RigbysThe Rigby’s NewDay

By Robin Sansom

What is the connection between:
  1. over 6000 young people having the time of their lives at Norwich showground;
  2. a transformed middle aged ‘buildings maintenance’ man from Scarning in Norfolk;
  3. and Wellspring Family Church in Dereham?
I got together with Mick Rigby and his wife Theresa to find out…

If you’ve not had first time experience of the annual NEWDAY event you may well have heard reports of hundreds of 12-19s finding faith in Christ, hundreds of miraculous healings which doctors confirm; and it even gets mentioned by the BBC and regional papers. For 6 days in August numbers approaching 7000 camp out for a festival flavoured, action packed mix of Christian teaching, fun activities, creative worship and social action.

But how is it that a guy well outside the 12-19 age range, points to Newday as playing a big part in him starting a life-changing relationship with God and becoming a committed member of Wellspring Family church in Dereham? Mick has lived in Norfolk all his life, but after living in a house in Scarning for a few years he and his wife Theresa were praying for a new home for them and their son Jake. For various reasons they weren’t happy where they were but weren’t getting anywhere with finding a new house. Neither of them could have imagined the surprising life-changing solution that was just around the corner.

Theresa had been brought up as a Christian but had drifted away for a while. Mick had been told about God and Jesus, from an early age, by his mother, but says, “I was one of those people who would drive down the A47 and see a church on the side of the road and say ‘hello God! Hello Jesus!’ and drive on. I believed it but didn’t know what to do with it…..”
Up until recently he had no connection with a local church. They thought that if they moved to a new home they’d find new friends and the happiness they weren’t finding in their home in Scarning.

After a frustrating few months of looking for a new home, and the prayers seeming to be unanswered, one day Mick came in the front door and Theresa told him that she’d been reading the Bible all day and wanted to get closer to God again. Mick said, “OK, yeah fine” but it didn’t mean a great deal to him at the time. Theresa continued to read the bible while Mick daily said hi to God as he passed a church spire by the A47 and he would add a quick prayer request for a new home where they could find new friends and be happy.

After a month or two of this, he got home one day and Theresa said,
“Look, what’s just come through the door!” Some young people from NEWDAY had been knocking on doors and handing out leaflets about what they were doing and also info about local Alpha courses. Theresa had opened the door to a young boy who asked her if she was interested and she told him, “Yeah, I really am! Because funnily enough I’ve just been looking on the website of Wellspring Family Church in Dereham!” She’d been on the website that day because she’d been searching for somewhere to go. The boy was amazed and offered to pray for her. She declined his offer of prayer but agreed that he could find a church member to visit her.

“Things started happening quickly after that,” says Mick. Jon Beardon from Wellspring Family Church, visited them a few times and Theresa agreed to start Wellspring’s Alpha course in Dereham. Mick, however, didn’t feel that the course was for him. Jon accepted that but Mick found that he just couldn’t get it out of his mind over the next few days until Theresa suggested, “Why don’t you do the Alpha course and I’ll do the next one?” To Mick’s surprise he found himself eagerly agreeing; his usual resistance to that sort of thing had strangely vanished. “From the minute I started the Alpha course I absolutely loved it!” says Mick, “I enjoyed every session of it”. After a fair way through the Alpha course Mick started attending Sunday meetings at Wellspring Family Church with Theresa and Jake; and Jake started going to church run Friday afterschool club, Destiny Quest, which he is still really enjoying and growing in.

At this point, Mick was still praying for a new home but after a month or so it suddenly dawned on him that his prayers had been completely answered because God had given them a new home - a spiritual home where the whole family were finding new friends and happiness. They learned that in Wellspring they had many brothers and sisters in the family of God, and this was a home that would last for ever. “We have been brought home, and that puts everything into perspective,” says Mick. He describes how ever since that boy from NEWDAY knocked on his door, over the course of a year, he’s gone from saying a five minute prayer in a moving car to being involved in church activities many days of the week – a transformation in his life. Mick concludes, “God has brought us home truly, and now we’re happy where we are.” Two months ago Mick consolidated his commitment to following Jesus by getting baptised.

When I asked Mick what he thought about Wellspring Family Church and he said, “I like everything about it, that’s not a corny answer or anything like that – I really do love everything about it. The people are fantastic, they make you completely welcome, and you feel totally that none of them are there for themselves – they’re there for each other and you can feel that strongly.” Mick and Theresa like the fact everyone is learning God’s word from the bible at the church and basing everything they do on that foundation rather than something far less secure. Mick says, “It goes back to what I was saying about being brought home – that is part of being brought home into the family of God – it makes you feel completely at ease, completely happy, completely that you are in the right place and doing the right thing. And that feeling is what I love about it.”

Mick works in building maintenance for property managers such as William H Brown and Steggles and Larner, but now he is clearly far more defined by being a child of God with a great spiritual family in the church. He and Theresa talk about how they feel they now have far more to offer other people, particularly individuals who are going through a difficult time.
Robin Sansom, 25/09/2011