I am a retired teacher who wrote 7 photocopiable books for Teachers and one book for children Union Jack Colouring Book.
The 7books covered Geography, History (Medieval/ Tudor/ Stuart), Travel and Transport, Myself and Events (this included diaries), Race Against Time Stories (SATS based), Church Dates for Children plus Nature and Seasons (including Sport). These 7 books have been mainly broken into a number of segments.
Challenging the Physical Elements, my Geography book, is complete.
I am a retired teacher who wrote 7 photocopiable books for Teachers and one book for children Union Jack Colouring Book.
The 7books covered Geography, History (Medieval/ Tudor/ Stuart), Travel and Transport, Myself and Events (this included diaries), Race Against Time Stories (SATS based), Church Dates for Children plus Nature and Seasons (including Sport). These 7 books have been mainly broken into a number of segments.
Challenging the Physical Elements, my Geography book, is complete.
Looking for interesting missionaries and evangelists to write about I came across this lady. Incredible, as it might seem, Amanda Berry Smith started life as a slave but ended up becoming an evangelist going to both India and then to Africa.
Later in life she ended up funding and opening up a children's orphanage.
In 1967 Donald Campbell died tried to set a new world record for water speed. In 2018 the restored Bluebird began trials
Quicksilver is also trying to break the World Speed Record.
I have included the list of World Speed Records There is also a word search with the names names of the drivers, boats and the waters where the records were attempted
I have put together a number of former SATS style questions (11) where the children had to think of themselves in various situations. From visiting a market place, to How long can I stay up?, choosing a charity to raise money for, dreams, favourite meals, memories, moving house, pranks, talent competitions,flying in air balloon and left in charge of the classroom. For 9 of them I have also given example answers. There is also a Poetry Aid if they want to put their thoughts to verse.
Saint Frithuswith is remembered on October 19th.
Saint Frithuswith is known under 6 different names. She is the patron saint of both Oxford and Oxford University. I have used the Wikipedia notes.
I found in my research, using Google, The Legend of Fridewide of Oxford. It gives the full story of her life but I was unable to download the story.
Saint Frithuswith has been depicted in a stained glass window, by Edward Burne-Jones,
In Christ Church Catherdral, In Oxford, where her shrine can alsobe located.
St.Crispin and St. Crispinian’s Feast Day is October 25th. I have some pictures and information about these twin brothers who were martyred towards the end on the third century. I have included a short word search.
Hugh Cook Faringdon’s feast day is November 15th .
Hugh Cook Farington was the last abbot of Reading Monastery.
He was found guilty of high treason because he did not accept that HenryVIII was the supreme head of religious matters. He believed the Pope was the supreme head of religious matters. Because he was found guilty of treason he suffered the indignity of being hung, drawn and quartered in front of Reading’s Abbey Gate on November 14th 1539.
I have put together several pieces of information about H.C.F. The first piece is like a time-line. The second sheet briefly explains about how the dissolution of the monasteries cam about. The third sheet is Wikipedia . The fourth sheet is a painting depicting H.C.F. being prepared for execution - the painting is in Reading’s Abbey gate. I have also included a word search with answers.
Saint Caedmon is an example of someone who late in life discovers he has a gift. He was a humble cowherd, of the seventh century, who after a dream found not only could he sing in tune but put Biblical stories to music.
I have written a short piece about the dream. I have included the detailed information created by Brittannia.com.
There is a copy of his only remaining hymn. According to the Venerable Bede Saint Caedmon’ could not compose any trivia’ .
I have attempted to write couplets using his end words.
William Cameron Townsend became known as Uncle Cam. He spent 60 years in Latin America working in many countries. His contribution to the academic community and his encouragement to members of small ethnic groups to understand their personal worth cannot be measured.
He had a dream that he wanted the whole world to be able to read the Bible in their native language.
This he set out to do by founding the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
He was a very humble man. A local man, from an Aztec village said Uncle Cam would leave his dinner not only for the president but also to talk with him.
His gravestone reads,** Dear Ones: By love serve on another. Finish the task. translate the Scripture into every language. Uncle Cam. The SIL continues to fulfill his dream.
I have used several web sites for my information including Wikipedia, wycliffe org. and tshaonline.org plus Ambassadors for Christ,
They were 2 Christian workers from the same country - China. Both were brilliant students with promising futures. Both were dynamically saved as teenagers and became diligent students of God’s word and zealous gospel preachers. Both were prolific speakers and writers. Both were persecuted for their ministry. Both changed many lives.
The ministries of Watchmen Nee and Witness Lee have brought a treasury of spiritual truth and life to the Body of Christ. Tom Smith
Watchmen Nee was a Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age -the title of the biography written by his fellow worker Witness Lee. In the span of his 30 years of public ministry he made an indelible mark on the face of Christianity in China.
He was saved aged 17. His mentor was Margaret E. Barber ( See TES for more more info.). Nee was both a zealous preacher and a diligent student of the Bible.
His most widely recognized and appreciated books are The Normal Christian Life and The Normal Christian Church Life
Persecution resulted in Nee being imprisoned for 20 years (1952-72). This was his final note Christ is the Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and resurrected in 3 days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of belief in Christ. Watchmen Nee
Witness Lee was born in 1905 in th Shantung Province of China. He was saved aged 15. His dynamic salvation put him on a pathway of pursuit for the Lord did not stop until his death in 1997.
Nee (1903) and Lee (1905) were born only 2 years apart but Lee regarded Nee to be his spiritual father. In 1932 Nee asked Lee to overseer of Shanghai Gospel Bookroom. For 17 years years they laboured together.
In 1949 Nee realized that the new Communist Government would try to end their ministry. Lee reluctantly agreed to leave China for Taiwan.
Lee continued to labour in Taiwan through the 1950s, He saw the church grow over the next 5 years from 350 to 20,000. After 9 years he started to make visits to the West. He conducted conferences in London and Copenhagen. Between 1958-61 he visited the USA 3 times.
Lee moved to the USA in 1962. In the USA he presented the riches of Christ from the whole Bible. He continued to travel and speak in conferences and annual trainings. in 1965 establshed The Stream Publishers which became * Living Stream Ministry*. His most notable publication was* Life-Study of the Bible*. It took 20 years to complete (1974-95). Lee died in June 1997.
To date over 3, 000 churches on 6 continents.
*Watchman Nee and Witness Lee taught the same thing, were of the same spirit, and ministered with the same goal - to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ in oneness, expressed in local churches all over the earth
Tom Smith
Sources used
Contending for the Faith
Two ministers one ministry
Sir George Williams was an English philanthropist and founder of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).
The YMCA is the oldest and largest youth charity in the world. Its aim is to support young people to belong, contribute and thrive in their communities.
George was born into a farming family in Dulverton, Somerset, England. He was youngest of 7 surviving sons of Amos and Elizabeth Williams. He was baptized into the Church of England.
His family sent him to Bridgewater to be an apprentice at Henry William Holmes’ draper shop. 1837 saw him change from Anglicanism to the Zion Congregational Church.
1841 he moved to London and worked at Hitchcock& Roger’s drapers shop. He attended the King’s Weigh House Congregational Church. 3 years later(1844) he became departmental manager.
On the 6 th June 1844 George, aged just 22, gathered 11 other young drapers into the living quarters of Hitchcock & Rogers to create a place that would not tempt young men to sin. The name . Young men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was suggested by Christopher W. Smith. It promoted Muscular Christianity. George Hitchcock, George’s boss, and future father-in-law, was one of the first converts and contributors to the new association. He became the associations first treasurer. ( See* Founding of YMCA* for full list)
In 1853 he married Hitchcock’s daughter Helen Jane Maunder. Hitchcock and taken into partnership at the drapers. When Hitchcock died in 1863 George became sole owner.
The YMCA grew. It spread across London. It spread the USA. It reached Canada in 1851. In 1855 it went global. The first YMCA World Conference was organized. This produced the ’ Paris Basis’ - an international agreement about the aims of the YMCA. by 1905 there were 45 YMCAs across the world with a membership of 700,000.
In 1894, YMCA’s Silver Jubilee year, George was knighted by Queen Victoria and given the Freedom of the City of London.
Sir George died in 1905. The funeral took place in St. Paul’s Cathedral on 14th November, 2,600 attended. He was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
There is a commemorative stain glassed window in Westminster Abbey.
The YMCA, every year, on Founders Day - 6th June, remember and celebrate the 22 year old, George Williams, who created the largest youth charity in the world.
Sources
YMCA
wikipedia
David O. Oyedepo is the founder, senior pastor and presiding Bishop of the megachurch Faith Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State. Nigeria. It is also known as Winners’ Chapel International. It is the largest church in the world with regard to a seating capacity of 50,400.
( The Basilica of of Our Lady of Peace, in Rome, is a bigger building .)
David comes from a mixed religious family. His grandmother introduced him to the virtues of Christian life via early morning prayers which she attended with him. She taught him to tithe.
In 1969 he was ‘born again’ through the influence of his teacher, Betty Lasher.
He studied to be an architect and briefly worked with the Federal Ministry of Housing. He resigned to concentrate on missionary work. He received a PhD i Human Development from Honolulu University, Hawaii, USA.
He says In May 1981 he received a mandate, through an 18 hour vision from God, to liberate the world from the oppression of the devil by preaching the word of faith. As a result he founded Liberation Faith Hour ministries, which later became Living Faith Church World Wide (LFCWW) .
17th September 1983 David and his wife Florence (now known as Faith) were both ordained pastors by Pastor Enoch Adeboye , the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. 1988 David is ordained bishop.
The church was founded on the 11th of December 1983. Cannanland was procured in 1983 and was initially 560 acres. The foundation laying took place on 29th August 1998. The church’s international headquarters , Faith Tabernacle was built in Cannanland between 1998- 9 and took 12 months to complete. It was dedicated in September 1999.
David’s church runs its own publishing company- Dominion Publishing House.
It was commissioned on 5th December 1992. It has published 70 Christian, inspirational and motivational books, magazines and other resources. It has over 4 million prints in circulation to date (See* Book Publishing* )
Cannanland is turning into Cannan City. It has Covenant university, Faith Academy secondary and Kingdom heritage model schools, plus shops, restaurants and housing. In 2012 it was proposing to build a 15,000 housing estate on the 17,000 acres. ( See Place of worship)
The church owns 4 private jets and several buildings in London and USA.
The Chapel International network of churches is now located in over 300 cities, in all states in Nigeria, and in several cities in 45 African nations, the UK and USA. David had been recognized as one of the pioneers of the Christian charismatic movement and exponent of prosperity theology in Africa. He is one of the most powerful preachers in Nigeria and is Chancellor of both the Covenant and Landmark University.
In March 2020 he opened his church during the COVID -19 pandemic
(Read Sunday service after backlash)
Sources used
Oyedepo speaks on Sunday after backlash
wikipedia
Theodore was a British Christian evangelist and author. He was known as Mr. Sparks or TAS.
He was born in London but at a young age moved to Scotland to live with his father’s relatives. Aged 17 he decided to become a Christian having listened to a group of young street preachers in Glasgow.
He saw the truth of believer’s baptism and as a result got baptized and left the Church of Scotland. Theodore, at the age of 24, was ordained a Baptist and Congregational minister. He became one of Dr. Campbell Morgan’s young men. For 14 years (1912-26) he led 3 congregations in Greater London.
During this time he saw a tremendous change in his congregations. The nominal Christians became ‘born again’ -one after another found the Lord and this turned the church inside out.
Theodore had established himself as a conference speaker especially on teaching the Bible, but a tension was building up inside . He said to his wife,
‘’ I’m going to my study _ _ _ _ .’’ He read Romans chapter 6 - a chapter he knew well-** but this time it was as if heaven opened, and light shone into his heart and for the first time he understood that he was crucified with Christ and the Holy Spirit was within and upon him.**
He emerged from his study a changed man. He began to preach Christ, he began to magnify the Lord Jesus, and the church came into an altogether new experience. He soon began to preach ‘the way of the cross.’
The new experience instead of opening every pulpit, closed them. The authorities thought he was dangerous/unbalanced.
The Baptist Federation, in 1926, wanted a ‘Make More Baptist Year’. Theodore’s church wanted to ’ bring more people to the Lord’ and would not take part. The Federation had the title deeds to the church and house and within a week Theodore was out!
A titled lady, who was a missionary in India, and in England at the time, came to his rescue… A local boys’ school had become vacant and she bought the whole property and gave it to the church. Honor Oak became his family’s home and later became the Honor Oak Christian Fellowship and Conference Centre.
Theodore resigned his baptist ordination. The congregation at Honor Oak all agreed to leave the Baptist denomination. With like-minded Christians he established a conference and training centre at Honor Hall.
Theodore’s ministry went from local , to national, to an international ministry.
In the early days of the conferences people had tremendous experiences of the Spirit of the Lord and of the cross of Christ.
A Witness and a Testimony a bi-monthly magazine was published (1923-1971). He published most of his messages in the magazine.
His speaking ministry took him around the world. His Christian Fellowship Centre was international. Many trained under his ministry became missionaries and Christian teachers.
At the end of his life he was a lone, prophetic voice in a spiritual wilderness
Sources used
The Life and Ministry of TAS
Wikipedia
Dorothy Ripley was a British evangelist who went to the USA in 1801 and died in 1831 in Virginia. By confession she was a Quaker but she had been raised a Methodist.
Dorothy was born in Whitby. Her father, William was a close associate of John Wesley. Wesley encouraged women to preach and William wanted his child to be a preacher. When Wesley visited he brought his group of women preachers with him.
Her father, who died while she was still a teenager, encouraged her toward that vocation. On his death there were financial problems and other set backs which profoundly impacted on her .
Dorothy believed she was called to Christian ministry and decided not to marry.
She went to the USA on at least 9 occasions, most times travelling alone. She spent time as an itinerant preacher in New York, South Carolina and Georgia.
She faced many challenges especially that she was a female preacher. To live she relied entirely on donations from people who believed in her ministry. The title of her second book The Bank of Faith and Works United explained her perseverance and the fact that her preaching won over her opponents since she continue to preach to large crowds.
On her first trip in 1801 she gained an audience with President Thomas Jefferson. She rebuked him for his slave ownership but secured the ‘approbation’ to minister to slaves and slave owners. She founded a school to educate freed slaves.
Dorothy preached in many African-American churches. Some male preachers were hesitant to let her preach but she won them over.
12 th January, 1806, she was the first woman to speak at USA capital.
(Read D R 1st woman to preach sheet)
In the UK she assisted Hugh Bourne in starting Primitive Methodism. With Lorenzo Dow the 3 of them conducted revival services and many people were brought into Primitive Methodist circles. One tour included a stay in prison for a night when she and the eccentric Dow were arrested.
Dorothy wrote 6 books in total. Rose Butler had 11 editions published .
In 1827 she had published in Philadelpia *Memoirs of William Ripley *
(See Publishing career and WorldCat Identities)
At her death in 1831, aged 64, one newspaper wrote in her obituary that she was
perhaps the most extraordinary woman in the world.
Sources used
History.House. GOV
WorldCat identities
wikipedia
Pastor Michael Mcbride is known as Pastor Mike.He has been active in ministry for early 20 years. In 2013 he was in a group of 13 Faith Leaders to Watch.
In 2000 graduated from Bethany College with a double B.A. in Addition Studies and Theology. In 2005 he graduated with a M.A. from Duke University Divinity School.
In June 2005 he launched a new ministry, The Way Christian Center in West Berkeley where he currently serves as pastor.
Over the past 10 years he has been committed to a holistic ministry through his leadership roles in both church and community. ( See 2 lists of positions held).
Berkeleyside, an American ‘paper’ on June 5th, 2020. published Pastor Michael McBride’s thoughts on the present unrest in the USA - *The brutality of policing is reaching a breaking point in the social consciousness *
He spoke to Berkeleyside about reasons for hope, Berkeley’s role and what can be done to effect meaningful change. I have enclosed the article
Sources
Huffpost
Berkeleyside
Brownlow North was an English evangelist. Brownlow was born in Winchester House, Chelsea the only son of Rev, Augustus North. He was the grandson of the former bishop of Winchester, Brownlow North.
Brornlow was educated at Eton College, Windsor.
For a while he lived with his great uncle Frederick on the island of Corfu. \he fought with Dom Pedro’s army in Portugal before eventually settling in Scotland.
He lived a life of pleasure enjoying hunting and gambling.
He went to Magdalen Hall, Oxford .
In November 1854 he experienced a religious conversion and began to attend Elgin Free Church where he proceeded to engage in public preaching.
1859 he was appointed an evangelist by the Free Church of Scotland. In the same year he became a significant figure in the Ulster revival where he preached to 12,000 at Newtonlimavady.
Rabbi Duncan once remarked, on seeing a photograph of Brownlow There is intellect in the brow, genius in the eye, and eloquence in the mouth.
Brownlow died on 9th November 1875 and is buried in Dean Cemetery in western Edinburgh.
I have included information about his grandfather, Brownlow, the bishop of Winchester
Source used
wikipedia
Edward is probably best remembered for his hymn All hail the power of Jesus’ name.
Edward was born in Sundridge, Kent, England. He was descendant of a French Huguenot family which fled first to Switzerland and then to England to escape religious persecution.
Edward was the son of Vincent Perronet, an Anglican priest, who worked closely with John and Charles Wesley for many years during the 18th century revival. Vincent in 1728 became vicar at Shoreham church in Kent.
At the time persecution of the new Methodist movement was common and John Wesley noted in his diary that Edward* was thrown down and rolled in the mud and mire* at Bolton.
Edward was considered a capable preacher but the did not like preaching in front of John Wesley. On one occasion John announced that Edward would speak. He got up and read Christ’s Sermon on the mount and sat down !
In 1756 in* The Mitre* - the first prominent event in his life, he published a ferocious attack on the Church of England. This created a schism.
He became one of the Countess of Huntingdon’s ministers in a chapel in Watling Street, Canterbury. Throughout he was passionate, impulsive strong willed but always lived near his his divine master.* He bursts in full of fire and enthusiasm, yet ebullient and volatile.*
Edward eventually became a minister of an independent congregation.
In his life time he wrote a number of hymns and published 3 volumes of Christian poems. His hymns were published anonymously in successive volumes
.Select passages of the Old and New Testament. A small collection of Hymns. Occasional Verses, moral and sacred. ( The Rev A. B. Grosart gives a critic of Edward’s work on the second page of the Hymnary Sheet)
Shortly before he died, on 2nd January 1792, he uttered these words-
Glory to God in the height of His divinity! Glory to God in the depth of humanity! Glory to God in His all sufficiency! Into His hands I commend my spirit.
Edward was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
At his death he is said to have left a large sum of money to Shrubsole, who was the organist at Spatfield’s Chapel, London, and who had composed the tune ‘Miles Lane’ for All hail the power of Jesus’’ name!
I have included one version of* All Hail the power of Jesus’ name.*
Sources used
Hymnary.org
wikipedia
John Cannick was an early Methodist and Moravian evangelist and hymn writer. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to an Anglican family, originally from Bohemia, and raised in the Church of England.
Aged 9 he heard his dying aunt proclaim Last night the Lord stood by me and invited me to drink of the fountain of life freely and I shall stand before the Lord as bold as a lion . These words stayed with him for many years. He dreaded going to bed in case he would end up in hell. He prayed each night that he would be good the next day - he never succeeded.
Aged 13 and from humble means he left school to find an apprenticeship. 8 times he made the trip to London but failed to get a job. From 17-19 he suffered from depression.
His conversion
He entered St. Lawrence church, Reading on the 6th September, in 1937. Heard these words from Psalm 34 v19-22b Great are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivered him out of them all. And he putteth his trust in God shall not be desolate. His heart danced. He heard Jesus say* I am they salvation*.
( Read The conversion of John Cennick)
John worked as a surveyor in Reading. He read the writings of George W.hitfield he met the Wesleys.
John joined the growing Methodist movement .He began to write hymns. Charles Wesley wrote in his Diary* I corrected Mr, Cennick’s hymns for the press* (July 1739).
In 1740, on John Wesley’s recommendation, he taught at Kingswood, England.
On Kingswood Hill a crowd of colliers had assembled for a service. The expected preacher did not show up, John stepped into the breach.
When Whitfield returned from America John was asked to join him on his preaching tours. In 1745 John went over to the Morovians and went to Germany to study their doctrines.
In 1747 Baptists heard him preach and invited him to Dublin. After differences with his hosts he concentrated on Ulster. Between 1747-52 he founded 220 Moravian Societies and helped to establish Evangelicalism in Ireland.
John spent time in England and Ireland as an itinerant evangelist. Enduring aat times violent opposition. By the time of his death in 1755 he had established 40 churches.
Throughout the rest of his short career and life he published several collections of hymns.
His conversion came during a normal church service and not even through preaching but through the reading of a Psalm. We see how God uses ‘normal’ worhship to bring people to himself. Too often we underestimate the importance of the normal church service.
Sources used
Evangelical Times
wikipedia
It is difficult to separate Valentine’s Day from Saint Valentine.
Valentine means -worthy, strong, powerful.
14th of February is celebrated with balloons, cards, flowers, with romantic meals and proposals of marriage.
There are many legends about Saint Valentine.
He restored the sight of a judge’s daughter.
He is supposed to have helped Christian couples to get married so the husbands could avoid being conscripted into the army. Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment-first valentine cards? Helping Christians was a crime. Emperor Gothicus Claudius is supposed to have quite liked the prisoner until he attempted to convert him - he then had him condemned him to death
Saint Valentine, from prison, is said to have completed a letter to the jailer’s daughter he had healed, with the words ’ from your Valentine
Saint Valentine having been imprisoned and tortured was a short time later to be martyred, by being behead, for his Christian faith.
Sources used wikipedia and awareness days.
Saint Matthias was the person chosen, by the disciples to replace Judas Iscariot.
In the Acts of the Apostles we read that Peter stood up in the company - there were 120 of them in the room at the time and spoke about the need to replace Judas Iscariot who had betrayed Jesus. Two followers were nominated Matthias and Barnabas. The company prayed and the ‘lot’ fell upon Matthias.
Five traditions are mentioned in wikipedia.
The tradition of the Greeks say he planted the faith about Cappadocia and the coasts of the Caspian Sea, living near the port of Issus.
According to Nicephorus he preached first in Judaea and then Aethiopia (modern Georgia) - and stoned to death.
The Synopsis of Dorotheus suggests he went to Ethiopia and was buried near the temple of the Sun.
Another suggests he was stoned in Jerusalem by the local populace and then beheaded.
According to Hippolytus he died of old age in Jerusalem.
His Feast day, in the Roman calendar, was 24th February (25th on a leap year) . In 1969 it was transfered to 24th of May.
I have included the prayer for Saint Matthias .
Sources wikipedia and the Church’s year by Charles Alexander.