Norwich TFG welcomes its first African member :-)

Sometimes when I am updating this blogspot, I wonder if anyone benefits from reading the articles posted here. Now I know they do!

In May 2009, I received an e-mail from a gentleman in northern Namibia in response to one of the articles on this BlogSpot. He requested Torch literature and I passed his request to the International department at Torch House in Market Harborough in Leicestershire as they have the resources and contacts to fulfil his requirements.

Last week I received another e-mail from him:

Thank you very much for your concern about my request i really appreaciate it. Last month i received the bi-monthly magazine of the torch trust. Im very much excited to be a member of your organisation. Good day

Intrigued, I decided to learn some more about this man's country.

Namibia is a country in Southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It's other borders are shared with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south and east

It is the second most sparsely populated country in the world after Mongolia and has a population of 1.8 million people. With a stable multiparty parliamentary democracy, the economy consists of agriculture, herding, tourism and the mining of precious stones and metals. Approximately half the population live below the international poverty line of U.S.$1.25 a day, and the nation has suffered heavily from the effects of HIV/AIDS, with 15% of the adult population infected with HIV in 2007.

Interestingly, there seemed to be a lot of churches in my contact's town and I have since found out that the Christian community makes up at least 80% of the population of the country. Missionary work during the 1800s drew many Namibians to Christianity. While 50% of Namibian Christians are Lutheran, there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal and Dutch Reformed Christians represented.

Premier Christian Radio goes national on DAB

From Monday 21st September , Premier Christian Radio will be broadcasting across Britain on DAB digital radio.

It’s a significant expansion for Premier which has come a long way since its launch as a medium wave local station in 1994 when it was only available in parts of London. Via the national commercial operator, Digital One, Premier will be available to more than 90% of the British population from Newcastle to Exeter and Southampton to Glasgow.

Premier's Chief Executive, Peter Kerridge is excited about the switch to national DAB digital radio. “ For the past few years it’s been our ambition to bring Christian radio to listeners across Britain. It’s a campaign that’s seen lobbying of Parliament, letter-writing campaigns to the regulator and people at prayer across the country. This is the biggest step for our radio station since its launch. We’re grateful to church leaders from all of the major Christian denominations who’ve supported this initiative, and to the thousands of individual listeners who are backing us financially to pay for national transmission.”

As well as Torch's own programme, Insight with Marilyn Baker broadcast on Sundays at 4PM you can listen to Inspirational Breakfast, the daily magazine show Woman to Woman, Premier Worship, Premier Drive and Worship and Gospel Tonight. Premier also broadcasts talks, discussion programmes and specialist music programmes (ranging from rock to R&B).

If Premier doesn't come up in your choice of stations, please tune to "D1 Test1" or do a Rescan/Autotune of your radio.

More information about how to receive Premier on DAB is available here

Disability Sunday October 4th 2009

Church presents challenges for people with sight loss

Are disabled people fully involved in the life of your church?

If the answer is "No" or "Not as much we would like", why not make a start by holding a Disability Sunday service on or near Sunday October 4th 2009?

Churches are encouraged to hold a Disability Sunday service with the following objectives:

• Demonstrate that God responds to and uses disability in many different ways
• Show disabled people that God cares about them and their needs
  
• Raise awareness of disability and the needs of disabled people
  
• Give people affected by disability a voice

Torch Trust have produced a free Disability Sunday pack which contains a range of material to help you hold a service including:

• a five minute DVD which graphically demonstrates the difficulties faced by people with sight loss in the church context;
• a creative service outline;
• Ideas for local publicity including a draft press release for the
  local media and a poster;
• Sermon ideas;
• and an outline children's talk.

To obtain your copy contact David Palmer or Carol Nokes by phone on 01858 438260 or e-mail David Palmer

If you do plan to hold a service as a result of reading this, please let us know with a quick e-mail. Thanks