New pastor inducted at Aylsham church

Alan Howes has been inducted as pastor at Emmanuel Church in Aylsham, and brings with him a story of God’s miraculous healing.

Norwich born and bred Christian Alan Howes, along with his wife Lindsay, both suffered catastrophic trauma when their son Nathanael was run over by their car four years ago, and are heartened by Nathanael’s ongoing miraculous progress as they accept this new challenge.
 
Speaking about this new role, Alan shares, “I am both excited and humbled to be able to step into the role of Pastor at Emmanuel Church Aylsham. Four years ago, my world fell apart and I could see no way forward. I thought I had nothing to give but the Lord had other ideas. He is a master at raising us up out of the ashes. Emmanuel Church is a wonderfully warm close knit family with a vision and passion to move forward into all that God has for us this year and beyond. It is an immense privilege to have this opportunity to help lead and shape the church spiritually and a challenge that Lindsay and I do not take lightly. We are thankful to God for this opportunity and His mercy to bring us to this place.”
 
In April 2022, immense tragedy struck the Howes family when their then seven-year-old son Nathanael was run over by their own car in a split second accident, and suffered severe life-changing head and brain injuries. During the past four years, Alan, Lindsay and their daughters Gabriella 25 and Leila 20 have poured everything into Nathanael’s recovery journey. Nathanael, now 11, continues to make miraculous progress as he re-learns to walk and talk again.
 
Alan and Lindsay first became familiar with Emmanuel Church Aylsham when they were invited to speak in 2023 and share their trauma-suffering journey. As they attended and became more involved in the church, they felt God was enabling them and encouraging Alan into his passion and gifting in teaching and leading. Alan says, ‘When the opportunity of the Pastor position became available, I felt it was time to take a step of faith forward again after all we have been through. It wasn’t enough just to stay in maintenance mode and try and cope each day. I felt the Lord say that I needed to find purpose in the pain. A big part of that was setting up a website, strengthinsuffering.com, to enable us to share from our hearts what had happened, but also writing blogs to share scripture with others, and the hope and encouragement that we have found along the way.
 
Alan was officially inducted into his Pastor role on 7 February 2026 in a special inauguration service attended by over seventy people from Emmanuel Church, family, friends and from representatives from six other churches in Aylsham. The service was led by Emmanuel Church Elder Byron Jones, and retired Baptist minister David Adams brought an encouraging message from Acts 20:27-28 and his own personal experience in church leadership. David shared about the importance of teaching the whole counsel of God as well as ensuring time is taken to care for self and others when serving and teaching. A Long standing friend of Alan and Lindsay, Paul Thompson McHenry, read from 1 Peter 5:1-4 .
 
“We are very much looking forward to working together with the other churches in Aylsham”, says Alan, “there is a great sense of community with some wonderful work already going on and to be a part of that and lead Emmanuel Church forward in the community is such a blessing”.
 
To learn more about Emmanuel Church Aylsham or to contact Alan please visit emmanuelaylsham.com or email at ECApastor@outlook.com .

Read our previous story about Nathaniel's miraculous recovery here. 

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