The Elim Park Brew café was envisioned by Ron Ransome and Jane Tompkin, both Elim members of long standing, three years ago, in February 2022. Elim had had a café before, for a few years, but for various reasons it was no more, and Ron and Jane were keen to get it back up and running, as an outreach to our neighbourhood. Contrary to all expectation, it has not quite been the outreach to our neighbourhood as we thought it might be. Instead it has become a magnet for mums and toddlers, child care grandmothers and older gentlemen who don’t seem to mind the noise!
To say that Park Brew is undergirded by prayer is an understatement. We are only a small church, and volunteers come and go. Frequently they go! They return to their home country for long periods to see family, or through ill health one or two people have had to stop volunteering. There have been a couple of times in the last three years when we did not think Park Brew was viable because of the lack of volunteers, so we prayed and God has answered our prayers every time.
Our ‘customers’ have remained faithful and keep returning, sometimes bringing in other friends of theirs. God has provided new unexpected volunteers for us, and Park Brew has remained a going concern. So we thank God that He has kept us going – not us, Him.
