Back in 2018-2019 we had a great Action Wales Team on placement in Arfon, NW Wales. We wanted to catch up with Eleri, Gruff and Hannah to see where God has led them since being on the team…
Hello! It’s great to be with you all! So tell us firstly what you did next after Action Wales Team?
G: I was really unsure what path God wanted me to follow – teaching or ministry. So I went and did a year as a Maths teaching assistant to get more experience on that side, which really helped me decide in favour of ministry! So I then applied for the BUW internship and did a year of learning on the job before now starting on theological study at Cardiff Baptist College.
Brilliant! And Hannah, we know you followed a similar path. Eleri, what were your next steps?
E: I had expected to do further study, but God closed that door and opened another one at an insurance firm in Cardiff. But my team got given redundancy back in the autumn and it did look like God might be saying the time was right for me to go back into social policy study. And amazingly, I got a job with Christian Aid and got accepted for a part-time master’s, which go together really well.
That’s wonderful. So now that a couple of years have passed, as you look back at your time on the gap year, what would you say are the major things you learnt from that experience with us?
H: I think for all of us, just how essential it is to work as a team and to work well alongside other people! We all had different skills and strengths so there was this process of working out what mine were, what theirs were…
G: Exactly. It can be so easy I find to have this mentality of a one-man band, but actually when you’re in at the deep end you realize you need to share the burden. And it also makes such a difference in terms of processing things.
E: It was also really good preparation for real life – just getting involved in normal church life, navigating people’s preferences and ways of doing things, and then being a Christian in ‘real life’ as opposed to Uni or at home It really laid some important foundations for me as a Christian.
G: And one more thing – I got to preach for the first time, just two weeks in to the year and then throughout the year! Which feels providential, given what I’m doing now
Brilliant. So what do you think the future holds for you?
G: Well, only God knows what he has in store but I am continuing my studies and hopefully will then enter the ministry.
E: I found it tough initially with the pandemic and being in a new city to settle in a church, but I’ve now found one which is a big blessing. So between that, settling in to my job and masters I feel I have plenty to focus on right now!
H: I am currently doing missional training as part of my church internship, and I do feel a call to mission in Wales. I’ll just need to see what kind of missional ministry God calls me to….
Thank you all and we will continue praying for God’s hand on your lives.
Action Team Wales is back for 2022! Do you know any young adults looking to serve God and not sure what to do next year? Full details about the programme as well as an application form are available from this page.