Missions & Outreach
Missions
COM values supporting missionaries who are sent out from the Church to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with both words and deeds. In Matthew's gospel he gave the church this commission, "God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I'll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.'" Matt. 28: 18-20 The Message
Mpwapwa, Tanzania - Africa
Our Sister Church, St. Paul's Mpwapwa
The Tarlings - Africa
The Hamilton's, Madagascar
Elizabeth City, North Carolina Mission Trip
Mpwapwa, Tanzania - Africa
Our Sister Church, St. Paul's Mpwapwa
The Congregation:
Diocesan Council
Bishop in Waiting - Jacob Chimeledya
There was an unexpected turn of events during the selection of the new Bishop. The Diocesan Council meeting whittled the short list down to 2 names and the House of Bishops approved either of these as fit to be the new Bishop. However, during the Synod when the actual selection was to take place, one of the candidates suddenly withdrew. After much late-night discussion, the Synod decided to elect the remaining candidate, Jacob Chimeledya, as the new Bishop. Jacob has worked tirelessly for the Diocese since its Conception in 1991, and is well thought of by many. He will leave a big gap at St. Phillips Theological College, where he is currently the Principal. He is to be installed as Bishop on 9th October, and will work alongside Bishop Simon for 2 years until Bishop Simon retires.
The Tarlings
Godfrey and Rachel Tarling
Godfrey and Rachel Tarling have always had an interest in Missions. Rachel’s interest coming from her time at Kapsowar, Kenya which left her with ambitions to go back one day. Godfrey’s interest, as a teen, sprang from a mission prayer meeting with delicious lemon cakes, run by the next door neighbors, who had served in Ethiopia!
They met at St Thomas’ Church in Edinburgh, where Godfrey was studying at Heriot-Watt University, married at St. Mary's Reigate in 1988, and now have three children.
They had thought when they married that their ambitions were unlikely to be fulfilled, but a growing sense of calling was strengthened both by a visit to missionary friends in Kenya, and also by a meeting at which the speaker was the late J. Oswald Sanders who was then 92. He was challenging, especially ,the older folks present to make the rest of their lives meaningful. So they decided to make some preliminary enquiries, and very soon found themselves on their way to Tanzania.
Rachel trained in medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating in 1985 having undertaken an elective at Kapsowar, Kenya (a General Hospital administered by AIM with medical, surgical, T.B., obstetric and children's wards). She went on to gain her MRCP in 1989 and then worked as a Hematology Registrar at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington before coming to Tanzania.
Godfrey was trained in Building and Construction Management gaining both Bachelors and Masters Science Degrees from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and gradually became more involved in the work of Crosslinks, first running the local prayer group, before being invited onto the South East Area Advisory Group, the Education Advisory Group, which resulted in being elected to the General Council (Policy Making Group) of Crosslinks in 1989.
From 1992 –’93, Godfrey and Rachel were at All Nations Christian College in Ware, Hertfordshire, in preparation for going to Tanzania.
Since 1993, Godfrey established, and now runs a Building Engineering Department and Surveying Office for the Diocese of Mpwapwa. This has entailed selecting and training key individuals in design, supervision and management skills. It has also necessitated both strategic and fundamental projects to facilitate basic infrastructure, including the construction of secondary schools, medical health centers & dispensary outposts, a Kindergarten and Library for a local Government Primary School (which was officially opened by His Excellency President Benjamin Mkapa in 1997), the development of the Cathedral and its immediate site, the Development and restoration of buildings at the Provincial Theological College, St. Philip's, Kongwa; and the oversight of parish churches and pastorages. In addition there are land boundary surveys to be undertaken in order to register land with the Tanzanian Government.
On behalf of the Anglican Diocese of Mpwapwa, Rachel established St. Luke's Health Centre in Mpwapwa, Tanzania which is essentially a General Practice combined with Laboratory and Dispensing facilities on site, plus MCH (Maternal and Child Health) Clinics in five of the neighboring villages. In addition, their work includes HIV/AIDS education and counseling, both at the Clinic and in the wider community. The HIV/AIDS project has been funded for an additional year, but the MCH project will have to continue from their general funds. Godfrey and Rachel are working towards the opening a maternity ward with delivery facilities with the floor being laid and the roof being raised.
The Tarlings Newsletter:
David, Deborah, MarLee, & Liam Hamilton
In Madagascar
We are American missionaries to Madagascar. Our heart's desire is to impart light and joy by spreading the Gospel to those who have not yet heard. We will do this by joining the Antakarana tribe in northern Madagascar and telling the story of Jesus.
The Antakarana are a tribe of 88,000 of God's highest creations without Bible, church, Jesus film, or evangelist. This is frontier missionary work and an important facet of Global Teams' vision to see the transforming power of the Jesus movement described in the Book of Acts becoming established in new Jesus movements within hundreds of cultural groups around the world.
We were introduced to Global Teams at the 2000 New Wineskins Mission Conference held in North Carolina. There, God divinely brought Global Teams and us together and made it clear that we were to be in partnership together. We had already heard God's call to Madagascar and at the conference we met Global Teams' Executive Director, Kevin Higgins. Kevin had been praying for missionaries to partner with Global Teams and to be a part of starting a Jesus movement in the Antakarana tribe.
Madagascar is made up of Madagascar Island, the fourth largest island in the world, and several small islands and lies off the southeastern coast of Africa. It is also referred to as the “Great Red Island” because of the red soil caused by the presence of murrum (solid ironstone) and laterite combined with other red earths. Much of the island, having lost its evergreen and deciduous forests and suffering severe erosion, is now covered with prairie grass.
Madagascar is one of the world's poorest countries, with a gross domestic product of $2.9 billion, or about $220 per person, in the early 1990s. The economy remains, as in colonial times, predominantly agricultural, with about three-quarters of the labor force engaged in agricultural activities.
Because of the mountainous terrain, only about 5 percent of Madagascar is farmed. The chief food crop is rice, which is grown on about one-half of the agricultural land. Important food crops are cassava, sweet potatoes, potatoes, maize, beans, bananas, and peanuts. Leading cash crops, which supply most of Madagascar's export revenue, are vanilla, coffee, cloves, and sugarcane. Coffee once was the primary crop, but production declined as commodity prices dropped sharply. Other important crops are cotton, sisal, and tropical fruits.
Major ethnic groups in the interior are the Merina (Hova), who make up about 27 percent of the total population, and the related Betsileo (12 percent). Members of both groups are descended chiefly from emigrants from Malaya and Indonesia about 2000 years ago. Coastal areas are inhabited mainly by peoples of mixed Malayo-Indonesian, black African, and Arab ancestry; among these ethnic groups are the Betsimisaraka (15 percent), Tsimihety (7 percent), Sakalave (6 percent), and Antaisaka (5 percent).
Approximately 52 percent of the population follows traditional beliefs, 41 percent is Christian, and 7 percent is Muslim.