Hawkinge Baptist Church

 

• A church continuing to engage with the community and building relationships with people, and grateful for the support of Home Mission funding

• Preparing to perform a play on Good Friday and follow it up with an enquirers' course after Easter

Hawkinge Baptist Church is based in the ever growing town of Hawkinge, situated in the hills above Folkestone.  We are a small, friendly church, trying to be salt and light in the community around us. We own the top floor of the local community centre, which is in the centre of the town and have been there now for sixteen years.

Over the past year we have continued with our regular events which include prayer and Bible study, Saturday children’s club, discussion group and lunch, a children’s holiday club as well as Holiday at Home for members of the community.  We also run a weekly community coffee morning which attracts over 40 people each week and a monthly craft group which has grown to over 30 members.  Over the last couple of years, we have been blessed to see a few people start to come along to our church services, who first came along to our community groups.

We have also run the Talking Jesus course at church, which helped people think about how they can share Jesus with people in the everyday things they are doing, this seemed to give people more confidence to open up to others about their faith.

This year we are excited to be performing a play, adapted by one of our own church members.  It is based on the Easter story and will be performed on Good Friday.  It is great to see different members of the church get involved in this production and hope that members of the community will want to engage.  Then after Easter we will be running an enquirer’s course for people who want to learn more about Christianity and hope that those who come along to the play might be challenged and inspired to find out more.

Prayers of thanks

• For new faces in church and for good conversations with people who come to our different groups during the week.
• For great relationships with the Community Centre staff and their willingness to work together for the community
• For the different gifts and skills that God gives to his people and how they are used to bless others

Prayer requests

• Our minister Ali is going on sabbatical in mid-April. Please pray for the church as we prepare for that time
• For members of our congregation struggling with ill health and difficult decisions.
• That we as a church would be open and available to the wider community around us and that we would respond to whatever God calls us to in this place.

As a church we would like to thank all the churches in the SEBA network for the support you have given to the Home Mission fund. A grant from Home Mission has enabled us to have Ali as our full-time minister. Without Home Mission support this would not have been possible. So, thank you all!

Click here to read more stories about how the money you give to Home Mission is being used to bring the love of God to communities around the country.