A top retirement and holiday destination, Cornwall is also home to 74,000 children and young people. God is opening doors to enable many more of them to hear about Jesus, as our Cornwall-based Revealing Jesus Pioneer Eddie Howlett explains.
Cornwall has a strong Christian history – there’s a myth that Jesus was brought here as a child on a visit by his uncle, a tin merchant, and there is evidence of early Christian settlements at Bodmin and Tintagel. John Wesley preached here over 30 times and there were several Methodist revivals. More recently, many new evangelical and charismatic churches have been planted.
Eddie observes, ‘There is huge support for SU – the locals know us through long-established beach missions at Perranporth and Polzeath. However, there is not much awareness of the other work SU does. I want to change that. My goal is to train and support a network of Faith Guides right across Cornwall, so that thousands more children and young people get to encounter Jesus!
‘However, there are a few challenges. This is a very rural area, the churches tend to be quite small and thinly stretched, and the internet and mobile phone connections are pretty sporadic!
‘But there are also great strengths. For example, Cornish churches work across denominations to an extent I’ve not seen elsewhere. That’s helped me to make cross-denomination connections very quickly. And thanks to a lovely SU supporter who introduced me to the circuit superintendent of the local Methodist church, the Revealing Jesus framework is being rolled out across all 20 churches in that circuit!
I’m also in discussion with another four Methodist circuits. ‘When I moved here at the end of 2023, there was one Faith Guide and one local mission partner (Bodmin Youth Project).
Since then, nine more people have become Faith Guides and lots more have signed up for Mission Support. I’ve also been invited to mentor the mission ministry trainees from SWYM (South West Youth Ministries) using the Revealing Jesus framework. ‘So there’s been a real surge of interest and I’m running to keep up with all God is doing here!’
"I'm running to keep up with all God is doing here!"
Looking ahead
There are more plans in the pipeline too. Eddie says, ‘CreationFest (an annual Christian festival), SWYM, YWAM and Bible Society already host a joint event once a term for young people, mostly those without church connections, to introduce them to Jesus. Now I’m working with them and we’re planning a youth leaders’ breakfast for churches across the county which will take place at least once a year. I’ll hold workshops there to help equip those churches to connect with children and young people in their area, and help them explore, respond and grow in faith.’
Already, in just a few short months, Eddie’s work is starting to bear fruit in the lives of children and young people. Last April, he helped Bodmin Youth Project to run a three-day American Sports camp. ‘We wove the good news of Jesus into the sports activities,’ Eddie comments, ‘and of the 17 young people we connected with, 7 went on to do Youth Alpha through the churches, which was so encouraging!’
Churches in other areas urgently want our support – will you help?
Thousands of children and young people still aren’t getting to hear the good news of Jesus. We urgently need the resources to place additional Revealing Jesus Pioneers like Eddie in Wales, Central and South East regions. Each one can support up to 20 Faith Guides to journey towards faith with over 100 more children and young people a year.