International Women’s Day: Jesus cares for details

International Women's Day

Jesus cares for details

Praying for this

This International Women’s Day we’re praying for all women and girls to experience justice and equality. Take a look at how some BMS World Mission partners are championing just that.

Her documents had finally arrived. It was time to leave the Greek island of Lesbos and seek a better future in another country. On her last morning on the island, she walked into the community centre for women where she had been volunteering and spoke to BMS partner worker Haniele.

“Since I met you,” she told Haniele, “I’ve been asking myself questions like ‘why are you so worried about offering the best for the women?’ and ‘Why are you caring for the details like keeping everything organised and clean?’”

“I am here because God has called me to leave my country to share my love with women like you,” Haniele said. “I also believe that Jesus, the Son of God, would be here doing this for you nowadays. And Jesus cares for details. He cares for you, so in the same way we care for you and all the women that come here.”

Dani and Hani standing outside the community centre on the Greek island of Lesbos.
The community centre on the Greek island of Lesbos seeks to welcome refuge women and treat them with dignity.

The woman was speechless. She said, “now I understand why you do this. In my life, I’ve met a lot of bad people. I didn’t believe that good people exist anymore. But here, all of you are good. You treat me like family, like my sisters, and I would never imagine that I would meet people like you in Lesbos.” Those were her last words in the centre. They hugged each other and cried together.

Friday 8th March is International Women’s Day – a day to celebrate the strength and resilience of women and girls around the world. It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness of gender discrimination, and to pray and call for gender justice. According to the United Nations, women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours and produce half of the world’s food yet earn only ten per cent of the world’s income and own fewer than one per cent of the world’s property.

A few thousand miles away, our partners in Bangladesh are empowering women by raising up the next generation of women leaders in churches. Thanks to your support, our partner Asia Pacific Baptist Aid (APBAid) have encouraged the Bangladesh Baptist Church Federation to train eight female volunteers out of 20 to lead Bible study groups. Women were not allowed to join in with ministry in rural churches, but now they have started preaching on Bible topics.

Volunteer wearing a red All4Aid T-shirt bathing a child at the community centre.
Refugee women are empowered through volunteering at the community centre on the Greek island of Lesbos.
A women reading the Bible at morning prayers.
Our partners in Bangladesh are encouraging women to teach the Bible in churches.

APBAid not only encourage women to teach in Baptist churches, but also raise awareness of gender discrimination. On Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day, women will be sharing in churches about how to prevent child marriages. Several churches are also organising a health and wellness programme to provide healthcare services tailor

The Indian social reformer Sarojini Naidu once said that if you ‘educate your women, your nation will take care of itself.’ Across the border from Bangladesh, our partner the Baptist Church Trust Association in India are putting her advice into practice by starting literacy groups for marginalised women. Many of these women live in extreme poverty because they are from ‘untouchable castes,’ and are not included in mainstream education.

The project is called ‘Jagriti,’ which means ‘awakening’ in English. Women are taught to read and write, and they learn skills like sewing, which they can use to start small businesses and earn an income. God is awakening the women to the talents that he has given them. Through your prayers and support, Indian women are not only lifting themselves out of poverty, but also their families and communities.

A woman worshipping in a church in Kolkata, India.
Marginalised women in India are awakening to their God-given potential.

Whether it’s keeping a community centre organised and clean, or providing healthcare services that are tailored to the needs of women and girls, our partners know that Jesus cares for details. It turns out that the long journey towards gender justice starts with little acts of kindness.

Your faithful prayers and generosity help our partners treat refugee women with dignity, amplify women’s voices, and empower women with the education they need for a better future. If you want to pray for BMS’ gender justice work, then why not download the BMS Prayer Guide today?

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Words by Chris Manktelow 

Stepping back and stepping out in faith

Church planting in Peru

Stepping back and stepping out in faith

I'm praying for this

Would you take a 17-hour bus ride, a five-hour boat journey, and an hour-long hike through dense rainforest to talk to some pastors? For BMS World Mission worker Michele Mahon, all of that was worth it – especially when you’ve been asked to speak to them about proving the existence of God!

The Awajun people of north-central Peru have started to make use of kitchen gardens
BMS' partner in Peru have been working with the Awahun people for a number of years to help them improve their livelihoods.

In 2023, Michele, along with her husband Dave and their three children, moved to Trujillo on the coast of Peru, after serving with BMS in Iquitos for five years. Dave trains Peruvian pastors and Michele is a qualified youth pastor, but they also both teach at Trujillo Baptist Seminary. And in a mostly patriarchal culture, it’s significant to see Michele being given more opportunities to teach. “It’s been nice to be able to do more upfront ministry than when I was in Iquitos because the culture is more open in terms of how they treat women on the coast,” she says.

During their time at the seminary, God also gave Michele the opportunity to teach theology to the Awahun people in the Peruvian Amazon. The Awahun are an indigenous group of fishermen, farmers, hunters, and artisans who live near the border with Ecuador. They are a strong warrior tribe and are well known in Peruvian history for resisting the Incas and Spanish when they tried to conquer them. Sadly, the wounds left by years of colonial rule run deep, and the Awahun are still often marginalised within Peruvian society.

The Peruvian Baptist Convention invited Michele to serve alongside Raquel Leon, a Peruvian mission worker who spent years working with the Awahun. Raquel and her husband Angeles started a church 35 years ago dedicated to mission amongst the Awahun. Even though Raquel is now sadly widowed, she carries on serving the Awahun. She even sells delicious roast coffee and cocoa from Awahun farmers as part of her ministry!

When the ministry first began, the team from the seminary would bring food and second-hand clothes – without necessarily appreciating what the Awahun community need. But now, the ministry is unrecognisable. “It’s based on the needs of the community and on what they want us to teach,” says Michele. Rather than bringing stuff that they might not need, the ministry is solely based on teaching the Bible and helping equip the Awahun to provide for themselves. Now, the Awahun pastors are hungry for the Word of God, regardless of whether outsiders bring food or not. Whether it’s dealing with broken relationships or questions about the end times, the Awahun know that the Bible can give them guidance and wisdom.

Michele teaching Awahun pastors in Kuyumatak about proving God's existence.
Michele's hoping to have even more opportunities to teach with the Awahun in the future – and especially hopes to connect with the women of the community,

Despite the challenging journey, Michele, Raquel and a group of Peruvian mission workers were keen to make their way to the Awahun village of Kuyumatak. The heat and mosquitoes made it hard work – but they knew that God wanted them there. Some of the pastors had such a passion for the Word of God that they walked for four days through the rainforest just to hear Michele teach the Bible!

This time the pastors wanted the team from the seminary to teach them about proofs for God’s existence. Michele spoke about how creation reveals God’s glory, and about the knowledge of God in each of our hearts, even if sin sometimes makes us deny this truth. Living in the lush rainforest, with night skies covered in brilliant stars, the team was constantly reminded of our awesome Creator. And this inspiring teaching relationship is just the start of this abundant ministry.

“I would really like to get to know the women because the teaching is concentrated on the guys, who are pastors,” says Michele. “Most of the time Awahun women are involved in cooking and looking after the children.” Back in Iquitos, Michele could not do the youth ministry that she wanted to do, as she was only allowed to teach women and children. That’s why Michele admires the humble leadership of Raquel, who continues to preach the gospel without the status that comes from having a husband. She sees it as a privilege to serve alongside women like Raquel, as the Awahun hear the gospel and find abundant life in Christ.

Thank you for all your prayers and support for Dave and Michele during their time in Peru. They would love for you to keep praying for them and their children, Ruth, Jonathan, and Phoebe, as they settle into life in Trujillo. Please also pray that God will bless the Awahun with everything they need to live life in all its fullness. They are so grateful for your prayers, as it is only in God’s strength that Dave, Michele, and their Peruvian friends can share his love freely with those around them.

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Family photo of the Mahons with their three children
The whole Mahon family would really value your prayers as they continue to settle into life in Trujillo.

Words by Chris Manktelow

Hope personified: Ba Nuan’s story

Hope personified:

Ba Nuan’s story

Ba Nuan went from not being able to see a way forward to living every day for Jesus. Her incredible story was made possible through your gifts to the Thailand Spring appeal.

If you asked Ba Nuan about her childhood, she’d say that life felt very ordinary. Growing up as one of eight siblings in rural Thailand, it made sense to Ba Nuan that her parents, struggling to make ends meet, would ask their children to help wherever they could. When Ba Nuan’s grandmother became too elderly to take care of herself, the family chose Ba Nuan to go and live with and support her. And so it was that Ba Nuan, though still a young girl, would grow up far from home, taking on the responsibilities of both caregiver and breadwinner in one. Life was tough – but so was Ba Nuan.

Ba Nuan went to school during the day and spent all her free time labouring or collecting branches for roof thatch to earn money. There was no time to dream about her future: the health and happiness of her little two-person household rested entirely on her young shoulders.

A Thai man and woman pray together sitting on blue plastic chairs inside a church building.
Your support has helped Ba Nuan to live with hope.

As she grew older, Ba Nuan’s strong work ethic continued. She opened her own restaurant and also began working as a medium to cure people believed to have been cursed by black magic – a practice passed down by her grandmother. Married with two children and with a stable career, poverty gradually lost its grip on Ba Nuan. But happiness was still a long way away.

Helen and Wit Boondeekhun stand next to each other in a field in Thailand
Your support for Helen and Wit Boondeekhun allowed them to come alongside Ba Nuan.

One day, Ba Nuan’s world came crashing down around her. She was heartbroken to discover her husband had been unfaithful – and that this wasn’t the first time. Her business began to crumble as her marriage fell apart. Then, four years ago, Ba Nuan’s husband tragically took his own life. Alone and in despair, Ba Nuan couldn’t see a way forward. That’s until a neighbour visited her, and told her about a man called Jesus.

Ba Nuan was invited by her friend to the church run by BMS World Mission workers Helen and Wit Boondeekhun in a small village called Wang Daeng. There, Ba Nuan encountered unconditional love, from God and from her new community. “God transformed me,” says Ba Nuan. “I didn’t have any hope, my life was in despair, and I didn’t want to live. But now I have found a new life, new happiness,” she continues. “I’m so happy indeed that I found God. I know that he loves me, and I want to live my life for him.”

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your incredible response to the Thailand Spring appeal, sharing the gospel with people like Ba Nuan. Coming to know Jesus has transformed Ba Nuan’s life and given hope to a whole community now attending a fledgling church in Wang Daeng. Learn more about the appeal here.

The people who attend the church in Wang Daeng each have a story like Ba Nuan’s – a story of a life searching for hope, and finding it in Jesus. The village has gone from being a place where no-one would have called themselves a Christian, to a community with a thriving church where eight new believers were baptised just last year. Excitingly, Ba Nuan was one of them. The BMS team asked Ba Nuan whether she had a message for supporters in the UK. She replied: “Love God with all your mind, soul and strength, because God is powerful, and he can help you, and he loves you so much.”

If you gave to the Thailand Spring appeal, thank you for bringing new life to Ba Nuan and to a whole church community. Helen and Wit are so encouraged to know that you are standing with them. And if you haven’t come across their ministry in Wang Daeng before, there’s still time to get involved. Why not find out more about Helen and Wit here, and subscribe to receive their free prayer letters today?

A woman getting baptised in Thailand.
Praise God that Ba Nuan was baptised last year!
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Words by Hannah Watson.

Thailand Spring appeal

Portrait of Wit and Helen Boondeekuhn

Thailand Spring appeal

Join Helen and Wit's work in Thailand

by giving monthly from today!

So many people are living without hope in the area of Thailand where Helen and Wit Boondeekhun work as evangelists and church planters. Could you give regularly to help them?

Thew grew up longing for stability and peace. His mum and dad separated when he was little and he spent much of his childhood being moved from home to home and school to school, never in the same place for long. He struggled with feelings of anger and begged his parents to reconcile. And looking back, he can see that his education suffered because of the constant change.

Thew and Som smiling in a sunlit area full of trees

Everything’s changed for Thew and his wife Som since they became Christians. In fact, we wish you could meet them and see the change for yourself – the joy that they radiate is infectious! The anger Thew used to feel has gone, and he’s found the stable family he longed for among his brothers and sisters at church.

Without the generosity of amazing supporters like you, Thew may never have heard the news that has changed his life forever. But there are still people waiting to hear. And without your help, they may never do so. Could you help by giving regularly?

How could my monthly gift help?
  • £5 each month could support a local Thai evangelist in sharing the good news of Jesus and in discipling new believers.
  • £12 each month could equip a church member like Thew with skills to increase their income and better support their family.
  • £25 each month could help raise up new local leaders and bring hope of sustainable church growth long into the future.

We call our regular givers 24:7 Partners because they’re committed to praying and giving regularly to support what God is doing through BMS. When you give monthly as a 24:7 Partner, you enable plans for the future. You help start new work. You are part of this work, all day, every day.

If you become a 24:7 Partner to support BMS work in Thailand, we’ll send you a welcome pack, as well as Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine. Find out more on our 24:7 Partners page.

A young man in a pool preparing to be baptised

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Matthew 9: 37


Come with us to Wang Daeng by watching this short video!

Pray with your church for Helen and Wit's work in Thailand

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Go to the online form

There is love here

Inspirational church ministry from Uganda

There is love here

Praying for this

Jimmy and Phionah Okello are an amazing and faithful couple. And their student ministry in Gulu, Uganda, is a clear example of abundant life, blessed by God. BMS World Mission’s Writer, Laura Durrant, caught up with them on a recent trip to Gulu, where she got to experience this wonderful ministry that you support, first-hand.

There is love here. That’s what I think when we pile out of the car and hurry into the building of University Community Church (UCC) in Gulu. It’s a building I know well, having seen it in photos many times during my time at BMS World Mission, and I’m a bit overwhelmed to be here experiencing it in real life. Even more exciting though is being greeted by Phionah Okello on the door as we rush in to take our seats – the service is about to start. Phionah, and her husband Jimmy, are well known in the BMS office back home. To meet them in person and experience their ministry first-hand is such a privilege, and I’m excited to learn more about how God is leading them.

A church building in Uganda made out of half brick wall and half bamboo walls.
Jimmy and Phionah planted University Community Church eight years ago.

Jimmy and Phionah knew from their university days in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, that God was calling them to minister to students – and for Phionah in particular, it’s a beautiful completion of her own journey to faith. When she first went to university, it felt like her first experience of real freedom after spending most of her education at boarding school. She planned to work in a bank and make lots of money – but that all changed when she met some Christians on campus. “I felt like they came at the right time and I came to know the Lord at the right time,” Phionah says. “Imagine if no-one had come to me, I would be lost, completely lost forever.” Phionah and Jimmy met at their church in Kampala, and remained involved in the campus ministry for a number of years. That’s until they felt the Lord calling them to move up north and plant a church at Gulu University.

Two photos put together of a Ugandan woman and man smiling at the camera.
Jimmy and Phionah followed God's call to minister to students in Gulu.

Eight years later, they’ve built a warm, strong community at UCC – but ministering to students isn’t without its challenges. “It’s so transient and it can be discouraging,” explains Phionah. “Because every three years almost half of the church is gone and you have different people.” But despite the impermanence of the context they’re in, they’re able to offer a safe space for these young people experiencing a huge change in their lives to share their struggles and find hope. “What we’ve seen is that because of our stability, we’ve become a light in that community,” says Jimmy. And that light doesn’t just touch Gulu. The university isn’t just a mission field, it’s also a mission base. Jimmy and Phionah are able to disciple the students they meet to become disciple-makers, so they can continue to share the gospel in their new communities once they leave university.

Many churches in the UK struggle with engaging with young people, but Jimmy and Phionah don’t have a secret formula when it comes to their student ministry. They simply spend their time building strong relationships with the young people in their community, and are available to help them whenever they can. “If you build a relationship of trust, [the students] can listen to you and bring their issues to you,” Jimmy explains. It’s a principle Jimmy and Phionah take to their work outside of UCC with BMS World Mission partner Justice Livelihoods Health (JLH), where Phionah helps with administration and finance, and Jimmy runs outreach and training for local church leaders. “I get the opportunity to share some of my skills and abilities in leadership, which I use at UCC to equip other pastors in different churches,” says Jimmy. “Being able to share with them from what I have so that they’re able to lead more effectively and be equipped is really a beautiful thing.” For Jimmy and Phionah, emulating God’s love is the foundation of their ministry.

People praying in church in Uganda
A woman speaking in church in Uganda. She's wearing a pink top.
The community is thriving at UCC and many students have come to faith and grown in faith thanks to the ministry here.

There is love here. Not just at UCC, but in this community, in this city. I see love in the worship and welcome we receive at UCC. And I see it throughout the rest of the week we spend in Gulu, in the devotions shared between colleagues at JLH, in the worship of a church savings group, in the laughter shared between a mother and her children, the stories shared between a grandmother and her granddaughter. It’s my main take away from our visit to Gulu: that with God’s unfailing love abounding, any life can be lived with abundance.

Jimmy and Phionah would love for you to pray with them, for UCC and their wider ministry.

  • Please pray for a permanent building for UCC, so they can continue to provide a safe and stable environment for the students they minister to.
  • Pray for students to have open hearts to the gospel message and that they would develop personal relationships with God.
  • Pray for the Lord to bless Jimmy and Phionah with wisdom in their ministry, so that they can continue to bring people to faith and create disciple-makers in Uganda.
  • Pray that God will raise up more leaders within UCC to help share the load of the ministry.
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Words by Laura Durrant, Editor of Engage, the BMS magazine.

Mission Turned Upside Down

Mission Turned Upside Down

History made as history is celebrated in Bangladesh

Last month the Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha gathered in their thousands to mark the 225-year anniversary of BMS World Mission founder William Carey’s arrival in Bengal – but all minds were set firmly to the future.

“Life at the edges”…”When waters rise” … “Cyclone Amphan: pray as heavy rains hit Bangladesh” … “Cyclone Bulbul: pray for Bangladesh”.

When you search for stories about Bangladesh on the BMS website, you discover a country on the frontline of the climate emergency. However, Bangladesh’s stories aren’t only about human-made extreme weather conditions. As a nation, it’s on the frontline of 21st century mission.

Once upon a time, what was Bengal was the frontline of 19th century mission. Last month, long-time BMS partner, the Bangladesh Baptist Church Sangha (BBCS), celebrated a 225-year anniversary. The celebrations marked the moment BMS founder William Carey moved across into what is now the Bangladeshi district of Dinajpur, after his famous landing in what was then known as Calcutta.

The celebrations lasted four days and involved over 3,000 Bangladeshi Baptists, visits and talks from BMS General Director Kang-San Tan and Head of BMS Trustees Marc Owen, as well as BMS workers Louise and Peter Lynch, and, wonderfully, 31 baptisms. When we spoke to Louise and Peter earlier in the summer, Louise stressed the importance of not dwelling or taking comfort in the past. “The whole idea of the celebration is to go forward,” she said, “looking into how we can share the gospel even more successfully across Bangladesh!

What Louise couldn’t reveal back then was that she and Peter had been intimately involved in working with BBCS to clear the path for the ordination of their first women pastors. As they shared in their most recent prayer letter, “[The two women] stood alongside twelve men, who were also committing their lives to sacrificial service.

Two men in suits smiling at the camera
Marc Owen, BMS' Head of Trustees, is joined by BMS worker Pete Lynch to celebrate this amazing anniversary!

“Jyoti and Nandita are also our friends and we have seen their patient service irrespective of recognition. So, it has been really good to have been part of the behind-the-scenes team within BBCS working towards this day, and to pray for these women as they develop, train and support the next generation. The very public inclusion and affirmation of these women, also I think communicated something about how BBCS leadership wants to be.”

Two women pastors from Bangladesh smile at the camera, along with a man and a woman
Pete and Lou Lynch celebrate with Pastors Nandita and Jyoti!

Telling the story of BBCS and the ordination of Pastors Nandita Sharkar and Jyoti Ratner is vital. As Kang-San told the thousands in the congregation, “My prayer and encouragement is for us to tell the story of BBCS by focusing on the history of local church pioneers rather than foreign missionaries.”

This is what 21st century mission can look like when we are prepared to turn it on its head. Drawing from his own personal story, Kang-San had a challenge for the ministers who had gathered from across the region, “I was converted at the age of 17 in a small Baptist church in Malaysia. My pastor took risks in allowing me to preach at the young age of 19.

“By the time I graduated from university, I was an itinerant preacher and pastor of Malaysian Baptist churches. My challenge for BBCS is for every minister to model godliness and to mentor 12 young disciples for leadership for the next generation Church.”

The theme for the 225-year celebrations was appropriately taken from Revelation 2: 25, “…hold on to what you have been given until I come”. As Louise points us and the Church in Bangladesh towards the future, it begs the question about our future goals until Jesus is comes again.

Inspired by the ordination of Jyoti and Nandita, Kang-San’s sense of the future direction is clear, “We need to focus on the need for Christian discipleship among younger generations. We need to release women and men whose holiness and discipleship will prepare for the leadership of BBCS.”

225 years on, our understanding of mission has changed, the church in Bangladesh has changed. The present and future in Bangladesh and beyond is that, as Kang-San puts it, “Jesus Christ’s sacrifice is available for all, young and old, female and male to participate fully in the leadership of the church.”

* This article was amended on January 4 2023 to afford Pastor Nandita Sharkar and Pastor Jyoti Ratner their full titles.

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Words by Matty Fearon

Will you stand?

Will you stand?

I Will Stand: W’s story

The BMS World Mission I Will Stand appeal asked you to stand with bold believers in hard places. There’s still a chance to join us in making a difference. This is W’s story.

We can’t show you their faces.
But God has numbered every hair on their heads.
This is W’s story.

W is smiley, considerate and extremely polite. He gestures with his hands as he speaks, with a swiftness and excitedness that belie the challenges he’s lived through. He’s still a young man, only in his 30s. He couldn’t have predicted the pathway that God would place him on that day in 2010 when someone handed him a Bible for the first time. But there’s one thing he’s absolutely certain of: “I know that Jesus loves me. And I love to follow Jesus.”

W's story, Asia

Download the video and share with your church
Thank you for supporting I Will Stand

Generous Christians from around the UK have already raised nearly £160,000 for I Will Stand. “A number of ministers spoke to us of the perspective-shifting conversations the stories provoked in their youth groups,” says Matty Fearon, BMS’ Creative Content Team Leader. “And after watching our I Will Stand Live event that featured an interview with Z, one minister said it led to a whole session on our boundaryless fellowship in Christ.” We know these powerful stories deserve to reach more ears. If you haven’t supported I Will Stand yet, why not do so today?

W’s story is powerful, and he’s telling it because he longs for support from his brothers and sisters around the world. Could you stand with W today? Here’s three ways you can help.

Give to the I Will Stand appeal

Your gift to BMS World Mission can provide Bibles for people who have never had the chance to read the gospel, fund theological training for an isolated believer from the Middle East or North Africa, or help support a church planter in Asia to share the good news with unreached communities. By giving, you can support Christians following Jesus and sharing the gospel in some of the hardest-to-reach places in the world.

Use the donation form on this page to give to the I Will Stand appeal and help bold believers living out their faith in hard places.

Pray for BMS-supported believers in hard places

These believers pray for Christians in the UK. They pray for you. Will you pray for them? Pray for people who have been rejected by their families because they have chosen to follow Jesus. Pray for church planters in Asia who are facing persecution because of their faith. Pray for isolated Christians. And pray that, through the ministries of these BMS-supported believers, thousands of people will experience whole-life transformation.

Download the prayer points

Share the stories with your church

Want to share I Will Stand with your church? Please do! We have lots of resources to help you at  www.bmsworldmission.org/iwillstand

Download the videos (and show or stream them copyright free) and check out our free Leader’s Guide to plan your I Will Stand service or event, all year round.

Get resources for your church

Gifts made to I Will Stand will be used to support BMS’ work to bring people to faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in hard places all around the world.

Will you stand?

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Life at the edges

Life at the edges

Lessons in joy from the Bangladeshi Church

Praying for this

The Christian message has always found a home in the margins. Louise and Peter Lynch, mission workers in Bangladesh, share a truth they have been wrestling with – and a corrective to our comfortable Christianity – that it is on the edges of Bangladesh society where the joy of the gospel flourishes.

Fragility

Fragile communities abound across the fault lines of Bangladesh. They survive at the edges — at the edges of the pandemic, of natural disaster zones, and of a state that is increasingly discriminatory towards Christians.

These fragile communities survive and, where the local Christian Church has taken root in the margins of these communities, there are signs of thriving, against all the odds. “So much of the work of the Church has been successful amongst the poor and probably least successful in the wealthier cities,” explains Louise Lynch, BMS World Mission worker in Bangladesh. “When we refer to the Church, [and this is something we wrestle with], what we are talking about is just a whole group of poor, really marginalised people. No-one economically is going to make their own way out of this situation.”

River in Bangladesh
Rivers cover almost 80 per cent of Bangladesh, making yearly flooding inevitable.

Part of BMS’ ministries in Bangladesh is to come alongside those who work on the margins, supporting localised church-based initiatives aimed at community transformation. Over the last few years, this work has taken Louise, and her husband Peter, into the northern region of Rangpur, a district right on the fault line of extended unseasonal monsoons.

“We are part of network that means the church leaders in this district can reach out to the rest of the churches in Bangladesh for aid and for prayer,” adds Louise. “But it’s not the only poor area, and it’s not the only flood affected area, and so there’s not enough to go around.”

Flourishing

It’s Louise and Peter’s visits to and engagement with one particular village, Balapara, that have stayed with them though, demonstrating the flourishing that is possible when we can work in partnership with local churches grown in local contexts – and when they work in partnership with each other. Louise and Peter are pragmatic, however, about the fact that as long as they work in Bangladesh, in villages like this, need will always outstrip resource.

Gospel sharing Bangladesh
Much of Louise and Peter’s work is supporting pastors sharing the gospel in remote communities.

Life in the village is marked by uncertainty but, as Louise explains, light reaches in through the cracks. “The church is bringing good news because it’s telling people about Jesus, and therefore they’ve got someone to pray to and someone to hope in, which replaces hopelessness and uncertainty. But it’s worth emphasising that they’re not expecting God to lift them out of their poverty.”

God, it seems, is at work in other ways. “Some of it is just supernaturally amazing in that God appears in dreams to people and they ask us, ‘Who is this Jesus?’” Peter says. “I’ve met him in my dream, and I want to know who I am now going to follow.’”

Louise and Peter experienced a church “full of vibrancy and life” on their last visit. “What’s wonderful when we go is that you see the church springing to life. Christians there love to sing. The church is full of people and we have such a joyful day and a good time worshipping and training, and the people feel blessed and are so grateful.”

Economic recovery for so many Bangladeshi Christians can seem very far off in the aftermath of floods and Covid-19. But incredibly, there is still so much good being done by the church. A local pastoral superintendent organised for school children to receive replacement books and bags after school equipment was lost to flooding. Louise says acts like this can seem small, but seeing a village prioritising education in this way has been really inspiring.

"What’s wonderful when we go [into the villages] is that you see the church springing to life," says Louise.

“There was a whole group of 14 to 16-year-old girls who’d been going off to coaching with their new bags and all their books in their bag,” adds Louise. “They all have aspirations to become nurses and are desperately asking everyone to pray that they’ll get better at their studies because they struggle. Bengali is not their first language, so they’re working in their home tongue and then they’re working in Bengali.”

Girls with bags Bangladesh
Praise God that girls have been able to receive replacement books and bags after devastating flooding.

“We had helped to distribute money as part of the relief response to help pay school fees, with schools closed instead they used that money for extra coaching. We weren’t expecting that but that news just made us so happy. They could have used that money for so many other things and they chose to use it to remain engaged in education throughout the lockdown.”

With the need so apparent all around them, Louise and Peter wrestle regularly with the idea that the joy surrounding their visits masks a more sombre reality. “We struggled. We asked the local pastors, ‘Is this happiness genuine?’ And their reply was, ‘Yes, they’ve just sang songs with you and you’ve played games with them. For them it is a moment of respite and that lasts for quite a long time.’”

At the centre of all this, it really is the vision of church leaders and local Christians that shines light into what seems like darkness. When asked what motivates these Christian leaders, Louise and Peter say it is the hope of flourishing communities that keeps them going. “Their hope is really that for the young people in their journey into faith, that these moments of joy stick, that this will provide a sense of belonging to the church family.” Joy at the margins produces more joy. And when it does, villages like this grow and thrive.

Read more about Bangladesh

You can read much more about Peter and Louise’s work bringing hope to villages devastated by floods in the next issue of Engage magazine. And if you’re not already, it couldn’t be easier to subscribe! Just sign up here to receive Engage three times a year, free of charge!

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Words by Matty Fearon.

The accidental pastor

The accidental pastor:

One man’s incredible conversion story

Pastor Humberto’s conversion in the Peruvian Amazon is testament to God’s power to work miracles entirely independent of human intervention. Read on for the incredible story — one that teaches us that salvation comes from God alone… but that God is certainly not going to leave us on our own.

It’s a story that begins with two abandonments. One, Humberto’s slow realisation that he was considering leaving his wife just six years into their marriage – ending in her giving him an ultimatum: if he ever did go, he would never see their beloved son again. And the second, the shock of a clean break coming from left field, from a group of people who weren’t supposed to leave.

Some Christians had planted a church in Pastor Humberto’s village of Nanay, on a tributary of the Amazon river, only to announce they were making a trip further downstream. They needed a trustworthy man to look after the keys to the church while they were gone.

Their trip away ended up saving Humberto’s marriage.
He just didn’t expect that the missionaries would never come back.

Pastor Humberto holds up the keys he was handed to an empty church. He is wearing a blue t-shirt. Behind him is the green door of the church, and the blue and white painted wall.
Pastor Humberto holds the keys to the church that he never expected to run.

Humberto’s wife had been growing more and more interested in the message taught at the new church. Not willing to let go of the man she loved, she’d also begun to invite him along to meetings there with their son. While at first dismissive, Humberto soon realised that if he could prove himself as an indispensable help, could reliably open the church for morning prayer, light the candles as needed, and shut it up at night, then perhaps his wife would reconsider the ultimatum hanging over their relationship.

And when every other man in the village asked to look after the church keys claimed busyness – “my business won’t run itself”, “every day?”, “I’m needed at my farm on Sundays” – well, Humberto’s offer seemed really quite dedicated.

Two boats on a rainy river where BMS works in the Peruvian Amazon.
Pastor Humberto sits on his boat, where BMS World Mission works in the Peruvian Amazon.

But, while this story begins with two abandonments, it doesn’t end that way. The missionaries never came back – called back to their home country or preferring to begin again in a new village, Humberto never found out. But his change in character touched his wife. He heard God’s prompting to look at her again in a new light, as the wife of his youth, a woman whose inner beauty outshone all others. And his daily visits to church made peeling open the pages of a Bible, once the object of complete disinterest, an irresistible temptation. “Once I’d opened the Bible, I couldn’t close it,” says Humberto, remembering how he read all four gospels in one day. In the absence of the missionaries, a village whose hunger for God’s Word had been stirred needed a pastor. “You preach for us Humberto!” was the persistent plea.

Pastor Humberto has come a long way from his first sermon preached from the Sermon on the Mount. For a brand-new pastor and Christian, quoting the words of his new Lord seemed a good place to start. But Humberto knew that without teaching, he’d never learn to craft a sermon, confidently explain the gospel or understand large portions of Scripture. At his own admission, people from that stretch of the river haven’t received the same opportunities that others enjoy closer to the city. So, when Humberto received his first invitation to a teaching series at the BMS-supported Nauta Integral Mission Training Centre (NIMTC), there could be no-one more grateful, enthusiastic or encouraged. “There are pastors who didn’t finish primary school,” Humberto explains. “They can’t read, let alone read the Bible. Look at me – I was handed the keys to an empty church, and then – nothing. I had no preparation. That’s why Nauta’s training programme is so important.”

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God changed Pastor Humberto’s life in a miraculous way. And though he began his Christian life by discovering Jesus’ call on his own, God didn’t leave him alone. He brought BMS’ leadership ministries into his life and Pastor Humberto has never looked back.

Give today, and you’ll support people around the world in their walk with Christ, whether that’s inviting them to come to him for the first time, or coming alongside them when they think they’re completely alone.

Humberto has been so encouraged by the investment shown to him by BMS supporters, but in equal measure, he’s encouraged the team out in Peru. Having quickly caught the vision for the programme, Humberto and his son have both gone through the Nauta training course. Humberto has also been invited back to encourage other pastors, sharing how the centre allowed him to develop the vision God gave him for ministry and business in his local community. Beginning with very little, Humberto was inspired by the very practical training given to pastors about how they could provide for themselves, their families and communities by running sustainable businesses. His fish farm, established after the training, provides financial blessing amongst the spiritual joys this incredible man has known since coming to Christ. And because everyone loves a love story – yes, Humberto and his wife’s marriage has flourished, united by the love of Jesus. Together, their love, enthusiasm and encouragement pour outwards, blessing those around them.

A wooden hut next to a manmade lake in the Peruvian Amazon.
Pastor Humberto's fish farm is flourishing in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon.
Pastor Humberto stands on a bridge at his property in the Peruvian Amazon.
“Here, when it rains, we have water. When the sun rises, we have light. We get by, but we have nothing here. Nothing.”

It’s hard to underestimate just what a difference BMS mission workers Laura-Lee Lovering, Dave and Michele Mahon and the rest of the team at NIMTC have made in Humberto’s life. But all of that love and support came through and from you.

Thank you for supporting BMS’ leadership ministries. And thank you for showing Christians like Humberto that God never leaves them on their own.

The Nauta Integral Mission Training Centre (NIMTC) is run by BMS World Mission workers from the UK and from Peru and is the fulfilment of a dream of many river pastors to receive theological training and Christian support. It’s hope in the jungle. Pastors like Humberto are not only trained in theology, they’re also equipped to help with the health and development of their own very rural villages, which are only accessible by boat.

Alongside in-depth Bible study and prayer, they learn about agroforestry and how to care for the environment; they learn about budgeting; and they learn basic health and hygiene skills — how to prevent illnesses and how to treat them.

Words: Hannah Watson
Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine

Access all areas

Access all areas

Praying for this

How Facebook and former Muslims are bringing Jesus’ hope to North Africa, thanks to the workers you support.

“I’m the only Christian in my country.” BMS’ media mission is streaming the gospel into parts of the world where fewer than one percent know Christ. This is the story of the voices who reply.  

There’s less than five minutes until we go live when the team rush into the studio to pray. Presenters Joe and Zinah are poised on set, microphone wires tucked into crisp shirts, the sound check finalised. ‘There’s not enough time,’ I think. ‘Praying now?’ But the media centre I’m visiting is fuelled by three things: coffee, hard graft and prayer. Back in the control room, I perch on my seat. “Don’t forget, you can pray too!” says Andrea, BMS’ Director of Arabic Productions from her seat at the switch deck. I bow my head. Five, four, three, two… one. We’re rolling.

I flew to the media centre, situated in a secret location in the Mediterranean, at the beginning of Ramadan. I’m here to experience the broadcast of a Facebook Live Stream, one of several shows that are filmed for North African audiences at this time of reflection and celebration for the Muslim world. The shows, presented by North African Christians Joe and Zinah, are aimed at encouraging questions, with the hope that discussions will point towards knowing Jesus in a Muslim context.

Tonight’s broadcast is about fasting: interrogating its purpose and how to do it well. There are no water glasses on set – the team want to be culturally sensitive especially during Ramadan. As Joe and Zinah warmly welcome viewers to the show, the first comment pings up on a Facebook thread. Habib, the centre’s Christian apologist, taps out a reply for all those watching the stream. For those who don’t want to leave a public comment, Habib opens Whatsapp. These private channels are where the most thrilling conversations happen. Truth-seekers speak more openly behind the protective walls of encrypted messaging.

We’re halfway through. Cameras on her, Zinah’s speaking so confidently, but just an hour ago she’d been close to tears. As they sat in the makeup chairs, with Andrea multitasking as foundation retoucher and translator, Joe and Zinah had been telling me about last week’s show, where Zinah had received an angry comment telling her to return to Islam live on air.

A filming set.
Almost all the North African workers at the studio were rejected by family when they turned to Jesus.

Ordinarily these comments are ignored, but Zinah had surprised us all. “I cannot leave my God of love,” she’d told the viewer. “God is not angry with me. Jesus says we have eternal life.”

Hands on a tech desk.

“In that moment, I felt that I was really strong because Jesus was with me,” Zinah said, her eyes shining. “It was a healing from the past. From culture, from religion, from the man having more right to say things than you. From being ashamed.” I know that Zinah has been rejected by family – almost all the North Africans at the centre have been. But they bear no ill will. “When most of our families are still Muslims, how can we be against them?” Joe says.

Their commitment to grace is still evident during tonight’s show, and Ian, BMS’ Studio Manager and Producer gives the presenters the signal to wrap up. Joe and Zinah field final questions about how Christians can respect their Muslim families during the fast. Then, we pile into the prop room to hear who Habib has been speaking to.

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A lady called Khadisha has been inviting her friends to watch the show. Then, a strange and disjointed message arrives over Facebook. Hani is a refugee living in Turkey who has seen the Facebook Live and wants to talk, despite the show being in a very different Arabic to his own. He’s so interested, he’s willing to struggle on in a dialect he can barely speak.

When Habib, who lost half his family in an Aleppo bomb blast, realises Hani is Syrian like him, he laughs in delight. They speak the same kind of Arabic. Hani’s been wanting to know more about Jesus for a long time, and now he’s found someone who can tell him. It’s like it was planned.

Habib tells us about Fatima, another viewer who’s overwhelmed by a dream in which she saw Jesus, and Si’id, an atheist who wants to be sent an Arabic Bible. Some viewers introduce themselves as ‘Ahmed’ or ‘Hassan’, only to reveal themselves weeks later as nervous women, hiding behind the protective power of a fake name. New believers will be connected with churches in North Africa. Over 150 others have seen the broadcast by the time we leave the studio. Only Habib will be up until midnight, conversing, reasoning and explaining.

A woman sat in front of screens.

With paid advertising the video would reach hundreds of thousands, but I’m about to find out why it’s not just a case of being willing to pay. I’m with Ian when he chuckles. One of the videos has had its advertising pulled by Facebook. It’s disheartening to know it will appear on the feeds of hundreds instead of thousands now, so the team have to laugh in moments like this. Facebook wants to be sure to avoid controversy, so some adverts are rejected – the videos must be clever, almost parabolic, in order to slip through the algorithms. “It was too religious in nature,” Andrea tells me later.

Laughing in the face of this, given all the work that’s gone into the show, is possible when you’ve been doing it for as long as Andrea and Ian have. They’ve been here 15 years, reaching out and listening to replies. Using their media skills to share hope. “They’re the grease that moves the wheels,” their team members tell me. “Heck, they’re the whole car.” Andrea laughs at this, but concedes that they are the “glue”.

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Variously centre managers, directors, prop researchers, production editors and financial managers, Andrea and Ian even built the studio we’re now sitting in. When they began serving with BMS, no-one else was making Christian television programmes for North African people in their own dialect. “Now, our audience are seeing the gospel as something that can belong to them,” says Andrea. “Jesus isn’t just for one country, or for the West.” In a world where technology can often feel like a destructive influence and social media a drain, BMS workers are harnessing their power to share Jesus. And, because you support Andrea and Ian through your giving, through social media technology, Jesus is being met. “We’re on the front line,” says Andrea, “but BMS supporters are what’s helping us to stay on the frontline.” Ian agrees. “We can’t do it without your prayers.”

Pray for Andrea and Ian as they reach out to North Africa with the gospel:

  • Pray that language barriers would not mean people miss out on the treasure of the gospel.
  • Pray for Hani, that he will continue to grow in the knowledge and love of Jesus.
  • Pray that Christians will have freedom to share the gospel in North Africa.
  • Pray that God would call the people he wants to win for him, and that Andrea and Ian would be led to do God’s will in all their work.
  • Pray for continued financial support for BMS, so that ministries like Andrea and Ian’s can continue.

Words by Hannah Watson, Editor of Engage, the BMS World Mission magazine.

Good news in Wang Daeng

Good news in Wang Daeng:

five ways your prayers have been answered

You’ve been praying and God has been moving mountains in Wang Daeng.

What does good news look like? It could be as simple as receiving an unexpected phone call from a friend, or perhaps it’s the relief of the kids returning to school!

In the remote village of Wang Daeng in Thailand, we’re talking about good news on a whole other level – life-transforming news with eternal consequences. BMS World Mission church planters Helen and Wit Boondeekhun are showing and telling the good news of Jesus to people who have never heard of him. Last year we asked if you would pray for the spread of the gospel in Wang Daeng, every week, for a year. And those prayers have been answered. For Wang Daeng, this is what good news looks like…

  1. You prayed for the beginnings of the first church in Wang Daeng

Now four people have asked Jesus into their lives, and dozens of seekers attend a weekly Sunday gathering. Praise God that there is also a Bible study group meeting in the neighbouring village of Chum Song, where Helen and Wit hope another church can be planted one day.

To top it all off, the Thailand Action Team (the BMS gap year for 18 to 23-year-olds) organised a Christmas event which saw an incredible 140 people attending. They also built a friendship with a young girl called Prang. That December, when she heard the good news of Jesus coming to Earth as Saviour, she came forward to declare herself a Christian.

Four young people smiling and looking into the camera.
Hosting a BMS Action Team mobilised the young people in the village.
  1. You prayed for new Christian Suree to grow in her faith

Suree now regularly invites friends to Sunday gatherings. “It’s still difficult for Suree,” says Wit. “She was asked to perform Buddhist rituals and she was ashamed to say no. So I told her to focus on Jesus.” Please continue to pray that she keeps her eyes fixed on Jesus as she lives out her faith.

A woman and a man looking into the camera.
Helen and Wit study the Bible with Suree and pay her regular visits to support her walk with God.
  1. You prayed for Ajarn Tah, a Thai Christian who teaches young people football and guitar

Praise God that he has now moved permanently into the village. His guitar students and football team eagerly attend the Sunday gatherings led by Helen and Wit. “They are very enthusiastic in worship,” they report in their latest prayer letter.

A team of boys in football shirts looking into the camera.
“The football players are fascinated by the stories from the Bible!” say Helen and Wit.
  1. You prayed for God to bless Wang Daeng

“There’s certainly been a new openness to the gospel in the area,” Wit says. The boys at the football club were also blessed by a camp in July. The focus was on learning about God, self-discipline and football skills. It was a whole village affair, with Ajarn Tah’s guitar students and the basket-weaving group that Helen leads organising fun and games, and cooking.

  1. You prayed for Helen and Wit

``We have absolutely experienced God’s protection and blessing over our lives.``

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“We have absolutely experienced God’s protection and blessing over our lives,” says Wit. And God has given in abundance with a new centre for their work: a two-storey building in the heart of the Wang Daeng community. “There is so much space that we won’t be needing a separate location for English classes and church,” say Helen and Wit.

They’ll also be starting a sewing group this month. The hope is, as with the basket-weaving group, more women will come to know Jesus as they develop self-sufficient livelihood skills.

Three woman sat on the floor weaving baskets.

Some BMS supporters have been praying for a year, and it’s been incredible to see those prayers answered, but there are still challenges. Addiction and spirit worship practices remain, and Helen and Wit feel a burden to help those imprisoned by addiction, starting with Suree’s husband, Got. Please continue to pray that he would be set free from alcoholism and continue to ask God to reveal himself in Wang Daeng. When we gather together in God’s name, he moves mountains!

Special thanks to Baptist Insurance for their generous financial support of the church planting project in Wang Daeng.

A dove in a circle of blue, green and black with Baptist Insurance next to it.
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Words by Melanie Webb. This story first appeared in Engage and has been adapted for web.

The power of your own story…

The power of your own story…

Helping people in India come to faith means sharing what God has done at every opportunity.

BMS worker Ben sits on a boat.
BMS worker Ben is helping people share the gospel in India, with your support.

Travel to India and it’s unlikely you’ll meet a Christian on the street. At least, that’s what the statistics tell you. In the world’s second most populous country, just over two per cent of the population openly identifies as Christian. But that’s still around 28 million people, a good foundation for those working hard to share the gospel in a nation that’s 80 per cent Hindu.

The challenge of telling people about Jesus remains daunting, however. It requires boldness, stamina and, critically, an approach that gets results. Thankfully, the church planters you support in India have it all. They’re led by BMS World Mission worker Ben Francis, a man who is never found silent when given the chance to express his passion for Jesus. Ben is at the forefront of an exciting disciple-making movement in his country, and has an inspiring hunger to see people come to faith.

A man raises his hand in worship in front of a lectern.
Thousands of people across India are committed to sharing how Christ has transformed their lives.

Around 45,000 people became Christians last year through the work Ben leads in India. It’s a number that’s easier to understand when you learn that over 8,000 people, who his church planters led to faith, attended training sessions on how to spread the gospel. And at the heart of the training is a simple lesson – never miss a chance to share how the love of Christ has transformed your life.

You can help Ben

Sign up to support Ben Francis as a 24:7 Partner today! Hit the button below to find out more.

Support Ben today!

“People need to share their story whenever they can,” says Ben. “They need to be in the habit of talking about what the Lord has done at every opportunity. To friends, family, neighbours, colleagues, acquaintances, or even people they’re buying things from.

“The conventional method was to go out and bring people back to church. Now, we go out, start a group and tell people to go and start one somewhere else. Multiplication can take place much faster this way.”

Sharing stories is at the core of this multiplication. As is getting to the point quickly. Ben encourages church planters to share their stories of transformation in just three minutes. “Not everybody you talk to will respond,” says Ben. “But some will, and then you tell them more about God.”

Top tips for evangelism graphic
Men and women sit together with bibles.
Ben says that the growth of people coming to faith seen in India can happen anywhere in the world.

One place where there has been an extraordinary response to the gospel is the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa). You may know about it because you supported our recent appeal focusing on church planting there. Or perhaps you followed the brutal persecution that happened in Odisha a few years ago.

Christians are still persecuted by extremists today in Odisha. They’re beaten. Intimidated. Humiliated. Murdered. Yet, in spite of extreme opposition, Christians continue to preach the Word of God – gently, respectfully and boldly. You’ve been supporting more than 40 church planters in the state, and in recent years, they’ve taken the gospel to over 1,600 villages.

And while the work you support in India is amazing, you’re going further, too. By supporting BMS, you’ve been helping Christians in other countries expand their church planting. Ben has been equipping churches in Europe and Asia to better communicate the love of Christ, just as he does in India. Soon you may even get a chance to learn from him in person about how you can start a disciple-making movement where you are.

“If the growth of people coming to faith can happen in India, then it can happen anywhere,” says Ben. “The principles of the Word of God do not change because you’re in India, or China, or anywhere. The Spirit of God energises.”

That energy is sweeping through towns and villages in India. Through homes. And through lives, as disciples make disciples. You’re already making it possible. And we’re excited for what comes next.

Watch Ben’s simple explanation of how to share your story of transformation

This story was originally published in BMS’ magazine, Engage. Subscribe to Engage today to get more stories like this delivered straight to your door for free!

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Original article featured in Issue 44 of Engage, the BMS World Mission Magazine. Edited for the website by Laura Durrant.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Are you sitting comfortably?

The journey of a believer in
four simple steps.

Benjamin Francis challenges believers to think about where we stand (or sit) on sharing our faith. Are we moving forwards in our journey of faith? Or are we sitting comfortably?

Benjamin Francis sits down in the last of a line of four chairs. “But even this is not the destination,” he says. “This is a journey”.

Ben is a BMS World Mission Team Leader, working in India at the forefront of disciple-making movements whose highest purpose is seeing people come to know and love Jesus. He’s using the chairs as a metaphor, each one a place where a person might stop and sit on their journey of faith. It’s a compelling picture that asks Christians to consider where they’re at on their walk with God.

The four chairs stand for ‘seeker’, ‘believer’, ‘disciple’ and ‘disciple maker’. The chairs aren’t destinations, Ben emphasises, but stops on a journey that the people in your local church congregation are all on.

Ben is passionate about disciple-making, and he holds the Great Commission close in his heart – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28: 19). Ben believes this command of Jesus worked out in our lives will mean everyone developing in Christlikeness as they move along their Christian journey, from ‘seeker’ to ‘believer’, to ‘disciple’ and ‘disciple maker’.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

Four metal chairs stand against a white wall, with captions above them in a black font saying 'seeker', 'believer', 'disciple', 'disciple maker'.
The four chairs stand for ‘seeker’, ‘believer’, ‘disciple’ and ‘disciple maker’. Which chair are you sitting in?

To many across the world, this is the destination of a Christian.

But that is so wrong.

It’s challenging to see Ben sitting in the final chair, saying that even this isn’t the end of the journey. Even more so, when he explains that many Christians are sitting in the second chair, the ‘believer’ chair. “To many across the world, this is the destination of a Christian,” Ben laments. “But that is so wrong”.

Ben’s vision for the Church is one of constant movement, growth and development. He wants to challenge us not to carry on just sitting comfortably in the chairs we’re in.

Which chair are you sitting in? And where do your friends and neighbours in church sit? Watch Ben’s explanation of the journey of a believer in four simple steps, then share it with Christians around you. Get them excited about sharing the good news of Jesus, discipleship-making and growing in Christlikeness.

And be encouraged! As a BMS supporter, you are enabling this message to go out into all the world, where disciples are being made right now thanks to your giving and prayer. Ben and his team are making disciples who are making disciples, in the power of the Holy Spirit and the light of the gospel. It’s so exciting that we can be a part of it.

Thank you for your generosity and commitment to God’s work in the world. Thank you for supporting BMS.

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Words by Hannah Watson, Editor of Engage. Video by Laura Durrant.

Pioneer mission: The church planters who need your prayer

Pioneer mission:

The church planters who need your prayer

Praying for this

Being Jesus in a village that is 100 per cent Buddhist is challenging work. Our church planters Helen and Wit Boondeekhun would love you to partner with them in prayer as they live out their faith in Wang Daeng village. Meet them and their new neighbours in this video brought to you straight from Thailand!

“We have one secret believer. But nobody really knows about this. She hasn’t been brave or bold enough to tell her friends yet, because it’s hard.”

It’s really difficult for people to convert to Christianity in Wang Daeng, in northern Thailand. BMS World Mission workers Helen and Wit have been living out their Christian faith in the village for the last two years – faithfully serving the community and trying to meet the practical needs of their new neighbours.

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They’ve been building friendships, teaching English, and helping women develop new skills. They’ve also hired a youth worker called Tah, who is training young people in football and guitar, and building relationships with their families.

Helen, Wit and Tah have become part of the community – and they’re so happy that their new friend Suree has become a believer. Now, they would love to see more fruit!

Would you pray with them for Wang Daeng? Download our prayer poster at the bottom of the page, print it out and stick it somewhere you will see it to remind you to pray for Helen, Wit and Tah, and the village of Wang Daeng.

PLEASE PRAY

  1. Pray for ten people to come to know Jesus Christ as their personal saviour in the next 12 months, through the ongoing witness of Helen, Wit and Tah. Pray that they will be the beginnings of the first church in Wang Daeng.
  2. Pray for Suree. Pray that she would continue to grow in her faith, and that God would give her boldness to share the gospel with her family and friends. Pray too that he would give Wit and Helen the wisdom to support her and disciple her well.
  3. Pray for Tah, as he seeks to build relationships and share the gospel with young people in Wang Daeng. Pray for energy, discernment and opportunities for him to pray with and encourage his football players and guitar students.
  4. Pray for God to bless Wang Daeng and all of its inhabitants with peace, joy and opportunity. Pray for real hope to drive out despair.
  5. Pray for Helen and Wit as they live and serve in Wang Daeng. Everyone knows that they are Christians, and they feel like there are thousands of eyes on them. Pray for protection and blessing on their lives, so that they can be salt and light.
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Click the image to download and print the prayer points.

The kingdom builders: meet six BMS workers giving it all for Christ

The kingdom builders:

meet six BMS workers giving it all for Christ

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Today, they’ll face everything from apathy and suspicion to persecution. Yet nothing will stop these BMS World Mission workers sharing Jesus’ love in hostile, remote and hard-to-reach communities.

The couple opening minds in a secular nation

Names: Samuel Duval and Valérie Duval-Poujol

Location: Mus, southern France

The challenge: serving in a country where evangelical Christians are almost non-existent, the Muslim community is the largest in Europe, and secularism is a hallmark of national identity.

The ministry: Facebook. YouTube. Email. And also in the church they planted. Pastor Samuel Duval and theologian Valérie Duval-Poujol embrace every way possible to tell people about their faith. People from across France are sending them questions about the Bible and Jesus, reaching out for answers. BMS workers Samuel and Valérie are listening, engaging, and telling them about Jesus.

A man wearing glasses and in a jacket and wearing a waistcoat, stands next to a woman with glasses and wearing a light blue shirt
Church planters Samuel Duval and Valérie Duval-Poujol embrace traditional and modern means to communicate their faith.

“The one thing that French people have is that they are thinkers,” says Samuel. “The French Baptists are just a few, but we have a massive impact with theology. When someone is a Christian in France, he can’t just be a regular Christian, he is a strong Christian.”

The youth worker using football and music to share his love for Jesus

Name: Ajarn Tah

Location: northern Thailand

The challenge: alcoholism and drug taking are destroying lives in the Thai Buddhist village where youth worker Ajarn Tah works. BMS workers Helen and Wit Boondeekhun brought him in to try and stop young people from drifting into addiction.

The ministry: starting a football team takes hard work, patience and, critically, players. Tah managed to form his team of ten to 13-year-olds in just one afternoon. Clearly the recruits knew what to do as they not only won their first match, they did so 6-1! And more than just the beautiful game, young people are hearing about a meaningful life. Before each match, the entire team goes to a local church to sing Christian songs, play games and hear a short message.

A woman in a white t-shirt stands next to a man in a white t-shirt in a forest.
Football ministry is helping Ajarn Tah, pictured here with his wife Ajarn Baeng, connect with young people in a village in northern Thailand.

Tah’s work in the village of Wang Daeng also sees him teaching guitar to pupils at the village school, using Christian songs to share his passion for Jesus.

The multi-tasker who's all about bringing new light

Name: Isaiah Thembo

Location: Kasese District, western Uganda

The challenge: helping people turn their lives around when they’ve dropped out of school and have no qualifications, money or hope.

The ministry: teaching skills like tailoring, carpentry, mechanics and hairdressing at a BMS-supported training centre.

“People have businesses now,” says project manager, Isaiah. “And that means they can earn money, rent a house, and send a child to school.”

A man wearing a smart suit and tie stands in front of trees, smiling at the camer
BMS worker Isaiah Thembo is supporting projects in western Uganda that help bring people out of poverty.

And Isaiah has not only helped to turn lives around at the skills centre. He’s also helped to install solar powered lighting in churches in western Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, where communities have no electricity. People use the churches to read and study because they have light, instead of burning kerosene lanterns which produce a toxic smoke.

“These projects are connecting the community to God,” says Isaiah. “They are helping people, and transforming hundreds of lives.”

Watch: this is the difference your support has made to a mountain village

The pastor who takes on the Amazon to connect with believers

Name: Pastor Luis Alvarado Dolly

Location: the Peruvian Amazon

The challenge: reaching rural communities accessible only by boat or through dense rainforest where Christians are very isolated. There’s also the very real threat of being bitten by mosquitoes, tarantulas and snakes.

The ministry: providing theological and leadership training to rural pastors who have never received it. Pastor Luis visits river and jungle pastors, inviting them to stay at the BMS-supported Nauta Integral Mission Training Centre where they get biblical training and lessons in how to care for their land.

Pastor Luis Alvarado Dolly looks at a camera
Pastor Luis is strengthening pastors in rural Peruvian communities.

Combining a relentless passion for the gospel with a brilliant smile and a heart for the poor, Pastor Luis is inspiring Christians to be stronger, better leaders in their communities.

The woman resisting persecution to help people find Jesus

Name: Gillian Francis

Location: Kolkata, India

The challenge: working in communities where Christians are persecuted, threatened, imprisoned, and killed. Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist groups attack Christians, angry that people are believing the gospel and accepting Jesus into in their lives.

The ministry: Gillian helps lead a huge church planting movement in villages in West Bengal by overseeing the critical and complex administrative work that’s needed. With her support, tens of thousands of people have heard about Jesus for the first time, giving their hearts to him and opening their homes to become places of worship and transformation.

A woman wearing a grey top and holding a microphone sings
Gillian Francis is playing a key role in helping house churches to flourish in West Bengal, India.
Partner with us in mission

We’re so proud to call Samuel, Valérie, Tah, Pastor Luis, Gillian, and Isaiah our colleagues. All this work can only happen with your help. If you commit to giving regularly to BMS, you can help us to plan ahead and meet the needs, both spiritual and physical, of people who would otherwise have little hope.

Become a 24:7 Partner today and commit, at whatever level you can, to stand with us every day in mission. You will also be standing with Samuel, Valérie, Tah, Luis, Gillian and Isaiah.

He preached the gospel and they poisoned his daughter

He preached the gospel and they poisoned his daughter:

David's story

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When you give to BMS World Mission, you’re supporting people like David. Read his incredible story today and be inspired by the way God is at work in India.

David wanted to end his life. His unhappiness ran so deep, he was desperate for a sense of peace. His father was an alcoholic and, despite promising to quit, he couldn’t break the addiction that was destroying his family.

The situation quickly got even worse for David, who lives in Odisha (formerly Orissa) in India, when he suddenly got very sick. “It seemed like I had many heavy things on my head,” says David. “I could hardly breathe and my heart used to beat very fast.

“I was told that I had serious problems with my brain and I might not live.”

As David’s health deteriorated, his family did everything they could to make him better. They took him to several different doctors, but none of them knew what was wrong with him or how to improve his condition. Next, they tried magicians and witch doctors. But their attempts were futile. No-one knew how to heal David.

“Everyone in my family thought I was going to die and was very upset,” says David. “I was unable to recognise people because my brain was not working. I had become bedridden and completely senseless, more like a dead person.”

As they prayed, I felt a kind of touch like an electric shock in my body. God touched me and gave me new life.

One day, as David lay on his bed in despair, his father met a Christian pastor. The pastor started to tell David’s father about Jesus, and when he heard about David’s sickness, he offered to pray for him. David’s father was desperate to save his son’s life, and said that if God could heal David he would give up drinking alcohol forever. The pastor gathered his church, and together they prayed and fasted for David for seven days. Then they came to see him.

“As they prayed, I suddenly felt a kind of touch like an electric shock in my body,” says David. “At that very moment I sat up on my bed and was healed. God touched me and gave me new life.”

Everyone who watched on was amazed. Just moments before, David had been like a dead man. Then, in an instant, his senses were restored and he was professing his faith in Jesus Christ and surrendering his life to Christian service. It was completely unbelievable. It was a miracle.

Knowing that he owed his life to Christ, David decided to train as a pastor. He began to tell Hindus in his district of Odisha about Jesus. As they heard David’s testimony, people gave their lives to Jesus, and David planted three churches in the area. His life had been completely transformed and he wanted everyone to know about it.

But his newfound faith was about to result in the greatest sadness he had faced yet.

People are looking to kill me.

A fundamentalist group began to target David, angry that he was converting people to Christianity and away from Hinduism. They sought an opportunity to harm him. David’s daughter got sick and was admitted to hospital, and while she was there she died. “She was poisoned by the fundamentalists as they came to know that I had become a follower of Jesus Christ.” She was just three years old.

“My daughter’s death was very tragic to my wife and myself,” says David. The couple were forced to leave their home and move to another district in Odisha, fearing for their lives. They’d lost their daughter, but they held tightly to their faith in Jesus and have continued telling people about him to this day.

David is a BMS-supported church planter and has been involved in starting 50 house churches in Odisha since his conversion. When you give to BMS, you’re helping people like David share the gospel with people who have never heard it.

“Though I lost my daughter and I am deeply sad, the Lord is using me greatly to win souls for him,” says David. “Many new people are coming to the Lord and many miracles are taking place. People are still looking out for me to kill me, but so far God has protected me and my family. So please pray for me, that I may be faithful to the Lord at all times.”

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BMS supports 48 church planters in Odisha – a region known for persecuting Christians

These pastors are risking their lives to tell people the gospel message. By giving to BMS, you’ve helped them to plant 1,700 new house churches in the region since 2010. Thousands of people have come to know Jesus through their work.

Please keep praying for these church planters. Pray that God would protect them and give them boldness to continue proclaiming his good news and sharing his love.

Please also make a donation to support our work by clicking the big red button above.

The pastor, the passion and the escaped slave

The pastor, the passion and the escaped slave

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A woman tricked into slavery and locked in a house escapes her prison by climbing through a window. She runs for her freedom. Years later, she steps into the room in the picture above and shares her story with a BMS World Mission worker passionate about showing people the love of Jesus. That love means other stories are being heard.

The homeless women who visit the day shelter in Massy, near Paris, are first offered a cup of tea and a biscuit. That’s what most of us want after a hard day. But we already have what the women get next: warm clothes, something more substantial to eat, and a person to talk to.

BMS mission worker Christine Kling often has the privilege of being that person. Christine helped set the centre up early last year, prompted by and partnering with the pastor of the local Reformed church. Some of the women who come are young, pregnant and alone. All are deprived of rest.

“There are not many places for them,” says Christine, who is the pastor of the Baptist church in nearby Gif-sur-Yvette. “As a woman, you think, ‘I have to do something’.”

The essence of the gospel message is to welcome the foreigner. We have to lead the way.

BMS mission worker Christine Kling gives a sermon in France
Pray for BMS worker Christine Kling, who is telling people in France about Jesus.

Some of the women reveal glimpses of what they’re going through. The stories are of extreme poverty, of living outside the securities of shelter and nourishment. One story is particularly harrowing. A woman, now in her 50s, arrived in France many years ago, travelling on the promise of a job, of income she’d never enjoyed up to that point. What she’d actually been led into was slavery.

She was locked in a house, forced to work as a cleaner, and given no bed to sleep on, just a chair. One day she managed to escape through a window and was taken in by a family – and worked for them as a domestic servant for ten years. She married, but was soon abused by her husband and had to escape again. This is how she ended up on the streets; homeless, unable to read or write, and needing someone who cared. Her story is the story of many women who visit the shelter. Most are asylum seekers with no friends or family to help them. This is where the Church steps in to help.

“The essence of the gospel is to welcome the foreigner,” says Christine. “We have to lead the way.”

Pray for Christine and the women
  • Pray for God to use Christine and for the Holy Spirit to guide her to make every encounter rich with Christ’s love.
  • Pray for God’s blessing on the women who use the shelter.
  • Pray the shelter would have all the resources it needs to help the women.
  • Pray for wisdom for all the volunteers who serve these vulnerable people. Many of the women who use the shelter will get moved on to another place before they can visit again. Pray that they would know how to show the kindness and compassion they need.

“Some of these women are from a Muslim background, some could be Christian,” says Christine. “The idea is more about conversation, about healing, about taking care of the most vulnerable in our society.

“If they ask for prayer we will pray for them. Through that, perhaps they will become a Christian, but the point is about hospitality, it’s about kindness… everything after that is in God’s hands.”

Without your gifts, Christine wouldn’t have been there to show kindness to the woman who escaped slavery. By supporting BMS, you stood alongside her, and helped her to feel valued and loved, even if only for a few hours. Please remember her in your prayers and when you give. Think of the love in the room she stepped into and how others so desperately need to feel that love today.

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Vive La Revolution

France:

Vive la revolution

Praying for this

God is turning lives around in hyper-secular France, where evangelical Christians make up less than one per cent of the population. You are part of the revolution.

Twenty young people become Christians at a youth conference in October 2015. Another hundred go forward to be prayed for, desiring to step out in faith when they get back home. An angry man who has had a very difficult childhood and gets agonising stress migraines makes friends with some Christians. He meets Jesus, becomes part of a church community and finds peace. His headaches stop completely.

A man who believes in God but has never had a relationship with him has a physical, almost tangible encounter with the Holy Spirit while reading Romans 6 in a Bible study with a BMS World Mission worker. He sees himself completely differently. Sees his sin nailed to the cross. He gets baptised.

The gospel is shared, heard, encountered. The revolution has begun.
It’s not the revolution of a nation – huge, unmissable and hard-won with guillotines and bloodshed. It’s a revolution of lives. Of individual men and women, won and transformed by Christ’s love in one of the most fiercely secular nations in Europe. It’s happening in the whisper. It’s happening through your support. It’s happening right now.

French-ness and the gospel – a real explosive mix

Connexion 2017, a youth conference in France, is causing a revolution amongst young French Christians.

Statistics about the evangelical Church in France are pretty discouraging. While Muslims make up seven per cent of the population, evangelicals comprise less than one per cent. France prides itself on its secularism, and the French Church has a turbulent history, which doesn’t help. “There are two worlds in France,” says BMS pastor Christine Kling, “people who go to church, and people who have no contact at all with faith.”

And yet some stories defy the statistics. They’re miracles, really. Christine’s is one of them. Until a few years ago, Christine was in that other world she describes: she barely knew anything about Christianity.

It wasn’t until 2010, when she moved to Scotland following the death of her husband, that she came to hear the gospel message and have her life utterly transformed.

Six years later, Christine came back to France with BMS, ready to share Jesus with French people who are still as far from him as she once was. Now, she’s working to revitalise a dying church.

Understanding that broken relationships and loneliness are huge issues for the French, Christine is using her personal experiences to share Jesus. “I always speak about relationships to explain that in Jesus I feel accepted,” she says. “I feel loved. I never feel alone anymore. There’s this new sense of freedom. I was freed of my sadness.”

Christine’s call back to France is already having an impact.

A man and his wife pray and pray for a pastor to come and serve in their rapidly shrinking church, which has been without a leader for 15 years. Just months before he dies of cancer, Christine arrives to see if she can help. He calls her an answer to his prayers.

Homeless and refugee women of all religions and none gather in Massy at a day centre organised by Christine and the pastor of the local Reformed church. They find safety and rest. They find a place to share their stories. Some of them ask for prayer.

Flashes of light in the darkness. 

Even the fact that the evangelical Church is a minority within a minority in France (evangelicals = less than one per cent, Protestants = two per cent) is actually, in some ways, a strength. “Because we’re so small, there’s no hesitation about what our role is,” says BMS pastor Philip Halliday, who heads up the Home Mission Department of the French Baptist Federation (FEEBF).
“It’s obvious – it’s to live out the gospel and to find fresh ways of communicating the good news of Jesus.”

That’s what Christine is trying to do in Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris. And it’s what BMS workers Claire-Lise and David Judkins are doing in Brive-la-Gaillarde – in the physical and social centre of France. They’ve moved away from a traditional church service model in order to better share the gospel with people who have not yet encountered Jesus.

They meet around a table, sharing food and stories, studying the Bible and praying together. The first Church Around the Table officially started in September 2016, and by January 2017 they’d grown large enough to split into two Tables, welcoming around 30 people altogether.

Six people have been baptised since the BMS church plant started.

Six people whose lives have been radically transformed. Who’ve seen the light.

Louise* is going through a difficult separation when she meets Claire-Lise and David. She’s into Buddhism, and when she finds out Claire-Lise is a pastor she tells her she is wrong. Louise is totally against Christianity. But then God touches her heart, and she starts asking questions. Amazingly, she asks for a Bible. She reads it, believes it, gives her life to Christ. She finds peace, forgives and accepts herself and reconciles with her husband. She gets baptised.

And she gets sick with cancer.

Louise’s non-Christian husband prays for her to get better and, by prayer and radiotherapy, she is healed. He gives his life to Christ and is baptised too.

“Their whole family is transformed,” says David. “He is somebody who’s struggled with depression, and now we’re struggling to control him in the group because he’s such a goofball, making jokes all the time.”

Beyond the local church, in the very centre of the Federation, BMS workers have helped to instil a hunger for mission that is permeating the life of French Baptists. “They have given their fire and passion for mission to others at the heart of the Federation,” says FEEBF General Secretary Mark Deroeux. “People are now able to say that, yes, as Christians, it’s possible to give your life to Christ and not be afraid of being a witness.”

In a mining village in the north of France, a struggling young pastor called Thierry Auguste receives a BMS grant to pay his salary. Fifteen years later he is the President of the Baptist Federation, helping to drive the vision of churches across the nation. He says he has never forgotten the gift. Says that, “When I had nothing and BMS helped me, I felt very rich all of a sudden.” Says that the gospel is worth all the sacrifices he now makes to volunteer for the Federation, that “the fruits we receive from the ministry are most precious – they’re men and women who give their lives to Christ.”

When I had nothing, BMS helped me – I felt rich

Following a terror attack in Paris, 200 people gather together for an ecumenical service in Brive, organised by BMS workers and their church planting team. In the midst of tragedy, non-Christians come into a church to pray.

The evangelical Church in France is small, but it’s not weak. At its heart is this fire to share the good news. To reach more people. To save more hearts. And the Christians here are a tiny minority, but they are strong. They believe what they profess – if they didn’t, they’d walk away from the Church and never come back. Because it’s not normal to be an evangelical Christian, it’s hard.

And yet, there is so much in France and the French that is already a reflection of the image of God. As church planter David says: “in their creativity, hospitality, and relationships, there’s so much there that is reflective of God’s plan and desire.

“If the two could go together – this core French-ness and the gospel that’s embodied in that –then you’d have a real explosive mix.”

Fifteen new Baptist churches are being planted across France.

The number of evangelicals here is nine times greater than it was 60 years ago.

The revolution has begun. It’s not the revolution of a nation, not yet. But it’s a revolution of individual lives. It’s people coming to life. The challenge for the French Church is to dare and to keep on daring. To be bold and to speak out for the gospel. The challenge for us, France’s neighbour, with a larger, stronger, better-resourced Church, is to keep helping them to shine.

*name changed

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Beaux Guests

They’re shining God’s light in France, with your support.

Philip and Rosemary Halliday

Philip is President of the French Baptist Federation’s (FEEBF) Home Mission Department, overseeing the 15 church plants across the country and encouraging FEEBF churches to be more outward looking. He and Rosemary travel across France offering pastoral support and vision to pastors. Rosemary is also involved in a local church’s young adults’ ministry.

John and Sue Wilson

John and Sue are breathing new life into Avenue du Maine Baptist Church in the heart of Paris. John also leads FEEBF’s Ministry Commission, while Sue heads up the Federation’s Youth Committee, which includes organising the national youth conference.

Christine Kling

Christine is the pastor of the Baptist church in Gif-sur-Yvette, near Paris, working to replant and grow the congregation. She also helps run a day shelter for homeless women, works as chaplain at a residential home in Gif and does project management for FEEBF.

Claire-Lise and David Judkins

Claire-Lise and David are pioneering Church Around the Table in Brive-la-Gaillarde. They’re building relationships and sharing Christ as they lead the church plant, which they hope will become a movement of disciples who make disciples who make disciples.

Stop, look, listen: restoring community through exercise

Stop, look, listen:

restoring community through exercise

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Mending rusted exercise bikes might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of ways to bring back a sense of community. But in Thailand, it’s working.

Listening to people and responding to their needs can be an extremely powerful way of demonstrating Christ’s love. In a rural village in Thailand, this is exactly what BMS World Mission workers are doing.

Helen and Wit Boondeekhun moved to Wang Daeng village in the Thai province of Uttaradit with the long-term goal of planting a church. With no Christians or churches in the village of five hundred families, the locals didn’t know what Christianity looked like. Instead of engaging in a battle of words with the majority Buddhist population, Helen and Wit decided to take a different approach. They listened. Upon arrival, they carried out a survey of the village, asking what the main concerns and needs in the area were. One of the biggest issues identified was the state of the gym.

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In times past by, Wang Daeng’s small open air gym gave people a sense of community. It was a place for the youth to go instead of engaging in drink and party culture. But it fell into disrepair. It lay there, dilapidated. A rusted exercise bike, a broken step machine and corroded weight lifting gear, spread out in a row, neglected and unused.

After hearing the results of the survey and seeing the gym for themselves, Helen and Wit believed that restoring the exercise equipment would bring back a sense of community to the village. After applying for a BMS grant, they were able to employ a local worker to restore the gym. He got to work fixing, painting and rebuilding the old exercise bikes and other machines. A roof was built to protect the equipment from rain and people from the sun when exercising. Lights were also added, meaning the villagers could exercise any time of the day.

Once the gym was restored, a grand re-opening ceremony took place. A local government representative came to unveil a plaque and give a speech. Leaders from all over the area arrived, ready to celebrate. Many people from the village rushed to try out the newly oiled and bright green exercise bike. Since then, the gym has consistently been used by the people of Wang Daeng, helping to restore a sense of community once more. “The village were really excited about the revived gym,” said Helen. “It’s been a great way for us to serve, and we hope God will continue to use it to bring people together.”

Helen and Wit are just getting started with BMS in Wang Daeng, having been there for only a year. But, by listening to the needs of the community and acting upon them, they’ve demonstrated the love of a God who hears, and who wants to bring people into community. Your support is helping them show their faith in a village with no Christians. We believe God is at work in Wang Daeng and can’t wait to tell you what he does next.

Watch the videos below to find out more about Helen and Wit and what they’re up to.