St John's Church Birkdale News: Mission

Showing posts with label Mission. Show all posts

Capenwray Student mission to the parish of St.John's, Birkdale

The 10 day visit (1^st to 10^th March) from students from Capernwray Bible School was a huge success in the opinion of everyone. They were able to visit all our church organisations, preach on both Sundays and also visit Farnborough Road and St. John, Ainsdale schools.

Back at college they had many positive things to say about their experience with us. They described the church as "great, very open, friendly, welcoming and supportive." They also said that they would really recommend this placement for future outreach teams.

Many thanks to all who entertained the students for meals and other forms of hospitality.

Thank you too to Geoffrey for organising the visit, liaising between the college and our church and submitting this article to the blog.

A visit by Capernwray Missioners

On the evening of Friday 1^st February three young missioners from Capernwray Bible School - Mitch Corea, Jenny Fierbach and Jenni Woytowich - arrived in Southport. During the weekend they were able to visit the parish and had the opportunity to meet parishioners to help them, and church and organisation leaders, to plan for their mission in the parish which will start on Friday 1^st March.

As well as attending Praise & Prayer and both our Sunday Services, the missioners had the opportunity to meet the vicar, members of the PCC and leaders of church organisations at a variety of meetings.

They also had a short time to have a look around Southport and were able to relax, over a meal with their hosts, on Saturday evening after a busy day.

Jenny & Jenni are from Canada and Mitch is from the U.S.A. – all are delightful and have interesting stories to tell. So please do look out for them and make them feel welcome, when they are in and around our parish during the first week in March.

[For more information about Caperwray visit www.capernwray.org.uk/]

Eagles Car Wash 2012

Following the recent visit of our mission partners, Andy and Rose, the Eagles decided to hold their annual "Car Wash" and cream tea in aid of ReVive (see the recent blog entry "A visit from Andy and Rose").

They say "the sun shines on the righteous" so the Eagles must be doing something right as,after a decidedly dodgy morning, the sun came out soon after the "Car Wash" began at 1.00 p.m.

Dave, Shaun, and Tim coaxed, encouraged and cajoled the Eagles....

.... into power washing, ....

..... shampooing, ....

.... rinsing ....

.... and polishing the many cars that turned up for the event.

There was also a delicious "Cream tea" served by Michelle, Rachel and Sue and an enticing raffle. So, it wasn't difficult to spend your money, and all in an excellent cause!

Altogether the Eagles, their helpers and their supporters, raised over £1029 for ReVive.

Well done everybody!

A Visit from Andy and Rosie

Sunday 8th July was a great day for us at St. John's as our Mission Partners, Andy and Rosie, joined us for the day. It is three years since they were last here with us so it was good to see them again and to catch up on their news.

Andy and Rosie joined us at both the 10.30 a.m. service .....

..... and at 4U2@6 and Andy spoke to us on both occasions.

He reminded us that last time they were over here they were working with street children in Olinda, a town in the North East of Brazil. At that time they were working at Our Father's House which is for boys.

Andy told the congregation that their role will be changing when they go back to Olinda. They will still be CMS Mission Partners and worshipping at Living Waters Anglican Church in Olinda but they will now be trying to do something for girls. At the present time Andy said there were a number of organisations working with boys and their families but NONE working with girls.
Andy shared some shocking statistics with us such as that it is estimated that over 200,000 children in Brazil are visibly trapped in prostitution! He also said that there will be many more "invisible" children in these dire straits. He added that the average age of a first sexual encounter for these girls is 10 years old and the average age of a first pregnancy is 13! [This of course implies that, out of hundreds of thousands of girls, there will be many victims much younger than this] Shockingly Andy told us of individuals girls that he knew whose family circumstances were so desperate the the children's mothers were acting as their pimps.

So, the answer to the question "What's Next" for Andy and Rosie is that they are embarking on a very ambitious project to set up a series of "Safe Houses" for girls across Brazil. Andy explained that there were many legal hazards and complications in doing such a thing so they are setting up a new charity, ReVive International, which will work within the auspices of CMS, to work with " vulnerable and at risk girls"..

This is a massive undertaking and Andy asked for our help. In the face of such overwhelming odds you may wonder how you could help. However, Andy suggests three possible avenues:
1.) Prayer - we can all pray for Andy, Rosie their soon to be born daughter, Sophia; we can pray for all the families and children trapped in poverty and being exploited in Brazil; we can pray for the construction of and work of ReVive.
2.) We can support ReVive financially as they will have to raise their own funds! If you can help, or want to run a fundraiser for ReVive I'm sure Joyce will be able to tell you the most efficient way to give.
3.) Go out there to help! [This may not be for all of us but if you hear of anybody who wants to do that you could support them in every way you can]

To find out more about Andy and Rose and Revive you can go to http://www.revive-international.org/ and/or their blog at http://andyandrose.posterous.com/ .