Background

Holy Trinity offers financial, material, prayer and other support to voluntary organisations and to individuals involved in missionary work. The aim is to enable people to become involved in, or exposed to mission work as a means of deepening their faith. It also helps our community to respond to and support mission initiatives arising in Holy Trinity.  Here we explain how we operate and the main mission organisations which Holy Trinity supports. 

Holy Trinity tithes its annual income and from that money it makes grants to a small group of charitable organisations inside and outside Belgium. These recipient organisations must;

• Have an active liaison / contact person in the Holy Trinity congregation
• Submit an annual report to the Mission Committee on how the funds were spent (this report to be included in Holy Trinity’s Annual Report for the following year’s AGM)
• Fit at least one of Holy Trinity’s four agreed strategic priorities for mission support (below)

1. Spreading the gospel
2. Care for people
3. Care for creation 
4. Support for Christians facing persecution

Process

Holy Trinity’s Mission Committee receives numerous requests for funding and assesses them carefully against the agreed criteria above. A list of proposed funding commitments is then discussed with the Church Council early each year, and following their agreement the recipient organisations are informed and the grants are made during that year.

Most of the funding available is committed early in the year, but a small part is retained for allocation later in the year, to respond to further requests, needs.

Holy Trinity Brussels Mission Committee

The Committee meets quarterly and progresses business in between meetings by e-mail. It also maintains regular contacts with recipient organisations through personal meetings when possible.

Current Mission Committee members:

• Diana White - Chair
• Sarah Godman - Secretary
• Sue Bird - Treasurer
• Ann Barleycorn - Bun Sunday manager
• Robert Francis
• Robert Innes

In 2010 the following Mission commitments were already agreed:

Organisation                                                    Amount              Strategic priority

Mission East                                                    €3,000                         2

Mission East is a Danish international relief and development organisation that has been working in Eastern Europe and Asia since 1992. Their aim is to deliver relief aid, to create and support long-term development projects and to empower local aid organisations to carry on the work independently. From the very early days HTB members have been involved as both volunteers in some of the countries they work in and full time staff in Mission East's Brussels office. http://www.miseast.org

David and Evelyn Baines (Wycliffe)                €1,000                            1

David and Evelyn Baines are members of Wycliffe, whose goal is to give everyone the opportunity to use the Bible in their own language. They are currently working with SIL International, on the FieldWorks software project. FieldWorks is a suite of computer programs that help a language project to manage and store the data they collect during the course of a project. Fieldworks can store anthropology notes as well as language data. It can also help to develop a bilingual dictionary and provides a Bible editing tool that can speed up the process that leads to printing Scripture. If you'd like to contact David or Evelyn, their email address is david-evelyn_baines@sil.org.

A Rocha                                                           €3,000                             3

A Rocha is an international Christian conservation organisation caring for God's earth through practical community-based conservation projects in 16 countries worldwide. For more information visit: www.arocha.org

Working with refugees in the Middle East     €1,600                             1

Sheila Cuthbertson                                         €2,000                             1

With YWAM in Brussels

Protestant Social Centre                                 €3,000                             2

The Protestant Centre for Social Support offers a general advice service to those in need, plus specialized services for asylum seekers, support to prisoners and ex-prisoners and debt management advice. Around 17 paid staff and 40 volunteers contribute to their programme of social action. The PSC works in collaboration with other service providers, with the protestant churches and with various catholic and lay organizations in Brussels and elsewhere. The PSC is open to all, irrespective of race, religion and political affiliation. Located in Ixelles, close to Holy Trinity, the PSC provides a vital source of support to many people living in poverty and on the margins of Brussels’ society. http://csp-psc.be/home

Projects to Support Refugees from Burma    €2,000                             1, 2

Projects to Support Refugees from Burma and Help 4 Forgotten Allies (H4FA) funds educational and humanitarian work among Karen and Karenni people living on the Thai Burma border. There are around 150,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burma border, and among them are veterans or their widows from the Second World War who fought with the British. This dwindling group of very old people have had their small grants cut and H4FA has been able to replace these this year. Holy Trinity has also supported a Bible College in a Karenni refugee camp. See http://handsoffriendship.eu for more details or contact Sally Steen at sally.steen@gmail.com.

Urban Development Programme (UDP), Nairobi €2,000                           2

The Urban Development Programme of All Saints' Cathedral Nairobi is working with resettled communities in the slums of Kayole and Dandora (Nairobi). It is an integrated development programme, which has provided water, latrines, a nursery school, and some housing, and is about to embark on several income generating projects. HTB is helping the Programme with a low-cost and effective health care element, which the communities value highly (particularly at this time of climate change and crisis), and which is essential to underpin the progress being made in other parts of the Programme. http://www.allsaintsnairobi.org/ministries/62-evangelism-outreach-pillar.html

Diocese of Luweero, Uganda                          €500                               1,2

The Church of Uganda’s development programme

Inter-Continental Church Society                   €1,500                              1

Anglican mission society http://www.ics-uk.org/

Prison chaplain working in Belgium              €750                                1

Exodus Vision Malawi                                     €500                              1,2

Ministry to refugees in Dzaleka camp in Malawi http://www.handsoffriendship.eu/

Tabitha Ministries, Middle East                      €1,500                             1,2

Reconciliation between conflict affected youth in Mid East http://www.tabitha-ministries.org/en/index.htm

Christian Solidarity Worldwide                       €1,500                               4

The Persecuted Church - Supporting Christians facing persecution. For more information on the how to support and pray for the persecuted church, please visit the Christian Solidarity Worldwide website.

Photos : A Rocha, Pavel Svelik, Martin Bernhard

Total agreed commitment March 2010: €23,850

Total available for 2010 €29,426.73

Total estimated still for allocation 2010 € 5,576.73