Portugal
James and Heather Cochrane report:
> After two years of hard work, Alana was accepted on the Culinary Arts Management course in Ulster University Belfast. She is setling into student life and is surrounded by Christian young people at the Presbyterian Halls at Derryvolgie. Of course, it leaves a huge gap in our home, especially for Lucy who will miss her big sister especially at church activities. She will feel alone with litle opportunity to engage with Christian young people. Yet, we are thankful for new people at church.
> It has been a great encouragement to have Pedro as part of the team. He brings gifts, experience and Portuguese identity to the church. There is always a danger of the church becoming too Brazilian or foreign and we work very hard to maintain a healthy balance. We are thankful for our Portuguese brothers and sisters who form part of our body. Pedro is due to marry Amada on 17th January, and it will be a great pleasure to welcome Amada to the team.
Brazil
– Naomi Keefe reports that many activities are planned for this month with the Good News Club and Reading Room, including visiting the old people’s home, a film day and a children’s fun day on 21 October.
– Pray for these above activities and that each child who attends the Good News club and Reading Room will come to know Christ as their personal Saviour.
– Pray for the various training sessions Naomi will be involved with this month with the congregations Naomi works with.
– Continue to pray for Naomi’s health and safety, especially due to water supply problems and frequent attacks on people on buses.
Malawi
Volker Glissmann reports:
> We were recently refecting about God’s faithfulness and our ministry for the future. TEEM was founded in 1978 and started grassroots training the following year. Which means, next year (in 2018) TEEM will celebrate its 40th anniversary. 40 years is a remarkable achievement for a grassroots training programme in Malawi and is a wonderful sign of God’s faithfulness to the ministry of empowering all of God’s people.
> Next month, we will have our first graduation of 11 pastors from the CAP (the former Blackman’s Church) in the far north of Malawi, in Chitipa. Two new groups will start in the central and northern region where we work with a small Malawian denomination with on-the-job training of pastors who minister in the rural areas. We are writing a new follow-up grassroots course on Jesus Christ using methods of training that we know work best here in Malawi.
