Crosslinks Yearbook
2014
God's word to God's world
Since 1922 BCMS Crosslinks has been taking God’s word to God’s world. We wanted to give you a snapshot of what’s going on now. This is our online version of the Crosslinks Yearbook and we are thrilled to be sending it to you. It is a taster of what mission looks like across the continents – only made possible by local churches, individuals and trusts who pray, give and commit to meaningful, often lifelong, relationships with brothers and sisters overseas.
Delve in, enjoy and order the paper copy if you would like the full version.
From South Africa to London
Ray and Rebekah Brown Mission Partners
You might wonder why we’ve started with a church plant in England. This family expresses exactly what we’re about, Rev 1:9 ‘For the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Ray and Rebekah started in South Africa serving there for nine years! Today they are committed to teaching the Bible and proclaiming the gospel in Brockley, South East London. Sometimes people ask us – where do you work? For us the question is what is your work and for that we turn to the Bible – The Apostle Peter summarises the task that the Apostles were given in two remarkable verses in the book of Acts, ‘Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. The him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin through his name.’ Peter regards himself as commanded to proclaim God's message of salvation to all people, everywhere – even to the ends of the earth – today everyone working with Crosslinks is required to take this as their number one priority and are held accountable for their work in accomplishing it!
What’s going on in South Africa today?
James and Lucy Buchanan
Alun and Debbie Burt
Sonia Candish
David Cornes
The Gambia
Gap Team
January — May 2014
Tom Chevis (Team Leader)
Evie Jackson (Team Leader)
Kate Baddoo
Sean Brennan
Hannah Brown
Archie Chitty
Hamish Graham
Hatty Haines
Emily Higgins
Max Kimpton-Smith
Becca Mcdonnell
Jonny Walter
The team is serving in Fajara in the west of The Gambia. The members of the team are teaching Christian Religious Education and other subjects in five schools in the area. They are also serving in many ways at a local church and working alongside GamFES (the Gambian Fellowship of Evangelical Students).
It’s not too late to apply for 2015
Meet our trustees – several of our trustees went on short term mission trips with us. Meet them here
Schools of Biblical Training
SBTs are one-week conferences that equip church leaders to teach God’s word. The basic principles of bible teaching are covered by SBT trainers who are experienced in expository ministry: preaching that allows the Bible to speak for itself by using proper rules of interpretation. SBTs are repeated regularly so the trainers build relationships with participants and develop knowledge of their culture.
Melbourne
Training Mission Partners (AMP)
David and Rachel Williams Mission Partners
David and Rachel work with the Church Missionary Society of Australia. David leads CMS-A’s development and training ministry at St Andrew’s Hall, Melbourne and Rachel is involved in mentoring and equipping new Mission Partners.
Crosslinks and CMS-A have had a long informal partnership, working in close fellowship in many situations around the world. David and Rachel are responsible for training around 20 new Mission Partners each year, mainly from Australia and New Zealand. They also help the society’s 200 Mission Partners, located in 40 countries around the world, to keep growing and learning in their service of the Lord Jesus.
David and Rachel have three children: Tom, Sam and Jonathan.
Cuba
Project
Equipo Impacto
Alexis Pérez and Elio Mártiz head up Equipo Impacto, an organisation with a vision to train thousands of church leaders and bible teachers to faithfully interpret and teach scripture. The exciting growth of the church in Cuba over the last two decades has seen many untrained young people put into responsible bible-teaching roles. From its base in Havana, Equipo Impacto offers churches the opportunity to have a three-day training course in expository bible preaching and teaching for their leaders. Elio and Alexis travel around the country to offer these courses to churches.
Crosslinks Camps in Ireland
The Re:set week away is for young adults and students who have served on Crosslinks teams in Ireland or who are part of the network.
Italy
Chris and Lizzie Brown Mission Partners
Chris and Lizzie are seconded to the Gruppi Biblici Universitari (GBU), an IFES affiliated organisations whose vision is ‘to share Jesus student to student’. In their latest prayer letter, Chris and Lizzie speak of the student bible studies they have been leading recently: “The second study about “the Son” looked at Colossians 1, and at the end of the study, one student said, “I have learnt something new about Jesus today, that the world was created through him”. It is always encouraging to see God speaking to people like this, so do keep praying for him and the other students who come to the GBU to be challenged by what they find.”
What’s going on in Italy today?
South America
Study Partner
Nicolas Fuentes BTh at the Centre for Pastoral Studies, Santiago, Chile
“Greetings from Chile. Thank you for all the support you have given us, both economically and spiritually.
We are drawing near to the end of this process of two years during which we have grown and come to know our God more. For us, in these two years we have been able to grow as a family, share with good friends and with excellent teachers, who have not only taught us what we need to know in terms of the word of God, but have also modelled for us a mature Christian life worthy of imitating.”