Dear Friends,
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
David here. Thanks for helping us in your prayers. We have nearly finished teaching the missions class at the Irish Baptist College and need to do some work on getting another missions class ready which we will begin teaching in January. The students we have been teaching are a fine group of committed believers and we look forward to teaching a different set next year (DV).
Debbie had to postpone taking some women’s meetings scheduled for November since she came down with malaria. This was a surprise since neither of us has been aware of having malaria in the past and we have been away from Africa for some months. Thankfully the treatment worked quickly and Debbie is about to finish a second set of pills to clear the malaria from her liver.
Some of you know Debbie’s Dad, Mr. Len Lyons, was diagnosed with cancer related to exposure to asbestos in his work some decades ago. Apparently, surgery is not an option. He has been on medication to manage the pain and has had two rounds of chemotherapy so far. The medical people say this is not a cure but should help. Please remember him, his wife Doreen and the family circle at this time. We are thankful our Lord brought us back to minister in the UK since it means we can help them in various ways.
I would appreciate prayer as I lead a series of devotions in the week of prayer at Carndaisy Baptist Church (near Moneymore). This is how the believers there start each new year. I have also been asked to take a Sunday service there during the first two Sundays each month from January through to May. God willing, I plan to do a short series on the book of James in those services.
Debbie will continue her series at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church women’s meetings in the new year. Her ladies Bible study class will also continue in January and, no doubt, other opportunities for ministry will emerge.
We are still with SIM and will be doing various things related to the mission in the new year. For example, we will be over in the SIM UK offices in late January to help with the orientation programme for new missionaries. We are also thinking of starting an SIM prayer meeting in our home. There are several such groups in Northern Ireland which meet once each month but none in this area. Its main focus would be to pray for missionaries with SIM who are from the province. Please let us know if you would be interested in being part of that group. Thanks.
Lastly, let us take the opportunity to wish you a blessed Christmas season (Isaiah 9:6).
Yours in Christ,
David and Debbie Colvin
Saturday, 2 December 2017
Friday, 6 October 2017
Update for October 2017
Dear Friends,
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
David here. Thanks for your prayers for all the meetings in September. The week of devotional messages we gave at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church went well with good attendance through the week and the four sermons I had the opportunity to preach went well, I believe. Debbie enjoyed the Kairos course on missions at the Belfast Bible College.
We are enjoying teaching missions at the Irish Baptist College. I taught four times on the theology of mission and Debbie will take the next two classes since they major on missions in the Old Testament. Then the students have a week of evangelism in which there will be no classes followed by a study week with no classes. The course starts up again after that.
Debbie has been asked to teach a series on ‘The Disciplines of a Godly Woman’ in the women’s meetings at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church. They meet on the first Monday of each month and the series will continue until May next year (DV). She is also taking a ladies meeting at the Cookstown Methodist Church on 16th and will be leading her Bible Study group through the book of James on two Monday evenings each month.
I enjoyed teaching a short series of Bible studies on Thursday evenings in September on the topic of ‘The Church’ and will start another short series on prayer to the same group of believers next week.
On 31st we are taking the prayer meeting at Coagh Baptist Church during which we will give an update of the work at Kagoro and our plans, God willing.
Please pray our Lord will be glorified through all these events and thanks again for remembering us in your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie Colvin
1 Thess. 5:17
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
David here. Thanks for your prayers for all the meetings in September. The week of devotional messages we gave at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church went well with good attendance through the week and the four sermons I had the opportunity to preach went well, I believe. Debbie enjoyed the Kairos course on missions at the Belfast Bible College.
We are enjoying teaching missions at the Irish Baptist College. I taught four times on the theology of mission and Debbie will take the next two classes since they major on missions in the Old Testament. Then the students have a week of evangelism in which there will be no classes followed by a study week with no classes. The course starts up again after that.
Debbie has been asked to teach a series on ‘The Disciplines of a Godly Woman’ in the women’s meetings at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church. They meet on the first Monday of each month and the series will continue until May next year (DV). She is also taking a ladies meeting at the Cookstown Methodist Church on 16th and will be leading her Bible Study group through the book of James on two Monday evenings each month.
I enjoyed teaching a short series of Bible studies on Thursday evenings in September on the topic of ‘The Church’ and will start another short series on prayer to the same group of believers next week.
On 31st we are taking the prayer meeting at Coagh Baptist Church during which we will give an update of the work at Kagoro and our plans, God willing.
Please pray our Lord will be glorified through all these events and thanks again for remembering us in your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie Colvin
1 Thess. 5:17
Tuesday, 1 August 2017
David and Debbie's Prayer Update
Dear friends,
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
Keswick Conference
It was great to be able to attend one week of the Keswick Convention meetings in Keswick. The main venue holds about 4,000 people and that was not large enough to seat all the people who came to the morning and evening sessions. Hundreds more were in overflow venues and it was possible to watch the meetings live on the Internet. The main teaching was well handled by Alistair Begg who spoke from several of the Psalms. Debbie and I had a small part to play in one of the missions seminars led by Steve Smith (the SIM UK director). Thank you for praying and we thank the Lord also for the couple who let us share their home for the week. On one sunny afternoon we managed to climb one of the hills overlooking Keswick and Derwent Water.
Teaching and preaching
The missions course we will teach at the Irish Baptist College starts in September so we are doing some work for that. Debbie is still taking a small group through the Discipleship Explored course on Monday evenings. I have been asked to teach four Bible studies on Thursday evenings in September and will be working on material for those this month. On 20th August, I will be taking the services at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church and on 3rd September the Sunday services at Coagh Baptist Church. We have already started taking some prayer meetings for SIM. Pray that on all these occasions our Lord will be honoured (Col. 3:23). Thanks.
Other ministry opportunities
Though we are not at Kagoro, we are still doing some things for the Seminary and keep in touch with the teachers there. I am finishing off the supervision of a student’s thesis this month, for example. We have been asked to help review some doctrinal assessments written by people wanting to join SIM as missionaries and Mike Ewan (SIM Director for Ireland) asked us to represent SIM at New Horizon in Coleraine on Wednesday next week.
Settling in
We are still settling into life at Moneymore. It has taken weeks to get our broadband connected. I thought that would be a simple thing to reactivate but BT really let us down. We are with a different company now but still have the same land line number 02886746484. As mentioned in our recent prayer letter, our mobile numbers are now David 07729077954 and Debbie 07803477992. It is easier to get us on those.
Pensions
We have some funds in pension schemes which, according to SIM UK, are designed only for people working abroad so we have to change that. We need someone who can help us with professional advice on pensions and tax issues since the SIM finance people say they are not ‘registered’ to give that kind of advice. Does anyone have any suggestions?
As always, thanks for your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
Keswick Conference
It was great to be able to attend one week of the Keswick Convention meetings in Keswick. The main venue holds about 4,000 people and that was not large enough to seat all the people who came to the morning and evening sessions. Hundreds more were in overflow venues and it was possible to watch the meetings live on the Internet. The main teaching was well handled by Alistair Begg who spoke from several of the Psalms. Debbie and I had a small part to play in one of the missions seminars led by Steve Smith (the SIM UK director). Thank you for praying and we thank the Lord also for the couple who let us share their home for the week. On one sunny afternoon we managed to climb one of the hills overlooking Keswick and Derwent Water.
Teaching and preaching
The missions course we will teach at the Irish Baptist College starts in September so we are doing some work for that. Debbie is still taking a small group through the Discipleship Explored course on Monday evenings. I have been asked to teach four Bible studies on Thursday evenings in September and will be working on material for those this month. On 20th August, I will be taking the services at the Ballynahinch Congregational Church and on 3rd September the Sunday services at Coagh Baptist Church. We have already started taking some prayer meetings for SIM. Pray that on all these occasions our Lord will be honoured (Col. 3:23). Thanks.
Other ministry opportunities
Though we are not at Kagoro, we are still doing some things for the Seminary and keep in touch with the teachers there. I am finishing off the supervision of a student’s thesis this month, for example. We have been asked to help review some doctrinal assessments written by people wanting to join SIM as missionaries and Mike Ewan (SIM Director for Ireland) asked us to represent SIM at New Horizon in Coleraine on Wednesday next week.
Settling in
We are still settling into life at Moneymore. It has taken weeks to get our broadband connected. I thought that would be a simple thing to reactivate but BT really let us down. We are with a different company now but still have the same land line number 02886746484. As mentioned in our recent prayer letter, our mobile numbers are now David 07729077954 and Debbie 07803477992. It is easier to get us on those.
Pensions
We have some funds in pension schemes which, according to SIM UK, are designed only for people working abroad so we have to change that. We need someone who can help us with professional advice on pensions and tax issues since the SIM finance people say they are not ‘registered’ to give that kind of advice. Does anyone have any suggestions?
As always, thanks for your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie
Friday, 28 April 2017
Prayer update for May 2017
Dear Friends,
Debbie and I send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
May is going to be a month with several farewells in it. The Seminary is planning something on Tuesday 2nd, SIM wants us in Jos on the evening of Friday 5th and Fada Gospel Church, here at Kagoro, is planning an event in the afternoon of Sunday 14th. We had to supply short CVs for the last of these. Pray that in all these meetings our Lord will be honoured. SIM asked us to send some photos and pick some music for the Friday event. We suggested Keith and Kristyn Getty’s ‘My worth is not in what I own.’
Debbie has a couple Africa Christian Textbook Service (ACTS) meetings on 8th and 9th May. After these meetings, Debbie will be handing over her work as secretary of the ACTS Board to another person.
The Jan-May semester is almost over and we would like to complete all our marking before we leave. Please pray this will be possible. We plan to spend the last week in May at the SIM-run conference centre at Miango to finish off the marking. We leave for Abuja on 29th and fly to the UK on 30th (DV).
We have already packed a few suitcases and Paul Todd has kindly offered to take two back to the UK for us. Another family in Jos has offered to take a case or two to Wetheringsett in England in June. We thank the Lord for these people who are willing to help in this way. Our prayers are with Paul and Tricia since Tricia’s Mum passed away recently.
Though we will miss being at Kagoro, SIM has a family and a single man scheduled to come here. The family are Kevin, Alexis and their son Liam Stokes from the US and the single man is Alan Moore from Canada. We have sold and donated some of our things to SIM for Short-Term missionary use and this means Alan will be able to move in here and get set up quickly. Alan will work in the seminary’s library, Kevin will be teaching at the Seminary and Alexis will be teaching at the ECWA College of Health Technology here at Kagoro. Pray for them as they settle into ministries here.
Several of our present and former students have been struggling with chronic illnesses so we are sponsoring a couple of medical trips to Jos for them to get properly checked out. Pray the doctors will be able to diagnose what is wrong in each case and prescribe the right treatment.
Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to seeing many of your later in the year (1 Thess 5:17).
In Christ,
David and Debbie Colvin
Debbie and I send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
May is going to be a month with several farewells in it. The Seminary is planning something on Tuesday 2nd, SIM wants us in Jos on the evening of Friday 5th and Fada Gospel Church, here at Kagoro, is planning an event in the afternoon of Sunday 14th. We had to supply short CVs for the last of these. Pray that in all these meetings our Lord will be honoured. SIM asked us to send some photos and pick some music for the Friday event. We suggested Keith and Kristyn Getty’s ‘My worth is not in what I own.’
Debbie has a couple Africa Christian Textbook Service (ACTS) meetings on 8th and 9th May. After these meetings, Debbie will be handing over her work as secretary of the ACTS Board to another person.
The Jan-May semester is almost over and we would like to complete all our marking before we leave. Please pray this will be possible. We plan to spend the last week in May at the SIM-run conference centre at Miango to finish off the marking. We leave for Abuja on 29th and fly to the UK on 30th (DV).
We have already packed a few suitcases and Paul Todd has kindly offered to take two back to the UK for us. Another family in Jos has offered to take a case or two to Wetheringsett in England in June. We thank the Lord for these people who are willing to help in this way. Our prayers are with Paul and Tricia since Tricia’s Mum passed away recently.
Though we will miss being at Kagoro, SIM has a family and a single man scheduled to come here. The family are Kevin, Alexis and their son Liam Stokes from the US and the single man is Alan Moore from Canada. We have sold and donated some of our things to SIM for Short-Term missionary use and this means Alan will be able to move in here and get set up quickly. Alan will work in the seminary’s library, Kevin will be teaching at the Seminary and Alexis will be teaching at the ECWA College of Health Technology here at Kagoro. Pray for them as they settle into ministries here.
Several of our present and former students have been struggling with chronic illnesses so we are sponsoring a couple of medical trips to Jos for them to get properly checked out. Pray the doctors will be able to diagnose what is wrong in each case and prescribe the right treatment.
Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to seeing many of your later in the year (1 Thess 5:17).
In Christ,
David and Debbie Colvin
Monday, 9 January 2017
Prayer Letter for January 2017
Dear friends,
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
David here. Many thanks for your prayers.
East Africa trip
Many thanks for praying for our trip to Ethiopia and Kenya in December. The SIMGROUP meeting in Addis Ababa went well and I have been asked to chair a sub-committee to recommend changes to the SIMGORUP constitution. Pray this goes well. Our committee has to complete its proposals by August this year in advance of the next board meeting in October.
While in Addis we visited Niall McCune and saw the SIM-run school where he works. He seems very much at home in Addis and is learning Amharic – the local language. We were surprised at how cold it was in Addis Ababa compared to Kagoro. The altitude makes quite a difference.
We also visited Kevin and Joyce Richardson in Nairobi and it was great to catch up with them and what they have been doing in Kenya. While there, we went to Amboseli game park and that was well worth the visit. It is hard to beat a game park with such a wide variety of wildlife and see Kilimanjaro nearby. I put some photos on Facebook if anyone wants to check them out.
January to May 2017 semester
The new semester has started. This time we have two courses each to teach and quite a number of theses to supervise. As the acting Graduate Dean I have some extra meetings to attend but the workload is manageable. The pressure is on, however, to complete the marking and such on time. I am also to hand over this role to another faculty member in the near future so pray that goes well also.
Staffing at the Seminary
We thank the Lord three new faculty members have been recruited this semester. This is an answer to prayer since three lecturers left at the end of last year. Two of the latter, Momolu and Layahn Massaquoi are back in their home country of Liberia to work at a seminary there. Our loss is Liberia’s gain.
BB Event
Every now and then I get to speak at a Boys’ Brigade event here. This time it was a BB camp being held on the Seminary grounds in December and they asked me to speak on the topic of using the BB as a means of evangelism. The early SIM missionaries at Kagoro, Thomas and Grace Archibald, started a BB company here in the 1930s and it was very effective in spreading the gospel among the boys and young men of the region.
Moving to the UK
I suppose the main news this time is our decision to move back to the UK. There are several reasons for this which we would like to explain to our prayer supporters in person rather than by this medium. We believe this is what our Lord would have us do and it is a major change for us both. We have been working at Kagoro for eighteen years and I was based in Jos, Nigeria, for the previous eighteen years. The plan is to sell, give away, or take some of our things back to the UK with us and be based in Moneymore from mid-June 2017.
Initially we will have a short ‘home assignment’ during which we hope to see as many supporters in Northern Ireland as we can. We do not intend to leave SIM and plan on returning to Africa each summer to teach in the Seminary’s Summer Programmes, for example (D.V.).
Going forward
One of the ministries we have lined up in Northern Ireland is to jointly teach some missions courses at the Irish Baptist College starting in September. This is not a full-time position and I will probably do most of the teaching. As many of you know both Debbie and I studied at the Irish Baptist College and are pleased this opportunity for teaching ministry has opened up (Eph 2:10).
Debbie has been asked to help SIM with its management of Theological Education. She will focus on supporting this ministry in English-speaking countries in West Africa. This is a new position set up by SIM International. This means Debbie can bring her training, skills and experience to bear in defining this new role. We praise our Lord that SIM has seen the need to network those engaged in this important ministry and request prayer for Debbie as she works on this new task.
While we are in the UK we will still be available to help the Seminary at Kagoro and SIM Ireland in several ways but we ask you to pray other doors for ministry will open up for us. During 2017 I will still be involved in SIMGROUP and Debbie will still be involved with ACTS (Africa Christian Textbooks Service).
As always, thanks for your prayerful support.
In Christ,
David and Debbie
Saturday, 22 October 2016
Dear friends,
This is Debbie writing to give you an update on the last few months in Kagoro. We really appreciate your faithful prayers on our behalf.
Shopping Kagoro style! Someone called me this morning to say they had chickens for sale. I ordered one which was just delivered, ready to cook, thankfully without the head and feet! The tailor arrived this afternoon with my new outfit. Last semester a student gave me some lovely cloth and I am just getting it sewn now. It’s not quite online shopping but we can get quite a bit done through texts and phone calls!
Seminary News
We are praising the Lord that our classes are smaller and the workload more manageable this semester. There are fewer students in my classes and I have three courses instead of four because of changes in the curriculum. David is teaching four courses again which keeps him very busy.
However, we both have Master’s and undergraduate theses to supervise which takes up lots of time and energy. We need prayer for wisdom and patience as we help the students with their research.
As usual, November is a month full of meetings as well as graduation. We would appreciate prayer as we attend the SIM area council meeting in Jos on the 18th November and the ACTS Executive and Board meeting I will be at on the 28th and 29th of the month. The Seminary graduation is on the 26th November.
David is chairman of the Printing Committee for graduation. They have the task of organizing the production and publication of the programme and, for the first time, a brochure for the seminary.
In December this year, our Graduate Dean, Rev Dr Momolu Massaquoi, his wife, who also teaches at the seminary, and his family, are returning to ministry in Liberia after spending eleven years in Kagoro. Praise the Lord for their years of service at the seminary. Please pray for them as they return to work in Monrovia. In the meantime, the Provost has asked David to be ‘Interim’ Graduate Dean alongside Hassan Musa who will take on this position permanently by the middle of next year. David would appreciate prayer as he helps in this way. Presently, Hassan is finishing his PhD in Old Testament in South Africa. He is one of our former students and we are delighted that he will be one of our new faculty members from January, 2017.
December Travels
This year, one meeting will require more travel than usual. David is a permanent member of ‘SIM Group’, SIM’s cooperative insurance service. The annual Board meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the 6th December, so that stakeholders in Ethiopia can take a more active role in the running of this service. I’m going to accompany David on the trip. Niall McCune, an SIM missionary from Northern Ireland, works in Addis. It will be good to see him as well as some of the other SIM ministries during the three days we will spend there. We decided to make the most of the opportunity of being in east Africa by visiting good friends, Kevin and Joyce Richardson, who now work in Nairobi, Kenya, after spending many years in Jos. We will stay with them for one week before returning to Kagoro. We value prayer for safe travels, a successful meeting and a good time of reunion with our friends as we explore a different part of Africa.
Security
Although some progress has been made in the north-east of the nation, security has become a concern not too far from Kagoro. Many have been displaced due to violent attacks by herdsmen who have taken lives as well as destroyed crops which people depend on for their food. Please pray for Zwandien, our staff member, who lost his cousin and sister. He is one of many who are giving shelter to family members and friends who have had to leave their homes or who have lost their homes, in the last two months. Former students, Pastor Daniel, his wife, Hajara and their son, David, had to leave the church where they were working because of the danger. Much prayer is needed for God’s protection, an end to the violence and comfort for those who are grieving. Psalm 46.
After our travels we will have to complete our marking before going to the SIM Spiritual Life Conference in Miango in January.
We praise the Lord for a successful surgery for Coletta Shelly who had a cancerous tumour removed at the beginning of October. Pray for her as she has radiation treatment in the next few weeks and for her and Dennis as they plan to return to Kagoro at the end of December.
We appreciate your faithfulness in prayer and giving which is evidence of the Lord’s care and your loving partnership in the Gospel. Phil 4:19.
God bless,
Debbie and David Colvin
Friday, 2 October 2015
October prayer update
Dear Friends,
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
David here. Many thanks for your prayers for us. We are enjoying teaching at the Seminary and are almost half way through the semester. We have some assignments written by the students that we still need to mark. Hopefully, we can do that during the mid-semester break. Most of the courses we teach are accredited by the University of Jos so we have to submit end-of-semester exams and marking schemes to the University for approval. Pray that process goes well.
I have had a few opportunities to preach since returning. The most recent one was at a Boys' Brigade service at the Seminary. The BB used to be very popular in this region but declined somewhat in recent years. Several people are trying to revive this youth work and one of our students has taken it upon herself to get a Girls' Brigade company going at the Seminary Church. We believe the BB and the GB still have important roles to play here.
Last month Debbie mentioned a conference on Expository Preaching being run by Langham Partnership which will actually take place in early October it seems. We expect many of our students will attend the conference.
Though I am no longer the registrar, I am helping the Seminary in terms of administration with some computer support. Several of the computers at the Seminary have viruses on them and I am trying to disinfect them. Clearly our office staff need to be made aware of the importance of keeping the anti-virus software up-to-date.
A couple of our fellow missionaries have had their email accounts hacked recently so just in case someone breaks into one of our email accounts, please note we do not send out emails with attachments or requests for funds to our prayer supporters. Email messages will be text like this one or text with a few embedded pictures. Treat anything else with suspicion.
We have had a series of messages on Colossians at the Seminary and ask you to pray Col 1:9-10 for us. Thanks again for your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie
We send you greetings in the Name of our Lord.
David here. Many thanks for your prayers for us. We are enjoying teaching at the Seminary and are almost half way through the semester. We have some assignments written by the students that we still need to mark. Hopefully, we can do that during the mid-semester break. Most of the courses we teach are accredited by the University of Jos so we have to submit end-of-semester exams and marking schemes to the University for approval. Pray that process goes well.
I have had a few opportunities to preach since returning. The most recent one was at a Boys' Brigade service at the Seminary. The BB used to be very popular in this region but declined somewhat in recent years. Several people are trying to revive this youth work and one of our students has taken it upon herself to get a Girls' Brigade company going at the Seminary Church. We believe the BB and the GB still have important roles to play here.
Last month Debbie mentioned a conference on Expository Preaching being run by Langham Partnership which will actually take place in early October it seems. We expect many of our students will attend the conference.
Though I am no longer the registrar, I am helping the Seminary in terms of administration with some computer support. Several of the computers at the Seminary have viruses on them and I am trying to disinfect them. Clearly our office staff need to be made aware of the importance of keeping the anti-virus software up-to-date.
A couple of our fellow missionaries have had their email accounts hacked recently so just in case someone breaks into one of our email accounts, please note we do not send out emails with attachments or requests for funds to our prayer supporters. Email messages will be text like this one or text with a few embedded pictures. Treat anything else with suspicion.
We have had a series of messages on Colossians at the Seminary and ask you to pray Col 1:9-10 for us. Thanks again for your prayers.
In Christ,
David and Debbie
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