Serving Christians and Chaplaincies in the Military Worldwide

Building disciples - Shaping nations MMI Newsletter Autumn 2015

“Stand firm in the Lord”from a report by MMI Regional Team Leader for Europe, Rev Grozdan Stoevski

MMI’s new website address - www.mmi.org.ukEmail addresses now use @mmi.org.uk Contact the office on headoffice@mmi.org.uk

For a second year the Summer Adventure Retreat (SAR) tookplace at the Primorsko Club on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria,with 25 participants from 10 countries. This event provided an excel-lent environment for spiritual growth, leadership development andteam-building among the participants, combined with relevant Bibli-cal instruction and teaching.Grozdan led the daily Bible Lessons which were based on the Epis-tle to the Philippians and were followed each day by a practicalseminar, and daily team-building games following the themes“Preach Christ”; “Have the mind set of Christ”; “Know Christ”; “Re-joice in Christ”.The participants were a good blend of serving young officers, MCFleaders and their wives and MMI co-workers from Bulgaria, France,UK, Germany, Russia, Belarus, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and Slo-vakia. Some of their comments were

“the Spirit was in action!”“The fellowship was amazing.”“The role of the team building games could not be overestimated.““Thank you so much for the new friendships, for the morning

talks and the evening culture exchange.”The main adventure activities included sailing with four boats to theSt Anastasia Island as well as a Jeep Safari in the Strandja Moun-tains. The sailing was a great success with three of the four boatssailing fully rigged in the good winds on the way back.The Jeep Safari included a visit to the Bekliktash Rocks, a paganplace of worship dating back to the Stone Age, with some uniquecarved rock structures. It also had a portion of the route in the woodswhere Andrej (Russian MCF) volunteered to drive and demonstratedsome extreme driving skills acquired during his military service.Each evening was filled with a time of culture exchange, which in-cluded an MCF presentation of the respective country, personal tes-timonies and sampling of national cuisine, which was greatlyappreciated by all.The event served as an inspiration for the delegates from Slovakiaand Turkey to consider forming an MCF. We hope and pray that theevent can be repeated again in 2016, and aim to draw in participantsfrom all over Europe. The SAR again proved to be an excellent op-portunity to build unity among the military Christians from various na-tions and encourage all present to a closer and deeper relationshipwith Jesus Christ.

Surprise Meeting!

The Great Commission was thetheme of the 11th EuropeanMilitary Christian Meeting (EMCM)which took place at Lubbecke inJuly, providing an environment ofspiritual encouragement and fel-lowship for MFC leaders and theirwives from across Europe. Therewere 48 participants from 16 Euro-pean countries, together with spe-cial guests from the USA, SriLanka and Jordan. This year’smeeting also saw the commission-ing of Rev. Cdr Mike Terry with hiswife Rev. Nicky-Sue as the newAMCF VP for South and CentralEurope and Brig Gen IsamOumeish with his wife Grace asthe new AMCF VP for the MiddleEast. Each session in the pro-gramme provided a different per-spective of the Great Commission,and additionally Vasili Khimich

(Ukrainian MCF) and Eduard Roca(Moldova MCF) were able to giveseparate presentations and brief-ings about the situation in EasternUkraine. Both the Moldovan and

Ukrainian MCF put a lot of effortinto serving the fighting soldiers inboth countries as well as bringingrelief to the thousands of refugeesin Moldova. There was much inter-est in the situation and the respec-tive ministry efforts and at the endeveryone prayed for the two pre-senters. Another highlight was theofficial recognition of the “AllUkrainian Brotherhood”, led by Col(ret) Sergey Lysenko. This is thesecond Orthodox MCF to join theAMCF, following the Belarus MCF“Faith and Honour”, which was offi-cially recognized at AMCF GI 2014in South Africa.Delegates performed music, sangsongs and introduced nationaldances during the “Family Fellow-ship and Fun” session, which wasmuch enjoyed by all and created arelaxed atmosphere which helpedto build oneness and unity amongthe delegates in the spirit ofGal. 3:28. The Comission-ing of the two new AMCFVPs by Gen Srilal Weera-sooriya, Col (ret) JosMcCabe, Cdr (ret)Brian Parker and Col(ret) Richard Sandy tookplace as part of the CommunionService. The context of Holy Com-munion and the theme of the‘Great Commission’ providedan appropriate spiritual frame-work for the Commissioning

ceremony.The EMCM proved once again tobe the main AMCF/MMI event inEurope and no doubt it will con-tinue to serve the MCFs across theEurope under the godly leadershipof the AMCF VP for NE Europe, LtCol (ret) Torbjorn Bostrum nd theAMCF VP for SC Europe, Rev

Mike Terry, supported byMMI andACCTS

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Spiritual encouragement at Lubbecke

An unexpected meeting of Grozdan Stoevski,the MMI Regional Team Leader for Europe,and the Prime-minister of Bulgaria, Mr. BoikoBoriso, took place recently. Grozdan was able toshare that he is a minister and the two menagreed about the importance of faith in God!

by MMI European Team Leader Grozdan Stoevski

Samuel Coas andGrozdan Stoevski at EMCM

RIMP, the Rassem-blement Interna-tional MilitaireProtestant, is an an-nual gathering for mili-tary protestantChristians from acrossEurope and Francoph-one Africa. Organisedby the French Protes-tant Military Chap-laincy, this year's eventsaw 500 participantsfrom 15 nations assem-ble in the village ofMejannes-le-Clap nearNimes. The theme,"Where Are You?"aimed to promote dis-cussion about personalrelationships with God.MMI was representedby Rev'd Cdr (ret'd)Mike Terry,UMCF Pres-ident and MMI staff forFrancophone Africa Col(ret’d) Eric Mandilleand AMCF Vice Presi-dent for Europe, Southand Central, Cdr (ret'd)Brian Parker. Therewere delegations ofsignificant size fromGermany, Poland, Aus-tria and the Nether-lands, the latterincluding their DA.Translations into Ger-man and English werealso provided. Many

delegates were youngand the gathering wasa great opportunity forevangelism and disci-pleship, with a mixtureof thought-provokingand imaginative wor-ship, sermons andworkshop subjects.The Sunday morningsermon, based on Jn14:1-6, was overtlyevangelistic and re-ceived loud applause!It also gives great op-portunities for fellow-ship, networking andmutual encouragementon a personal basisand for fun! Some won-derful excursions wereorganised and a bandconcert was arrangedin the village square onthe Saturday evening;the Slovak PoliceForce Band was flownin especially for thisevent and it was won-derful to see villagersand military minglinghappily in the earlysummer evening. Theband also helped leadworship at the morningservice on Sunday.This is a significantevent with great oppor-tunities to extend thework of MMI and AMCF

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RassemblementInternational MilitaireProtestant (RIMP)by Former MMI European staff Rev Cdr Mike Terry

Moving forward withreconciliation inBelarusBased on a report by ACCTS staff member Col(rtd) Dick Barnes.

National flags ofall delegations atRIMP, France.

The 14th exchange visit between the Belarusianveterans Military Christian Fellowship and theBrandenburger Reserviste took place at the endof August. MMI was invited to attend and wasrepresented by European staff member Col (Ret)Igor Sawicki. These exchange visits are ex-tremely valuable and help to address the difficultproblem of reconciliation and forgiveness in anumber of ways, particularly through the develop-ment of long-lasting friendships with militarymembers of other countries and using these ex-change visits as an outward sign and example ofthe reconciliation process. The visit and cere-mony took place at Tarasova, North of Minsk.Sergei Kraule and Manfred Hildenbrand laid redcarnations at the memorial for Belarusian sol-diers who died during World War II. The groupalso visited a nearby cemetery, where two Ger-man soldiers were buried and laid flowers there.Reconciliation is a very difficult concept, but it isextremely important. The organisers plan to meetin Dresden, Germany next year.

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The East Africa prayerconvention held inUganda in August truly livedup to expectation as dele-gates were transformed spir-itually after time was givenfor individual confession andrepentance, worship andhearing the Word of God.Healings were witnessedand marriages on the brinkof collapse were restored.Much time was spent on re-pentance and prayers forthe nations of East Africa,and the troubled hotspots ofthe region, spearheaded bythe AMCF VP for EastAfrica, Brig David Wakaalo .The delegates engaged inspiritual warfare to identifyand break the root cause ofmany of the problems affect-ing the region. Brig DavidWakaalo presented thetheme of the conventionfrom Psalm 51:13-14 “ andrequested all in attendanceto observe a fast from themorning through to supperin the evening Apart fromthe host nation, sadly onlyBurundi and South Sudanwere able to be represented.During the convention expe-riences were shared aboutthe AMISOM – African Mis-sion in Somalia, the SPLAchaplain experience and thesituation in Burundi following

a coup attempt. The AMCFpresident General Weera-sooriya, gave a presenta-tion on mission and vision ofthe AMCF and a femalemember of UPDF sharedher moving story of abduc-tion and rape by terroristsbefore escaping to freedomand reunion with her family.There were teaching ses-sions on Israel and God’splan; Listening to the voiceof God for strategic direc-tion; Individual prayer time;From East African Revival toPentecost; Teaching andprayer for Sahel region; Pu-rity and holiness; Evangel-ism and discipleship;Intercession for DRC andCAR; Collective repentancefor the forces; and a presen-tation on chaplaincy by theIAEC delegates. There werealso presentations by invitedguest speakers including DrDickson Obwoya who gavea book to each delegate.Delegates were clearly re-vived for a closer walk withthe Lord Jesus Christ, em-powered for servant leader-ship and strengthening theirMCFs and engaging inevangelism to win souls tothe Kingdom of God.

Strengthening Fellowshipin Kenya and Zimbabwe

Transforming PrayerConvention in East Africa

by Max Mupondi MMI staff member for East and Southern Africa.

Warrior Training was devel-oped to help prepareyoung serving people to serveat the AMCF GI 2014 in SouthAfrica in December 2014. Andit’s success was evident to allwho attended this wonderfulevent. It was clearly a valuabletool in Southern Africa to helpreach out to the Joshua Gener-ation, the name given by Arch-bishop Henry Orombi, theprincipal speaker at AMCF GI2014, to people under 40. MMIstaff members Max Mupondi

and Eddy Amponsah attendedthe training prior to AMCF GI2014. The training had mixedlectures and talks with practicaloutdoor leadership experienceand included Bible studies,leading small groups andprayer.We are therefore delighted thatthe South African basedJoshua Trust (set up to organ-ise the AMCF GI 2014) hasdecided to continue and to fur-ther develop the Warrior pro-gramme. They held the first

Advanced Levelcourse in early July for some ofthose who had already com-pleted the basic course. Wehope that the course can beused to further develop young,future African MCF leaders. As-pects of Warrior Training mayalso have wider applications inother areas. Please pray forthis exciting development andthat the Lord will allow it to beused for His glory.

At our Prayer Day in June we were thinking about all the seeds, the ideas and the visions, that hadbeen planted at Global Interaction 2014. There were many amazing answers to pray and many peo-ple experienced being in the presence of God for the first time.BUT people then had to leave that anointed gathering and go back to their

normal life. It reminded me of bible stories where leaders spent time with theLord on a mountain top, but then came down from the mountain and ‘back toreality’. The ‘reality’ after an anointed time with the Lord can be very difficult.We prayed for those who were envisioned and given seeds of ideas for min-istry with the military; we need to continue to pray those seeds wont witherand die in the heat, or have insubstantial roots to stand against the storms.For many who were inspired at GI 14, and for MMI, the question of ‘where next’ or what now is veryreal. So, we took ‘Sign-posts and Pillars’, as a theme for the prayer day. Pillars are strong struc-tures, the bible mentions prayer pillars, but probably the best known pillars are those of fire andsmoke that guided the Israelites during the long journey through the wilderness. While we are feel-ing unsure of the way to proceed and looking for guidance, we have the Pillar of light – the light of

the World, and the Pillar of the word of God to guide us.

MMI Newsletter Autumn 2015 www.m-m-i.org.uk 5

Reaching out to the ‘Joshua’ generationby MMI CE-TL Col (ret) Jos McCabe RM

Praying with Sign-posts and Pillarsby prayer co-ordinator Sue Millard.

Warrior Training activities above and below.

INDIA - ASSAM REGIMENTWe know from friends in Delhithat Christian fellowship is aliveand well in some units of theIndian military. The challenge ishow to interact with militaryChristians.In 2010, our late beloved ChrisWest was convinced that the

Assam Regiment would have aChristian fellowship and wouldbe interested in the goals of theworldwide Association of Mili-tary Christian Fellowships(AMCF). The Assam Regimentis huge, comprising 15 regularbattalions in which 50% of thesoldiers are Christian.

For 2 years Chris and hisprayer team prayed for theAssam Regiment. Then fol-lowed a "chance" meeting witha retired 4 star Christian Gen-eral who is ex Assam Regi-ment. An exploratory trip to theAssam Regiment's recruitingarea around Shillong in NorthEast India followed in 2012.After Chris died in 2014, theAssam Regiment initiativeseemed to have died too How-ever, in August 2015, an MMIsupporter in India, met theChristian teacher of the AssamRegiment and we havelearned that regular churchservices are held on Sundaysattended by about 100 soldiers.Thanks be to God for this con-tact which will allow MMI torenew the initiative. Pleasepray for more contact with the

Assam RegimentSRI LANKA The MCF lead-ers conference planned to takeplace in Colombo in Septemberhas been postponed due to se-curity issues arising from snapelections.NEPAL Pastor Indra andSteve are working very hard tosupport military families af-fected by the dreadful earth-quakes. They continue to needour prayers and support asthey rebuild their country.NORTH INDIA KINGDOMChristians connected with themilitary continue to be perse-cuted and imprisoned on theleast pretext. However thereare signs of tolerance. Pleasepray for a courageous projectto build a Bible College.

Wherever we look in theMiddle East there is tur-moil and conflict. It is hard tokeep track of who is fightingwho and for what purpose. It isnot simply Sunni versus Shianor country against country, al-though there are elements ofthese factors in all the variousconflicts in the region. The oneclear distinction is of eithersupport for or opposition toISIL. The ISIL factor alone isbringing together the most un-likely ‘alliances’ - sometimesSunni and Shia sects, some-times even unlikely country ‘al-liances’.The general situation makes ithard to visit our contacts in theregion and for them within theircountry to progress any mean-ingful ministry amongst theirarmed forces. However, we re-main able to communicate byemail and telephone to encour-

age, and in some instances,provide practical help. Our con-tacts are doing what they canto provide spiritual support andpractical assistance to thosefamilies within their country,both Christian and non-Christ-ian, who have been forced toleave their own homes.We know that because of theturmoil many Christian familieshave left their own country toseek peace and stability else-where. Many are housed inovercrowded refugee campswith only basic essentials pro-vided by the UN or other chari-table organisations. Some, asa result of wider family links,have found their way to Europeor wider afield. Lord Weiden-feld, a Jewish Peer in theHouse of Lords, has set up aproject to rescue Christian fam-ilies from Syria and Iraq andenable them to settle in Europe

(Poland), which he sees as away of repaying his debt toChristians who helped him fleethe Nazis.What is God saying to us inthis time of conflict in the re-gion? As far as MMI is con-cerned we are giving prayerfulconsideration to holding a re-gional gathering (maybe inCyprus) to bring together ourvarious contacts and to hearfrom them how best to support

and encourage them duringthese testing times. Ourprayers are certainly neededbut is there more we can do ?As RTL an opportunity hasarisen to visit Erbil in the nearfuture, to meet new Christiancontacts there and to hear fromthose at the ‘front line’ whatthey most need and what MMImight be able to provide.

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Challenges in the midst of turmoilby MMI RTL Middle East Col Richard Sandy

South Asia round-upby MMI Regional Team leader for South Asia Paddy Hughes.

meeting an Assam Regt teacher

Syrian Refugees

I attended MEO for the 5th,and final time.MSO, our sister organisation,run this event to help invited del-egates from non-MCF and weakMCF countries to establish a fel-lowship or to build up an existingone. Delegates are invited byvarious means including AMCFVPs, ACCTS, MMI or MSO rec-ommendations, Korean Mission-ary recommendations oranother way. E.g. Thomas Beck,the Danish Chief Chaplain wasinvited by The Korean Ambas-sador to Denmark! We heard inAugust that the absent delegatefrom a very sensitive countryhad been arrested on the wayhome from collecting his visaand subsequently imprisonedfor 2 months and then thrownout of the armed forces withoutany pension or financial support.MMI is sending funds to helpthis person start a business tosupport his family in future.The MEO programme is a mix-ture of: briefings on AMCF,ACCTS, MMI and MSO and the

Korean Military Christian Organ-isations and on Korean Culture.There are lectures on key AMCFtopics e.g. Pray & Plan, Induc-tive Bible Study and Conversa-tional Prayer; lectures andexercises on establishing anddeveloping an MCF, done insyndicates and feeling verymuch being at Staff College(!); alecture on Christian Leadershipby AMCF VP General Lee, KapJin and cultural visits to the De-militarised Zone, much limiteddue to the outbreak of MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syn-drome) in Korea and the KoreanWar Memorial Museum. Nor-mally there would also be atten-dance of the opening ceremonyof the Annual KMCF meetingwhich is held in the same loca-tion during that week. It is aspectacular event with between12,000-15,000 serving Koreanyoung men and women takingpart. It leaves an indelible im-pression on anyone who wit-nesses it. Sadly this year theoutbreak of MERS led to its can-

celation.iI delivered 3 lectures coveringan Introduction to MMI, Conver-sational Prayer and Pray & Planas well as working with the par-ticipants on the syndicate workand helping with any difficultiesor questions they had on othertopics.It is a very full programme start-ing at 06:30 and ending no ear-lier then 21:00. A key benefit isthe contacts made and devel-oped at MEO and this yearthere were participants from,Ukraine, Slovakia, Denmark,India, Sri Lanka, South Sudan,

Chad, Guinea-Bissau and Bu-rundi. Most were known to MMIand attending on MMI’s recom-mendation. But those whoweren’t known to us have beenintroduced to our work and thento the appropriate RegionalTeam Leader.As in previous years it is a privi-lege to be involved in this pro-gramme and a valuable sourceof new contacts as well is work-ing with existing ones. MMIlooks forward to being able tocontinue taking part in this pro-gramme in future.

MMI Newsletter Autumn 2015 www.m-m-i.org.uk 7

Military Evangelism Observation in Seoul,South Korea – June 2015 By MMI Executive Secretary, Mike Paterson.

Praying for the participants is an important part of the programme

The lowest point was thephone call from HomfrayVines, in 2005, telling me thatIan Durie had been killed in anaccident in Romania. A sinkingdisbelief that many will remem-ber. Pause to pray for Janieand the family. There wereother difficult times as well be-

cause we are about the Lord’sbusiness of Kingdom buildingand Satan doesn’t like that.Then there were the highs, butI am an administrator and myhighs come in strange wayslike balanced accounts, tidy ta-bles, correct English, a cleardesk and a tidy office! From

that you may appreciate thestress of working with Spiritdriven pioneers! And yet therehave been wonderful highs ofbeing in the field at least annu-ally and meeting fellow militaryBelievers in far off places likeNepal and Bagladesh, Ukraine,Rwanda and from Israel, Egyptand Tunisia. Some of the manyhighs were from MEO pro-grammes like the one abovewhere I worked with our sisterorganisations and met newcontacts who later establishednew Military Christian Fellow-ships. Some will have metDražen at our last Supporters’Weekend. He established theCroatian MCF which has itsfirst annual meeting this yearand with MMI’s help they willbe inviting international guests.None would have been possi-

ble without the generosity ofthe saints that support us inprayer and with pennies - lotsof them. Thank you all for that.Nothing would have been pos-sible without the support of mypatient wife, Victoria who hasshared my high and low emo-tions close up and been a rockof support.

Thank you Lord and all whohave enabled me to be part ofthe ongoing MMI story.

Havelock House 2003 - Top: Mike, Michael Piper, Homfray Vines,Richard Sandy. Bottom: Ian Durie, Maria Smith, Simon Farmer

Sixteen years; really?Mike Paterson’s reflections

Arriving in Seoul with ThomasBeck n 2015

Text a donationDid you know you can donate toMMI by text?Simply text MMIX07 £2, £5 or £10(maximum) to 70070.orGive on line

Use this QR code togo to the MMI pageand give throughStewardship’sgive.net.Download a QR code reader fromApp Store or Google Play.

8 www.mmi.org.uk MMI Newsletter Autumn 2015

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PatronGeneral the Lord Dannatt

GCB CBE MC DLTrustees

Maj Gen Roddy Porter (Chairman)Maj (Retd) David BaldwinMrs Yvonne CobboldRev, Col (Retd) Richard CobboldRev Philip MajcherLt Col Innocent ShamsMrs Janet Seierstad (Norway)Maj (Retd) Homfray Vines

AssociatesCol Charles Amaning (Ghana)Jeremy ClareGen Tim CrossRev Simon FarmerMrs Anthea FillinghamGen Joshua Hamidu (Ghana)Col Peter HarveyCol Ivar HellbergLTC(R) Dell McDonald (USA)Gen Lee, Pil Sup (South Korea)Gen Sir Laurence NewCdr Michael and Mrs Sue PiperMrs Gina Rajah (Brazil)Lt Col Jan RansomCapt Inge Wold (Norway)Mrs Sue SkippageMaj John Seii (Kenya)Ian Willis

Autumn 15Croatia MCF meeting (withInternational guests)Nigerian training eventPortuguese MCF meeting (withAfrican guests)Ministry trip to SudanMinistry trips to India and NepalOrthodox consultation (Bulgaria)Ukraine MCF meeting

Winter 15/16Staff & Trustees RetreatSkiing RetreatMCF Leader training (East Africa)South Asia Leadership meeting(Sri Lanka)European Military Christian Meeting(Lübbecke)Supporters’ WeekendLithuanian Marriage SeminarMiddle East eventMinistry trip to Italy

MMI 2015/16 Programme

Following Mike Paterson’sretirement we have had toreorganise the MMI office.Arrangements until further no-tice will be as follows. We wel-come Alan Whiting who will joinus on a part time basis to helpmange MMI finances. Many ofyou know Alan already worksin a financial role with AFCUand he will continue to do this.Sue Millard will be working parttime for us to run our communi-cation and fundraising efforts.She will also remain as ourPrayer Coordinator. Jo Hill willcontinue as our financial andadministrative assistant. JosMcCabe as well as remainingChief Executive and TeamLeader spend some more timein the office and will coversome additional tasks previ-ously done by Mike. Jos will

devolve some of his AfricanTeam responsibilities to otherAfrican Team members overthe next few months.The Aldershot office will beopen from Monday to Thurs-days during normal officetimes. The office number and email will remain the same. OnFridays and out of normalhours an answer phone willtake messages or direct peopleto another number for urgentbusiness.We will need to work hard toensure we continue to supportmilitary Christians in our oper-ating areas effectively . Pleasepray as the new organisationbeds in, while we remain shorthanded and continue to lookfor another staff member to joinour office team

Office Teamarrangements

MMI CE-TL, Jos McCabe presents retiring MMI Secretary, Mike Patersonand his wife, Victoria with gifts from MMI supporters at Southwick ParkOfficers’ Mess.

New: Fundraising Pray & Plan Team.

We are looking for people to be part of ateam to prayfully plan and implement MMIfundraising. This will be a strategic prayer groupwith opportunities to participate in diversefundraising activities - some home based on acomputer, others more active and as big as youdare. If you have ideas or time we need you. Tovolunteer or for more information contact SueMillard on comms@mmi.org.uk

Can you be a part of it ?