Trevor and Liz never imagined that retirement would lead them to a city centre mission project and budding church plant, yet that’s exactly where God led them to.
- It's one thing to be open to serving God more, or in new ways when life changes and you find you have more time. It’s another thing entirely to be willing to leave your church family and be part of another.
- It might even be one thing to serve in another nearby church, but to be prepared to travel from a cosy comfortable suburb into a busy urban city centre is something else.
- Even after making that journey, it's another thing to begin to intentionally build relationships with people whose outlook and life experiences are very different to your own.
But that's exactly what Trevor and Liz did! And it didn’t take long for the people of The Village community on Belfast’s Donegall Road to notice their commitment to the area. Their consistent presence, willingness to get involved and genuine care quickly raised questions. Why are you doing this? Before they had many opportunities to speak about Jesus, their actions were already a witness and pointing people towards him.
Trevor and Liz are part of a small team at Light and Life that open the doors and create informal spaces for the community to gather. They never know how God is going to use the place. For one person, it was the space that interrupted a journey to buy drugs and introduced them to people like Trevor and Liz who genuinely cared about them.
Through listening, friendship and practical support offered in the name of Jesus, Trevor and Liz have become part of the lives of people facing addiction, poverty, loneliness and other challenges. Walking closely with people facing social disadvantage hadn’t been part of Trevor and Liz’s previous experience and adjusting to the culture of a different community was not always easy. Yet through curiosity and humility, God created opportunities for connection to turn into real conversations about life, Jesus and the gospel.
An intentional approach to following and serving Jesus in the fourth quarter of life led Trevor and Liz beyond their comfort zone and familiar experiences. What began as an interest in mission and church planting became a commitment to sharing and serving Jesus in a new church community. They count it a real privilege to be involved with the people of this new worshipping community, and are finding that God is doing so much in them as well.
Many of us wonder what we will do with more time.
- When children don’t need us as much.
- When studies are finished.
- When work becomes less demanding.
- When retirement comes.
- When a new stage of life begins.
The temptation is often to focus on ourselves, on how we will use the time for our own comfort and pleasure.
Trevor and Liz’s story invites a different question – how might God be giving you opportunities to invest time serving and sharing Jesus with people who do not already know him?