Update from Northwich, England
Updated: May 4, 2020
From The Connection Church, Northwich. To state the obvious, these are very interesting and exciting times to be alive. Over the last year we have repeatedly had words from the Lord to ‘get ready’ and so we spent the best part of last year doing Engage training and Establishing Foundations and Equipping the local church.
Recently we have seen so many doors of opportunity open. On the whole people in the UK are fearful, anxious and searching for truth. It’s never been easier to have ‘God’ conversations with people.
As soon as the ‘lock down’ came into effect we encouraged our church to do a leaflet drop in their neighbourhood, introducing themselves, and offering practical support (like shopping for the elderly and those in the high risk category) and prayer. So many new contacts have been made which would never have been made. Discipleship is relationship and starts with a conversation.
Beth, one of our Elders wives sent an invite to all her neighbours inviting them to a ‘dance party’ in the street, midday for half and hour. Just about the whole street joined in (keeping the social distancing rules), she just played music out of her car, this simple creative act has opened up opportunities to connect and engage with people about Jesus. (See pic)
The day before ‘lock down’ a young man phoned me up and wanted to meet to find out how to get saved, I spent 2 hours with him and he surrendered his life to Jesus, I gave him a One 2 One book and he has joined our ‘virtual’ Connect Group.
Jacky is doing care nursing work with the elderly and has been able to pray with and share the gospel with so many of her patients, some who have been in church all there life and never heard the gospel (so sad).
We have also had one of our leaders start up a FaceBook live devotional every day at 2pm for a few minutes, called ‘Hope in Northwich’ it’s a public view and linked to all the Northwich sites, we’ve just shared a simple gospel message each day and ending in a short prayer, pointing people to Jesus. We’ve tried to keep it relevant to our context, and we’ve seen countless numbers of unsaved, unchurched people log in and watch. The exciting thing is that we’ve had people privately message us with questions and been able to explain the gospel in more depth, we’ve already seen a number of salvations, and just yesterday had a request by one of those who just got saved, to be baptised. This message has literally come to me now from one of our leaders ... “Just had a call from the man who owns the ‘business network’ I attend. He’s become a Christian! Just given his heart to Jesus. Next week we are also dropping off “Thank You” packages to the Police, Fire and Post office, from the Church, just saying how much we appreciate them and are praying for them.
That’s just a few short testimonies, hope it encourages you all. Praying for you all.
Blessing from Andrew and Jacky, Connection Church.