3 minute read
Who’s Rising Up?
“The work before us is rebuilding,” says Dave Ducker, father of three and minister of St Philip’s Church which he runs with his wife Sarah.
He speaks about the dual responsibilities of church leadership and fatherhood, which are very different but have “definite overlaps’’. Dave “sees church as family” and hopes that how he raises his children “is not a million miles from how he tries to love and serve the church.” In both roles Dave tries to bring to the fore the principle of accompaniment, as he prefers getting alongside people in order to lead. When he first heard about Arise last year, Dave thought that the organisers were “a group of brave dreamers”, but had some reservations about the scale of the project. “I probably had questions about how much we could do”, Dave reflected. However, since then he has seen the fruits of Arise. “It was amazing to see how many other people got involved… finding creative ways to serve the community in word and deed, whether that is giving out Easter eggs or cards or finding other ways to be more visible and a positive presence in their communities.”
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Looking to 2022, Dave sees this year as one of transition. “We live in a watershed time. During the pandemic, all of life - including worship - was disrupted and as a church, our community is now picking up the pieces of some of the things that we lost, or that have been displaced.” His prayer is that more people will get to know Jesus and know God is with them this year.
It was amazing to see Arise finding creative ways to serve the community in word and deed
Margaret Howells is an enthusiastic advocate for the Arise community.
Well before Arise launched in 2021, she saw a vision of a website and felt that there would soon be a new movement to connect churches around prayer. When she first encountered Arise she was thrilled that Arise had fulfilled this and when it launched in February, she was delighted to get involved. During the March prayerwalk, Margaret went above and beyond. When - two days into the prayer-walking - the whole of Margaret’s S10 area had already been earmarked for prayer-walking Margaret ventured further afield, blessing anything from industrial estates to country lanes as she went.
In addition to finding many lovely spots around the city to pray - such as Parkwood Springs - through walking Margaret noticed a connection between the Arise community’s flow of foot traffic on Sheffield’s streets and the five rivers of Sheffield, both sustaining the city in different ways. Margaret shared that prayer walking has been a pivotal experience in her faith because she saw the power of prayer in “bringing Heaven to Earth”. Through her involvement with Arise Margaret says that she realised more and more that God always has a plan, which will more fully be revealed to us over time. To this end Margaret encourages all of us to pray this March for God’s plan to be revealed in Sheffield.
God always has a plan, let’s pray that He reveals it to us.
Ben Ashworth first heard about Arise in January last year, when he was commissioned to design the Arise Easter cards.
The cards were sent to every home in Sheffield with a heartwarming message of hope and a new beginning around Easter. Ben was already a regular prayerwalker in Parson Cross, and so joining in with Arise felt very natural. During Arise 2021, as Ben sought to prayerwalk the small streets that others had missed, it struck him how “God notices each of us”, even if we feel small or insignificant. This March Ben hopes to prayer-walk areas of Sheffield he doesn’t know so well. “I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will lead us to the right people and things as we prayer-walk this March.”
