Other Reports

Mission News February 2012

At St Thomas’ we follow the biblical principle of giving 10% of our income away. We support and have links with a number people and missions. These include The Children’s Society, Tearfund, Word of Life, CMS where our link missionary is Shelagh Wynne working with Friends of China in Thailand, Interserve where we have links with D and M W with Ke and Ka working in South East Asia and  Jo and Denny Fleming working at the Christian Medical Hospital in Vellore, India. We also support the Children’s Uplift Programmea project of SIM in Bangladesh where Beth Jennings is working and Nathaniel and Donna Jennings with their children Micah and Tabitha working in Ireland with OMF.

Beth Jennings and Children’s Uplift Project

Beth has been very busy recently. The Children’s Uplift Project has now been running for three years. In 2011 the women who had completed CUP’s training programme and were ready to move on started to work with Hand and Cloth, a business which makes traditional quilts, which are sold both overseas and in Bangladesh. Currently they are based upstairs from CUP and have a good number of orders, more than they can keep up with so there is room for more employees! You can find out more about them at www.handandcloth.org and see examples of the kantha quilts. A new group of women are now completing the training programme.

Some young girls are housed temporarily in CUP’s night shelter and pregnant women are housed while they have their babies. CUP has its pressures as the women have experienced very troubled lives and their problems do not disappear instantly. In November Beth told us about a woman whose 11 year old daughter committed suicide, another giving birth to a still born baby and another mother and her 2 year old daughter dying after refusing CUP’s help. Some women have mental health problems which leaves them very vulnerable to exploitation. Do pray for the staff and participants.

Beth has now taken a step back from the day to day work of CUP. There is a very capable team, who now run the project. Do pray for Husnara as she leads them.

Beth has taken on some other roles with SIM. She has been researching the training needs of women who have become Christians from a Muslim background, necessary in a male dominated society. She has also been asked to look at what might be a set of core beliefs for SIM in Bangladesh. This is needed as the team is growing and from a variety backgrounds. Finally Beth is responsible for the short term staff with SIM in Bangladesh. This could be people coming for one week or for 6 months. Do pray for her.

Biddy Dawson