North Africa

For the past 15 years North Africa has been a major focus for Yeovil Community Church. North Africa is a mainly Muslim part of the world and the small church there faces many problems and pressures. YCC believes that all people everywhere have the right to hear and experience the Good News of Jesus and to decide what faith they want to follow.

YCC has sent many small teams to North Africa to pray for God’s blessing on the land. We believe that God has been answering our prayers in many ways. But we need to continue to pray. Would you like to join a small prayer team to visit a North African country?

West Bank

Did you know that there are Palestinian Christians?! Many people are ignorant of this fact and believe all Palestinians to be terrorists! But there are churches on the Palestinian West Bank. Sadly they are struggling and get very little support from the outside world. In fact since the events of 9/11 financial support for Christians from the west has plummeted.

In 2004 two students from Bethlehem Bible College (link to www.bethlehembiblecollege.edu) joined the Urban Warrior youth training program at YCC. This led to a growing interest in the Israel/Palestine situation within the church. Some of the leaders have made a visit and we have been involved in supporting the Bible College , the Shepherd’s Society (link to www.bethlehembiblecollege.edu/shepherds.htm) (a group bringing material relief to Palestinian families from all backgrounds) and Musalaha (link to www.musalaha.org) (a reconciliation group). In 2005 a small team including members from YCC went out on a medical project to Bethlehem and amongst other things were involved in training the Palestinian police force in first aid!

It is hoped to increase the links with more students coming to Yeovil and more teams from Yeovil visiting the West Bank.

The Middle East situation is very complex and it is easy to become biased and prejudiced in our views of both Jews and Palestinians. In YCC we believe that God is calling us to preach His Good News and seek justice for all. And it seems especially important that we should support Christians in the Middle East from all backgrounds: Jewish, Christian and Muslim.

Asha - Delhi India

Asha is a Charity working in the slums of Delhi, India's capital city. It is a hindi word meaning 'hope', and it is this hope that Asha is seeking to bring to the poorest and most marginalised people in India's society. Established in 1988, it now works in about 45 slums across the city, providing medical care, through doctors and Community Health Volunteers (who are women from the slum community who have been trained in basic medical care). Asha also encourages the slum communities to stand up for their rights, to lobby councillors to provide improvements such as toilet blocks, water standpipes, and covered drains, etc. They ensure that as many children as possible attend school and provide extra teaching in English and IT, the two skills most important to students as they make well-paid employment a real prospect. Many slum dwellers are hindu and muslem, but Asha is demonstrating the love of Jesus in practical ways to all regardless of their religion. Many have responded and come to know Jesus personally. Worship meetings are held regularly in many of the slums!

Dick and Julie Hogben and Alan Guy are local 'ambassadors' for Asha

More information is available at their website: http://www.asha-india.org/

The Braga’sLet me introduce my family to you:I’ve been married to Celeste for over 28 years.  God has given us two blessed boys, Filipe (24) and Andre (21).  In our ministry, Celeste and I have served the Lord as full time workers for His Kingdom since 1982, when we got married.We planted churches in Brazil and then in 1995 we were sent to the UK as missionarys by a group of churches.  We were part of the 'Go to the Nations' ministry and we lived one year in Edinburgh, Scotland and three years in Barnstaple, Devon.God gave us the opportunity to share on unity and prayer and also to promote whole nights of prayer.  We have done it in Brazil way before we moved to the UK and had the chance to continue to do it.We became members of YCC back in 1998 and had planned to move to Yeovil in 1999.  However in the midst of this process I was invited to work as a DAWN Latin America Prayer Coordinator.  After a good time of prayer we shared with the YCC leaders and we all understood that God was calling me to work with DAWN.  Then we decided to stay based in Brazil to develop the work in Latin America, though we are members and missionaries of YCC.In 2001 I was invited to be DAWN International Prayer Coordinator moving to Colorado Springs, CO, USA, and worked in about 100 countries.In 2003 I moved back from Brazil and worked for DAWN from Brazil to the rest of the world.In 2008 I resigned as the DAWN International Prayer Coordinator and started HORA - Men in Prayer - based in Pouso Alegre, Brazil. http://www.homemora.comHere in Brazil we are facilitating the National Prayer Council, and partnering with the following ministries:1.    Global Day Of Prayer2.    24/7 prayer movement3.    Tribal Generation4.    School of Church Planting5.    Children National Net of Prayer and advisors of a few other prayer ministries6.    India and South East Asia Unrechead People's GroupIf you want to know more information about our ministry, please feel free to write to us at: amaury@homemora.comThanks for your prayersBlessings, Amaury, Celeste, Filipe and Andre.