“It looks like a scene from the Flintstones with all that rubble…but the Church is still there and God’s people are still there.”  An East Belfast boy at heart, Mersey Street Presbyterian was John McCandless’s home church.

Before becoming involved in church work he was a professional old type sign-writer (how many of those do you know?!)  After 30 years of doing that God moved him into a new chapter of ministry in a Youth and Family worker role with Carryduff Presbyterian.

“I owe a lot to the people there,” John says, “They prayed for me, encouraged me, built me up.”

And now it’s come full circle and John finds himself back where it all began as Mersey Street’s Community Outreach Worker.

“The area is in the midst of being regenerated,” he explains, “streets knocked down, schools and shops closed, people moving out.”

It’s into this situation that John is seeking to bring Hope.

His role involves, as he describes, “reaching out to those who don’t have any thought or care for the work of Jesus Christ.”  With a weekly homework club and drop-in club, John is working to see connections established in what has become a “scattered” community.  He’s appealing for prayer for both of these activities – especially the drop-in club which is undergoing a transition from being a football base to a place where life-skills are taught.

With transformations in mind it’s apt that John wants to steer the area towards involvement in The Dream Scheme.  Through this community-based environmental initiative people would join together to practically enhance the area’s image.  Through such rebuilding John envisages that people who have suffered “a lot of brokenness will get a common bond.”  It’s his prayer that: “people would come together as a community under God’s umbrella and that these activities would be a gateway to a Christian life.”

If he could get across one message about God to the Mersey Street people what would it be?  “My message would be that God is everywhere and that He is loving.  No matter where they’re at – in deprivation or disconnected – He wants them - but wants to change them for the betterment.  In the midst of everything falling down, He is there.”

Through eyes of faith John is seeing beyond the Merseyside rubble, disconnectedness and mess.  He’s trusting in that beautiful transformations are on the way for east Belfast.