Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York writes
Earlier this year, I was able to publish a book ‘Faith Stories’ which featured 20 inspiring stories from ordinary people with extraordinary experiences. Their stories are all about what having a faith means to them and how their faith makes a difference in their lives.
Each of them, in their own way, shows us courage, determination and a love for your neighbour – both locally and globally. Not always an easy task!
One of the stories was about Malc Clark, a Key Stage 3 Coordinator (11-14 year olds) for the York Schools and Youth Trust (YoYo). His powerful testimony was about realising that God’s plan for him didn’t lie in overseas work like so many missionaries that he had been inspired by, such as C T Studd, but rather his desire to make a difference started much closer to home, in the City of York.
Charles Thomas Studd, was not just a fantastic cricketer winning the Ashes series, but he was also an English missionary who worked in China, India and Africa in the late 1880s.
Of his mission work, Studd said:
“Some want to live within the sound, Of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”
Wherever you might look to make a positive change, be encouraged by having faith as your strength. This year, Tristan da Cunha’s new Christmas stamps celebrate the local churches of St Mary’s Anglican Church and St Joseph’s Catholic Church. Their motto as the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world is ‘Faith still their strength’. It’s a stamp definitely worth collecting!
Luke 17: 6 If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.