Do you remember the first time you turned up at church on your own?

Ryan who serves in the Operation Joy project was overjoyed, when a lady who attended the Oldham Drop-In session that we run on Fridays gave her life to Christ. This lady then came to church on the Sunday.

Ryan tells the story.

Last week we had a young lady turn up in the Drop-In. This lady was desperate for change in her life, as we began to discuss how we might be able to help this lady, I really felt God tell me that she needs to know how important she is and how she wasn’t a mistake.

Turning to Psalm 139:14 I showed the lady that she has been fearfully and wonderfully made and that God had a specific assignment in mind before he created her (Psalm 139:16). She was amazed to hear these things. She wanted to know more, so I shared Jeramiah 29:11 with her where we are told that God wants to give us a future and a hope.

Explaining the consequences of our sinful lives and the prospect of eternity compared with our finite time on earth, we arrived in James 4 and could understand that we hold only lightly to our lives on earth.

The young woman then asked how she could have this God in her life, we spoke about repentance and how sin separates us from God and the only cure for this is to receive Jesus as your Lord and saviour. Asking her if she wanted to receive Jesus as her Lord and Saviour, she agreed and I led her in prayer and prayed for her to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This was an amazing time as you could feel the presence of God in the room. A short while after Steve, the Pastor of Bethel Church, popped his head in to see how we are doing. I introduced the lady to him and Steve invited her to come along to the Sunday service. On Sunday afternoon I received a text message from Steve saying he was encouraged as the lady had turned up at church

A Manchester City Mission we are overjoyed with this news. We will continue to support the lady through the Drop-In encouraging her to settle at Bethel Church.