Mission works
Supporting those in need
Downs Baptist Church seeks to support projects both at home and overseas through prayer, financial giving and offering practical help. One tenth of our offerings are used to support mission projects. The main areas of support abroad at present include Romania, Kenya, France and Israel.
Support is given to other churches in this country through such organisations as the Home Mission Fund and Brighton & Hove City Mission. We also support Off the Fence, a local charity for the homeless.
The Mission Focus Group
Our Mission Focus Group meets regularly to consider how to support missions here and abroad. Recently an offering was made for projects in Sudan, Iraq and Haiti.
The quotes below have been taken from the flyer produced by the focus group to encourage this offering. They also help to remind us that we are not an isolated community but part of a world where trauma and terror exists and needs to be recognised and addressed.
Sudan - "...brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing has left 10,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of displaced people face starvation, many of them children..."
Iraq - "...the removal of Saddam Hussein's control has left Christian communities and others vulnerable to attack, threat and intimidation which now happens on a large scale..."
Haiti - "...who can forget the images of families searching through the mud for their loved ones?..." 
Fair Trade
The Greengrocers Shop sells a growing number of Fair Trade as well as health Food items. The Youth combined evening service in March looked at inequality and injustice through focussing on a "Stop the Traffik" theme. See the Youth Activities page for more details.
Tearfund
The church continues to support Tearfund, the Christian relief and development charity which cares for the world's poor in 70 countries across the world. An offering was raised earlier in the year when we again used Tearfund's resources for a special Tearfund Sunday. The theme was the HIV/AIDS pandemic which affects 42 million people across the world. This figure includes 3.2 million children under the age of 15.
Kenya
We are privileged to have a close link with Pastor Daniel Gitau and his wife Fennih in the village of Dundori near to Nakuru in Kenya. There they lead a staff of eight people, who presently care for four congregations, a school and a clinic. Daniel also has administrative responsibility for six other churches in the area.
The faith and work of this group of people has been a source of inspiration to DBC as we have seen how diligently and sacrificially they have used limited resources to benefit the community they serve.
Mission Reports
Kenya 1990/2009Serbia 2005 / 2006Ukraine July 2005Brazil 2004 / 2005