Through the year, the Missions Group raises funds for our 3 'link' partners. In addition, the PCC allocates a percentage of a portion of its income as funds for 'Charitable Giving' from which the Missions Group distribute to the link partners......

• Burundi (via our Mission Partner, Alison and Paul Guinness)
• Family Support Work
• Friends of Mombasa Children

The Bible Society and The Children's Society also benefit from plate collections taken at one or other of the Christmas services.

A brief description of all the above follows . . . . . .

                                       NEWSLETTER January, 2020

Dear Friends,

Alison writes: Umwaka mwiza!  Happy New Year!  May we know more of God’s blessing in our lives as He blesses us to be a blessing to the ends of the earth.

Last Monday my parents left us, having joined us for a week’s holiday in Kenya.  They then returned to Burundi with us for one week: their third visit to Burundi, but first since I’ve been married.  Jeremy and Grace were delighted to have lots of time with their grandparents.  Over New Year, we’d attended a wonderful Bible Retreat just outside Nairobi with two families we are friends with in Burundi.

Just before Christmas, our former tutor from All Nations, Richard Evans (in above photo with Remy Havyarimana, new legal representative of PTI), came to stay with us.  He met with a number of mission leaders and leaders of theological institutions here, including speaking at an event hosted by Great Lakes Outreach.  Please pray for God’s guidance in any future mission training All Nations should help facilitate here.

This next month, Paul has further trainings organised with the two groups mentioned below.  We’re also looking forward to a pastoral visit from Phil Ratcliff from Brockley Community Church.

Paul writes: Thank you all for your prayers for the two new initiatives which started at the end of last year.  One was a workshop with a small grassroots mission agency linked to a church in Rumonge a Muslim centre in Burundi.  The other initiative was a different context but none the less exciting.  There is great openness amongst the leadership of this network of Pentecostal churches, centred particularly around another Muslim centre in Ngozi / Muyinga. 

Thank God for two good starts, opening the ways for the next steps.  Pray for how we set expectations and make something which can be owned by local leadership rather than seen as a project funded and driven from outside.  Pray that we would be listening to God’s Spirit in this pioneering work.  One answer to prayer and a real step forward was inviting a Burundian colleague to bring the challenge to the Pentecostal church leaders.  Though I’ve known Charles for several years, I had not realised how much God had been leading him in implementing the same principles – in helping local churches reach out effectively to cousins.  It is so much better for an insider to be challenging their fellow people.
 

Building and encouraging a local network

Yesterday I met with two friends and colleagues.  We discussed issues most passionate to me; yet I found myself only asking questions and listening to someone else presenting.  I joked with Alison that I hardly needed to be there!  This represents in many ways an answer to prayers.  Last year I was challenged that the best role for an outsider like myself was to network to bring together local people whom God is raising up as champions for this work of mission mobilising.  Now I feel amazed that God seems somehow to have been preparing different people and teaching them seemingly the same things He has been teaching me.  2 months’ ago, reviewing with our leaders, I expressed that the work that we were doing seemed so small and yet seemed to take up much of our energy.  Yesterday I discovered that God may have been preparing others to do not my training but their own.  In fact, a whole team of trainers.  Please pray with us for the Burundians whom God is raising up that we would be able to encourage, help catalyse and celebrate with them what God is doing.
 

Prayer points:

- Praise God for a really refreshing break and for Alison’s parents’ time with us on holiday and in Burundi.

- Praise for Paul’s encouraging times in Rumonge and with leaders from Ngozi / Muyinga.  Ask that the workshops will bear fruit as the churches seek to reach out to cousins in more culturally relevant ways.  Pray for the follow-up sessions on 31 Jan and 6-7 Feb and safe travel.

- Give thanks for Richard Evans’ visit and ask for guidance as to the ongoing support All Nations can offer to Burundi.

- Pray for wisdom in how we build and encourage a local network.

The January bulletin is now available and covers the following topics.....

•    Christmas 2019    
•    Easter Walk
•    Welcome to Jessica
•    Tesco Bags of Help
•    FSW in Action
•    Upcoming Events
•    February Lunches

View the complete January bulletin in your browser by clicking....(https://mailchi.mp/2f543ece72ea/jan20-3838417?e=9ccc8526a2)

SOME BACKGROUND NOTES.......

The Children’s Society has been supported by St. Peter and St. Paul since the time when there were two children’s homes here in Rustington - Fairlight on the Worthing Road and Carruthers Corfield House in Shaftesbury Road. Members of the church, who formed House Committees, visited these homes regularly. Fund-raising events were held to provide treats for the children.This continued until the early eighties when the homes closed and the charity started to focus on community care.

Minutes of a meeting held in 1980 record that although the local homes had closed, the “Appeal’s Committee” would continue to support the Society as it worked to help vulnerable children.

The Children's Society "Rustington Support Group" now hold four fundraising activities each year. The popular "Bake and Brew" Saturday morning events are held in the Spring and Autumn. A dinner or afternoon tea is held in the Summer months and in December the Children's Society host the Christingle Service at our church on a Sunday afternoon and this is always very well attended by children and adults alike. Since 1985, our Support Group in its various forms has raised in excess of £44,505.02 for the Society, and its work for vulnerable children and young people in England and Wales. The Support Group works very closely with the Society and its Relationship Manager for the Dioceses of Chichester, Guildford, Portsmouth and Winchester.  For more information about the work of the Children's Society please take a look at the website. www.childrenssociety.org.uk. Charity Number 221124.
 

                                                                                    Julie Churcher  16/5/19