Last updated 18th March 2021

Diocesan World Mission Partners

The Diocesan Being Witnesses team coordinates prayer support for Mission Partners working in four locations overseas and two chaplains to the forces.

Please would you pray for the individuals/families below, and others who are working abroad to transform communities by being witnesses through words and deeds.

To facilitate regular prayer for all the Mission Partners, each appears in Blackburn Prayers.

Derek and Nerina Harborne are working with African Inland Mission (AIM) in Mbarara, Uganda. Their sending church is St Andrew’s Leyland and Buckshaw Village Church. They work at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and the University Hospital in Uganda. Nerina is a lecturer and researcher in MUST’s Biochemistry department and Derek works in the hospital’s Accident & Emergency department, teaching students and helping to improve the work of the Department. They were invited to go to Mbarara University and Hospital in 2012 as improvements in health and education were needed. They are part of an AIM team which centres on ‘transformational development’ – the change in behaviour that the gospel brings. They work with students, particularly helping with discipleship, Bible study, and teaching them how to be Christian professionals. They pray that through their ministry students will be better equipped to be Christian leaders and church planters.

‘Graham and Fiona’ (names changed to protect their identities) are working in a least reached part of the Horn of Africa (they call it Wonderland for security reasons) but are currently in the UK. In mid 2020 their team had to leave because of terrorist threats and, although the rest of the team decided not to return to Wonderland, Graham and Fiona are now preparing to go back alone, once they have had their coronavirus vaccinations.

“We have found that in this fundamentalist and volatile society there is an openness to experiencing God personally insofar as people are wanting to know God’s will and please him. But that sits alongside a strictly enforced closed mindedness to considering an alternative understanding and experience of God in Jesus, a gospel which, for hundreds of years, people have been taught is a lie.”

As part of their commitment to serving the community, Graham will resume his volunteer work as a clinical mentor in the local hospital & Fiona in the college of health sciences. But much of their lives involve removing obstacles, (the rocky soil that makes it difficult for the seed of truth to be sown and to take root) and walking alongside people who want to grow into a fuller understanding and experience of the love of God in Jesus, something that takes time and secure relationships. “We know God is at work in people’s hearts and he has called us to be a part of that work in a difficult and insecure environment among a people He loves and we love. “.

They retain some links with St Barnabas and St Peter Darwen and St John Baxenden.

Rev. Peter and Hwee Ping Warren have been based in Cambodia for seven years. Peter was previously Vicar of Christ Church Blackpool, their sending church.

Steve and Lisa Haskett are ‘sandgrown’, born and brought up in Blackpool where Steve served as both Curate and Vicar. From January 2021, they will be serving a Christian charity and ministry called Life Association, overseeing their work in India and working both here in the UK and in India. Life Association seeks to reach and serve the poorest of the poor with the Gospel of Jesus in both word and deed, and has a particular focus on children.

In addition to the above missionaries, please also remember in your prayers Padre Giles Allen and Padre Gary Humphreys who are both serving Army Chaplains.

For more information please contact: beingwitnesses@blackburn.anglican.org

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