Newsletter December 2024

Like us, you’ve probably already had quite a few Christmas newsletters from friends, so this is probably not quite an ideal time to send our ministry newsletter update! But we do have news to tell and are also asking for your prayers once again. Anyway …first the fun bit!

Malmesbury Abbey ‘Contemporary Carols’ concert – Dec 15^th

This is a fun event I love doing each year! It’s a chance for me to play with a good worship band and we get to present a couple of more modern Christmas songs as well as a few traditional favourites.

Last year we didn’t feature a school choir, but this year I worked with a year 6 group from Malmesbury Primary. I got to know them pretty well as I went into school to rehearse with them once a week starting right after October half term. They performed ‘Love Shone Down’ (maybe you remember it?) and also a lively South African township Christmas song to a backing track.

They did brilliantly on the night, so let me give a quick shout out to the whole group and especially my amazing soloists, Eva, Max, Kira and Hannah!

Zimbabwe visit in January 2025 – launching a new reconciliation ministry

I’m back out to Harare, Zimbabwe on January 15^th next year and will be there this time for around 2 weeks, with Pastor Joseph Nyamutera from Rwanda. This visit is to support our four friends who were trained at the International School of Reconciliation in Kigali earlier this year.

Pastor Chidewu, Pastor Musora and their wives (both called Ruth) now feel called to begin a new ministry of reconciliation in Zimbabwe based around the HHTN teaching model, having experienced it themselves. They are both pastors of some 25 years standing and have many contacts throughout the country. We hope in time to set up a Zimbabwe School of Reconciliation, but as an initial step we have all decided to host two pastors prayer breakfasts, one in Harare on January 18th and the 2nd in Bulawayo on January 25th. Invited pastors will number around 25 for each event.

Joseph will speak at these events and I will lead some worship. We will also be seeking the Lord together and visiting some key massacre sites around the Bulawayo region for prayer and repentance. We are looking to the Lord to use these prayer breakfasts to build a small network team from different backgrounds who could work together to host future HHTN conferences in different parts of the country, and give opportunity for people who have experienced historic trauma in their lives to be healed. As you will know, so many in Zimbabwe carry deep wounds from the past and their lived experience is one of hopelessness on account of the broken political system that discriminates against them. These would include very many living in borderline poverty, dispossessed farmers (black and white), and those who have lost family through war and tribal conflict, among others. Zimbabwe is a country in financial crisis, has no hard currency and is currently experiencing crippling inflation. I have promised our pastor friends that I would try to raise a budget of US$3000 (£2000) in order to help them fund these prayer breakfasts as well as our accomodation and transportation costs to and from Bulawayo. So far, they have been diligent in organising both events, largely in faith that funds will be available to pay the bills.

Prayer and fund-raising request – a budget of £2000 (US$3000) is needed:

Can you help? Please contact us and let us know if you can! Time is quite short, and the Christmas period is perhaps not an ideal moment, but I plan to actively raise funds via our ministry website; we have also received a ton of support in the past from those in our church family and home group. After January 27^th, I plan to stay with Greg and Sophie Sanguine for a few days as I am keen to support their WayMaker School project any way I can. After flying back to Jo’burg, I also plan to stay with Pholoso and Kelcy who are a newly married couple I’ve known for quite some time. Pholoso is now a Baptist minister and is keen for me to drop by and visit. They live close by Dave & Liz Pass, also old friends, so I will see them as well during my last weekend before flying home.

’Selam Ethiopia!’ – the tracks are finished, mixed, and mastered.

This was a major project for me, which involved very many hours of editing and compiling in my studio, after the June visit to record the vocals. The range of song styles is enormous; some in a kind of pentacostal modern dance form, some reggae, and at the other extreme, two songs in an orthodox church cultural style, featuring traditional instruments like the mazenko, kirar and ethiopian flute. My friend Joseph from Rwanda made this observation: ‘this was such a spiritual and cultural journey for you’. My own feelings exactly! But I loved learning about the different cultures within Ethiopia, and trying to understand their music, which took a lot of background study on my part. Now, our prayers are simply that God will use these songs to bring blessing, peace and healing across the nation.

Best of all, when the guys over there heard the final mixes for the first time, they were really overwhelmed. My prayer is that all the singers will be hugely encouraged by what they achieved together. I know for sure it has already been a powerful spiritual journey for all of them; they have expressed it to me. Their songs go deep (they worked so hard on the lyrics!), embrace themes of unity, tribal forgiveness, healing in the church as a whole and across different denomination expressions, even the nation itself. Many key languages are represented, so that touches a key sensitivity within Ethiopia. Some tribes have been in a kind of violent enmity with each other for a very long time.

We aim to launch the songs next year. Please pray that God shows us how to do it! Please also join with us in praying that next years National Peace Conference will be a suitable vehicle for drawing together pastors, government representatives, worship leaders and musicians from highly diverse church traditions, for prayer and intercession for the nation as a whole. We’d like to finish by wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Love from Dave & Jean

Diary Dates – Winter / Spring 2025

• • Jan 12th: First Malmesbury Abbey 6pm service (lead worship)
  • Jan 15th: Flight to Harare via Jo’burg
  • Jan 19th: Zimbabwe pastors prayer breakfast (Chinese restaurant in Harare)
  • Jan 26th: Zimbabwe pastors prayer breakfast (Bulawayo)
  • Jan 27th: Staying with Greg & Soph at their WayMaker School
  • Jan 30th: Flight to Jo’burg; staying with Pholoso & Kelcy
  • Feb 2nd: Flight home to London
  • Feb 25th: ‘Sanctuary’ (Malmesbury Abbey)
  • March 18th: ‘Sanctuary’ (Malmesbury Abbey)
  • April 12th – 19th: Family skiing holiday!