Paul & Henri Duncan
Paul and Henri have been part of Riverside since 1986 and they have worked for Agapé UK in a number of different roles over the years. Henri works in the Agapé UK office in Birmingham as the UK HR Director and Paul is a part of the European Regional Leadership Team.
Over the past 25 years Paul’s passion has been to develop leaders through coaching so they will leave a greater, lasting legacy in the lives of the people that they work with, and he has had the privilege of coaching a number of National Directors in Western Europe. This year he will celebrate 40 years on staff.
Henri’s role is primarily to play a part in equipping and train staff so that they are able to fulfil the role that God has called them to. This varies from helping someone through the application process, providing training, to helping staff navigate challenging situations. Whilst working in a behind-the-scenes role might not fit with everyone’s idea of being a missionary Henri sees that God is able to use her gifts and skills to help people discover Jesus. It feels a bit like being part of the mission control team that enables a space rocket to take off - and helping it to return to earth safely!
One thing that Paul has learnt is that much of normal life carries on and there has still been time for fun and enjoyment. This picture shows Paul “supporting” Sasha taken at the Ukrainian summer conference last year.
Another lesson Paul has learnt over the years is the power of turning up. Whilst it is easy these days to think that you can do everything via a video call nothing really replaces being present with someone in their own country. However, when you are responsible for supporting people in a country at war, this can become more complicated.
Just before the war in Ukraine started Paul took on responsibility for overseeing our ministry in there and the plans he had to travel there had to be cancelled.
Whilst initially he was able to visit the leaders who were able to leave the country and live in Budapest it was not the same. It was a challenge to know how he could encourage and support Sasha the national director and the leadership team however now he can look back and see what an amazing privilege it has been to be able to help this team. It has also been very sobering to see and hear the issues they are dealing with: the war continuing indefinitely, many employees and key volunteers have been mobilised to the front, family suffering losses as a result of the war and the possibility of nuclear disaster hanging over them.
Despite the war the ministry continues to grow albeit looking a bit different to the way it was before as they have had to adapt many of their ministry strategies.
However they have seen the ministry growing with new staff joining each year and an increase in the number of people who are spiritually open to hearing the gospel. One new ministry direction has been to partner with churches to distribute humanitarian aid and share the Gospel at the same time. They have called the it the "Yellow Box Project" where local churches hand out food boxes to people in need that also include letters explaining the message of the Gospel. You can read more about the Yellow Box Project by clicking HERE. Paul has now been able to visit Ukraine three times and it is clear that being present with them in their country sends a powerful message of support care and encouragement.
Further Resources:
To find out more about Agapé UK or the work that Paul and Henri are doing you can contact them via: e-mail: paulduncan@agape.org.uk or henriduncan@agape.org.uk
If you are a member of Riverside you can also find their phone contact details via your ‘My ChurchSuite‘ account.