Roger Cook 1941 –2016
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Roger’s great contribution in his many years of
service was developing radio ministry in both
France and Francophone Africa.
Known widely
among Grace Baptist
churches for his work
in GBM Radio at
Abingdon, he and his wife Helen began their
missionary service in Belgium. In 1967 they
were the first GBM missionaries to be sent
into Europe by their church in Hounslow, as
GBM adopted a church-based approach to
mission.
In 1969
they moved
to Mons,
where they worked to plant a church, coming face to face with the growing ‘practical
atheism’ of an otherwise Catholic culture.
Audrey Osei-Mensah 1936 –2016
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Oct 2016
Audrey Laura Osei-Mensah was born
in
East Ham and professed faith in Christ aged
14,
through her confirmation class
in
Wanstead.
In
1955
she went up
to
Birmingham University to read geography.
As she wrote in her memoirs: ‘It was during
my first year that Bible study replaced geography as my first
love, which
it has
remained ever since!’
She served on the Birmingham CU Exec
alongside a thoughtful student from Ghana:
Gottfried Osei-Mensah, with whom she maintained
a
friendship while
teaching
at
Clarendon School
from 1959 to 1962. In
1962 she applied for a position with SIM in
Nigeria, whereupon Gottfried, by now with
Mobil Oil in Accra, proposed to her. At her
father’s suggestion, she first went to Ghana for
three months to get to know Gottfried’s family
and context. They married the following year.
Dr Enid Parker 1920 – 2016
Paul Yeulett
Date posted: 1 Jun 2016
On 8 April 2016, Dr Enid Parker, known
as ‘Asamolta’ or the ‘Red Lioness’ to the
Afar people of East Africa, went to be with
the Lord she served for so long.
By the time she was born in Edenfield in
Lancashire in 1920, her father’s health had
been ruined by the Great War; he died when
Enid was only seven. Her mother was unable
to care for Enid and her two brothers, who
were all cared for by relatives.
Jerry Bridges 1929–2016
Jerry Bridges, who died on 6 March in Colorado Springs, was a leading light in the work of the Navigators and the author of over 20 popular Christian books on discipleship.
Gerald Dean Bridges was born on 4 December, 1929 in a cotton-farming home in Tyler, Texas to Christian parents, six weeks after the stock market crash that led to the Great Depression.
Nigel Sylvester 1929 –2015
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 1 Feb 2016
Ghana’s First Lady, Ernestina Mills, described Nigel Sylvester as ‘Ghana’s Wesley’. His influence was to spread across English-speaking Africa and then across the world.
Nigel Sylvester professed faith in Christ as a fresher in the Cambridge 1949 Barnhouse mission; shortly afterwards he lost both his parents in an aircrash. As a very young Christian, Nigel followed Mike Griffiths as CICCU President. With a First in Maths, he entered Ridley Hall with Mike Griffiths (later General Director of OMF) and Michael Allison (later PPS to Margaret Thatcher). Breaking with precedent, none was ordained.