The International Miners Mission (Glynn-Vivian Miners Mission Incorporated 1906) is company limited by guarantee 90484 and registered charity 221853Registered office 53 High Street ~ Kimpton ~ Hitchin ~ Hertfordshire ~ SG4 8PU

We are really delighted to welcome two new Trustees for the International Miners Mission UK Committee. They are John Doohan and Terry Garde.They are going to be adding much Christian wisdom and expertise to our deliberations! Let them introduce themselves:

JOHN DOOHAN

John is a member of the pastoral leadership team of Life Church in Harlington, Bedfordshire

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and other people.” Proverbs Ch 3 vv 3 – 4

In my own life I have experienced many blessings down the years, but also many unfulfilled promises. I passed through one particularly difficult period of ill-health not so long ago, when I was in a lot of pain. I questioned God’s role in it all, but when I look back on a life-long faith that began when I was very young, I realise that God keeps His promises. It is so important to have a powerful memory of the Lord’s blessing in all the times of our lives to enable us to cope with the challenges of life.

TERRY GARDETerry is a qualified mining engineer with particular experience in Africa. He now lives in Oxford where he is currently studying at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.He has a particular burden for poor artisanal miners all over the world and in particular, the impact that the uncontrolled use of mercury in gold mining is having both on the health of the miners and their families and also on the environment, particularly as the mercury leaches into rivers. He is working with others to encourage the use of simple effective alternatives to the use of mercury.

Terry’s testimony:“I was born and raised in Zimbabwe (known as Southern Rhodesia in the 1950’s) and loved going to my Dad’s office on both surface open pits or underground mines. By age 10, I wrote in a school essay that I wanted to be a mining engineer when I grew up.Naturally, on leaving school I went off to study mining at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. But there were these two tracks in my life, an outward normal child from a mining family, and an inner soul in turmoil, as I searched for the truth, for something to believe in. In my frustrations I rebelled, and my academic strengths alone were not enough to keep me going, so I ‘dropped out’ in the early seventies and travelled Europe as a ‘hippy’.However the call to return to Africa was strong, so I went back to college in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to study mine surveying. There I met a man who challenged me to read the Gospel of John, where I encountered Jesus, who seemed like the only good rebel who ever lived. When I came to his crucifixion, I wept, but, with tears streaming down my face, I kept on reading till this man, astoundingly, came back to life and I finally found someone to believe in. I was soon baptised (in a swimming pool!) and only then went to church.With God’s help I went back to university and finished my engineering degree, and whenever I sought God’s guidance it was always the same: stay in mining!After a successful career in large and medium scale mining and smelting (including establishing Maranatha Ferrochrome); I now find myself involved in artisanal and small scale mining.”

INTRODUCING TWO NEW TRUSTEES FOR IMM UK

October andNovember 2012

Correspondence address:David Shillitoe 53 High Street ~ Kimpton ~ Hitchin ~ Hertfordshire ~ SG4 8PU

CELEBRATING THE WORK OF IMM IN MINING COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD

INTERNATIONAL M INERSM ISSION

THE SAFETY LAMP“Intro ducing M iners to the M aster”

Issue 317

BUILDING BRIDGES TO MINERSa report from Burundi, Central Africa – March to August 2012

Football as a tool of evangelismDuring the month of March, Etienne went on reaching out to miners in Butihinda by training them as an effective football team. They have now 21 miners who are good football players.They have already organised 3 matches in different communes, the last match reported was organised on a Sunday in August to take place in a commune which was quite a distance to travel. Someone provided them a car to go there for free! Except one

team in Gatwenzi with which they scored the same goals (draw: 2-2), the miners’ team won in the two other communes.Before beginning the training or having a match, they read the Bible together, reflect on a Biblical passage and pray. At the beginning Muslim members were laughing at the Bible study and prayer but they begin to see that it is serious. All they need now is players team uniform.

Dear Friends of the IMMThe news of our latest outreach project to miners continues to encourage us! Burundi is a small landlocked country in central east Africa, with Rwanda to the north and the Congo Republic to the west. It is a very heavily populated place, very hilly with many people living by subsistence farming. Mining is mainly carried out for gold by men employed as groups of artisans. It can be extremely dangerous work with people even losing their lives or being injured as a result of tunnels collapsing due to the lack of proper safety regulations.IMM-sponsored Etienne and Chantal, who are undertaking pioneer work amongst the miners, tell us that most of them are quite young. We would like to increase our support for them so that Etienne becomes more effective in this ministry. For instance, it would be great if we could fund the cost of a ‘strip’ for the football team. Also, Etienne and Chantal have their own little baby now, who has the delightful name of Blessing! On top of this we read of Etienne and Chantal’s compassion as they have taken responsibility for a young child – so another mouth to feed. Please feel to respond as you read this challenging report that follows. We have left the style of English mostly as we have received it, but I am sure you will easily understand and appreciate the situations they are facing.SincerelyDavid Shillitoe (Hon. Editor)

Issue 317 Page 2visit IMM’s website at www.minersmission.com

Reaching out to children

There were not many activities carried during April as Etienne, his wife and other ‘Harvest for Christ’ missionaries, were being trained to reach out to children. From May Etienne started what is called “Good News Club” i.e. a method of sharing the Good News with children. There is a session of Good News Club each week and 66 kids are following the programme.

Etienne also continued organising Bible studies within miners’ families from March up August. He is leading Bible studies in 8 families and 12 people are following the bible studies in 5 groups. There two men who got saved and asked Etienne to tell that Good News to their wives too. Then Etienne organised Bible studies in their families, and now a man and his wife follow the teaching together and regularly hold Bible studies to help other wives discover God.Adult literacyIn June, Etienne and his wife Chantal got training in Adult literacy, so he will have another bridge to bring miners to Jesus, as many of them do not know how to read and write and they would like to.To summarise – from July up to the present, Etienne continues with Bible studies in 8 families to help them discover God. He also continues to train miners in football playing and organises matches.He nurtures children in Good News Clubs and, at the time of writing:

12 persons are regularly doing the Bible study. They are from 8 families.

3 Good News Clubs of 66 children and they are responding positively to theGood News.

21 miners are good players of football and there is a strong football team that has

won 3 matches. The team has even elected a representative committee!

Etienne has already identified 7 “people of peace” who are to begin the Bible study very soon.

Among the 37 adult people whom Etienne has shared the Good News by means of different ‘bridges’, 9 persons have accepted Jesus and, among the nine, there is one from a Muslim background.

3 people have said they need more timeto reflect before making the decision to accept Jesus.

A sad and challenging storyA woman (left) was mentally disturbed for 2 years because of the death of her husband. Etienne took her small child and kept him at his house. This caused the woman to meet Etienne frequently who prayed for her at any time they met. Now the woman is better and has gone back to her house. She asked

Etienne to stay minding the infant. The child has now become part of Etienne’s family. They will feed him until he grows up.What to pray for please:Many miners are from a Muslim background, they sometimes ask questions related to Islam that Etienne finds difficult to answer. He needs God’s wisdom but further training on how to answer the questions he faces is becoming necessary.

Avidly attentive children of The Good News Club

Bible Studies with families

Issue 317 Page 3email David at dshillitoe@minersmission.com

Douglas Sykes decided to do something very different to celebrate his 85th birthday.After reading about the need for bicycles for IMM sponsored pastors/evangelists in Sierra Leone in an issue of the Safety Lamp he decided to have a birthday coffee morning.He and his wife Brenda set themselves the target of raising £250 from the sale of hot drinks, baking and birthday gifts.On Friday 22nd June he invited relatives, friends, neighbours and church members to join him for the coffee morning. It was held in the lounge of Royd Court. This is a sheltered housing complex where he and his wife live which is run by Pilgrim Homes in West YorkshireMembers of his church – Morley Community Church – rallied around him to support the venture by baking cakes and scones as well as turning out for the event. The Mayor and Mayoress of Morley also turned up to support the ventureVisitors spent a pleasant morning enjoying coffee and cakes, engaging in profitable conversation and generally having a good time while raising money for the IMM bicycle project in Sierra Leone.An amazing £256 was raised which was forwarded to the IMM treasurer.Douglas spent his working life working for Prudential Insurance. However, he had relatives who had worked in local coal mines in the Morley area. Along

with his church, he is a regular prayer supporter of IMM. Douglas said he was very thankful for all the good wishes and support he had received. He was very pleased that the money raised would help spread the gospel in mining communities in Sierra Leone.The money raised by Douglas Sykes has been forwarded to Sierra Leone and a bicycle is being purchased for Pastor John Nipeh, the newly IMM partly sponsored evangelist working in Moriba Town. Recent news received tells that Pastor John is working faithfully in the reopened church and is slowly building up the fellowship of believers.

Douglas Sykes (left) poses with Mayor Andrew Dalton, who is wearing his chain of office.

Note the pick and shovel symbol on the mayor’s chain, emphasising the strong connection of the town of Morley with the coal mining industry.

The snapshot of the young IMM-sponsored evangelist in Sierra Leone that caught the eye of Douglas Sykes and inspired him to

organise his special birthday party!

COFFEE FOR BICYCLES

There are other African pastors working amongst miners who would dearly like to own a bicycle, so that they can move around more effectively. Are they any other readers who would like to plan something similar to the birthday party organised by Douglas Sykes and raise funds for more bicycles?Each new bicycle costs about £250, but please, any part-contribution towards one is equally welcome!