Testimony of Deacon Sue Fry

Here is the Testimony of Deacon Sue Fry which was recently featured in the 'Methodist Recorder'.

I was only ten when I knew that God had called me to some kind of fulltime ministry, and also to overseas work. I was at a JMA Rally at Kenton Methodist Church in the Harrow Circuit. As we watched a film about a little girl called ’Hello’ in India, God quietly spoke to my heart.

It was another 23 years before the direction became clear and I knew that the Wesley Deaconess Order was where God wanted me, but how could I do it when the Order was closed to recruitment at this point? How I knew that I do not know. I tried pushing other doors, but it was just three months later when Methodist Conference said that the Order should reopen, to men as well as women, and I was in the first group of candidates and, following candidates weekend, became one of ‘Sister Sheila’s guinea pigs.’

That same year as I was called to the WDO, I made my first visit to Kenya, staying with missionary friends, Margaret and Stan Bethel, and became involved in the activities and churches where they served and their friends became mine. Over the past 40 years my involvement has increased, and my calling is to ‘go and do a bit, learn a lot and share what I have learned.

My training was with the St Albans Ministerial Training Scheme, which was designed to assess whether Anglicans were called to ministry. We two Methodists, Rev. John Glover and myself, had little allowance for our somewhat different needs, but we survived. Throughout my training, I continued to teach, but had to step back from all church work, even local preaching, as there was no time to prepare properly for that and complete the course work and teach.

My first appointment took me to Billericay in Essex, where I was the church link with the 22 youth and children’s groups at the church, general pastoral work and building links with the community in the nearby village and a little preaching. There was a challenge that really tested my calling, but the knowledge of God’s call and of my commitment to Him, kept me going.

Next, I was sent to the Belper Circuit in Derbyshire. I enjoyed working amongst four rural churches, each very different in character, need and activities. One prioritised prayer and work with the children and young people and their families, as well as maintaining the work among the elderly. I learned much from some wise people at Holbrook Moor. Milford Chapel was a joy, with a largely elderly community whom I loved to visit. Duffield led me on a more scriptural journey, with Bible studies and church weekends, but we also welcomed several new young families to the church and discovered that I could relate to teenagers as the children grew older and work with the teens evolved. My final chapel, Cross of the Hand, was set in a farming community and mainly one large extended family. Worship and other church meetings were timed to fit in around the milking.

At the Covenant service in 1998, I was feeling very pressured by all I had to do. Only a few days later I fell downstairs, fractured my spine and remembered that I had said the words ‘let me be laid aside for you’. When I was able to return to ministry, it was only part time, but the love and prayers of the people ministered to me as much as I was able to minister to them.

My third appointment was to Newark on Trent, also part time. I had some pastoral contact with the main circuit church, but my main role was at North End, a great family church, with a rock band, which led worship on Sunday nights. It was very loud and very joyful.

After two years I moved to the Nuneaton and Atherstone Circuit where I have had the joy of serving in most of the circuit churches before we joined with the Coventry Circuit. I have been richly blessed by the wonderful people of this area as we have shared pastorally, prayerfully, with quiet days, Christmas Tree Festivals and fellowship and study groups.

Unfortunately, my mental health plummeted after seven years, mainly through trying to sort out my mother, whose Alzheimers was causing me to drive the 180 mile round trip most weeks to sort out the latest catastrophe. Eventually she agreed to move near to me and I found sheltered housing nearby. Not long after this I was told I would be taking early retirement, and was not sufficiently well with coping with moving mum again as well as myself, so retired in the circuit, and have been here ever since.

Sitting down, was something I needed to do physically, for my spine still objects to standing for too long, but once I was well again, I have taken on many different roles locally and within the circuit, including filling a gap as a church steward, running the Saturday Club for the elderly, ecumenical Bible study in the library, Christmas Tree Festivals, and since 2019, Coffee Shop Sunday.

Initially CSS met at Costa where the manager, a Christian, was happy to extend hours for us to have worship ‘in an ordinary place’, with the customers able to stay on and have a free drink on us. Covid disrupted this pattern but we went online and grew a huge worldwide community on Facebook and a goodly number attending our many evening and Sunday gatherings. During this time, we wrote several prayer booklets and, once the pandemic had passed, had CSS weekends in Coventry, to which some of our new friends from across the country came. We have also found a new café to meet, a church-owned one, for which we get free rent in exchange for taking a few services at the URC. When the original leaders retired from leading, I took on responsibility for the online work, whilst supporting our onsite gatherings. We have a brilliant, supportive, prayerful team leading CSS from all corners of the UK, and have reduced our meetings to a more manageable weekly programme.

Away from church life, I have taken on Talking News twice a month, reading and recording the local news for our blind listeners, enjoy a couple of craft groups, and am maintaining my Kenyan links, especially in W. Kenya, where we have set up a hospital in a deprived rural village, a couple of schools in the slums of Kisumu, which, although I have had to abandon them because of corruption, are still in existence, and I give thanks to God for all that has been achieved in the lives of youngsters who had no hope of education. A third school in nearly ready to open its first two rooms in another deprived village, where there is no accessible school. I also plan Sunday School teacher training for my visits to Kenya and, with the experience of my most recent travel companion, a true gift from God to me, have begun to visit Homa Bay women’s prison. Arthritic knees permitting, I will be back in Kenya later this year. To God be all the glory.

There is one song, by CeCe Winans, which really expresses how much I give thanks to God for His hand on my life, the unexpected roads on which He has taken me and the joy of being called to His service:

‘All my life you have been faithful,

All my life you have been so, so good,

With every breath that I am able,

I will sing of the goodness of God.’