God led me into Debt
...But it's not how it sounds!
In June 2021 King’s Church Oxted opened the doors of CMA Connect Oxted – a church-based service providing debt advice to our community. This was the beginning of what I trust will be an amazing story of God’s provision and love, but also the culmination of a journey of faith in my own life over the past four or five years. This is the story I hope will encourage you to allow God to lead you on your own journey.
My wife Naomi and I joined the New Ground Academy in September 2015. Over the next two years we received amazing teaching and looked at various aspects of Christian ministry. Many of these appealed to one or other of us, but one topic stood out for us – serving the poor. We didn’t feel God leading us to anything in particular, but we agreed to keep our eyes open and wait on Him.
I applied to volunteer at a homeless shelter near where I worked, but God clearly shut that door when I developed Chronic Fatigue shortly afterwards. Over 4 months or so I was forced to sit (or lie down) and wait on God, a blessing in disguise as in that time I began to learn the importance of focusing on my relationship with Him rather than rushing round all the time trying to get things done.
Over time I recovered enough to return to work part-time. As I continued to improve, God spoke to me about continuing the learning I had received at the Academy rather than returning to full-time work. This would mean less money coming in, but after looking at our finances Naomi and I decided we could afford it, if we made some sacrifices. I enrolled in an online BA in Theology at Spurgeon’s College part-time. This course proved a real blessing, not just through the things I learnt about God, but also its flexibility meant that as I continued to struggle with low energy levels I could study when I felt good and rest when I needed to. Although God hadn’t told me why he wanted me to continue studying, it was the social justice elements of the course which once again really spoke to me and made me long for an opportunity to serve in this way.
Naomi and I went to Ashburnham in the summer of 2019, when all the churches in New Ground met for a weekend of fellowship and worship. I was coming towards the end of the first academic year in my Theology course. Knowing that Ashburnham is an amazing place to get away from the bustle of life, Naomi and I agreed that we should take time out from the activities one afternoon to spend time asking God whether I should carry on to the next stage of the course. That morning we heard a short presentation from Christians Against Poverty, a charity which provides free debt advice, and this really impacted me. When we prayed that afternoon, I felt God saying I should stop my Theology studies in order to start a debt advice service and Naomi sensed the same thing! I also received a prophetic word that God had something new planned for me in the coming season. We took this word, along with the fact that God had been talking to us about social justice for a long time, as confirmation of what we had heard.
The next step was to speak to the church elders, because I knew I would need the support of the whole church, both practically and through prayer. The elders advised me to do some research so that we could make a firm plan for setting up the service. When we prayed together we got the sense that we should take a slow but steady approach, rather than rushing ahead. In the coming months, each time I got frustrated that things were happening so slowly God confirmed that I should just keep moving things forward steadily, and his perfect timing was revealed when only a short time later the COVID-19 pandemic began. The slow and steady approach meant I was able to finish the academic year of my course and support my colleagues at work by returning to full-time hours for a few months at the beginning of the pandemic, whilst at the same time researching debt advice.
We want the debt advice centre in Oxted to provide opportunities for us to share Jesus’ love as well as help set people fee from debt. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) and Community Money Advice (CMA) both help churches provide this kind of service, but CMA was a better fit with the way I envisaged running the service and the resources at King’s Church Oxted.
In January 2021 we were ready to begin the final push to bringing it all into reality. We prayed for a team to support me, which was quickly answered. Training and other practicalities followed and by the early summer we were ready to go, just in time for the lockdown restrictions to start easing!
We currently have four clients. We’re still finding our feet in a lot of ways and progress on dealing with their debt problems can be slow, but we’ve already seen the power of prayer in their lives and been thanked just for the time we are willing to set aside to help them. We trust God will use us to set people free from debt and we will see fruit as our community is blessed and people are saved and join us in giving Him the glory!
If you’re struggling with debt, or if you’re interested in providing debt advice in your community, you can find out more about Community Money Advice and Christians Against Poverty on their websites.
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Written by Neil Ward (this post originally appeared on the New Ground Blog)
