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Our Short-termers
Every year a number of young and older people from St Peter’s spend time on
short-term mission activities. This may be for a few weeks or for a longer
period – perhaps a gap year. Over the next few months there are a number of
people going out to various parts of the world and also in the UK:
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Jon
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Jon – a doctor at Basingstoke Hospital,
will be away from June 27th – July 14th. He is going to spend this time
working as an anaesthetist on one of the Mercy Ships on the coast of
Liberia. These hospital ships sail all round the world, calling in at
ports of underdeveloped and underprivileged countries. Once there, they
perform operations that either are not possible locally or cannot be
afforded by normal people. Patients are of all ages. The commonest types
of procedure include some major reconstructive facial surgery as well as
more simple surgery for cleft lip and blindness (often due to severe
cataracts). Many of the patients’ lives have been devastated by their
conditions. The medical team is made up of experts from around the world
who fund themselves and offer their services free of charge. |
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Sarah - a medical student
at Birmingham University, is going to Russia with Agape and will be away
from 27th June – 20th July. Agape used to be called Campus Crusade for
Christ and as an organisation has much experience working with students.
Sarah will be part of a team spending time in St Petersburg as well as
helping at an English camp at the seaside. At the St Petersburg state
university, she will be involved in campus student surveys. Working in
pairs, they will be seeking to encourage students to answer a beliefs
questionnaire - starting with questions about student courses and moving
on to ask about their personal religious views. It is hoped that students
will begin to ask themselves challenging questions about the meaning of
life and some good discussions could arise as a result. |
Sarah
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Phil
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Phil, graduated a year ago from Durham
University and has just finished a year of short term mission in Sunderland
where he was a relay worker with UCCF, working with students at Sunderland
University. Before he joins the world of full time work in the Autumn, Phil is
taking part in a Scripture Union Beach Mission in Abersoch, North Wales for the
first two weeks of August. The Abersoch Holiday Mission works with children and
young people from 2 - 18 years old, in age appropriate groups, with the aim of
making sure they have a fun time on holiday but also giving them the best
opportunity to make a response to the gospel. Phil will be part of a team of 4
called the 'God Squad' , a specialised youth work team whose aim is to attract
young people by putting on events that alleviate boredom and so build
relationships with the young people. Planned events include activities on and
around the beach. Some events are specifically gospel focused and Phil is hoping
this will give them the chance to make a personal response to Jesus. |
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Adam, who has just graduated from Cambridge
University with a degree in Computer Science, is going to join the join the
leadership team for a Scripture Union teenage holiday week from the 18th - 26th
August. The week is called "Transformers" and will be held in a
boarding school in Shackleford, near Guildford. There will be 40 to 50 kids,
mostly boys, aged 14 -18. Adam has done this for the last two years and enjoyed
it so much he wants to do it again. The focus of the holiday is the use of
computers. Adam and the other leaders will be helping the youngsters to
programme computers, make videos, learn how to do sound engineering and use
graphics and music packages. Adam's particular expertise is with the programming
side of the workshops. There is also an outreach element to the week as well
with daily times of Bible study and discussion |
Adam
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David
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David has just finished his 'A' levels at
Farnborough 6th Form College and is hoping to study Maths and Economics at
university in the autumn. This summer, from the 8th - 16th August, David is
going to help lead a CPAS summer camp for children aged 9 -12. This particular
holiday is held in a private boarding school in Tockington, near Bristol and is
a general activity week set in beautiful grounds with a swimming pool. David's
role is to be a dorm leader which means he will be co-leading a 'family' of
children, doing all the activities the children do, and he will also be in
charge of leading times of Bible study and discussion with a small group of the
children every other day. There will be around 35 children attending in total.
This will be the first time David has helped on a Venture course and he is
looking forward to the opportunity to help young people grow in their faith. |
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Jo has just finished her second year of a
languages degree at Oxford University and is about to embark on her year abroad.
Rather than work in a school or industrial setting, she has chosen to do a
mission placement. She is going to Lisieux, France with Bless in September where
she will be part of a church administrative team. She will be helping to
organise church events, serving the church family, witnessing in the community
and working with the children and young people, for whom she really has a heart.
She will also do a weekly discipleship training course to keep her own spiritual
input up. Jo is hoping that during her time there she will really be able to
bless and encourage the church family and to support them especially as they try
to reach out to those around them. |
Jo
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Rachel
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Rachel has just finished her GCSEs and is
starting at Farnborough 6th Form College in September. Between 26th of July and
9th of August she will help lead a CPAS children's Venture Camp in Cornwall.
CPAS (Church Pastoral Aid Society) is an Anglican mission agency helping to
resource churches and their leaders for evangelism and mission. A significant
part of their work involves running Venture camps for children and young people.
Rachel will be leading outdoor activity camps with a Christian focus for 9-13
year olds and 12-15 year olds. During the first week she will be on the worship
and teaching team, which will involve leading workshops, evening worship and
helping members to discover more about God. In the second week she will be tent
leading which involves doing everything that the young people do and being
responsible for their safety and well being. |
Belgrade Bible School
 SPINOFF (St Peter’s in N. Farnborough) have for
many years supported a student each year at the Belgrade Bible School
which is run by Oak Hall. This year they are supporting Vasko.
He is nearly 28 years old and his occupation is "working for small
enterprises". He lives with his parents and sister in Macedonia. His
family isn’t religious but is from an orthodox background and his
parents used to tell him about God when he was growing up. He was a good
student and respected God in his own way but wasn’t satisfied with his
life and wanted to find the real meaning of existence. After school he
went into the army and continued to search for truth in the Bible and
elsewhere. A relative took him along to a Methodist church but he was
still more focused on doing well in this life. After a while, he realised
that he wanted God to forgive his sins as he suddenly realised he was
without hope or lasting peace. He says, “Now I
live with Jesus – He is my life, I seek him daily and I want to serve
Him till I die.” Since making a commitment to Jesus, Vasko has
done some preaching and leading youth groups. At college, Vasko’s wish
is to learn in more depth, and to serve the Lord with greater strength.
After finishing at Bible College he would like to serve in a church or
wherever God leads him.
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Sasko, Ira and Abigail
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We have continued to keep up correspondence with Sasko
& Ira who who were the SPINOFF Belgrade Bible School links a
few years ago. They have written an article telling us about a new chapter
in their lives.
Read more
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 Elizabeth has just finished doing ‘A’ levels at Farnborough 6th Form College and is going to start an apprenticeship scheme with Springs Dance Company
(SDC) in London in September. At the end of December, some of those on this course will be accepted for a further 6 months.
SDC is a unique Christian company that tours the UK and internationally, performing and teaching work that is dynamic, entertaining, and challenging. It performs and runs workshops for a wide variety of audiences and at a wide variety of venues including theatres, schools, colleges, prisons, churches, cathedrals, festivals, conferences and outreach missions.
The apprenticeship scheme, onto which Liz has been accepted, provides both an intensive training and the unique opportunity to learn from SDC's extensive experience in the Christian dance field. The course consists of: ballet, contemporary and jazz technique classes, daily prayer, choreography, improvisation, SDC repertoire, teaching practice supported by theory and anatomy classes, academic Study of Dance and the Christian Faith and performances. There is some free time structured into the timetable to enable students to earn some money to cover their costs while they are studying.
Liz hopes to be accepted onto part two of the course which will continue to develop those skills learnt in Part One, but will focus more on technical proficiency and performance. The course will culminate in a final month of national or international tour performing and teaching workshops to all age-groups as the SDC company “Elevate”. In past years, Elevate has been invited to perform at festivals, churches, theatres and schools in America, Austria, Italy, across the UK and London. They were at Spring Harvest this year and provided outstanding dance contributions to the worship.
Elizabeth will be living at the Salvation Army’s William Booth College campus during her time in London.
 Mark -
has been a member of our congregation for over two years and he and his wife
Rosie are usually at the 6.30 service. Mark works for the Armed Forces'
Christian Union and is also involved with "Flame International", a
small Christian NGO whose vision is to reach out with God's love to broken and
hurting people, particularly those in the poorest countries of the world, and to
see nations healed and walking in reconciliation and forgiveness.
Originally, Flame was born out of a vision to reach military men for Jesus by
bringing their wives into a deeper relationship with God. However, its ministry
has developed into one of bringing healing, forgiveness and reconciliation,
particularly amongst those men and women traumatised by war, principally (but
not exclusively) in post-conflict regions of Africa. To do this, Flame holds
healing conferences and workshops in partnership with various Christian
churches, pastors, chaplains and Christian organisations.
These conferences and workshops aim to bring healing, through the Holy
Spirit, to the spirits, souls and bodies of hurting and traumatised people.
Reconciliation between individuals plays a large part in Flame's ministry, and
this has brought healing to many communities. Moving on a stage further, Flame
is now teaching pastors and leaders in these war-torn countries, thus aiming to
'train the trainers' and enable pastors to minister to others. So far, Flame has
operated in Sudan, Rwanda , Burundi , Uganda and Sierra Leone, where its
ministry has been well received. In northern Uganda, where the insurgent
organisation "The Lord's Resistance Army" (LRA) has run amok for the
last twenty years, they have been asked to return and set up further in-depth
training schools to equip church pastors to take the teaching and trauma
ministry to the two million traumatised people living in Internally Displaced
People's Camps.
Mark regularly goes on short term mission trips. Within the last year he has
visited Uganda, Sudan and Rwanda. In February, he was part of a team who
ministered to 80 clergy, pastors and leaders in Rwanda. There will be a further
mission to that country in September.
The places Mark visits are spiritually and environmentally challenging; some
are not the safest places in the world. Each trip needs to be covered by
significant prayer.
If you are thinking about short-term mission - then click here.
Mission home Page St
Peters home page
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