A year on from moving to Bradford to become the new Eden West Bowling team leader, we caught up with Luke Owens to hear about what he’s been up to and how he’s thrown himself into community life.
Tell us a bit about your first year on Eden.
What a year it’s been! I’ve loved getting stuck into life in West Bowling. It’s been a year of building relationships, making partnerships and finding ways we can help people both practically and spiritually. We’ve led sessions in local schools, helped disciple people in their faith and seen young leaders rise up through the PrimeTime course. The year has not been without its challenges including break-ins, fires and disappointments, but I see God working through all the team and in West Bowling.
Describe what’s been happening this summer.
In the run up to summer we had five sessions with the Message Bus on our estate. We had lots of fun, great conversations and gave out 100 copies of Mark’s gospel. At the end of the bus visits, we had 20 gospels left. One girl asked if she could take them all as she wanted to give them out to her class – imagine the impact this could have! After the bus, we carried on with weekly sessions in a local park. It’s so much fun and we’re always being asked when the bus is coming back. Since then, the warm weather has meant we’ve been able to hold outdoor sessions a few days each week, helping us to connect with loads of new families. We took the opportunity to hold family events and youth volunteering days in areas of West Bowling that are often forgotten. We also held a Holiday at Home week with our youth group and local children, many of whom wouldn’t get away this summer. We took trips to the National Media Museum and Xscape and ran a forest school day. OTC also came and performed an incredible gig – they were definitely a highlight of the week.
What impact has this had?
Whilst a lot of what we do is practical, it’s all about pointing people to Jesus. Seeing people grow in their faith or wanting to know more about Jesus has been one of our greatest highlights. I loved that we got to take nearly 40 people along to Festival Manchester. Eden West Bowling is about long-haul, incarnational living so I’m really excited to see what God’s got in store next.
Find out more about Eden and how to get involved at joineden.org
