Beverley Sills

Office Manager

As a family Richard and I have grown up at SBC and been a part of the church with our three daughters for nearly 30 years. After living in Scotland for three years we were moved to Kent due to Richard’s job at the time. Initially I stayed at home with the girls when they were little and then followed them through Education really! I trained in childcare and Education, then as a teaching assistant both primary and secondary and ended up at Fulston Manor as a pastoral and subject teaching assistant to the sixth formers. After supporting the delivery of Health and Social Care I went to Christchurch Uni and trained as a teacher. That led to 12 years commute to Tonbridge teaching at the College of FE. That commute was draining me dry and I decided to look for a job in the Sittingbourne Area. Just at that time Robin Brenchley finished his ministerial training; got a post in Ferring Baptist church and rather selfishly wanted to take Marion his wife with him. That left SBC without an office manager. Interviews followed and the rest as they say is History! I started in August 2019 and was just getting used to the role when Rev Chris Hughes announced that he was retiring and moving further South and West. There was also a little virus called Covid-19 on the move. Which reached us in the Spring of 2020-Strange times- I spent the office hours in the spare room at home with a remote laptop trying to update everyone and encourage everyone in some very difficult times. Chris and Nathan preached us through the lockdowns and eventually I started booking folk in for in-person services.

God blessed us with Nathan as our Pastor and now with Ricky as our Youth Worker and the little staff team has grown.

So, when the church is open and active there are a thousand little things to be done! Producing all the paper work- forms, prayer diaries, Magazines each month, sermon notes each week, leaflets, sign up forms for youth and holiday club , posters, notices and lots of other stuff! I also run ABC on a Monday morning our Adults, Babies and Children group – we are always looking for volunteers for that. Also I tend to some very basic finance bits, data protection, health and safety, some bits of looking after the church premises, keys, record keeping as a charity and keeping the minutes of the deacons meeting and church meetings and DBS checks and some very basic DIY when required-definitely a case of Jack of all trades………………! . Big thing- organizing and overseeing the March of Christian Witness- or Walk of Witness as I like to call it- then it is WoW!! As I am in the office for some part of five days a week I can be contacted for Pastoral matters too, working with Nathan and the Pastoral team to keep in touch with everyone.

As a church member I am also a Worship Leader and play guitar as a part of the worship team. I have been known to bake a few cakes when required and usually end up decorating the church for any major festivals and events- these are the fun things giving free rein to being creative, which I enjoy.

For prayer points: I hope that the church family continues to grow all over Sittingbourne – not just at SBC which is expanding gradually. It would be amazing to see growth in discipleship and depth of commitment. It really doesn’t matter what we start off like as a Christian just that we continue to become Christ like following his ways. It doesn’t matter which church building you go to on a Sunday morning as long as God has his temple inside of you. The unity between the church leaders across town has definitely bounced back stronger after Covid-it is a Joy to be a part of the town -wide Christian community. Also we need to pray protection over one another as the ’pattern of this world’ often threatens our Christian journey, and above all treat one another with Love.