The vision for and beginning of linking a UK Baptist Association with fellow Baptists in Israel started in Bedfordshire.

September 2002 Article

Our Twinning Link with Israel

Nearly five years ago a new President for the Bedfordshire Baptist Association was elected, and he brought to the Association a vision for broadening our mission through twinning with churches overseas. The President didn’t just serve one year as usual though – he stayed until the new Central Association was formed. That was Phil Hill, later joined on the Bedfordshire Executive by Peter Eyre who shared a passion for developing links with the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel (ABC).

From the initial vision we have seen God’s blessing and tremendous growth in the now established twinning link with our brothers and sisters in Israel.  Full report here (PDF)

Twinning Update Jan 03

Development
As time goes on the relationship is growing in depth and breadth, and is becoming more meaningful. The ABC are particularly thankful to the Lord for what is being built and those involved in the UK are being enriched too, the late October visit to Israel being “especially special”.

As the work grows consideration is being given to structure, particularly whether ‘Baptist Twinning in Israel’ should become a registered charity. Attention will be given to this in the coming months.   Full report here (PDF)

Twinning visit to Israel 23-29 October 2003

The visit built on logistical lessons learned from last year and was an enriching time of fellowship, ministry and food! for everyone involved. The twinning relationship was strengthened between several UK and Israel churches. The meetings with the ABC Council reps were fruitful and resulted in:

· Updating the ABC reps about events of the past year and the charity “Baptist Twinning in Israel”. 
· A new opportunity to make ABC’s vision and needs known in the UK.
· A decision to develop studies and training for ABC pastors to BA degree level in consultation with Bethlehem Bible College
· Developing an MRC process and the offer of training
· A decision to produce church-on-church twinning link-up procedures
· Prioritising pastor sponsorships, training needs, and educating ABC churches about the twinning process
· The possibility of UK pastors spending Sabbatical time in Israel
· A request to involve young people in the link


Registered Charitable Status  (2003)

The Charity Commission has agreed to this (in just a few weeks!) and our Registered Charity Number is 1100407. This means we can now operate Gift Aid.

The Trustees will need to meet soon to clarify roles and discuss the way forward especially in the area of making the ABC’s vision and needs more widely known and expanding involvement. It might be good to become a member of the EA.

News Update from June 2004 can be viewed in PDF format from here.

Following the visit in April 2004, this is an extract of the article to appear in the Baptist Times:

Baptist Twinning in Israel recently sent Revds. Peter Eyre and Philip Hill to visit the churches of the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel. For a week leading up to Easter, Mr. Eyre and Mr. Hill visited ten churches in the Galilee area, the Nazareth Baptist School where about 50-60 students give their lives to Christ each year, and met with representatives of the ABC Council to discuss future plans for twinning relationships. Three new churches asked for a twinning partnership, one of them a recent church plant near Akko, another a well-established congregation in Nazareth, and the other near Tel Aviv. Philip Hill says of these relationships, ‘They can be a great blessing to everyone concerned. They stimulate prayer for a difficult part of the world, increase awareness of the complex problems of Israel, and offer wonderful opportunities for strategic friendships with our Arab and other brothers and sisters.’

Peter Eyre, secretary of the Twinning relationship, made valuable new contacts which he described as ‘having a prophetic importance for Israel’. One of these was Milad, at one time a leader in the ‘Closed Brethren’, but now the teaching elder of a new evangelical congregation which has asked to join the ABC and is building relationships both with Arab and Jewish believers. Milad said of his new openness, ‘We needed to repent of the exclusiveness in which we lived, and we wanted to reach out as widely as we could to our fellow believers in Israel’.