SUNDERLAND

Sunderland is a city of around 350,000 people. UK-USA Ministries currently partners with multiple churches across the city. In 2023, we welcomed four mission teams that served across a total of seven local churches; New Springs, Hope Vineyard, Enon Baptist Church, Parish of North Wearside, Hope Family Church, Calvary Christian Fellowship, and St Johns.  It has been great to reestablish previous partnerships as well as start new ones and watch God move through the teams He has called here.

Ministry weeks for mission teams take on three forms:

Firstly, to encourage Christians already in church.  Young people who go to church here are in the minority and it’s a great boost to them and their confidence in their faith to spend a week with peers from the U.S. who are living their faith out.  Mission week can be the confidence spark those young people need to invite a friend or share their faith.

Secondly, most trips will have a school focus. Schools welcome visitors from different countries and cultures and this allows them to share the reason for coming and to share their faith.  Depending on the team, we will go into schools and host sports camps, lessons, after-school clubs, lunchtime activities, performances, etc. Our aim in all of this is ultimately to share the Gospel.

Thirdly, outreach. As well as meeting the local young people where they’re at in school, mission weeks are a great opportunity to put on evening activities to invite local families into church and for the youth to invite their friends. Throughout the summer, our mission weeks are supplemented by our partnership with Greater Europe Mission through the Ten2 Project where students come and serve for a full summer within local churches whilst being hosted within the homes of church family members.

Our prayer for Sunderland is to see more people come to know the love of God and the wholeness that being in a relationship with Jesus brings. We want to see our churches flourishing and being places of connection and belonging with God and community. We know the Gospel thrives on relationships as Jesus was hugely relational, and so we also want to connect people, believers, and non-believers alike, so that they can journey together into a lasting relationship with Jesus.  Doing so will encourage the existing believers and simultaneously bring in new believers and ultimately will be a step towards seeing the Kingdom come in Sunderland as it is in Heaven!

I have been in ministry in Sunderland with Wearside Youth for Christ since 1997 and have been working in local schools and churches across the city since then. My passion has always been to go and share the Gospel where the young people are and for me, most young people are in schools. I love to share with the young people and I love to hear the thoughts and questions of young people too.

The team which is myself and Louise works in 27 different schools. We deliver Religious Education lessons, Assemblies, Lunchtime and afterschool clubs throughout the school term to young people aged between 5 and 16.  At the end of each term, we deliver our prayer spaces program with the help of local Christians where we look at the Christmas story, the Easter story, and the story of God’s rescue plan in the Old Testament.  These are a really fun and interactive way for children to engage with the Gospel.

Wearside Youth for Christ also exists to serve local churches as they reach out to young people. We help to facilitate events for these different youth groups to come together for games, food, fun and fellowship and the word of God too.  

For the last 5 years we have been so blessed to have American Mission teams come to be a part of our ministry and join with us for special mission weeks alongside some of our amazing local churches too. We have been able to run Camp of Champions sport camp, run sports sessions, deliver lessons, help in the community, lead services and encourage local youth groups. We also have a team of Americans each summer from the Ten 2 program who work alongside our local churches and schools for 2 months.  

PRAYER POINT

The church in the city has some amazing Godly people, but many of the congregations are small and elderly and don’t always have enough people to do mission in the way that they would like. My prayer would be that the church in this city would have enough people to help them do that.  I would love for people to come and commit themselves to this amazing place that I call home and to help serve the local churches and their communities with the Gospel of Jesus not just for a week or a couple of months but for a year, two years, three years and see what God can do in you and through you as you serve here in Sunderland.  

GOD STORIES

Louise had been visiting one particular school for lessons and one young boy had told her that he wasn’t sure that he believed in God.  After a while he told her that he was beginning to change his mind and that he started to tell his friend too.  The next time Louise came into the school he told her that he had started going to church and was enjoying it.    

During October a mission team from Tennessee came and worked alongside a local church in Sunderland Called New Springs church.  During the week they visited a local primary school for two days.  We had an interactive bus brought to us by people from the Message Trust, a Christian organisation in the region. The children came in groups of 25 on to the bus to spend time with the team doing different activities and hearing the Gospel.  It was great to see people from Wearside Youth for Christ, the local church in Sunderland, The American Mission team and the Message trust all working together to share the Gospel.   

Encouraging Articles:

https://durhamdiocese.org/latest-american-mission-trip-to-sunderland-inspires-youngsters.php

https://durhamdiocese.org/american-youngsters-enjoy-inspiring-mission-trip-to-sunderland.php