Mission Partners
St. John's is committed to spreading God's word through mission. We have a number of mission partners who we support as a church; their work reaches right across the globe. Some are short-term workers choosing to serve for a year or two, whilst others have committed many years to serving God in different ways and different places.
UFM - Kip and Rachel Chelashaw
Kip’ is originally from Kenya and served as assistant minister at East Dean Church, near Eastbourne.
Having spent half his life in the UK, he felt called to return to Nairobi.
In 2017, he and Rachel moved to Nairobi together with their 4 children (Elijah, Ezra, Susanna and Bethany) to lead a church plant there.
Rachel was born in South Africa to missionary parents, has worked as a nurse and served as a missionary and now looks after the children.
You can read more on the UFM website.
OM UK - Jemma Graves
Jemma writes: Operation Mobilisation is a global organisation that operates in 110 countries and on one ship, the Logos Hope, where I previously served for two years. As OM we want to see vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the least reached. The work of OM varies from country to country, but our focus remains the same worldwide.
OM in the UK has ministry centres in Birmingham, London and other major cities and they are committed to ensuring the UK church can be increasingly found working at the heart of diverse communities.
I work in OM UK’s National Office in Shropshire as Strategic Partnerships Administrator. The division of Strategic Partnerships incorporates five key departments; we work together to engage with individuals and churches about the work of OM in the UK and globally. I do a lot of organising and administrative work to support the division and help ensure efficiency.
I really value your support and prayer in this essential and exciting role with OM UK.
Western Kenya - Robert Matati
Canon Robert Matati is an Anglican minister in Butere, Western Kenya. He is Area Dean administering five
parishes, the Diocesan Education Secretary coordinating programmes in 61 primary and 35 secondary Anglican Sponsored schools and he is also Chaplain for Lunza secondary school.
Robert is married to Mary and they have three sons, a nephew at University in Nairobi, and Roberts’ ageing parents all to look after.
“My three roles dictate that I have to travel from office to schools, to Diocesan Education office from home and at times travel to conduct burials in the deanery or where the diocesan staff are affected. I LOVE serving my God. I love visiting schools encouraging teachers and students. I love pastoral care in parish”.
UFM - Johnny and Ann McClean
Working with UFM in Bangkok, Johnny and Ann McClean are currently involved with student groups that have been started in three universities.
Each group has between 3-15 students who are all believers and mostly from Christian families. The groups meet once a week for fellowship and bible study.
You can follow Johnny and Ann on Twitter and read more about them on the UFM website.
UFM Ljubjana - Olivia Rigby
Olivia Rigby is in Ljubjana, Slovenia with UFM, working with International Students.
She aims to establish an international student ministry where students can be impacted by the gospel and challenged to consider who Jesus is. Olivia will be supporting Slovene Christians in their faith, and helping them consider ways they can share the gospel among their peers in a country where the true gospel is not known by most.
You can read more about Olivia on the UFM website.
Barnabas Ministries - Pastor working in Uganda
We support a Pastor working in Uganda, who is working to share the Gospel with Muslims and provide holistic care for converts from Islam. Our support for the charity, called Barnabas Ministries, is facilitated via the Church of Uganda.
Partner Organisations
As well as supporting individual Mission Partners, St John's also supports a number of Partner Organisations.
St Catherine's Tranmere - Charlotte Kirkham

One of our partner organisations is St Catherine's Tranmere, where we help support Charlotte Kirkham, their youth worker. Charlotte writes:
"I am 24 years old and I am from Leeds. I started working for my home church in January 2017 and worked there for 18 months before coming to Tranmere. I have a degree in animal behaviour and welfare and have worked on various working farms.
The Lord brought me to ministry when I was made redundant from a petting farm due to lack of funds. The pastor of my home church, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Leeds, invited me to become their Church trainee and that is when the Lord started to guide me into a job in full time ministry. I am enjoying my work at St Cath's and everyone is very welcoming and willing to help in any way".
St John's Over - Eddie Bridle

We have supported St John's Over for a number of years, starting when Aled Seago was Trainee Minister. We currently support Eddie Bridle, who is Student Minister at St John's. Eddie writes...
Hello to everybody at St John’s, Hartford! A huge thank you for your decision to support me as I serve as a Student Minister at St John’s, Over! Your support has been such an encouragement to me and I feel incredibly privileged to be a partner in the gospel with you all.
Kat and I have now been living in Winsford for just over six months and we are pretty much acclimatised to our new-ish surroundings. Kat has really enjoyed getting to know our new church family and its been great to catch up with old friends from my ministry trainee days. We’ve settled into St John’s really well and are now serving the church family in a number of different ways.
Kat is working as a teaching assistant at Winsford Academy and is involved in our outreach into the school. She has also taken on responsibility for our music ministry, as well as a few one to ones, and is beginning to meet up with people in her capacity as a trained biblical counsellor.
I’m splitting the preaching and leading duties in the mornings and evenings with George, leading one of our homegroups, overseeing our children’s and youth work, and our schools outreach. I’ve also begun part-time theological studies with Union School of Theology, meaning I spend Wednesdays in Liverpool and another day a week studying.
We’re really excited to be here in Winsford for the next four years, and are praying that God would use us to serve this church and build his kingdom. Thank you again for supporting us in this and if you have any questions please get in touch.
Other Partner Organisations
Other partner organisations we support include:
- Bible Encounter Trust – Story Trails, such as the Easter Story Trail, and schools work, run by Julie Fraser
- Good News For Everyone (formerly Gideons UK) – Bible distribution in local schools