Tell us a bit about yourself and your ministry:
My name is Danny, and I moved to the UK in 2011 with my wife Christine. We initially lived and worked in East London, working with a local Novo UK team to reach people with the gospel. We were mainly learning how to do ministry as part of a team, and we did a lot of work trying to share the gospel with Muslims in the area. By 2015 Christine and I felt ready to start our own team and, with the blessing of our London team, moved to Oxford. The vision for our work has stayed the same: To make disciples of Jesus who in turn make more disciples. We particularly want to see people being made into well-rounded disciples, so we spend a lot of time investing in people, helping them to understand their calling, and investing in their families and marriages. We really believe that when you invest in people you see long-term, sustained fruit.
I’m the director of Novo UK, a UK charity focused on making disciples who multiply and launching teams of disciples across the UK. We’re part of an international Novo network where the leaders from different countries partner and learn together as peers. The UK team has a particular role in growing the network across Europe. At the moment, this has looked like having gatherings of European ministers, and the goal is to send missionaries all over the world. We hope that Oxford and other key cities will become sending bases for future disciple makers to Europe.
What’s something you find particularly exciting in your ministry at the moment?
Recently we’ve seen a real outpouring and increase of prayer activity, particularly amongst young people. We’ve also seen an increasing number of those in their 20s and 30s coming to us with a desire to use their life for something of significance for the Lord. Some are formally partnering with us, others are wanting training or mentoring on reaching their communities with the gospel. It’s a real joy to see people with a passion for Jesus! This is across the UK and Europe, so our job at the moment is to get behind them and help them become disciple-makers.
Why did you buy this property and what does it enable?
We were actually living next door to this property and became good friends with the seller. We began to feel prompted by the Lord to consider this house, but it seemed way out of reach and beyond what we could afford. We wrestled with the possibility and prayed into it a lot. A year ago our neighbour decided to sell the property and we told him we were interested, trusting in the Lord to provide. This was a significant spiritual experience for both of us, as we really were waiting on the Lord.
To make a long story short, the Lord provided! Some of our ministry partners got involved financially in helping us to buy the house, and God worked in ways we couldn’t have expected. The deadline for buying the house was the end of January and we weren’t sure it would happen up until the final few days. And yet we felt the whole time that God was at work in us, and that it was more about how He was growing faith in us than what He was doing with the house. In the end, we got the keys on 31st January!
This is now a comfortable family home, but also has significant developmental potential. We plan to use it for hosting and training opportunities, and have plans to convert part of it into a larger gathering space for people. We hope to host people from across the world, and eventually hope to be able to use some of the space for hosting retreats. It’s not far from Heathrow airport, so it’s well located for a growing international ministry. So not only is it a home for us which provides stability, but it also will become a hub for disciple making. We want this home to be used for Kingdom purposes, a Kingdom outpost on the outskirts of Oxford.
How did you find working with Kingdom Bank?
We found working with Kingdom Bank was the easiest part of the whole process! Jackie was always quick to respond and answered all our questions. Though it was a complex situation, she was patient and helped us through the whole thing. She really understood the idiosyncrasies of our income and was a huge encouragement. It was particularly positive to work with someone who shares our faith and gets the importance of property being used for kingdom purposes. All round Kingdom Bank were really easy to work with, and we would highly recommend them.
If you’re in Christian ministry and looking for a mortgage, we’d be delighted to see if we can help, including discussing shared ownership options if appropriate. Get in touch by completing our mortgage enquiry form to find out if a Kingdom Bank mortgage could be right for you, or click here to find out more.
Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
