A wish to bring a little sunshine into people’s lives is what motivated Liz Hargreaves and Carole Willoughby to sign up for a Local Pastoral Ministry course.

Liz and Carole, who both worship at Trevenson Church in Pool, are looking forward to joining their church’s Pastoral team in the coming weeks. The pair will be commissioned during a special service to celebrate Lay Ministry being held at Truro Cathedral on February 2.

Liz and Carole will be working together and wherever possible they will be joined by Liz’s two guide dogs Scooby and Zoey.

While both feel their deep faith will be important to the role, Liz also believes her blindness will be useful. “I look upon my blindness almost as a gift because I cannot judge people on how they look, rather it is on how they behave.” Having her two dogs has also proved a useful tool. “They bring a lot of comfort when we visit a friend in a local care home, even the nurses stop to pet them.”

Carole and Liz know their partnership will be a strength. They already run a successful Monday Club out of Trevenson Church. Carole said: “We feel the club is part of our pastoral ministry. The club is open to everyone and we have speakers, play games and go out for lunches. We even have people being referred to the club now.”

Liz added: “The two of us together will be able to bring some comfort, cheer and a bit of hope to people. There are so many lonely people, I just hope we can bring a little bit of sunshine into someone’s life. When you are in a difficult situation, just knowing that someone else is there could make a huge difference.”
Carole said: “We know we cannot carry their load for them but we can listen to them.”

Both Liz and Carole are looking forward to their commissioning in February and being able to get out and about in their pastoral roles.

“We are very fortunate to have good families and a good church family. Many of them will be supporting us on February 2 and we are looking forward to being able to support others. If we can bring some hope, then we’ll be happy.”