The News Letter in its Faith Pages recently featured Church Army Evangelist Valerie Thom and her unique ministry to Northern Ireland’s marching bands supported by the Church of Ireland Priorities Fund, the Church Army, churches in the Armagh Diocese and Armagh Diocese itself.
The News Letter report – County Tyrone born woman Valerie Thom is an interesting lady.
She joined the ministry a little later in life than most, after she felt she could not ignore God’s call any longer. That’s not to say she didn’t resist it. “Oh yes, I went to Brazil to get away from it,” she says candidly and refreshingly. “I did not want to join the ministry.”
Why not, I ask?
“Have you even been in the ministry?” she asks with a laugh. “It’s not a job you go into lightly, to be honest. For me, yes, it was a calling, and I just came to the point where I knew I had to answer God’s call for my life. It was being repeated over and over again.” And Valerie has clearly thrown herself into her role with all her heart and soul.
She is diocesan evangelist for Armagh Diocese and officer of the Church Army Captain, an evangelistic organisation that has been around for 150 years and was founded in the Anglican Church. A self-described ‘mission community of evangelists’, it has officers right across the United Kingdom and in places such as Barbados and Africa, all of whom are committed to sharing the Christian faith through words and actions. Valerie, whose home church is in Kildress, Co Tyrone, but spends most Sundays preaching in others across the Armagh Diocese, founded an initiative known as the Zacchaeus Outreach Project.The name is taken from Luke Chapter 19, which is the story of the tax collector Zacchaeus, who was a short man, and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus one day as he passed through crowds in Jericho.
“Jesus knew his name and went to his house and had tea with him,” says Valerie.
As the Cookstown woman explains, the idea of this project is to take the message of Jesus out to the people – and the targeted group of choice for Zacchaeus Outreach is those people involved in the marching band scene.
“I looked around at all the young people that aren’t in church and thought, ‘where are they?’ The majority of them are in bands, so I knew to reconnect with them we needed to go to where the bands are.
“We want to try to build on those links and put them in touch with relevant people. Jesus met Zacchaeus at his point of need and that is what we want to do.”
The Project is supported by the Church of Ireland Priorities Fund, the Church Army, churches in the Armagh Diocese and the Armagh Diocese itself.
Last year, the Project launched their very own cafe-bus, in which volunteers can travel to band parades and meetings, and have a presence at, serving cups of tea, taking advantage of informal opportunities on the bus to talk about faith and issues affecting everyday life.
Says Valerie: “The bus is a presence in the band community and aims to be there to make a difference.
“We were at the Bush Road Races last year with the bus, we’ve done church fetes, we’ve gone to youth clubs, we go out on the Twelfth of July, we do some stuff for children and young people in the field as well.
“We just want to give back to the community and have a presence.
“I find it very rewarding, very stimulating.”
Valerie says that the bus will often be at a parade all day – for example, take Kilcluney Volunteers, who host the biggest band parade in Europe on the first Friday of June each year.
“We will be there from midday – we’ll park where the bands park and we’ll not be home until one ‘o’ clock the next morning.
“Our hardest job is giving away a free cup of tea – all the bands insist on supporting the project,” she adds, revealing that the bands are always more than welcoming.
Valerie says the Project does not “push anything” on people – yes, there is Christian literature, including Jubilee Bibles available, but they are free to be lifted, and are not forced on anyone.
“It’s a case of let’s reach out in a way that’s real to people, and build up a relationship, so that if people have a problem they can come and talk to us, because so many of the bands have had negative experiences of church.
“We just want to be there to support people and to reach out and let them see that the church is not about a list of dos and don’ts.”
She goes on: “I really enjoy it. Some of the chats we have had…(the experience) can be totally contrary to what people may expect.
“We have had conversations in which a man has told me the story of his brother-in-law who was anti-Christian, and through an illness…became a Christian.
“Young boys come in and say, ‘who is this Jesus?’. We have ordinary every day conversations about football or motor bike racing. Whatever comes up, if people want to talk about it, we will talk about it. If they don’t want to talk about faith, there’s no pressure on them.”
The Project’s bus is kept at Eurocoach in Dungannon, and other supporters of the initiative include the Royal Black Institution.
Valerie herself has been involved in Armagh Diocese for two and a half years, and was in based in the Shankill area before that.
She was 40 when she joined full time ministry.
“It was a call on my life,” she says.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/valerie-s-mission-to-reach-out-to-people-in-a-real-way-1-5116449