Mission news

from The Call with Prayerlines Autumn 2021

Children in the Batwa community in Kisoro now receive medical care from Dr Nicci Maxwell

Uganda: Bringing healthcare to the Batwa community

Women and children from the often-marginalised Batwa community in Uganda are now accessing vital healthcare services, thanks to the efforts of the team at Potter’s Village in Kisoro, including mission partner Nicci Maxwell, who started visiting a local Batwa community prior to the pandemic. Knowing that Batwa people (a pygmy group forcibly evicted from their homes in the 1990s and scattered across the region) are often hesitant to accept offers of help from outsiders, Nicci approached with some anxiety. She was pleased when they responded with interest and good suggestions about what would be helpful:

“Within a fortnight we were up and running.” Nicci now describes the visits as a highlight in her week. This scheme is funded by an Australian church that has long had a heart for Batwa people. Nicci shared with her CMS supporters that five Batwa babies have been safely delivered and more and more children and pregnant women are receiving medical care.

A beacon of hope in Olinda

**O Farol church in Olinda saw hundreds of people vaccinated in their building while they couldn’t meet to worship in person**

As Brazil entered its second wave of COVID-19 in early 2021, shorttermers Becky and Evaldo Reid Rodrigues’s church, O Farol (“The Lighthouse”), opened its doors to the community as a vaccination centre for over two months, seeing about 100 people a day vaccinated.

Even though places of worship remained closed, this was a way to use the building as a place of life and hope for the city. With their pastor Anderson’s agreement, Evaldo spoke to the coordinator of vaccination operations at the Olinda city council, and suggested the church building as a vaccination centre.

Within a week, the church was preparing to receive people for their vaccinations and members of the church were signing up to volunteer as stewards, with Evaldo coordinating the schedule. As word spread, more people began coming to O Farol to be vaccinated, and the state news team visited the church twice.

Bean dream comes true

**The Sacred Bean cafe is a dream come true for pioneers Darren and Jo Howie**

In July, the mayor of Derby officially opened the Sacred Bean coffee shop in the city centre – a dream come true for founding pioneers Rev Darren and Jo Howie, who launched the Sacred Bean coffee roastery a few years ago.

Sacred Bean combines two of the Howies’ passions – delicious coffee and rehabilitation. Darren, who once struggled with heroin addiction, trains exoffenders, recovering addicts and other socially excluded people in the art of coffee roasting. Out of this, both a thriving ethical business and a community have emerged, where marginalised people are finding healing and purpose. Jo says her CMS pioneer training helped make this dream a reality.

Farming God’s Way

When COVID-19 was causing job losses and food shortages in local partner Rachel Karanja’s local community north of Nairobi, she helped them embrace Farming God’s Way to provide sustainable, long-term help.

Rachel had previously trained communities in this simple tool, designed to equip the poor to come out of poverty through biblical farming principles. Early in the pandemic, communities already using the method were able to donate food to needy families out of their surplus.

Rachel and her husband, Pastor Joseph, were able to train a group of local men and women in Farming God’s Way, and soon they were up and running. Although the farmers’ first project wasn’t a success, they kept at it and their harvests grew bigger and bigger. Through coming together to farm God’s way, members of this community have learned new techniques and harvested enough produce for each of their households as well as a surplus to sell.

**An impressive potato harvest for a community in Kenya**

Lamenting the loss of local partners

Partnering with brothers and sisters from across the globe in God’s mission is one of CMS’s great joys and it was heartbreaking to learn of the recent deaths of two longtime friends and colleagues, Dr Lalita Edwards (Pune, India) and Jean Bosco Tshiswaka (Lubumbashi, DR Congo).

Both showed remarkable compassion to people at the margins of society – Lalita among sex workers and their children as well as the transgender community, and Jean Bosco among children forced to live and fend for themselves on the streets.

Jean Bosco led Kimbilio, meaning “a place to go for safety”, an organisation offering shelter and education to homeless Congolese children, reuniting them with family where possible.

Likewise, Dr Lalita was director of Santvana, a home for HIV- and AIDS-affected children. Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of these cherished members of our global family.

New pioneer pathway puts African theology at the centre

Church Mission Society has launched a new route through our Pioneer Mission Leadership Training focused on the African Church and its impact on faith in the UK.

The first of its kind in the UK, the course looks at Africa as a creative, vibrant centre of Christianity and site of theology for the 21st century. Through the programme both African diaspora students and those from other ethnic backgrounds will gain an understanding of God’s work in Africa, and among African Christians in the UK and around the world.

Led by African scholars, students will study modules on African Church history, African Pentecostalism and African traditional religion, alongside modules in CMS’s existing MA in Theology, Ministry and Mission. The first student intake started in September 2021 – and applications are already being welcomed for 2022 pioneer.churchmissionsociety.org/ma (read more on page 20.)

From tourism to creation care

In the Philippines earlier this year, people were escaping the city and going to the countryside for day trips, even paying just to photograph a patch of sunflowers.

Mission partners Eric and Sandra Read, who equip churches in holistic mission and run a farm where they demonstrate natural farming models, hit on the idea of opening up their farm to the public to promote creation care.

With a new cafe in beautiful farm surroundings, Eric and Sandra have an ideal platform to teach and inspire people about creation care. Visitors can hear a short story about a particular aspect of creation care and see it in action on the farm.

“We hope we can encourage people to think of preserving and improving the environment as something enjoyable, as an opportunity and God-given responsibility rather than a burden.”

Congratulations

Congratulations to the ethical cleaning company Clean for Good, which won the Against All Odds Living Wage Champion award, for paying and promoting the Living Wage in a sector where low pay is sadly the norm. CMS is a founding investor in Clean for Good, which is based in London.

Please pray

Please pray for mission partners Bishop Nick Drayson (northern Argentina) and Joel Kelling (Jordan) who are both involved in conversations ahead of the upcoming Lambeth conference, planned for summer 2022. Pray that God’s mission will be on the Lambeth agenda and for fruitful connections in the conversations taking place.