Ministries
Ferndale and Education
Ferndale is only too well aware of the rapid changes which are taking place in the world of education, both nationally and locally and seeks, in a number of ways to bring a Christian focus to bear on influencing those changes.
The Minister, Dr Stephen Dray, has just been appointed Visiting Scholar at Sarum College and is actively encouraged and supported in this work by the members of the Church.
One of our deacons, Ron Wright is a Vice-chairman of the Southend-on-Sea YMCA and Vice-chairman of Governors at a local junior school.
Peter Dray, is currently living in Lancaster, where he works for the universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, which nurtures the spiritual lives of students in that area. Our Assistant Minister, Gareth Leaney, has been working with the chaplaincy at the University of Essex, Southend campus. You can read more about Gareth elsewhere on our site. Other members of our Church and congregation are involved with school governance or work in schools locally and we share one vision.
Today the children of our country face challenges which we would never have foreseen even a few short years ago. We recognise that they need to be nurtured in an environment based upon sound Christian principles. In all our work with and for young people we are seeking to be a positive influence on both the local and national scenes so that our children will grow up knowing they are loved and cherished and valued and appreciated.
Bar’n’bus
Bar’n’bus is a charity that exists to help, support and motivate young people. It’s principal aim is to provide young people with a credible alternative to becoming involved in alcohol, drugs and crime. It also seeks to provide all young people with a sense of purpose through Christian belief.
The organisation’s double-decker buses act as mobile youth clubs on wheels. Facilities on board include TVs, videos, computer games, table football, a prayer room and comfortable place to chat. The buses go out on a weekly basis during evenings to various locations throughout southeast Essex. On board are fully trained volunteer teams (including Ferndale’s David Christian), who are equipped to deal with any problems or difficult questions. Their role is to meet, befriend and build a positive relationship with young people.
Bar’n’bus also offering services of counselling and mentoring, and are involved in schools work. For more details see http://www.barnbus.org.uk/.
Focus Radio
Focus Radio is a mass media and multi media agency based in the UK, specialising in creative ways to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with people today. Founded in 1976 to produce radio programmes for international evangelism, Focus Radio produced the news programme ‘World of Science’ for many years. It was broadcast all over the world. As well as scientific news, it included interviews with leading research scientists who were also followers of Christ, and comments on scientific issues (such as the ethics of Genetic Engineering) from the perspective of a follower of Christ.
Current Focus Radio output includes ‘Abundant Life’ - a series of training programmes based on the course of the same name published by SEAN - Study by Extension for All Nations. We have broadcast ‘Abundant Life’ in Russian, Latvian, and several other languages of the former Soviet Union, as well as in English. In September 2000, Focus Radio organised a partnership of radio organisations to send seventeen broadcasters and journalists to Sydney for the Millennium Olympic Games. They broadcast reports and interviews in nine major languages to hundreds of radio stations on all five continents.
Recently, Focus has produced and distributed ‘Facing the Challenge’, a course for churches which gets Christian participants to consider a Bible-based response to the challenges and opportunities of post-modern culture. For more, details visit http://www.focus.org.uk
New Start
New Start is a Christian charity offering support and accommodation, mainly to young people. It arose in response to the need of young people in the church’s youth group. It became evident that no facilities existed within the Southend to assist in the provision of supportive accommodation for those not able to live at home. The need had been apparent for two years when, in December 1995, Ferndale deacon Ron Wright took early retirement from P&O. New Start became operational in December 1996.
At present, New Start operates 32 people in 11 dwellings consisting of single flats, family houses and shared accommodation. Some of those helped have found faith and the project has been particularly successful in helping ex-offenders and those with mental health problems.
The preferred model of operation is that a young person enters a home with a house parent. This provides the opportunity for good witness and support with life and spiritual issues, in the atmosphere of family. As the person becomes more independent, the project seeks to provide independent flats. This model offers a means of delivering security and hope for your people.
Current ambitions include the purchase of six ‘move on’ flats. There is also need for Christians to volunteer as house parents. The need for such secure safe accommodation in Southend remains great. A partnership with Cirdan Trust is also developing. The aim is to provide all young people in project with a sailing voyage to help them develop working relationships and discipline and to experience Christian example and nurture by prayer and teaching. Active attempts are taking place to establish a ‘peace’ ministry for those who are strangers to (or have lost) the peace that the Gospel furnishes. The project is currently actively seeking a property in Scotland where this ministry can be delivered.
Joseph & Lydia Paul
In response to the Boxing Day tsunami, the Ferndale congregations decided to seek to provide ongoing tangible support to an orphanage in Chennai (formerly Madras) at the centre of the devastated Tamil Nadu region in south India. The orphanage is a charity run by two friends of the Ferndale Baptist Church, Joseph and Lydia Paul, and already housed 19 children. Joseph and Lydia indicated a willingness to welcome other children who lost their families in the tragedy. Several children did join the orphanage as a consequence.
As the months passed, support for victims of the tsunami meant that the needs of most of its young victims were met.
However, Joseph and Lydia have now moved to a purpose-built site and it should prove possible to increase the number of children cared for to 90. While most of the young victims of the tsunami have had their needs met by other agencies, there remains a huge need among the homeless in Chennai. We are actively seeking to support Joseph and Lydia in their work.
Susan Lodge
Susan Lodge is Ferndale’s Link Missionary from the Baptist Missionary Society. She is a primary school teacher who will be working at the GDQ school in Tirana, Albania from September 2005. GDQ is a school for the children of multinational mission workers in Albania. Previously a BMS volunteer at GDQ for six months in 2003, Susan was also a member of the BMS Summer Team to Poland in 2002. Susan has been training for long-term mission at the BMS International Mission Centre, Birmingham during 2004-05.
For more details, see the BMS World Mission website.
Sopot Baptist Church
Sopot is Southend’s municipal twinned town. It is a beautiful resort on the Baltic Sea with 40,000 inhabitants, near to the city of Gdansk. The area is mainly Roman Catholic in faith. Sopot Baptist Church was suppressed under Communism. However, in the 1990s it was re-planted under the leadership of Pastor Krzystof Osiecki. It has now grown to approximately 40 members of various ages. Among its activities it is involved in an annual outreach into western Ukraine where it supports the establishment of schools and churches in areas of considerable deprivation. In May 2004 Pastor Osiecki visited Southend, and Ferndale minister Stephen Dray visited Sopot. We hope that this is the first step in close links between the congregations. You can visit their website at http://www.baptysci.com