Welcome !Welcome to this second issue of Contact – the new newsletter of the Gwent Baptist Association. Our aim is to open up communication between the churches in our Association and to encourage one another by sharing ‘good news’ stories about what God is doing in this part of His vineyard.!If you have a story we would love to hear from you. Please contact Geoff Champion.! geoffrey_champion@sky.com 07751 897755 !

Keep in CONTACT !

If your church is active in community outreach and mission, you could qualify for a special Gwent Baptist Association grant. !Funds are available to support initiatives which are clearly based on mission - initiatives to go out into the world and spread the Gospel message. Grants are normally made for up to £1,000 in any one year.

Unfortunately, people interpret “mission” in different ways so to help potential applicants the Association has drawn up a Mission Grants Form. This form must be used to make the applications and it highlights the supporting information required before such grants can be approved. !The Association must have signed confirmation that the request for grant support has been agreed by a church members’ meeting and the completed application form must be accompanied by the latest audited church accounts. !

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Opening Up Pathways !

The South Wa les Bapt is t College, Cardiff, has started its exciting new Pathways course w h i c h a i m s t o d e v e l o p understanding and skills and create fresh opportunities for everyone working in ministry and mission in Wales. !The two-year rolling programme, based upon teaching modules, is designed for all sorts of people - deacons, worship leaders, children's workers, house-group leaders - anyone supported by a local church w h o w a n t s t o b e b e t t e r equipped for service in ministry and mission, whatever their p r e v i o u s e x p e r i e n c e o r educational qualifications. !All the Module facilitators are experienced practitioners in m in is t ry and miss ion but Pathways also recognises the wealth of experience which people bring and values the interaction of all participants in exploring key issues and fresh perspectives. !For more details contact: Rev Dr Craig Gardiner, South Wales Baptist College, 54-58 Richmond Road, Cardiff , CF24 3UR. !

029 2025 6066 pathways@swbc.org.uk

www.swbc.org.uk

Summer 2014 issue 002

Our Mission is to Help

Diary Note !The Annual General Meeting of the Gwent Baptist Association will be held at Blaenau Gwent Baptist Church on Thursday, 9th October 2014 at 7.30pm. The guest speaker will be the Reverend Dr. Craig Gardiner, tutor in Christian doctrine at the South Wales Baptist College.

Meet…

… the Secretary !!ELIZABETH SQUIRES is the Minister at Zion Baptist Church, Cwmcarn. Elizabeth has a mad dog called Flomp, who helps her maintain some exercise in her life! She was ordained in 2002, ministered in Cardiff for a number of years, and began in Zion Baptist Church in June 2010. E l i z a b e t h b e c a m e Association Secretary in 2013. !!When did you become a Christian? I began my journey in the Christian faith when I was 10, and my parents became Christians. Their spiritual home (and by default, mine) was the Salvation Army in Tredegar. Age 11, I made my decision to follow Jesus, and we've been friends pretty much since then. At age 11, I knew I wanted to be a Minister, but it took a few years for the Call to be fully realised in my life, and the journey from there to here has been far from easy! !What would you say were your strengths? Where do I begin.....!? I am a Pastor. My strengths are l istening to people and journeying with them. !What are you most hopeless at doing? I have a tidy mind, but an EXTREMELY untidy desk! In fact I have not seen my desk f o r s o m e t i m e ! R e a l l y someone may have moved it, I wouldn't know! Organisation is a weakness! !

What are your main interests apart from your church work? Am I allowed other interests!? I have some very supportive and encouraging friends I like to spend time with. Most mornings I walk Flomp, and I have very supportive parents who walk him when I can't.

!What did you study at University? My first degree is in music. I went straight to Cardi ff University from school, and loved studying music. After graduating, I spent two years working and applying for my P G C E ( P o s t g r a d u a t e Certificate in Education) to teach music. I never taught music, as the Call to Ministry became too strong to ignore, and I went back to Cardiff - to South Wales Baptist College, and obtained my Divinity degree. As part of my studies, in 1999, I went to America, to Campbell University, and loved every moment!

!What do you hope to achieve in your time as Association secretary? I would like churches to realise that there is a place in the Association for them. I know smaller churches feel overlooked, and I would encourage members of such

churches to come a l o n g t o A s s o c i a t i o n m e e t i n g s . Fo rg ing l i nks w i t h o t h e r believers allows us to support and encourage e a c h o t h e r . A s s o c i a t i o n mee t i ngs a re seeking ways to c rea te space a n d t i m e t o s p e n d t i m e together. !What is your favourite

word? Discombobulated -

it's often how I feel! !What is your favourite piece of music? Rachmaninov Piano Concerto in C# minor !What is your favourite TV show? Anything with Miranda Hart in! !Who would you most like to have dinner with? Queen E l i zabe th I and Miranda Hart….. and George Clooney would be most welcome......!

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The Spring Meeting of the Gwent Baptist Association was hosted by Upper Trosnant Baptist Church, Pontypool. !

The guest speaker was South Wales Bapt ist Col lege lecturer, the Reverend Ed Kaneen, who chose as his subject Life on the Edge: The M i n i s t r y o f t h e Borderland, based upon a study of Luke 17:11-19. !Ed began by asking a couple of fundamental questions for Christians today: What does it

mean to minister as disciples in the Kingdom and where do we find Jesus? In Luke 17 Jesus was travelling through the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee. Even today, borders were significant because they marked territory and divided people. !Jesus was in an uncomfortable place and it was here he met 10 lepers – outcasts and rejects – who had no hope until they met the Lord. We as churches were also called to the borderlands. “We need to be people with a heart to get out of the comfortable place and meet people where they are in life, Ed said. “We need to offer them new hope in Jesus, of being made whole again and, most of all, the hope of salvation.”

!Church elder The Reverend Richard Harrison gave the welcome and call to worship; Huw Stephens briefly reported on the Association’s Council Meeting and church elder Phil Norman introduced a DVD on the Upper Trosnant church activities. Eric Jones (Penygarn) read the Scriptures and Geoff Champion proposed a vote of thanks and closed in prayer. The accompanist was Ron Saunders.

Copies of the application form can be obtained from the Association treasurer, Mrs Linda Price, on lkprice@sky.com Grant applications can be considered at any time of the year. !Among churches who have benefited from Association mission grants in recent years are: • Tabernacle Baptist Church (Penygarn) - projection

facilities • Oakdale Baptist Church - outreach work facilities • Upper Trosnant Baptist Church (Pontypool) -

projection facilities • Tabernacle Baptist Church (Newbridge) -

equipment for new community luncheon club • Ebenezer Baptist Church (Abertillery)

-“Lighthouse” event

Our Mission is to Help continued from front page

More thane 400 primary school children from the Newbridge, Abertillery and Bargoed areas visited a week-long Counties Life Exhibition at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Newbridge. !Hosted by the town’s Beulah and Tabernacle churches, the interactive, mobile exhibition has been developed by Counties, a UK-based Christian charity, and focuses on the life of Jesus. The aim is to help the children understand what Christians believe about Jesus and enable them to question and explore the various issues surrounding His life as well as considering His impact in today’s world. !The exhibition, run by Initiatives in Christian Education (ICE) Wales and local volunteers, also built on existing links between schools and local churches. !

Apart from the school children, about 100 other visitors attended the exhibition during the week. !!!!!!!!!!!Pictured at the official opening of the exhibition are: (from left) Christine Thomas, director, ICE Wales; Martin Buckley, Life Exhibition co-ordinator; the mayor of Caerphilly County Borough Council, Coun. David Carter; Islwyn MP Chris Evans and the Rev Peter Cho, joint pastor of Beulah Baptist Chapel and Tabernacle Baptist Church.

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School Children get a taste of Life

Life on the Edge

The Revd. Ed Kaneen

In Focus Partnership at the heart of mission

Think of a rope. One strand can easily break under pressure but when several strands are interwoven it becomes very strong. That is the principle that drives the leaders and members of Upper Trosnant Baptist Church at Lower Bridge Street, Pontypool, as they witness for Christ in the community. !Five years ago, the Counties Life Exhibition – an interactive, mobile display which focuses on the life of Jesus - came to the town for a two- week period. It was a great success with 60 to 70 volunteers from var ious churches in the E a s t e r n V a l l e y o f Gwent  working together to bring to the exhibition at a central venue more than 1,000 primary school children. !All those who supported the event agreed that such a valuable experience should not be wasted. The result was the formation of the Torfaen and District Gospel Partnership bringing together up to a dozen churches who could

subscribe to a constitution outlining the basic tenets of the evangelical church. Upper Trosnant was delighted to join the partnership. !Since then the Life Exhibition has visited Pontypool on a further two occasions. Carnivals have been held each year and the partnership has manned a stall.

Most important of all, there has been an influx of  young pastors,  some of whom have joined Dai Hankey who has planted a church in Trevethin, known as Hill City Church. These energetic workers have set up a foodbank, Christians against Poverty sessions and regular weekly preaching at the open air-market

in Pontypool. Upper Trosnant  has played a leading part in this with Phil Norman, the Reverend Richard Harrison and other leaders committed to bringing the Gospel. message to the shoppers. !“What we could never have done on our own, we now can do through the organisation that brings the churches together”, said Richard. “This is in addition to the long-established body,  Churches To g e t h e r i n P o n t y p o o l . T h e t w o organisations are not in conflict. They complement each other in a friendly fashion. !“Upper Trosnant affirms the ministry of other

churches and works alongside them whenever possible. To God be all the glory”, Richard added. !Upper Trosnant believes in the power of prayer and on the first Tuesday of every month ladies from all denominations in the Eastern Valley pray together particularly for the schools in the Torfaen Borough area from Blaenavon to Cwmbran. The church also runs active teenage and children’s Sunday Schools, Sisterhood and Men’s meetings and allows the local Travellers’ community to use its facilities on Thursday nights for worship and Bible study.

The Revd. Richard Harrison

Sisterhood meeting