| Missions (Return to 'The Work' main page?) |
| General Background - The church has maintained a strong missionary interest ever since its inception and over the years has been directly involved to a greater or lesser extent in India, Brazil, Peru and France as well as ministry on an annual basis in several churches in the southern states of the USA. On first Tuesday of every month the church prayer meeting is set apart to pray for missions. In 1967 a missionary fund was started and distributions from this fund were made regularly. A principle was established that, generally, gifts would be sent to individuals rather than societies so that strong personal links would be built up and thus prayer would be stimulated. The Lord has blessed this work and we have been able to help in the support of many friends over the years as well as making significant sums available to meet specific needs from time to time. |
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| Ukraine |
| We have had the opportunity for around 18 months to establish contact with an infant emerging Reformed Baptist Church in the Ukraine. This group comprises mostly of young people between the ages of late teens to late twenties. The Lord has enabled us after establishing contact to assist the Pastor in the doctrinal and logistical organising of the church. He had already come to a good sound knowledge of the Doctrines of Grace and had desires to be 'more perfectly instructed' and endeavour to have the church constituted on a sound Biblical basis especially in the realm of worship and prayer. This has proved a fruitful enterprise under God, and we are seeking to assist practically as well as spiritually in this situation. A limited measure of practical support from interested churches both in UK and U.S.A. has enabled us to provide some tangible help in what is a very poor and impoverished circumstance, compared to the average Western equivalent churches.
We hope to continue with visitations designed to encourage and support, and where deemed necessary correct any unbiblical tendencies. The local Pastor however, has a good grasp of truth and demonstrates a teachable spirit, which bodes well for advancement in the realm of church government, polity and practical evangelising of the local area. Commencing with a totally unsolicited Providential exercise, we are trusting God to further the work in that needy area where Reformed Baptist work is very rare. |
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| India |
| In 1968 the pastor, Mr. Handyside, spent over two months in Andhra Pradesh speaking in various churches and conferences. During this visit he met John Wesley a young man who was just leaving school-teaching to become an evangelist and over the years this contact blossomed and strengthened. As churches were established in Hyderabad and Seccunderabad visits of 4-6 weeks duration were made each year to minister at their conference and to teach young men the doctrines of grace. These visits continued up to 1985. The church was also able to provide the means for a house to be built for John Wesley and to provide a motor scooter for transport for village evangelism. Contact has been sustained although at a lower level up to the present day. |
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| Brazil |
| With the setting up of the missionary fund one of the members of the church, Peter Logie, began corresponding with Dr. Tom Geddes in the state of Acre in Brazil. His interest deepened and, when Tom and his wife Ethel visited the church while on furlough in 1971, Peter began to consider seriously the thought that God was calling him to work there. In 1974 he, his wife Joyce and their children John and Deborah went to Taraucá in Acre some 2000 miles up the Amazon river. Over the next four years they worked with Tom and Ethel in evangelism and pastoral work. Returning to Scotland in 1978 they and others in the church have kept up a prayerful interest in this work and their contacts with friends and colleagues in the Acre Gospel Mission. |
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| France |
| Over the years the church has prayed for the work of the gospel in France and in particular for Tony and Barbara Hynes who minister in Carcassonne. This is a very difficult work with little encouragement for many years but more recently there has been a degree of fruitfulness and a small church has been established. Several members of the church have visited the work there and have been able to provide practical help and ministry from time to time. |
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| USA |
| About thirty years ago Mr. Handyside met some visiting Americans and was invited to go over to the USA to speak at a conference. This meeting was a seed which has grown over the years into a useful ministry to a dozen or so churches in the states in the south-east. A warm relationship has developed the years with visits by US pastors and church members to us here in Glasgow and also with members of the church here visiting those in the USA. Frequently the visiting pastors have expressed their gratitude for the ministry and have spoken of its lasting effects. |
