Waiting at the door

Beca McKay, Lead Resourcer on the Limitless Leadership Team, spent an evening with a new youth group in Evesham and discovered a story of perseverance, prayer and young people finding a place where they belong.

Kay was 67 when she began to feel that God was asking her to start a youth group. Her husband Stephen, who leads the church in Evesham, was 61. Neither of them was new to youth work, but it had been a long time since either of them had done it, and the idea was Kay's.

For the first two weeks, nobody came.

They have since admitted they were unsure whether it was going to work out, but they kept trusting what God had asked them to do. On the third week, they arrived at the building to find young people already waiting outside.

Nobody on the team can quite explain what changed between the second week and the third. What they can tell you is that the group now sees around 17 young people on an average week.

There had been a Limitless group in Evesham before, set up a number of years ago through the Pioneers programme, but it sadly closed during Covid. Since then, the church has moved from the town centre onto one of the estates. The resources and experience gained through Pioneers have helped the team begin again, this time right in the community they hope to reach.

Visiting Limitless Evesham, I met the wonderful volunteer team and heard their vision to reach the young people on the estate. Even as I arrived at the church, young people were waiting outside, excited for the group to start.

It was great to see the volunteer team engage with them over table tennis, FIFA and the craft table. We then shared a BBQ together before diving into the God Slot, which focused on how we can engage with the Bible.

It was clear throughout the whole evening how welcome the young people felt and that this was an important part of their week. One of them shared that this was a space where they got attention and care, as their mum is often busy supporting their sibling, who has additional needs.

A couple of the young people are really interested in the God Slot, asking questions and wanting to know more. Others find it harder to engage, and Kay says this only encourages the team to pray for them more. They recognise that it takes time for young people to explore faith and be open to new ideas, and they trust that God is going to move powerfully in their lives.

I can't wait to hear what God does in this community through a church that was willing to keep turning up, even when nobody else did.

This article was first featured in the Your Elim newsletter. You can read the Your Elim newsletter here, and sign up to the newsletter here.