After four years of training, Jo Patterson, a Church Related Community Work student, reflects on the experiences that she has been ‘blessed to witness’.

According to Jo, there are obvious places where people would expect to find God; a common place being ‘when we come together to worship in song, prayer and sometimes in ritual or liturgy’.

But, she asks: ‘What if we arrive carrying burdens, weighed down by grief, pain or sorrow?’

Jo spent the last two years of her training in Brixton, working with two different church communities. She explains what she discovered.

‘I see God in many unexpected places,’ she says. ‘God is in the conversations I have with vulnerable people in my Christians Against Poverty (CAP) work, whose concerns need a listening ear and reassurance. God gives me a nudge if I feel impatient and gives me words to say in prayer for them.

‘God is in the bravery of the person who asked for help when pride had been overcome by desperation and they picked up the phone. God is in the privilege it is for me to be part of a grieving person’s life and in the wisdom I gain from my experience working with them – God knows I need the wisdom.

‘In the last twelve months I have experienced God in the gifting of those working in the Kingdom, making tea at church for another, bringing flowers on Sunday morning, volunteering to clean, at Foodbank, at Christians Against Poverty. God is the gifts of leadership I encourage in my community work, of prayer, of singing but also in the gifts of the doctor, the shopkeeper, the plumber. God is in the laughter brought to a home where illness and poverty are suffocating and a little light relief is needed. ‘

Read Jo’s reflection in full here.

If you would like to learn more about the ministry of Church Related Community Work email Samara Andrews, CRCW Administrator, or call 0207 916 2020.