Mission news

ReVive continues key care work The ReVive safe house in Olinda, Brazil, has been deemed an essential service, taking care of girls at risk. And even in lockdown, they are still able to work to get girls into families.

Only “essential staff” – the educators, technical team and management who are looking after the girls – are allowed to go to the house. Mission partners Andy and Rose Roberts, who founded and lead ReVive, report that they are able to do most of their work from home or online.

They explain, “We’ve managed to create a work pattern which minimises the time our staff work, to help the staff stay at home as much as possible. Staff members in the risk categories have been told to stay at home with full pay, as have our service providers (judo, ballet, etc.).”

In ReVive’s wider work, they add, “One of our oldest girls is about to return to her family and our youngest is about to start the adoption process.”

Tailor-made mission: Mwalimu, the Neema Crafts tailoring teacher, develops face mask designs

Court victory for indigenous communities in Argentina Indigenous communities numbering over 10,000 people in northern Argentina have won a landmark

human rights battle. The InterAmerican Court of Human Rights has ruled that Argentina violated the group’s rights and ordered specific measures of reparation, including actions for access to adequate food and water, for the recovery of forest resources and indigenous culture, ending a case which began over 50

Protecting medics and livelihoods Neema Crafts, led by mission partners Ben and Katy Ray in Iringa, Tanzania, have switched from crafts to making PPE for local

medical workers. The Neema Crafts Centre, staffed exclusively by men and women with disabilities, closed its cafe and halted production in its workshops at the beginning of April, because of the impact Covid-19 could have in Tanzania.

The team is now producing 800 masks, 120 face shields and 50 gowns per week from the safety of their own homes. The aim is to help protect the lives of front-line workers against Covid-19 as well as support the livelihoods of people with disabilities.

Ben and Katy said: “We are proud of how the team at Neema Crafts have risen to the challenge of producing PPE.”

years ago.

Mission partner Nick Drayson, Bishop of Northern Argentina, said: “Having worked for many years in northern Argentina, I am thrilled that this quiet, ongoing struggle for recognition of the rights of the original peoples to live without interference in these ancestral lands has finally borne fruit.”

Paul Tester, CMS mission development manager for Latin America, added: “CMS and SAMS’s mission work in Latin America began with the indigenous peoples.

Throughout its history CMS/ SAMS has stood with the indigenous peoples of Latin America as they have struggled to retain their land and ways of life without interference from outside.” Land rights landmark: standing with indigenous peoples in northern Argentina has borne fruit

Even before Covid-19, violence and a new Ebola outbreak were driving hundreds of families to Bisoke Balikenga’s peace centre

Danger in DRC Rev Bisoke Balikenga in DR Congo reports that at the peace centre he helped to establish in Bunia, more than 400 extra families are now

seeking refuge from local violent conflict. Bisoke is working to secure food, clothing, mattresses, soap and water for them. All this is difficult against a backdrop of rising costs for food and fuel.

Bisoke said he and his team are also teaching these displaced people about preventing coronavirus as well as Ebola, as there have been cases of each in the area recently. He asks, “Please pray that God brings peace in Bunia, that killing will stop and that needs will be provided.”

The violence has also seen a local evangelist killed.

Food banks helping more than ever At the end of March, the ABC (Asociacion Benefica Cristiana) food bank just outside Malaga was distributing food to 370

families locally. In just a month, 260 new families were referred to the service. Mission partner Sarah Yanez works with the food bank: “These families have lost their jobs because of the lockdown. Spain was coming out of a long crisis, and unemployment rates were very high already. But now suddenly all these small businesses, people who are self-employed, people who’ve got a small family-run business, all of a sudden have no income. And people do not have a cushion to fall back on. Many people are now going on a month with no income whatsoever. During lockdown, we have thankfully been given permission to continue working because the food banks are seen to be a necessity. We haven’t had to turn anyone away yet.” Savage hike in food bank interest: Sarah Yanez is helping to feed 260 more families

MON – AFRICA/UK

Please pray for Ann-Marie Wilson, founder and executive director of 28 Too Many, as she campaigns to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in the countries where it is still practised. Pray for God to use Ann-Marie in new ways as she cannot travel as usual at the moment.

TUES – OXFORD

CMS pioneer student Sophia Popham is a daughter, wife, mother, home educator, experimenter and vicar’s wife. Please pray for guidance, support and trust as she continues her studies and discerns what God is calling her to in her local community at this time.

WEDS – BIRMINGHAM

Ruth Radley connects with sick children and their families as part of Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s multi-faith chaplaincy team. Pray for her during this very difficult time when more families than usual are suffering and she will be called on to give even more of herself.

THURS – OXFORD

Please pray for the CMS staff as they have adapted to changing work circumstances. Pray for those juggling extra responsibilities with children or neighbours needing care; those finding home working lonely; those working harder than ever to keep everything working (especially the IT team).

FRI – SOUTHALL

Kailean and Kim Khongsai work in creation care in West London, including the Wolf Fields land transformation project. They ask for prayer as they plan to move from A Rocha’s UK centre (where they have lived for ten years) to their local church, St John’s Southall.

Teachers distribute

food in Pakistan

People in mission in Pakistan who would normally be teaching, either in schools or theological colleges, have turned their attention to food

distribution. Lockdown has meant many people are unable to work and are no longer earning – so are struggling to buy food.

After starting by producing 25 food packages in their local area, a theological college has so far distributed food parcels to more than 700 families and are receiving hundreds of requests through local pastors. The food parcels contain basic groceries, including flour, rice, sugar, tea, salt, lentils, chickpeas, pasta and cooking oil, and each provide for a family for 10 days.

PMC bringing peace A church in Oxford diocese has been creating space for five minutes of

peace – even in lockdown. As part of the Partnership for Missional Church journey, they had been experimenting with ways to engage missionally with their community and noticed the stress and pressure many people were feeling. Before Christmas, they found a keen supporter in the local pub landlady, and launched “5 minutes peace” in the pub – a brief stillness and meditation session, which references Christian tradition. Although initially well attended, numbers dropped in the new year.

And then “the world stopped”, as the vicar put it. She has carried on “5 minutes peace” on Facebook Live from her garden, and many are joining. She comments, “It is very much meeting a need for people at the moment.” They are now reaching far more people on Facebook and some of the community partners have started joining church services online.

Pioneer teaching goes online CMS’s Pioneer Mission

Leadership Training is continuing online this term – with teaching and discussion using video conferencing. This has made the training available to people further afield, with some new students in the UK joining, along with mission partners from Lebanon to Lima.

Bread of Life in Bolivia Mission partners Andrew

and Lisa Peart have been baking bread every week to give to those in need in their neighbourhood in Bolivia during lockdown.

Dreamers who do

CMS and St Alban’s diocese have launched a new hub for pioneer mission training. From September, this sixth regional hub will offer the CMS Certificate in Pioneer Mission to equip students for lay pioneer ministry and mission, and building church on the fringes.

Africa conference update The Africa forum are still planning

that the conference will be able to take place in November, depending on government health advice. The keynote speaker will be Canon John Senyonyi, chair of CMS-Africa and vice chancellor of Uganda Christian University. Check churchmissionsociety.org/ac2020

Locked in during lockdown

Mission partner Anna Sims was featured on BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship on 19 April, talking about prison ministry continuing in Peru with CMS link church Holy Trinity Platt, Manchester.

“... we rely on your support, we rely on your prayers and we rely on your generous giving.”

FINANCE UPDATE

As I write to you from my makeshift office at home I want more than anything else to say thank you for your support, for your continued giving and above all for your prayers.

It has been so good to be part of the CMS community during

this time of lockdown. Prayer, faith, relationships and action have been at the forefront of the CMS community’s response to the impact of Covid-19. Almost all our UK staff are now working from home and Zoom’s video conferencing software has become our newest and best friend. At the time of writing, we are uncertain of the impact this pandemic will have on our income, but we are forecasting a negative impact. For this reason, we have taken the difficult decision to furlough some of our office roles while we wait for lockdown restrictions to ease. We want to

BY CHARLIE WALKER, CMS DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND CORPORATE SERVICES

continue to be excellent stewards of all our expenditure during these uncertain times and focus it where it is needed the most.

As you will see in this issue of The Call, CMS people in mission are still following their call and doing remarkable, exciting mission in the UK and across the world. Our international team in Oxford are working flat out to support our mission partners, mission associates and local partners as they seek to serve their communities in need. Our mission education team are continuing to teach and equip our pioneers through the use of online tools.

So thank you, because we rely on your support, we rely on your prayers and we rely on your generous giving.

WEEKEND FOCUS

PROVOKED INTO DOING SOMETHING NEW Saturday–Sunday 6–7 June

BY JONNY BAKER, DIRECTOR OF MISSION EDUCATION, FOLLOWING A RECENT TRIP TO CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

I loved this street art of a quaking church in panic mode. I am sure it was terrifying to experience the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch when many buildings fell down. Even now, there are buildings being repaired and many empty pieces of land where buildings once stood.

Christchurch Cathedral was seriously damaged. While you wouldn’t wish a disaster on anyone, the earthquake was a provocation and an opportunity for creative thinking. And the church did get creative. A Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, designed Christchurch’s Cardboard Cathedral.

Church buildings all over the world have been off-limits because of coronavirus. We are having to reimagine how to be church, to connect and encourage community, worship, discipleship, mission.

Churches everywhere have been provoked, interrupted from business as usual. What are the creative and imaginative opportunities for churches? When the crisis is over, will we go back to business as usual or will we inhabit the new in an ongoing way?

7

Pray for

churches in the UK and across the world to see this season as an opportunity rather than a barrier. Praise God for creative new ways of doing church coming out of this time, and ask God for more.

PRAY