Christ Church Southport's Story
Watch one church's story of how they reached out to the elderly in our community.
Watch one church's story of how they reached out to the elderly in our community.
About Christ Church Southport
Christ Church is an Evangelical Anglican town-centred gathered congregation, in the heart of Southport. The core activities of Worship and Prayer are supported by a raft of programmes designed around their mission statement – Christ Church offering real hope through Jesus today.Featured Resources
00:00
If I'm honest, for 12
months before I started
00:02
the bereavement group I
was running away from it.
00:05
God was prompting me to begin this group
00:07
and I was hoping if I kept quiet that
00:09
someone else would come
along and start it.
00:12
But, they didn't.
00:13
I'm Mary and this is my story.
00:16
I think because of the
elderly, they become
00:18
quite despondent in society that it's just
00:22
as though they're brushed to one side.
00:24
Because we have a high
retirement population
00:28
in Southport, quite often they move here
00:30
with their partners, with their husbands,
00:32
wives and then they get inevitably,
00:34
one or the other will die and they're
00:36
left on their own.
00:38
And then, friends start to die as well
00:40
and they're quite lonely and quite alone,
00:42
so this is a Christ Church where we can
00:44
offer them somewhere where they are valued
00:46
people in their own right.
00:49
Through our first meeting we sat there
00:50
and we prayed and we didn't know
00:52
if anybody was going to turn up,
00:53
but three people did, and those three
00:56
people still come along once a month
00:58
to see us now.
01:00
My husband died in May 2013, and I felt
01:04
absolutely at rock bottom.
01:07
I thought it was only me feeling like that
01:08
at the time, and then when the bereavement
01:10
group started just four months later,
01:13
there were only a few of us there
01:15
the first time, and I went to that
01:17
and suddenly found that other people
01:19
were feeling the same as I did.
01:23
And, I got such a tremendous relief
01:26
at being there, thinking,
I'm not by myself.
01:30
And, from then, it's just gone from
01:32
strength to strength.
01:34
I didn't realise I'd changed so much
01:36
until I looked back and I was quite
01:38
shy to start off with,
01:42
but now I've found a new
person within myself.
01:46
But, one of the ladies who turned up
01:48
some three years ago now, was Margaret
01:51
who'd lost her daughter and lost someone
01:55
very close to her as well.
01:57
And, she was really struggling and
01:59
really angry with life, really angry
02:01
with God, to be honest with you.
02:03
[Margaret] Well, this has made a
02:04
tremendous difference to me.
02:06
I was a very angry person inside here
02:09
when I came, but I'm not angry anymore.
02:12
The anger has gone and it's purely down
02:15
to love and friendship from this group.
02:19
We had a gentleman that
came along to Senior Alpha.
02:22
He was brought by his wife
and his name was Stan.
02:26
And, he had no faith whatsoever.
02:28
It was alright for his
wife to go to church,
02:30
but that was not for him, and at the end
02:33
of the course it was his
wish to get baptised.
02:37
And, our minister at the time, I think it
02:40
was on Easter Sunday when we had 14 or so
02:43
baptisms, and Stuart
asked him, now then, Stan,
02:48
what brings you to here today?
02:51
And Stan said, well I
think at the age of 83
02:53
it's about time I got 'round to it.
02:57
About two years later,
because of a stroke,
03:01
he ended up in a nursing home and that was
03:04
quite hard for Stan and for his wife.
03:07
For 18 months he was in that situation.
03:10
He's no longer with us now.
03:11
He's gone to glory, but his family
03:13
have peace of mind because they know
03:15
he's at peace and they know where he is.
03:18
Smile.
03:20
Smile, be prepared to give them a hug,
03:22
because if they're isolated and livin'
03:23
on their own that's what they like
03:25
is physical contact.
03:27
And, be honest,
03:30
because elderly people can see through
03:32
you like you're a pane of glass.
03:33
If they know you're puttin' it on,
03:35
they will know that.
03:36
So, those are my tips.
03:37
Smile, hug, to love the person
03:39
that's put in front of you.
October 2019
From
Christ Church Southport
Topics
Elderly
Community events / engagement
From
Christ Church Southport
Topics
Elderly
Community events / engagement
This story was produced by the Evangelical Alliance with the support of
