Winter’s Ignite is here: Dave Jordan’s wife prayed for him for 35 years, but it took a visit to a church build in 1840 to help save him.

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This quarter we tell the story of former building consultant, Dave Jordan, who said Christianity was “not for me” even though his wife Nancy had been praying for him for over 35 years. Little did he know that an invite by Counties Connector, Simon Ladd, to see their newly renovated 1840s chapel, would change his life.

In the early hours of 7 June this year, Dave Jordan was wide awake and reached for his Bible – his ‘go-to’ over the past year whenever he had a free moment. Dave wasn’t a Christian, but, at that very moment, he thought:

“I can’t deny this anymore. So, I decided I would pray to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and commit my life to the lord.”

Dave’s wife, Nancy, has been a Christian all her life, but he didn’t tell her until the next day when they were sitting in a supermarket café about to do their weekly shopping.

“I have never seen anybody’s face change so much. She was so excited. I have never seen anybody shop so quickly in my life. She wanted to get back and phone everybody who had been praying for me over the years.”

But in 2023, Simon Ladd, Counties Connector, and his wife Belinda – who’ve known Dave and Nancy for more than twenty years – came to tell them about the restorations to Brockley Chapel in Suffolk, where Simon is the minister. It was built in 1840 straight onto the dirt without any foundations.

“They had been doing it up and I was a building consultant and so was interested to see how this thing was still standing after all this time, and it really got my interest. So, I agreed to go to church at Easter 2023 when they re-opened it, just to see the church. 

“I walked in, and I don’t know what it was, but everyone was so warm and kind – just amazing. I felt great just being there and that started me thinking. Then Nancy bought me an ESV Bible and the more I read, the more I started to understand. Everything Jesus said was printed in red – so I couldn’t miss any of that.”  

It was after over a year of reading and attending church Dave finally gave his life to the Lord.

“I didn’t go into all the research to disprove anything, but I wanted to prove it to myself. The more you read the Bible it becomes clear that Jesus is who he says he is. There are 2000 years of history. The more I read, the more I understood the ‘message’ of what was trying to be conveyed.

“When you put that together with the warmth and love that was shown to me when I walked into the church and being surrounded by lovely Christians all my life, it made me think: ‘This is how I want to live my life. I want to live the way Jesus wants us to live.’”

Dave was recently baptised.

You can read the rest of Dave’s story in Ignite along with our regular Bible slot, a testimony from a Neighbourhood Chaplains team and how their ‘air fryers course’ is reaching their community, and a look at a new documentary about Corinth and how Paul’s tribulations there weren’t that dissimilar from what our modern church faces. Don’t miss our newly designed, action-packed edition.