 Cliff and Hayley Wishart
The call for us to plant in the UK came early 2002 and steadily grew until we finally arrived in the UK on the 1st of August 2004. OXCI, as you know, was born on the 5th September 2004 - a month after arriving in the country.
The call to ministry and church-planting however began back in the mid 90’s while I (Cliff) was serving as the Durban Mission School co-ordinator (Durban, South Africa).
We have always felt the call of God on our lives. Hayley, as a teenager, felt a constant call to serve God. I got saved at the age of sixteen and began preaching in the army during my 2 years of National Service and went into full-time ministry for the first time at the age of nineteen.
We have always been involved in ministry in one form or another ever since, except for a 2 year period of “going around the mountain” of unforgiveness. Praise God! He brought me/us through that and restored our trust in church leadership.
Hayley and I met in 1989; she had come to Durban on a “gap year” and began training as a nurse in a local training hospital. I was a youth pastor at the time and she had been invited to youth by one of the young adults in the group.
We slowly became friends and began playing a lot of sport together, tennis, squash, beach volleyball ... (those were the days)
One day I heard the Lord speak to me that I was to marry Hayley and so began a 2 year pursuit of her, as the Lord omitted to tell Hayley we were to get married. She played hard to get and I, as the hunter, pursued her relentlessly, with much heartache and tears.
After a few years she finally said yes and we were married on the 14th December 1991.
Another miracle, thank you Lord!
Before planting I served full-time as an Elder for a year on the Hillcrest Christian Fellowship (HCF) team as part of the training for the plant. Some of the privileges I had were looking after around 48 small groups, leading the shepherding ministry and the evening service.
Being planted from a base church like HCF has been a blessing and a privilege. My hope is that one day we will grow into being a base church and so will be able to plant churches globally.
I remember getting a text one day in 2004 while we were still in SA, from a lady in the UK.
The text read “heard you were planting in Oxford, what time is the service this Sunday?” to which I had to reply “sorry we are still in SA for the next few weeks”.
They were the first people, other than my mom and sister, who we met and started the church with. They introduced us to their family and friends and so OXCI started. We held our first service at the Exeter Hall (a small parish owned community hall) in Kidlington. There were 10 adults and 6 children at our first meeting and we were on our way, Praise God!. Three months after starting we moved to North Kidlington Primary School due to it being more suited to our needs, with loads of room for growth.
I am immensely proud of my family, especially my boys. They have given and served from the day OXCI started. Without the support of HCF, my wonderful wife and children, family and friends this pilgrimage called church-planting would not have been as rewarding.
So the journey continues as God leads us into the promised land and gives us the nation as our inheritance. Join us as we move forward in God.
It is our hearts desire to serve and establish Gods Kingdom in the lives of people in and around the Kidlington Community.
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