Faithwork: Stories from around the Diocese

Pat Clarke's Testimony

The glow on Pat’s face was remarkable. It was clear something had happened; a transformation had begun.

“ Do you change when you start coming to church?” she asked me. Our conversation was interrupted but I made up my mind to visit her to find out more. So this Saturday afternoon I popped in to see her at the main Post Office in Stainforth where she works as the postmistress.
Pat had started coming to church regularly since the funeral of her mum at the end of January this year. She says she found comfort in the service and thought that coming to church she might find more comfort. But she got much more than she expected! Things came to a head on Good Friday. She says that she was moved by the service and had begun to understand about how Jesus had carried our sins on the cross. Later that evening she was walking from home to Tesco’s for a late night shop and describes what happened along these lines.

“ As I was walking all these verses from the Bible were coming into my mind – many of them I couldn’t understand. And then I felt something coming into my body.”

Pat isn’t a trained theologian, or even understands church jargon, but she went on to explain the remarkable difference this experience had made to her, in words like this:

“ My priorities have changed”, she says. “I just feel so much love and care for people, and I just want to spend time praying.

“ What were things like before?” I asked

“ I took on the job here several years ago, to pay the mortgage and bills. That’s what I was bothered about most. Now I realise that they just aren’t so important. You can manage without so many things. It’s people that are important. I feel such a contentment now. I always believed in something after death, and said my prayers at night, but people will never understand what I’ve experienced now, unless they’ve known it themselves. I feel such love for people and care so much about them. I have my time with God walking to the bus stop in the morning, but I can’t go the whole day now without popping into the back to pray. I read a bit of the Bible each day and a chapter from a book, a friend has lent me. I may never experience anything like it again, but I know He won’t ever go away. I don’t know what else might happen in my life now (Pat was divorced five years ago and her daughter had experienced continual health problems).”

At Women’s Aglow meeting this Monday, she went forward in response to an invitation to receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit. She’s out for all she can get of God right now! She says, “I could feel something on my head, but when I opened my eyes the lady’s hands were in front of me.” Someone at the meeting spoke to Pat about how she was glowing. “What is it they see?” she asked me. “I never expected this to happen to me. Why has it happened to me?”

Pat is full of questions, and thrilled about the change in her life. We are thrilled to have Pat as a lovely new member of our church family. And through her work at the Post Office she meets and knows so many people locally. Whilst we were talking one large lady customer shouted through to tell her exploits the previous evening, about being thrown out of a Chinese restaurant for getting p….d and sitting on the revolving table. Pat takes it all in her stride, listening quietly and speaking gently. She’s a person many people already feel is their friend…and she’s in a place where she can impact so many lives for God. Praise God for what He’s doing!

Andrew Allington
Vicar of Stainforth
Saturday 1st May 2004

20 - 30 year olds

Like most churches St James, Anston, has a big gap in the 20 to 30 year olds. Periodically one or two have come and then drifted away as they looked for a church with people of their own age.

So, some 18 months ago when there were just 4 people like that, we encouraged them to form a House Group and to have the vision of sharing their faith with others of that age group. In no time at all it had doubled and earlier this year they did the ‘START Course’ (a very basic introduction to the Christian faith). In the end only two ‘outsiders’ joined but they are now part of that group.

Although one of the original members left after a year and another is leaving this June, it has led to a significant growth in the number of young adults in our congregation.

Patrick Coghlan
St James Anston

Y Course Progress

I always wonder what to do about requests for marriage when one or both partners has been divorced. This year I’ve invited them to a shortened Y course (reduced from 8 to 5 sessions). Y starts further back than Alpha, and doesn’t go so fast. Five couples have taken part with varying degrees of reliability. I think everyone has attended at least 3 sessions, which isn’t bad.

One or two have remained pretty wary, but several people have become remarkably warm towards faith and church, and have asked to do the rest of the course. They are expressing interest in continuing as a group, perhaps doing Alpha. I don’t know how far along the Journey they have yet got, but it’s been really heartening to see such positive response.

John Hutchison
Wadsley Parish Church

Cell Group Breakout

We have been running cell groups at St Polycarp’s church Malin Bridge for a number of years now. All the groups work on a three dimensional principle of “in – up – out”.
Expressed in the life of each group should be prayer, teaching, worship, fellowship, pastoral support and outreach.

To encourage outreach through the groups, each year we have what is called the Vicar’s challenge. Based on the parable of the talents, each group is given £25 and told to use the money creatively in an outreach project that will bless the local community. Past highlights have included one group running a sports afternoon in a local park with free refreshments and prizes for the children. Another group started up a club for the over fifties which is now attended by over thirty people. We have had bulbs planted on village greens, projects in local schools and even soap bags given to all new residents at local old peoples home.

We have made contact with our community in many different ways. Some long lasting relationships have developed, and several people have started to attend church as a result of these initiatives. Our cell groups have become much more confident about outreach because so many of these projects have been low cringe – high impact initiatives.

It has worked for us. Why not try it yourselves? Mark Cockayne Vicar

Henry is 87.

He served in the Second World War, joining up as a teenager. He was rescued from Dunkirk beaches, served in North Africa, fought up through Italy, through France, finally demobbed in Norway. He served in a clearing station, seeing men with terrible wounds, unable to aid their deaths. Experiences in the war disgusted and horrified him, asking himself where was God that He should allow such horrors. He looked to the clergy for help, but found none: the church parades left him with a decision never again to have anything to do with ‘church’, as God was not involved in anything.

Henry returned to civilian life, worked, and lived with his sister, who was taken ill about 14 years ago, whom he nursed with devotion for over 7 years until her death. They both attended a lunch, put on each Tuesday by a local church, and after his sister’s death, Henry was invited to attend the morning service on each Tuesday, by a friend whose wartime experiences were close to his own. Henry began to wonder if there might not be something in ‘religion’ after all, but found it impossible to make a final commitment, because he wanted proof. After discovering that he had cancer, he then discovered that people were praying for him. He read a book about a missionary to Japan, which warmed his heart, and last week, as he was shaving, he asked God to make himself known, and was filled with the most incredible joy and knew that God had answered him. By the time he finished shaving, he had committed his heart to Christ Jesus, asked forgiveness for his sins, and knew he was forgiven. When he came to the morning service on the Tuesday, he told everyone he knew, that he was now a child of the Living God. He had been ‘Surprised by Joy’.

The Revd Margaret Green
St James, Doncaster