Before you wonder, this is not the Tour de WEBA.

I'm not exactly going to pedal right around Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, and back to Bristol without stopping. Not this year anyway.

This is about arriving at our churches from a different point of view, rather more like that of the itinerant preachers who took the gospel to our villages on horseback in the 18th Century.

Fundraising for these mission trips was the earliest incarnation of what we now call Home Mission.

The present Home Mission fund was founded exactly 100 years ago, in 1912. (It was called the Sustentation Fund at that time).

Two of its early advocates were the Chivers brothers, who also brought us Olde English Marmalade. You can't buy Chivers Marmalade any more, but you can still give to Home Mission.

Home Mission presently funds more than 20 situations - either ministers, special ministries, or projects - in WEBA, all of them working creatively to proclaim the gospel and build Christ's kingdom in this region.

During 2012 and 2013, I'm going to visit 6 WEBA churches on my bicycle, and make 6 films exploring the way Home Mission has been part of each church's story. You can see the first one, about Calne Baptist Church in Wiltshire, here. Thank you for giving to Home Mission and helping more churches to be part of the story.

Ruth Whiter,

Communications Co-ordinator

WEBA