God found him

Jo Penn May 20, 2025 1 0

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2 Corinthians 5: 20-21 (NIVUK)

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As a young adult, I volunteered with a Christian charity working with men with addictions to alcohol and drugs (the Kenward Trust kenwardtrust.org.uk/about-us/our-history). This charity had been set up by a farmer who became a Christian late in life who then began welcoming homeless men off the streets of London to stay on the farm. It became clear that a lot of these men struggled with addiction to alcohol and other substances. A large house and grounds in the Kent countryside was bought to set up a Christian charity to provide a place of refuge, with regular meals, work roles, counselling and help.

I went to serve there as a young person, tired from the exertions of my final year as a student. I had much to learn in this community of work, prayer and doing life together – each of us carrying wounds and daily making a choice to live in hope as we asked God for healing and strength. The pace of life was slowed down to the essentials, so that the quiet work of God had space to happen. I learned new skills in catering and in working alongside a range of people. Men were there from all walks of life: a civil engineer, an artist, a pub landlord, along with people whose lifestyle had led them to spend time in prison or live on the streets.

Titch was a man of small stature with a big personality who smoked roll-ups and had a cheeky laugh. He had spent so much time living on the streets that it was hard for him to live inside a building. He had met workers from the charity whilst he slept in a cardboard box at Spitalfields’ market where he helped unload the delivery lorries. God found him through the kindness of people and the beauty of the created world. He was baptised and at his funeral his life was celebrated by many.

Prayer:

God of Hagar, you see each one of us.

God of Jacob, though we deceive ourselves you invite us to wrestle with you.

God of Moses, you rescue us and draw us into life.