Last night we had a fantastic time as a church. We took over the Black Lion, the local sports centre, for the night and put on a free fun night for anyone that wanted come.

We made us of all the facilities such as the pool, the sports hall, bar, sauna and so on. The variety of activities, as you can see from the pics, was quite diverse. We had a bouncy castle, face painting, water polo, badminton, table tennis, craft stuff to name but a few. Oh yes! I must just mention we had football as well. That was cool – and I think I can claim the contest top scorer title as I scored 3 fantastic goals – my best against a team of young men who thought they would easily beat a team of old guys like us! (sorry Chris, Matt, Chris and Steve – when you are skilled enough call us up for a rematch!!!!)

The event saw about 350 people, which totally blew my mind as I was not expecting such a large number. This event was cool because barriers were broken down, stereotypes (of both Christians and not yet Christians)were challenged, church members worked together and we all met and were able to chat with people of our community. The best comment I heard all night from a guest was ‘All these people from the church are so friendly; are you going to do this again?’

I hope we will. But I hope we will with just the same aim; that being to have a good time with no strings attached. This was just such a great example of the church serving the community with no expectation of anything in return. A true and honest gift of Jesus for Christmas!