On Saturday 18th May, Hope Church hosted onother Fun Day for the whole community. It was a fantastic day, with a great atmosphere, with many in the community gathering to have fun together.
The need
We recognised, as a church, that there are all sorts of challenges facing our community and so we wanted to bless them with a free fun day for all the family to enjoy. In fact it's possible for many to shy away from going out because they know they can't afford the catering, games, activities or bouncy castles. So we levelled the playing field, making it accessible to everyone, and providing everything for free to those that came.
The perception of church
Furthermore, many people view church as irrelevant, boring and stingy. We wanted to show that nothing could be further from the truth. Hope Church is full of life, joy, people, laughter and generosity. And so, what better way to tackle both things than with a free Fun Day for everyone to enjoy.
Some numbers
We don’t know exactly how many people came, but we gave out …
·    Over 1000 burgers, sausages and chicken
·    812 ice creams
·    Over 600 fizzy drinks and countless more tea, coffee and squash
·    Over 400 cakes
·    Loads of people had a go on the bouncy castles, enjoyed the sports and had their face painted
·    We also had 4 different singers from the church performing with our band too
Everything was funded by those who attend Hope Church, who also joyfully served on the day by painting faces, directing cars, setting up marquees, cooking the BBQ, litter picking, running the games, and more. It really was a monumental effort - well done, Hope Church!
Feedback
"I just can't believe it was all free. Thank you so much for enabling us to have such a great day out."
"Excellent day out for the family and to see the community gather together is wonderful."
"Brilliant fun and very generous of you. looking forward to the next one ;)"
"I love coming to Hope Church events, because you just accept me and my family for who we are"
"An amazing afternoon, with such helpful and friendly people - not felt this welcome for a long time."
So why would we do such a thing?
We believe that in Jesus we have been given the greatest free gift of grace. Grace means getting what you don't deserve. The Bible says that due to the things we do wrong, we deserve God's punishment and judgement, but because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy and abounding in love pours out His grace to us instead, in the form of His son, Jesus.Â
In Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we get an undeserved, unmerited and unearned free gift that enables our sins to be forgiven and our relationship with God to be restored. We did not earn it, we cannot pay for it, but we can receive it. Having received this amazing gift of grace, we then want to demonstrate that grace to our community. And so we gave this unearned, undeserved and unmerited free gift of a Fun Day to our community to enjoy, as a small demonstration of the greater gift of love that can be received from God.Â
And the weather was perfect too!
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