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OUR MISSIONARIES

Goring Free Church supports missionaries from five different organisations:

Wycliffe Bible Translators
WEC International
World Horizons
SIM
Sierra Leone Mission

Read on to find out more! Click on the list above to learn more about the organisations.

WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS

Katy Barnwell joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1963 and served in Nigeria from 1964 - 1989.
From 1971-76 she served as Co-ordinator of Bible translation programs for SIL in Nigeria. Then she focused on the training of Nigerian translation consultants and translators.
From 1981-89 she served as Translation Co-ordinator for SIL Africa Area.
From 1989-1999 she was International Translation Co-ordinator during which time she led training seminars for translation consultants and other translation-related programs in Kenya, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Philippines, Cyprus, and North America.

She has written textbooks on Bible translation and literacy and published a number of articles in Notes on Translation, and The Bible Translator.

Since 2001 she has been with the Seed Company, involved in the development of the Luke Partnership project, a partnership between The Seed Company and the JESUS Film project, working in countries like Madagascar, Ethiopia, East Asia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Carl and Joy Follingstad have worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1985.
They worked with the Tyap people of Central Nigeria developing the language and doing Bible Translation.
They are now living in East Africa where Carl consults with clusters of related language groups to do Bible translation through computer assisted adaptation.
They have three children, Rachel (1989), David (1991) and Rebekah (1994).
Joy teaches English as a second Language. Carl and Joy attended Goring Free Church from 1994-97 while Carl was doing further studies.

Gary and Kris Caffo
Gary and Kris Caffo have been members of Wycliffe Bible Translators since 1985, serving in an administrative support capacity.

They've worked in Kenya, England and are now based at a Wycliffe centre in Orlando, Florida where they provide support for teams in the Eurasia Area.

Gary serves as Finance Co-ordinator and Project Funding Manager and Kris serves as bookkeeper to two of the Eurasia Area groups.

It was a privilege to have them worshipping here with us at Goring Free Church for seven years while they were based at the Wycliffe Centre, High Wycombe.



WEC INTERNATIONAL

Tim and Fiona Fung Tim and Fiona Fung are with WEC International. After 8 years serving in Chad, Africa they are now based in Normandy, France, where they live with their 3 daughters; Jasmine (7/2/96), Danielle (9/1/98) and Caroni (21/5/00).
They work with "La Source", a Baptist church in Lisieux which has a vision to help resource and encourage churches and new congregations in the Normandy region.
Fiona's ministries:
Fiona is involved in the children’s work at the church, and also at the Café Association on a large council housing estate.
The Association runs activities for the community such as homework help, English clubs, kids craft times and computing for senior citizens. It provides an oasis for families, single mothers and the elderly. She also is involved in Bible teaching and occasionally preaches.
Tim's ministries:
Tim is currently the worship co-ordinator at the church and trains others and youth in worship. In 2011, he realised a dream of a lifetime when God graciously engineered it that he could be guitarist for the Resonance UK band. Not only a worship group, it’s made up of British-based musicians with ethnically-diverse “heart music” influences. Tim has a vision to establish a nationwide/international music and mission ministry called "Resonance France" based on the "Resonance UK" model.

WORLD HORIZONS

Ivan and Hazel Stewart
Ivan and Hazel Stewart have been in World Horizons since they were sent out from Goring Free Church in August 1991.
Their calling then was, and still is, simply to be useful. (1 Corinthians 12:28)

They were based for 19 years at the World Horizons Centre, Llanelli.
There, they were involved in many aspects of the ministry including maintenance, admin, English teaching, prayer trips to Greece and other countries. They became responsible for co-ordinating the catering and hospitality in the Centre.
They also had involvement with the training programme.

Since March 2010 they have been seconded to Ffald-y-Brenin Christian Retreat Centre in North Pembrokeshire.
They are involved there in the day to day running of the Centre and serve as part of a growing team as new ministries evolve.
For example, the TransMed ministry. (A partnership to see missional houses of prayer established in the countries around the Mediterranean). See the Ffald-y-Brenin website www.ffald-y-brenin.org for further information.
Hazel and Ivan have 2 sons; Tim is married to Helen and they have a daughter Tilly. Ben is married to Amy.





SIM

Tim and Tricia Barrow
Tim and Tricia Barrow have been missionaries with AEF and SIM.

Their first fourteen years were spent in Zimbabwe, the first ten of those in a very rural situation close to the Mozambique border in the beautiful East Highlands.
At Rusitu, Tim taught at a small Bible College and later became Principal.
Tricia was heavily involved in HIV/AIDS and orphan work.
The last four years of their time in Zimbabwe was spent in Harare where Tim oversaw field leadership for the team, and Tricia worked closely with their partner Church in multiplying the HIV/AIDS work church-wide.

They left what had become their home in December 2004 as Tim took up a Deputy Regional Director position in the new ROSA (Region of Southern Africa) office in Johannesburg. He is now the Regional Director of SIM (Serving in mission) for South Africa.

They have four children; Michael, Ben, Sacha and Gabby. Michael is married to Sarah and they are based in the US. Ben and Sacha are currently in further education in South Africa and Gabby attends a local High School.





SIERRA LEONE MISSION

Why Sierra Leone?
The Countess of Huntingdon, Lady Selina Shirley, was part of the 18th Century Evangelical Revival which gave birth to Methodism, and giving up her entire fortune she raised money to pay for ministers to preach the gospel, mainly in England and Wales.
She also sent ministers to the United States where they came into contact with Negro slaves, who were converted to Christianity, and after helping the British fight in the American War of Independence, were promised their freedom.
After an unsuccessful attempt at settling them in cold, inhospitable Nova Scotia, the British Government agreed to give them passage to West Africa, where some 1196 of them landed in what is now Freetown, on March 28th 1792.
About half of them were 'Huntingdonians' and they kept the name of the church to which the ministers who had preached to them belonged. The English church was totally unaware of their existence for some years. Eventually a link was established, with the formation of the Sierra Leone Mission, and has been maintained in various ways ever since.
The Huntingdon Churches in Sierra Leone celebrated their bicentenary in 1992 with a procession through the streets of Freetown followed by a rally and many other celebrations.
The Connexional Churches are primarily in the Freetown Peninsula
There are now about 25 churches in total but this number is constantly increasing, particularly in the rural area between Magbafti and Mabang.