Bruce is Scripture Engagement Consultant for AIM’s Eastern Region and works to make God’s word available to unreached people groups through Bible translation and Scripture Engagement. Jan teaches French and oversees the IGCSE programme at Rift Valley Academy, which supports missionaries by educating and mentoring their children.
Bruce and Jan began serving with AIM on a TIMO team based in Kigali, Rwanda in 2006. This prepared them for long-term ministry in Africa by teaching them key principles of cross-cultural ministry through learning about Rwanda’s language and culture and the challenges facing Rwandan pastors. Bruce then began an assignment at the Rwanda Institute of Evangelical Theology in 2008.
In 2012 the Rossington family was seconded by AIM to SIL-Cameroon, a partner organisation of Wycliffe Bible Translators, which works with Cameroonian churches who have a vision for translating God’s word into the mother tongue or ‘heart language’ of Cameroon’s 279 people groups. With so many ethnic groups and so few Bibles (20 in all), Cameroon is one of the world’s priority areas for Bible translation. Bruce’s role was to train Cameroonians in the principles of Bible translation and to give them the theological and linguistic tools that they need to take the lead in their translation project. He also checked their work to ensure that it was as accurate, clear, and natural-sounding as possible.
Jan was involved in a variety of ministries. As well as home-schooling Martha and Joe, she was Vice-chair of the Board of Governors of Rain Forest International School, which Zoë attended. She was also active in the women’s group at the local church that the Rossington family attended. In all these ministries, they built on the language and culture skills that they picked up during their five years in Rwanda.
In August 2014 the Rossingtons moved from Cameroon to Kenya. They are now based at Rift Valley Academy, AIM’s boarding school for missionaries’ children that enables families to serve God all over Africa. Jan is a full-time member of the staff team at RVA, teaching French, overseeing an IGCSE programme and helping students with their UCAS applications to the UK. Outside the classroom, both Jan and Bruce have opportunities to encourage, mentor and disciple students as they live away from their families and process what it means to grow up as ‘Third Culture Kids’. History shows that a good number of these students will return overseas to serve in cross-cultural situations or take up leadership positions in their local church.
Having previously worked in theological education, Bruce is now serving in the fields of Bible Translation and Scripture Engagement. As a Translation Consultant, he trains and checks the work of national Bible translators around East Africa, using Swahili and French as the bridge languages between him and his African colleagues. As a Scripture Engagement Consultant, he provides advice, training and support to teams which are making Scripture accessible to unreached people groups in the language and medium that best enables them to engage with God’s Word.
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