Dear Friends,
As we come to the end of January, we wanted to send a message to all our supporters in relation to our activities and events for the coming year, in particular Camps and Conferences.
Encouragements
Firstly, we’d like to thank you all for your support and ongoing prayers – so many have been in touch, and it has been a great encouragement to us.
We have a wonderful God who cares for us through all of life’s challenges and changes. The last year has certainly been challenging for us all, but we are thankful to God who has sustained us, and who turns difficulties into opportunities. ‘My ways are not your ways’ was the regular theme for 2020 as many of our events were cancelled, yet through our ministries we seemed to support more churches directly, encourage more Christians, and reach more people with the gospel than in recent years. It is in that spirit that we write to you regarding the coming year.
You don’t need to come to us – we’re going to come to you!
As you can imagine we cannot be sure what the next year will look like as so many of the in-person events we are planning will be dependent on the Welsh Government regulations in force at the time. Having said this, we are intending to make the most of the opportunities that the Lord will give us and our heart continues to be for serving churches and Christians in Wales. We believe the Lord is calling us as a movement to mobilise the support structures of the EMW to support local gospel work. This means that we hope to move many of our in-person large events to smaller gatherings around the country.
Rather than holding our residential English language conference (more information here) in Aberystwyth, we are making plans for the main speaker, Sinclair B. Ferguson, to preach in smaller venues around Wales in August (these meetings will also be live streamed). Likewise, it does not appear that we will be able to run our normal programme of camps (more information here) (though we’re open to organise residential camps at the last minute). In the light of this, we aim to take the camps out on the road through fun days linked to local churches, which we hope will encourage and help churches in their own youth work. We remain to see what is going to happen with the larger missions and our other ministries, but again our aim is to head out and support local churches where the need is greatest.
Updates and Prayer
As the situation is changing so quickly, please keep an eye on our prayer letters, website and social media for updates. We are also looking for volunteers and people to support the work (get more information by contacting the office or on the website) – we’d be thrilled to partner with you.
Above all, we ask that you continue to pray for the Lord’s work here in Wales, especially the work of local Churches and Christians. There is so much need, but we are thankful that the Lord hasn’t left us without a witness – there are thousands throughout Wales who have been saved by the blood of Jesus and are shining gospel lights. May 2021 be a year where Christ is glorified, and thousands more are saved.