This year, the verse I’ve clung to is Romans 15:5 which says, ‘May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had…’ This is my prayer for myself and all of us here at The Message and, looking back at all that God’s done throughout 2024, I feel so encouraged and spurred to go again into 2025. Here’s just a snapshot of what’s been happening.
We kicked off 2024 taking our No More Knives tour to Blackpool and Glasgow in January. These power-packed lessons equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to say ‘no’ to knives and start to discover their full value and identity. Every single young person we met in school was invited to the end of week evangelistic tour and we saw 136 young people accept Jesus into their lives in Blackpool and 39 in Glasgow. Wow! January also marked our annual Global Advance Day where we launched 6,108 new groups, including our first ones into Uruguay, each mentoring men and women in their evangelism. In Wales we had another Youth Nights prayer and worship event where 250 young people gathered together – what a beautiful thing.
February saw Message South Africa celebrate their 10th birthday! Through running Respect ME sessions in schools, transforming neighbourhoods through their Community Hubs, supporting ex-offenders through The Oaks Resettlement house and training and discipling them through the Gangstar programmes, the team in South Africa have seen thousands come to know Jesus over the last 10 years. Join us in thanking God for them and their work! In February, we also launched our new Message hub in Uganda, headed up by Racheal Mutesi, and saw 160 evangelists from across Canada gather for three days at our Advance Evangelists Summit to be encouraged and equipped.
In March, our prisons and Street Pastors teams in Wales were awarded with a recognition certificate by the High Sheriff of South Glamorgan for valuable services to the community, and our Respect ME, No More Knives and No More County Lines tours saw over 400 young people respond to the good news of Jesus! Across the country, our Eden teams and Community Groceries showered their neighbourhoods with the love and hope of Jesus in the run up to Easter and in Manchester, we ran a Love Wythenshawe event tidying gardens, clearing the streets of litter, prayer walking and inviting everyone to an Easter Egg-stravaganza. Here, over 500 people came along for fun, music and to hear the gospel, and 137 people responded and gave their lives to God!
We launched a new Community Grocery in Hartlepool (North East) in April to help people struggling to keep their families fed get the affordable food they need as well as give them access to free wrap-around support and courses. Schools tours in Teesside, Lincoln and Cape Town (South Africa) saw over 130 young people accept Jesus into their lives, and over in Brazil, we launched our first ever schools tour – something people told us we’d never be able to do but God has just beautifully opened doors for us. After the tour in Brazil, a young person has even got baptised after accepting Jesus into her life at the end of week evangelistic gig!
In May, our Message School of Evangelism students headed out on mission and shared the gospel with over 7,000 people through leading 66 schools lessons, eight assemblies and 24 youth groups – and they saw 174 people respond to the gospel! Some of the students also headed over to support our Message Germany team in a week of mission where 2,200 heard the good news of Jesus and 75 responded! We also reached 200,000 people being discipled in their evangelism globally through Advance, we launched our first Advance group in Sri Lanka and released a Dutch translation of our Advance material at Opwekking Festival, Europe’s largest Christian Festival! We’re so excited to see the fruit from this as more people around the world take up the call of the evangelist.
We launched our beautiful Proximity online resource hub in June, a suite of online resources to encourage and equip urban churches and urban missionaries, at our Proximity Conference (book onto our 2025 conference here). Already, we’re hearing how these materials are resourcing those living and working in estates so do check out the website and share it with anyone you think it may help. In Wales, our team launched their jam-packed summer of mission and in the North East, the hub partnered with local churches around Teesside and our friends at the Luis Palau Association to launch Festival Teesside where thousands heard the gospel message and responded to Jesus! We also commissioned our 2023/24 cohort of MSE students and celebrated all that God has done in and through them during their time with us.
July was full of mission! In Manchester we had a great time with Love Wythenshawe community outreach and church fun days, and Message South Africa hosted three holiday clubs in Parkwood (Cape Town), Citrusdal (Cape Town) and in Jozi East (Gauteng) where 287 young people came along for activities and each heard how loved they are by Jesus. In London and Bristol, we ran our first Proximity Gatherings for church leaders and in Sunderland, young people took to the streets for The Scattering week of mission boldly sharing their faith with those they met. I’m always so inspired when I see young people taking their faith seriously!
August was a mega month for Advance. We headed to South Africa for the Evangelism Collective Conference and launched new Advance groups in Malta, Cyprus and Finland. Then, both here in the UK and in Germany, we ran Genetik summer schools where young people could come along for music, dance and creative workshops whilst also hearing about the love of Jesus and the truth of the gospel.
We celebrated four years of the Community Grocery network in September, which now supports over 65,000 member families. We could never have imagined all that God was going to do in and through these groceries as people have come to know him as they’ve shopped in store. Join us in thanking God for our incredible partner churches who help make all of this possible, supporting those coming to faith in store. Advance was part of Love Zambia which reached more than 350,000 people with the gospel over four mission weeks and saw 73,917 decisions for Christ. We then launched more than 10,000 new Advance groups and trained over 20,000 believers for evangelism! In Brazil, the team ran another epic schools tour where 110 young people gave their lives to Jesus and, closer to home, we welcomed a new cohort of MSE students in Manchester!
In October, our beautiful friends at The Flava People generously donated £30,000 to the Community Grocery and announced The Message as their partner charity, giving 3p to our groceries for every spice sachet sold in supermarkets around the UK – how incredible! We launched a new grocery in Harpurhey, celebrated Advance being in 100 nations (the 100th being Greece), took part in Prisons Week, a nationwide week of prayer for all those living and working in prison, launched our first ever Eden team in South America into Rio de Janeiro’s Santa Marta favela, and took the No More County Lines tour to Blackburn and Darwen, seeing 119 young people respond to Jesus!
Our prisons work continued to grow throughout November as our teams ran chapel services, support courses and Bible studies with the men and women they work with, and we gathered our Eden teams together for our annual Eden team’s day to celebrate all God is doing around the nation and beyond through our incredible urban missionaries. The No More Knives tours were out in Feltham (London) and Rochdale, seeing 164 young people respond to the gospel, and the Respect ME Still Standing tour, which focusses on topics of mental health and wellbeing, was in Kirkby (East Midlands). Off the back of this tour, 72 young people accepted Jesus into their lives!
December was incredible. Myself and Michele headed to Uganda with a small team to be part of Festival Bombo, a festival where the gospel was boldly shared to thousands of people, and it was truly a moving experience that I’m so thankful to have been part of. In the UK, we launched Darlington Community Grocery and ran Christmas Extravaganzas across the country, giving away 2,500 hampers for free packed with everything a family needs for a Christmas dinner and sharing the gospel with everyone who came. Already, our partner churches are seeing grocery members come along to carol services to find out more about Jesus this Christmas off the back of these events! Our prisons team made Gifts Of Hope parcels, each with a Christmas card, a Christmas booklet with the gospel message, and some mini toiletries to give away to those they work with in prison and they ran carol services in nine prisons to share the hope and light of Jesus.
There’s so much more I could share that God has done – we’re so blessed! I can’t wait to see what God’s got planned for us in 2025. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
