Margaret leads our online prayer opportunity for March focusing on Ephesians 2 v 8-9 and Matthew 11 v 29.

We welcomed Lorna Sivyour and her violin back to Thursday Fellowship.  Lorna brought a lovely encouraging message about Caleb.

Caleb followed the Lord wholeheartedly and his story is a wonderful testimony to how God uses older people if they are willing to be used.  Caleb said, “So here I am today, 85 years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out (he was 45 then!); I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.” God blessed Caleb for his faithfulness and gave him the city of Hebron as his inheritance. He was a man of faith who refused to be discouraged despite adverse circumstances and the “giants” he came up against.

Definitely a lesson for us all!

Lorna then played us 3 pieces of classical music:

Jesu joy of man’s desiring – Bach

Chanson de Matin – Elgar

Carmen – Bizet

LIVING HOPE MINISTRIES

Richard Brunton from Living Hope Ministries has asked Downs Baptist Church to pray for Burundi which is served by Richard and one of his teams.  The work of LHM is to teach pastors and leaders to build effective churches all over the world.  This includes the discipling of new believers.

The key person to pray for in Burundi is Pastor Eddy Bukeyeneza who works with four other pastors there.  In 2023 the pastors were responsible for the outreach ministry and preaching of the gospel in different communities and churches throughout Burundi.  They sent back reports of the number of new believers, which totalled 1254.  It was good to hear that some other believers were baptised roundabout Christmas time.

INFO ABOUT BURUNDI

The republic of Burundi is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Africa at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and East Africa.  It borders in the north with Rwanda.  The capital city is Gitega, and the official languages are Kirundi (national language), French and English.  It is densely populated and one of the smallest countries in Africa.  It is primarily a rural society, and the land is mostly used for subsistence agriculture and grazing.  As of 2005 the country was almost completely deforested.  It is probably the poorest country in the world with widespread poverty, corruption, instability, authoritarianism and illiteracy.

It gained independence from Belgium in 1962 and has been ruled in the past by Tutsi dictators.  It experienced a genocide of Hutus in 1972.  55% of the population are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% are Tutsis and less than 1% are Twa.

The Burundi constitution guarantees religious freedom, but several churches have been banned.  67% of the population are Christians, of which 62% are Roman Catholic and only 5% are Protestant.  32% of the people practise indigenous religions and 1% are Muslim.

If we look at the history of Richard’s team ministry in Burundi before it developed into the lively ministry of outreach and evangelism which we find today, we see that a door was first opened into Burundi, pioneered by Richard himself, in 2016.  Richard later handed over the baton to a team or group of people, so that they could take care of the visits to Burundi.  However, Richard continued to oversee them when they went out on mission. The job of the team or group was primarily to build friendships, to provide teaching for the pastors so that new believers could be discipled, and to encourage and support the churches, which they are continuing to do to the present day.

In particular, a telephone ministry has developed in the countries served by Richard and his teams.  This takes place when people in Africa gather in crusades, seminars and Bible study groups.  Gatherings of leaders pause as a live telephone message produced by Richard himself is translated into their language.  One such group who use this telephone ministry to share the word of God operates in Burundi.

As has already been mentioned, Burundi is very poor and mostly rural.  The pastors therefore have to go into remote  areas to plant churches where people generally are unreached by the gospel.  Pastor Eddy is assisted by Peter in the work who also serves the Lord in Kenya. Eddy’s job is to provide teaching seminars and to develop his friendship with the key country contact who stands with him in his ministry and in the ministry of the other pastors.

Please pray as follows:-

• For the new converts – that they will grow in their faith and be a witness to others.
• For Eddy, Peter and the other pastors as they conduct the outreach  ministry, preaching the gospel in different churches and communities throughout Burundi.
• For Richard’s team as they build up the pastors with their teaching as well as supporting the churches.
• For their telephone ministry.
• That all the resources that the team members need are released to them.
• That they are free to pursue whatever they see appropriate to the spiritual needs of Burundi.

Our new motto for the year is from Matthew 28 v 20 – Jesus said, “And surely I am with you always.”

Thursday Fellowship started again after the winter break and Sue brought along her cat glove puppets, Ginger and Boots. Sue used Boot’s recent ‘knee replacement’ operation to illustrate how the Lord had been with her when she, herself, had had her very painful operation in December.  Sue shared how the Lord had kept her in hospital longer than she expected so that she could encourage the other patients in prayer and with the scriptures.

Using the examples of Joshua, Jehoshaphat and Jesus’s disciples, Sue showed how God had been with them.  Joshua had the terrifying task of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, King Jehoshaphat and his tiny army had to face an enormous army, and the disciples were commissioned with the enormous task of going into the then known world with the Gospel.  In all three cases, God promised that He would be with them.

So, in our lives, whatever we’re doing , wherever we are and whatever we’re facing – however daunting- we can be sure that the Lord is with us. “And Surely I am with you always.” 

What a comforting message to start our new session! We were all given bookmarks to take home as a reminder of our Motto for the year.

If you would like to join us, please do pop along at 2pm on Thursday afternoons to the Parish Room of the Holy Cross Church in the centre of Woodingdean.  We can assure you of a very warm welcome.

Whilst patiently waiting for Thursday Fellowship’s new session to commence, a few members met for a coffee morning and fellowship at Faith’s home.  

Below, is a taste of next year’s programme: Some familiar faces, some faces we haven’t seen for a while and some new ones!

Please do consider joining us – we can assure you of a warm welcome! 

7th March – Member’s meeting with our motto

14th March- Lorna Sivyour

21st March – Rosemary Kemp (Passover)

28th March – Maundy Thursday (Communion)

4th April – Maeve Whitchurch

11th April – John Casse

18th April – Lynda Hulcoop

25th – Keith & Laurel Barnes

For further information head to the following link:- Thursday Fellowship

Grateful thanks to Maria for penning an update as to the recent events from Kenya.

Sadly, our friend, Pastor Daniel Gitau had an accident on Tuesday 19^th January.  His son also had a very serious accident and knocked somebody down with his car. Then Daniel’s wife, Fennih, became very ill.  We are however pleased to report that Fennih is recovering well.

Again, there was another traffic accident in which Joseph’s son, Nelson, and a visitor from the UK, Katherine Cookson, were both killed on Wednesday evening 7^th February, as Nelson was driving Katherine from Nairobi airport to stay with Joseph and Florence, his wife, in Dundori.

Downs Baptist Church has supported the clinic in Dundori for many years and Joseph is one of Daniel’s closest friends and a member of the Leadership Team.  He is pastor of the church in Dundori and also manages the school and the hospital. He also prepares accounts for these projects to send to supporters in the UK.  Tragically, Nelson’s wife also lost a baby who was still born at about the same time.  Katherine’s brother, Charlie, is in Kenya to organise the repatriation of Katherine’s body to the UK.

Gifts have been sent to Kenya from DBC amounting to £1510, as well as £500 from the church as a whole, to help with Nelson’s funeral costs.  The money will also assist Nelson’s widow who is coming to terms with the loss of her baby as well as her husband and who has two young children to support without their father.

Daniel will be visiting the UK in the Spring and will preach at DBC on Sunday the 12^th May.

Please do continue to pray for our friends in Kenya.

Jane leads our online prayer time this month focusing on the prayer of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4 v 10.

https://fb.watch/qmGvLp7nHd/

We were pleased to welcome back Ann Dracott to our meeting. Ann always takes something very common and practical and brings a Word from the Lord which is not only a personal testimony but also a challenge for us.

This time Ann brought along a favourite saucepan which she had spoiled by being in her words, careless, complacent and negligent! The pan was so badly burned that it took nearly 4 days to completely clean. Ann didn’t want to throw it out as it was part of a set, was old but well used and so very useful.

Ann likened this to the fact that we do mess up in our lives – we make wrong choices, our attitude may not be good at times, we can use careless words, we can become complacent and neglectful.  We may look fine on the outside , but on the inside, well!

Isn’t it wonderful that God in His mercy and faithfulness does not discard us! Like that old saucepan which was part of a set and useful, we are a part of the Body of Christ.  We are all important, we all matter, we all have different gifts and skills and there is something for each of us to do.

Ann highlighted Ephesians 2 v 8-10, focusing on verse 10 which says, “for we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Are you ready to be used by God? Remember, God is faithful and will forgive our mistakes. We were challenged to put ourselves in God’s hands. He forgives and He restores but we were reminded that the process can be painful at times.

Gillian Clark from Books Alive in Hove was our visiting speaker this week.

Once again, Gillian came laden with an array of Christmas cards, wrapping paper, advent calendars and gifts so that we could stock up in preparation for the Christmas season.

Gillian brought a lovely message from Philippians 4 v 10-13 focussing on the second part of verse 12 and verse 13 “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation – I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

That doesn’t mean that we can literally do everything! We need to be aware of God’s call on our lives and the plan He has for us and serve Him wholeheartedly.  We do it all for the Lord out of our love for Him and wanting to please Him in everyway – we don’t need recognition from others! This way we can learn the secret of being content even in the most trying circumstances.

Isn’t it wonderful to know He gives us His strength to accomplish the work He has for each of us!

Gillian then prayed that we would have the discernment to know what God wants us to do and the contentment to follow His way.

On Thursday 9 November we were delighted to welcome Connie Croly, a long-standing friend of Thursday Fellowship.  Connie spoke on the much-loved Psalm 23, and brought fresh insights into this familiar part of the Bible, illustrating her talk with many examples from her own experience.

Psalm 23, as we know, was written by David, the shepherd-king, and his experience of tending his father’s flocks as a boy inspired him to see God as his Shepherd.  Connie reminded us that a good shepherd gives guidance – “He leads me “, protection – “He restores my soul”, healing  -“He anoints my head with oil”, provision – “He prepares a table”.

Jesus is not only our Good Shepherd, He is also the door of the sheep-fold, guarding and protecting us. We can rest safe and secure in his care.