New pastor for Rainham
On a glorious Saturday afternoon on 30 May, Daniel Hawkes was inducted to the pastorate of the Granary Church, Rainham, Kent.
It might not have looked a positive move to some, as according to the Granary it was ‘not attractive to a prospective pastor being unable to offer a living wage or a manse’. But the church looked to the Lord for the right man and trusted that, by his sovereign grace, provision would be made.
Rev. Hawkes, who is married to Susan and has three children, was inwardly persuaded that the Lord would have him at the Granary. After he accepted the call, provision was made through Mission for Christ, Peasmarsh, Kent, and he was able to sell his home at a time when the housing market was ‘dead’.
He joined the church and worked alongside existing pastor Paul Harper, who retired on 31 May after 25 years at the church.
Brought up in Folkestone, where he later attended Grace Chapel, Daniel Hawkes became a teacher at the Christian school there. He and his family moved to Stoke on Trent where they attended Park Evangelical Church. He felt a call to the ministry and undertook a FIEC training course.
Pastor Norman Hopkins of Waterford House Evangelical Church gave the charge to incoming pastor and people, speaking from 1 Timothy 1:18-19. The meeting was well attended by churches from all over the county and was held at Wigmore Evangelical Free Church, kindly loaned for the occasion.
Paul Harper
