Greetings from Kev in Katmandu - Newsletter 4

Hello,

Many thanks to everyone for their concern over the last two weeks since the earthquake.  I am pleased to say that we are all safe – Pastor Min Raj and family, the bible school students and the children from Angels.  Thanks, also, for practical support given to Pastor Min Raj’s appeal fund – I know he very much appreciates everyone’s help. 

The quake struck during the Saturday service – the whole building started shaking and continued to shake.  Everyone moved towards the door and I remember falling over and having difficulty getting up again due to the moving floor.  The building was safely evacuated (the church meets on the first floor of the four storey bible school building).  I met up with Min Raj’s family outside another building nearby, which serves as a community centre and waited as the aftershocks kept coming - the ground would shake and telegraph wires swing.   Most buildings in the immediate neighbourhood remained standing, even if damaged (the bible school included).  This is because they are mostly new and built to be earthquake resistant.  Two buildings did collapse.  One belonged to a church family and I accompanied Min Raj when he went to visit them later that day.  The scene, sadly, resembled something out of a war zone.

On Saturday night, it was considered unwise to sleep in the bible school because of the aftershocks, so they brought out blankets and mattresses and we (the students, warden and myself) all bedded down in the courtyard for the night.  This worked, sort of, until around 12.30 in the morning, when it started to rain.  We all moved to the floor of the canteen opposite, which being single storey, was a compromise between safety and dryness – we just rushed outside whenever an aftershock occurred.  The following day, we built a shelter on the adjacent hillside, using bamboo poles and a tarpaulin which the warden had acquired.  This was safer, but proved too small for everyone, so some of us continued to use the canteen.  Whilst building the shelter on the hillside, we noticed the big military transports flying in and out of Kathmandu bringing aid – it was a real joy to see them.

It is areas with older, traditional buildings which have suffered most.  In one nearby village, another church family lost their home. When we visited them, we reported to the relief control point at the centre of the village and were allocated a guide – we could not get down the street due to collapsed buildings, but had to be escorted through gardens and forest to meet up with them, encamped in the back garden.  I had preached at a House Fellowship in their home not long ago.  This family were safe – but in that village, nine people lost their lives due to collapsing buildings.  I have heard of other villages where all houses have been destroyed.

Schools in Nepal are closed for 3 weeks.  In the bible school, we moved back in 4 days after the quake, but classes were then suspended until 10^th May.  Most students have gone home.  Of those that remain, some have been afraid to sleep in the bible school and have used the canteen.  After classes resume, I will continue with the Bible Survey module and since things were previously going well, I should be able to complete, with only a little extra teaching time, prior to my journey to India on 29^th May.

Pastor Min Raj has been very busy co-ordinating some of the relief work, via local pastors - sending out tents and rice supplies.  Rice is very much the staple food here and is usually eaten three times a day, with it forming the bulk of the meal.  He is also involved with supporting the members of the congregation, many of whom have been affected in different ways.

I was asked to preach the message in church on the Saturday after the quake – a difficult balance between dealing with what has happened and giving encouragement for the future.

Please remember:-

Families who have lost loved ones – family ties are very strong here, so the loss of family, or extended family members will strike especially hard.

People trying to re-build or repair homes – resources are often scarce, especially finance, so this will be a real challenge for many.

Pastors and churches seeking to help and support their communities at this time.

With best wishes and many thanks to everyone for their prayers,

Kev

In good spirits regardless – students at “The Shelter”

House destroyed at Chandanpur village – This is further away from Kathmandu, but I was able to visit the hilly region this week

Safe and well – the children from Angels, with another shelter (their building is in the centre background behind the trees – it survived the quake, but couldn’t be used until the danger from aftershocks had passed.

This update was sent before the more recent earthquake on Tues 12 May, however, we have heard since that Kev remains safe and well!

Greetings from Kev in Kathmandu - Newsletter 3

Hello,

A lot has happened here in the run up to Easter:-

  

Visit to Gorkha

One of my highlights for March was a visit to Gorkha, to preach in one of the small rural churches there.  I spent two nights as guest of Pastor and Mrs. Tamang and was delighted to preach in the church on the Saturday morning.  Large numbers of Christians live in this part of Nepal.  Once there are a number of believers in a particular neighbourhood, they tend to re-group and form an independent fellowship within that neighbourhood – so the churches just….re-produce, naturally.  Although these churches are often small, there are lots of them!.  There are exceptions, of course and before leaving on the Sunday morning, I was able to meet James, the young pastor of a 150 strong congregation – and also listen to his gospel radio broadcast, recorded in Gorkha the previous day.

With Pastor and Mrs Tamang at Gorkha

It was a wonderful opportunity to visit rural Nepal, including padi fields up close.  After the Saturday service, I was taken on a visit to the historic hilltop palace – home of the rulers of Gorkha.  It was one of these, King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who, in 1769, unified the country, creating the nation of Nepal. The views were spectacular – well worth climbing the 1,500 steps to get there!!  As well as being of historic significance, the site is, however, still in use as a place of Hindu worship and animal sacrifice.

Easter in Kathmandu

Back in Kathmandu, I felt it was a real privilege when Pastor Min Raj invited me to preach at the Good Friday service.  Part way through the message (theme: “the darkest hour”), the sound of thunder was heard and several students rushed out of the church.  Had the message given offence? – thankfully not – they’d just left their washing on the roof to dry.

Easter Sunday started with a 6am service followed by tea, biscuits and hard boiled eggs.  Afterwards we joined a procession and rally in the centre of Kathmandu.  I was staggered by the number of people taking part and the number of churches (approx 100) involved.  Many of the churches brought banners (carried between two poles) with their church name on.  As the procession made it’s way towards the city centre, other churches joined – like tributaries joining a river !!  Although the procession included people of all ages, I was struck by how many were in younger age groups – a really encouraging sign for the future of the church in Nepal.

Developments

The Prayer Room - Under Construction

The painting company have now completed work on the bible school building and have done a good job - a huge improvement on the temporary coating which was applied when the building was completed last year.  In the end, there was no need for my assistance on this. Since the painter had previously submitted a quote for the job, inclusive of all labour charges, it was felt that there was just no point in me doing work which the painter was getting paid for!!!

Permission has been granted to build the prayer room on the roof of the bible school.  An official from the municipal authority visited the site one morning and gave permission to proceed, on the spot.  A refreshingly straight-forward process of planning permission !!!  The builders started work the same afternoon.

The church has acquired land for a future building and vehicle access was created last week with a JCB (yes, they get everywhere!).

In March, I was invited to attend the parent’s day at the Asmita English School.  Having made several schools visits earlier in the year and taught some classes myself, I have got to know many of the teachers.  In addition, the children from the “Angels” orphanage attend this school.  I was very impressed at the standard of the performances.

Sponsorship, from a variety of sources, has now been promised for five of the twelve places at “Angels”.  Encouraging progress and something to give thanks for.

Ready for school - the children from 'Angels'

Several more students have now joined the bible school, after completing exams elsewhere, so the class is now full (actually, slightly more than full!).  The Bible Survey module has got as far as the book of Jonah, which is roughly where we should be at this point.

Pastor Min Raj kindly took me down to the Central Immigration Office in Kathmandu yesterday, to enquire personally if there was any way to increase the limit on my visa beyond 150 days total for the year – there isn’t.  We therefore extended my existing visa up until 30^th May, so that I can complete the teaching in bible school.  I will then travel to India, returning to Nepal in late June.

With best wishes and many thanks to everyone for their prayers,

Kev

Announcement from Rich & Alex Webb

Dear Scunthorpe Baptist Church,

We wanted to put in writing the announcement made on the morning of 15 March 2015, both to be clear about what we have said and also to enable those not present to know what was announced.

During this week I accepted the call to be the Senior Pastor of Upton Vale Baptist Church (UVBC), Torquay and as a result I have handed my resignation as the Lead Pastor of SBC to Paul Clark, the Chairman of the Trustees. Though there is clearly much that is yet to be organised, our intention is to move over the summer.

We recognise that this may be a shock and that you may have questions. Please feel free to ask us whatever you need to, but we hope that the following may make things a little clearer.

First, we love SBC and we are really sad to be leaving. We have felt such love and support during our 10 years here and had come to believe that we would be here forever, which is not something that felt like a tough calling! We are so grateful to God for all that we have been through together and all the awesome ways in which we have seen the Kingdom come.

Second, through bible verses, prophecy, wise counsel and other circumstances God has made it clear to us that it is time for a new season, both in our lives and in the life of SBC. Though we have been sensing God’s unsettling we did not enter into the Baptist Union’s formal process for finding a new church, but were approached by a Regional Minister and asked to consider the role at UVBC. As a result of pursuing that possibility it became still clearer that God was calling us to something new. This was confirmed by the members of UVBC voting with an overwhelming majority to call us to minister there.

Third, we will not play any part in the process of discerning who will be the next Lead Pastor at SBC. This is not because it is unimportant to us; in fact we care deeply about it and believe that there are exciting things to come for you in the future. Nor is it because we don’t have a view on what the right thing is. It is simply because we believe that ministry should be ‘freely offered and received’ and that that it is therefore right that the local church discern the way forward without outside influence or perceived pressure.

We will continue to pray for God to do great things at SBC, believing that though this is the end of a season, it is also the beginning of a new and exciting era in the life of the church. Thank you for your love, support and prayers for us over this past decade.

Rich and Alex Webb 

Greetings from Kev in Kathmandu - Newsletter 2

Pastor Evans (left) preaching at an outreach event

Outreach in West Nepal

Thankyou to everyone who prayed about the February outreach in the Kailali region, near the town of Dhangadhi in West Nepal.  No bundes occurred to disrupt the events and the weather was great.  Although it is the dry season here, it can still rain – and it did – but on the day after the last meeting!  The main outreach speaker was Pastor Philip Evans (Oasis Church, Anglesey) whilst the morning teaching sessions were given by Pastor Margaret Evans (Oasis Church) and Anton Rogers (Poynton Christian Fellowship).  Over the course of 3 days, 2,500 people made commitments to follow Christ in response to a very straightforward gospel message.  Philip also invited people to pray together to receive healing and afterwards the stage was lined with those waiting to give testimony to the healing that they had received.  We later did prayer for healing with individuals – and we were kept busy.  At one point, I found myself working without an interpreter – which proved interesting !!!!  Please pray for these new Christians and for the local pastors who have the job of looking after them.  Sixteen local churches worked together on this crusade – the pastors are often relatively young in both years and Christian experience.  They also need to earn a living as the churches are, at present, far too small to support a pastor.

Bible School

Starting this week, officially named Calvary Bible Institute, this looks like working out much better than expected.  There is a module called Bible Survey, which includes an overview of each book of the bible.  Fortunately, some of the material I brought out with me gives an excellent basis and so it has been agreed that this is what I should be teaching.  I’m thankful for the way this has turned out for me –  it could easily have been a disaster.  I have planned out the module at 60 hours teaching time and have been allocated 4 hours timetabled teaching per week, with additional classes on Sunday afternoons as required.  In addition, the students have morning devotionals, 6.30am each morning and I will be doing a brief bible message each day, probably based on a daily reading book.  I need an interpreter for these as the bible school operates entirely in Nepali, since many of the students come from other parts of Nepal, which are far less westernised than the Kathmandu area.

  

Bible Messages

This continues to be an important focus for me and is working out well.  So far there have been 3 messages in 2 churches.  For one of these, the route involved crossing a stream  via rounded stepping stones and, in the process, manoevering around someone who had decided to do her washing whilst standing on the stepping stones.  Thankfully, I avoided turning up drenched – especially as I wasn’t preaching from the book of Jonah.  I also do a couple of house group messages / bible studies each week.  This is really interesting since apart from all I learn in preparing the message, I have an opportunity to see different aspects of Nepalese life – particularly the traditional houses, which are very different from the more modern buildings in some parts of Kathmandu.

Orphanage Work

Passing the orphanage can take a little time now – since I am regularly greeted with questions as to how “Kevin Uncle” is !!!!  I am gradually getting to know the children better.  There is a particular need to pray for the future funding of this work.  The present funding, sponsorship by a business in Kathmandu, will cease shortly so an alternative source(s) is urgently needed.  This could be via an organization or individual child sponsorships.  Pastor Min Raj has particularly asked us to pray that God would raise up the right UK based person to organise and co-ordinate this work.

Technology

Wi-fi access is available in a number of locations so communication should, in theory, be straightforward – I have been able to send and receive some e-mails, especially now that I have obtained a new internal battery for the laptop.   However, my e-mail seems to be very intermittent and unreliable – so apologies for any delays with replies.  I sense the need to avoid getting frustrated or distracted by this – it is all too easy to spend a lot of time and energy trying to sort it out.

India

I am still due to visit India for around a month to comply with Nepalese visa requirements.  We are enquiring with immigration if there is any alternative, since this break will clash with the bible school term – so watch this space !!!

With best wishes and many thanks to everyone for their prayers,

                                                                                    Kev

Announcement from Iain & Kate Drysdale

February 2015

Dear SBC,

After a time of prayer and reflection, Kate and I have decided that we will be moving on from SBC in the coming months and I will be leaving my role as Care Pastor. We are aware that this will come as a shock but hopefully our explanation of the journey we have been on will show how we believe God is at the heart of us feeling called to move on to serve Him in a new area .

Over the last year, we have had a growing sense that God was calling us to go on a journey. As we talked and prayed, we realised that God was calling us to move on to another area. After prayer, reflection and wise counsel from a number of people, we believe God is calling us to move to Hull and be part of Bodmin Road Church, a church reaching out to the Bransholme Estate. They are buying a disused pub building on North Bransholme, with the hope of using it to meet the needs of this part of the estate and to hopefully, in time, plant a church there. We have been asked to consider being part of this work. This excites us and we believe it will enable us to fulfil our heart to be at the centre of ministering to and meeting the needs of a defined area with social and economic challenges, enabling people to discover their God given potential.

While it is a step of faith, we believe we need to move on in the coming months. Kate will, of course, be able to carry on her role at Smith & Nephew in Hull. Millie goes in to her final year at primary school in the coming months and we need to get both girls settled in a new school from September at the very latest.

We will be very sorry to leave SBC but we also know we must be obedient to what God is saying to us. We hope you will see it is the way this church has invested in us that have brought us to the position of feeling ready and equipped to answer His call. All of us are so grateful for the support, opportunities, guidance and love that have been shown to us by you over the last ten years. It is likely that we will leave SBC at the end of May 2015. 

Should you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them.

In Him,

Iain & Kate Drysdale

Greetings from Kev in Kathmandu - Newsletter 1

Hello,

Well, I’ve been in Nepal for just over a week now and so much has happened – a lot to take in, to learn and to prepare for - a lot to give thanks for too!

After a relatively problem free journey, I received a great welcome and had my first experience of the sights and sounds of Kathmandu.  This was sadly marred when I realized that evening that I had lost my passport after arrival.  Being the sort of guy who likes to double check all the details, I was shocked that this could happen – but somehow I’d managed it!  Thank you to everyone who prayed about this – shortly after your meeting, I learnt that the passport had been found by a local man, who had notified the British Embassy!

The first task I have been asked to take on is the leading of the children’s devotionals.  These are held each evening for the orphanage children - I will give a bible talk and also pray with them for anything which is on their minds.  They do a brilliant job of leading the worship themselves.  Most are born again believers, and meeting the group for the first time, I was struck by the depth of faith in these young people - it was a moving experience.  This does necessitate, though, that the bible talks include meaning and application, rather than simply reading a children’s story.  The group know me as “Kevin Uncle” – it’s phrased that way in Nepal.  These particular children understand English, so no interpreter is needed.  They study English at school, so my giving the talks in English will help them in this area also.

Most churches meet on Saturdays, as Sunday is a working day in Nepal. The services are wonderful - even though I can’t understand what is being said.  My first preach will probably be on Saturday 31^st, when Pastor Min Raj will do the interpreting.

Next up, in February, is an outreach in the west of the country – about 500 miles from Kathmandu.  A similar one last year, in South Nepal, saw 1,000 people coming to faith and greater fruit is hoped for this year.  The details and the follow up are handled by the churches in the area, since strengthening the local church is seen as the key way forward in Nepal.  I will be involved – but don’t yet know how, yet!.  Please pray for protection over these plans.  The main danger is that a bund could be called.  A bund is a sort of general strike and although peaceful, it does mean that roads are closed, which would make it impossible for people to travel to the events.

In March, bible school reconvenes after it’s break.  The school takes students who have been recommended by churches from across Nepal.  Age range is 18-60, although the majority are at the younger end of the band.  I will be teaching in the bible school – a tremendous privilege which I am looking forward to.  I have to admit to feeling under-qualified for the responsibility this carries, so please pray that students will gain much benefit and for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to ensure that I teach biblical truth.

There will also be some practical work – in the tradition of Soapbox projects.  The ministry occupies two buildings which include church, orphanage, bible school and pastor’s accommodation.  These are in need of some maintenance and re-painting and thanks to generous support, it will be possible to at least start this work soon.  On the painting side, my role will be to help and support the professionals.  It is also hoped to build a prayer room on the roof of the bible school for local people to use on a 24hr basis.

Many, many thanks to everyone who has supported this work in different ways – your support means so much and has made a huge difference.

Please pray for God’s continued protection over the great working relationships which have already been established.  Not only are they a joy – they are also vital to my work here.

    

With best wishes from a clear, bright Kathmandu!

Kev Whitby

Operation Mustard Seed 2014

During the summer at SBC we run a campaign entitled ‘Operation Mustard Seed’, with the purpose of attempting to engage everyone in missions, both locally and globally. We aim to do this in three ways; giving, going and growing. We believe that everyone can be involved in some way in the mission of the people of God and the work of reaching our world with the Gospel. Whether that is giving your time, energy and resources to support the amazing work already taking place, or going out into the community to support those in need, or simply by growing in your understanding of the issues and challenges our current world faces, everyone can do something. We encourage and promote these opportunities in various different ways, but in order to help us focus and unite on a particular issue we have a different theme for each year.

In 2014 that theme is ‘Sowing in Prayer … Reaping a Harvest’.

Imagine the impact that could be had if everyone connected with SBC focused on praying together this summer? Prayer is not an ‘easy way out’ when it comes to the work of mission; it has a vital and significant role to play.

At various times during our Sunday Morning Celebrations through the summer we will have an opportunity to pray for the fantastic work going on across our world, but our particular focus this summer is going to be praying for our very own communities.

We have divided the Scunthorpe and North Lincolnshire area into 8 key zones and are committing to prayer walks in each of them. These will be an opportunity for us to gather together and sow significant faith-filled prayers into our neighbourhoods, believing that we serve a God who can transform lives.

Each zone may approach the prayer walks different, and they will likely all have unique elements and focuses, but we are really hoping that God will break our hearts again for the places in which we live, and that as a result of our obedience and our faith we will begin to see a harvest for His kingdom right here in Scunthorpe & North Lincolnshire.

For information please check out this podcast from the Launch at SBC: http://tinyurl.com/m2pj6dr

If you have any questions and want to know more please contact Tom MacDonald (tom@scunthorpebaptist.co.uk)

Let’s get sowing!