| Getting stuck in |
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Bren Nixon became a Christian four years ago – but that was only the beginning of his story  I became a Christian in April 2006 during a Christianity Explored course and soon after I was baptised and became a member at Beacon Lough Baptist Church, Gateshead. Many things have happened over the last four years, but two in particular have been extremely important to me. Not long after my baptism there was a Christian initiative in the North East called NE1. The aim was to mobilise Christian young people to serve local churches as they engage in social action and outreach community projects. From the Monday to the Friday the young people were bussed out to local churches to help with community projects. My church was one of those to which some of the young people were bussed. On the Wednesday we tidied up an area at the back of a PHAB club that was a bit of wilderness. Everyone worked extremely hard and within hours the place had been transformed into a garden for wheelchair users. It was fantastic to see the willingness of the young people to work so hard for someone else and being paid nothing – I had never seen before. The whole experience made a lasting impression on me and made me realise that showing the love of Jesus in practical ways to those in need who are in the local community is a path I wanted to walk with his guidance. After NE1 I began to look at an organisation called The Besom. In early 2007 I attended the Besom conference in London to find out more about it. The Besom is a service for those who want to give and allows them to get involved as little or as much as they want. It forms a bridge between churches and their local community. It is about making matches by taking what a person has to give and finding someone who genuinely needs it. It is not about good deeds, but us responding to God’s love for us by loving our neighbour. We came away full of expectancy, eager to encounter the excluded by exploiting Besom and exalting Jesus. It was agreed that my church should be involved in setting up a Besom in Gateshead, and it was officially formed in July 2007. For me its has been an unbelievable experience. I have visited care providers and social workers to tell them how Christians want to help and that they are doing it because of their love of Jesus. I have spoken to other churches, and arranged visits to clients’ houses with care providers. I have given time to some projects and all of them had an impact on me. In one project I went with people from two churches to decorate a living room for a single parent with four young children. While the paint went on the walls, the kids were being looked after upstairs. Sometimes little heads appeared around the corner and little voices said: ‘What you doing? Can I help?’ The time-givers were able to pray in the home both before and after the decorating. The mother and her kids were there during the prayers, and the kids asked why we were praying. People from two different churches tidied the garden of a lady with poor mobility. We prayed in the lady’s house and she stood with us as we prayed. The garden was tidied and our last job was to cover an area of soil with gravel to make the task of maintenance easier. Unfortunately, I had not bought enough gravel, so I went to get some more. I visited about four places and none had any to match. We spoke to the lady and said that we would call back and finish the job once we had got the gravel. No co-incidence  Three days later I laid the gravel while two others talked to the lady and showed her a DVD from J John, the evangelist. She was really interested. We discovered that the lady died on that weekend. I felt that showing her the DVD and talking to her about Jesus was really important and the lack of gravel was more than just a co-incidence. I believe that through my involvement with Besom I have seen God move. It has been an honour and allowed me to serve and express my faith. I have grown as a Christian and I have learned that prayer is the basis of everything I should be doing. It is about listening to God and grasping the opportunities he gives and having the courage to act in the way he wants me to. All of us are called to yearn for the coming of God’s Kingdom here and now to make a fairer world in which Jesus is known through our words and actions. |
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