First Steps @ Connect
I think I am speaking for the entire first steps team when I say what a privilege it is to serve Christ in our local community. To show the love of Jesus to the lovely mummies and the occasional daddy that may enter the Connect Centre on a Wednesday morning (pre-pandemic) is a joy.
When Sarah Ballentine and I talked about starting First Steps, if I am truly honest; I definitely had some selfish motives. Being new to the area I thought it would be a great way to make friends and entertain my young toddler. But when praying about it we knew we wanted First Steps to be different. We started to realise that this wasn’t some random idea that we had come up with, but something that the Lord had put on our hearts. Our mission objective was that we could provide local mummies with practical and emotional support. To help build healthy, meaningful relationships so that we could share Jesus with them on a personal level.
The first day that we opened the doors; we witnessed the Lord’s graciousness to us. We were blessed from the very start of this ministry with an incredible team of willing helpers. The number of mums and children in attendance continued to steadily grow in the initial months until we were regularly hosting average numbers of sixty children plus. The thing that I thank the Lord for the most though is the relationships that we have developed with these amazing ladies. This has enabled us to stay in contact with the ladies during this pandemic, having socially distanced meet-ups at the park. As we get closer to opening the doors once again, we pray that the relationships we have developed will get stronger and we will see Salvation.
First steps have had the opportunity to partner up with a church-based project to provide practical help for new mothers who cannot afford the basic essentials. We will be setting up an Early Essentials base in Ballymoney collecting donations and working alongside local health practitioners to meet the need within our community. If you would like to know more about this just visit the website… earlyessentials.org.uk.
If this is something you want to get involved with please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours in Christ, Hannah Barton
I will leave you with the words of four Mummies that attend First Steps and some pictures (pre pandemic).
Recent Comments