Expanding Our Reach - Robinson Ministry update September 2025

Greetings from Lancaster,

Ready for the wedding

We were delighted to participate in Sarah’s wedding in Dundee in late August and boy did we participate. Dan was a groomsman, Ali was a witness signing the register and Tim was a "flower-bro" and ran the catering. It was a long and busy day but full of joy and a great celebration of two very special people.

We managed to spend a bit of time with the wider family over the days around the wedding too, which was really lovely.

32 starter boards are ready for the tables.

Tim and Dan before the service

This has been a busy month for travelling, less than a week after getting back from Dundee with Tim headed off to Eastern Europe, North Africa and a town near Crewe! In Europe, Tim visited with staff to become more familiar with their location and work with them on some risk assessment and contingency planning. He went to North Africa for a security training course to further develop his skills. His slightly less exotic trip was for a gathering of security advisers working with a variety of like-minded organisations in order to learn from one another and share resources.

Dan is now back at University in Newcastle with his student finance in place! Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed long and hard about this. He is in a flat about 15 mins walk from the Uni with 4 other guys from the Christian Union. Lectures have started and he is getting to grips with a new routine. He has already reconnected with his board gaming group and the living history group that he is part of. Please pray that he will be very aware of God’s presence and his love and mercy as he seeks to settle into healthy rhythms.

I (Ali) have been busy trying to catch up with checking all the data contributions that came in to Ethnologue while we were taking a week “off” in Dundee. It seems that taking a week away just means the work piles up! I also had to invest some time into preparing for a TV interview! The Ethnologue team was contacted by a Basque TV show called Tribuaren Berbak (English translation - The words of the tribe), which is all about the Basque language and languages in general. They wanted a representative to give an interview about the world’s languages and where Basque fits in the bigger picture. So last week I took a day trip to London to film the interview near the Covid memorial wall on the other side of the Thames from Big Ben. It was an interesting experience and a joy to have the opportunity to share a bit about the work that we do, but I am quite happy to stick to my day job!

We are heading south this week for the funeral of one of our friends and colleagues, Dr David Crozie.  David started the Bible Translation and Linguistics department at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN), in Jos the city we we lived for 11 years.   TCNN now provides trained staff to a great many Bible Translation organisations in Nigeria, making a huge difference to the progress towards more Nigerians having the scriptures in their language. Tim and I grew up around the Crozier family, and we had the privilege of serving alongside Dave and Liz when we were first in Nigeria. So it is sad to be saying goodbye for now, but there is also cause for celebration for a life well lived.

We will spend the week in the south and are excited to take the opportunity to visit one of our supporting churches, Iden Green Congregational Church in Kent. We will be sharing there on Sunday, the 5th of September.

Thank you for all your prayers and support; they mean so much to us and enable us to do what we do.

Praise

• Joyful participation in Sarah and Martin’s wedding

• Dan settling back into Uni and student finance coming through

• Save and productive trips for Tim

Prayer

• Healthy rhythms and resilience for Dan at Uni

• Trip south for the funeral and seeing supporters