There was a glossy feel to the annual meetings of the Grace Baptist Mission on Saturday 27 October.
First of all, the venue, the Friends Meeting House in Euston, London had been refurbished – new seats, new stage, flashy data projector equipment and perhaps best of all new loos!
But that was not all: a very swish redesigned Handbook for 2015 greeted the 800 or so people who gathered.The business meeting heard that finances for the mission were not bad. General giving was somewhat down, but the Lord had provided through a number of legacies.
Lots of enthusiasm
The afternoon saw seminars of the mission’s work in Brazil with Jason and Andrea Murfit; Kenya with Graham and Sally Jones; France with Hannah Prior; and the literature work with Kester Putman and Serbia. Kester is taking over the literature work from Maciek and Mary Stolarski as they retire at Christmas time. Also, Fiona Steward has felt called away from the work in France to be involved in women’s ministry at Heath Church in Cardiff. Jenny and Sukesh Pabari finished their time in Kenya last June and Sukesh is now pastoring at Clevedon Evangelical Church, near Bristol. With a number of missionaries retiring from the field, obviously GBM looks for a new generation to step forward for the Lord’s work overseas. One such volunteer is Hannah Prior, who was introduced in the evening meeting and will be going to be involved in gospel work in Paris.
The theme of the day was ‘Fruit that will last’ and a multi-media presentation with clips of GBM’s work across the world formed part of the later afternoon. Many other mission societies had stands for the interest of those present. It was a very encouraging day with many young people in attendance and lots of enthusiasm and some great singing led by Chris Hawthorne. It finished off with a stirring message from Sukesh Pabari, based on 1 Corinthians 2.2 on the importance of preaching Christ.
