Last night instead of just holding the prayer meeting inside the church building, we went out to walk the streets of Goldthorpe. This month, we are praying particularly about regeneration in the area, including economic regeneration, so we concentrated on praying for local businesses and also prayed on the barren wastelands which have been earmarked by Barnsley M.B.C. as the site for the new primary school.
Goldthorpe has an industrial estate on Commercial Road, constructed between 1977 and 1994, made up of a detached industrial unit benefitting from its own secure yard and parking area. It houses a number of businesss, including Speed Frame, Home Choose Blinds, Sea Scooter UK Ltd, a firm dealing with hydroponics and other businesses. At the far end of the area, the supermarket Aldi is building a distribution centre. All of these businesses can help bring economic prosperity to the area and provide job opportunities for local people. Other industrial areas are found in different parts of the town and there are many local shops and businesses (lots of take-aways were open at night!) which need our prayers. We prayed for God’s blessing on these businesses and for employers and employees to work honestly and to know the presence of God in the area.
Goldthorpe Industrial Estate
Two verses have particularly come to mind whenever we pray for the area to flourish economically and spiritually. The first is Isaiah 58:12 TNIV (“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”) and the second Isaiah 43:18-19 TNIV (“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”) Parts of Goldthorpe still look like the wilderness or the wasteland: derelict buildings, graffiti on buildings, vandalism and overgrown areas of weeds, untended and uncared for. But as we pray, we are looking for God to move in this area and to bring forth new life, economically and spiritually. We believe that God has good plans for this place and we long to see hope manifested in every aspect of our community’s life.