It often seems like each year passes quickly, making it important to reflect on the past year before entering the next. 2025 brought both answered prayers and disappointments. We planned for the Workers’ weekend to be held in Gibraltar this year. It was the first time we held it abroad and it was a great time to be together. We had planned trips to Northern India and Bangladesh, but political issues in Bangladesh meant we focused only on Northern India. When tensions rose there, we postponed our plans. The trip is currently on hold, with hopes to resume in Autumn 2026.
In August, we sent a team to Northern Ireland and Scotland and held the two training weekends in Liverpool. It was good to see a couple of new people join the Toolbox team. It was the completion of a vision that God spoke to Esther during the pandemic.
BTBAB’s mandate of reaching out to the poor in the developing world and giving a helping hand to those individuals who may have a dream is accomplished by the Anna Claudia Initiative (ACI). In the past year we supported Lo from Thailand in his dream to become a PE teacher. We have another candidate who we are starting the process to sponsor which Jenny has written about in her article.
Another area we are pushing forward is an OCT project in Ethiopia with a young man called Abe. It’s really exciting to be at a place where it will be possible to support him in enabling his dream to become a reality.
Looking back, I can see things that have happened that have been really good and we have moved forward. But I also recognise there are areas where we need to improve. Please join us in thanking God for those things going well but also for both the difficulties and challenges. Pray that we will continue to walk with God on the path He has given BTBAB to follow and that we will develop people and go from strength to strength.
