Chance conversation leads to church gift of £10,000

‘A lift for Narberth’ is more than a building project. It sums up the church’s vision, says Phil Prosser, senior leader of Grace Church.

Narberth is a small but growing market town in south-west Wales with a lively shopping centre, arts and cultural scene, a very active community life, and a charismatic evangelical church with ‘high hopes’ for its future mission in the community.

Central to that vision is a former police court that was purchased in the 1990s as a base for outreach and community activities. Following the pandemic, and the church planting in the nearby holiday resort of Saundersfoot, they began to pray about the court’s future use and came to the conclusion that it was central to its mission, even though it would need extensive renovation. It would also necessitate the installation of a lift.

‘At the same time more community groups were asking if they could use the building,’ Phil explained. ‘Amongst the first such groups was a mental-health action group, set up in response to a number of suicides among young people, including a young man from our own church. At the same time, in the summer of 2023, a volunteer reopened the café in the building. This created a welcome for people to pop in and chat’.

The estimated cost of this project (at least £100,000) has definitely not dampened the church’s enthusiasm. In fact, the reverse is true. For example, a chance conversation leading to a gift of £10,000 and a retired architect giving time and expertise for free have proved hugely encouraging, prompting the congregation to give sacrificially with the result that the fund is now close to £30,000.

The vision was summed up by Phil Prosser in a sermon in which he said: ‘There is someone in Narberth who could not sleep last night because of a problem they are facing. They woke up at three o’clock in the morning and said to themselves: “I know. I will go down to the courthouse in the morning. Someone will help me there”.

‘It is a driving force of a vision that excites us every day’, he added. ‘Please join us in prayer for the vision to become a reality.’