Springing into action in Stenhouse!
By Thomas Dean, Minister of Stenhouse BC
Lockdown for us initially meant springing into action to get alongside people locally who’ve found themselves vulnerable through shielding, poverty or challenges at home. We’ve been really grateful for the close links we have with the local primary school and we’ve worked together throughout. We’ve been delivering hampers and giving out lunches (11,000 in total!) over term-time outside the church building. Even in the middle of the chaos it was great to make new friends from Stenhouse and work in partnership with other local organisations too.
Claudia and an amazing team also pioneered an initiative called ‘Stenhome Calling’ where they’ve done a sort of it ‘pay it forward’ delivering notes of encouragement and home baking to local people. It’s been wonderful.
Like most places we’ve shifted online (Youth meetings on instagram, Church services on FB, Prayer Meetings on Zoom and ex-offender meetings on FB) which has been good – we’ve connected with some significant new people and have had some really special moments, but it doesn’t replace the real thing.
Really sadly in May we lost a friend who was part of our ‘Connect’ group who had come to faith in the last year and is sorely missed already. For many in our Connect group this has been a particularly hard time. I know many of us working amongst the recovery community have been reminded just how vital this work is, particularly at this time.
