CMS Mission Update Online

Samaritan Appeal

"It is not enough to preach about spiritual things. I want all my pastors to show our people that God cares for all their needs."

Rt Rev Joseph Kanuku, Bishop of Machakos, Kenya

Some complain that Christianity in Africa is "a mile wide and an inch deep".

But many churches in Africa are discovering a way to be effective in their communities - by using the resources they already have.

CMS Africa is using the Samaritan Strategy to train church leaders

• to see the gospel as also about meeting day to day needs
• to recognise everyone can do something because no one is helpless
• to develop a new vision, and action plan with a mentor to help them

And they're ambitious to spread this fantastic training programme to even more churches and countries across Africa.

Just £44 mean one more church leader can attend.

In Machakos, Kenya, local churches got people together to build anaerobic biodigesters - they take manure and produce biogas and fertiliser. It means the people can cook with clean fuel - not inhaling vast quantities of woodsmoke. Plus the fertiliser helps increase the yield on their farms.

The Samaritan Strategy is all about churches discovering the power they already have to change things - and being an incredible witness in their communities as a result.

Go to the CMS website for more info, or consider a donation now:

Give now to help spread the Samaritan Strategy training further

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit online to help African leaders discover a new vision

Please help us support skilled, Christ-centred leaders

You know how essential good leadership is for the church.

Like all of us, you will have seen its benefit – and felt the pain when it is missing.

And, of course, such leadership is even more vital in those places where the church of Christ is fragile, under pressure or experiencing remarkable growth.

Some of our mission partners are working to raise up leaders in these places – but they need your support to do so.

The latest CMS appeal lets you do just that. So please consider a donation if you can.

Give now to help raise up leaders worldwide

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit online to help train indigenous church leaders

In Nepal, for example, faith in Christ was all but outlawed for generations. But the church has grown in 40 years from 30,000 believers to over 700,000.

Many of these new believers are in rural areas, where education is minimal. And they are crying out for those who are equipped to lead them on as followers of Jesus.

Our Timothy Fund partner Manoj Pradhananga heads up the leadership training department of the National Churches Fellowship of Nepal.

These are leaders like Hari Sapkota (pictured above), from the Nepali city of Pokhara, who was only five when he and his mother were driven from their home by his father. But as an adult he heard about Jesus.

Now Hari serves his growing church in the metropolitan city of Pokhara, ministering in a house fellowship, youth fellowship, Bible study and daughter churches.

Hari is just one of the students whose life and leadership is being shaped as the result of Manoj’s work. And the kind of person your gift will ultimately impact.

Give now to help raise up leaders worldwide

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit online to help train indigenous church leaders

Read more about the appeal on the main CMS website

Audiomission extra: Secret mission

An anonymous worker talks about life for Christians in a police state and what it means for him to live and work alongside them. "The strongest message we have seen that speaks of Jesus is where there are Muslim-background believers who are now followers of Jesus who are able to communicate with their friends, family and neighbours, so...what we do is focused on encouraging and supporting them." 

Audiomission extra: Secret mission

[ Format: mp3 | Length: 5m16s | File size: 4.83MB ]

Produced and presented by Jenny Rawden.

If you would like to help keep such sensitive mission work going, you can do so through our current appeal.

Donating £40 would cover the living costs of one such mission partner. Please help support local believers in tough situations in this way.

Thank you.

Give now

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit securely online to enable mission partners to stand with fragile Christian communities

Appeal for 'secret' mission

It is a simple and hard fact that, in some countries, to become a Christian – or to insist on staying as one – is seen as a betrayal of faith. And in others as a betrayal of the state.

In both cases Christians are paying a very high price.

At best they endure daily discrimination. When seeking a job or taking exams, to have a Christian name means little chance of success. Christians are often given the most menial and low paid roles in society and are treated as second class citizens.

But at worst the situation is life threatening.

That's why CMS launched an appeal this month to support mission partners in places like this, who are quietly and faithfully living the Good News.

In the same way that Christ came close and lived among us, so do they.

They give their time to supporting, encouraging and teaching faithful believers – many of whom have little Christian fellowship and are isolated and feeling abandoned.

Here's the remarkable story of ********, who discovered Jesus 20 years ago through Christian radio. And for the whole 20 years he thought he was the only believer in the country.

Desperate for a Bible, ******** flew abroad to buy one. Then he discovered a satellite Christian TV programme in his dialect and through it learned of other local believers.

You can imagine ********’s joy as he brought his Bible to the first meeting he had with another believer. Here he told how 20 years before he had drawn a cross on the inside of his cap and worn it faithfully, symbolising Jesus’ sacrifice always covering him.

Later ******** had baptised himself, wanting to obey what he had read in the Bible.

Now, one of our mission partners is helping ******** and his family grow in their faith. And praying he will be able to raise up a church in ********’s home.

Donating £40 would cover the living costs of one such mission partner. Please help support local believers in tough situations in this way.

Thank you.

Give now

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit securely online to enable mission partners to stand with fragile Christian communities

Help build a storehouse to support national mission leaders

There's more than enough enthusiasm for sharing Jesus and changing lives in the non-Western world. What's lacking is financial resources.

Our latest appeal is all about supporting dynamic mission leaders from churches too poor to support them.

For example, just £150 a month could be enough to meet the living costs of an Asian mission partner in Asia.

People like Bishnu (we recently blogged about his evangelism in Nepali prisons) are the some of the fruit of the CMS Timothy Fund, which supports the director of Bishnu's mission, Ram Prasad Shrestha.

It's people like Ram and Bisoke, working for peace and reconciliation in DR Congo and featured in the video here, who benefit from the support of the Timothy Fund.

Here, Bisoke tells about one small instance of his work.

The Timothy Fund is a way for the whole Body of Christ to work together. For those in the affluent west to share with those called to do God’s work worldwide.

Could you make a gift to help 21st century Timothys to build the church in some of the world’s neediest nations?

Donate now >>>

Read more on the CMS site >>>

Congo kids bid for new website

Fourteen-year-old Samy swapped the streets for school and regular meals when he came to Project Kimbilio in DR Congo.

Now he's the star of a short video made as a competition entry to win a new website.

Many more young people's lives are changing thanks to the work of mission partner Ian Harvey (who featured in our Christmas appeal) and his colleagues in the Anglican Church of Congo, in partnership with Congo Children's Trust.

If you'd like to support Ian - click for his profile page.

Clinging to life

Christmas Appeal - special post

In south-west Uganda, Jenny Green is saving children’s lives and giving them a bright future. It is a remarkable story.

In Kisoro, where Jenny serves the church, poverty, HIV and AIDS, and conflict are rife. As a result, there are many young destitute families.

It was while training Sunday School teachers – over 500 of them – that Jenny discovered a tragedy facing children in her community. That many don’t live beyond the age of five.

Then something dramatic happened which moved Jenny from compassion to action.

A ten day old baby called Hannah was placed in her care. A child clinging to life by the thinnest of threads. But little Hannah survived through Jenny’s love, care and prayer.

This experience led Jenny to found The Potter’s Village - a place of safety and love for infants and their mothers.

Through the gifts of people like you Jenny now leads a place where God’s love is demonstrated to the full in a safe family environment.

You can imagine what this means for children and mothers alike.

Those who would have no future are able to thrive, develop and discover their full potential. And can come to know Jesus for themselves.

By the way, Jenny went on to adopt Hannah – now aged seven. And she is also guardian to her two year old brother Joseph.

It’s people like this, and their life transforming work, that your gift will make possible.

£28 could support Jenny Green for a morning providing life-saving care to the babies at Potter's Village

£91 will pay for Jenny to work at Potter's Village for a day and a half

£280 could support Jenny Green for a whole week providing life-saving care to the babies at Potter's Village

Please consider a donation:

Give now

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit securely online

Or you can read more about the appeal and other mission partners you can help working with street children in DRC or kids of wealthy movers and shakers in Thailand.

Impacting young lives and parents in Thailand

Christmas Appeal - special post

In Thailand, Gail Phillip is serving the church as they reach the local community by providing high quality childcare in a safe and caring Christian environment.

Far less dramatic than rescuing street children or saving dying babies. But deeply important in a Buddhist nation where only one per cent are Christian.

Gail is director of the RainbowLand Child Development Centre. Across three locations almost 300 children, aged between two and six, receive the foundations of an education.

And they are from families likely to be some of the future key movers and shakers in Thai society.

Is Gail’s work impacting young lives and their parents? She would tell you of Bangbond who was five when he first came to RainbowLand.

His mother, Tong, noticed he would often talk about God, thanked God for things and wanted to pray.

Then little Bangbond had an accident and was rushed to hospital. His mother was surprised when he calmly prayed for God to help him and even urged her to pray too.

Impressed by the love she had seen there, Tong joined RainbowLand as an Assistant Teacher. Gradually she was struck by the greatness of God and decided she wanted to know Jesus herself and was eventually baptised. How wonderful.

And it is what your gift in response to our special Christmas appeal can help make happen.

£18 would pay for Gail to give three English lessons at Bangkok's RainbowLand Child Development Centre

£61 would pay for Gail to give ten English lessons at RainbowLand

£220 could support Gail for a week in her role with the children at RainbowLand

Please consider a donation:

Give now

Give regularly: set up a Direct Debit securely online

Or you can read more about the appeal and other mission partners you can help working with street children in DRC and fragile babies and their mothers in Uganda.

This Christmas your gift can change lives

Our mission partners are working with children in some of the most challenging circumstances. And they need your help. 

In DR Congo Ian Harvey is reaching out to children with no home other than the streets.

They are children at risk. At risk from their environment. From sexual predators. And from themselves.

But thanks to Ian, and others, life for many children can now be different.

They have set up the Kimbilio Project. In Swahili the world ‘kimbilio’ means ‘a place to run to safety’ – exactly what the wonderful project offers.

It is not just poverty that drives so many to live on the streets there. Some are former child soldiers orphaned due to HIV/AIDS.

Others, like 14 year old Papi (not his real name) are outcast, accused of witchcraft.

Can you imagine that?

Papi was eleven when his parents died. He went to live with an uncle but was accused of being a ‘child witch’ when his cousin died and forced to leave.

After three years on the streets Papi discovered the Kimbilio centre. Now he has food, clothing and a place to wash his clothes and himself.

Each day starts with prayer and Bible teaching – with as many as 40 children present. These three examples help you understand how vital your gift is if you can possibly spare one today. In fact, we are depending on gifts like these so the work among children by our mission partners can continue to flourish.

£12 would enable Ian to deliver a Bible Study and prayer time every week in the Kimbilio Centre

£40 could enable Ian to spend half a day providing 40 children with food and education in a clean, safe and loving environment

Please click on the button if you'd like to help:

Or you can read more about the appeal and other mission partners you can help working with children in Thailand and fragile babies and their mothers in Uganda.