Mission Partners

The following are the eight organisations that MCC is partnering with in mission for 2011.

IFES Ireland

IFES Ireland is the movement of Christians Unions on 3rd level institutions around the entire island. Formed in 1997, the heritage of Christian Unions go back over a century in Ireland.The Christian Unions exist to support students as they seek to share their faith with their classmates and live out that faith authentically. Many of the members of Maynooth Community Church have enjoyed the benefit of being involved in the work of IFES in their student days, two of our staff worked for them full time and there is an overlap between their work and our location as a local church in a university town- so partnership was a natural fit! IFES Ireland is a part of a wider global organisation called IFES World that links students on college and universities campuses in 154 countries around the world.

Their vision is:

Students, transformed by encountering Jesus,
transforming their campus, society, and the world.

They hope to achieve this in the following way:

Our mission is to inspire and equip students to become passionate lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. 
We pursue this by nurturing the growth of student-led, missional Christian Unions on every campus.

Our partnership with IFES Ireland will consist in both financial support and ongoing prayer support. Over the next year we will be keeping the congregation in touch with the prayer needs of IFES Ireland, especially with their local Christian Union active on the NUI Maynooth campus.

Tearfund

Our partner organisation, Tearfund, have linked us with a programme called Inter Mission Care and Rehabilitation Society (IMCARES), based in Mumbai, India.
 

IMCARES have pioneered holistic ministry on the pavements and in the slums of Mumbai over the past 12 years, working with street children and families affected by HIV. There are many people suffering from HIV & AIDS and are left in a destitute condition in the slums and even on the pavements. They are shunned by their own families, community and society, all within Mumbai. IMCARES supports them practically, helps them to defend their rights, such as freedom from sexual abuse, discrimination from the community and police and to restore their dignity.

Timothy and Sonali Gaikwad, have worked with Tearfund for several years, head up this project. Timothy was formerly a Bollywood film Director but now uses his skills and contacts to highlight the plight of abandoned children.

Rachel Gilmore and ECM in Tours, France

 Rachel Gilmore is a native of Northern Ireland now living and working in Tours, France with ECM (European Christian Mission) an international and interdenominational church-planting organisation.  

Rachel moved to France in October 2010, but her journey really began in 2005 during her time at Belfast Bible College when she did a ministry placement with ECM in Tours, France.  Over the last 5 years Rachel has felt a heart for this place and church and in 2009 began an application process and raising support with ECM with the desire to go and work in Tours more long term.  

TOURS is located 150 miles south  west  of  Paris  and  nestled  between  two  rivers,  the  Loire  to  the north and the  Cher to the  south.    Known as  ‘the  garden of France’ the city alone has a population of 142,000 people.

Rachel is part of a team who have planted a church in Tours called ‘The  Eglise Évangélique  de  Tours Nord’.  This Church began in August 1998 and since then has grown from 3 people to around 60 people meeting each Sunday morning for worship.  Rachel’s role involves helping to raise up and train indigenous leaders in the Church, discipleship and spiritual growth, and helping with worship in the church.  Rachel says “this is the kind of work I’ll be doing, but really I am longing to share my life with these people in the way that people have done for me; to walk alongside all sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances who just like me, want to follow Jesus and know Him more.”

Feel free to contact Rachel at racheljgilmore@gmail.com or ask Lorraine for further information.

Swa Vana Children's Project

Swa Vana is a movement of care in rural South Africa. Their vision is to facilitate and guide individuals within broken communities to a place of restoration and hope, offering long term solutions and holistic care.

Their mission is to provide assistance and palliative care in situations of crisis, working towards the development of long term solutions for orphans, vulnerable children and the terminally ill together with their communities.

They do this through:

• Multi-purpose centres which provide physical, social, emotional and educational support for vulnerable children
• Home-based care in remote rural communities led by trained community members
• Enterprise development for school leavers so that the children can become self-sustained

In the last three years MCC members have been out to see the work done by Swa Vana in South Africa and are able to testify first-hand to the local, indigenous and significant nature of the work being done.