Hedge End Methodist Church had a stall at the Christmas Lights Switch On in Hedge End on Thursday 23rd November. This was organised and staffed by Christine and her team of helpers (John, Sue, Irvine, Jenny L, Rita, Andy, Alison, Catherine and David).
Christine said 'In a time when we know lots of families are struggling, we wanted to shine the light of Jesus in a practical way by providing a stall where everything was free to do. This was very much appreciated by the parents we saw at last year's event and again this year. A big thank you to those who donated small wrapped gifts for the Lucky Dip. We also had free Christmas colouring sheets, a hand puppet donkey with a First Christmas book for Guess the name of the Donkey and we had Guess how many sweets in the jar. We had a large tub of chocolates to share as well.
For those who wanted to know there were 46 sweets in the jar and the donkey was called Darcy.
We also gave out leaflets for our Christmas Services and hope that we made people feel that they would be welcome to come.
All the effort of organising and staffing the stall was made worth it by the joy on people's faces as we interacted with our community.
Wesley said that we should spread scriptural holiness (love in action) across our land and we hope that we did this.'