eVision Summer 2021

Summer 2021

FINDING A New Mould

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FINDING

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A New Mould SHAPING MINISTRY

6 GLO INTERNATIONAL – PERU

12 This magazine is published twice yearly to report on the work of GLO in Europe and around the world and to promote mission interest. There is no subscription rate but readers are welcome to send gifts towards postage and production.

GLO is a charity registered in Scotland: SC007355.

If you would like to contribute financially to the work of GLO this can be done directly using the bank details below

NEWS BULLETIN

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CHANGES IN MINISTRY

CONNECT WITH US!

EDITORIAL

TILSLEY COLLEGE

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GLO BOOKSHOP & COFFEE SHOP

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GLO Europe is on: LEAVING A LASTING LEGACY

or by contacting our Finance Director: Ian Smith (ismith@glo-europe.org).

Many people have a concern about what the long-term impact of their lives will be on others. As Christians this is a big issue because the Bible encourages us to live our lives in view of eternity. GLO, along with many

BANK OF SCOTLAND, 72 BRANDON PARADE, MOTHERWELL ML1 1UW ACCOUNT NAME – GLO TRUST SCOTLAND SORT CODE – 800915 ACCOUNT NUMBER – 00400636

other Christian organisations, benefits greatly from legacies that people leave behind. It is a way of significantly helping the work of the kingdom by organising your giving after you have gone.

We have produced an information booklet on the use of legacies and if you would like to have one then write to: Stephen McQuoid | GLO Centre | 78 Muir Street | Motherwell ML1 1BN | smcquoid@glo-europe.org

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Editorial

by Stephen McQuoid

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he past 12-15 months have been challenging for many of us. While it seems there is now light at the end of the tunnel, we can’t underestimate the difficulties that we have gone through. As well as the obvious tragic loss of life, many people have found their daily routines turned upside down and this has impacted not only individuals, but churches and mission organisations. GLO Europe is no exception, and I am thankful to say that we have not only been preserved by God during this time, but also blessed in our ministry. In this edition of e-vision we want to share both good news and also ongoing challenges. We are as focused as ever about reaching people in Europe for Christ, planting churches and equipping Christians for service. We passionately believe God goes before us as we do so, but we also know that the way ahead has many challenges and that we, like everyone else, need to adapt to the changes we are experiencing.

Over the past few months, we have had many conversations about the future of our work as well as the future of the churches we work with and are supported by. The church is vital to God’s plans, so we are obviously concerned that local churches continue to serve God in their communities. Of course, as we emerge into the new reality shaped by the pandemic, churches will need to learn to adapt and shape themselves so that they can continue

to be effective in the future. The same is true for organisations like GLO so a great deal of thought and prayer is going into this. Judith McKeown has written some personal reflections about the future of church life under the title, ‘Finding a New Mould’ (p.4&5) and I hope that you will find her reflections both interesting and challenging.

This is followed by a couple of articles that update readers on what is happening throughout the GLO family. The first of these, Shaping Ministry (p.6&7), tells the stories of how some of our missionaries have adapted their work to fit in with the current situation. I hope you will be as inspired by them as I have been. We are grateful to God that these ministries are flourishing despite the challenges. This is followed by a News Bulletin that will update you on some of the developments in GLO. We are encouraged by the current group of Tilsley College students who have done well despite the restrictions. We have an update on the college and its immediate future. GLO is a worldwide ministry and so we have included an article on the work of GLO Peru which is developing despite the country being very badly affected by the Covid pandemic. There are also brief articles from the work in London as well as the GLO Bookshop.

As I sit in my office at the GLO Centre I am reminded that space is limited and some of our buildings are not in a good state of repair. Indeed,

the building where my office is housed is a recycled mobile unit, well beyond its best. Consequently, in addition to constant maintenance, we also need to do some refurbishing in parts of our complex as well as a significant building project at some point in the future. We are meeting with architects to look at the best way of doing this.

While we look back with a real sense of gratitude to God for the way he has preserved us over the past year, we are also excited about the future. We are working on strategies that will help us to adapt and grow and we believe that God will use us to continue bringing the good news of Jesus to the needy continent of Europe. Please continue to pray for us that we will be able to face all our challenges and move into the future with confidence and expectation.

“ Over the past few months, we have had many conversations about the future of our work as well as the future of the churches we work with and are supported by. ” 3

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FINDING A New Mould

by Judith McKeown

“ What did a Christian community look like for the New Testament church? In order to fulfil Jesus’ command to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28: 19 – 20) they didn’t rely on their weekly coffee morning and family service. ”

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suspect many of us have had similar conversations recently along the lines of, “are you back to church yet?”, “oh, it’s a shock to the system to get out of the house on time!” I have benefited immensely from the variety of online church services over lockdown, however, what does the future look like now for church life as we re-emerge from lockdown?

There is undoubtedly something comforting about getting back to our normal church services and the way things have always been done, but is our Christian life really about comfort and does what we have always done fit in this new world?

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When we say that we want to get back to church – what is it that we want to get back to? Our normal routines and programmes? Perhaps we can be guilty of having a very set idea of what church is, based on habit rather than on a living relationship with Jesus. These questions can be unsettling, but it is almost certainly the case that churches will find coming out of lockdown more difficult than being in its jaws. This is because during lockdown we had fewer choices, but now that we are emerging we need to ask these difficult questions and find the right mould for church in the future.

Rich Martin, writing for Premier argues that, “we’ve taught a generation to fall in love with the culture of church more than Christ himself”1. In the weeks and months to come will we find that we have what Andy Hunter from FIEC describes as “a refined church emerging”. It’s a sobering thought that perhaps this has been a time of pruning for the church (John 15:1-2) and suddenly the motives of our hearts are exposed as to why we go and why we are involved in church. Is my attitude one of, “it doesn’t look the same, so I don’t want to be part of it” or am I prepared to realise that the world has changed and as a church we must adapt to that? In a recent article in The Guardian entitled, “How do faithless people like me make sense of the past year of Covid?”, John Harris makes the observation that “life without God has turned out to be life without fellowship and shared meaning – and in the midst of the most disorientating, debilitating crisis most us of have ever known, that social tragedy now cries out for action”2. Is this a challenge the church is prepared to respond to? Finding a new mould may involve breaking old moulds and habits, or perhaps more accurately it will push us back into a more biblical mould. Let us remember that the template of Acts 2:42 tells us that church is about fellowship, teaching, prayer and communion, but there is little instruction as to how these things were or should be carried out.

Are we prepared to move from what Rich Martin refers to as, “comfortable community to Christian community”3?

What did a Christian community look like for the New Testament church? In order to fulfil Jesus’ command to, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28: 19 – 20) they didn’t rely on their weekly coffee morning and family service.

The church in Acts was more organic, whereas we put the emphasis on the structure of our church services. If anything, Covid-19 restrictions have shown us that we can no longer rely on larger events, and in order to survive, “churches will need to re(invest) in small group and one-toone ministry in order to sustain connections, training and discipleship”4. This move away from a reliance on larger gatherings will begin to force us into the mould of living our lives in such a way that discipleship becomes part of our everyday life.

The challenge for my own heart is, is this a mould I am familiar with or one that I want my life to be shaped by? The latest dramatisation of the life of Jesus in The Chosen5 has helped me understand afresh how Jesus lived his everyday life, alongside flawed individuals and showed them who he was and why he was worth following.

Martin Erwin discusses in, “The opportunities and challenges to Evangelism post Covid-19”, the model of disciple-making used by Jesus

online meetings often meant better attendance and participation. Dan Green writing for FIEC argues that Zoom prayer meetings may be here

which was very much based on the “small group” approach with his twelve disciples. He describes it as the “Go, gather, grow” approach, as demonstrated in Luke 10. He argues that Jesus’ command to make disciples “sends us into the world, we “Go”, and those who are interested “Gather”. Often, in the New Testament, this was in homes and small groups as purpose-built church buildings were still a long way off. The gathered group would “Grow” learning together, worshipping and praying, all with the purpose of preparing to “Go” once more.”6 However, practically speaking, what does this “new mould” look like? In these post-Covid days there is much talk of the idea of “blended church”. Perhaps there are those who have just discovered church services online and want to continue to be part of that, those for example who are not yet comfortable coming into a church building. The question is – do we continue to cater for this group and how? Or does the continuing online presence of church services feed into the notion of consumer church, where we log-in when it suits us, with no responsibility or commitment? How do we disciple people and build a Christian community if we never meet them? The Gospel Coalition (TGC) recently published some research after asking eight Pastors in America, “if we were looking at your church in 10 years, would you be able to point to a difference Covid made?”7 They found that their

to stay as they are easier to attend and there is more of a willingness to pray because of what he describes as the “verticality of prayer”.

However, one pastor interviewed by TGC sums up the dilemma that many churches may find themselves in, “It’s been a good platform for seekers who haven’t yet committed to come to a physical church building… On the other hand, we don’t want to train regular members to think, Oh, I did a worship service online, so I completed my responsibility.” Undoubtedly the church must have a physical presence, but perhaps what we need is a more “back to basics”8 approach, a mould that is reshaped to include more time for people, with less emphasis on programmes and where an online presence is not seen as an addon, but as a vital way in its own right of reaching people and sustaining church life.

1 5 ways the European Church will change post Covid-19 | Opinion | Premier Christianity 2 How do faithless people like me make sense of this past year of Covid? | Religion | The Guardian 3 5 ways the European Church will change post Covid-19 | Opinion | Premier Christianity 4 https://fiec.org.uk/resources/8-ways-the-pandemic-hasaffected-churches 5 https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen 6 The opportunities and challenges of Evangelism post Covid-19 (forthcoming book) 7 How Will COVID Permanently Change Churches? (thegospelcoalition.org) 8 Ignite_Spring2021_web.pdf

“ Finding a new mould may involve breaking old moulds and habits, or perhaps more accurately it will push us back into a more biblical mould... the template of Acts 2:42 tells us that church is about fellowship, teaching, prayer and communion, but there is little instruction as to how these things were or should be carried out.”

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“ I want to walk on the narrow way, because I want to be in heaven with Jesus!”

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ven in the pandemic, God’s plan of saving people is the same! We must go and tell the Good News. People must hear and believe. Our feet might be restricted to go, but our voices can go out to the ends of the earth!

The online Good News Radio was launched seven years ago. Today, thousands of Romanian families can hear the Gospel at home, in the park, in the car, everywhere and anywhere there is an internet connection, a computer or a mobile phone.

According to Google statistics, the Good News Radio is being accessed by Romanians from 109 countries, as far as Brazil and Australia!

Dani edits recorded programmes and together we run interactive live shows for the children. In spite of the pandemic, we are encouraged by the increasing number of listeners and the way God uses this tool: “After the story of Nicodemus, I prayed and I was born in the family of God!” (Amos, 6)

“I want to walk on the narrow way, because I want to be in heaven with Jesus!” (Calian, 8) “My daughter always ran home from the playground to listen to the live programmes. One day she forgot and started to cry. But then she remembered her mum had the phone with her.

And so, they listened to the programme in the park. Her orthodox friend and her mum listened too. It was such a blessing!” (Eva’s father) What does the Good News Radio mean to the children who listen?

“Knowing more about God, having good friends, a blessing” (Emi, 6) “A step closer to God” (Thea, 14) “A friend, a place where I can learn about the Lord Jesus, hear songs and stories which I love a lot!” (Levi, 8) Please pray that we will continue to share the Good News online and that God will continue to save!

Good News Radio,

ROMANIA

by Dani & Doina Vasilca

Shaping

MINISTRY 6

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VLORË, Albania

by Juli Muhameti

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ovid-19 feels like a bad dream in Albania but for the church in Vlorë the situation has not changed. Because of government regulations we can’t all fit inside our church hall, and the church during Covid-19 has been growing.

As elders we have been in the dilemma of trying to decide whether to divide the church into four groups to be able to meet or to do something else.

For years now we have been praying and looking for a way to find a bigger space for ministry.

At the beginning of April as a church we started to meet in the forest nearby the city. This is a great opportunity for us to meet as a community but at the same time we are dependent on the weather

and sometimes we have to cancel the meeting on a Sunday morning.

While this outdoor solution makes it possible for our church to meet on a Sunday, it does not help other groups such as children’s, pre-teens, teens and student ministries. They too are meeting outside at the moment, with Bible studies being done in coffee shops.

In June we are going to add more to the church when eight new believers get baptised. We see the weather as a blessing from God but at the same time we are looking and praying to God that he will provide a new place for the church to meet and grow!

AIX, France

by Philippe Perrilliat Leane, a political studies student was recently baptised in Aix. Since her baptism three new students have been coming regularly to our services, and one of them has become a Christian.

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News

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BULLETIN

Summer

MISSION TEAMS

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s a result of the ongoing Covid pandemic we are not in a position to run a full short term mission programme. However, our desire to bring hope to people has not changed and we will run a small number of focused teams. Each of these will abide by local regulations and we will take all appropriate steps necessary to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Swansea, Wales Sázava, Czech Rep. London, England Enniskillen, N. Ireland Dömös, Hungary Digital Team

July, dates to follow 24 – 31 July 24 July – 1 Aug 7 – 14 August 21 – 30 August dates to follow

Contact: missionteams@glo-europe.org for further information on these teams.

DIGITAL EVANGELISM Given the changing face of mission for

the first time ever we are running a digital mission team. This is a new venture which could be the first of many, as we try to reach people by ‘all means’.

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GLOFuture PROJECTS Over the next few years we will be working on various projects and would ask for your prayers for:

The relaunch and development of short-term mission The development of our involvement in the Balkans The building up of our training work and activity in Central and Eastern Europe The development of our online training presence The upgrading of the GLO Centre in Motherwell by refurbishing and building The expansion of our regional networks The strengthening of GLO International Working with established churches in church planting 9 e-vision-21 spring.indd 9

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New Wine, NEW WINESKINS N

ew wine in new wineskins is the metaphor Jesus used to describe significant changes in the way God was now going to be working in the world. The old mind-set, the old way of doing things, was passing and a new mind-set, a new way of doing things was now coming.

It is a metaphor that helps describe where we are for the present at Tilsley College and what will be happening in the months ahead.

We are preparing new wineskins and anticipating new wine. That still means we remain active, serving in the same business as usual – the business of equipping God’s people for God’s work in God’s world by “thinking | discipleship | training”. But it does mean change…

We have taken a strategic decision to pause our intake of residential students for September 2021. We will be turning our attention to some intense preparations for a new residential cohort in September 2022 who we believe will greatly benefit from these new measures.

Our preparations include forging new pathways for international student recruitment and training alongside UK nationals.

We will be looking again at our programme content to make sure it offers ‘new wine’ relevant to the post-Covid world of Christian ministry training.

We will be crafting ‘new wineskins’ in the shape of Tilsley Academy, a new and exciting

online training platform suited to a wide range of self-directed learners.

We may even have the chance to initiate some building refurbishment also – watch this space!

Tilsley College is still here for you. We will continue to run our Joshua classes, and First Serve and TEAM programmes, as well as our Mission Orientation Programme.

But we are excited too about what God has for us next in the new chapter of Tilsley’s life. One thing is for sure - we believe the Lord still wants new wine in new wineskins even today, and we are prayerfully anticipating that new movement of His Spirit.

Would you please pray that with us, and for us? We hope so, and we intend to keep you updated on developments… thank you.

Tilsley

COLLEGE

by Allan McKinnon

PREPARING TO SERVE

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either Daniel nor I grew up planning to be missionaries. I was going to be a doctor, and Daniel was going to join the Irish Air Corps.

God, however, had other plans for us, and we have found ourselves planning for a future in India, serving him.

After Daniel became a Christian aged 17, he was immediately challenged by the Lord to preach the gospel where it had never been heard before. Daniel prayed (without telling me) that the Lord would give me that same vision, and three months later I called him late one night to tell him that I wanted to go wherever the Lord sent me. Since then, the Lord has been patiently directing our paths. We considered either North Africa or India as potential locations, but any time we have tried to push the door to Africa, it has remained firmly shut. In contrast, we

by Diane Kell

have both had opportunities to take short trips to India, which God orchestrated in wonderful ways, and used to grow our love for the people of India.

Since September, we have been studying in Tilsley College, receiving training and preparation for future service. I have really benefitted from some of the more theoretical classes, which have helped me to get a good grasp of the big picture. It’s also been good for me to be pushed out of my comfort zone and forced to take a lead in certain settings, such as during our Team Evangelism Week. Daniel has profited from the more practical classes, with Intergenerational Church and Church Planting helping to shape future ministry goals. We have both benefited from taking time this year to seek the Lord together, and to figure out our future plans, our gifts, and how best we can be used by him.

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Team

by Nicole Stevenson

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his term we completed our second week of ‘Team Evangelism’ during which we were able to take part in some online outreach.

Throughout the week we served in a variety of ways by putting together online services as well as joining in with a children’s club and a girls’ youth group over Zoom. One of my highlights from the week was working together with the other girls to plan a ladies’ evening on Zoom; the evening was such a blessing as we shared testimonies, listened to songs and spoke about ‘Finding Joy in Difficult Circumstances’. I also know the boys had a brilliant evening on Zoom with a rehab unit in Motherwell.

We are so thankful to the Lord for all these opportunities to serve him and to share our faith with others online!

EVANGELISM Another highlight from the week was our ‘Podcast Project’ as we were split into groups and tasked with researching, writing, and recording a podcast. This was both great fun and a very valuable experience; it was so interesting to learn about different ways of utilising technology in evangelism.

In addition to serving online, we were thankfully able to spend part of the week serving in person. As there are a number of families studying and living at college this year, we set up ‘Tilsley Kids Club’ for the children. Our theme for the week was ‘Four Peas in a Pod’ and each day we looked at a different ‘P’ – peace, promise, patience and power! We had lots of fun reading Bible stories and learning a few memory verses together. We even planted our

own garden peas as part of our lesson on patience.

Please pray for the children and for all the seeds sown throughout the different activities!

We are so thankful to the Lord for such a brilliant week, and we were reminded of what a great privilege it is to serve our God.

“ We are so thankful to the Lord for all these opportunities to serve him and to share our faith...”

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GLO Peru

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he ministry of GLO Peru began to develop in 2006 thanks to the vision that God placed in the hearts of our brothers Luis Mostacero and Richard Harknett. They founded Redes de Misión (or GLO Peru) in our country and called together a team of strategic leaders from across the country. They served in Peru for more than ten years, creating a ministry which now has national connections and recognition.

GLO Peru is a ministry which serves the Brethren churches in three areas: 1) The Missionary Bible Training Institute (IBEM) 2) Promoting mission through short-term mission teams, conferences and retreats 3) Publishing Christian literature with a theological and mission emphasis Both Luis and Richard continue to support this work through advice, encouragement and teaching at IBEM and conferences to develop a mission vision.

In 2016, Luis left Peru to continue equipping himself for the training of leaders and teachers, and in 2017, Richard left Peru to return to Great Britain. They left the leadership of the ministry with a team of national leaders who had been invited and trained over the preceding five years to be part of GLO Peru. This involved learning the philosophy of the ministry: always seeking to work in teams, the biblical training of the leaders of the churches and inspiring them to be disciples of Christ. With the departure of Richard and Luis, this group of leaders from different cities in the country received the challenge of continuing the vision of GLO Peru as a national team. To this day, they continue working with the same philosophy, passion and sacrificial service for the glory of God that was left as a legacy by the founders.

The Challenges The GLO Peru team consists of four key leaders from different regions of Peru. This has represented a challenge since each one has their own principal ministry of service in their local

“ We want to continue to strengthen IBEM to make the Institute more academic with a structure and philosophy more like a seminary.”

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FOR PRAYER

The leadership team, their lives, families and ministries: Jared Coral, Giovanni Nuñez, Dorio Lara and Dhaly Alday. nity and missionary vision within the GLO Peru U leadership team.

The Brethren churches in Peru – that they would be open to receiving the support that GLO Peru is offering. isdom to choose and invite new members to W the GLO Peru team.

Wisdom to formalise the IBEM programme.

Skilled and inspiring teachers to teach in IBEM. isdom to be able to distribute economic help W to those infected by Covid and affected by the pandemic.

congregation. Being in different cities and with various responsibilities, it was difficult at the outset to meet in person due to the long hours of travel demanded. Even so, we coordinated two in-person meetings a year and maintained weekly communication by phone.

Another challenge has been to maintain the fellowship between the churches at a national level. In spite of these challenges, we have the same enthusiasm and vision to continue serving the Brethren churches nationally in the training of elders and leaders. Lastly, has been the challenge to update the working philosophy of IBEM, which responded to needs at its inception 15 years ago.

However, in the last five years those needs have changed.

Covid-19 GLO Peru took on the challenge brought by the pandemic to adapt to the new normal. As many have changed their plans, so have we. In person

meetings were planned to update the curriculum of IBEM and to improve the organisational structure of the institute, but the pandemic postponed these. As every year, we had organised a retreat with a missionary vision where we invite our students, teachers, teams, partners and the leaders of the churches to take part. We had organised this for 2020, but due to the pandemic we could not realise it in person and changed the format to do it virtually.

GLO Peru has five decentralised centres across the country with their own leaders and teams. We met with these using Zoom to listen to them, pray with them, encourage them and in coordination with them we sent offerings of support for believers that were infected with Covid or affected by the pandemic.

Since 2019 we have been working to improve the educational structure of IBEM, but this work was frozen by the pandemic. This led us to formulate a new teaching method, moving from

in-person to virtual. We worked on a pilot project of three courses using a free virtual platform called Academic ID. The courses taught were: Pastoral Work in the Pandemic aimed at the IBEM leaders across the country, a Jonah course aimed at IBEM teachers, and a second Jonah course aimed at preachers.

The results of these pilot courses were very encouraging. As a result, we ran IBEM online in January 2021 at a national level with two virtual courses: Christology and Interpretation of Jonah.

The future Regarding the plans that we have for the future, we want to continue to strengthen IBEM to make the Institute more academic with a structure and philosophy more like a seminary. We also want to involve more believers in the leadership team to strengthen the work of GLO Peru.

GLO Peru Leadership Team

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Changes in

MINISTRY

by Mark Davies

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hen is a sensible time to move? Probably not in the middle of a pandemic! Spare a prayer for David and Rachel and their two children who came in October 2020 to join the church regrowth team here at Highgate International Church. If you found maintaining relationships hard through lockdown, try starting them all from scratch! And while David is taking on the church team lead role from Mark, they as a family still need to finalise a spouse visa over the next few months. Pray for rapid positive immigration answers and clear way forward.

Throughout the lockdowns and indeed the pandemic as a whole, we have been able to sustain weekly face-to-face ministries of providing support services to homeless and other vulnerable people. We have seen the Lord’s hand at work in terms of spiritual awakening and growth in people.

Like most churches, we now face the challenge of integrating our small Sundays groups (blended online and in-building) with outreach ministries.

Are we making progress? In terms of a bigger Sunday congregation not really. In terms of seeing the Kingdom of God grow in our own lives and through us to others, we believe so.

One of the post-pandemic great needs is for a closer connection with our immediate community.

We have been seeking the Lord to add someone

“ We have been seeking the Lord to add to the team with a strong community evangelist gifting”

to the team with a strong community evangelist gifting, so that with others in the team here we can start to reap a harvest that will lead to a stronger growing faith community in this part of Highgate.

Pray with us that we will find someone to join us by September.

And so when do Shirley and I move? Both personally, and as GLO’s commitment to revitalisation of churches in the London area, Mark will continue to give some support to the regrowth at HIC. However, our accommodation situation will change post-summer, as the church uses its housing resources for those focussed more fully on the regrowth of HIC. As a couple we will be looking for somewhere to live along the M1 corridor outside London. From there Mark can support the work in the London Hub (a GLO collaboration with Partnership, Counties, Church Growth Trust) as well as being more available for church-based teaching and training work. He will support Richard Harknett who heads up the Joshua developments in England and Wales, as well as some Central and Eastern Europe initiatives and other international GLO work such as in Zambia, when travel becomes more feasible.

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by Andrew Lacey

GLO BOOKSHOP & COFFEE SHOP O BOOK Review n Monday 26th April, Scottish Covid restrictions were eased slightly and the GLO Bookshop and GLO Coffee Shop re-opened to customers. As you can see the Coffee Shop staff are pleased to be open again! It has been a long lockdown period, and Angela and the rest of the team are delighted to be back, serving the local community with food, drink, care and prayer.

Please pray for the Coffee Shop team as they plan to spend time over the next few weeks offering customers in the Motherwell precinct a gospel leaflet and invitation to the Coffee Shop.

In the GLO Bookshop, Andrew and his staff have been able to offer a service by phone, email and website right the way through the winter lockdown. Although trade was quiet, the ability to help customers was greatly appreciated, both by churches looking for resources and personal customers looking for cards, gifts and books. Since the Bookshop has been open again, there has been a steady stream of customers visiting the shop and catching up on new and recent publications.

Like many small businesses, The GLO Bookshop has been looking for different ways to connect with customers through lockdown. One successful venture was online book events, and these have included a number of book launches from local

authors on subject as diverse as the Letters to the Churches, a book on personal loss and two children’s books. The most recent events were the new book from Alastair Noble and David Galloway, ‘Follow the Science’ and an online seminar with Cambridge Bibles. All these events can be revisited on the GLO Bookshop Facebook page or their YouTube channel.

Andrew and the team appreciate the support and prayer of e-vision readers as they continue their mission to bring Christian resources to the local community and impact the wider world through literature ministry.

“ Like many small businesses, The GLO Bookshop has been looking for different ways to connect with customers through lockdown. ”

by Regin Guttesen

The Sacrament of Evangelism

by Jerry Root & Stan Guthrie is an encouraging, practical, and biblically rooted book for the many of us, who do not have the evident gift of the evangelist but do have a heart for reaching our neighbour with the Gospel. “Evangelism”, say Jerry & Stan, “is not just for the super-spiritual saints. It is for all of us.”

In what way is evangelism a sacrament? The authors explain how the word “sacrament” simply means “filled with the presence of God.” God is the chief evangelist, compassionately seeking and drawing lost people to himself, powerfully cooperating with us! God draws near to us in the moments we engage in evangelism. We don’t understand how much we’re missing out if we’re not doing it.

The authors stress the urgency of evangelism, quoting G.K. Chesterton when he said: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” They challenge all of us to get started, even though we feel ungifted, unprepared and even afraid.

Though filled with stories and hands on examples this is not just another how-to book but an inspiring call to not miss out on the nearness of God in evangelism.

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EXECUTIVE TEAM

Stephen McQuoid

Mark Davies

Sam Gibson

smcquoid@glo-europe.org

mdavies@glo-europe.org

sgibson@glo-europe.org

01698 263483

07503 953259

028 9447 9411

Admin Office admin@glo-europe.org

01698 263483 College Office college@glo-europe.org

01698 266776 Allan McKinnon

Ian Smith

GLO Bookshop

amckinnon@glo-europe.org

ismith@glo-europe.org

books@globookshop.com

01698 266776

01698 263483

01698 275343/ 263483

GLO MAIN COMMITTEE Rupert Abbott Stephen Cracknell James Davies Mark Davies Stephen Fairfield

Judith Gibson Sam Gibson Karen Macrae Allan McKinnon Stephen McQuoid

Mike Packer Philippe Perrilliat Ian Smith Patrizio Zucchetto

GLO EUROPE VISION STATEMENT

Our vision is to grow mission focused churches in Europe.

Our focus is to:

EVANGELISE:

to proclaim the gospel to as many people as possible in Europe

Tel 01698 263483 Fax 01698 253942 E-mail: admin@glo-europe.org Internet: www.glo-europe.org

Gospel Literature Outreach 78 Muir Street Motherwell ML1 1BN

using every method available

ESTABLISH: to ensure believers are established in their faith, strengthen existing local churches and plant new mission focused churches in Europe

TRAIN:

to prepare and equip people for mission, to evangelise and church plant and to serve God and his Kingdom with excellence in a wide variety of vocations

RESOURCE:

to provide resources that support mission activity through finance and literature, strategic input and pastoral care

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