Mark Holdcroft
Name:
Mark Holdcroft
Year of Birth: 1977
Education:
HND Sport Science (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Training and Development qualification (Centrex)
MA Mission (Mattersey Bible College – University of Wales)
Main Gifting:
Preaching, Teaching
Experience:
Fitness instructor, 3 years
British Police Officer, 8 years
(2 years of which was as a police trainer)
10 years ministry experience
Hobbies:
Church (more a lifestyle than a hobby)
Sport (especially running, football, swimming and tennis)
Playing the guitar
Testimony:
My brother was the first in my family to become a Christian and immediately started to ask me if I wanted to come to his church’s youth meeting. I said ‘no’ enough times until he stopped asking. However, about a year later, when I was 15 years old, I reached a point in my life when I knew a change was needed. I asked my brother if I could go to church with him. He was very surprised and took me along and I made a commitment to follow Jesus.
Over the following few years I tried to live a Christian life but often got distracted and my life lacked direction. When I was twenty I went through a period of uncertainty in my Christian faith and had started to gradually do things that I knew displeased God, even though I still attended church. I didn’t want to give up my Christian faith, but I also wanted to do some of the very things that opposed it.
After six months of what was the darkest period of my life, God in his mercy called me to make a decision, to live for God, or to live for myself. Thankfully I made the right decision. I recommitted my life to the right things, firstly to God, also to Liz, who would later become my wife, and thirdly to the church. I also sought God for the direction and purpose of my life. At this point, I felt God calling me to join the police force.
I learnt a lot during my time in the police force, the most significant thing being, that my whole life was my ministry. At first I had struggled balancing the demands of the job, the demands of my family life and the demands of the increasing ministry work that I was doing at church. Whilst in the police I started to realise that everything I was doing was ministry and was for God. This revelation brought both a peace and a balance to my life.
In 2002 I married a beautiful woman and within a couple of months of our wedding we went on a short term mission trip to a place called Slovakia. With a small team we spoke to over 1500 students about our faith in Jesus. The trip was a success, but little did we know about the significance that this country would have on our lives.
Several mission trips later we heard about the church planting project that was happening in Slovakia. We were excited about it, but it was sometime later that we realised that God was calling us to move over and be a part of it. When we were both convinced of the call, we sold our house, left our jobs and moved over. The rest is to be continued…
Through all of my experiences, I have no doubt that God is both merciful and faithful. I would recommend to anybody, that this journey, called life, is only worth making when we are with Him.