Richard and Lenora Priestley finished as leaders at what was then Melbourne Street Christian Institute, Oswaldtwistle, in July 2004.

They then had four months’ orientation, and two weeks’ Global Internship at Bulstrode, WEC’s headquarters in Buckinghamshire. They began work with WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) in February 2005, as Regional Co-ordinators for the North West of England. In 2008, North Wales was added to their region.

WEC’s regional work in the UK has six components:

•Member Care: pastoral responsibility for cross-cultural workers (from the North West and North Wales in this case).

•Promotion: inspiring local churches and individuals with a vision for global mission, and publicising the work of WEC in particular.

•Relationships: developing closer links between WEC and the sending churches of cross-cultural workers, and their families; and building links with other mission agencies.

•Prayer: fostering a wider and deeper commitment to prayer for global mission across the region.

•Administration: organising promotional events, arranging visits, handling accounts, circulating prayer news etc.

•Recruitment: mobilising and motivating others to go, send, give and pray for global evangelisation.

These are Richard and Lenora’s responsibilities; but since 2005, God has blessed them with an additional four full time staff workers in the region. All share the same goal of inspiring global vision within local churches. In particular, all seek to encourage prayer for the remaining 6,300 unreached people groups across this world – those peoples who still have no opportunity to hear the Gospel in their own language from someone of their own culture.

‘Reaching the Unreached’ is WEC’s primary goal. To this end the mission now has over 1800 cross-cultural workers from over 50 different nations working among over 90 unreached people groups. These interdenominational, multicultural teams seek to raise up communities of believers within each culture, who then run their own churches that are not dependent on expatriate workers. For more details, please visit the WEC website: www.wec-int.org.uk.

Richard and Lenora are now also involved in promoting and leading The Kairos Course. This is a condensed missions course, which aims to take one on a journey towards a scriptural view of God’s world, and the needs of the unreached within it. The course is not allied to any particular agency or denomination, but has proved to be very powerful in imparting global vision to those who embark on it.

The first course in the North West, to be run by the WEC NW Regional Team, will be in Warrington on four Saturdays in October and November. For more details, please visit the Kairos website: www.kairoscourse.org.uk.