| As a church we support in a small way an organisation called Release International
which helps persecuted Christians around the world.
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| We decided that we would like to help a project with children involved, so that our own children
could occasionally write. We felt they needed to understand what was happening to other
Christian children in the world and support those children in albeit a small way.
When we asked Release International about such a project they suggested the Stephen
Centre; what they didn't know is that an ex-elder and much loved friend of the
Branches is Nigerian and comes from Kaduna where some of the children are from!
It meant that our children knew that this was a real place, where real people came from,
not just "somewhere the other side of the world".
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| The Stephen Centre,is a school in Abeokuta, SW Nigeria run by Voice of the
Christian Martyrs. The school looks after needy children; some of whom have lost one or
both parents (and often other friends and relatives) as a result of the fighting between
Muslims and Christians in Northern Nigeria.
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| We don't have a collection as part of our Sunday morning service, but we started to ask
people to put money into a pot, which would be sent to The Stephen Centre once a month
to use for the Stephen Centre. From somewhere a fluffy toy called Bam-bam appeared and ended
up sat behind this pot most Sunday mornings. There is now fierce competition amongst the
toddlers to hold "Bam-bam's pot" each Sunday morning and collect the pennies. Most importantly
we pray, sometimes in the service and sometimes in Sunday school, for the children at the
Stephen Centre.
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In June 2006 we were pleased to meet Isaac Newton (yes really) the
principle of the Stephen Centre whilst he was on a visit to the UK.
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| He both blessed and moved us with the stories he told and it was fantastic to be able to
send some small gifts home to the children with Isaac. Being near world cup time we sent
footballs as well as arts and crafts materials (comments were made that if Nigeria beat
England in a few years time it may be our fault!)
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| To see some stories from the Stephen Centre please click a thumb nail. |
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| JD 10 years old |
GA 11 years old |
JAI 7 years old |
ND 9 years old |
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| To learn more about the Stephen Centre you can visit their website
www.stephens-persecution.com
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| To learn more about Release International you can visit their website
www.releaseinternational.org
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Branches 2007