Broadway Baptist Church
The Church Family Further Afield
BMS World Mission
Sue and John Millard setting off on July 20th to spend 5 weeks working for the BMS in Ecuador.
In an e-mail dated 30th July, they write:
One of the highlights of the last few days has been a long weekend with the Butcher family in Cuenca. This is the 3rd largest city in Ecuador, set high up in the Andes. At about 2,500 metres above sea level (causing us to be out of breath at times, and probably giving rise to headaches) the drive there was a novelty: the roads up are well-engineered but often not well-surfaced, and after what seems a very long climb out of sun into fog we emerged above the cloud line before driving further at that level to Cuenca. It seemed very much as if we had travelled to a different world high above the other one. And the people in this part of the Andes are very different in appearance and dress to those who live in the coastal plain: they are (mostly) small, dark, wearing trilby-type or white bowler-type hats, and the women wear brightly-coloured dresses, scarves and ponchos. We walked round Cuenca, and drove through the region visiting villages, markets, rivers, an orchid growing centre, and Inca ruins. The countryside is amazing, but difficult to describe: "rolling" sounds too genteel, but the hills and valleys roll on a vast scale, dotted everywhere with houses and homesteads - some small and scruffy, some much grander and well-kept. This part is still very much an agricultural community - hence the many markets. In one village market we felt very out of place being of a different skin, size and dress to the locals. Although they had been there before, we enjoyed exploring and getting lost (!) with the Butchers. One of the things we will remember most about our time here is turning up as strangers and being welcomed and accepted as part of the family.
Watch for furhter news of the trip on this page.
A member of Broadway, Jenny Smith is a missionary in
Since 1998 she has been a TEFL teacher (teaching English as a foreign language) at the Baptist Theological Academy in
Jenny is also a member of a
Jenny asks for our prayers: "Our church is seeing some exciting new developments. Some are hesitant about the new idea of home groups, since they have never had them before, but the minister, Zsolt, is keen on the idea of getting people more involved, and helping us to help each other live our faith practically."
Stuart and Georgie Christine, are our Link Missionaries with BMS World Mission, working in Latin America.
Before becoming a missionary Stuart was a member of our church and it was here that
he made his commitment in baptism.
He has worked in Brasil for many years, but for the past four years has been Regional Secretary for
In 1992 Georgie began to develop a creative response to the problem of urban poverty in the poor districts of
This year Her Majesty the Queen recognised her work with the award of an OBE.
The work has blossomed and now there are 5,300 children in
We support this work in a very special way, by sending Lego and craft materials, knitted garments and toothbrushes.
Stuart asks for our prayers for Georgie who has been ill recently: " I am glad to say that she is gradually getting her strength back. We went for a long walk yesterday which left her tired, but it was something she couldn’t have managed a short time ago. Please do continue to remember her in your prayers as apart from the tiredness , she finds it very frustrating having little energy to work."
Read about
The Bishop of Nagpur's visit to Derby. Photographs
Chris and Trish's visit to India in 2006.
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