A Marriage Impacts The World!
A Marriage Impacts The World!
For a combined 39 years Pete and Bryony Baker have worked to expand God’s kingdom across the UK, serving as Pais National Directors. Through their leadership, tens of thousands of young people have been reached with the gospel across the UK, and hundreds of missionaries have been sent.
It’s difficult to quantify the impact that this couple has made over the years. But, as one team member put it, “These are not ordinary people. They’ve rejected the normal and they’ve reached for the sky. They’ve sacrificed and struggled. They’ve stayed through victories and trouble, holding the Kingdom of God in their eyes. They’ve changed the world.”
Starting in August, Pete and Bryony will begin serving as European Directors; resourcing our teams across Europe, and helping to pioneer new ones. These Pais legends were recently asked to sum up their time spent on Pais thus far. Here’s what they had to say:
“Pais has shaped me in every way – how I view life, the church, young people, and schools. The best prayer I ever prayed was, ‘Yes, Lord.“
“Pais has given me a community of people unified behind a shared pursuit – Seeking first the Kingdom of God above all else.“
watch our tribute to Pete & Bryony
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2021 Year-In-Review: Pais Europe
2021 Year-In-Review: Pais Europe
As the year comes to an end, we are celebrating all that God has done through our Pais nations in 2021! Read below to discover the great ministry stories from our nations in Europe:
Pais Denmark
“Hej🇩🇰, the work we do here in Denmark is a bit different from the typical Pais work you might know. We have the privilege of living at a boarding school while pioneering Pais Scandinavia.
This gives us the opportunity to build deep relationships because we share everyday life with the students and teachers. We see God working in relationships, fellowship and individual lives. A lot of the students have tough life stories, they often come from complicated family backgrounds or don’t feel appreciated.
But God really gives us the opportunity to create a culture of encouragement and understanding in the school. It’s unbelievable how God keeps blessing each moment and how he is opening up doors for us to reach those lives.
God provides, please pray that each of the students will personally experience God’s presence! It’s awesome what He already did and there is still so much more to come.”
Pais Faroe Islands
“Pioneering Pais on the Faroe Islands has been tougher than we thought. But a highlight of our year was when we had the Danish team over for a short term mission trip (May 2021). We raised awareness for schools’ ministry and people got a good taste of what Pais has to offer.
The team went in the public schools (primary and high schools) and were welcomed to come back anytime! They were in a local church and helped plan the pre-teen ministry, which has now officially started and is growing! Started. We are looking forward for the team to come back in April 2022 as they will continue to invest more in the islands and pave the way for more open doors.”
Pais Germany
“Our teams have been so creative this past year! Even though most programs were not possible/allowed, they still invested heavily in disciplining their mentees and always finding new ways to reach people.
Recently, one of our teams did a mission rally where youth got to playfully learn what mission is and how to do it. Afterwards, a mentee came up to her and said she tried it out right away with a friend. Hallelujah!
We love stories like this because this is what we are all about: building the Kingdom of God with others and training them to go off on their own.”
Pais United Kingdom
“2019-2020 was the strangest year for those trying to serve schools in the UK as the doors of the schools closed and the schools ministry went online. But September 2021 was a different story!
Day one of the new academic year after Foundational Training and we were fully back in the schools! Since then we have communicated with 8179 children and young people in 17 schools in England & Northern Ireland.
Communicating the Gospel in collective worship assemblies, building significant relationships with young people in lunch clubs, sharing a Christian perspective in RE, mentoring, coaching, discipling young people in and outside the school environment. Praying for young people, providing positive Christian role models, seeing young people come to faith and grow in faith, it’s been a great few months for schools ministry in the UK!”
Do you want to support and help expand the work of these nations? Click here to donate now!
UK Apprentice Discovers The Blessing of Serving Locally
UK Apprentice Discovers The Blessing of Serving Locally
Josh Tomalin is one of our Apprentices from England. Through the last year, he has seen God work through His life and in the lives of those around him. In this interview, he shares his experience on Pais to help you learn more while you apply for our Free Mission Year too.
Read through to the end to be inspired to live what God has for your life, regardless of your field or nation.
PAIS: How did you hear about Pais and when did you join a team?
JOSH: I first heard about Pais back in 2017, when the Gatley Pais team from a nearby church decided to attend our young adult’s bible study group. Since then, every team has joined the study group, which I went on to lead. And so, through talking to them I started to find out a little bit more about what exactly they did.
I remember quite a few of the teams tried to recruit me over the years to no success. I thought Pais was pretty cool, but I was also certain it wasn’t for me… God has a sense of humor sometimes, doesn’t He?
I joined Pais in the fall of 2020!
PAIS: What motivated you to become a missionary in England?
JOSH: So, what changed my mind? Well, I had known for some time that I was called to be involved in ministry. I had been leading several youth groups at my church, as well as leading a young adult bible study, where I met the Pais team.
When January 2020 rolled around, I was looking around for various internships and apprentice positions to see what fitted me best. Several opportunities didn’t work out, and so in early Spring I remembered Pais. But I’ll be honest I was hesitant – I wanted to experience something new, and youth work had been the bulk of what I’d been doing up to that point.
Then I noticed Pais had different streams available, not just working with young people but also the option to go abroad – so I thought I’d apply and see what happened. But I had two thoughts in my head – I’m going to try not to stay in England and I’m going to see if I can focus on something other than youth work…
Ah, God really DOES have a sense of humor! Obviously, 2020 happened and traveling abroad was no longer an option for me, so I decided to wait out the pandemic – that is until Pais England contacted me and asked whether I’d join the team just down the road from where I lived for a term whilst I waited.
It turned out to be the best thing that I never planned to do, and one term turned into one year of doing youth work in England.
PAIS: What have been some of your highlights about being on Pais?
JOSH: Without a doubt, one of the best things about this year has been meeting so many Godly, servant-hearted people! Not just the other Pais Apprentices, but also getting to know people in the church I was serving at.
For many, 2020 and the start of 2021 was a year of isolation, a year when their social circles reduced or even collapsed entirely. But here I was getting to know dozens of people I would never have met otherwise from countries and communities I would have never ventured to before!
But it wasn’t just the people I was serving with that have been a blessing, but also the people I was serving. The youth at my church have faced an unimaginably tough year of lockdown, Zoom and uncertainty, and through it all it has been my great privilege to see them grow in faith and maturity.
On a personal level, one of the highlights for me has been that this year has confirmed my sense of calling in ministry and more specifically what that calling might look like.
Sometime through the year I started having conversations with the Church of England about becoming an ordained minister – and that process is proceeding rather well. Hopefully I’ll look back on this year as being the start point of a very exciting journey!
PAIS: Do you have any stories of God moving in the lives of young people through your team?
JOSH: There isn’t really one story that stands out – but throughout the year we saw a general progression in our young people in being able to talk about their faith.
When we first arrived, the first few sessions we had with the young people were very quiet, they didn’t want to talk and when they did talk, they struggled to be able to put words to what they were thinking about. Most of them hadn’t talked to their friends about their faith, and for a few of them, their friends didn’t even know they went to church.
But I was helping to lead a youth alpha session last week, and the difference was amazing.
Not only were they all talking about their faith, but they had so much to say that we ended up splitting into 2 groups to make sure everyone got a chance to speak – and we still ended up running over time.
Some of them have started talking about faith with their friends, and especially towards the end of the year they were bringing us the questions their friends asked that they couldn’t answer. And those were some deep questions!
It wasn’t always easy to see what God was doing throughout the year and so often we were just focused on putting one foot in front of the other to keep going. But when we had a chance to look back it has been amazing to see how far both the young people and ourselves have come this year!
Did you like this story? So follow us on social media and click here to learn more about our free mission year!
After School Club Restarts Activities in Wigan, England
After School Club Restarts Activities in Wigan, England
Prior to the pandemic, a Pais team located in Wigan, England weekly impacted the youth in their community in an After School Club. After one year, they are now able to meet again and invest in new relationships.
The Club operates every Monday, serving students from Years 6 to 12. As the team’s partner church is close to the school, the program uses the church’s hall space. Pre-Covid, they had around 12 kids attending every week.
For their activities, the team led creative Haverim Bible Studies, prayer sessions, and local missions work. Once a month, they would go out into the community for Because You’re Loved campaigns. They connected with new students by giving free hot chocolate, sweets, and Because You’re loved cards. These Evangelism initiatives turned into an opportunity for the kids participating in the program to invite others to join.
As a testimony of their impact, one of the boys who frequently attended the After School Club was mentored by a Team Member last year. The boy said he was an atheist at first, but started going to church events because he loved the community. Even after lockdowns started, he continued to participate in the Club’s Zoom sessions. During one of the sessions, the boy accepted Jesus and the team prayed a salvation prayer with him!
In June, the team started meeting in person again after one year. Leoni, one of the Team Members said: “I really hope we are gonna be able to build good relationships with the new kids again and that we can study the Bible and share about God. We want to create a safe space for them to share, be there for them if they need someone to talk to and eventually help them to get closer to God!”
For more stories & updates on their ministry, follow Pais England here!