
It was a real joy to head back to Gateway Church, Poole’s two venues on Sunday. The first service was at a Baptist church building. When my friend Jon Clark, formerly a “neighbour” of mine at Putney Community Church, led me into the prayer meeting beforehand I was very impressed to see it full to overflowing with people eager to pray. Just before the worship time started, I asked John Hosier (whose son Matthew leads the church) what he knew about the history of the church, and I was glad I did because it turns out that he was integral to their journey into “Newfrontiers.” I began my talk just 15 minutes into the meeting because as soon as I finished I was driven to “502”, Gateway’s other Sunday venue, which is also a nonconformist church building, a couple of miles away. This site was recently acquired and when I arrived, half-way through the meeting, Matt & Hannah Painter were telling the church and some friends and family a remarkable story of their daughter Evie’s recent recovery from a brain tumour. I was covering some controversial material on Science & God in the talk, and I was absolutely delighted to meet an evangelist called Matthew Ashton afterwards who gave me a lift back to my car. A very inspiring young man!