The Bolt Hole

The Bolt - Hole, where love unlocks your heart.

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There was a day.

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I had come to the end of myself.
Desolate in my heart about the messes I had made in my life—some by choice, some by circumstances outside of my control—I just couldn’t see or feel how anyone could love me (least of all, love myself).

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That day, I was in my one-to-one time with the Lord, in a totally broken place, talking to Him as I often do. I asked Jesus, “Who could ever love a broken person?” I clearly heard an immediate response:

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“ME.”
“I love you. Because I was broken for you.”

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Something shifted in me that day.

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Not long afterward, I sensed from the Holy Spirit that I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I was to reach out to others and tell them they are accepted by Jesus, no matter where they are in life.

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I had no idea how to bring this about, but an idea—a God idea, as it turns out—popped into my head. Very close to my home, there is a field (originally used as a baseball diamond) that houses a cabin. It had previously been used for youth gatherings and was still in use as a footballers’ changing facility on weekends. God said, Start your meetings there and call it The Bolt-Hole.

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Now, I would never have thought of that name. I even had to look up the dictionary definition of bolt-hole. The name was perfect: a refuge, a place of safety, a haven.

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On top of this—because God knows how much I love music—He brought a song to my attention that became The Bolt-Hole’s theme tune: “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone. (Listen to the words. They are, for me, personally perfect, considering how rubbish I had been feeling about myself.)

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I contacted our local council to enquire about hiring the cabin and—without a doubt, a confirmation that this was from God—they immediately said yes. The hire charge was minimal, and they told me to come and get my own set of keys whenever I wanted.

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Wow.

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And so, The Bolt-Hole was born.

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Walking over to the cabin on that first day in April 2015 (keys clutched tightly in my hands), as I approached the doors to open up, I clearly heard the words: “The Eagle has landed.” I’ve never forgotten that moment. At the time, I felt it was significant—even though I didn’t yet understand what it meant.

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The Lord was very clear about the agenda for the meetings:
There was to be no agenda.

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People could come and go as they pleased. If they needed time to walk around the field, grab a hot drink, or even go home, they should feel free to do so. Attendees needed to feel they could come as they are—no masks, no pressure to “fit in,” no judgment.

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This was to be a place simply to worship Him—our Saviour—and wait on the sweet, beautiful Holy Spirit of Jesus.

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I had no idea who would come.
Much to my surprise, as word of mouth started to spread, the people the Lord sent along seemed to be what one might call “the walking wounded.” Already saved by grace—just like me—but really struggling to feel accepted, loved, or empowered as God’s beloved children.

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As the meetings progressed, the Holy Spirit stirred us. Wounds surfaced. The truth of trauma and long-held strongholds came into the light and were healed. There was such a bubbling up of joy in those meetings—a joy that could only come from His presence among us, as we praised our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Just like the woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8:43–48—a lady likely rejected by society and deeply ashamed—who found the courage to travel and try to meet Jesus. In the end, all she did was touch the hem of His garment, and she was healed. Jesus knew. He felt the virtue—His healing power—leave Him.

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Just as she had the courage to meet Jesus, we too were learning to trust—just enough to open up to each other, or to just one person, with Jesus (who already knows everything anyway).

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Over the next few years, as we continued to meet at The Bolt-Hole, a core team developed. We began to sense that the Lord wanted to build something more out of the tapestry of The Bolt-Hole. A few visitors accepted the Lord as their Saviour, and some of us had encounters in the local community, leading others to Christ.

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We received a word from the Lord:
To Him, we were like diamonds, having experienced years of immense pressure and difficulty. And in our community, there were—and are—many broken and struggling individuals just like us, whom He wants us to reach with His love in tangible ways.

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And so, in 2017, The Diamond House Church was birthed—from a broken, desolate place.

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Only God.

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“Those from among you shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.”
Isaiah 58:12 (NKJV)

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“I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
Hosea 2:23 (NIV)