Introducing Diocesan Evangelist Glynis Mattchett
I am married to Chris and mum to Jonny and Anna. Willowfield Parish, in Belfast, is our home church and we’ve all been involved there for many years. I was first sent there in 1990 by YFC, to lead a summer outreach team.
I didn’t grow up in a Christian family, but had two defining moments with God, aged four and eight, when I responded to the gospel. I continued in awareness of God, but without any discipleship. When I was 14 I encountered the manifest presence of God during worship at a church event some school friends had invited me to. I suddenly had a hunger to read the Bible and to pray. I discovered the power of the Holy Spirit for myself when He filled me just weeks later, as I prayed in my room at home. From that time on, others were noticing change in me and I was sharing my faith regularly.
During my time at university, I felt God calling me to missions and when I finished my degree, I joined YWAM, where I spent five years working in various countries in the UK and abroad and also completed training in missions, leadership and in community and pastoral counselling.
I applied to do the Evangelists’ Training Course simply as an act of obedience, because that’s what I felt God was asking me to do. Returning to study after years was a good discipline and I enjoyed the practical aspect, as an extension of what I was already doing in my day to day.
After teaching school for the past 13 years, I am moving on to take up a full time post as a Lay Evangelist, based in Willowfield Parish. My heart is that others experience the reality of the presence of God and in so doing, choose to follow Jesus.