Meet the Pastors
Gary and Lorita Bryden have been ministering the Gospel of Jesus for around 20 years. Most of that period was spent in South Africa, where they both led extremely successful ministries. These ministries included:
- international evangelism
- a very fruitful street team outreach that brought in some 250,000 salvations in 5 years,
- church planting,
- businessmen’s breakfasts and motivational meetings
- Christian entertainment through comedy and singing
Together with the above-listed ministry topics, they also ministered in various social issues, such as:
- education and ministry to the street children
- life-skills to the illiterate and unemployed
- injustice against women and children to include the rehabilitation of prostitutes, victims of domestic violence, abuse, rape and unplanned pregnancies
- HIV/AIDS and those infected and affected, by the pandemic
From Africa to England
In 1999, while I was visiting Birmingham, UK, on a ministry trip, I clearly knew that God was calling my wife and I to return to England to fulfill His calling and purpose on our lives and that somehow, Birmingham would be a part of that purpose. I just needed to tell Lorita, or so I thought! However, God had already spoken to her heart. In 2001, it was confirmed that we would be going to England but the actual city of destination in the UK, remained unclear for the next few years.
During the next four years that followed my 1999 trip to the UK, I would sit in my office in South Africa and look at the notice board on which I had written the name Birmingham, UK in bold letters. At the same time, God was confirming the already formed Vision within me. We knew what we were being called to do.
Suddenly, in February 2003, after a year of mixed emotions about leaving our home and country; in my case, of almost forty years; my wife and I returned to the land of my birth; my wife, leaving the land of her family, behind.
We set out, excited and confident with the scriptures that we had received audibly - both from our Lord and through His prophets -to follow and run with this God-given mandate to fulfill our destiny. (Deuteronomy 1:8. Deuteronomy 8:1. Deuteronomy 28:9-10)
However, it is enough to know that we are called to Birmingham for the work of proclaiming the Gospel and therefore the truth of the Word of God. We have been given a clarion voice for this city, which is being carried out in a manner described by the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2: 4-5.
God prepared us well in advance for the call to this city. We soon learned that when one acts in faith to the call of the Lord, it does not mean that testing times will not come, for they surely will, and they surely have! “But if God is for you, who, and indeed what, can ever stand against you?”
We are consumed with this Vision, as we are consumed in love for our Lord who entrusted it to us and for the people that Christ paid the ultimate price for!