BMS’ summer of sport

BMS’ summer of sport

How sharing Jesus through sport can get you off the bench and onto the mission field.

England’s nail-biting cricket win, another victory for the USA in the Women’s World Cup, wonderful tennis at Wimbledon and now the hair-raising netball cup final – it’s a summer of sport and I’m breathless just keeping up!

Speaking of trying to keep up, I’m about to have a Skype call with a Brazilian footballer, well known by people around the world. It would have been nice to meet in person but he’s a busy man whose schedule takes him from country to country. Was he last in India? Thailand? Peru?

Can you guess who it is?

A crowd of children sitting on steps in front of a building with a coach standing in front of them.
BMS World Mission partner, the Thailand Karen Baptist Convention (TKBC), gets ready to welcome the Brazilian footballer.

His name is Joshua. He grew up in poverty on the outskirts of a favela, a Brazilian shanty town, in Rio de Janeiro. Growing up in such a modest household, his mother motivated him to keep football as his focus. But to most of the people around him, it was just a waste of time.

Eventually, he made it – to the reserve bench. Until finally, he was called off the bench and onto the pitch.

It was the same story every match. He got the pass. Scored the goal. Cheers from the crowd.

But this time, his head wasn’t in the game. He was thinking about his church and the small sports ministry they ran. “God was calling me to use football to grow his kingdom,” he explains.

Suddenly he was losing the tackle. Didn’t score a single goal.

“I didn’t play well because it weighed so heavily on my mind. I told my coach I couldn’t play for the team anymore, that I had to follow God’s calling,” says Joshua – and although this was years ago, his eyes still show that same passion for God. “The coach told me I could earn a lot of money. But I said ‘no’ and followed the Lord.”

A group of sportsmen bowing their heads in prayer before a match in Thailand.
His saying “no” started a domino effect of people saying “yes” to the gospel across the world.

Now the meaning of victory for Joshua was entirely transformed. It looked like helping Matthew, a young man with a mouth deformity which made it difficult for him to speak. Years of feeling inadequate and unable to express himself made it hard for him to relate to others. Sport was the only place where he could fully feel like himself. By the end of Joshua’s training week, running a sports club with a gospel focus, Matthew was able to confidently speak and share the gospel with the group.

And this was in a country where Christians face societal pressures and persecution. Thanks to Joshua’s training week, young men were able to gather to play football and study the Bible together. An officer who eyed the group with misgivings all week had joined in a game by the end, and even stayed for a Bible study session.

A group of boys sat on the floor with two sports trainers in front of them with houses in the background.
“Sport opens so many doors. I can enter places where mission workers might not be welcome, just because I’m a coach,” says Joshua.

Joshua works with BMS partner JMM (Brazilian Baptist Mission), training local coaches to run sports clubs with a gospel focus. With his sporting skills, Joshua found he had a VIP pass into the heartlands of 100 per cent Buddhist communities in Chiang Mai. Working together with BMS partner the Thailand Karen Baptist Convention (TKBC), Joshua used his skills to teach local trainers how bring young people together when they often don’t have access to leisure activities.

I’m sure you can see why I describe Joshua as being well known all over the world. And I’m keen to know what’s next for this sporting evangelist…

Two boys practising headers on a field in Thailand.
Young boys are keen to join the sports clubs and now Joshua is looking to get girls involved too.

“At the moment it’s mainly boys playing football because of traditional gender roles, but I’m already seeing more girls get involved and I’d love to see more in future,” says Joshua.

In addition to looking to see more women to get involved in sports ministry, Joshua tells me he’s preparing for a trip to Peru in November – and I can’t wait to find out the score!

Are you looking to get off the bench and onto the pitch? BMS is looking for people like you to use their skills to grow God’s kingdom! BMS workers have used their talents in sport, healthcare, art and teaching to reach more people with the gospel.

See our vacancies

Words by Melanie Webb
Names changed.

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Fearless: taking on the Sahara Desert, raging rivers, and the sex industry

Fearless:

taking on the Sahara Desert, raging rivers, and the sex industry

There’s nothing overstated about the headline above. BMS World Mission workers enter isolated, extreme and often dangerous places because God has empowered them to change people’s lives for the better. They tread fearlessly knowing you are standing alongside them in prayer. So please read on for some of their latest blogs.

1. When you get lost, stuck and weary in the desert

Nightmare journeys home usually consist of heavy traffic, train cancellations, or flight delays. Not so for BMS surgeons Andrea and Mark Hotchkin. For these two brilliant mission workers, along with their children Ruth and Rebecca, the journey home to Bardaï in northern Chad involved getting lost in the Sahara desert, camping outside as lightning struck, and digging for hours to release their vehicle from sand. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, a dust storm then hit. Read the Hotchkins’ blog to find out how they got home!

Read the Hotchkins' blog
Truck stuck in the mud in a desert
The Hotchkin family not only faced flooding in a desert, they also had the problem of sand becoming mud.

2. Cable bridges, landslides and a lot of walking – just to reach schools

Simon Hall holding a book as children surround him
Children’s books (and Simon Hall) are clearly popular at this remote school in Lamjung District

It’s fair to say that Simon Hall put in a lot of effort to reach the school in the photo above. That’s what’s needed in Lamjung District, Nepal, where BMS teacher trainer Simon serves. The school you can see was one of 15 that Simon and three of his colleagues visited in just one week. Reaching them involved crossing cable bridges over raging rivers, walking for hours up steps, and then travelling in jeeps up to altitude-sickness-inducing heights. The journey was understandably draining, but it was nothing compared to what was to come for Simon. Please read his blog today and pray with him using his prayer points.

Read Simon's blog

3. Joining the fight to eradicate TB

Can you imagine being part of history? BMS mission workers James and Ruth Neve don’t have to. As part of the Indian Government’s plan to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) from the country by 2025, James and Ruth are going to be giving training to people who have been cured of the illness. Their training courses will teach vital skills to help some of the poorest and most marginalized people in India generate a better income and turn their lives around. Read James and Ruth’s blog post about the day they decided to help change the world.

Read the Neves' blog
Ruth Neve signing TB agreement
Ruth Neve signs a life-changing agreement

4. ‘I want women to understand that God created us beautiful’

Ashleigh Gibb witnesses pain every day. She serves with BMS in the red light district of Bangkok, where she enters bars and brothels to speak words of love and kindness to women who have been trafficked. She also works in a coffee shop, that gives women who have managed to escape the sex industry the chance to learn new skills. Ashleigh’s blogs are always very powerful and heartfelt, none more so than her latest post in which she writes about the importance of loving those around us, even those who are hard to love.

Read Ashleigh's blog
Ashleigh Gibb in Bangkok
BMS worker Ashleigh Gibb takes the light of Christ into the darkness of Bangkok’s sex industry.

5. ‘May you know that you are loved with a constant and eternal love’

The Ovendens sit together with new baby Eleanor
Please keep Joe, Reuben, Lois, Eleanor and Connie Ovenden in your prayers.

This may not be the frontline of mission work, but we’re confident you’ll want to read about it. There was much joy in the BMS family when news came through about the newest Ovenden. Eleanor Ada Joy was welcomed into the world on Tuesday 18 September, a third child for BMS workers in Uganda, Joe and Lois. We give thanks today for the blessing of new life, and for everything that Joe and Lois do for BMS. They’ve posted a prayer for Eleanor in their latest blog. After you’ve read it, please pray for Eleanor.

Read the Ovendens' blog

God is with our mission workers, as are you. It is your faithful prayer and giving that enables them to be on the frontline of mission, helping the sick in Chad, children in Nepal, women who have been trafficked in Thailand, and many others in need around the world. Our mission workers across the globe write blogs about their work and we often post them on our Facebook page, along with prayer requests and videos. Please check it out, and please do comment on the blogs with words of encouragement for our workers! We love to hear from you.

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The frontline is everywhere

The frontline is everywhere:

nine encounters with the realities of mission

Our mission workers are doing inspiring things in incredible countries around the world. And their blogs definitely show that! We’ve picked nine that we’d love for you to read today.

1. When a rock the size of a sofa tumbles towards you

Ever hit a pothole or been held up by roadworks? It won’t seem so annoying after you’ve read what BMS World Mission teacher trainer Annie Brown went through in Nepal. Thick mud, monsoon-flooded roads and steep hillsides were challenging enough. But then came the landslide.

Read Annie's blog

2. The French church that needs your prayers

BMS mission worker Christine Kling gives a sermon in France
Christine Kling is taking on scepticism and a secular nation as she shares the truth of God’s love.

Church planting in secular France is very hard, and often lonely. But BMS pastor Christine Kling is giving all she’s got to try and help people get to know Christ, and God is with her. Please read Christine’s latest blog in which she shares some of the amazing opportunities she has to share the gospel, and please keep her church in your prayers.

Read Christine's blog

3. How a sewing machine can spark dancing and hope for a better life

Sara’s husband is unemployed, just as her four adult sons are. Many others in her neighbourhood in Maputo, Mozambique, struggle to find work too. Your support for BMS worker Susanna Barrell means something is being done to help not only Sara, but others who want to learn a new skill to bring in money.

Read Susanna's blog

4. The day dozens of soldiers showed up at a hospital in the desert

BMS pharmacist Claire Bedford at Guinebor II Hospital as soldiers walked the grounds
The day when soldiers turned up at Guinebor II Hospital to do some gardening, captured by BMS pharmacist Claire Bedford.

It was turning out to be a relaxing Saturday for BMS pharmacist Claire Bedford at Guinebor II Hospital in Chad. She’d chilled out with a friend over lunch, watched a film and arrived home before dark. And then her phone rang. Claire’s weekend of peace and rest was no more… the military were on their way for an important visit. It was a memorable affair. We’ll let Claire complete the story.

Read Claire's blog

5. Bringing a whole lot of joy to some amazing mothers

Songs, games, gifts, and a lot of smiling. What a great celebration of mothers this was in the village of Wang Daeng, northern Thailand. BMS workers Helen and Wit Boondeekhun will explain the rest.

Read Helen and Wit's blog

6. Home assignment in numbers: ten facts from the Judkins family

BMS church planters Claire-Lise and David Judkins
BMS church planters Claire-Lise and David Judkins travelled over 5,000 miles during their recent UK visit.

Did BMS church planters Claire-Lise and David Judkins visit your church over the summer? Aren’t they great?! Even if you didn’t get to hear about their work in France, we think this set of important, interesting, and slightly quirky facts will give you a taste of their time visiting churches in the UK was for them and their four children. Check it out!

Read the Judkins' blog

8. A sermon in the jungle, an exhilarating boat ride… and dolphins

As family trips go, the one taken by the Mahon family into the Peruvian jungle is certainly unforgettable. Find out what Baptist ministers Dave and Michele, and their three children Jonathan, Ruth and Phoebe, experienced when they left the city behind them and went up the mighty Nanay River, heading for the village of Santa Rita.

Read the Mahons' blog

9. ‘These poor people work literally until they drop’

Two female tea pickers in Bangladesh
It is a very hard life being a tea-picker in Bangladesh.

Your tea of choice may well have been produced ethically. But it’s not the case for all the tea on the market, as BMS workers Louise and Phil Proctor document in their powerful blog post about the backbreaking work many tea-pickers in Bangladesh endure.

Read the Proctors' blog

Thank you for your incredible support for our mission workers. Of course, there are so many other blogs that we could have included above. We do our very best to feature as many as we can on our Facebook page, where you can also keep-up-to date with the latest BMS news, stories and prayer requests.

Please check the page out today and share this story as another way to show your support for the Christians you’re partnering with around the world. They inspire us every day, as do you.

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Joy, burnout and leaving: Q&A with James and Ruth Neve

Joy, burnout and leaving:

Q&A with James and Ruth Neve

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They’ve said goodbye to family and friends, and are on their way to India. James and Ruth tell us about how that feels.

The Neves are almost at the Heathrow check-in desk. It’s taken months of preparation to get this far. James has left his job as a debt advisor and Ruth has left her role as a senior Baptist minister in Southampton. It will be 42 degrees Celsius when they arrive in New Delhi, their new home. They’re ready for it, and their Hindi is coming along nicely. Life as long-term BMS World Mission workers is about to move up a gear.

A man in a patterned shirt stands next to a woman with light coloured hair
James and Ruth Neve have been studying for months in preparation for their new life as BMS mission workers in India.

LET’S START WITH SOME BACKGROUND – WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE MUSIC ARTIST AND SONG?

Ruth: Well, the other day in chapel I played Celebration by Kool & the Gang.

James: I like Coldplay – am I allowed to say that? I do, there, I said it out loud.

Ruth: But which song? They did Paradise.

James: Yeah, Paradise, that’ll do.

SO, HOW DID YOU END UP AS BMS WORKERS?

James: We had a chat many years ago with [former BMS General Director] David Kerrigan about the possibility we might offer ourselves to BMS one day. The honing in on India happened about this time last year as we began to explore the possibility of whether BMS could make use of people like us.

Ruth: Because we had our children young, we thought we would still have some life in us towards the end of our working careers. It was a sense of: would we, as people in our 50s, have something to offer? This experience in India will certainly broaden our horizons, and we may be better grandparents as a result.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING IN DELHI?

Ruth: No. We’ve been given as much carte blanche as possible to learn about the people and discern where God is already working and where his heart is beating.

And BMS has given us tremendous affirmation to do that discerning process, and come back and say, “this is where we think we should invest our time and energy”, and hopefully leave a legacy.

Joy will be extinguished if you just keep working. God doesn’t want us to live like that.

JAMES, YOU WENT TO DELHI WITH BMS IN 2007 – WHAT DID YOU DO?

James: I went as part of an Insight team. We worked with an existing partner, looking at women’s empowerment and children’s education in a slum area. There was a team of seven or eight of us, and it was a sample of, ‘this is what BMS is about’.

HOW DID YOUR FAMILY REACT WHEN YOU TOLD THEM YOU WERE MOVING TO INDIA?

Ruth: Naturally, there’s been a mixed response of sadness and support due to the separation.

A woman in a yellow dress and a man in a suit in a church
James and Ruth Neve are leaving their loved ones behind to serve God in India.

JAMES, HOW WILL YOUR EXPERTISE IN DEBT ADVICE TRANSLATE TO INDIA?

James: Personal debt is becoming an increasingly worrisome issue in India’s burgeoning middle class. If, for example, a debt and benefit advice service is planted within these next three or four years and is sustainable, then great, but it could take another form.

WHAT IS GOD’S HEART FOR THE POOR AND THOSE IN DEBT?

James: God is concerned about those burdened by debt and has made specific provision for relief of debt. Given his consistency of character, that should be the case in India.

RUTH, YOU’VE WRITTEN OPENLY ABOUT EXPERIENCING BURNOUT. HOW DESTRUCTIVE IS BURNOUT, AND HOW CAN IT BE AVOIDED?

Ruth: Many ministers are in burnout because a lot of them are workaholics. You lose your joy if you keep being that way, because what often gets squeezed is your time with God. The pressure of Sunday will take over, and unless you are very intentional you’ll stop hearing God.

My advice is for people to be careful because your soul is at stake. We need to sleep and have rest patterns, and have the Sabbath. Joy will be extinguished if you just keep working. God doesn’t want us to live like that. It’s not how Jesus lived. If you are stretched to elastic point, you will snap, and it’s not pretty, and often the church is a victim of it.

These past months have served as valuable preparation for the future, reflecting and drawing breath, and just being able to make a new start.

If you want to commit regularly to supporting James and Ruth, you can become a 24:7 Partner by clicking the box on the right.

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HOW HAVE YOUR FOUND STUDYING AGAIN IN PREPARATION FOR OVERSEAS MISSION?

James: These past months have served as valuable preparation for the future, reflecting and drawing breath, and just being able to make a new start.

A woman takes a photo of herself and friends in the background
James and Ruth Neve made new friends during their preparation time for mission work in India, including this group in Birmingham. Each week they were taught a phrase of Hindi and given Indian etiquette advice.

WHAT WILL MAKE YOU SAD WHEN YOU’RE AWAY?

James: Distance from family and friends.

Ruth: Notable occasions, such as when our grandson does something specific and we can’t share in it.

WHAT WILL BRING YOU JOY?

Ruth: The joy will be in sharing our lives with some lovely, generous people in India.

James: I think I’ll get great joy from going to a Twenty20 game in the IPL.

Ruth: Me not so much.

(For any non-cricket fans, the IPL is one of the most prestigious cricket competitions in the world.)

FINALLY, WHAT CAN PEOPLE BE PRAYING FOR?

Ruth: Please pray for the practical stuff of life to be taken care of. We want to go to India without having to think about things such as finding a tenant for our house.

James: Please pray for our language learning and finding a community. And pray for what will become the work that we invest ourselves in, and that makes a difference.

Could you be called to mission overseas? There are many ways to serve God with BMS, so keep praying and explore our mission opportunities today.