Seek Peace Update

We first met John and Kay Hodge through their work with CFM in Nigeria. In 2021 John and Kay, in a huge step of faith, moved their young family from Nigeria and based themselves in the UK to launch a new ministry in partnership with CFM called Seek Peace and we provided support to this new venture. Seek Peace partners with churches and Christian missions in regions experiencing conflict to plan, deliver and reflect on the impact of their peacebuilding and reconciliation work.

John and Kay Update

We’ve been going well as a family. Abe will be in Year 2 in September and Nora will be starting Reception (Kindy). They’re growing up fast! We’ve been really thankful that they both love school and nursery. We balance a few roles between us. As well as both working for Seek Peace Kay works 2 days a week for a London based university working on a long-term academic research project evaluating the role religion plays in peacebuilding. John works a day a week for the local church we go to. He organises the sermon series and supports their community projects. This role with the local church is very flexible for when John needs to travel for Seek Peace a couple of weeks at a time, numerous times a year. We are getting more used to that pattern as a family and the church is a great supportive community.

All in all we have hit a groove that is working well for us all. We have some great foundations here to ensure our family can thrive and we can grow Seek Peace into what God has planned for it. There are struggles but we try to hold things in balance.

John and Kay Hodge and family.

2023 Review

In 2023 Seek Peace has continued working with a small peacemaking ministry called CHIPS (Christian International Peace Service) who have established peace projects in Nakapiyili, Ghana and work amongst two ethnic groups Nanumba and Koncumba, who are historical enemies. The partnership with CHIPS has now expanded to providing training and support for their London projects as well. These projects operate in impoverished areas of south London where gang violence and distrust in the police are commonplace.

Seek Peace is also working with CRUDAN in Nigeria to help them manage and scale the work they do with churches. In the last year Seek Peace facilitated workshops which brought together Church leaders, community members, CRUDAN staff and theological institute staff to plan how CRUDAN can support Churches to be more effective in their communities by providing training and support for the local Churches' initiatives. John continues to travel to support these projects on the ground, usually for a couple of weeks at a time, numerous times a year.

2024 Support

In 2024, Seek Peace is looking to continue working with their programme partners to further the work of the previous year. They are also prayerfully considering expanding further, with interest from different areas of the world including countries in the Americas, the Middle East and East Africa. Their prayer is that Seek Peace grows to be part of equipping and supporting the local church and local missions in volatile regions to share the heart of the gospel and the theology of reconciliation – for this is what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross and emboldens us to do for others.

Your support of $2,000 will

Support John and Kay Hodge to partner in peace and reconciliation projects ($3,000).

Testimonies

A lot of the work we do is in partnership with Christian leaders in helping them think, plan and learn about the role their work has in building peace and witnessing to Jesus in their regional and local contexts. One example of this recently is our work with CRUDAN on their Church and Community Transformation Programme across Nigeria. One local story of change coming out of this programme is Briskila’s story. Briskila is a member of a local church in Yola, Adamawa State (a region in the north of Nigeria highly affected by religious conflict and poverty in the last decade). Her church commenced the Church Transformation process by running introductory Bible study sessions with its members (a small church of around 30 people). At the end of the Foundational Bible Study 5: “The Church as salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16)”, her church was compelled to take action towards a need in their immediate community and they agreed to embark on a community project by supporting local primary school students from Muslim and Christian backgrounds with the purchase of school materials.

This might be one small example, but with CRUDAN we are partnering to support hundreds of local churches and Christian groups, like this one in Yola, to be equipped for peacebuilding missions and to catalyse more outreach of witness to Jesus through bridge building and showing hospitality and care. We’ve just finished a piece of work with CRUDAN staff around collecting some of the indicators of positive change that local churches across Nigeria are bringing to their communities through local outreaches, just like this one in Yola, and using these learnings to encourage more outreach from local churches into their communities.

CRUDAN Inter-religious Football Tournament

CRUDAN Church Leaders Trauma Response training

Their Director, Agbo Boniface has said that Seek Peace’s support and training for their staff is making a huge difference for them as a team and positively shaping the way they think about and structure their work, even beyond this project. This is hugely encouraging because it demonstrates for us a beautiful picture of partnership with the global Church to encourage and sustain the sharing of our gospel of hope and see the ethics of Jesus’ Kingdom reach further into our world to some of the places that so greatly need the hope of the Prince of Peace.

Prayer and Praise

Prayer for the continued work with CHIPS
Prayer for Seek Peace that God will help them to know which partners to join with who share the vision of reconciliation and peace of God's Kingdom and that they can be part of a movement and revival of God's Kingdom.
Praise for Seek Peace obtaining charitable status in the UK!
Praise for the relationship established with CHIPS and CRUDAN

All In ...

... to partner with communities experiencing conflict.

'All In' Testimony
There were two key 'All In' moments for us. The first was what first prompted us to leave Newcastle in 2016 to support the work happening in Nigeria. At that time Nigeria, and especially the middle belt regions and the northern states were in a period of intensity and conflict. There was widespread loss of life and livelihood, humanitarian crisis and cycles of retributive violence. We’ve spoken about it a lot in the past, but we really sensed God calling us ‘all in’ at this point. To put down our plans and to take a faith step and see where God would take us. For us the call ‘all in’ was always related to exploring what the Christian witness is at the sticking points of conflict and when violence is prevalent. We have always felt that there is a prophetic edge to the work of reconciliation and peacebuilding in the name of Jesus, we’ve always been captivated by it. We sensed then, and still today, that God wants us to be ‘all in’ for our lives to explore, champion, catalyse and advocate for the Christian faith and the Church to be a voice for reconciliation and peace in the world.

We sensed a second time ‘all in’ from the Lord when we began Seek Peace. We started to get the ideas and vision for how Seek Peace could take shape in 2020. However, if we really think back, we remember reading books like ‘When Helping Hurts’, work coming out of the Chalmers Centre, and even Compassion’s ‘IT WORKS’ campaign much earlier than this (2013-14). These for us were examples of the Christian missions and charity refining our collective understanding, processes and practice; continuously coming back to the heart of Jesus and renewing our thinking so it’s always centred on Jesus’ Kingdom Ethics. We have always been really excited about supporting the mission of the Church (Mission Dei), to go further and adapt to the needs of our changing world, while remaining consistent to the timeless Good News of Jesus. Conflict, especially conflict with a religious dimension and environmental stewardship are two examples that seem increasingly relevant for the Church to grapple with.

How did we feel? A mix of excited (John), and terrified (Kay). I think we knew early on that God was asking us to do something that would take us and our family to the limits in every way - to the limits of our time, safety/security, sleep(!), finance, beliefs and traditions, intellect and will to keep going. How do we feel now? Just so privileged to have followed this niggling in our spirits, trusting the Holy Spirit to make the path clear, and now doing something that we just love so much and find so much meaning in. It is a privilege to support ministries and churches around the world in their pursuit of peace and their honour of Jesus in this pursuit.