missionary ventures

updateIssue 6

Involving People to Impact Nations for Christ

2

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

By So and So, Thingy

ContentsIntroduction 3

Missions in Macedonia 4

Cead Mile Failte! 6

Leading with Confidence 7

Worth waiting for 7

Making it a priority 7

The Children of Zambia 8

Rebuilding Haiti 11

The Miracle Church 12

Healing the Heart 13

Komena Training Centre 14

Cover photo taken by Jess Parkhouse on recent team trip

Missionary ventures is an interdenominational Christian organisation that partners with indigenous Christian leadership, enabling them to reach and impact their own

people with the love and message of Jesus Christ. Within the UK we aim to inspire churches, groups and individuals to personal involvement in missions. We do this in three ways; by training and facilitating short-term mission teams; by safely channel-ing financial support for needy children, pastors and projects around the world; and finally by recruiting and sending longer-term missionaries to develop the work further.

3

As the train cut through the

picturesque English countryside towards London my fellow travellers debated the forthcoming political elections.

They joined together in complaining about everything from crowded trains to the UK health service. I couldn’t help but hear the conversations between the University lecturer and a couple of high-flying business people.

Of course God was absent from the dialogue. So was a sense of perspective on life. It was evident that they had not seen the poverty and struggles that we are parachuted into when we visit a developing country. That’s one thing that being a Christian should give us – a new world-view. We see things through

new lenses, through the Spirit of Christ in us and enlightened by Scripture.

In this edition of ‘Update’ there are many wonderful faith stories from some of the neediest places on earth. May I encourage you to read it in a different way this time around. Read it with gratitude in your heart for God’s blessing on your own life. Be inspired as ordinary people give accounts of how God is using them to make a real difference in the communities they serve. Be stirred as you read about the exciting opportunities for your personal involvement in the future. Be moved to get involved in some way.

Please pray particularly

for wisdom and provision for those in the field and for us here at the office. You could financially support the work that we do or even answer the call to go

on a short-term trip. As the Nike slogan says … “Just do it!” it’s one of the most exciting things you could

do. Most of all let us be thankful that God has given us an understanding of what is really important in life … and it isn’t the crowded trains!

In the photo, from left to right, are Gary Snitker, Rob Carter and Luther & Sandy Meier.

“Be stirred as you read

about exciting opportunities”

IntroductionBy Rob Carter, Director

4

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

Page HeadingBy So and So, Thingy

Together with my fam-ily I moved to Skopje

Macedonia in the summer of 1995. Our vision was not just to plant a Church in Skopje but to fill the nation with the Gospel.

We registered a church that could work in all the nation and very soon we started to travel throughout Macedonia starting house meetings wherever we were invited. We adopted what Jesus said that wherever you find a son of peace stay in that house. After having raised up leaders we felt our time was up so we moved on to Greece. Zoran Spasovski (pictured right), one of the leaders of the Church in Macedonia, more than anyone else took the call to his heart to continue the vision of filling the nation with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Around three years ago through our Church in Veles we came in contact with

Vane (pronounced ‘varnuh’) Eftimov (pictured over), a believer for ten years and an evange-list living in a small village out-side Stru-mica in the southeast of Mace-donia. He asked Zoran if he would like to partner with him doing outreaches and Church planting in the Strumica valley. Vane had asked around in the Churches in the city and no one showed any inter-est mainly because he wanted to start a Church in Banica, a

village both feared and despised in the region due to the drinking habits and

violence of it’s inhabit-ants. Zoran gathered a team from our Church in Skopje and a few outreach-es were held in the village

square. Hundreds of people showed up! The real break-through came when a team from my old home Church

“One intentional and one accidental

healing got the Church going”

Missions in MacedoniaBy Tommie Naumann

5

in Sweden came. We did an outreach together and many people were healed. One man was both healed and touched by God to the extent that he started to bike around and tell everyone what had happened.

We rented a room and a Church was up and running. Today we run a Church in one of the homes in Banica and an extensive Children’s work that we call Next Genera-tion Church. We do have the option to buy a piece of land 22 000 square feet in Banica for 1000 Euros. If we get the funds we plan to build a centre that would host a pre-school, further education similar to the one we are plan-ning in Skopje among the gypsies, facilities for leadership training, and a Church meeting room.

The next summer the same team from Sweden appeared again and we did an outreach together in the village of Prosenikovo. At the end of the outreach a man brought another man to Zoran and asked if he could be prayed for. He had symptoms left after a recent stroke. Zoran prayed

for him and as he did he accidently touched the

other man as well. Next morning Vane received a call telling him that the first man got healed and the second man as well, of a stiff shoulder

from falling off his horse cart. One intentional and one accidental healing got the Church going.

We were also able to help the prison in Strumica and as a result Vane now has weekly meetings in this prison, even though the law in Macedonia forbids any kind of religious activities in prisons, and many inmates have come to the Lord. Vane now pastors four Churches in the Strumica region and we are work-ing hard training leaders for these Churches so Vane can return to pursu-ing his evangelistic call.

You too could come on a short term team to Macedonia and join us in reaching out to this excit-ing mission field. Contact the office to get involved.

Tommie, pictured above with his wife Gunilla and left with Sasha, a leader at the church in Skopje, has been with MV for over two years now and is creating some very exciting opportunities for us to work with him in his amazing vision.You can keep track of

what he is up to on his blog at naumannnews.wordpress.com and see videos of what he is involved in at vimeo.com/missionsmak/videos

6

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

A hundred thousand welcomes (cead mile

failte). The story about how we ended up as field coordinators in Ireland is quite a whirlwind.

Lyndsey, originally from Dorset, was travelling through Sligo, Ireland in September 2001. After the bus went the wrong way she passed the Sligo Elim Church. Upon visiting the church, she felt called to work in Ireland.

Lynd-sey re-turned every holiday from college and finally moved there in 2006.

Eric first came to Ireland with a short term missions team in October 2007 and again in the following Spring. God spoke to him during a service and said, “I am raising up 12 disciples

in Ireland and you are going to be one of them.” At the same time that God was calling us into work in Ire-land with Missionary Ven-tures separately, Lyndsey and I were keeping contact. We continued to grow closer and closer, which blossomed into a relation-ship and we were engaged in May 2009. And after

some set backs were married later that year

We have since taken on pastor-ing a new church

plant in Manorhamilton. Already, two house groups have sprung out of this and we are quite excited!

We have also dealt with financial hurdles, car problems, placelessness, and Lyndsey’s shoulder issues, which cause her to be in constant pain and

often to be in bed for days. God is working though and already we are planning new church plants, as well as developing leadership.

The west of Ireland is one of the least evange-lised parts of Europe with possibly less than 0.02% born again. The ground can be hard at times, there is a spiritual dark-ness people feel when they are here, and the workers are few, but lives are being changed, and God is moving in Ireland.

If you have a heart for Ireland and the work God is doing here, you can join with us in prayer and support by going to our website at www.ericand-lyndsey.weebly.com and click on “support” or email us at ericderrico@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you!

Eric and Lyndsey are pictured above on the left with a recent youth team.

“The west of Ireland is one of the

least evangelised parts of Europe”

Cead Mile Failte!By Eric and Lyndsey D’Ericco

7

Short-term mis-sion teams are vital

but these teams can-not go unless there is a team leader.

Right now we have team members and churches who are willing to go but have no-one who will lead.

We recognise that there are many competent potential leaders but often they are lacking in confi-dence. Taking responsibil-ity for a group of people in a foreign land can be a daunting prospect.

We have therefore produced a completely new one-day course called “Developing Confident Team Leaders”. It cov-ers planning for the trip, managing the trip itself and the follow-up afterwards. In February we ran the course in the Manchester and Lon-don areas. The new materi-als were well received by the nineteen attendees. We are planning to repeat the course later in the year so

please express your inter-est by contacting the office on info@mvgb.org.uk or by ringing 01706 639333.

Pastor Willy has a heart for the street-

boys of Mbarara, Uganda. Together with the

people from Holy Spirit Fire Church and with help from supporters of Mis-sionary Ventures, they have provided care to over thirty former street boys.

The boys were given refuge in the Church and then in a basic ‘Halfway House’. Now we are pleased to announce that the first dwellings on the new Trust Children’s Centre site are nearing completion.

The first donation was made by St. Johns Thornham Church, near Rochdale. Problems with obtaining permission to build have delayed the project for five years but thanks to their patience and to your prayers and

other donations to cover the cost increases we can now see the result!

A UK team including a member of the church will be visiting Mbarara in May and a special dedication service will be held. To those boys it will certainly be worth waiting for!

Most donations re-ceived by Mission-

ary Ventures are classed as ‘restricted income’.

These are designated for a particular purpose and we make sure it is spent in that way. However there are often times where urgent needs crop up that only the MV leadership are aware of at that moment. We would therefore like to establish a separate ‘Priority Fund’ to be able to respond adequately on these oc-casions. Would you help build this fund? Visit our website www.mvgb.org.uk/giving or ring the of-fice on 01706 639333.

Leading with Confidence

Worth waiting for

Making it a priority

8

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

Page HeadingBy So and So, Thingy

By faith and God’s amazing grace

Salomie and I have had the privilege to serve God on the mission field since July 1998.

Our serving on the mission field started with ministering for three years in the rural area of Modjadji, which means Rain Queen, situated approximately 30 kilo-meters outside Tzaneen, our hometown. Salomie headed up a pre-school for the rural children, which is still functioning today. I was responsible for maintaining the mission base as well as children’s ministry. On a Sunday, we would share the Gospel to approxi-mately 200 – 250 children.

Six months mission training at Operation Mobilization situated at Boschkop, Pretoria, South Africa, followed this. It was a fruitful time of learn-

ing more about missions and broadened our vision for world missions.

At the completion of training, our church leader-ship asked us to return to the congregation. Our responsibility was to start and head-up the missions department. The focus was to inform the congrega-tion of what missions is and that we are to make disciples according to the Great Commission to the ends of the earth. Though we did know this was not to be long term as our hearts were to serve God on the field.

In Janu-ary 2006, we joined Missionary Ventures

International. After three months of orientation and field training in USA & Nicaragua, we relocated to Gabon, West Africa. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to make a decision to leave Gabon. Thus in February 2008 we joined the MV Zambia team here in Sinazongwe, Zambia.

Our hearts are to serve the children of Africa by training and equipping children for the future. We

By Hugo and Salomie Du Toit The Children of Zambia

9

believe that investing in the lives of children will benefit the child when they become adults as well as those who they meet.

Ask yourself these two questions: -

Is there an age re-striction in God’s Word for making disciples?

What type of per-son would you like to govern the country, godly or ungodly?

We believe children’s ministry is not just a good program but a command from God, according to Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “these words which I command you this day …you shall carefully teach them to your sons …”.

Without a solid foun-dation, any building will collapse. Investing in a child’s life through training, equipping and discipling is laying the foundation for godly men and women for the long-term future.

To accomplish the above we firstly focus on informing church leaders on God’s Word on children and the importance of equipping children, encour-aging them to support the Sunday school teachers and build relationships with children. This we do by presenting seminars and conduct Biblical training for church leaders. Secondly,

we train, equip and assist Sunday school teachers to be more effective in their

ministry to the children.Together with the above,

we present regular chil-dren’s ministry meetings sharing the Gospel and have the opportunity to present Bible Education at different community schools. Regular house visitation is a great blessing for the children, as they are not used to receiving church leaders visiting them. Our meetings are filled with dif-ferent activities that teach the children about God as we believe that children learn more from seeing and doing than hear-ing. Football and netball competitions are played

between the different Sunday schools. This year we are planning a choir

competition among twenty different congregations.

To support us you can:Pray for the ministry, •

for children’s hearts to receive the Gospel.

Support • us and/or the ministry financially.

Come on • an outreach to touch the lives of children.

Donate items for • arts & crafts, soccer-/netballs, small items for prizes and Gospel literature for children.

Contact the office on 01706 639 333 or info@mvgb.org.uk

“children learn more from seeing and doing than

hearing”

10

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

A group of 12 Tandem Skydivers each of

whom have never para-chuted before are prepar-ing to jump out of a plane above the clouds to help raise funds to support many projects across the world. Such as:

Relief work in Haiti • Embo pre-school •

for poor Zulu chil-dren in South Africa

Baby feeding and • medical programme in Sinazongwe, Zambia

Health education • training in Uganda

Orphan care in • Andhra Pradesh, India

Outreach in Zam-• bian prisons

The Trust Chil-• dren’s Centre in Mbarara, Uganda

It is not too late to join them!

The Tandem Skydive Challenge is taking place on Saturday June 19th at Preston in Lancashire

and if you want to join the team, please contact Cris on 01706 639 333 or on cris@mvgb.org.uk who will give you more details. Of course the biggest need is sponsorship. If you would like to donate, please visit www.justgiving.com/mvgb and click on fundraisers. You can then see who is doing the challenge and sponsor them. Alternatively visit the ‘giving’ section on our website or send dona-tions by post to the office.

As you read this do you realise that

you are amongst the top 5% richest people in the world? We have so much when most of the world has so little.

On special occasions we give gifts to family and friends as an expression of our love for them. Let’s be honest, sometimes those

gifts are just not needed. I want to tell you about a different approach.

Later this year we will be launching the first UK-version of the Missionary Ventures Gift Catalogue. So if you are struggling to decide on a gift for some-one’s birthday, anniversary or Christmas present, etc. then you can buy a gift from the catalogue on their behalf and you will receive a special ‘Gift Certificate’ describing how the gift will be used to make a real dif-ference in someone’s life.

Our missionaries working alongside the indigenous people and churches around the world have highlighted a num-ber of priority needs and these will be shown in the catalogue. There will be opportunities to give towards livestock, farming tools, educational equip-ment, orphan nutrition, clothes, medicine, pastor support and much more.

Just think how wonder-ful it must feel for someone to receive a life-changing gift from a stranger in a dif-ferent part of the world and to know that it is an expres-sion of God’s love for them.

The catalogue will be distributed with the next Missionary Ventures ‘Update’ in the Autumn.

Sky Dive Challenge

Gift Catalogue

11

The last large earth-quake in the region

had been 200 years ago, so when the massive earthquake hit the island of Haiti earlier this year it was a complete surprise.

Over quarter of a mil-lion lives were lost in a matter of minutes. Many more have been left injured and homeless in what was already one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. Although around 80% of Haitians claim to be Roman Catholics less than 10% are evangelical Christians. Over half of the popula-tion also practice voodoo.

Missionary Ventures has been working in Haiti since 1999 and currently has a number of field staff based there and in the adjacent Dominican Republic. These are Ed Lockett, Bud and Karen Simon and Candy Reiger. They have as-sisted the national church

to construct schools, churches, bridges, feed-ing programs, a sewing school and various safe water projects. Their vi-sion is to change the way people live and think while meeting basic needs both spiritually and materially.

In March this year we met with Ed Lockett, a senior missionary in Haiti, to plan what our response should be to the crisis.

Our time with Ed was special. He had been so involved with the immediate relief efforts that he had not really processed any of his own feelings. He was grieving for lost friends, especially for the children he knew. We were able to pray together and start to discuss what kind

of help would be needed once the immediate government and military assistance has waned.

The biggest need throughout the remainder of 2010 is for teams to visit Haiti for 9-10 days and help with some of the physi-cal rebuilding of homes, churches and schools. If you have practical skills and would like to help rebuild Haiti then please

contact us on info@mvgb.org.uk or ring the office on 01706 639333.

They also need your continual

prayers and any financial support you can send.

Please don’t for-get about Haiti even if the media have.

Rebuilding Haiti

“Over quarter of a million

lives were lost in a matter of

minutes”

12

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

Swaziland has the highest percentage

of HIV Aids in Southern Africa and 15.6% of the population of Swaziland are “unreached”. A UK team responded to the needs of a forgotten people in an isolated area of Swaziland called Mnisi.

Ps Mkhalipi and his wife Bongiwe (expect-ing their first child in April 2010) were blessed with a church build-ing built by a team from Oasis Church, Feltham.

In the beginning, the Congregation met un-der a big tree. They were given some bricks and with no experience or expertise tried to erect a brick building. After a heavy storm this brick building was demolished. They then got tarpaulins from the Railways and made a rough tent type structure (pictured right). Several strong storms tore

the tarpaulin to shreds. They then got some zinc sheets and positioned this on poles made from tree trunks. This worked well only the zinc sheets had holes and so in the rainy season the people got wet.

Then the UK team came along and built a church during their trip. The com-munity of Mnisi consider this church a “miracle” church as it was built in 6 days. Most buildings in Swaziland take years to complete. It is still stand-ing. This isolated com-munity are in awe. This

testifies of the love of a merciful God and they are SO PROUD of their church.

The UK team made a phenomenal impact on the people of Swaziland they inspired and encour-aged them to set goals and look to the future, not the norm in Africa, and we are still receiving messages from the church to our office confirming heal-ings and deliverances.

We thank the UK Team for allowing the Lord to use them in this fantastic man-ner and would encourage anyone to give teams a go.

By Coralie Roets, MV S Africa The Miracle Church

13

We were privileged to host a small

British/American team in Hyderabad recently. One of the ministry opportuni-ties was to visit Pastor Simon and his wife Su-jatha who lead a church in a slum area of the city.

Simon has a heart for caring for orphaned chil-dren because he himself had lost both parents by the age of five years old. Over a pe-riod of time they took in eleven children, living with Simon and his family in the small church building. The team brought candy and cake for the children, taught them songs and encouraged them to trust and follow Christ. The kids were so excited but our eyes were drawn to a small

nine-year old boy called Hanok. He sat still on the floor and never smiled once. We learned that he had a ‘hole in the heart’ condition and that he had never walked. The team surrounded him and prayed that Jesus would heal him. Hanok didn’t seem any different when we left.

Upon returning home the team raised some funds to provide the children with

bed sheets, towels and toiletries. My wife Beulah and I were able to visit again a few weeks later.

We rejoiced to find Hanok walking slowly to the door to greet us. We sat with him and reminded him that our team had prayed for him. He was just smiling. Praise the Lord for his goodness!

“He was just Smiling”

Malaki Dara has been our Field Administrator in Hyderabad, India for almost 2 years now and has helped immensely in planning visits, dealing with finances and networking amongst local leaders.

Healing the HeartBy Malaki Dara

14

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

You may have heard about the Komena Christian Training Centre before but we thought we would ask Theuns and Karin to give us an overview of the work there and tell us about their greatest needs.If you would like to

help in any way then please get in touch.

Deep in the Zambezi Valley, along the

shores of Lake Kariba in the Southern Province of Zambia, live a large tribal group of people called the Tongas. Among them we have started a small training school for church leaders to help train, equip and sup-port them in fulfilling their God-given calling.

However….Komena Christian Training Center is much MORE than a Bible “Knowledge College”!!!

Komena (meaning “growth” in Citonga) is currently the only Interde-

nominational Bible Train-ing School for pastors and church leaders in the Zam-bezi Valley

Ap-plicants must come

with recommenda-tions from their current church oversight.

Classes are con-ducted in the local language, Citonga.

Subjects taught include: Foundations for Faith; New and Old Testament Survey; Doing the Works of Jesus; Biblical Finance; Marriage & Family Life; Discovering your Motivational Gifts & Temperament; Covenants; The Father Heart of God; Churches Response to the Stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS; Children’s Ministry; Hermeneutics & Homiletics; Spiritual Warfare; Praise & Worship & Songwriting etc.

Lecturers from over-sees volunteer their time to come and teach at Komena. (They use an interpreter) Some classes are conducted by previous graduates.

Komena offers a three-year, part-time course. Students attend

By Theuns and Karin Engelbrecht Komena Training Centre

15

3 – 4 sessions of 7 – 10 day classes per year. At the end of the course they receive a Certificate in “Basic Pastor’s Training”.

Students receive follow-up seminars after gradu-ation.

Students stay on-campus in a dormitory. They receive three meals per day.

Stu-dents receive sponsorship to help cover their costs, but they ARE expected to pay a nominal fee in order to attend the classes.

Classes are deliber-ately small in number so that students can receive individual attention and be inspired, mentored and discipled into matu-rity through sound Biblical teachings and through the deep work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Ps Kenny Siandima is one of the first graduates

of Komena and is being trained as the Principal of the school. He lives on campus with his family. His wife, Cecelia, cooks all the meals and takes care of the students whilst they attend

classes.Some

interest-ing facts: Most of the students that attend Komena are already

involved in some kind of church ministry in their various communities but are first generation Chris-

tians who have never been discipled before do not own their own Bible in their own language and can only speak their native language. They have very little formal education and live below the breadline.

So far 32 students have successfully gradu-ated from Komena.

This year we have a total of 36 students attending 1st, 2nd & 3rd year classes and we hope to have 10 students graduate from their third year studies.

The training school is vital to growing and plant-ing of healthy churches in this remote area. Funds are urgently needed to help with the running costs. Can you help?

Visit www.mvgb.org.uk/giving or call 01706 639 333 for more infor-mation. Thank you.

“they live below the breadline”

mis

sion

ary

vent

ures

- up

date

By So and So, Thingy

Address: missionary ventures Suite 3, Champness Hall Drake Street Rochdale Lancashire OL16 1PB

Telephone: 01706 639 333

E-Mail: info@mvgb.org.uk

Web: missionaryventures.org.uk

Contact Details

Part of Missionary Ventures International

www.mvi.org

missionary ventures is a UK-registered charity, number 1067612,

and a member of the Evangelical Alliance.

The printing of this newsletter was part sponsored by

donations.