ASHA – DELHI INDIA

One of the projects we are linked with overseas is Asha in Delhi, India. We have a number of people within YCC who have been to visit Asha.
Asha is a Charity working in the slums of Delhi, India’s capital city. Asha is a Hindi word meaning ‘hope’, and it is this hope that Asha is seeking to bring to the poorest and most marginalised people in India’s society. Established in 1988, it now works in about 90 slums across the city, providing medical care, through doctors and Community Health Volunteers (who are women from the slum community who have been trained in basic medical care). Asha also encourages the slum communities to stand up for their rights, to lobby councillors to provide improvements such as toilet blocks, water standpipes, and covered drains, etc. They ensure that as many children as possible attend school and provide extra teaching in English and IT, the two skills most important to students as they make well-paid employment a real prospect. Over 2000 young  people have now secured places in University Higher Education courses.  In 2008 slum dwellers received access to bank accounts and loans,  allowing many to expand their businesses and improve their income.
Many slum dwellers are Hindu and Muslim, but Asha is demonstrating the love of Jesus in practical ways to all regardless of their religion. Many have responded and come to know Jesus personally. Worship meetings are held regularly in many of the slums!

Dick Hogben and Nigel Rees are trustees for Friends of Asha GB.  Dick is also the National Coordinator.
More information is available at their website: http://www.asha-india.org/

BRAZIL – POUSO ALEGRE

We are partnered with a church in Brazil based in Pouso Alegre led by Amaury and his family, Amaury has been a part of YCC for many years and has planted the church with the same heart as us.

The Braga’s story

Let me introduce my family to you: I’ve been married to Celeste for over 28 years.  God has given us two blessed boys, Filipe and Andre. In our ministry, Celeste and I have served the Lord as full time workers for His Kingdom since 1982, when we got married. We planted churches in Brazil and then in 1995 we were sent to the UK as missionarys by a group of churches.

We were part of the ‘Go to the Nations’ ministry and we lived one year in Edinburgh, Scotland and three years in Barnstaple, Devon. God gave us the opportunity to share on unity and prayer and also to promote whole nights of prayer. We have done it in Brazil way before we moved to the UK and had the chance to continue to do it.

We became members of YCC back in 1998 and had planned to move to Yeovil in 1999.  However in the midst of this process I was invited to work as a DAWN Latin America Prayer Coordinator. After a good time of prayer we shared with the YCC leaders and we all understood that God was calling me to work with DAWN. Then we decided to stay based in Brazil to develop the work in Latin America, though we are members and missionaries of YCC. In 2001 I was invited to be DAWN International Prayer Coordinator moving to Colorado Springs, CO, USA, and worked in about 100 countries.In 2003 I moved back from Brazil and worked for DAWN from Brazil to the rest of the world.In 2008 I resigned as the DAWN International Prayer Coordinator and started HORA – Men in Prayer – based in Pouso Alegre, Brazil. http://www.homemora.com

Here in Brazil we are facilitating the National Prayer Council, and partnering with the following ministries:

1. Global Day Of Prayer
2. 24/7 prayer movement
3.Tribal Generation
4. School of Church Planting
5. Children National Net of Prayer and advisors of a few other prayer ministries
6. India and South East Asia Unrechead People’s Group

Thanks for your prayers
Blessings,

Amaury, Celeste, Filipe and Andre.

FRANCE – ARGENTON

As part of the outworking of our vision “to see new communities of believers established …. in the world” and also to “resource the wider church”, we are working with the French church to help them with their task of expanding God’s Kingdom in France. In the areas of France in which we are working, there are currently only a very limited number of evangelical Christians and churches (about 1 church per 100,000 people).

We have established good relationships with the France Mission organisation and are particularly working with the France Mission church in Chateauroux (central France) and their project to establish an outreach centre in Argenton-sur-Creuse – a town where there is currently no evangelical church and the nearest evangelical church is at least 30 minute’s drive away. The long-term vision of this project is that it will be the ‘spring-board’ for planting churches in 3 towns in that area of France (Le Blanc, Argenton and La Chatre).

So far, we have carried out several prayer trips to the area, sent practical teams to help with the building work and also given financial support to the project. However, the project is still in its early stages, so there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved in this work!

We are also working alongside a team from the Brazilian Sal da Terra churches in this work. In October 2013, a combined team from Sal da Terra, YCC and some other UK churches went on a ‘short term mission trip’ to France. We met the national leaders of the France Mission organisation, visited a number of France Mission churches and prayed in several French towns (including Blois, Loches, Chateauroux, Argenton and Le Blanc). The vision of the Sal da Terra team is to send some people on a long-term basis to France, and we hope to support them in this project.

We also have a close relationship with a couple (James & Julie Hodson) who are working in Montgenevre and seeking to plant a church there. Montgenevre is a skiing resort in the Alpine region on the border with Italy.