Hollyhedge Road Shops in Benchill

Back in August 2000 – as a spotty, skinny teenager – I made a naïvely-bold move from the safety of my parent’s rural home, to a run down council house in Benchill, Wythenshawe to start working on the Eden team as a youth worker. At the time, Benchill was infamous for its title of ‘the poorest council ward in the UK’. This move was the start of what I’ve tried to make the last 12 years of my life about – working with and loving some of the poorest young people in our nation. Not just poor in a material sense, but also raised in morally and spiritually bankrupt communities.

Me in 2000 - looking shifty!

The most crazy and destructive kid on the estate was called Connor. Despite hours of effort, prayer and patience, Connor never softened to the Eden team. He was the one giving the youth workers black eyes, setting fire to our cars and generally causing chaos.

I remember way back then, being bowled over by these words from Isaiah 42, and taking them on board, almost as my mission statement:

God’s Message,
the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,
laid out the earth and all that grows from it,
Who breathes life into earth’s people,
makes them alive with his own life:
“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.
I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.
I have set you among my people to bind them to me,
and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,
To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:
opening blind eyes, releasing prisoners from dungeons,
emptying the dark prisons.
I am God.

DJing at Manchester Apollo - 2002

After spending several years as part of the Eden Wythenshawe team, DJing and running music workshops in estates across the city – around 2004  me and my friend Adam started running Rap and DJing workshops from time to time with Geoff Baxter, who had a fledgling ministry in young offenders institutions. After one summer, we were hooked! The next year, Geoff asked us to start full time with what would become Reflex.

For four years from around ‘05 I worked running the ‘Locdown’ project, going into prisons up and down the country, working alongside full time Reflex teams, delivering music courses, and  championing what the Outreach workers and chaplaincy teams were doing. I loved this, and had a great team of 6 guys (Props to Adam, Tom, Dan, Joe, Krash & Pete). Over the years we saw hundreds of young offenders, and the project was influential in many lives, but I always had a hunger for more long term, ‘on-the-ground’ work.

Prisoners in HMP Onley on the Locdown course - 2008

God was obviously up to something; Reflex National moved from their offices in Salford, and relocated to Birmingham. I had the dilemma of moving, or leaving. Amazingly at the same time, an opening came up with The Message’s Reflex team in Manchester, as there was a new opportunity in one of the prisons. So I started in September 2009 with the team here.

Reflex team away day, 2010

Since that time, I’ve had the amazing privilege of working with a great team, and heading up the work of Reflex in HMP Forest Bank. In the prison over the last 2½ years, we’ve worked with over 2000 prisoners, and seen well over 300 make commitments to Christ. I think the most exciting part of the job has been running a regular Thursday afternoon Bible study – seeing about 12 guys every week growing in their faith, and winning others for Christ. About two months ago, a prisoner bought along a familiar face to the Bible study – it was Connor, 10 years after I’d last seen him, he was put in a cell with a prisoner who is a committed Christian! Since then, Connor has done loads of work with us, coming to chapel, anger management groups, Alpha courses, and is throwing himself into whatever he can – a complete transformation!

A frustration has been that we see loads of prisoners becoming Christians, changing, and developing into strong believers. However more often than not, guys like Connor are released, and struggle to keep up their faith. Unemployment, chaotic home lives and their old friends draw them back into crime, and away from Christ.

We really believe however that we have part of the answer to this problem.

From March, after nearly 8 years in different capacities, I’m leaving the Reflex team, to start work with the Message Enterprise Centre (The MEC). The Message have acquired a derelict factory right next door to our HQ, and we have ambitious plans to transform the building over the next few months, into a business hub, training and employing dozens of ex-offenders, linking them into vibrant and engaging local churches, and offering them housing supported by our Eden teams around greater Manchester.

The derelict site that will become the MEC

The exciting thing about the MEC is that we will be able to give each ex-offender the best possible chance of success, providing a new environment both in work and community for each individual alongside a supportive church.

My new role is going to be managing the transition of the guys Reflex work with from prison, through release and into a new job, house and local church. I’ll be spending a couple of days a week working with Ivy Manchester Church, exploring what Church looks like for some of the guys coming out of prison.

I’ve seen lots of the guys who I worked with back in Wythenshawe coming in and out of prison over the years, and thinking back to those lads what they really needed was a chance; a chance to have their eyes opened to a different way of living, and a chance be realeased from the prison of hopelessness, addiction, debt, unemployment.. the list goes on.

I’m hoping that The MEC – giving jobs and training and a network of support around each one of these guys and girls will be that chance, and will show the value that God places on each person

Perhaps people like Connor will be “opening blind eyes, and releasing prisoners from dungeons” in months and years to come.

We’re recruiting Business Managers to start new enterprises and mentor exoffenders. To find out more about the Message Enterprise Centre, and ways to get involved click here.

I’m also needing more than ever people to support me in this new role, by praying and giving. I’d love it if you would check out my support page

Designs for the new Message Enterprise Centre