Forging friendships through air fryer recipes

An ‘Air Fryer’ course run by Bishops Stortford Christian Assembly has given their Neighbourhood Chaplains team an opportunity to build relationships and share the Good News while cooking sesame prawn toast!

When Bishops Stortford Christian Assembly (BSCA) joined Neighbourhood Chaplains in November 2022, Steve Prince, who runs it, says: “We had no idea how it was going to work out.” So, they began by identifying 500 houses close to the church and began knocking on doors.

Little did he know that two years later they’d be sitting with a group of people from the local community, alongside the mayor, cooking up sesame prawn toast, Sunday roasts and Chinese-style belly of pork in air fryers, as part of an initiative to show people a cheap, quick, and easy way to improve what they eat; while building relationships and talking about Jesus in an informal and friendly way.

The air fryer initiative came about from the church’s Café Connect, which serves free tea, coffee and cakes to local people. Through the Cafe, Steve and the team have forged good relationships with many local organisations including the police, the Council, and social prescribers.

Social prescribers are employed by Primary Care Trusts and work with GP’s surgeries, to identify people who may be having difficulties with their health and wellbeing and to find services that offer practical, social and emotional support.

It was here that Steve was approached by a representative of ‘Home Instead’ which provides home carers to host the six-week ‘air fryer’ course. The church was more than willing to rise to the challenge. On week one, Steve says the first question was: “Who has an air fryer?” and the second was: “What do you cook in it?” They all said: “Chips.”

But as the weeks progressed not only did the group of about 15 people learn to cook a variety of food, but they also found themselves forming friendships.

“By hosting the course, we get the opportunity to invite people to Café Connect, and get to know them on a deeper level. We’ve also realised that our mission is not just to these people but also to the social prescribers and Home Instead workers. “What’s great about the course, is that once we’ve cooked the food we get to sit together and eat together. So, we’re having good conversations, and forming relationships with people in the community who need help and those who provide help. And we are trying to minister to both. “One of the more difficult things about this type of venture, though, is moving it from being friendly to having good conversations about faith. I don’t see a great necessity to rush that. I see this more as a marathon than a sprint. People are coming back, week after week, so we can have those conversations over a longer period.”

Last year BSCA ran a Hope Explored course, and an 87-year-old man was saved. Steve says: “We are all links in a chain and if you take out one link, the chain breaks. It’s about doing it gradually. It’s hard work and it is a long job, but we are getting opportunities.”

Steve says that recently he spent twenty minutes talking about death to one of the professionals he works alongside. He told her that although he was there at his own birth, he doesn’t remember it, but:

“I told her: ‘I am going to enjoy the dying bit because if you know what you are going to, the transition bit isn’t anything to worry about. I think it’s going to be brilliant.’

“Then she said: ‘I have never heard anything like this before. It’s completely different.’ And I said: ‘That’s what Christianity is – completely different.’

“We sat there for ages having this conversation, but I would never have met her if it wasn’t for the air fryer course, and we would never have had the conversation had she not felt loved and cared for even as a professional.’”

For more information about Neighbourhood Chaplaincy see our website or contact Sue Ashmole at sue.ashmole@countiesuk.org.