overseas Missions
Supporting and engaging with overseas mission is a key part of the life of the church and we have an objective of sending 80% of the church on some kind of short-term overseas mission project within five years. 'Impossible' you may cry, but based on the opportunities God has provided for during 2009 and this year, maybe not!
The church currently supports or is linked with longer-term missionaries in Turkey, Spain, Guinea and Tanzania, and you can find out more about them by clicking on the country on the right. Pete & Vicki Butchers who were serving with BMS in Ecuador (the church sent a team out to Ecuador in August 2009 to help them) and Joan Woodyer who was serving with BMS in Angola, are now living back in the UK having completed their terms of service.
BMS World Mission is our main church family mission organisation and we support BMS and their work in many different ways. There is a monthly prayer meeting for BMS every second monday of the month and details can be found in Take 5.
The church is also developing an exchange mission link through the Northern Baptist Association with Tryon Evergreen Baptist Association in Texas, USA, with a view to ultimately working together in another part of the world. This is now being progressed and we are looking to work together with Riverpointe Baptist Church in Conroe, Texas. This is a similar sized church to NBC and is pastored by Larry Strandberg. Larry has been over to NBC and Ian to Riverpointe. Their church website can be accessed on the side menu bar. Here is a picture of Larry and his wife, Tracy, taken when Ian stayed with them at their home. A team from Riverpointe were due to come to work with us in August 2010 but this has now been postponed. Alan is due to go out to Texas in November 2010 and so may well meet up with Larry and the church.
There is a church Missions Support Group headed up by Judith Sykes that is responsible for overseeing our missions work and managing some of our finances concerning mission service and needs. Judith also writes a weekly column in Take 5 called 'Hands Around the World'.
In 2009, folk from the church went out to Nepal, Turkey, Ecuador, India, Tanzania, Spain and the USA to either simply encourage our missionaries, help with mission and mercy ministry projects, or develop mission links for the future. In 2010, folk either have been, or plan to go, to Tanzania, Turkey, India and Texas.
Check out the Gallery for photos of some of these missions.