Who are SoapBox Trust?

SoapBox is a charitable trust registered in the United Kingdom that provides opportunities for people to go on short-term mission projects in some of the poorest communities throughout the world. Formed in the mid 80's by Steve Flashman, SoapBox became a charity in the early 90's and started a programme of short-term projects in 1993. We have a ChildCare programme that operates in the countries where we have practical aid projects. We assist UK churches in operating their own short-term programmes. We also have involvement with UK prisons and schools. See the 'What We Do..' section of this site.

Meet the Team

 

Shaun and Kathy Murphy
Shaun and Kathy Murphy

Project Officers

The backbone of the short term projects aspect of Soapbox's ministry, Kathy and Shaun are from Manchester where they are members of Altrincham Baptist Church. Kathy and Shaun first came to SoapBox in 1996 as participants on a short term project to Bolivia. They were so affected by what they saw and the difference that the project made to the local people and the participants that they signed up again the following year, eventually to become project officers for all the short term projects. They have been with SoapBox ever since.
Email: projects@soapboxtrust.com
Kay Macpherson
Shaun and Kathy Murphy

CRB Officer, Training and Childcare

Married to Ray, SoapBox’s Chairman of Trustees, Kay runs and is the co-ordinator of the SoapBox CRB checks, the Food Hygiene and Safety in the Workplace courses and has recently taken on the role as our Childcare coordinator. A teacher by profession, along with Ray she has a substantial history in beach missions for Scripture Union, particularly in Herne Bay where they live. Kay is a member of Herne Bay Baptist Church and a Trustee of SoapBox.
Email:crbchecks@soapboxtrust.com
Email:childcare@soapboxtrust.com
Rob Russell
Shaun and Kathy Murphy

Prison Ministry

Rob has been involved in prison ministry for many years and is the ideal person to develop SoapBox's involvement in this area. A highly experienced musician, Rob has worked extensively in the club circuit for years. He and his wife Ali are members of Guildford Elim Church. For more info: Email: prisons@soapboxtrust.com

Rob's band website can be found here: www.batcavestudio.com

Gillian Pegler
Shaun and Kathy Murphy

Prison Ministry

Gillian has been involved with Soapbox since a trip to India in 1998. Following another trip to the Philippines in 2006, visiting Filipino jails with Chrissy Perillo (Philippine Outreach Centre), Gillian got involved with the HMP Cardiff chaplaincy and later went to Bible College for two years. She is now working for Christianity Explored as a Prison Ministry Worker and is working on prison specific adaptations of the Christianity Explored course.

As well as helping us in other areas Gillian is also the medical advisor to SoapBox.

Ray Macpherson
Shaun and Kathy Murphy
Ray Macpherson, our chairman, has taken duties previously done covered by John Russell our former Executive Director.  Ray is a founder trustee of Soapbox and worked with Steve Flashman to fulfill his dream of taking the Gospel to people in Developing Countries.  As a life long Civil Servant he worked both with the unemployed in this country and finished his career in Learning and Development.  As a committed Christian Ray has been involved in his local Baptist Church including being a deacon and also the church secretary for ten years.  Ray has spent holiday time over many years visiting countries both to lead projects and also do risk assessment for new work; these countries include India, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa as well as countries in Eastern Europe such as Romania. He is committed to the work of Soapbox and wants to see it continuing to work with our project partners by sending out teams to work on short term projects.  One thing that thrilled him was when Soapbox was asked to take on the Gap Year project in Zambia fulfilling something in which the Trust had wanted to be involved for a number of years.
Helen Boyd

Finance Officer

Helen has been holding the finances of SoapBox together since 1997 and is a member of Cranleigh Baptist Church. Married to Julian with three daughters, Adele, Hazel and Esther.

Email: helen@soapboxtrust.com

Trustees

Trustees

Ray Macpherson - Chairman of Trustees
Alan Ritchie - Treasurer and Trustee
John Collins - Trustee
Kay Macpherson - Trustee
Cliff Arnold - Trustee
Fred Batchelor - Trustee
Brenda Grant - Trustee
Roger Kendall - Trustee
Giles Gillingham - Company Secretary