.”

TEACH ENGLISH FOR BMS You don’t need any previous experience. You learn as you go and all you need to know is the language you have spoken all your life.

Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) is something you could do, and here at BMS we are keen for more to offer to serve in this way.

Dave and Jenny Mewes have been teaching English at a college in China for BMS since 2012. They did an extensive TESOL course for six weeks before they went. Although it was hard work they found it very easy to pick up.

“You don’t have to be a teacher before you start,” says Dave. “Neither Jenny nor I were teachers before we started. And they do teach you how to teach. I can’t recommend it more highly.”

Dave and Jenny teach up to 90 students at the college at one time as well as teaching some of the teachers in

Are you a native English speaker? Are you able to communicate and teach others? Are you prepared to undertake a four week TEFL/TESOL course? If so, we are looking for short-term volunteers (min three months – one year), mid-term volunteers (two to four years) and long-term mission workers (four years+) to teach English and share God’s love in a variety of contexts. We have opportunities in China, North Korea and Afghanistan that need to be filled today.

repared to put in the hard work P to learn a language?

We need project managers, palliative care workers and teachers for Tunisia and doctors and surgeons for Chad, willing to learn French and Arabic. We need teachers, development and health workers for Afghanistan, willing to learn Dari. We also need church planters for Thailand, willing to learn Thai and business leaders, teachers and pastors for Bangladesh, willing to learn Bangla.

To find out more go to bmsworldmission.org/opportunities

much smaller groups. Despite the huge numbers in their classes, they do not find controlling them an issue.

“You are almost automatically given status and respect as a foreigner and a teacher. You are instantly an expert.

It is a good place to start,” says Jenny.

The response they have had from their students and the local community has been very positive. Language learning has allowed them to build relationships quickly.

“People really value the fact that we are here to stay,” says Dave. “Random people come up and say ‘thank you for coming to help us’.”

“You get lots and lots of opportunities to share your stories,” says Jenny. “We have made some really good friends here.”

Interested in teaching English overseas with BMS? We would love to hear from you!

Go to bmsworldmission.org/opportunities to find out more.

For stories about the lighter side of language mix-ups, go to bit.ly/Vm0sup

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

25

IDEAS FOR

YOUR CHURCH ACTIVITIES

Introducing KIDS CARE We would like to introduce to you the very first issue of KIDS CARE, our new, downloadable resource for children and young people.

We know that many of you have used FACE (which KIDS CARE replaces) for inspiration over the years and all of the previous issues will still be available to download from the BMS website. Produced with Canadian Baptist Ministries, KIDS CARE will be a new and exciting magazine with stories featuring incredible mission work from all over the world and a range of fun and engaging activities.

In the first edition, Little garden in the heart of Africa, we will be learning about some of God’s beautiful creations. Focusing on Uganda, young people will have the opportunity to illustrate things they are thankful for, search for hidden words, sample delicious natural delicacies, learn what Ugandans their age are thanking God for and try their hand at cooking and fundraising in their own version of MasterChef.

To download the exciting first edition of KIDS CARE, go to bmsworldmission.org/kidscare

CHURCH PARTNERS

Case study: Moriah Baptist Church, Risca We spoke to Marc Owen, minister at Moriah Baptist Church, about how his church has engaged with BMS Church Partners.

Why BMS Church Partners?

We wanted to raise the profile of overseas mission, BMS in particular, in the life of the church.

How did the partnership come about?

In conversation with BMS, we began looking for the right project to inspire us, not necessarily the most attractive one, but where the need was great as far as we could see. We then had a visit from a BMS nurse serving in Chad, Rebecca North. What she shared captured us and moved us to tears. Chad was for us!

So we have a health partnership, with the Chad hospital as our focus and we have three mission partners: the Hotchkins, the Whites and of course, Rebecca North.

26

bmsworldmission.org

How’s the partnership gone over the past 12 months?

Many of our folk are involved in healthcare, so it has captured the church’s heart. Our partners keep us up to date. We are now asking: if we can make a difference over there, what difference should we be making over here?

What’s next for the partnership?

We are exploring the possibility of sending a team to serve there and see our partners at work.

BMS Church Partners will work for your church too. You can also add further partners to your existing portfolio.

Get in touch with the Church Relations team today!

Tel: 01235 517600 Email: churchrelations@bmsworldmission.org

CHURCH SERVICES

A wonderful Christmas gift

Top Tips

This year, double up your Christmas gifts.

for requesting a mission worker as a BMS Speaker

Give both a well-chosen present for a friend or loved one and the priceless gift of healing and opportunity for a child from an impoverished family, by using a BMS Child’s Life gift tag.

You have just heard that your mission partner is available for church visits in six months’ time. What should you do?

• C heck the deadline date so that you get your request in on time. Please use the online form to make your request: bmsworldmission.org/speakers • U se the time before the deadline date to talk to others in your church and other churches that could be invited or would be interested in joint events.

• N early everyone asks for a Sunday so consider how you could use visits on different days in the week: informal gatherings in small groups are great for building deeper relationships.

• K eep your plans flexible so we can group visits to churches in an area and reduce travel time.

• I n the ‘Any other comments’ section, tell us if you are planning a special event, celebrating an anniversary or any particular reason for a visit.

• P lease make sure your contact details include your correct email address and a daytime telephone number in case we need to ask you anything.

We aim to give all partner churches a visit over time and your partner mission workers will want to visit you!

Every tag carries a donation towards BMS children’s work. One tag could mean a day’s schooling and a nourishing meal for a poor child in Africa or Latin America, or life-saving treatment for a vulnerable child in Chad.

Please support BMS children’s work by encouraging your church members to buy Child’s Life gift tags. You will be bringing these children hope and the tools to help them lift themselves and their families out of poverty. What a wonderful Christmas gift!

Have you got ideas?

We are always looking for new and interesting ways to promote world mission.

If you have a service idea or fundraising initiative that you have tried and would like to share, we would love to hear from you.

Just email: churchrelations@bmsworldmission.org or write to : BMS World Mission, PO Box 49, 129 Broadway, Didcot, OX11 8XA.

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

27

Opinion

PAY UP OR MOVE ON?

David Kerrigan General Director, BMS

SHOULD CHRISTIANS EVER GIVE IN TO CORRUPTION?

W

hat’s the difference between a tip and a bribe? Read on!

In November 1970, Bangladesh suffered a catastrophic cyclone. At least 500,000 people died.

BMS assembled a technical team, and in the years that followed they were involved in the building of cyclone-proof shelters that would enable whole villages to gather inside

Fiona Castle Speaker and writer

M

when future cyclones struck.

On one occasion an open boat full of cement sacks needed to be unloaded.

The labourers wouldn’t unload the cement unless they were each given money, even though the company had already been paid. An argument ensued, but the monsoon clouds promised torrential rain within the hour. The sacks would be soaked and the cement would dry as hard as rock. What to do?

In many parts of the world corruption is endemic, and it has consequences. A poor family paying a bribe to get a child into school, an everyday occurrence in parts of South Asia, will have less food on the table that month.

To have a visa extended, an import license granted or a driving license issued – pay up or move on!

Corruption exists in wealthy countries too. Corporations pay

bmsworldmission.org

David Kerrigan is General Director of BMS World Mission

RUSH HOUR CARE LET’S CUT SOME SLACK FOR OUR FELLOW COMMUTERS. WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH.

y brother-in-law was wounded that however well we think we know during the Second World people, there is always at least one War and, despite many aspect of their lives we will never operations, he was in pain and walked know. I often think of that when I’m with a severe limp people-watching on for the rest of his a train, or walking life. He was always along a crowded WHY ARE THEY positive and never London street.

FROWNING? complained, apart Why are they from one journey frowning? Why do WHY DO THEY in London’s rush they look so sad LOOK SO SAD OR hour, when he was or disconsolate? berated by the What is going on DISCONSOLATE? crowd for holding in their lives that them up when they makes them look so were running for the tube. He was worried? Of course we’ll never know pushed over, but eventually managed the answer to these questions, but to get on the train. He said to his we can share our smiles and we can abusers, “I can’t run, because I got quietly pray for them. We can show this injury fighting for people like we care in some way that makes a you!” Silence! positive difference to their lives.

I always remember being told This year we have been

28

sweeteners to secure contracts. You want to host the World Cup? Talk to some influential people – allegedly!

And ‘donations’ to political parties, whilst declared, are given to influence policy. We will never know the behindthe-scenes deals that occur as a cheque is handed over.

The Bible is unequivocal. “The wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice” (Proverbs 17: 23). So that settles the matter. Or does it?

Did our missionary pay the workers and get his cement out of the boat?

Would it help you if I said the answer to my opening question about tips and bribes is “About 15 minutes”?

What would you have done?

commemorating the centenary of the beginning of the First World War, when millions died or were injured or bereaved. Their lives were changed forever, even if they survived.

Jesus said: “The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.”

(John 15: 13 NLT) We might not be called literally to lay down our lives for others, but as we think of those soldiers, some from our own families, who did just that, let us be reminded to be kinder than necessary in the way we treat others!

Fiona Castle OBE is an international Christian speaker and writer. Her late husband Roy was an entertainer and TV presenter.

EVERYTHING COUNTS

Nabil K Costa Lebanese Baptist leader

WHAT DO WE CHOOSE AND HOW DO WE ACT?

W

e influence the community including western media and politics. more by the way we go I’ve learnt a lot from the life of about our day-to-day walk Nehemiah. Being genuinely Godthan by what we teach or preach. centred defined his spirit and attitude.

Everything counts – the way we do His resilience and wisdom, as well as things, the seriousness with which his hope and action, sprang from his we approach our relationship with faith in God and his God. He could have sovereignty, our chosen not to bother, NEHEMIAH view of the Church, after all the situation WAS ACCOUNTABLE was a mess and he each other, our ministry, the way TO GOD AND ACTED was away from home we handle finances, and on his own – or ACCORDINGLY. contemporary issues, was he? adversity… These To Nehemiah, his are avenues through faithfulness to God which our true theology and values was not an option. He knew he was are reflected, and so we end up either accountable to God. And as a good attracting others to our faith, or we steward of the resources given to him, simply drive them away. This is more he developed a clear-cut plan involving so in a context like ours in the Middle others, and together they set out to East, where often our fellow Arabs make it happen at all costs. associate Christianity with the West, It was never about him. It was

Lina Andronoviené Lecturer in Theology

H

© eugenesergeev - Fotolia.com

ave you noticed how easily we as Christians talk about God being the source of our happiness? And yet our reaction to single people in our midst suggests something different.

Single believers often encounter an assumption that single life is less happy by default than that of a couple.

always about God. Nehemiah was accountable to God and acted accordingly.

Is the world today any different from Nehemiah’s day? There are displaced people and communities still, homeless refugees, brokenness and suffering all around. Like sheep without a shepherd! Many wrestle with a deep sense of despair, disillusioned by systems and beliefs that they hold on to for years. We too are accountable to God. So what do we choose, and how do we act?

Nabil K Costa is the Executive Director of BMS partner the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development, a vice president of the Baptist World Alliance and a trustee of BMS World Mission.

SINGLED OUT CHRISTIAN ATTITUDES TO SINGLENESS NEED TO CHANGE, SAYS CATALYST LIVE SPEAKER LINA ANDRONOVIENÉ I suspect this will not be a surprise to many readers, but if it is, just sit one single person down and ask them to recount at least some of the instances where they felt excluded in the church life, were told “awww, your time will come, don’t worry”, or heard a prayer “for the sick, the shut-in, the single”.

So much for ‘being happy in Jesus’. Which, of course, is a problem, because it is so far from the way Jesus – himself a single person – thought about such things. And it is not by chance that the first Christians were considered to be ‘anti-family’ by the Roman Empire!

As Christians, we need to really look into our attitudes toward the singles in our midst. For one thing, this

group is experiencing an unprecedented growth in society, and with our focus on the family we fail singles in their search for God and God’s ways. But more than that, by holding on to our unacknowledged convictions about a happy and fulfilled life being found only in families, and by failing to live as if what we publicly proclaim were true, we also risk a serious detriment to our communal health and Christian witness.

Whenever we address each other as “brothers and sisters,” we must live as if we really mean it and include all in our churches.

Lina Andronovienė is Lecturer in Practical Theology at Scottish Baptist College and will be speaking at Catalyst Live on 23 and 24 October.

Tickets available at bmscatalystlive.com

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

29

Arts

5

Five minutes with...

JIM

WALLIS

US CHRISTIAN WRITER AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST JIM WALLIS TALKS PRESIDENT OBAMA, THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND OVERCOMING CANCER.

You are a spiritual adviser to President Obama. He is not doing well in the polls at the moment. Do you think he is misunderstood?

Well, we call each other friends, so that is the term I would use. I think he really believed when he came to Washington that he could help change Washington. I think he sees that as not likely now because it is so dysfunctional politically and the other side is blocking everything he wants to do. I think he is quite aware now of the limitations of his presidential power. He would be the first to say that it takes movements outside of politics to change politics.

Politics can get polarised, especially in America. How do you think this could be changed?

Politicians are more interested in winning or losing and blaming each other for the problem instead of solving it than they are in governing. I remember once I spoke to the World Economic Forum at Davos, right after the crisis in 2008. I said, “What do you do when the invisible hand of the market, to quote Adam Smith, let’s go of the common good?” How do you restore the notion of the common good in politics, in the market place and even in the churches? I’ve written a book about this recently and I think addressing this could really restore us to a better place. I think that could be in business, in government and certainly in our communities, our neighbourhoods and families.

Can social movements, like the Occupy movement for example, ever change anything?

Social movements are all that ever changes society.

Politics doesn’t by itself. The common good comes last 30

bmsworldmission.org

to Washington and London and Wall Street, it comes first in social movements. Things are often dictated by money and power. The only counterpoint to that is people. We will never have the money and power that the status quo has but we can mobilise people and energy and faith and leadership and we will sacrifice. That always changes things.

We see a lot of practical concrete examples of how social movements that have a spiritual foundation can really change and have changed the world.

Last year you had cancer surgery. Did that experience change how you approach life?

We would never see it, but a lot of us act like we are invincible, particularly us men. You realise you’re not, we never are and life is very frail and fragile. A friend of mine has just died of prostate cancer. His was not caught in time. Mine was and I am thankfully clear and very healthy. I think I value each day more and how precious each day is, particularly with Joy, my wife, and my sons Luke and Jack. It has made me more grateful, more thankful for life and how precious it all is which makes me want to fight even more for making a better life for more people.

Jim Wallis was talking to Chris Hall

Jim Wallis’s latest book, The (Un)Common Good: How the Gospel Brings Hope to a World Divided, is available from Lion Hudson for £11.99

REVIEWS

The Utter Relief of Holiness: How God’s Goodness Frees Us from Everything that Plagues Us John Eldredge Book

ISBN: 978-1444703283

Hodder & Stoughton £8.99 Rating: Holiness for many Christians conjures up very negative images.

What Eldredge does, in this very readable book, is retrieve the word from the religious Pharisees of our day and rediscover it as the process by which the Holy Spirit, with our co-operation, brings out the full colours of our God-created humanity. What I particularly like about this book is that Eldredge achieves this more human approach to holiness without ever relaxing what we might call good old fashioned morality. Indeed, in part one of the book, he seeks to expose some of the pseudospiritualities that are abroad at the moment, which teach that as long as one is sincere, or authentic, then it doesn’t really matter what we do. Eldredge demonstrates that such a casual, vague approach to spirituality fails to do justice to the rigours of Jesus’s teaching.

Having read Wild at Heart, and one or two other things that Eldredge has written, I was quite surprised at how different this book is. It is far more didactic than I was expecting. Yes, there are testimonies, and some paragraphs that are typically poetic. But essentially Eldredge has a doctrinal point to make, and it is one he makes powerfully.

Review by Ian Stackhouse, Pastoral Leader of Guildford Baptist Church

Arts

The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass – Adrian Plass and the Church Weekend Adrian Plass Book

ISBN: 978-1444745467

Hodder & Stoughton £8.99 Rating: In his sixth diary, Adrian organises the church weekend away at Scarleeswanvale Deep Peace Retreat Centre. The parody of Christian life is spot on, and Plass creates a host of relatable characters. The obnoxious warden Alan Varney and patronisingly whiny Minnie Stamp are balanced by wise owl Father John and Daphne Duphrane.

Plass is equally comfortable tackling subjects such as homosexuality and money as he is in dealing with life’s big issues: how vile it is to wash other people’s feet and the ridiculously small font size on name badges.

The plotline about daughter-inlaw Josey confiding in Adrian about a forthcoming doctors’ trip is truly touching.

Whilst I enjoyed Plass’ conversational style and quickwitted quips, I found some of his long-winded stories and tedious punchlines hard-going.

The humour did feel at times like an episode of The Last of the Summer Wine (minus someone rolling down the hill in a barrel).

Almost thirty years on from his first diary, Adrian Plass still has a knack of bringing the best out of humanity and weaving God’s truth into both the mundane and the marvellous.

Review by Andrew Dubock, Communications Manager of the international children’s charity Viva (viva.org)

The Paths of Grace Stuart Townend Album Integrity Music Rating: The Paths of Grace is the latest studio album by UK singer/ songwriter Stuart Townend.

Long known for his contentrich songs and theologically conservative lyrics (often written in partnership with Keith and Kristen Getty), the last few years have seen the musical development of one of this country’s leading contemporary Christian songwriters. With clever musical arrangements in songs like Good shepherd of my soul and Liturgy of the hours, and a sound reminiscent of both Rumer and Alison Krauss, The Paths of Grace provides an accessible sound and catchy melodic variety, bound together with lyrics that offer a rare profundity amongst the frequently bland and often banal offerings of contemporary worship music.

The first song, Promise of the ages, gives a strong musical opening (kudos to musicians and technicians for excellent production values), and sets the tone of the lyrical content of the album, which creatively explores themes from Isaiah 11.

A refreshingly creative setting of The Lord’s Prayer sits alongside songs like Streets of the city and An altar of remembrance, which could find creative use in intercessory prayer times.

This is an album to enjoy and a welcome contribution to any musical library.

Review by Paul Lavender, former professional musician and producer and Senior Minister of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Northampton

The Windrush Legacy: Faith in Migration DVD London Baptist Association Rating: Welcome the stranger, right?

Not exactly. In June 1948, 492 migrants, invited to these shores by the British Government, were at times welcomed, but too often made to feel unwelcome, second class or worse: “one of our women threw hymn books at the black guy”. The troubling thing is, many were fellow believers and those experiences were felt as they tried to participate in British Baptist church life.

This is a two-disc set, comprising seven documentary style video segments and a group study guide. Usefully, the study guide is included on both discs and also in print inside the box. Each segment responds to one of the questions that steers the user through these fascinating moments in British history. It’s a compelling story, largely told by those who have first-hand experiences to share.

Get past the slow presentation style and listen to those people share their stories of stepping from a ship from the Caribbean into a Britain dominated by post-war recovery and rationing. It was a difficult time. And is a story very worth hearing.

Review by Edwin J Penman, Church Relations Co-ordinator at BMS World Mission

AUTUMN 2014 | ENGAGE

31

NOW ANYONE AGED 18-23?

A BMS ACTION TEAM COULD BE THE EVERMADE: MAKE: BEST DECISION THEY’VE

We’re recruiting now for 2015/16

For more information go to facebook.com/actionteams or bmsworldmission.org/actionteams

UNIQUE. CHALLENGING. LIFE-CHANGING. AS A CHRISTIAN MISSION ORGANISATION WE AIM TO SHARE LIFE IN ALL ITS FULLNESS WITH THE WORLD’S PEOPLES BY: ENABLING THEM TO KNOW CHRIST, ALLEVIATING SUFFERING AND INJUSTICE, IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE WITH PEOPLE AS OUR PRIMARY AGENTS OF CHANGE – MOTIVATING, TRAINING, SENDING AND RESOURCING THEM.