We try to run activities for local families every school holiday. This half term we decided to run a Light Party here at ACC and a Family Afternoon at Hawbush gardens. The Family Afternoon was attended mainly by families from the Hawbush area but the Light Party was open to all of our ACC church families and any local families that we are connected to.
At the Light Party we had 12 families attend which was slightly lower than had booked in, but felt like a really nice number for the upper lounge. As usual we decorated the stairs and upper lounge with lots of lovely lamps and fairy lights to make it feel really cosy and get the true light party effect! We did a variety of crafts and games and had a parents café too. Part way through we had lunch bags (kindly packed by Elsie, Sue, Carol and Barbara in the morning) and after food there was a Christian message. We finished the evening with every family holding a sparkler together outside in a big circle and I prayed for us all.
It was a really great opportunity to connect in again with families and to invite them into the church building to hear a Christian message especially if they have been invited from things like Tots or Hawbush events where there is less obvious Christian input apart from in conversations. Our next event like this will be the Christingle on Sunday 19th December which everyone will be welcome to join!
Our Family Afternoon took place on the Wednesday and we had 56 people attending in total, 25 adults and 31 children. We saw a few new faces but most of the families were people we knew well from previous afternoons, so it was really nice to catch up with them. We partnered with Workshop 24 and Integrated Plus which made the afternoon even more varied! Inside the building we had 2 craft activities, outside we had a pendant craft in the woodland, relaxing music in the art shelters set up in the paddock, some fun games, leaf magnets and even a burger van to feed everyone!! Lots of families and even the burger van staff commented on what a lovely atmosphere there was at the afternoon too which was really encouraging.
We would really appreciate your prayers over the gardens, it is often described as a little oasis in Brierley Hill and I think it really does feel like a sanctuary. It would be amazing if you could pray for protection and blessing over the site. If you could also pray for the team that run the space, particularly Ken (my dad), he pours so much work and heart into the gardens and is absolutely awesome (I am not bias at all!).
Lastly, I want to say a big thank you to all the people who helped in so many ways at the events, parents who helped create a welcoming atmosphere, volunteers who set up and prepared, people who ran activities and everyone who helped with the clear up! Thank you so much 😊
– Roxy