ABE/FEBE

News from Ipswich

Cauldwell Hall Road Baptist Church, Ipswich, U K
Formerly ‘Mount Zion’

Generally

Our buildings are fairly new. The hall, mainly for mid week activities, together with the kitchen and toilets are only four years old. There is also ample car parking for most purposes. Our premises are therefore in demand for inter Church activities across our county.

Our pastor is Malcolm MacGregor who has been with us for about six years (he was the main speaker at Gourette in ’04) and we exercise a multiple eldership system.

Present developments

We are training a younger man, who we believe God has called to a full time ministry, Mike Hitchings. He is just now completing a year with half of each week with the Church and the remainder continuing in his secular employment. At the end of the present holiday period he is to be with the Church full time for a further two years.

We were responsible for founding a new Church a number of years ago on the other side of our town (of 130 000 or so people) and the Lord was gracious in granting encouraging progress, but sadly in more recent times serious decline has followed. ‘Shepherd Drive’ as the autonomous Church became known, was again entrusted to our oversight. Much prayer and consideration has been given to this pressing situation. In God’s goodness we have been guided to appoint Simon and Christine Robinson to lead and hopefully renew the work as a viable Church. Both Simon and Christine have been recognised as having the evangelistic gifts which are thought to be appropriate to the task in hand. Simon is a former member of ours (the son of our former pastor) but in recent years has been in full time ministry with Keith Johns of Caterham in Surrey.

Please pray for all personally involved and for God’s wisdom to be graciously given as together we look to the future. May God’s name be praised and may the Evil One’s ever present designs be totally thwarted.

News from UK Churches

Knaphill

The church at Knaphill is pleased to announce that Dr Ben Short has accepted the invitation to become its pastor. Ben and Fiona are expecting a baby soon.

Derby Road, Watford

Our own contribution to international outreach, the Everyday English classes with gospel talk, was successful on a small scale. We had a total of seven people attending over the six weeks, one of whom has now started attending church regularly. We plan to run the course again in October, with increased publicity beforehand.

Our latest Christianity Explored course also finished last month, as a result of which one man has given his life to the Lord and is now preparing for baptism; please pray for others who also attended, some of whom are now coming to church too.

We also have a couple of other applicants for membership and we pray that they may be strengthened in Jesus through their fellowship with us…

At the younger end of the age-range, we are short of a teacher for Sunday school Primary Class and at least one helper for our Friday Club (ages seven to eleven). Do ask that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers to work among the children of this neighbourhood.

Walthamstow

The church correspondent writes: “Praise that we often get visitors and some stay a while. We are gradually losing our long standing core members and need strengthening here.”

Additional information: “Another long standing member is soon to leave us to move with her husband to Penzance. There is potential in the regular congregation for people in their twenties to join us, but there is little movement at present. Three of these, all young men, have a conversational Bible Study with one of our deacons once per month. They have recently gone through Christianity Explored in detail and are now going on now to Discipleship Explored.”

East Ham

Nigel Lacey, the pastor of the church at East Ham, was called home to be with his Saviour and Lord on the 14th August. The funeral and thanksgiving Service details have still to be finalised. As we give thanks for the life and ministry of Nigel, please remember Margaret, the family and the church in your prayers.