Wow! What an amazing few weeks in Kijabe in Kenya. I am very thankful for the financial support and help of medical missionary news to help me undertake this fantastic trip. I will be forever thankful for this special experience and I am sad to have to head home after making memories that I will cherish forever and I hope to return to Kijabe in the near future. 

Hi, my name's Sarah, and I'm currently entering my final year of study at Sheffield Dental School. This Spring, with the support of the Timios Trust, I was given the opportunity to travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to volunteer with a Christian charity One-2-One as part of my dental elective.
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While there, I spent my weekdays working 8-5 in the charity's dental clinic, providing regular check-ups to children receiving treatment for cleft lip and palate at the national paediatric hospital, alongside other Cambodian dental students from the local university. When I wasn't working, I spent my time living alongside students sponsored by One-2-One (who fund their university fees) and exploring the city of Phnom Penh. 

​After spending the past 5 months volunteering with a charity in Bangkok, Thailand, it is a privilege to be able to share with you what God has done during this time and to say thank you to Timios Trust for the kind and generous donation towards this overseas mission work that I have been able to experience and be a part of for a short time.

See Lydia's newsletter below:

​I began my six months in Kona, Hawaii. For three months I attended class, worship and intercession in Hawaii. I lived in a missions-focused community and had the opportunity to deepen my relationship with God. I was being discipled to live out my faith.
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I then travelled with eight other people to Poipet, Cambodia. We taught English and the bible in a school called Bridge of Hope. Aswell as this we travelled to villages where we visited families, acted out bible stories, played games, and provided simple medical care. We were here for two months. Below you can see some stories.

After my time in Poipet, we took a bus to Phnom Penh where we stayed for ten days. We did more village ministry and bible studies with youth groups, supporting long term missionaries. Finally, we flew to Bankok, Thailand for two weeks for ministry. It was an amazing experience and I hope to do something similar very soon!​

What an experience! I am very grateful to the Trustees of Timios for their financial support in
helping me to undertake a medical elective in Kenya. As set out in my application form, the
plan was to undertake a 6-week medical elective in Kijabe Hospital, Kenya, through Africa
Inland Mission (AIM). Unfortunately, due to the situation surrounding COVID-19, I was
unable to complete the full 6-week placement that I had planned. However, despite the
elective being cut short sooner than I had hoped, I cannot stress how precious I view the
time I did manage to have in the hospital and its community. As set out in my application, my
goals for the elective were two-fold. I hoped to “provide as much help as possible to
patients to relieve temporary suffering” and to also share “the life-transforming power
of the gospel.” This report sets out how the desired goals have been achieved.
From the very first day I was blown away by how welcomed I was made to feel. Within an
hour of arriving in Kijabe I was having dinner with a wonderful Christian family who had
moved to Kijabe as missionaries. I loved every second of getting to know the different
missionaries. Many had sacrificed wonderful careers, time with family and friends, the
comfort of home etc to serve the community of Kijabe. It was both humbling and
encouraging to hear their stories and directly observe the way that they served Christ in rural
Africa!

I am writing to you first and foremost to thank you for the support I received towards my time of
overseas service in Ecuador. I deeply appreciate the support I received which was so crucial in
enabling me to serve.
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In January, I left Ireland for Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. I spent 2 weeks there living with a very
kind family who also serve as missionaries in Ecuador, the Vasquez family. During these two weeks, I
met with a local lady named Yhady with whom I had one on one Spanish lessons and cultural visits.
This was a very special 3me of orienta3on to Ecuadorian life, but also because Yhady asked me many
questions about my faith and my reasons for being in Ecuador which was an amazing opportunity to
share the gospel with her and we kept in contact throughout my time in Ecuador.

I would like to start by thanking the Timios trust for the extremely kind donation that I received from you. It made this life changing experience possible. Soul Edge has been the most transforming, life changing, and formative time of my life. The teaching I received I will forever remember, and the missionary trip to Pelican Narrows has cemented and formed a new approach to what radical life as a Christian should look like.
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Soul Edge can be broken into two sections; Training, and Mission.

BMS World Mission is a Christian mission organisation, working in around 35 countries on four continents.  They aim to share life in all its fullness with the world’s people by: enabling them to know Christ, alleviating suffering and injustice and improving the quality of life. This is done through many different programmes and projects. I took part in Action Teams which is a gap year programme for 17 – 23 year olds to serve God around the world. It is made up of one month training, six months overseas and two months UK mission tour.

​Training began in September and consisted of morning bible study and prayers, team building activities, cultural training, a trip to an outdoor activity centre, public speaking training and first aid training. I lived with the rest of the action teamers in the International Mission Centre (IMC) in Birmingham and it was a great opportunity to get to know other young Christians from around the UK. It is at training where I met the rest of the team I would be going to Zimbabwe with; and it is a chance to get to know each other and become accountable to one another before heading overseas into a new culture and country. My team consisted of another girl called Maisie, and two boys; Olly and Tom and of course myself.

Firstly a big thanks to the Timeos Trust, who through their bursary, enabled us to move to Myanmar and settle with our young daughter, to do the work we are called to do. As a brief introduction, we are Phil and Lisa Crosby (and our daughter Elsie). We moved to Myanmar in February 2016. Our story for moving here is a long one and if you have a few hours and a pot of coffee, we’re happy to tell it.