Email Newsletter of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Contents:

GREAT DAY OF HARVEST AT GALWAY
STEPHEN AND CATHERINE MCGOLDRICK IN SIERRA LEONE
ADVENTIST RESOURCE CENTRE NOW ONLINE
NEC BREAKS INGATHERING RECORDS
STUDENT NURSES DELIVER ADRA HEALTH PROGRAMMES IN SRI LANKA
COUNTRY LIFE UPDATE
COMING EVENTS
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GREAT DAY OF HARVEST AT GALWAY - Ashley Kongari

The church at Galway was packed on Sabbath 28 May. There was a multi-cultural atmosphere with the people present representing 21 different nations of the world. They were there to celebrate the "harvest of the year" with four baptisms and seven believers joining the church by profession of faith. The people came from four other churches in the district: Longford, Ballinasloe, Newmarket-on-Fergus, and Limerick. The Romanian choir, under the leadership of Clid Negosanu from the Dublin church, came to sing songs in the Romanian and Russian languages. Alice from Moldova sang a solo and Pastor Ashley Kongari played his mouth organ!

The church was full of people and the deacons were kept busy providing chairs for everyone. Altogether there were about 120 adults and 30 children present with 12-15% of them being non-Adventists. Two young ladies from Finland, Petra Palkio and Rebecca Strengell, presented a good programme for the children. The theme of the sermon was "the Fruit of the Spirit that we are to bear in our lives as Christians". Former Catholic nun Angela O'Brien said, "Pastor, the sermon was excellent!" The old members of the church said, "we have never seen such a crowd of people in this church before." Oliver Martyn noted, "we have not had such a celebration of baptism since 1994 in Galway!" There was genuine excitement among the believers in this west coast district of Ireland and they left for their homes filled with enthusiasm and burning desire to win souls for Christ. It was a great day of revival at Galway!

The baptismal candidates came from three different nations: Ida Marira and Sharon Sibanda (Zimbabwe), Igor Golokov (Russian), and Alani Otisi (New Caledonia). Ida and Sharon are from Adventist families. Igor has been an atheist before but began his Bible study under the leadership of Nikolai Surinov who is from Estonia but the sole leader and Bible teacher of the Russian speaking group in Galway.

Igor was unable to be present for baptism on time so three candidates were baptized and we all waited for him to come. We sang songs while we waited but he was delayed in traffic and everything was over when he finally arrived. I asked the congregation, "shall we baptize him?" The congregation unanimously responded, "Yes!" I asked again, "Are you sure? We are getting late!" The congregation again responded positively, "Yes." We were late but the believers were so excited that the time did not matter. Together Pastor Kongari and Igor went into the baptismal pool, which is an outdoor one at Galway, the rain began to pour and the wind was very strong. Despite all this Igor was baptized and was "born again." He said, "I shall never forget my baptism!"

Alani Otisi was born and brought up in a Catholic family in New Caledonia but became acquainted with the Adventist teachings while enrolled for studies at Fulton College, Fiji. She has received Bible studies for over a year. Patrick and Naomi Appiah were accepted by profession of faith. Both of them have been faithful Adventists and pillars of the Longford congregation for some time.

Francisco, Gilma, Endrew, and Franci Da Santos are from Brazil and have founded the Ballinasloe congregation. They brought Sebastian (also from Brazil) to Christ through their witnessing and prayer meetings held regularly at Ballinasloe. In total, eleven people joined the church!


STEPHEN AND CATHERINE MCGOLDRICK IN SIERRA LEONE

Stephen and Catherine McGoldrick have recently moved to Sierra Leone where they are working as unpaid volunteers for the charity "World Evangelism for Christ". They are sponsored by a number of churches including Bradford and Leamington Spa. Their particular focus is on working with traumatised children through "Rainbows of Hope", which is the children's section of the charity. They have been interested in Christian missions for many years, and have been on several mission trips to various parts of the world. In fact they met each other while working with children in Uganda and Rwanda!

Catherine, aged 33, is from a North England background, but was brought up mainly in Hertfordshire. She has a PhD, and was head of the science department at a secondary school near Oxford. She became a committed Christian as a teenager with a deep interest in missions to underprivileged children. Stephen, aged 31, was brought up as an Adventist, and the Missions Appeals and slides week by week in Sabbath School influenced him to want to help others in need. He too has a special interest in helping traumatized children who have very little hope. After receiving a BA in Physics, Stephen worked as a computer programmer and analyst. Born in Hemel Hempstead, he spent most of his life in Yorkshire attending the Bradford Seventh-day Adventist church. In their latest newsletter they write of their experience upon arriving in Sierra Leone:

"Praise God - we're here in Freetown, Sierra Leone and feeling very at home, despite the obvious differences. We arrived at Lungi airport and caught the helicopter over the estuary to Freetown. The country is incredibly green, and very hot. Life in Africa is very lively! The poda-podas are jam-packed with people, the taxis blare out music as they travel, people carry the most unbelievable loads on their heads, the fruit is amazing, the vegetables are mostly recognisable, but they like their food hot."

"So what about us? Our temporary 'house' is also the office. We have the guest room and it's been a great chance to get to know people in the area. We have people on our doorstep from the moment we open the front door at 7.30 am, until it shuts at about 9.00 pm. On the downside there are a lot of mosquitoes and it would be good to have a bit more space, so we are looking for alternative accommodation at the moment. We would love to live in a compound with running water."

"The team is great - five national workers and five expats (us and three Dutch ladies). Most of the 'hands on' work with the children is done by the national workers, with the expats giving support and advice. Two of the workers work in the 'Remand Home' and the 'Approved School' - two juvenile prison institutions. The plan is to provide literacy, numeracy and counselling programmes. Catherine (as the resident teacher) is already being enlisted to help with the literacy. Some of the stories we hear from day to day are tragic. Children in the remand home who have murdered, children who have been falsely accused, children who live on the streets because their families are too poor to care for them. But there are also stories which bring hope; people who somehow survived the war and are now working for the children of their country; children who are determined to get an education in order to have a better chance of a job and providing for their families. Former child soldiers rejecte!
d by their families, but being cared for by people running the different clubs. As time goes on we hope to give you some of these stories in more detail."

Stephen and Catherine's long-term plan is to return home after 18 months for further study, then return to long-term missionary work, not necessarily in Sierra Leone. They have a great burden for the children of Rwanda, so may well live and work there in the future.


ADVENTIST RESOURCE CENTRE NOW ONLINE

This week Pastor Dalbert Elias, director of the Adventist Discovery Centre, launched a new facility which will enable Church members to order a number of different evangelistic resources online. The "Adventist Resource Centre" website can be found at: <www.adventistresource.org.uk> and currently offers ADC cards, leaflets, DVDs and videos, and bulk orders for the LIFE.info magazine.

Speaking this morning at the BUC office Pastor Elias said, "Our aim with the Adventist Resource Centre is to provide a one-stop-shop where members can order resources to support their evangelistic work. Our focus is outward, providing outreach materials simply and quickly, direct to those who are able to use them. In time, the dream is to gather the best evangelistic resources from around the world and make them easily available and affordable. The dream also includes the provision for this new evangelistic facility to act as a two way agent exchanging views and experiences as to how these resources can be used successfully."

Payment for the resource materials can be made online, using the same PayPal merchant service that is now used for the Church's online donation system (see last week's edition of BUC News).


NEC BREAKS INGATHERING RECORDS

As of 1 June we have the following results for this year's ADRA Annual Appeal (Ingathering):

South England Conference: £300,646.08 (£311,450.68 - 2004 total one year ago)
North England Conference: £208,960.76 (£192,460.63 - 2004 total one year ago)
Welsh Mission: £13,734.75 (£15,721.35 - 2004 total one year ago)
Scottish Mission: £6,747.22 (£7,670.28 - 2004 total one year ago)
Northern Ireland: £12,291.62 (£9,608.52 - 2004 total one year ago)
BUC office collection and ADRA-UK direct donations: £1,910.14

This gives us a total, excluding Gift Aid, of £544,290.57. The banking total on 2 June 2004 (one year ago) was £538,051.93.

This year's figure for the North England Conference sets a new record. The highest total ever collected by the NEC was £206,924.00 back in 1990 and this year NEC collectors, under the leadership of Pastor Roy Morgan and Mrs Anne Dove, have beaten this record by £2,036.76. Speaking from Birmingham this morning Pastor Morgan said, "One thing that makes this record particularly significant is that back in 1990 the inimitable brother Sam Morgan (no relation) was alive and active, and he made a massive contribution to the Ingathering total though his highly successful collections from businesses. Earlier this year, when I initially set the goals for each church, I had complaints from some of the agents that they were too ambitious. However I didn't withdraw them and just asked that they do their best. I have a good relationship with the Ingathering leaders and I've found that if we stretch them they can perform wonders. Some of our collectors were particularly successful - for example !
Ray Angel from Worcester, one of the smaller churches in the NEC, collected over £3,000! In Birmingham others got permission to collect in two large shopping centres and this contributed significantly to the total for their church. I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone in the North England Conference who took part this year and hope that, with God's blessing, we can do even better next year!"

Note that we will not have the final total for Ingathering before the middle of June - there remain a number of churches who have not yet deposited their collections.


STUDENT NURSES DELIVER ADRA HEALTH PROGRAMMES IN SRI LANKA - Arlene Senior

On Tuesday 3 May four student nurses from the American College of Health Sciences in Kandy joined Health Education coordinator Angelika Riedlinger (of ADRA-Austria) to prepare for and then deliver a series of Health Education programmes in the Hambantota area of Sri Lanka. The programmes were commissioned by ADRA-Sri Lanka and took place in the areas where the people were affected by the tsunami. The student nurses from Kandy were the first batch of nurses who had been selected to take part in the series that Angelika had put together regarding basic hygiene and health.

The first venue was Vawikrama College in Kudawella, a school of 21 staff and 400 students. Two presentations were made here, the first for grade 9 to 11 students (ages 14 to 16) and the second for grade 6 and 7 students (ages 7 to 11). Presentations took the form of: puppet shows, posters, and demonstrations, and ended with a question and answer session. Afterwards a teacher commented on how well she had understood the programme. "Not all of them wash their hands with soap and water, before eating or after using the toilet, but now after the training they will certainly do it. It's a great help that this has been done after the tsunami." Now they have access to the water that has been provided by ADRA, they can use it to wash their hands.

An 11-year-old student who had attended the programme told ADRA-Sri Lanka that she already knew most of the information and had enjoyed it. She will tell her family, friends and neighbours what she has learnt. She admitted that she did not know about wetting the body when you have a high fever and what to do for dehydration.

The afternoon programme was delivered in a camp in Kudawella for some of the Internally Displaced adults. This was a more formal presentation and again was well received. The parents had many health related questions for Angelika and were happy that they had received such an informative programme. Leaflets that had been prepared in the local language by Angelika, was given to each household. They also received a bar of soap.

The four student nurses: Indiwari Jllangasinghe, Harsha Disanayake, Rebecca and Miriam Josiah all enjoyed the experience. The general consensus from the four was that they had learnt how to work as part of a team, learnt about hygiene and saw first hand what the affects of the tsunami had done to the people of this area. Angelika praised the student nurses, "The students have been great. They are young and full of life and enjoy the work and are enthusiastic." She added that she hoped the teachers and children will practice what they have learnt and will tell their neighbours and families. Such basic lessons could help to save a life in the future.

[Arlene Senior usually attends the Birmingham Camp Hill church but has been working for ADRA-UK in Sri Lanka since February this year.]


COUNTRY LIFE UPDATE

Thanks to the generous intervention of a keen supporter of health missionary outreach, Country Life was not sold last autumn. However, as the months have passed it has become clear that it is impossible to continue at the present site. Country Life is still operating, but the property is again on the market, and the restaurant and shop will close as soon as the sale is completed, probably at some time during the summer. The Country Life team appreciate your prayer support, both past and present, and if you are in London, please do support Country Life with your custom both in the restaurant and the shop. The restaurant, with its unique self-service buffet is open all day from 12 noon to 6.00 pm on Sundays, 11.30 am to 9.30 pm Monday to Thursday, and 11.30 am to 2.30 pm on Fridays. The shop, with an interesting range of health foods and books, is open from 9.30 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Thursday, and 9.30 am to 2.30 pm on Fridays.


COMING EVENTS

A full list of coming events is located on the BUC website at: <www.adventist.org.uk>. Only brief details are listed below.

PROPHECY SEMINARS - NORTH WEMBLEY. Continuing until Sabbath 25 June at the North Wembley church. "The Final Events of Bible Prophecy: Revelation Seminars", presented by Pastor S Thomas and the North Wembley Youth Department. Email: <morrisjulie@hotmail.com>. Phone: 07956 655054.

"THE CALL" - JOEL IN CONCERT WITH BAND - LONDON. 7.00 pm on Sabbath 4 June at the Advent Centre. Guests: Heart To Praise & Soul Symphony. Tickets £6.00. Contact: Mishael <mishaeliz@yahoo.co.uk>. Phone: 07946 512561.

SCOTTISH MISSION DAY OF FELLOWSHIP - CRIEFF. Sabbath 4 June at St. Andrew's Hall, Strathearn Terrace, Crieff. Children and youth will meet at the church, a ten minute walk away. Main speaker Dr Daniel Duda. Please bring a packed lunch. Ordination service 2.00 pm. Contact: Mrs C Peacock <sdascotland@onetel.com>. Phone: 01764 653257.

CAMP HILL TEENS DAY - BIRMINGHAM. Starts 9.30 am on Sabbath 4 June. Theme: Blessing and Honour. Lunch provided. Afternoon worship through songs, testimonies and two short sermonettes by Pastor Palmer and Victor Acquah. Special offering for the Special Needs and Camp Hill Pathfinders. Contact: Kwasi Asare <michaelasare226@hotmail.co.uk>. Phone: 07749967039.

"LIVING WITHOUT FEAR" BIBLE LECTURES, BIRMINGHAM. 7.00 pm every evening from Sabbath 4 June to Sabbath 11 June at Handsworth Wood Girls School, Church Lane, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham B20 2HH. Presented by the Handsworth Wood African Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist Church in Birmingham. Speaker for the week: Dr Pipim. Contact: S Appiah <audreyo2@mail.com>. Phone: 01922 642 633.

ADVENTIST MUSICIANS' ASSOCIATION WORKSHOP - YORK. 2.30 pm on Sabbath 4 June at the York church. Chris Rogers and Susanna Matthan will be presenting two topics: Multi-Sensory Worship, and Using Instruments in Worship. Free entry. All welcome. Phone Graham Allcock on: 01274 783205.

SCOTTISH MISSION YOUTH SPORTS DAY - GLASGOW. Starts 10.00 am on Sunday 5 June at Haghill Park Community Sports Centre, Cumbernauld Road, Glasgow. Cost: £5 each. Bring a packed lunch, and indoor and outdoor sports gear. Contact: Marcel Ghioalda <marcelg@onetel.com>. Phone: 01738 850399.

SEC CAMP MEETING - CAMBER SANDS. Monday 6 to Sunday 12 June at Pontins Holiday Centre, Camber Sands. Self-catering prices from: £250 to £465. Contact: Susan Watt <swatt@secadventist.org.uk>. Phone: 01923 232728.

ALPINE NEW START - ITALY. Tuesday 7 to Wednesday 22 June. Refresh your health this summer and enjoy the holiday of a lifetime at the Alpine New Start spiritual and health retreat in the beautiful Waldensian valleys of Northern Italy. For more information visit <www.alpinewstart.com> or contact: Clemency Mitchell <clemency@themitchells.eclipse.co.uk>. Phone: 01344 459787.

SMALL GROUP CELEBRATION - BRADFORD. Sabbath 11 June at the Bradford church. This day is especially for those who are or have been involved in small group ministry, but will also be informative to those who have not heard about this type of evangelism and nurture. Contact: Paul Haworth <haworth6@tiscali.co.uk>. Phone: 0121 3512188.

CHRISTIAN COUNSELLING WORKSHOP. The Institute of Christian Counselling will be hosting the "Prepare/Enrich" one day workshop in Central London on Sunday 12 June from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm. Fee: £50. This intensive one day course will enable you to become a trained Prepare/Enrich administrator. For additional information and registration for these workshops, contact Josee-Marie Penner <jpenner@newbold.ac.uk>. Phone: 01344 407419.

BRIXTON TEENS DAY. Sabbath 18 June at the Brixton church. Featuring the UK's finest speakers and some of the best musical talent you have seen. Contact: Lavinia Brown <lavinia@telco4u.net>. Phone: 07909 557373.

NEC CAMP MEETING - SOUTHPORT. Monday 20 to Sunday 26 June. For further information contact Pastor Paul Lockham <plockham@necadventist.org.uk> at the North England Conference office: 22 Zulla Road, Mapperley Park, Nottingham, NG3 5DB. Phone: 01159 606312. Fax: 01159 691476.

YOUTH DAY OF FELLOWSHIP - DUNDEE. Sabbath 25 June at the Dundee church. All day event. Contact: Marcel Ghioalda <marcelg@onetel.com>. Phone: 01738 850399.

PRAISE CONCERT - BRIXTON. Starts 6.30 pm on Sabbath 25 June. An evening of praise hosted by Brixton Praise Team and friends. Items from Brixton's very own as well as Open Praise, Heart of Praise, and many more. Email: <info@brixtonseventhdayadventist.co.uk>. Phone: 02072 748283.

LONDON YOUTH FEDERATION ALL LONDON RALLY DAY. Sabbath 25 June. Four different venues: Area 6A - St Stephen's Church (same venue as the 6A Day of Fellowship in March), Enfield. Speaker: TBC. Starting time: 10.00 am. Area 6B - Shaftesbury Christian Centre, 17 Austin Rd, Battersea, SW11 5JP. Speaker: Bobby Bovell. Starts at 9.30 am. Area 6C - The Round Chapel Arts Centre, Lower Clapton Rd, London E5. Speakers: Jermaine Fergiste, Emmanuel Kulungo, Damian (the poetic preacher) and Naomi Marshall. Starts: 10.00 am. Area 6D - St John's Church, Walham Green, North End Rd, Fulham, SW6 1PB. Speaker: TBC. Starts: 9.45 am. Visit: <www.londonyouthfed.org.uk>. Contact: Sacha Gillin <secretart@londonyouthfed.org.uk>. Phone: 07956 688923.

SCOTTISH MISSION FAMILY CAMP. From Friday 1 to Friday 8 July the annual Scottish Mission Family Camp will be held at Kilberry, on the beautiful peaceful Kintyre Peninsular, Argyll, Scotland. Accommodation is in static 2/3 bedroom caravans ranging from £290 - £370 per week, self-catering. Come and join us for a week of fun, sun (we hope!), and spiritual uplift. Contact: Carole Peacock <sdascotland@onetel.com>. Phone: 01764 653257.

YOUTH PRAISE EVENT - LEICESTER. 6.00 to 10.00 pm on Sabbath 2 July. Top choirs, the best soloists, poets and mime groups. Guest speakers: Pastor Bobby Bovell from London, and Laurent Grosvenor from Manchester. Venue: Leicester Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, Corner of London Road and University Road, Leicester. Entry is free, but by ticket only. Everyone welcome. Food and social included. For tickets phone: 07835 439995 or 07835 865308. Email: <sweetchants88@yahoo.co.uk>.

INCUBATORS - SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD. Sunday 3 July. "Incubators" - is a training workshop for Church Planters. The subject for this day is "Leading a Cell Group, Coaching Cell Group Leaders, and Starting and Multiplying Cell Groups". Contact: Paul Haworth <haworth6@tiscali.co.uk>. Phone: 01213 512188.

TED PRAYER GUIDE. For the week commencing 5 June we are praying for WOMEN'S MINISTRIES. Women's Ministries is growing and having an impact on the Church. It is a place where spiritual, emotional, physical and social needs of women are being addressed. Women in the Church are being affirmed and their faith in Jesus Christ is being strengthened. Through this they are gaining courage to go out and tell their friends what Jesus has done for them. More and more we are seeing the women of our Church bringing their friends to weekend retreats where they can fellowship together and build stronger bonds of friendship. Most important of all, through laughter, smiles, walks in God's nature, good food, both spiritual and physical, they can share their faith with their friends. This very important ministry needs your prayers. Please pray for:

&#149; Those women in our Church who struggle with feelings of not being good enough and not knowing enough, that these feelings can be replaced with self worth and courage.
&#149; The women of our Church as they live their daily lives, that God will give them courage and strength to be a witness, a mentor, and a helper to the people they interact with. [Anna May Wollan, Women's Ministries director, Trans-European Division]

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SMALL ADS

AU PAIR. French speaking Adventist lady seeks position as an au pair with an Adventist family. References available. Email: <gervaise@laposte.net> or phone Huguette on: 00331 6446 9975.

AU PAIR. French student seeks au pair's position for a school year with an Adventist family. Phone Aude on: 00331 4665 8371.

TEACHING VACANCIES AT JOHN LOUGHBOROUGH SCHOOL. Three vacancies as follows: Art and Design Technician, Design and Technology/ICT Teacher, and Humanities (Geography, History, Religious Studies) Teacher. Further details and an application pack can be obtained from the Acting Headteacher at the school. The closing date for receipts of applications is Friday 24 June 2005.

ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE in Barking. Double and single rooms in a beautiful furnished house shared with another Adventist. Five minutes walk from Barking Station and town centre. Email: <karlmckenzie17@yahoo.co.uk>. Phone: 01375 403266.

GREAT CONTROVERSY FOR SALE. Printed in 1898. Contact Andrew on: 01905 355684 or 07790 737582.

ACCOMMODATION WANTED. 26-year-old Adventist man from Italy would like to spend some months in England, hopefully in a home shared with an Adventist family. He can pay towards his accommodation and hopes to improve his English. Contact Fabiano at: <geron.7@virgilio.it> or <fabianogeron@libero.it>.


BUC News is a weekly news bulletin produced by the British Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and edited by the Communication Department. Items for inclusion should be sent to <bucnews@adventist.org.uk> and need to be received by 6.00 pm on Thursday, preferably as simple email text. Coming Events and Small Ads should be kept short and preferably be submitted via the on-line form at: <www.adventist.org.uk/news>. The editor reserves the right to modify articles received to make them suitable for inclusion. The views expressed by individuals cited in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, though we try to ensure that they do. You are free to re-print any portion of this bulletin without the need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify BUC News or other sources whenever you publish these materials. Back issues are available on our website at <www.adventist.org.uk>.

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