Sue Ashmole, Counties Neighbourhood Chaplains Co-ordinator shares how a new ‘air fryers’ initiative is giving practical help but also sharing the Good News.
Sue Ashmole
Responsible for Neighbourhood Chaplains - inspiring and equipping local churches to love their neighbours and impact society.
She runs a small holding and lives in glorious North Devon. Her life was completely changed when she was baptised on the 23 April 2017. She has a passion for telling others about Jesus. She attends a church plant and innovates ‘alpaca evangelism’ to reach the local community. She also hosts a discipleship house group. Her training skills are used in teaching animal care to students with additional learning needs.
SUE’S STORY
Bishops Stortford Christian Assembly has been hosting 'Air Fryer' courses, run by their local social prescribers, partnered with the local Homeinstead branch. They were approached about the possibilities of using their Christian Centre for these courses which are aimed at showing people, who are alone and isolated and who often may have poor diets, that there is a cheap, quick, and easy way to improve what they eat.
Steve Prince, who leads the Neighbourhood Chaplains at BSCA, said how effective the 6-week courses were: aside from the obvious benefits of learning to use an air-fryer, they had people coming into their building for the first time who then found out about Cafe Connect and Neighbourhood Chaplains. In turn, this opened up the door to new relationships and ultimately to offer conversations and takeaway tracts about The Good News of the Gospel.
He added that the first question on day one was: "Who has an air fryer?" and the second was: "What do you cook in it?" They all said: “Chips.”
By the end of week six, they all come away with the ability and confidence to cook a three-course meal for themselves. One woman said she hadn't realised cooking good nutritious food could be so quick and easy.
Through Cafe Connect, Steve and the team have forged good relationships with many local organisations and have fellowship every week with people from a range of organisations: the police, the council, social prescribers, and more. These relationships have been a source of introductions to many lost and lonely people, and the members of various organisations also get to experience the love of God by being in contact with Steve and the team.
This is one of the many varied approaches we can use to connect with the community on our doorsteps.
For more information about Neighbourhood Chaplaincy see our website: https://www.counties-training.org/neighbourhood-chaplains or contact Sue Ashmole at sue.ashmole@countiesuk.org