Prayers sought for continued success of Pakefield animal outreach project

Pakefield Pastures, a Community Interest Company (CIC) which cares for an array of animals and offers outreach support as a mobile care unit, would welcome prayer to support its continued advancement.

The organisation is led by Katey Mills, the Children, Youth and Families Minister at All Saints’ & St Margaret’s Church in Pakefield, where the Pakefield Pastures animals have now become a fixture of missional work.

Having started out by acquiring a donkey so that the church no longer needed to rent one for living nativity and Palm Sunday services, the flock has steadily grown – to the point where the CIC’s smallholding is home to alpacas, chickens, pigs, sheep and even a quail!

The animals regularly visit settings such as schools and care homes, providing therapeutic experiences especially for those living with mental or physical health conditions.

Katey Mills runs Pakefield Pastures in addition to her role as Children, Youth and Families Minister at All Saints’ & St Margaret’s Church

The time given by a dedicated team of volunteers, along with generous donations from supporters, is essential to the project’s operations, with Katey crediting the power of prayer for delivering the people, land and resources required to keep the animals healthy:

“It’s incredibly God led. Every step of the way, I’ve expected to have doors closed and they’ve been wide open. From finding a field in the first place – land is pretty scarce around these parts, and once you have it, you don’t leave it – to financially, when we’ve needed things for the donkeys, operations and things; the money has just come.”

Revd Sharon Lord, Rector at All Saints’ & St Margaret’s, Pakefield

Revd Sharon Lord, Rector at All Saints’ & St Margaret’s, believes passionately that including animals in the church’s mission has been a huge positive:

“Animals attract people, it’s as simple as that. We already had the pets services, and we used to have lots of people bring their pets to that, and we noticed in the first year of having a real life donkey at our Palm Sunday that we have people that perhaps have not really engaged with church in the past. But because they knew there was going to be an animal they came to see the donkey and then joined us on our Palm Sunday walkabout. It’s absolutely amazing.”


More information about Pakefield Pastures and the flock of sheep at Pakefield church can be found at:

Pakefield Pastures | Facebook

The Pakefield Sheep | Facebook

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