With a week to go we are dottiing the 'i's and crossing the 't's of our plans for going to Rwanda. Final team details have been put together and teaching handouts for the two conferences have been translated ready to be printed by DT office next week. The main teaching at the Byumba conference will be The Kingdom of God and in Gasabo it will be Refreshing Relationship with God. These sessions will be given by Andy. Please pray that the Lord would bless this teaching. Alan and Eleanor will also be leading some seminars.

Pray too for our brothers and sisters in Rwanda. Pray that we will be able to encourage them by our visits to parishes as well as at the conferences. Pray also that we will be ready to receive from them both in their practical generosity and also in what they can teach us about serving one another and walking humbly before the Lord.

It's a priviledge to be going and we ask the Lord to make each one of us on the team ready physically, emotionally and spiritually.

With just over two weeks to go before we fly out to Rwanda we have sponsors for about half the number of pastors and wives expected at our conferences. Praise the Lord!

So there is still opportunity for more sponsors to help us cover the costs of getting pastors and their wives to one of our conferences in the dioceses of Byumba and Gasabo.

Just £25 enables a delegate to attend a conference (so £50 per couple). If we have your email address, we will send you the names of those you are sponsoring so that you can pray for them specifically as well as for the conferences in general.

You can pay by cheque (including CAF & Charities Trust etc) or by direct transfer or via the Donate button on our web-site - www.damascustrust.org. Please quote the reference RDC 2016.

Finally meet Andy Paine.

Most of you will know that Andy oversees the work of Damascus Trust. He first visited Rwanda in 2009 and this will be his sixth visit. He and Liz recently moved to Tamworth and they have three grown-up daughters. He is enjoying getting to know some new cycle routes around Tamworth as well as some good walks beside the local rivers and canals.

Andy enjoys spending time with brothers and sisters in Rwanda and is impressed by their love for the Lord and their joy in serving Christ and his Church. They have much to teach us. He loves the singing and dancing (a bit like a stick insect when participating in the latter) and another highlight of each visit (for Andy at least) is the opportunity to drive the Mother's Union Land Rover to remote villages up and down the hills. It is also exciting and encouraging to see, first hand, the difference that our (DT's) 'five loves and two fish' can make under the blessing of the Lord. Andy is looking forward to catching up with the latest developments and growth in the different congregations in Byumba and Gasabo dioceses. 

Meet our married couple - Eleanor and Alan Gordon;

Originally from Glasgow in Scotland, we've lived in Tamworth for just over a year (when Alan became vicar of St Editha's) before which we were in a parish outside Winchester for almost thirteen years. We have been blessed with two lovely and accomplished daughters and four grandchildren - three boys and one girl who was born in June this year. 

Alan - I worked for a bank on leaving university and then as a lecturer in Risk and Financial Services in Glasgow Caledonian University. For a few years I played in a Christian band as well as taking part in Christian missions in Italy and France. I helped lead the youth work in our local church, and then became one of the church leaders. 

I was ordained in the Church of England in June 1998 in Winchester Cathedral. I served as a curate for four years and a further twelve as a parish priest in the Winchester area. Whilst serving as Area Dean for Winchester, I became involved with the Deanery's link Diocese in Africa, which happened to be Muhabura, Uganda just to the north of Rwanda. Eleanor and I were guests of the Bishop and on our way back to the UK we visited a friend in Byumba and I am looking forward to returning to the land of a thousand hills. 

Eleanor - I trained as a nurse in Glasgow where I worked at Yorkhill Children's Hospital until I married Alan.  After this I went into general nursing until moving to England with Alan and our daughters as he began training for ministry. 

Our church in Glasgow had an active ladies work including breakfasts and outreach. I helped organise these events and took part in seminars that we organised. I was also involved with the mothers and toddlers group, which provided good experience for starting one in the church in Winchester as well as a ladies breakfast. 

A period in District Nursing and palliative care followed before training in cancer care as a chemotherapy nurse. Latterly I became an Oncology Sister and Chemotherapy Specialist Nurse with responsibility for developing and running a busy chemotherapy unit and training chemotherapy nurses. I felt very privileged caring for people and families at a vulnerable time in their life. 

I have just retired; am open to new challenges and am looking forward to this opportunity of visiting and sharing with fellow-Christians in Byumba and Gasabo Dioceses. 

And now meet Isobel Mills:

As a school teacher, I enjoy spending my long summer break visiting different parts of the world, meeting new people and learning about their way of life.  Over the past few years I have joined short term mission teams to Uganda, Moldova and Kosovo, working with indigenous churches on a variety of projects, involving building, children's holiday clubs, visiting war widows and entertaining the elderly.  I am looking forward to my first trip to Rwanda in August and finding out about the joys and challenges for those living in Christian communities there.   I am particularly interested in visiting schools in Rwanda, where I understand that the nation has recently taken the decision to teach children through the medium of English.  I would be happy to offer to help in schools there, if this might be of assistance.  Also I expect to learn a lot about the different approach to education in Rwanda, which I may then share with my primary school pupils here in England, to broaden their learning experience.

So, let's meet the 2016 team.


Ladies first and it is Heather Ellis:

Hi I am Heather and I will be travelling to Rwanda again this year with Andy and the team. I am married to Pete and we have three sons and eight grandchildren. I live and work in Essex as a Nurse Practitioner in General Practice. This is not the first time I will visit Rwanda, so I hope to catch up with some friends I have made on previous visits. I hope to be a support and encouragement during the pastors' conferences, on our visits to SAP-linked parishes as well as continuing my involvement with establishing the DT Ubushuti on-line shop selling baskets and cards that have been made by widows in the dioceses of Byumba and Gasabo.