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Missionarries
St Matthew's Mission Partners
We are committed to giving six per cent of St Matthew's regular
donated income to missionaries. Rather than give a lot of small sums to
a lot of organisations we give sums large enough to make a difference
to fewer
missions, choosing four as an appropriate number. We feel that this
would enable us to build up a link with each of the four missions.
We will put a slot for one of our missions in the church programme
every quarter so that in a calendar year each one of them gets a
special emphasis, perhaps by inviting a speaker or distributing
information or devoting extra prayer time to them. This will enable
most members of St Matthew's to know who our missionaries are and have
some idea how we are supporting them. Each missionary has a designated
contact person to promote the link with them. The Church Council has
decided to have three
of the four missions as ongoing commitments for the foreseeable future
and the fourth to vary from year to year. Each Mission is being sent
£1,500 in 2010 as their share of mission giving.
The four missions/missionaries we decided to support are:
Barnabas Fund: This organisation works with persecuted Christian
minorities all over the world, wherever believers are harassed and
oppressed. We sent them £1,500 and had a special emphasis on them
in the first quarter of 2010. Barnabas Fund is this year's annually
variable mission. For more information about the Barnabas Fund please
go to www.barnabasfund.org. Link person Michael Hazzard.
Paul and Lesley Evans: Paul and Lesley used to live in Walsall
and Lesley was a
 teacher in Blue Coat School. At present they live in
the Wirral when not overseas on mission work. They operate in Zimbabwe,
where Paul teaches at Harare Theological Seminary preparing future
Christian leaders who will play a key role in helping the devastated
country recover. Paul also goes preaching in Malawi and recently led a
very eventful mission tour of the Falkland Islands. Paul and Lesley
last came to St Matthew's in May 2010. For more information watch out
for their newsletters which will appear on St Matthew's website and in
Briefing Notes as and when we receive them. Link person Joan Nock. Latest News
Christ for All in Andra Pradesh: This is a truly awe-inspiring
work of God founded when Brother Azariah. He bought a train ticket with
all the money he had and got out where his ticket ran out. He preached
and more and more people were saved and healed; the work has progressed
to include building schools, orphanages, accommodation for the blind,
lame and elderly, as well as several churches. Gifts from St Matthew's
have led directly to providing water supplies and building one of the
churches. Although Brother Azariah died earlier in 2010 in a traffic
accident the work continues under the leadership of his successor, John
Mark. Link person Keith Masters.
Alison Giblett / CMS: St Matthew's has had a link with the
Church Missionary Society for some years and also with the South
American Mission Society which has now amalgamated with CMS. We
currently support Alison, a CMS mission partner who is seconded to work
with ISAAC, the International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition.
Alison is based in the Ukraine where she works with people addicted to
drugs and alcohol using a model pioneered by Jackie Pullinger in the
forbidden city of Hong Kong involving radical Christian love and
discipleship. Alison came to speak at St Matthew's in autumn 2009 and
keeps us well informed with her regular newsletters. Please watch out
for them in Briefing Notes and on this website. Link person Colin
Gibson. News, Oct 2011.
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St Matthew's Calendar |
Featured Events
A full list of events may be found on the Church Calendar above.
April 2012
Thursday 5 April
10.00 am - 1.00 pm
St Matthew's Centre
An fun event for children aged 5-11 years to understand the events of Easter week.
Entry cost £2 per child.
Places limited. Contact Liz Burley to book and register your child
07725 981956
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