St Andrew’s supports three missionary partners in prayer and through regular financial support through the Mission Fund. Please remember then in your own prayers, and if you would like to contribute to supporting their work, the treasurer|Treasurer will be happy to hear from you.

Our current partners are:

• Bibi Nédellec with Wycliffe Bible Translators
• The Cools family with Mission Aviation Fellowship
• Sutton Schoolswork

Bibi Nedellec with Wycliffe Bible Translators

From: Brigitte Nedellec
Date: Sat, 29 Aug, 2020

Dear all at St Andrew's,

Thank you for faithfully sending me the St Andrew’s magazine. It helps me feel connected, even though most of the time I do not know who is who, but sometimes I certainly do know, and it is very helpful.

I am still working 100% but also 100% virtually. It has been a year now since I came back to France from living and working in Africa. My work as Training Director for SIL International* is going well, in spite of the challenging times we are facing. I miss seeing my colleagues (and friends!) on a regular basis. I didn’t expect not to see Debbie for such a long stretch of time since we both moved out of Cameroon. Still, I am doing okay, enjoying my new home here in France. I am getting to know some people mainly from a little church in the area.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all in the church fellowship for your faithful support. I could not do what I do without brothers and sisters in Christ like you!

Please send my greetings to your new minister as well,

With gratitude,
Many blessings,

Bibi

* SIL International is a partner organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators, both founded by Presbyterian minister and missionary William Cameron Townsend.

September 2019   Bibi’s News Dear friends! This time, it is “for real”. I am now officially a French resident again, after 39 years spent between Germany, England, Benin, Togo and Cameroon. Debbie and I left Yaoundé on the same flight all the way to Paris, then as planned, we each went our different ways. She arrived safely in Washington DC, and I in Brittany, on Bastille Day!  My sister was at the airport to welcome me back. Annie kept me company for 4 weeks! We had a great time together, and it was nice for me not to be alone right away.  Last Days in Yaoundé A wonderful Farewell Party Debbie and I were invited for a meal at some friends, but then all of the sudden the number of guests kept growing! Eszter and Andreas (on the right) are quite good at organising surprises!! Philip our landlord (left next to Debbie), Clémentine our friend (next to me) and David Wafo our Africa Area Director showed up. It was really special. Eszter contacted our friends & family and asked them to scan old photos from us at various places and stages of our lives! What a wonderful gift to us was that slide show! We spent 15 minutes in nostalgia mode, and I think our friends also enjoyed it. (Let me know if you’d like to watch it, I’ll send you the link!) At home in France now Only a few days after I came back, Annie and I had young visitors: our grand- nephews with their parents of course! It was a fun time, especially accompanying Fanch (4 years old) with the guitar, singing with him the French songs he learns at school. We should see each other more regularly than I ever saw my nephew, their father!  I had mentioned to you in my last letter that I would have to sort out some  complex administrative issues. Without going into details, I am pleased to let you know that a French organisation (charity called MENA) accepted to help me with the administrative side of things. Wycliffe UK and MENA agreed on how to do that. I am extremely thankful that a solution was found so quickly.  Have you ever heard of fishing on foot? I read on their website that an association was looking for volunteers right here, in Penvénan, during the great tides. Why not, I thought, this is a good way to meet ‘locals’! When the sea is far off, people go out on the sand and in the rocks to look for cockles, clam shells, crabs, shrimps, abalones and lobster! They don’t always know the rules, the norms, the quantities allowed: our job was to let them know about best practices. Sunset during a skype meeting It has been nice to come back during such a wonderful summer! I know Brittany has a reputation of being blessed by rain most of the year, but I am enjoying its current good and pleasant weather. Picture above: late (virtual) meeting and the view I had that day from my office window. Most of my work with people is in the afternoon and/or evening. It is interesting to meet with people from all over the globe! The reality, of course, is that I live alone most of the time, but I also continue to travel the world. I try to combine trips together when I fly somewhere, to avoid unnecessary carbon print which is not easy when one works for an international organisation. Meeting per internet helps a lot already. I will let you know about work in my next newsletter.  I am in the process of looking at my financial needs now that my situation has changed. It looks like my current income cannot yet cover what my minimum income should be. I wanted to let you know that fact, as promised in my last letter. You can write me if you would like to know more. I hope this letter will find you in good form! A special Thank You to those of you who have written to me recently. It is always good to hear from you!   Blessings,  Bibi Contact Bibi Nédellec 10 Résidence Lise Bellec 22710 Penvénan France Support Cheques payable to:   Wycliffe UK     The Hub, Easton Street, High Wycombe Bucks. HP11 1NJ (Please add a note specifying that the gift is for me.) Copyright © 2019 Bibi Nédellec. All rights reserved.

Bibi asks that you do not circulate this information without her permission,
which she has kindly given for publication on this website.

Mission Aviation Fellowship - November 2020

First, apologies for the lengthy wait. We were having some difficulties with accessing our account and I had no other means of sending out the update. So, our sincere apologies.

 

Life here in the far North of Australia has been pretty normal. Besides the screens and other covid related changes, life has been tracking quite normally up where we live, with a few minor exceptions. In our area there have been no confirmed cases in months. The girls are going to school normally and, besides church being mostly online, life runs its normal cause.

At home the girls are now in the last few weeks of their school term for the year, and the end of 'year one' and 'kindy'. Olivia had her birthday in July and Ameiah will have hers in a couple of weeks. She's been patiently waiting for that day to come. Melissa has been extra busy with Uni. She has done full-time in the last term and although it is rewarding for her to see the excellent results she is getting, it has been really tough on her at the same time. We are all very proud of how well she is doing at uni, on top of all the other work she does.

At the flight training centre, the students have been working hard to get to the next level in their licences. Mike (lower picture) and Nikembu, both from PNG, have just succesfully finished their private pilot licence. Deivid, from Columbia, is now working towards the same licence outcome. I have been very involved in their training in the last few months and it so rewarding to see their hard work pay off. They are very resillient. All 3 have family overseas that they have not seen since the borders closed in March. (Mike has a young family, which must be really difficult for him.)

 

This photo was taken on one of the ferry flights Hans has been conducting between Mareeba and Arnhem Land (If you would drive this, it would be roughly 2600km of which a big part on unpaved roads). The planes are ferried from the Arnhem Land program to Mareeba for maintenance, and Hans has done many of these flights this year.

We are coming to the end of a very strange year. But, we know that God is good, even though things are tough and isolating for many people in this season. We feel very fortunate to be in an area that is fairly unaffected by this virus. We do however miss our family and friends, and think of everyone back at 'home' at this time. We do know that we are where we are supposed to be for this time and we take peace in that. Within MAF international some families have had to make decisions not to return to their programs where they work due to the situation with Covid. We are personally very grateful to have been able to do our furlough at the end of last year and were able to see you all and connect with you before this all happened!

This picture was taken on one of my early morning runs. It is a pretty uncommon but still beautiful sight called the colourless rainbow or also called fogbow.

Prayer Points:

1. Prayer for the coronavirus situation. Worldwide within MAF, flying has decreased by almost 80%. At this stage there have been no redundancies, and there have been people that have been furloughed. Please keep praying we will be able to keep it this way. Some programs are really slowly picking up, others are have suspended operations.

2. All of our students are separated from family and significant others, who they are unable to see due to border closures or interstate travel restrictions. Please pray for them. Pray that things can go back to normal soon.

3. Pray for Melissa as she continues to study, especially that she can find the momentum in this new unit and keep it going.

4. As long as the borders of Australia remain closed, we will be unable to start the next training class for PNG nationals. Please pray that there is a way for them to come over and start their training at the beginning of next year.

We know that God is ultimately in charge, and that this too shall pass. There's a lot of fear worldwide - pray that organisations like MAF can stand out as encouragements in these trialling times.

 

Click to donate to Hans and Melissa

        

For more information please contact the team using the contact details provided.

MAF UK is a registered Charity in England & Wales (1064598) and in Scotland (SC039107)

Copyright © 2020 MAF UK, All rights reserved.

MAF UK,
Castle Hill Avenue,
Folkestone CT20 2TQ,
United Kingdom

w www.maf-uk.org
E staffsupport^maf-uk,org
T 01303 852 819

Sutton Schoolswork

Simon

Sutton Schoolswork (SSW) is a Christian charity that is passionate about supporting students in Sutton to understand and explore Christianity and to develop spiritually, morally and socially.

Within the London Borough of Sutton there are 45 primary schools and 15 secondary schools and SSW aims to support all those schools in a variety of ways.

The Director of SSW is Simon Ellingham, who has already visited us. Simon has previously acted in the SSW Easter Experience at North Cheam Baptist Church where he played Jesus, and is retired from the Metropolitan Police.

Sarah

Kate

SSW has two full-time schools workers—Sarah Skinner who works with primary schools, and Kate Canning who covers secondaries. The schools workers work with the support of volunteers and of Children’s, Youth and Family Workers from the many churches which support SSW.

SSW workers reach 27,000 children and include leading school assemblies, teaching in RE and PSHE classes, running Christian Unions in schools and organising parent prayer groups. SSW also puts on two dramatised presentations, Discover Christmas and Easter Experience, seen by hundreds of children every year.

The latest news and prayer requests from SSW is usually on the Our news page.