Diptipur - and Orissa - update

  The Rt Revd Dr Samson Das, Bishop of Cuttack Diocese, Orissa, is visiting Marshalswick at the end of January.  Dr Das is a fellow Baptist and bears the title and responsibility of ‘Bishop’ because the Baptist churches in Orissa joined the Church of North India (CNI) when it was formed.

  The Baptist work in Orissa was begun by British Baptists working with the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and Dr Das was awarded his doctorate after writing a thesis about this connection with the BMS.  He is comparatively young to have been consecrated as a bishop of the CNI.

  I hope that his visit will give us an insight into our fellow Baptists in another country and culture.

  This will be his first visit to England, although he has been to Europe - attending conferences in Amsterdam and Hungary.  He is coming to the UK for a conference of International Bishops at Canterbury from 20th to 28th January and will then visit St. Albans from 29th January to 4th February.  Please give him a real Baptist welcome and make him feel at home!

  The work at Diptipur Hospital is busy, although the local harvest is not good and there is little spare money in families for treatment.

  Three recent sad cases of young adults in attempted suicides have had happier endings, thanks to medical help and counselling.  Please pray for these young people.

  The eye work at Diptipur is encouraging.  Eye problems are common in India and Diptipur is well equipped for eye surgery.  You may remember that Dr. Suna, who was killed in a jeep accident, was a well known eye specialist in the area.

  November and December is the time of year for cataract operations and the resulting benefits are miraculous to the patients.

  Dr Rajnish Samal will be back in Diptipur in the New Year, following the death of his father.

  Please continue to pray for this rural hospital in West Orissa, for its medical work and Christian witness.    

Aileen Hagen.

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Parliament acknowledges MBFC

  The work that Graham and the deacons do in the community on behalf of this church has been acknowledged by Parliament, through St Albans’ MP, Anne Maine.

  On the evening of 14th December, I was privileged to represent the church at a reception held in the Jubilee Room at the House of Commons.

  After arriving at St. Stephen’s Gate, we were escorted to the Great Hall which is over 900 years old.  This has been used in recent times for the lying in state of royalty.  When the 32 representatives of charities from the St. Albans constituency had assembled, we were taken to the Jubilee Room for a finger buffet and drinks.

  We were then split into two groups and, while one group continued eating and drinking, Anne Maine escorted the other group first to the House of Lords and then to the Queen’s robing room.  After seeing the hidden rooms behind the wood panelling there, we went to the House of Commons and discovered the secrets of the Speaker’s Chair and the ‘Aye’ and ‘No’ lobbies.

  My lasting memories are how small everything is compared with what you see on television - and that everything is colour coded green in the Commons and red in the Lords.

By Chris Songer.

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Keys to the world

  In the UK Computer Aid International (CAI) provides a high-level decommissioning service to PC donors.  As a result, over 70,000 PCs have been donated and reused in just six years.

  All donated PCs are thoroughly data-wiped.  Once the hard drives have been completely removed of data, the PC is fully refurbished and tested before it is boxed, ready for shipment to the developing world.

  Latest World Bank research shows that there are five or less computers per 1,000 people in the vast majority of Sub-Saharan African countries.  This figure is also applicable to the South Asian sub-continent.

  For the many, access to such equipment is out of their reach and only available in expensive internet cafes and private colleges.

  If you have a PC you can donate - it must have a Pentium III processor or above - you can either drop-off your computer personally at the workshop at 433 Holloway Road, London N7 6LJ or arrange collection with Parcel2Go, which offers door-to-door delivery UK-wide for just £9.75 per box.

Spotted by Peter Kelleher in The Independent.

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Church sprouts in Brussels

  The first Sunday service has been held in Brussels Baptist Church's new building - a move that the pastor and members had been awaiting for a long time, because they had outgrown their previous accommodation.

  The inaugural service took place on Sunday 3rd December in what had previously been the Messianic Church in Brussels.  The congregation, pastored by BMS mission workers Phillip and Vivienne Hatton, is represented by many nationalities, speaking various languages from all over the world - people studying and working either long or short-term in Brussels.  It has had a steady growth over recent times and, for a couple of years now, Phillip and Vivienne have been looking and praying for larger premises.

  It was earlier this year, in May, that the church leaders believed in faith that the Messianic Church building would be the one into which they would move and, at that time, the whole church prayed and fasted about this decision.  They prayed that the legal aspects would be sorted out and that the necessary finance would be forthcoming.

  As with the purchase of any building, there were moments of both elation and low points in which the church had to wait and trust that all would go ahead without mishap.

  The financial and legal documents were signed in October and November and, with much excitement and thanks to God, the first service of Brussels Baptist Church took place.  Phillip Hatton commented: “For the next six months, the Messianic Church will share the facilities and an African church will have some use of the building.  Sharing the building will help us in the interim though, by the time we have got ourselves established, we expect to have sole use of the building.

  "This is very exciting for us and we are looking forward to our first informal celebration in the new building.  It is also tinged with sadness as we say goodbye to our former building which we have used for over six years and which has been very special to us, though it has become inadequate for our needs.  We have seen the Lord's timing with the move.  The day after we signed the sale, the owner of our current building contacted us to say that he intends to sell the building! It is indeed the time to move on."

  There will be a formal opening and celebration sometime in the future.

  Phillip and Vivienne have been pastoring the Brussels Baptist congregation since 2000.

From BMS World News.