Give… Act…Pray! That was the best way for people to get involved with and support organisations like Tearfund as they battled to fight poverty and injustice in communities across the world.

Dr Cynan Llwyd, Tearfund Cymru Team Lead, threw down this challenge when he spoke to representatives of Baptist churches from across Gwent. “We must widen our horizons and actively speak out about subjects such as climate change, extreme poverty, people trafficking and gender violence.

“We must not hunker down in the comfort of our own homes and ignore God’s call in His Word to go into the whole world and preach the Gospel. We can do this through acts of practical love to help alleviate the effects on people in local communities trying to survive drought, floods, famine and a variety of injustices which are shattering their dreams”, he said.

“The good news is that if God has laid something on your heart, if the Holy Spirit has planted a seed of desire to help others less fortunate than yourselves in your soul, there is no power on earth than can stop it”, Dr Llwyd added. This had been demonstrated in so many cases where partnership between Tearfund and local churches had resulted in previously-neglected communities being transformed by new growth.

Experience

He was speaking at the Autumn Council Meeting of the Gwent Baptist Association held at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Blackwood.

Tearfund is a Christian charity with more than 50 years of experience in international development. It believes that poverty is not God’s plan and that an end to extreme poverty is possible. Tearfund adopts a three-pronged approach to tackling complex poverty – humanitarian response, community development and through advocacy and influencing at the local, national and global levels. To find out more and how to support Tearfund, go to https://www.tearfund.org/

Others who took part in the Autumn Council Meeting were the Reverends Marc Owen (Risca), Jonathan Forman (Blaenau Gwent), Mark Thomas (Blackwood) and Huw Stephens (Rogerstone).