Hello and welcome to the first Worldwide mailer of 2012! We hope you have had a great Christmas and are looking forward to what 2012 will bring.

This month brings a quick bio on a husband and wife team who will be joining us in August, as well as our prayer points for January.

Thank you for taking the time to prayer for our work!

Bio: Andy Ball

Andy was born in England and studied geography of the USSR at Cambridge before working as a manager in international logistics for almost a decade. After training for the ministry in South Wales, he served in pastoral ministry in churches in Yorkshire and Southampton.

Since 2007, with his wife and daughter (5), Andy has served in post-Soviet Eastern Europe among Slavic people. Following years of persecution, many new churches were planted in the years of outpouring when freedom first came to Eastern Europe, but there is still a huge vacuum of trained leaders and preachers.

Andy’s passion is to equip those who preach to handle the Bible well and help a new generation in Eastern Europe to rediscover Biblical expository preaching. He works alongside local Baptist pastors to run workshops and seminars, as well as with young people on Summer Camps. Andy is still slowly trying to master Russian.

Bio: Tatyana Ball

Tatyana grew up in a Baptist Christian family in the former Soviet Union. Persecution from the Communists was commonplace, and she was interrogated by the KGB when she was 12 years old. She often hid the family Bibles from the Secret Police who regularly came visiting to search the house.

Later Tatyana worked for 3 years in a secret underground publishing house, printing highly illegal Bible literature. Her parents were greatly used of the Lord, standing under incredible pressure, leading to the conversion eventually of every one of their neighbours. When freedom came in the early 90s, there was a great influx of new converts into the church.

Now Tatyana works as a translator of Christian books into Russian, and works with women and young people in local churches in Eastern Europe with Andy her husband, and 5 year-old daughter. She is currently writing a book about the exciting spiritual history of her family.

January Prayer Points

1. Continue to pray for Nelun as she goes into the final rounds of Chemotherapy and will then have a month of Radiation therapy.
    
2. Thanks for the Retired missionaries and Church Mission Secretaries who responded to our last update – we would love to contact many more so please continue to pray for this.
    
3. Give thanks to the Brother in Uganda who responded last time – what an encouragement to think that the Convention is being prayed for ” internationally “.
    
4. Pray for consideration being given to WW involvement in an event in Dublin and also  taking part in a series of events in the Spring of 2013. We need wisdom as to how to take these forward.
    
5. We are looking to extend the advertising we do each year to better publicise the Convention, including in the UK. Please pray that we will make wise decisions and be good stewards of the money available to us.
    
6. We are very keen to have many more people praying for the work of the Convention. Please pray as to how we might best do this and encourage like-minded friends to sign up.