Before the arrival of Covid, I had wondered whether we should establish another GVC place of worship near Wimbledon in South London. A lot of married couples move south upon having a child, or to buy a house, which is a trend that I thought would continue. And for those, coming to church each Sunday would be a difficult commute, even though train services are available.

Our church originally started out in South Wimbledon, and near Wimbledon. In 2008, when I first arrived, Sunday services took place at an English church near Wimbledon and Wednesday services took place at an English church near South Wimbledon. In central London, Sunday services took place at the church building that we use to this day. Back then, not a lot of people attended each week so we did wonder whether we should combine the two Sunday services – fortunately, members of the church felt the same so we ended up meeting as one community in central London, as we do today.

15 years later, we have around 30 families that live in South London. There are a few that live even farther away than New Malden. That’s a one-and-a-half-hour drive by car. From time to time, we have newcomers from New Malden that eventually give up on settling at our church due to the physical distance, so I really value those who travel from far away each week.

For a long time, I’ve been thinking about whether opening a new GVC place of worship in South London was the right thing to do. Would it weaken the faith of those who had been faithful enough to travel this far each week, out of love for the church? Had this thought stemmed from a personal greed to lead a big church? Thankfully (?) the pandemic made it difficult to pursue this for a while, so I decided to hold this thought and take some time to pray for God’s guidance.

I had thought that, when things return to normal after the pandemic, if members of our church come back to worshiping in person to the extent that our church building gets too crowded, then we could start looking for a place of worship in the south. But when we started in person services in June, many members came to join in person services (despite the expensive congestion charge, which we didn’t have pre-pandemic) and we saw more newcomers join (both families and students) – all of which made me think that the need to open a new place of worship may arise earlier than I had anticipated.

In addition, one of our church school leaders, who had also prayed over a new place of worship, was relocated to work as a senior teacher at an Anglican Primary School – and that school has been very helpful and willing to lend us their halls and classrooms for our Sunday School activities, which gave us the space that we needed. Furthermore, our church school teachers agreed to help the church by travelling down to Wimbledon from central and East London (where they live) to serve the church school, and then return to central London to attend our Sunday Service there, which is no small sacrifice on their part. All of these circumstances allowed us to consider moving forward with opening a new place of worship.

If I continue my ministry for the same number of years that I have spent here in London, it would be time for me to retire. It does feel like I’ve reached half time in a football match. At this half time point, I am starting something new. I really want to be able to leave the field after having produced many good fruits with the blessing and grace that God has poured upon me. One of the pastors that always pray for me once said that whenever he prays for me, he gets this feeling that I’ll be able to see things through to the end. I really hope that will be true.

“Dear Lord, I entrust myself to You for this upcoming New Year, and for the remaining second half.”