Grace Baptist Mission
helping the churches to support and care for their missionaries worldwide
Countries Worldwide
Austria
Jean Ellis continues her work in Austria alongside the Free Evangelical Church in Klagenfurt. Her ministry today is almost exclusively among the Deaf and their families. She has contact with many people by this means and a small number have come to know the Lord. Jean attends a Deaf Club and regular meetings for the Deaf are held at the Evangelical Church. This has developed into a very significant ministry.
One of the main projects at present is to produce the Bible in Austrian Sign language. This is a vast undertaking and is Jean's vision for the future development of the work.
Chris and Angela Pegington returned to the U.K. in September 2003 leaving a small work in the town of Brückl north east of Klagenfurt.
Stephen and Margaret Marchant also moved to the U.K. during September 2003 in order to serve the Lord in a UK pastorate.
Brazil
Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of the country when in 1985 the military regime peacefully ceded power to civilian rulers. Brazil continues to pursue industrial and agricultural growth and development of its interior. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labour pool. It is today South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. Highly unequal income distribution remains a pressing problem.
Population Fact File
Currently: Approximately 186 million made up mostly of White/Mulatto peoples.
Language: Portuguese is the official language. Spanish, French and English are also widely spoken.
Religion: Almost three quarters of the population is nominally Roman Catholic. Over 15% are members of the growing protestant sector.
GBM began to be interested directly in the work when approached by the church at Gorran Haven, Cornwall, to help in sending Jason and Andrea Murfitt to serve the Lord among the river communities of Brazil. In partnership with UFM, Jason and Andie left with their daughter Lucy to begin language study in the Sao Paulo region in January 2006. They were involved in language study for some 10 months before moving to join a mission team for further cross-cultural training in the area where they hope to work.
Jason and Andrea moved with their daughter Lucy to the town of Manacaparu near Manaus early in 2007 and since then have been involved in evangelistic work among the river communities. They have also been involved in an evangelical radio station for which they write and present Bible Studies and children’s programmes. It is their prayer that during their second term of service they will be able to coordinate some pastoral and church training courses and conferences for churches and pastors in the river communities.
Colombia
The city of Medellin in Colombia has a reputation as a centre for the illegal drugs trade and as a place of great violence. Murders are committed every day and the situation is very volatile. Medellin is, however, also home to the Bible Seminary of Colombia, a key institution for training men and women for leadership in evangelical churches in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America. The Seminary was formed in 1944 through the OMS. It later became an independent seminary serving evangelical churches in Colombia and elsewhere. Throughout the years of its existence it has sought to set high standards of academic scholarship based on a sound, biblically based curriculum. In particular, it has taken a very strong stand against the teachings of "liberation theology" which are very widespread in Latin America.
In 1982, Dr Theo Donner and his wife Sonja were sent by Eden Baptist Church in Cambridge to work in the Seminary. Theo was a student of Church History and went initially to lecture in that subject. After language training in Costa Rica the Donners went to Medellin with their five young children. Theo's ministry has been greatly used over the years and he was the Rector, or Principal, of the Seminary for many years. He has now returned to lecturing and has a widespread ministry in Colombia and further afield.
The seminary currently has 100 full time students. Another 160 students attend an evening Bible Institute and there are thirty who are studying at a Bible Institute in the Buena Vista prison. This work has been a special encouragement over recent years and a book has been written about it, which can be obtained on request.
Most of the full time students come from Colombia but there are also some from Peru and Uruguay at the present time and there have been others in the past from Cuba, from Spain and elsewhere. There are currently eight professors on the faculty of the Seminary
GBM was recently able to help the church at Finchley to enable Robin and Clara Dowling to return to Medellin They previously lived and taught there) for a two month period of teaching students. This was well received by the students and faculty and is one of the ways in which this important work can be helped and encouraged.
France
There is an Association of Evangelical Baptist Churches in French speaking Europe and most of Grace Baptist Mission's contact in the area has been through this group of churches. There are nearly 50 churches in the Association mostly in France and Switzerland but also with a work in Brussels, Belgium.
Roger & Helen Cook worked in fellowship with the church in Brussels from 1967 until they returned to the U.K. in 1981. They had been involved in a church-planting project in the town of Mons which, sadly, never progressed to a fully constituted church. They have now retired but maintain an interest in the radio work and in GBM.
The church in the city of Geneva was burdened for towns and villages in the area around Lake Leman. Colin and Carole Howells were sent by the church in Bromley to work alongside this church and in particular to seek to plant a church in the town of Thonon. Meetings were held initially in the Howells' home and slowly the church began to develop. It took a number of years for this to happen but eventually a church was constituted. Nordine and Muriel Salmi from the Geneva church were added to the team to strengthen the work. Nordine and Muriel have now returned to Geneva and a new pastor is in place to continue the work. The church now has its own substantial meeting place and there are between 25-30 members in the church.
Colin and Carole Howells saw the Lord's blessing on the work in Nantes. A work had already begun there pioneered by a brother by the name of Jean-Marc Ausset and the Lord used Colin and Carole to build on this foundation so that a church of 25-30 members or so was established. During the period that Colin and Carole were in Nantes, outreach in Cholet began and a group formed there.
Colin and Carole eventually moved to pastor the church in Brussels and ceased their direct connection with the mission because the church provided support for them. The work in Cholet had a number of difficulties but seemed to be growing under the leadership of Hedley and Linda Dent and also, subsequently, Ian and Hélène Flanders. But there were a number of problems that arose. Hedley and Linda Dent withdrew from the work and spent a very short time in the city of Tours. Ian and Hélène remained with the work in Cholet but in the spring of the year 2000 felt that they could no longer continue with the group as constituted because of a number of difficulties.
One of the other works among the French Association is in Le Creusot. The Woodstock Road Baptist Church in Oxford had sent their member, Helen Stiles, to work in Le Creusot alongside this small church. After some years they asked that she might be associated with GBM and this was agreed. The work was very slow and very hard. However, in the summer of 1999 Helen Stiles was married and ceased to be supported as a missionary but remains in France and serving the Lord there with her husband.
Present Work
Grace Baptist Mission is now supporting Fiona Steward in her work among students in the city of Bordeaux. Fiona was sent by her church at Great Whyte, Ramsey, Cambridgeshire in November 2005. She is working jointly with GBM/UFM and is part of a team of workers serving in this city.
GBM continues to be interested in the work in Thonon although no longer financially. The church established there is now able to fully support its own ministry.
Ian and Hélène Flanders withdrew from the work in Cholet in July 2002 because of the difficulties there. They are serving within the Radio Team in Abingdon where Ian is producing a French programme, "Esperance Aujhourd Hui" for broadcast particularly in French Speaking Africa. Hélène assists in presenting the programmes and is responsible for the administration involved in their distribution.
India
GBM had its beginnings in work in South India. The first missionaries were sent out in 1895 and many others followed them during the first half of the 20th century. Following independence the work began steadily to be placed into the hands of indigenous believers and from the mid-1960s it became impossible to send further missionaries to work in India.
Following the retirement of Mrs. Yvonne Langton who was based in Chennai, GBM has no missionaries serving in India. However, over the past twenty five years the work of the gospel has grown very significantly in South India. Many new churches have been established and many people have been converted. A key leader in the situation is Samuel Devenesam who is pastor of the largest of the Tamil Baptist Churches at Kilpauk in Chennai. Others have also been involved in encouraging this growth, notably Stanley Jones who pastors’ the church at Namakkal in the Salem District and P Rajkumar who assists Sam Devenesam and is also engaged in a work of Christian Compassion among the destitute, elderly folk of Chennai.
GBM continues to help to encourage work in India through the partial, and discreet, support of church planters, the production and distribution of literature and the encouragement of fellowship between the churches which are very poor. We have recently been able to coordinate teams of pastors from the UK who have been sent by their churches to help train young pastors in the Tamil Baptist churches. The Lord is building His church and, in spite of difficulties and opposition, the people stand firm in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. We are glad to hear of regular baptisms in the church plants. Please continue to pray for the Tamil Baptist churches.
A particular encouragement has been the growing fellowship between Tamil Baptist churches in the Madurai and Namakkal districts. This has led to the establishment of an annual Convention which up to 450 men, women and children attend. We have been privileged to assist in providing the ministry to this group and also in helping to train and encourage pastors
Kenya
Keith and Priscilla Underhill from Alfred Place Baptist Church in Aberystwyth have worked in Kenya for many years and have established the Trinity Baptist Church in Nairobi. The Aberystwyth Church wanted to express a fellowship and unity together in the work of Mission and asked that Keith and Priscilla might be linked with Grace Baptist Mission. This enabled a wider distribution of news about this work and a greater support in prayer.
As well as the church in Nairobi, Keith was running a very comprehensive theological training course for leaders and helping with a number of churches throughout Kenya. Keith repeatedly expressed the need for other workers to share with him in this very demanding, yet rewarding, ministry. Despite this a number of years went by without anyone coming to help. In the 1990s the Lord burdened Nigel Lacey, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Stowmarket, Suffolk, and he and his wife Margaret went to assist in the work, particularly helping in the theological training. After about three years they moved on to pastor a Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia. Nigel went to be with the Lord in August 2007.
A ministry was also established amongst the largely tribal Rendille people and trips are made to Rendille homelands at least twice a year. Trinity decided to set apart two men to plant churches in Rendille and has since sent further members back to their homeland to help in the establishment of gospel work there. This has not been without problems. GBM ceased to be involved with Keith and Priscilla in 2009.
Sukesh and Jenny Pabari from Kensington Baptist Church in Bristol were also sent to strengthen the work. Sukesh was mainly involved in the training course work and in evangelism. The Pabaris have now moved to be part of the leadership team in the newly established Baptist church in Kawangware a poorer area on Nairobi. This church was constituted in 2009 and continues to grow. Sukesh is helping to trai to young men for the ministry and is deeply involved in the translation of good evangelical literature into Swahili.
Les and Ann Beard from the church in Eastcombe, Gloucestershire, also went to Kenya. They were based in the town of Kisumu and helped a number of congregations in that part of Western Kenya for 5 years until their retirement to the UK in March 2004.
Graham and Sally Jones of the church at Guildford Park took up the work in Western Kenya in January 2006. They moved to Kisumu, Western Kenya and have settled into their new home and new Church. They have a four wheel drive vehicle to enable them to travel in some of the more remote areas and their ministry of training and encouraging Pastors and their wives is proving extremely valuable. They are seeking to learn some of the local language to assist in their communication with those living away from the city. They hold regular training courses with pastors and their wives both in Kisumu and in the various home church situations.
In November 2007 GBM helped to send David and Liz Anderson from Belper to work alongside the Trinity Baptist Church, Nairobi. They have since moved to Eldoret where they are helping in a newly constituted church there. David is part of the leadership team and is also helping to train theological students at the nearby Kapsabet Theological College. David is also editing a new magazine written mainly by Kenyan pastors for Kenyan pastors. David and Liz have four small children and are fully involved in extending the evangelistic and compassionate work of the church.
In September 2009 the church at Chesham sent Andrew and Danielle Gullett and their two young sons to help to establish the work of ACTS in Kenya, ACTS (African Christian Textbooks) aims to make high quality reformed literature available to African theological students. Its work in Kenya has been coordinated to date by Martin Bussey (UFM) alongside his main ministry as a Bible College Lecturer. Andrew will be engaged in both expanding the work and consolidating it under the management and direction of Kenyans themselves. The first year has seen very encouraging progress.
Latvia
Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Latvia is now independent. In the spring of 1990 nationalists won a large majority in the Latvian parliament, reinstated the pre-WWII constitution but declared a transition period for full independence. In early 1991 a referendum resulted in a large majority favouring secession from the USSR and, on 21 August, 2 days after a coup attempt against Gorbachev in Moscow, Latvia declared full independence. This was recognised by the West and, finally, by the USSR on 6 September 1991. Latvia joined the United Nations less than 2 weeks later.
This opened up the possibility of Gospel work in Latvia. One of the Mission organisations involved in the early stages was Radstock Ministries who began to develop contacts with the Evangelical Churches in Latvia. They also began to encourage workers to go there and then set up a coordinator, Colin Lamb and his wife Brenda, who were based in Riga.
The church at Limes Avenue, Aylesbury, agreed to send their member, Malcolm Sunasky to work in Latvia. He was based for a time in the city of Liepaja, working with a Baptist Church there, and then moved to Madonna again to work with a small church. At the same time he was undergoing language study.
Miss Liz Fennel was sent by Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge to work in Riga and particularly to be engaged in teaching English as a means of making contact with people. Malcolm and Liz became engaged and were married and based their work in Riga with a Latvian speaking Baptist Church. They were involved in evangelism alongside the church and in a teaching ministry with various age groups in the church, as well as a wider ministry of evangelism. However, feeling the need to rethink their ministry, Malcolm and Liz returned to Aylesbury in September 2003, and their association with GBM has now come to an end.
The church at Whittlesey sent Malcolm and Ruth Firth to Latvia where it was arranged that they work with the Kengarats Russian-speaking Baptist Church. They have, therefore, studied Russian and originally developed a ministry alongside this church.
In 2002 The Firths were ask to lead the International church in Riga and it was agreed that Malcolm would do this initially for approximately 2 years. This period has been extended and Malcolm continues to be a part of the leadership of the church. The church is considering the leadership structure with a view to appointing national leadership as soon as possible. Malcolm has also been heavily involved in theological education and in the organisation of the Reformed Studies Conference held annually.
There is a great need to bring the biblical gospel of redeeming grace in Christ to bear upon the situation in Latvia, where there is much confusion and misunderstanding about just what the Gospel is. The Firth's are committed to work in Latvia and are developing a wider ministry among young people with a view to seeing a real change in thinking taking place by the Grace of God. They are also seeking the Lord regarding the possibility of planting a Russian speaking Baptist church in Riga. Ruth has a ministry with women in the church and joins Malcolm in a biblical counselling ministry. She is also engaged in simplifying Christian classics with a view to, first, English publication and then translation into other needy languages. This work is being formalised and increased in scope under the name “Lux Mundi”. Ruth has recently become involved with a Christian compassion ministry called GAiN which seeks to help people who are being seriously affected by the current economic difficulties facing Latvia by providing them with clothing and food.
Peru
Work in Peru began in the late 1970s when Pam Brown from Limes Avenue Baptist Church in Aylesbury was seconded to Baptist Missions for work in the South of Peru. She worked there for a number of years but suffered health problems due to working at altitude and was forced to return to the UK.
Contact was renewed in the late 1980s when Cecily Maclagan from the Reformed Baptist Church in Anniesland in Glasgow was sent to Peru, again to work in fellowship with Baptist Missions. They had established a small school for missionaries' children and Cecily worked as a housemother in the school for a time while also doing language study. She subsequently worked in the cities of Tacna and Moquegua and was involved in developing a work in the Carumus valley. In the mid 1990s Grace Baptist Church, Southport sent one of their members, Anthony Green, to strengthen the work in Peru. He went to Arequipa for language study where he subsequently met and married his wife, Roxanna. They were based in Tacna in Church Planting and development work for the next few years.
In 1998 various issues arose that caused a review of the arrangement with Baptist Missions and it was eventually mutually agreed that it would be better to work separately. This meant a new start for work in Peru and, at first, there did not seem to be any clear way forward. However, the Lord had burdened Anthony Green for a particular area of the city of Arequipa which was totally unreached with the gospel and the conviction grew among the sending churches and the Mission Council that it would be right to seek to establish a work there.
In 1999 Chris and Faith Richards and Ron Low, the Vice-President visited Peru to seek to lay the groundwork for this new project. With the help of a Peruvian lawyer it was possible to have GBM registered as a recognised organisation within Peru and to obtain permission for up to ten missionary Visas. Work began in Arequipa and a church was been constituted in the Simon Bolivar area of Arequipa. Anthony and Roxanna Green head up this work. A Peruvian national, Ronny Tipismana works alongside Anthony in the church. In 2009 the church officially opened its own building and a new work has now begun in a different area of the city call Villa Magisterial. Anthony is now training two Peruvian men to be able to lead the church in the future.
In 2000 Geoff and Rachel Low from the church at Wetherden in Suffolk were sent to Cusco in partnership with Latin Link. Geoff taught in night and residential Bible Institutes and was involved in other local ministries. Rachel brought up their 3 sons and also helped in the children's and ladies ministries of their local church. Geoff was also closely involved in a review of theological education in Peru with a view to enabling more able students to undertake degree level studies. They returned to the UK in 2008 and are now working with Friends International.
GBM also helps to support Sarah Clay who is hoping to return to Huaraz where she worked for two years alongside a pastor and his wife. Her work included a project which comprises a home for twenty children awaiting adoption. She also began to work with teenaged street children and after further training in the UK Sarah is preparing to return in the latter part of 2010.
Philippines
Involvement in the Philippines began in the late 1970s when the church at Wattisham in Suffolk sent Brian and Necy Ellis to begin a church planting project in a suburb of Manila at Cubao. Brian Ellis had previously been associated with OMF in the Philippines and Necy had been his language teacher when he first went to that country.
The Cubao church grew quite rapidly and over the past 20 years numerous other Reformed Baptist Churches have come into being and there is an Association of Reformed Baptist Churches in the Philippines.
From the early days there has also been a very widespread literature ministry with many hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of books being distributed and many influenced by good Christian literature.
In more recent years the church has also been involved in a ministry of compassion through Christian Compassion Ministries which focuses especially upon help for street children and homes have been established for such children.
Grace Ministerial Academy is based at the Church premises at Cubao. The Principal is Noel Espinosa, pastor of the church at Los Banos and he is assisted by others on the faculty including Brian Ellis.
In the Summer of 2003 Matthew Gamston was sent by Trinity Baptist Church, Gloucester to join the work in Cubao. Matthew was based at Cubao Reformed Baptist Church and particularly involved in street evangelism and in outreach in the community. He established a drop-in centre for street people and in 2009 this was handed over to leadership by members of the church and is still continuing as fruitful ministry. Matthew tried to help to establish a Livelihood centre to provide skills to street people to enable them to make a living. This sadly proved to have too many difficulties and has now ceased. Matthew’s ministry expanded to helping pastors outside Manila but he is currently on Home assignment because of ill health.
Gilbert McAdam, from Trinity Baptist Church in Dundee, is working with a Chinese church in Manila and seeking to teach the church and motivate them in evangelism. He is also involved in seeking to expand the theological education of pastors in areas outside Manila
We also support Aries Liboro working in a very poor area of Manila where he is the pastor of a small Reformed Baptist church and is seeking to reach out with the gospel.
In 2009 the church at Waterford house, Strood, Kent, approached GBM to help them to send Naomi Gonzalez to act as a tutor to the children in CCM homes. Naomi is finding many opportunities to help and encourage these damaged children who have many years of education to make up. They are daily taught from the scriptures and we pray for their salvation.
Poland
Poland is an ancient nation that was conceived near the middle of the 10th century. Its golden age occurred in the 16th century. After years of being a Soviet satellite state, labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and by 1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. A "shock therapy" program during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central Europe, but Poland still faces the lingering challenges of high unemployment, underdeveloped and dilapidated infrastructure, and a poor rural underclass. Poland remains a strongly Roman Catholic country with more than 90% of the population claiming allegiance to that church.
GBM became involved in August 2009 when the Grace Baptist Church, Tottenham were led to take responsibility for sending Andrzej and Monika Kempczynski and their two young sons back to Poland. They had come to the UK four years before so that Andrzej could undertake theological education at London Theological Seminary. Whilst in the UK a desire to plant a church in the town of Legionowo had grown in their hearts and they are now living and working in that town of 50,000 people which has no evangelical church. On Easter day 2010 they held their first service and they are committed to see the church established through personal evangelism and literature distribution.
Spain
Involvement in Spain began in the late 1960s. There had been one or two contacts through the developing work of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Europe. Then Miss Nellie Hawes who had, for many years, worked in India with SBM came to the very strong conviction that the Lord was calling her to Spain. Many found this difficult to understand and accept at first but her conviction was such that others did become convinced and so in 1969 she went out to Spain. She studied language in Barcelona and then moved to Valencia where she worked with the Buena Nueva Baptist Church. The pastor of this church was a young man by the name of Roberto Velert who had studied in the Toronto Baptist Seminary. Nellie had a number of years of fruitful ministry alongside the church seeing a whole generation of children and young people grow up. The church developed a camps ministry, building its own centre at Liria close to Valencia and she was very much involved in the work there until her retirement.
Roberto Velert moved from Valencia to a church in Barcelona and remains one of the leading evangelical ministers in Spain.
A converted Roman Catholic Priest, Francisco Lacueva was living in the UK at the time Nellie went to Spain and had married an English lady. They were members of one of the Strict Baptist Churches and hearing that the Mission had sent an English lady to work in Spain he felt constrained to encourage them to send a Spanish man! So he and his wife went to Barcelona and worked there for a number of years, particularly developing literature ministry in Spanish before moving to work with a group of Brethren churches in North West Spain.
In the early 1970s Miss Pat Davies from the church at Willenhall in the West Midlands felt the call of God to Missionary service. This eventually led to the church sending her to Spain. After language study in Valencia she worked with a small church in Tenerife in the Canary Islands for several years. At the time the church met in the home of a young man by the name of David Rivero.
He too was able to go to Toronto for training and on his return was invited to be the pastor of this small church. GBM agreed to contribute towards his support. The church was made up very largely of his own family and, despite very faithful ministry did not really grow.
Pat later moved to Barcelona where she worked with the Piedra De Ayuda Baptist Church. She developed work in the Evangelical Hospital and was also involved in Radio Bona Nova, a radio station associated with the church. In 1999 she began work with a church in Gava, south of Barcelona. That church was closed in 2003 and Pat began to work with the church meeting at Sant Vicens dels Horts, outside Barcelona. Today Pat concentrates her ministry in the city of Barcelona and her main work is with the radio station and the evangelical hospital.
David Rivero began to do some research into the spiritual needs of Spain and he became very burdened for the mainland and particularly for the area around the city of Leon where there was very little, if any, evangelical witness. It was agreed to begin a new Church Planting work there and to look to the Lord to raise up a team to share in that work. David and Mavi Rivero moved there as the advanced party for the team. Subsequently the Lord brought Maria Amoako, from Grace Baptist Church in Tottenham, to join the work but the team never really materialised in the way that had been hoped. The hardness of the situation had its effect on David's health and it became necessary for him to move from that situation.
David and Mavi moved to Malaga where David was invited to pastor a small church. The Mission continues to help contribute towards the support until the church is able to fully take up the burden. After much prayer and consultation Maria Amoako moved to the city of Cuenca where she is working alongside a small Reformed Baptist Church under the auspices of the European Missionary Fellowship.
UK Church Planting
We help to support UK church planting work and have been blessed to see Gospel churches established in Bury and Ulverston although there have been disappointments elsewhere.
GBM is also seeking to work in fellowship with the Association of Grace Baptist Churches, (SE) with a new church planting initiative at Ebbsfleet, Kent. The venture is called the “Thames Gateway Project” and is seeking to plant a church in a new development area in the South East of England.
We have recently been pleased to see the establishment of the Grace Baptist Partnership to encourage church planting.
Abingdon
The Mission office relocated to Abingdon in 1976. The original premises in London had become too small for the expanding work. A suite of radio studios were built and general offices were included within the development.
Today, in addition to the radio studios, the Support Ministries team have their base in Abingdon with three full time workers and three part time staff.
The Mission Coordinator has day to day contact with the Missionaries on the field, the sending churches and leads the Mission Centre team. He is also seeking to introduce the work further afield.
The Deputy Mission Coordinator is responsible for the production of publicity, visiting supporting churches and promoting the work.
The Financial Coordinator has day to day management of the office and is responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of the work.
Part Time Staff bring secretarial support, maintaining the mailing list and the preparation, printing and distribution of publicity material.