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Website Report from Region 6 – The South West
October 2009
 Gorsley
Baptist church is located in a tiny village outside Ross-on-Wye
in Herefordshire and describes itself as “A
country church with a heart for the country”.
The Church has held a flower festival over the August bank holiday
week-end for decades, but in recent years has expanded the event into
an international festival with world-class speakers that now attract
more than 4000 visitors each year.
A significant
feature of the Festival is the Mission Marquee where a number of
mission organisations promote their work and activities.
The Smiles Foundation
has displayed an exhibition stand at Gorsley for the last few years
which has been organised and assembled by the local Development
Associate with help from a good number of Smiles supporters. This
year, as newly appointed DA’s for the region, we took on the daunting
task of creating the display stand and managing its attendance for the
entire week-end of August 27th through the 31st.
We designed a
banner with the heading “Transforming
Romania, One Family at a Time”
and really appreciated the help we had again from lots of Smiles
supporters, particularly from our 6 year old grandson who took great
joy from showing visitors his special friend from Tileagd that he and
his parents sponsor!
This year we had
the added bonus of a visit from the
Tileagd Children’s Choir
on Saturday, as they were about to begin their 3 week Tour of England
and Scotland, and they gave a stunning 30 minute performance,
including an unrehearsed rendition of “Give Thanks” with
Smiles Honorary Trustee
- Nia.
The big top was
virtually filled with nearly a thousand people who expressed their
enjoyment by clapping and cheering at every opportunity. Our display
stand had so many visitors after the performance, meeting the Choir
and learning more about Smiles. We also sold a number of CD’s after t he
performance, which was wonderful! Everyone commented on the choir’s
colourful costumes as they moved around the festival and you can see
from the photographs how much the children enjoyed their overall visit
experience.
Dancer ‘Cornel
Rostas’ particularly enjoyed the Mission Aviation Fellowship’s display
that included a real plane and a flight simulator! However, we had to
insist that the children didn’t have their faces painted until after
their performance!
 It
was a joy and privilege to hear them reading the Bible verses adjacent
to each floral display – and to think that just 7 years ago these same
children could not read or write in any language!
There was such a
positive response to their afternoon performance that the children
were invited to sing again at the evening celebration before
travelling up to Leeds for an overnight stop before continuing on
their journey for the start of the Scottish tour. The choir were to be
back at Gorsley for a full concert at the evening service on September
13th when once again a large and enthusiastic audience attended and
supported the Choir and work of Smiles so wonderfully.
One very
interesting observation from our time at Gorsley …We were personally
very surprised as we talked with people on the display stand, at how
many people think that
Romania no longer has
problems, especially now
that they are members of the European Union and after all, the
Revolution and fall of Communism was 20 years ago.
We were able to use photographs
and our visit experiences to explain the many challenges that so many
Romanian families still face.
The work of The Smiles Foundation
is as important today as it has ever been, especially with the balance
Smiles endeavours to strike between ‘continuing emergency aid support’
and ‘infrastructure development’ such as Educational, Hygiene and
Medical projects.
 We
had a lot of interest from the exhibition and, now that our aching
legs have recovered, we can start to follow up everyone who gave us
their details with a phone call to start arranging presentations,
concerts or discuss educational and/or church challenge mission trips.
A wide range of options exist for everyone to be involved somehow with
the ‘Sharing of God’s Love
in Romania and making Smiles’.
Meanwhile the
display materials will be used for another event in Cheltenham next
month which will hopefully attract more interest again!
Anyone from our
Region interested in the work of Smiles and would like to talk more
with us about getting involved, please do get in contact.
Helping to
‘Transform Romania
– one family at a time’.
Keith
and Sandra Jones
Development Associates for the Smiles Foundation – Region 6
Region 6
includes: Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire,
Gloucestershire, Avon, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.
Previous Reports -
Northern Ireland, September 09
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