History (Cont)

Do you think we could develop that WellSpring place here?

Around the years 1990-1992, there was considerable discussion at Ashburton Baptist Church and the wider membership about whether it was time to renovate the church property to better suit the needs of the growing congregation.

There was interest too, in developing an Alzheimer's Day Care Centre and a Centre to help those who were unemployed. And there was definitely an interest in acquiring the house and land on the block to the north side of the church building.

Peter Walker and Jill Manton were the ministers of the church at the time and met together regularly to pray for the church and its developing ministry. Jill recalls one such occasion when they were sitting in the vestry overlooking the garden next door.

"Somewhere in the years we had worked together I must have told Peter about my dream of a beautiful and quiet place where people could come and be present to God and listen to the call of God in their lives. On this day, out of the blue, he asked me about this dream of mine:

"'What do you call this place in your mind?' 'I call it WellSpring, because it's like the interaction between Jesus and the woman at the well in the Gospel story. I love the idea of the spring of living water welling up in people and flowing out into life.' "

"We sat silently in the sun which was streaming into the room. 'What if we were able to get this place next door? Do you think we could do your WellSpring thing here?' I was surprised and a little dumbfounded at the sheer courage of the question. This nebulous dream of mine was being put before me in very concrete terms. 'I don't know!' I stopped to think of the enormity of what he was saying. 'But wouldn't it be fun!' "

1	To Dream the Impossible Dream
2	Do you think we could develop that WellSpring place here?
3	Deliberation, Discussion, Decisions…
4	The Boot of the Car!
5	To be or not to be?
6	Tragedy, And Further Doubts
7	A home of our own!

History (Cont)

Do you think we could develop that WellSpring place here?

"Somewhere in the years we had worked together I must have told Peter about my dream of a beautiful and quiet place where people could come and be present to God and listen to the call of God in their lives. On this day, out of the blue, he asked me about this dream of mine:

"'What do you call this place in your mind?' 'I call it WellSpring, because it's like the interaction between Jesus and the woman at the well in the Gospel story. I love the idea of the spring of living water welling up in people and flowing out into life.' "

Contents