Day Twelve: County Armagh
Tuesday 12 May
The annual VOX magazine Finding Faith Tour looks very different this year. Instead of a 7-day road trip around the island, this year VOX editor Ruth Garvey-Williams brings you highlights from all 32 counties (one per day plus one for each of the 31 days in May). Contact Ruth if you have a story to share.
Day Twelve: Making Connections
It’s day 12 and we get to connect with Armagh City Vineyard Church. A year ago, they opened up a former estate agents’ premises (40 Scotch Street) in the heart of the city centre as a “Connect Cafe” - supporting people who were on their own or struggling with mental health issues.
“We would have around 20 to 25 people coming each Thursday and we’d sit down for a cuppa and a chat. But then the coronavirus hit,” said Dean Forbes. “That first Thursday, we started to deliver lunch (soup) to 25 people and since then it has grown. We are now delivering soup and bread lunches to 120 vulnerable and isolated people every Tuesday and Thursday!
“I love connecting with people. I love delivering soup and asking people how they really are. We’ve even had people coming to the door of Number 40 asking us to pray for them!”
Dean, who is a self-employed painter and decorator, loves serving with Armagh City Vineyard’s outreach and compassion ministries. “What is the point of sitting in a church building? You can think it is hard to reach people but until you step out of the building, you don’t know!”
Now that traditional services cannot happen, Dean is finding lots of opportunities to connect with people, “In the past people would have walked past in the street but now people are stopping to have a conversation. I’m getting to know people!”
“We’ve had people coming to our online services who’ve never stepped foot inside a church before!”
Dean would have been one of those people! He did not grow up in a church family and went off the rails as a teenager. “At 18 years I had ended up in prison. But then when I was in my 20s, I met a girl who was a Christian. I had no interest in church (I didn’t want to be a hypocrite and start judging people) but I went for her sake.”
But slowly things began to change and two trips to Uganda with the church made a huge impact. Then one Sunday, Dean was chatting to another man in the church and he knew something was wrong. “Before I knew it, I was on my knees giving my life to Jesus. I hadn’t planned to do that at all. It’s been a long journey but I wouldn’t change anything.”
Now married with two young children, Dean has found he doesn’t get stressed or worried about things because he knows he can leave everything in God’s hands. “Thankfully I have outside work that I can still do but all the inside work was gone overnight when the lockdown started.”
Dean’s wife Suzie is a nurse (working in neo-natal care and deliveries). Although kept separate from the Intensive Care Unit, there is still a risk of exposure to the virus through patients coming into the hospital. “She still has to wear all the protective clothing. We’ve been fortunate but Suzie can ring some evenings to say that a high risk patient is coming in and we would not know whether she would be able to come home.”
