Peterborough Outreach day Sat 19 July 

David Pickavance, Team Leader writes, 

“ A lot of us will have been praying for rain for our gardens after a week of baking sun and zero moisture. Well, we got it on Saturday 19th while we were at St Paul’s in the New England area of Peterborough; boy did we get it! After our prayers, the weather was quite mild for our litter pick, with only a faint drizzle. Getting out wearing the day-glow St Paul’s vests (you can see Val wearing one in the picture) is a great way of demonstrating the church’s support for the community as well as providing an easy way of talking with passers-by when clearing along pavements so, again, this is how we started our day.

After coffee and more prayer, we visited houses along the streets where a team from St Paul’s had prayer-walked several days previously. The four of us TFMers were joined by 4 members of St Paul’s, allowing us to have four integrated pairs. Despite the increasing rain and the usual unopened doors or disinterest, each pair did have several good conversations, prayers and KGP acceptances, with one person even promising to attend St Paul’s the next day.

Pizzas for lunch donated by the Lithuanian restaurant across the road supplemented by St Paul’s excellent-as-ever hospitality. Then the rain really came down! We delayed our re-start by about 20 minutes, but it then became obvious that the rain wasn’t going to stop. So, we decided to go back out and do the Lord’s work that we had come to do, regardless of the rain and that was certainly worth it, with many more positive experiences. To describe just one, I was paired with George and it was his turn to lead at the door. The non-Christian lady who answered, with her son, took the questionnaire very seriously, giving much thought to the answers. She took a KGP and despite being of another faith, was very keen for George to pray for her and her son.  A coincidence that the rain stopped while George was praying?

What a positive day in the service of our Lord, despite the weather and we wended our way home after final prayers, grateful for the contacts that we had made. Huge thanks to the team of George, Robert and Steven and once again for the fantastic hospitality and extended team members from St Paul’s, particularly Brent and Shareen who braved all weathers with us.”