Ben Putt tells the recent story of the well-known Christian youth centre
I had never planned to go into full-time gospel ministry.
Despite being dragged along to a 9:38 conference (when I was a student) to spend a weekend being taught about the need for gospel workers, I was intent on carrying out my plan. Hence, I completed my PGCE the following year and got a great job in Birmingham, doing what I had always wanted to do – teaching Geography with enough sport on the side to make sure that I could get away with wearing a tracksuit most days. However, just five years later, I found myself moving to the Herefordshire countryside with my wife Jessica to restart a residential youth ministry at Gaines Manor. How and why that switch came about is another story, but ever since we’ve been here I’ve had the privilege to be involved in an exciting work of God that is slowly growing, flourishing and, I pray, bearing fruit for his kingdom.