History

April 2005
In April 2005 Dai Hankey was sat on his sofa in his home in St.Mellons in Cardiff when he felt compelled by God to drive up to the Trevethin estate in his home-town of Pontypool. Dai responded, drove up and walked round the estate (for the first time) with his dog. There was clearly great need for the Gospel up there, and Dai returned home with a strong burden to pray for Trevethin. Two days later at a Cardiff Church Leaders Meeting, an American Pastor was speaking from Romans 15, and as Dai turned to the passage in his pocket Bible, he saw on the opposite page (highlighted in blue) these verses:

It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand."
Romans 15 v20-21

These were the verses that God had first given Dai when He called him to commit the rest of his life to preaching the Gospel. There and then God confirmed to Dai that He was sending him to Trevethin to preach the Gospel 'where Christ was not known'. Dai went and told his wife, Michelle. They prayed together and told God that they'd go if that's what He wanted.

2005 - 2006
Dai and Michelle were so involved in ministry in St.Mellons that an immediate departure was impossible, so they continued praying and trusting God's perfect timetable. During the next 12 months they started regularly going up to Trevethin to pray, and the picture of Trevethin as a 'city on a hill' became a permanent theme in Dai's mind (because no matter where you drove in the valley - there it was on top of the hill!) There were so many scriptures, words, 'coincidences' and even dreams that further confirmed the calling to go. So Dai went and shared the burden with the Highfields Church eldership.

August 2007
The elders were keen to explore the vision of planting a church on Trevethin and following a visit to the estate, they formally agreed to send Dai and Michelle up there to do just that. Dai and Michelle moved into their new home on Trevethin in August 2007. Along with the faithful support of retired missionary Roger Pomeroy and young intern Ben Franks, they soon started a small mid-week Bible study, and committed to worshipping together as a family in their home each Sunday morning.

February - August 2008
In February 2008 they opened up their home on Sunday mornings for church and after a tough couple of months (when the few people that were coming all went to different parts of the world on mission), numbers gradually started to build. In August the house couldn't take many more people as the 20 figure was breached, so it became obvious that the time was right to find larger premises for our growing church family to continue to grow.

September 2008
On 21st September, 2008 Hill City Church met for the first time in the awesome (albeit cosy) Cold Barn Farm, where we continue to meet each Sunday, and where, by God's amazing grace, we believe we will continue to grow in love, unity and numbers.

Why not come and join us - you'd be most welcome ...