At OSCAR, Your Mission is Our Mission. OSCAR exists to support you and the mission that God has called you to.
With a wide range of resources to keep Christian individuals and charities from having to do it all themselves, OSCAR comes alongside each one in a variety of ways.
Thomas Thorp, World Mission Team Leader, St Andrew’s Church Leyland
Thomas Thorp has been leading the world mission team at St Andrew’s Leyland, a medium-large evangelical church in the Blackburn Diocese, for around three years. He shared with me that by accepting an invitation to attend a ‘Serving as Senders’ course run by OSCAR he was “struck by a personal call to ‘send well’ “.
Thomas went on to explain further how the seminar highlighted “that those who ‘send’ are called to the work of missions just as those who ‘go’; they should be as committed in this role as those who ‘go’ (a big challenge!); and the heavenly rewards will be similar. Both work together for the glory of God in missions.” It was clear, hearing from Thomas, that this OSCAR day had really impacted him when he spoke about how he does “feel called to love, support and serve those who have gone from our church to various places overseas. As a result I pray more, give more and support in practical ways (e.g. better communication) much more than previously.”
As St Andrew’s Church equips, mobilises and sends workers for the harvest field Thomas wanted others there to share what he had learnt from OSCAR, so worked with Mike Frith in arranging their own ‘Serving as Senders’ course. He highlighted to me how ‘he found the arrangements for this day course to be flexible to the needs of a local church’, stating that “Mike’s delivery of the material is warm and encouraging”. It was refreshing to hear how St Andrew’s ‘benefitted from inviting folk from nearby churches, sharing experiences and learning from each other”.
As our interview came to an end, Thomas wanted me to know that the ‘Serving as Senders’ course “helped us recognise that to do this better we needed to be intentional in how we go about doing this”. He went on to say that “Mike’s advice has been invaluable to us in writing a vision statement and policy for how we can better support our mission partners”. Finally adding how the OSCAR website “has also been a helpful source of information”.
