Eric and Margaret McCaughren- Zambia
Eric McCaughran was one of the founding elders of what was then Dunclug Gospel Hall (now Hillside). He and his wife Margaret were both teachers, in Ballymena Technical College, and Cambridge House Girls School, until, over twenty years ago, the Lord called them to serve him in Angola, in central Africa.
They first spent some years in Portugal, learning the language and serving the Lord through preaching and teaching, mainly in the north of the country. Civil war delayed their departure for Angola longer than they first expected, but eventually the way opened up for them to live in the capital, Luanda, where they worked tirelessly in extremely difficult circumstances for some thirteen years.
In 2005, the Lord guided Eric and Margaret to relocate to Kitwe, in the Zambian copperbelt. Eric engages in Bible teaching for church elders, both at special conferences and in regular monthly Bible studies.
He also ministers to students in three local colleges, for secondary school teachers, nurses and those following vocational training.
Margaret teaches some Biology classes in the nearby Amano Christian School. She also enjoys taking a small group of teenage girls every Friday afternoon for crafts and a Bible lesson, in addition to a children’s Good News Club every Saturday morning.
Nat & Jennifer Rodgers- Norway
Another of our founder elders, Nat Rodgers, and his wife Jennifer, now live in the south east of Norway, in Skien (pronounced Shane), the capital of the famous county of Telemark. It has a population of 50,000.
They have had their home there since 1982 when they left Ballymena with their two daughters, Lynne and Louise (then aged 9 & 6) Nat is involved in local church leadership, but also travels to churches out on the coastal areas of the south and west of Norway, encouraging and teaching God’s Word.
The prison ministry in Skien, where he leads Bible Studies, gives him opportunities to meet and share in the lives of foreign as well as Norwegian prisoners. Family and ski camps also keep them both busy.
Jennifer is involved in the local church activities and in hospitality, opening her home for a weekly international women’s Bible study.
Our missionaries to Norway now have two Norwegian sons-in-law, Andreas and Geir, and three grandsons – Filip, Jonathan and Kristian.
Yannick and Margaret Ollivier – France
Margaret (a member of Dunclug Gospel Hall since 1986) worked as a librarian before the Lord called her to missionary service in France.
In 1996, after a year’s language study, she joined the Gospel Literature Outreach team working in Laval.
Yannick comes from Brittany, and became a Christian in Canada, where he lived for 5 years. Following the Lord’s leading, he returned to France in 1999; Yannick and Margaret met at the end of 1999 and were married in 2001.
After their marriage they spent a year at the Geneva Bible Institute. This was followed by a 2 year placement in the south of France and a final year in Brittany, with Yannick finishing the diploma course in 2005.
Their desire had always been to serve the Lord in Brittany, and the Lord led them to begin a work in Quimper, a town of 85000, where there is little evangelical witness. The small church now has a regular attendance of 16 (including children) most of whom are Christians who have moved into the region within the last couple of years. Yannick and Margaret are mainly involved in evangelism – seeking opportunities to introduce people to the Gospel, by means such as tract distribution, questionnaires, involvement in local associations, friendship, and short term teams.
