We have great cause to thank God for new colleagues who have recently joined the ZM team and we want to introduce them to you.

Dave & Janet Brown

Dave is our new Development Officer in the UK. He and Janet and their family live in Suffolk.

Why ZM?

Janet and I have been involved in mission for about 14 years in Kenya, Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire, primarily with SIM. There have been many circumstances that have brought me (us) to ZM, but there are three things in particular about ZM, that excite me (us).

There is the opportunity to preach Christ and His Mission, to teach and help others to teach biblically on mission, which is the central theme of the Bible.

ZM, seeks to be a kind of mission direct, channelling support, practical help and experience to the churches where it is needed, trusting the local church leadership to identify and prioritise needs. It is the response of the part of the body with plenty to the part of the body in need. It is the church from the rich world supplying the means for the church in the poor world to carry out its God given ministry. It is the church in the UK partnering in the work of the Church (ZEC) in Malawi and parts of Mozambique

At the end of 2007, I was challenged very strongly through the teaching in our own church, expressed in the verses, 1Tim6:18, in the context of v17-19 ‘Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share’. I believe that this is also part of my calling, out of a full time job, (albeit an uncomfortable one) into part time work in order to serve the ‘poorer church’ and a way of putting into practice the command to ‘be rich in good deeds’. Working with ZM will allow me to put this challenge into practice.

After six years of working as a secondary school teacher her in the UK, there is a glint in my eye at the thought of working with those keen to support the church in, for us, another part of Africa.

Dave and Janet will really appreciate your prayers as they adapt to ZM and ease their way into this new work. They both hope to visit Malawi for the first time in July.

Ralph & Jean Gunn

Ralph and Jean live in Glasgow from where Ralph will serve as a Voluntary Representative for ZM.

Ralph has been a Christian since the age of 10, having been brought up in a Christian family who ensured that he knew the meaning of commitment. He has been married to Jean (nee Cameron) for 38 years and they have 2 married sons, Alan and David and a grandson, Cameron, who starts school in August. Both of his sons are actively involved in their local churches.

From the age of 15 until 23 he was a member of the committee of Motherwell Youth Challenge and represented it on the committee of the Maranatha Centre in Motherwell. From age 21 till age 33, he was a Bible class leader in Ebenezer Hall Wishaw and from age of 25 to 45 he was a leader and secretary at Maranatha Summer Camp for teenagers. He is currently an elder in Bothwell Evangelical Church having previously been variously a deacon, treasurer and an elder in Ebenezer Evangelical Church, Motherwell.

Ralph was, until his early retirement in July 2007, Assistant Principal (Academic) at Bell College in Hamilton. He had responsibility for all the academic and curriculum developments within the College. He also managed the Nursing and Midwifery Education Contract for Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway on behalf of the College. Part of this included the management of the College’s Malawi Project which raised over £1m pounds in cash and kind for Malawi to build and equip two small health training clinics with Kamuzu College of Nursing. Prior to that he was Head of the Department of Computer Science and Dean of the Faculty of Science. He has extensive experience of teaching in further and higher education having been both a lecturer and a senior lecturer in the College. He lectured in Computer Education at Jordanhill College of Education for six years.

He has extensive industrial experience having been employed by Dunlop Ltd. as a Tyre Development Technologist and by Rolls Royce Ltd as an Operational Research Scientist. He has also worked in the National Health Service and for Strathclyde Police. Both of these roles were in support of his employer’s computer systems.

He has wide ranging experience of various educational committees including University Scotland’s Learning and Teaching Committee and its Teaching Quality Forum. He has also been a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Credit and Access (SACCA).

It’s a real privilege to have Ralph & Jean joining us as part of the ZM family.