22 October 2013 | London, United Kingdom [Katie Ramharacksingh/BUC news] Brixton church hosted their last ‘Mission to the Cities’ service, celebrating five baptisms and the start of a new initiative for outreach, on Saturday, 19 October 2013.
“I really think Brixton has impacted the community with the ways they’ve reached out”, commented Keith Boldeau, pastor of the nearby Balham church.
“They’ve put on health fairs, health expos and other ways of interacting with their immediate community. I believe the full impact of the programme we’ve been running will be seen over the next six to nine months, as people get closer to God and we follow up on seeds that have been planted.”
Guest speaker Pastor Kelby McCottry, who currently serves as a senior pastor in the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, closed the two-week campaign with a reflection on the biblical story of Noah.
“On one regular, ordinary day, I don’t think God sent a text message, or an email, or put it on Facebook as His status, ‘I’m about to do something today'”, suggested Pastor McCottry. “It was just a regular, ordinary day, they were going about their own business…then all of a sudden somebody felt a raindrop.”
He surmised that, despite not knowing much about Noah’s early life, because we know about the example of his devout ancestors, Lamech, Methuselah and Enoch, we can trust that God had chosen Noah and his family to refresh the earth for a reason.
Throughout the campaign, five people made the decision to be baptised. At the end of the programme, Pastor Sam Davis, President of the South England Conference, took the candidates through their baptismal vows. Kwadwo Kwarteng-Ampofo, pastor of the South-West London Ghana church, then baptised each of the individuals, welcoming them into the Adventist Church.
“I feel different, in a very good way. I feel blessed, inspired and chose this time to be baptised as I wanted to start fresh”, expressed 22-year-old, Ghamerique Privat.
Ghamerique Privat, Tanise Brown and Jael-Shammah Playfair-Spence became members of the Brixton church, while Athine Bodden was baptised into the Lewisham church and Petroline Garrison into the Balham church.
“I think it was brilliant that it ended with a baptism”, enthused Pastor Nerine Barrett. “It shows that when a person decides to follow Christ there’s a commitment at the end of it. These young people, they’ve stood up and shown the community that you can’t be too young to accept Christ.” [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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