Placement churches

Our placement is at The Eccles , a small community of about 90-100 people in Sheffield. The Eccles are passionate about being a part of the wider Church in Sheffield, and as such has good links with others across the city. We are passionate about having a real impact in people’s lives within the church, and releasing them to do the same with others in their communities, or through their passions. As a church, The Eccles rarely starts projects or ministries itself, but prefers to encourage its members to join with what already exists within the city, supporting other organisations and churches.

 

In a nutshell, the Eccles exists as a “restorer of broken dwellings” (something that was part of the original vision 12 years ago and has been consistently prophesied by visitors) allowing God to move in people’s lives through real relationships, and then to get out in to the communities surrounding us.

 

We (Josh and Bex) therefore are involved in various projects both separately and together. Together we are working with The Besom in Sheffield which looks to act as a bridge between Christians who wish to live out the Good News for the poor and needy but are lacking a starting point, and those who really need it – in practical terms it is most involved with those suffering housing difficulties. We are in charge or coordinating the work of The Besom with cell groups and people in The Eccles: we hope to have projects running regularly from various groups within the Eccles to show something of the Kingdom of God to those who are often scorned by neighbours and are struggling to cope in poor conditions. We also are going with Baz, one of the church leaders, to do school assemblies around the city: eventually we will be taking them ourselves. We have also been on the volunteer team for a brilliant 3-day conference in Sheffield hosted by The Eccles.

 

Individually, I (Josh) am involved in working with the university 24-7 group to assist in encouraging prayer around the university and setting up prayer rooms in partnership with local churches. I am also beginning regular prayer walks with a few other guys from the Church around our community here (and the city centre – where we are all passionate about seeing God move on the streets), and we hope to set up a prayer space on our street which can be used as a common resource for anyone, and also to pray specifically for those we share a postcode with. I also help with a soup kitchen run every 2 weeks by St Williams Catholic Church – from whom The Eccles borrow a building to gather together on Sundays, and occasionally support the student homeless outreach society.

 

And I (Bex) have just been getting to know the church as I’ve only just moved here, so I’ve been here about a month so far, but I will be getting involved with a charity called Assist which is run by a guy at the church. They work with asylum seekers, and I’m going to be helping every Wednesday afternoon with ‘Conversation Club’: I will chat, play games, and help them learn English. This will really help me as I’m going to Romania for about 14 weeks and it will help me get used to people of different cultures and backgrounds. Then on Fridays I will get to go into a school and help the children, read and maybe do art classes with them as I did an art course a few years ago now and loved it, this will also help me lots with going to Romania as when I go out there I will be working with street kids, and kids in the ghettos, so as I’ve never really worked with children before this will help me get used to relating to them. As I know when I go out there it will be hard enough as it is so I will need experience of being around kids and small children. Then I will be going to a church cell most weeks to help me settle into the church, and just get to know people.