Today I managed to catch up with people from church for lunch, one of whom was Sarah!

We had lunch as team leaders of ‘Love Gillingham‘. This project was envisioned by a group of people with Sarah after Soul in the City last year. The reaction of those coming back was ‘why can’t we do this in Gillingham?’ Answer: no reason at all!

Currently we have nearly 60 people from the church who have signed up to give a week of their time from 25 – 30th July and show the local community that they are loved through practical and relevant action.

The plan was to clear up some of the less nice places around the town. Rubbish clearing, land clearing, garden tidying and so on. The local council have come up with other projects for us as well, such as helping in OAP homes, and working with children on the street. In fact we thought we would have to suggest ideas to the council, but they knew exactly what they would like us to do when Sarah and Jim met with them.

So far, everyone involved has been amazed at the local council and local business response. Councilors and officers have been amazed at the desire for people to do something for the community for nothing.

I’m going to be heading up the practical team with the help of Chris and it looks like there is going to be a mass of stuff for us to do. Our first big project will be to clear a large triangle of land which no one or everyone (!) owns. The nettles are at my waist height and there is some concern over what we might find. I am, though, looking forward to attacking those nettles with a petrol driven strimmer!

I am really excited by this project. A year ago if we tried to get 30 people together to do something like this it would have been hard work. Now we have 60! I am excited because we are going to be showing by actions that we do care. I’m excited at the new people we will meet. I’m excited at the opportunities there will be to understand people better who live around our church.

Strangely I hate laborious boring practical work – maybe god is at work there too!