The Mission Action Group
MAG allocates 10% of the church's income mostly on a regular basis to our link mission partners in the UK and overseas. We aim to promote the work of our mission partners through information, prayer and finance; to encourage church members to be involved in short term mission projects and to contribute to special appeals and to raise awareness of evangelism and development work occurring around the world. A Bursary Fund is available for church members, to help pay the costs of going on short term mission projects. Please contact Mary Cottrell, MAG Chairman, for details of how to apply or for further details about our mission links or if you would be interested in joining MAG.
Some of our mission partners are represented on a board in the church porch and on the pillar opposite the sides-people. Please have a look and also use the information below to pray for our mission links in your Life Groups and in your personal prayers.
Watch videos of our current projects.
Recent Short Term Mission Trips
Brazil:
Martin went to Brazil with Mission Direct in October 2009 to help build houses for re-settling slum-dwellers and to visit church-related projects, which included providing activities for needy children, help for drug/alcohol addicts and drop-in centres for homeless people.
Philippines:
Anika, Dan, Charlotte and Jess went to the Philippines in February 2010 to visit Emma Randall and participate in projects organised by Heart of the Father. This included helping to fill the base of some houses with sand, which were then concreted over, to prevent flooding from the sea. They also visited Joyland children’s home and saw the new Pre-school building which was built with funds sent from St Michael’s.
Moldova:
In April 2010, Alan, Patricia, Liam, Joe, Mary and Lizzie went to Moldova, to visit our mission partners Ruslan and Larisa Telpiz and participate in church activities in Gotesti and Chircani. This included music ministry and testimonies. They also went on visits to people in their homes.
Romania:
Ashling helped at a children’s camp in Romania in Summer 2009 and 2010 (Eurovangelism)
Uganda:
Susie, Sophie and Jo visited Chilli Children projects in Uganda in September 2010 and Jo went on to Burundi to visit Lucy and Steve McIlhenny (Bethesda project).
Here are some details and photos of our mission links around the world:
Nicaragua
Peace and Hope Trust – providing relief and development in poor communities. Projects range from building schools, churches and clinics to providing vocational training, running health clinics and renewable energy initiatives. www.peaceandhope.org.uk
Moldova
Ruslan and Larisa Telpiz - Ruslan is the assistant pastor at a Baptist church and he is involved in outreach to start a new church in the village of Chircani. Larisa is responsible for the children's work run by the Churches. Moldova is a very poor country in Eastern Europe. Half the people in villages live below the poverty line. A team from St Michael's Church visited the villages of Chircani and Gotesti in April 2010. www.eurovangelism.org.uk/
Africa
A. Uganda - 
SIITA
Nest Home provides a caring Christian home for orphans and enables
them to attend school. Alan Crofts has visited the home several
times. Funding from St Michael's built the house, helped build the
perimeter wall and recently helped improve drainage, to prevent
flooding. We also provide ongoing support for running the home,
providing food and for school fees.
The home is
run by Alice Kisolo (centre, with son and daughter in law)..
B. Uganda - Chilli Children Trust supports work with disabled children, their families and orphaned children in Rukungiri, Uganda. Chillis are grown for income; surgical camps, medical clinics and life skills clinics are held and access to education is provided.
www.chillichildren.org.uk
C. Burundi
Steve and Lucy McIlhenny moved to Burundi in January 2010 on behalf of Kepplewray, to set up an outdoor activity centre for disabled people – the Bethesda Project. www.bethesdaburundi.org and www.kepplewray.org.uk
D. Zambia – Chengelo School. We contribute to a Bursary fund which subsidizes fees to enable children from poor families to obtain a high quality education in this Christian school.
Lynne Knight, working for Family Impact, whose slogan is "Building families – Transforming communities".
Lynne trains leaders and develops teams to create materials for teaching biblical values on family life, marriage, parenting and leadership, for use by churches, businesses and community leaders, in their response to HIV and AIDS.
India
We pay the salary of a health worker, Sarojamma, who travels to villages to counsel and support HIV/AIDS patients in Kurnool District, Andra Pradesh. 
She also works in Adoni Faith Home for children overcoming HIV and AIDS. The children are given love and care, a special diet and schooling. Our link person in India is Rev Dr Daniel Premkumar who works for Hyderabad Collective for Study and Action and he started the Faith Home in 2008; he is Jemima Suchitra's uncle.
Philippines 
Heart of the Father - Emma Randall and Jo Crowe are involved in projects to build homes in poor communities and to provide education and vocational training for young people. HOF's vision is to see educational and youth work oriented facilities in every village, complete with preschool and youth centres, teachers and youth workers.
Switzerland
Jews for Jesus – involved in evangelistic outreach proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah to Jews and non-Jews. Our funding supports Stephen Pacht, who has been working as UK Director, based in London. In Summer 2010, Stephen, Deborah and family moved to Switzerland, to expand the work of Jews for Jesus in the Geneva area. In addition, Henry Bromberg has been involved in several missions in the UK and abroad, cooking meals to sustain the teams of evangelists. www.jewsforjesus.org.uk
Some of our Bristol based mission links are:
St Michael's supports groups working with homeless people:
Emmaus Bristol - a community of formerly homeless people working in Emmaus' own furniture reuse and recycling business, to provide a living rather than relying on state benefits or other government money. www.emmausbristol.org.uk
Julian Trust and Caring at Christmas; also the Sisters of the Church, St Paul's, who provide food, clothes and gifts to impoverished people in a needy neighbourhood.
We also support Crisis Centre Ministries, working with homeless and drug-addicted people in Bristol, through projects based in Easton. They serve over 80,000 free, hot meals annually and help hundreds of people off the streets and into supported accommodation.
Network – providing counselling and training people to be counsellors.
www.network.org.uk
