TwinNED with tur'an baptist
In June 2016, we entered into a twinning relationship with Tur'an Baptist Church near Nazareth in Israel. Facilitated by Baptist Twinning in Israel, our minister Andrew has visited the church and their minister Ziad Farraj, both with the charity and as a smaller group from WRBC. On our last visit to Tur'an in April 2019, we were able to join the church for worship and present Ziad & family with the tickets for their visit to us that July.
Words from Ziad:
”This is great news to hear about Walsworth Road wanting to build a twinning relationship with us in Tur'an. This is an answer that we prayed for for many years and we had the faith that God will do it in the right time.”
The main worship service is on Saturday evening with a prayer meeting on Wednesdays. Tur'an Baptist also has a Youth meeting on Fridays evenings with a discipleship program once a fortnight for the older youth. There are two women's meetings for different age groups, a children’s ministry and an annual camp in the summer - their 2019 Holiday Club actually ran the same week as ours!
Working together until now, Ziad and Saleem (the former church leader) and their wives have been leading the church, to be a loving church towards God and to his people, and to be ready to announce the Good News for the people around them in Tur'an, both Christians and Muslims.
In December (eChurch #39 Sunday 13th), we launched our Tur'an Appeal seeking to raise funds to repair, refurbish and redecorate the youth space (formerly where church was held) in the building at Tur'an. At our church meeting in January, we shared news that over £1300 had been donated and already sent to Tur'an - our next update is due in May!
Please Pray For:
REQUEST 9 May 2020 We are in need of your prayers today (read more)
Church: how we can be here as a church, supportive of members but also outward focused, into Tur'an and Galilee, so we can lead the people to Christ
Funding: our income and tithing is limited, not even covering a part time pastor’s salary. Please pray that God would provide so that Ziad can work less in a full time job and instead work as pastor to the church
Building: Repairs continue to be made to our old building, the budget is about £40,000. We only have a small part of that amount.
Vision: In our vision, the church building in the picture is going to be a key place for the strength of the ministry of the church, not only can it be used for the church services but also will be used for hosting guests and missionaries to help with the ministry. Guests can be taught about Christian Eastern orientation and we also believe it's going to be a prayer centre. The number is big but we believe that God can provide the need through different ways.
To discover more about Tur'an Baptist, the ministers and families, and the local area, download the PDF!
