EEFC Secretary's Report: AGM April 2006

The Council before the AGM
Donald Matheson (Chairman), Rev. Kenny MacLeod (Vice-chairman), John Johnstone (Secretary), Philip Brown (Treasurer).

Ordinary Council Members
Mary Gillies, Andrew Johnstone, Andrew Burrows (also camps Co-ordinator and Czech Republic Representative), Anne Brodie, Dr. Kerrie Bavidge, Sam Thomson, Rob MacDonald

Ex-officio Council Members
David Johnstone (webmaster), Calum Ferguson (Free Church representative)

Stepping Down from the Council
Andrew Johnstone; Mary Gillies; John Johnstone (soon!)

New Chairman
We are delighted to have Donald Matheson at the helm. He has a wide range of experience in the Church, in work and in missions, and has already made a valuable contribution. Most importantly, he is able to ensure we cover all the important matters at our Council meetings!

Camps from 2005
Once again, we are thankful to God for yet another summer of successful camps. We had blessings of safety in travel, enough Team Members and Team Leaders, and most importantly, the word of God was shared with hundreds of young people in hundreds of different ways. There were problems along the way, from fewer campers at Mahanaim, to late organisation and lost luggage! With all these problems, great or small, we seek to improve the camps year upon year. It is always encouraging to see young people coming to Christ through the camps; we need only listen to the testimony on the new DVD to see how God is pleased to bless camps in this way. We trust there is so much more going on than we can see with our eyes.

The Camps Co-ordinator
While out in Eastern Europe, the camps co-ordinator spent a lot of time organising the teaching resources in preparation for the 2006 camps. We are grateful to him for his faithfulness in these matters. To be honest, no one can quite figure out how Andrew can spin so many plates at once; I’m sure he’d say it is by God’s grace.

New Camps

Rat: There have been significant developments with regard to a camp in Ukraine over the last year. Unfortunately, the camp in Nagydobrony had to come to an end, due to organisational problems on the Hungarian side. This camp had been going for many years. It was different to the other camps in that it was a compulsory school camp. However, God opened up a new door in Ukraine, a little further east; this year we have a brand new camp in Rat. Andrew Burrows will lead Rat, which already has some 60 campers.

Surduc: We were asked to run a specialised camp with children who have HIV-AIDS. Sam Thomson will lead this camp, which will run from the 17th – 24th of June. There will be around 40 young people attending. The Council agreed to fund half of the running costs; £1,500. This year we are running a total of 7 camps. As the work expands, so does the need for more help from our volunteers.

Provisional New Camps
We often get requests for new camps. This year we are considering two new camps for 2008, one in Moldova and one in Albania. Please make this a matter of prayer.

New Style Website and Webmaster
We are grateful to David Johnstone for his work so far. He has made a content management-style website, making it easier for several people to be involved in keeping it fresh and up-to-date. We are looking to our supporters to give David contributions: your camp experiences, and other ideas are most welcome.

Influx of Eastern and Central Europeans
Rev. Kenny Boyd wrote to the Council highlighting opportunities to work with and reach out to the growing number of Central-Eastern Europeans now living in Glasgow. There are an increasing number scattered throughout the UK; for example, there is a growing number of Poles in the Inverness area. How can we reach out to these people? Perhaps this will help to revitalise the general Christian interest in Central and Eastern Europe, an interest which has waned since the fall of communism.

General Review of EEFC
The Council recently reviewed our constitution and made some changes. We also looked at our strengths and weaknesses as an organisation. This was a very useful exercise.

Visit to Czech Republic
Our brothers and sisters in the Czech Brethren Church requested that we have more face-to-face contact, so we can pray more intelligently for one another. A Council member will be visiting them some time in the near future.

Child Protection
Kerrie Bavidge is currently bringing EEFC’s Child Protection policies up to date; in particular, she is looking at the area of Disclosures.

Publicity
We are thankful to Andrew Johnstone for the countless hours he has spent on the EEFC DVD. This is an invaluable resource which will be of use for many years. We can pass these on to our friends, and they can see, for the first time, exactly what the camps are like. And we need you to do just that: we need you to encourage more and more people to come.

Pray On!
Please continue to use the EEFC monthly prayer points and uphold the work in prayer. Perhaps you could start an EEFC prayer group in your area.