Serving God Abroad
You don't have to be young to serve the Lord! In fact retirement can provide the perfect opportunity for service that would just not have been possible during a busy working life. Here three of our members share their experiences.
You don't have to be young to serve the Lord! In fact retirement can provide the perfect opportunity for service that would just not have been possible during a busy working life. Here three of our members share their experiences.
Joyce Gaudern - a retired (re-tyred) teacher spends some time each year at Carazo Christian Academy in Nicaragua.
Carazo Christian Academy Nicaragua
www.nicca.org
CCA is a Bilingual Christian School offering classes at the Preschool and Primary level. CCA was founded in 2007 with just 4 pupils and now provides bi-lingual education to over 200 children aged 3 - 13.
Joyce has helped to set up the Library...
...and been involved in training Nicaraguan teachers.
The new school opened in 2016 in what had been just a field 12 months earlier. There are now 3 pre-school classes with 63 children.
In February 2017 Joyce was able to visit the new school to help a child with special needs.
After many years of retirement from teaching I felt I wanted to do something useful with my life. So when family obligations permitted I went over to South Africa to my cousin's sugar- cane farm to help teach in a school for local Zulu children.
My cousin had a heart for reaching local people with the gospel and had originally started the school in a farm shed in 1972 with just 6 children and 1 Zulu teacher.
Over the years the school expanded and more buildings were needed to accommodate the growing number of students.
Eventually in 2010 the school became independent. The school has a Christian ethos and a local pastor comes in each week to take the assembly and explain a bible passage. The farm also caters for church groups who come for times of refreshment and Bible training.
I first went out in January 2014 and spent one term teaching English to some Zulu children needing extra help. This year will be my third visit and I have the opportunity of teaching small groups of children the catechism and bible stories.
I am so thankful that the Lord has called me to serve Him in an area where there is widespread practise of ancestral worship and no fear of the living God, just fear of evil spirits.
During the summer, I went to Houlgate to do a French beach mission with Missions Vacances.
Houlgate is a seaside town in Normandy, which is close to Caen, Bayeux and the D-day beaches. The beach mission re-started at Houlgate in 2015 after a break of 9 years. Each year, the church has been extremely welcoming and children from the church have been eager to join in our activities.
Each day, we ran a children’s programme on the beach consisting of games, Bible stories, memory verses and quizzes. After the children’s programme, we played volleyball with teenagers on the beach and then we had a short opportunity to look at John’s Gospel. It was really encouraging to see how the children enjoyed the programme and were eager to find out more about the Bible.
Throughout the day-time there was a Bible exhibition in the church, which was open to the general public. Over 400 people looked around the exhibition and many took copies of free literature available at the end. There were also evening events in the church, including a musical evening and a conference about the reliability of the Bible. These events were attended by people from the church as well as holiday makers in the area.
The highlight of the mission was the English evening on the final night. The church kindly provided pizzas for everyone and then we sang some songs, played English games and heard a brief gospel message.
It was a great privilege to be a member of the team and to be involved with the work. It has been especially encouraging to see how God is working in Houlgate and to be a part of His work there.