Global

We have had a very good relationship with Dr. Argyris Petrou and his family in Athens, Greece. Argyris is a professor at the Greek Bible College and commissioner of AMG International. Besides lecturing and mentoring Bible students at the college, Argyris also does itinerary preaching to churches with no pastors, writing of exegetical books, leading the evangelical alliance, radio programming and student ministry (IFES). Argyis is married to Dina, who ministers to the Athens red light district prostitutes with New Life Ministry. They have three sons: Mark, a student of physics in the University of Athens, Erik, a student of animation in Toronto, and Erastos, a high school student.

In 2005, a team from Smithton traveled to Athens to spend ten days helping three Greek evangelical churches with outreach work. One of the principal outreach activities was children’s work. Team members organised games and shared their faith with the children. The team was also involved in distributing Christian literature at the local harbours and tourist sites and helped with city-wide clean-up projects, working at some of the bigger attractions in Athens (Parthenon, Mars Hill, Olympic Stadium, etc) that tend to become messy when thousands of tourists flood in during the summer months.

In September 2005, February 2008, and September 2009, we enjoyed return visits from Argyris. We continue to take a keen interest in his activities and support him prayerfully and financially.

Another short-term missions trip is planned for June 2011 to partner with Argyris in Athens. Missions projects include a youth sports camp, holiday club, helping Dina in New Life Ministry, and evangelism to university students. If you are interested in participating, please contact Ethan for more information.

Marsali is a member of Smithton-Culloden & Nairn Free Church. She is a nurse who went to Uganda in September 2001 with Africa Inland Mission to join a Ugandan Christian team working with street children.

The work Marsali joined in Kampala is called Dwelling Places. There are three main strands to the team’s work:

• Developing relationships with full-time street children in Kampala.
• Operating a transitional rehabilitation home with 108 resident children. This building also houses their offices, Marsali’s clinic and an interim school. There are social workers who counsel the children and try to trace their families. There are also other staff who help with the day-to-day running of the home.
• Running a family empowerment programme involving 30 families in Katwe, a large urban slum area in Kampala. These families are mainly women with children who spend their days on the streets but have somewhere to sleep at night (part-time street families). This work consists of Bible teaching and discipleship training, counselling, life-skills training, adult literacy work, craft skills training, social welfare assessment and health care.

What does Marsali do?

As the only health worker in a team of 30, Marsali has established a health care programme, beginning with basic hygiene and an improved diet. Many of the children have had to steal or scavenge for food in the past and are not used to sitting down to eat with others without fear of their food being snatched from them.

Marsali also has a stock of medicines for dealing with minor complaints and has a good relationship with a local hospital for times when the illness is more serious. The most common health problems she attends to are malaria, respiratory infections, skin complaints and stomach pains. There are also children in the home who experience seizures or have HIV, TB or sight and hearing problems.

Many of the people Marsali works with have suffered years of emotional and physical abuse. Those who have known such abuse often abuse others and Marsali admits that some of the women on the streets of Katwe are very difficult to love. Yet she believes that love is the only answer.

Rita Nkemba, the Ugandan leader of Dwelling Places, sings a song of her own composition for many of the groups she visits. This song describes the plight of street children. The lyrics can be read here.

Latest News

Download Marsali’s Latest Newsletter (November 2010)

Giving

If you would like to give to the work of Dwelling Places, please contact Deborah Kong at Africa Inland Mission, telephone: +44 (0)115 983 8120.

Please allocate your gift in one or more of the following ways:

• “For Marsali Campbell”: Marsali’s living costs.
• “For the work of Marsali Campbell”: the health work both in the home and in the slum area.
• “Children in crisis: Dwelling Places, Uganda”: general needs at the home and in the slum area.

Pray

Please continue to pray for us, to be led and guided by God, that we seek His face and His kingdom in all that we do, that He will strengthen and encourage us, provide grace, hope and love to share with our children. (from Marsali)

In his younger days, Alistair Wilson was a member of Smithton-Culloden Free Church and his parents, Iain and Edna Wilson, still belong to the congregation. In 2005, Alistair, his wife, Jenny, and their children, Rachel, Bethany and Stephen, moved to King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Alistair worked for a year as ‘Principal Designate’ of Dumisani Theological Institute under the direction of Ronnie Christie. Then, in July 2006, Alistair assumed the role of Principal himself. The Wilsons continue to have strong ties to Smithton, and we have been delighted to have Alistair preach the Word for us on several occasions.

The Wilsons’ Newsletter (September 2010)
Dumisani News (May 2010)

Along with a few others, Dr. Colin MacPherson founded the Emmaus Road Trust in 1997 to provide biblical resource materials in Albania. That work has now spread to Greece, Lithuania, Mongolia, Kosovo, India and Central Asia. ERT helps publish books which equip preachers and teachers in these countries to teach others.

Release International supports the persecuted church throughout the world in five ways:

1. Showing God’s compassion: providing for the needs of the families of martyrs and prisoners
2. Serving God’s church: enabling them to survive persecution and its effects
3. Sharing God’s love: helping the persecuted church win to Christ those who are opposed to the gospel
4. Spreading God’s Word: supplying Bibles and literature to meet the need for growth and evangelism
5. Speaking as God’s advocates: being the voice of the martyrs and the oppressed

Several of our members are committed to a Release International support group, which meets in Smithton Church to pray for and write letters to our Christian brothers and sisters in the persecuted church. For more information on Release and/or when the support group meetings take place, contact Laurie Chancellor.

Tearfund works with the world’s poor. They are committed to defeating disease, improving basic services, resolving economic injustice, restoring the environment, and tackling disaster.

Tearfund also “[works] through local churches and Christian groups here in the UK, encouraging them to respond to Jesus’ call to look after the poorest and most vulnerable. Tearfund is in partnership with UK charity Liveablility to form the Community Mission Partnership, helping churches and Christians to learn about the causes of, and solutions to poverty and injustice.”

Several members of our congregation are involved with Tearfund at local, national and international levels.