Aylesham Baptist Free Church - Renew 61

 

• Focusing on Renew 61 - part of Renew Wellbeing - a place where it's OK to not be OK

• Seeing real transformation in people

• The church could become a hub for mental health services in the village

For the last few years at Aylesham Baptist we have been trying to do a few things and do them well.  We have been focusing on the discipleship of the church through Sunday sermons and house groups.  We have seen people be baptised through Alpha and have seen people join the church, for this we praise God. 

One of the main initiatives we are focusing on is Renew61 which is part of Renew Wellbeing and is a wellbeing cafe.  A place where it is ok to not be ok. The church is really grabbing hold of this initiative with a number of them being hosts. Through Renew61 we have been so blessed to see a real transformation in people. For example T who has a personality disorder and didn’t get out the house all week until she started coming along to the group. She now not only comes weekly to renew but also goes to yoga in the village (something one of our hosts helped her access) and is more confident in going into town by herself.
 
Another example is M.  He lost his wife and was very lonely. He started coming to Renew61 and now he comes regularly to Renew61, church, house group, other groups in the village and now volunteers at local railway station.  Behind the scenes for the last year I have been trying to get mental health services into the village something that is so needed (we have had 3 suicides in the village in the last 3 years). This October we have seen the start of two local services coming monthly to renew to do a drop in service and another mental health charity will be using our facilities to run groups for people suffering with mental health.  We really feel that our church could become a hub for mental health services in the village and are praying for wisdom in how to take this forward in the coming year.
 
Praise God for…                               

• New families joining the church                    
• The work of Renew61                                        
• 5 baptisms in the last year                                             

 
Ask God for …                                                                     

• Wisdom in our work in the area of mental health    
• A part time youth worker
• More Sunday school leaders

 
This coming year we really want to employ a part time youth worker as we want to invest in the young people in our church. We want to continue and grow the work of Renew61 and we want to create a culture where we come on a Sunday to be renewed and strengthened so we can go to our frontline and serve God during the week.                   
 
We want to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to other SEBA churches and the Baptist Home Mission who are supporting us and enabling us to do this work.
   

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