Prayer needed!

Pat admitted that she really struggled to learn Bangla – and when she showed us some of the written language we were all very understanding! Pat asked that we all continue to pray that God will help her with her language proficiency. Very little English is spoken or written in Bangladesh.

Pat, who worked as a nurse in Northern Ireland until 18 months ago, outlined how she had always wanted to work overseas but God didn’t call her. She then determined to move on in her career in the NHS and went on a course at University of Ulster in public health nursing. This, of course, turned out to be so useful when she was called to Jobarpar where she is attempting to train nurses and work with medical advisors and doctors. Pat has written a training manual and Biplob her driver and friend, is translating it for her into Bangla. Biplob not Diplack is my friend and not my driver who has translated my manual.

The other big challenge for Pat in Bangladesh is how often she has to travel in little canoes on water or cross rivers on flimsy bamboo bridges. She commented that God really has a sense of humour in putting her in this particular part of the world as she is really afraid of water. You think you trust me, He seems to say – try this!!

Doctors in Bangladesh

Pat said the nurses are poorly trained at the moment and there is no one to support them. She is trying to expand the community health programme. Health treatment in Bangladesh is not free and even poor people have to pay to see a doctor or nurse. Pat described how pharmaceutical products are often mis-sold to patients and outlined how one man, with an ear infection, was on 6 different drugs, 4 of them were different types of anti-biotic and none of them were actually suitable for his complaint. Pat is able to advise the local people about medication, but also to show them simple ways they can improve their health. Doctors in Bangladesh will not allow patients to ask any questions about their complaint or the medication they prescribe so Pat can talk to people and answer their concerns.

Pat has set up 3 mobile clinics in out-lying areas so that people won’t have so far to travel for health care and advice. The local people regard her as like a doctor because, with her training and experience in Northern Ireland, she knows as much as the Bangadeshi doctors.

Special needs child

One of Pat’s slides showed a child with special needs. The family had taken him to Dacca to see a doctor but couldn’t afford to do so again. Pat talked to them and advised them about simple things they could do to help him: to play with the child and talk to him. Also to encourage him to try to stand and strengthen his legs. The parents hadn’t done any of this but up till then had left him to lie in a corner with little stimulation.

Pat has also worked in a slum area with travelling people. She works with a women’s group on education and development work. She said very poor people want to know how they can keep their families well with the resources they have available. In areas like this illnesses spread very quickly without the right advice. TB treatment is available but medication has to be taken for 9 months and often people don’t stick with it that long.

Women at risk helped by MWI

Pat has also worked with women at risk of trafficking (because they are widows or their husbands have gone off and left them). The MWI had helped to buy sewing machines so that these women could be trained to make a living for themselves.

Very sadly, Pat, who is interested and passionate about palliative care, doesn’t have many medicines available to help people who are in pain or dying. She told us about how she had looked after an elderly gentleman in his final days and how she had supported his family. Pat is on Face book and when she wrote on her page about her lack of dressings little parcels started to arrive to help her with her patients!

Children called Patrick? The Pied Piper?

Pat has been asked to name children and Patrick is her favourite boy’s name. One child had a heart defect (leaking valve) and the parents had asked for prayer. Six weeks later he came into the clinic running and jumping and the family were delighted at all she had done. Pat said that at times she feels like the Pied Piper as everywhere she goes she is followed by children. She often has sweets to give them of course, but also her time, attention and love.

Girls Brigade joy

Pat spoke about the joy she gets from interaction with the local community in her compound and beyond and especially the children. She was a District Commissioner in the GB in Northern Ireland and wasn’t in Jobarpar long before she had joined the company there. She helps with worship and dancing and won’t ever forget the joy released when she first taught them – “Our God is a Great Big God!” She also has many little friends in the boys’ hostel in the compound, who she makes time for, usually between 4.30 and 5.30 every day.

What can we do?

Pat asked us to continue to pray for her work. At times she can be in very challenging situations and it can be frustrating when she sees how corruption is affecting the lives of people. Please give money to MMS(I) and get involved in mission trips to help Mission Partners.

“And if you can’t do it yourself – support someone who can!” said Pat.

Pat also expressed her great thanks to Rev Leslie Wallace from our congregation, who has loaned Pat his car for the duration of her furlough.

Future plans

Pat has a 3 year contract in Bangladesh and isn’t worried about the future. She quoted Jeremiah 29, verses 11-13:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” (New Living Translation)

Everyone had a very enjoyable morning and £284 was collected in donations for Pat’s work. Pat sent her thanks and said:

“You have no idea how far this money will go in my project!”

EP

Mission partner, Pat Jameson, will speak about her work in Bangladesh at our mission breakfast to be held in the Rank Room at 9:30am on Saturday 26 November. 

Please let Elizabeth Porter or Melanie McCloskey know if you hope to be there so that we can have enough breakfast for everyone.

Crown Jesus Ministries believe -
By working with churches the results are lasting, discipleship effective and the local church is left better equipped to reach the lost in their area.

It was at Bible by the Beach Conference 2010 that I heard John and Juliet Paculabo of Kingsway Music speak about Ray of Hope Amazon.

Juliet mentioned how they hadn’t been able to find a physiotherapist to work with children with special needs who lived in villages along the river. I immediately felt this was for me and spoke to Juliet after the worship event.
In April 2011, I flew to Miami and met up with a team of three American Paediatricians and one retired Paediatric Psychiatrist. As a team we immediately gelled together.
We flew onto Manaus on our twelve day medical trip. On arrival we were met by Gloria Santos, Director of Ray of Hope Amazon and her husband Patrick.
At Manaus, the Ray of Hope boat called Discovery was ready and waiting; a boat which is thirty years old and has some leaks in the roof.

As we boarded the boat we were greeted by the friendly crew including our captain and cook. The Discovery was our home for the trip. We slept in hammocks under mosquito nets on the upper deck and our dining area was on the lower deck.
All the clinics had been arranged by Gloria in villages along the Rio Solimoes, Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers. Two, sometimes three clinics, were carried out per day, starting at 8.30am and finishing in the evening about 6.30pm after all the patients were seen. Hundreds of people came with their families, some traveled by boat while others walked for miles through the jungle. Everyone   had washed in the river and put on their Sunday clothes to come to the clinics.  As we entered the villages we were welcomed by either the Chief or Pastor of the village and they always came back and thanked us afterwards. At one of the villages a lady

Chief said in her speech: “Thank you for coming, we are a forgotten people, we have very little, nobody cares, thank you for coming!”
Most of the children I treated were children with cerebral palsy. None of them had received any form of treatment or benefits. Some came with their fathers as the main carers, I presume the mothers may have died at childbirth.  Among other conditions I treated were men and women with severe back problems from lifting heavy weights such as tree trunks. As well as treatments, I had the privilege of praying with the patients as they asked for prayer or were offered prayer. Afterwards they would say they felt much better and I received many hugs with the request, “Please come back, please come back!” The people of the villages brought us gifts of coconuts and fish, which was probably all they had.

From the first clinic, I was aware of the love these people have for Jesus and the joy of the Lord which they share. I was humbled by the compassion being shown by Gloria and the Ray of Hope Team, as they reach out to a forgotten people with the gospel – by supporting pastors, building schools, feeding the hungry and giving these poor people hope for the future.
Gwen Patterson

Phase 1 of the planned leaflet distribution to homes in the area surrounding CMC was completed by the end of August. All the volunteers who helped reported a very positive and friendly response at most of the homes they called at. All enjoyed refreshments and fellowship back at the church halls after the leaflets and invitations to Back to Church Sunday were given out.
 

Back to Church Sunday is on Sunday 25th September, 11.00 am at Carnalea Methodist Church, Rathmore Road, Bangor. Everyone is welcome and it is hoped to have tea/coffee and refreshments after the service in the church halls. A display about the different Action Teams and organisations in the church will be on show in the halls too.
 
We look forward to meeting you!! Make a decision now to come to CMC that Sunday! You will be made very welcome.
 

During the week beginning 22nd August volunteers from Carnalea Methodist Church (CMC) will be calling on homes in the area around the church and distributing a new leaflet to tell people about what CMC as a church believes and about all the events that take place there each week. They will also invite people to 'Come Back to Church'  and issue invitations for 'Back to Church Sunday' on 25th September. This is a nation-wide initiative which has had a big impact in its 6 years.

  

• 3,500 churches took part in 2010
• Over 50,000 people came back to church
• 151, 548 people have come back to church since the first Back To Church Sunday

CMC also has a very active Prayer Team and people in the area will be given the opportunity to request prayer for their loved ones.
 
All those involved in the leaflet distribution will meet at the church on Monday 22nd August at 6.30pm and the leaflet distribution will continue all of that week. It is also possible that a second week of leaflet distribution and calling on homes will take place in September.

There have been some exciting things happening in Carnalea Methodist Church (CMC) in the last few years! This article aims to give you a flavour of them.

The society has gone through the process of ‘Clearing Our Vision’, initially under the leadership of David Millen from Ecumenical Ministries and with a ‘Vision Team’ of about 8 members of the congregation and Philip Agnew the minister.

At the first meeting David explained that COV was a tool to find a way from where you are now to where you believe God wants you to be. The question was: Where could we be in 5 years time with the resources God has given us? How do we get there? Very exciting!

‘May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ Romans 15:13 David thought nothing brings hope more than vision. When people are losing hope, what an opportunity to bring the hope of the Lord Jesus!

Six weekly sessions were held starting in February 2009 with 80-100 members of the congregation taking part each time. From these sessions a mission statement was agreed –

‘We live to glorify God and through the power of His Holy Spirit, develop followers of Jesus for service in our community and beyond.’

The ‘T-shirt version’ is ‘Loving God and Serving Others’ and the 4 Values are:

• God Centred
  
• Developing Followers of Jesus
  
• Everyone Involved and Serving
  
• Serving God and Others
  

Prayer underpinned the whole process with a Prayer Team being an essential element of the Vision Team. They organised regular praise and prayer events that leaders and members of the organisations were invited to participate in and which really informed and moulded progress. Nearly 2 years on a Prayer Action Team is up and running and in March they launched several new prayer initiatives, including prayer ministry after the Sunday service, a monthly Saturday morning prayer time for the work of the church and a prayer request box in the church foyer. On a weekly basis a pastoral prayer group meets on a Thursday morning in a home, prayer forms part of the Wednesday Midweek meeting, there is a prayer meeting before the Sunday service and an emergency prayer chain continues to operate as needed.

New Home Groups have also been in operation since last September providing an opportunity to praise God, share fellowship, discuss the Bible, pray, eat and drink together. While Philip has been preaching on the Ten Commandments the Home Groups have been talking about how these still apply in our modern society. It is hoped to expand these groups in the coming session. A ‘Freedom in Christ’ course has also been running on Sunday evenings and has proved an excellent way to equip Christians to grow in faith and freedom.

One of our Home Group leaders, Gwen Patterson, has taken up God’s call to go and use her skills as a physiotherapist as part of a medical team going to the Amazon region. We have supported her with fund-raising and prayer and look forward to the message she brings back to us.

A Fun and Fellowship Team has been very busy in the last few years organising a fashion show, comedy and music events and a play about Belfast during the Blitz. A proportion of the money raised at all events goes to mission projects. Tea dances started in September and have been a roaring success! Dancing classes are now running too and the crack is ‘mighty’ I’m told. A recent meeting of Team Leaders discussed how this dancing has proved to be a powerful way to attract people to our church community and is something that pastoral visitors have been able to suggest to people who have been bereaved or who have felt lonely or depressed. God works in many ways and not always in ways we plan. Those of us who have to work on Tuesday afternoons feel very deprived!

A Parent and Toddler group was started 2 years ago and now has about 50 parents and their children attending weekly during term time. Again this has been a great way of bringing young families into our church community and of demonstrating the love of God to others.

The Pastoral Action Team is working hard at assisting the minister with this important aspect of church work. Pastoral visitors have been recruited and trained and others deliver our magazine, visit the sick and elderly and new people who have come to church. This Team also organises the ‘meeting and greeting’ teams on Sunday.

A Family Support Group is also being run by one of our members with the aim of supporting families where there are problems of addiction to alcohol and/or drugs and also those affected by suicide. All issues are treated confidentially.

A Communications Action Team has been working for nearly 2 years on improving communication within the church and visibility of the church in the community. This lack of visibility was one of the important things revealed by the Community Survey we undertook before Clearing Our Vision. Photographs and names of Church Council members are now displayed in the church foyer and an introductory leaflet to CMC has been produced. There are plans to use a leaflet as a way of calling at doors in our local area in August to encourage increased attendance at our many organisations and our church services. We are also using our large illuminated notice board outside the church to communicate with passers-by and drivers about church events and challenging them with Bible verses and eye-catching posters and art work. We also send articles and photographs to our local papers too and last spring achieved a half page spread of photographs and captions about a fund-raising event for our Youth Mission trip to Romania.

On the agenda for Year 3 implementation is a Youth and Children Action Team. As a church we feel we are served by really good leadership and quality in our youth and children’s organisations. Around 300 children and young people come through our doors on a weekly basis. By the nature of such work leaders are always under pressure and could do with more help. In August our Youth Leader, Julie Nelis, leaves us after 4 years and we are in the process of appointing a pastoral and family worker.

Mission was one of the great emphases of ‘Loving God and Serving Others’. Despite that it is proving the hardest area to get off the ground in a structured way; the Mission Action Team is yet to function. CMC has and continues to engage in mission in all that it does to engage with the wider community at home and abroad. But there is so much more to be done in evangelism, witness, meeting needs and serving the wider community. The work of other Teams has meant greater contact with the community and interestingly exciting opportunities are being presented to CMC to engage in mission and work with other churches. God is in the driving seat!

EP

Introduction:

I wonder what you think of when you hear of Cuba? Castro, rum, old cars, sandy beaches, cigars perhaps? Certainly in March 2007 when I first heard of an opportunity to go to Cuba that is probably the general perception I had. That all quickly changed. Spending a month there in June of 2007 opened my eyes to the real Cuba, the real people of that country and what God is doing there. 

As a communist state, Cuba is still stuck in the 1950s, with generalised widespread poverty. This poverty is not on the scale of a remote tribe in Africa yet the destitution and lack of resources is ubiquitous. With all families subjected to a ration book for food barely enough to survive on, limited job satisfaction or income and little prospect of improvement, life in Cuba is generally quite bleak. A stark contrast to the jolly, relaxed Latin-Caribbean image presented by a propaganda driven government. Hope is something that is not viable for most Cubans, dreams are crushed at a young age and the main aspiration then becomes how to leave the country for a theoretically better life. The unfortunate thing is Cuba is a beautiful country, with beautiful people and land that if used better would be a holiday paradise. Cuba is a country defined by having two faces: the one the government wants to portray and the one that real people live in. So often we get taken in by the imagery. 

God at work:

However, God is at work here in this country. The Cuban church is growing faster and faster than ever before and the evangelical denominations, predominantly Baptist and Methodist are attracting more and more people to Christ. The opportunity for outreach is vast and the church has an amazing ministry meeting the social needs of the people where they are at. Pastor Raymundo’s church, Iglesia Bautista, Almendares (Baptist Church, Almendares) in Havana, Cuba is one such mission of God. Here under his leadership and guidance from the Lord they have grown from 150 baptised members in 2004 and are now 450 members in 2010, with many more associated with it. This is not without its risks though under a government that reserves a lot of animosity for the church. Raymundo deals with government informants in the church on a regular basis, and is caught in a constant tension between providing for his family, serving God and avoiding the inevitable persecution that comes from serving God in a country that is against Christianity. Nevertheless God’s grace unmistakeably shines through the lives of Raymundo and his wife Maria. The joy they have and express is an amazing testament to their trust and their “live by faith” approach to life. Literally every day is an act of faith, for God to provide electricity to run their house, to provide bread to eat, to provide water to drink and wash with – all commodities here but are greatly valued in Cuba. 

The team:

It was such a privilege to have the opportunity to serve there this summer in August 2010. Having contacted Raymundo in March regarding coming over to serve he instantly replied with “please come, and bring your team with you”. So began the process of recruiting a team and the result is as you see to the right (from L-R: Catherine, Heather, Gareth, Sarah, Chris, Sharon and Ciara). One of the main things we were there to do was to take a week of youth mission, this involved practical work with them in the morning – painting the interior of the whole church (ie the YF painting the walls of the church sanctuary in our money). This was amazing because it drew them into helping out in the church instead of hanging out on the streets during their holidays. This was followed by lunch with them and an afternoon of something more relaxed, an excursion to the beach, football and dominos or maybe some cliff jumping into the Caribbean Sea! Our days were finished off by evenings of bible study and activity centred on the “values of being a disciple of Jesus” – the word of God, evangelism, service, prayer and holiness, which when translated into Spanish becomes PESOS – interestingly their currency, the worldly values counter cultural to what the bible says! This ministry was particularly fruitful, with so many young people engaging in bible study, praise and prayer for and with one another, so much so that their parents were enquiring at the church to see what all the fuss was, praise God. Aside from this we took part in church services, shared at house churches, prayer walked and enjoyed much fellowship with our Cuban brothers and sisters.

Horror:

Apart from the government putting pressure on the church the other main area of challenge comes from “Santeria” – a local tribal religion that has become mingles with Roman Catholicism going back hundreds of years. Every day at a place called “El Rincon”, featured to the left hundreds of people come to offer sacrifices to saints for everything possible, disease, life situations, financial troubles, everything. A place that is beautiful decorated and ornate just stinks of evil and goes so far that on one day a year they still sacrifice children to one of their “saints”. What is perhaps most depictive of the spiritual forces at work is that at the main altar (features above) you may be able to make out the relatively small and insignificant Jesus on the cross to the bottom right of the picture. His relative insignificance to the other saints shows how badly twisted this has become. The main problem with this place is that is has become a business for both the church and the government, who conspire with Santeria to ensure some income for the government out of it all. So whilst a Cuban pastor will be arrested for preaching openly on the streets about Jesus stalls for Santeria are found everywhere in public. It is important to take heart from the words of 1 John 4:4, “You dear children are from God and have overcome them, because one that is in you is greater than the one that is in the world”. Amen. 

Learning points:

I think I am continually amazed by how God blesses us here on earth. Obviously from a summer where much of my time has been spent with those living in poverty I realise the physical blessings God has given us here in Bangor. However more abundant is the spiritual blessing that God gives people when they serve Him wholeheartedly. I would love to say I served Him wholeheartedly the whole summer but I did not, but when I did it enabled Him to bless me so much more because I was giving him my whole heart and not just part of it. Instead of coming back from Cuba spiritually drained from giving out I felt spiritually refreshed from God just blessing over and over again. A big part of this is how he blessed the team members, all the specific prayer points I had for the team members were answered out there, things which were pretty spectacular to witness, and a true testament to the discipling experience of being missional like this in both thought and action. 

Pastor Raymundo is a great man and some of you had the pleasure of meeting him when he was here. He is a man of God living by faith every day, facing so much more than we do here and yet is joyful always. It was a real privilege for him and Maria to be in Northern Ireland to have a rest and to enjoy their time, which they did immensely, including their time at our church. God is shining through them and I really felt completely at home with them in their country, a country with people I have come to hold very dear to me and it was really like going home for me when I arrived on the 4th August with the team. Over the 3 weeks there I felt a real affirmation of God’s calling to work for Him overseas in some capacity and it remains to be seen what capacity that is and exactly where that is, although I think if not Cuba then Latin America would be top of the list.

Future implications:

Cuba needs our prayers first and foremost. It is a country sidelined in international importance and does not get the press it needs to raise awareness. Pray for:

• Increasing religious freedom
  
• Safety for Raymundo and his family
  
• Their basic needs (food, water, electricity)
  
• The educational system which is falling apart
  
• The economy which is falling apart
  
• Our brothers and sisters in Christ there to stay strong in the faith
  

Raymundo’s church is also involved in ministries which require funding to run:

• Elderly food ministry – many elderly folk in Cuba are alone and have no one to look after them. With no money many are starving (literally) and the church provides meals for approx. 30 elderly people in the church on a daily basis. Food in Cuba is expensive and it is by the grace of God that this continues – what if we were being called to be part of that grace?
  
• Potential church plant – the government have given back land previously owned by the church and have granted the rights to redevelop an old building on it – in a place where there is no evangelical church. Again this requires funds to organise and maintain.
  
• Raymundo’s car – presently he owns a 1974 Russian Bolga (a new car for Cuba) and really it is the church car and functions for everything – allowing meals to be delivered, errands to be run, people to be collected, literally everything and therefore it is constantly breaking down. Money for maintenance is also required. If interested in supporting contact me at cpagnew1@aol.com

In short, life in the church in Cuba is summed up by the song Maria sang to us on the Sunday she was with us:

In adoration
God, we ask to be in your presence
Thankful for all that you have given us in your grace
You have freed us,
Defeating every sin on the cross
You have transformed this darkness
Giving us light and life 

Today your people are 
on their knees before you
Giving glory and honour to your Name
Celebrating your majesty.
Eternal God, we exalt you
Your greatness we declare
With love we bring before you
Our hearts in adoration 

From the heart we sing you a song of praise
In adoration, one body and one spirit we will be
Only your glory, Lord of the Heavens,
Fill this holy place and in obedience we proclaim 
You throughout the heavens the earth and the sea 

Today your people are on their knees before you
Giving glory and honour to your Name
Celebrating your majesty.
Eternal God, we exalt you
Your greatness we declare
With love we bring before you
Our hearts in adoration




Chris Agnew