On Thursday 2nd June we had a ‘Half Term Family Afternoon’ at Hawbush Community Gardens. This afternoon was for families with children in primary school, we wanted to offer something for local families to connect into and enjoy without being expensive!
The day started by looking grey and the weather leading up to the afternoon hadn’t been great but come 10:30am, the sun was out and there wasn’t a grey cloud in sight! Thank God! We invited families to come at 12, and we started by enjoying bacon sandwiches and other snacks (thank you Philippa and Rebekah for organising all the food!) There were activities spread throughout the gardens, ranging from, helping Ken with the plants (which somehow ended up with me having soggy shoes), chalk drawing, and making paper chains! We then had a couple of more organised activities which were “guess what’s inside the mystery box” and decorate a biscuit. The mystery box game was so funny to watch- seeing their faces as their imaginations led them to think there could be some sort of tarantula or slime monster in the boxes!
About 6 or 7 families came with their children, aunties, grandparents and friends. We weren’t sure how many would come but it worked out perfectly for the amount of space and food we had!
The purpose of this day was to engage all members of the families, we wanted to see connections and relationships being built and to be able be a witness to God in this community of families. Kellie Brown and Becky Cadman came along with their children and were such a great help and it was great to see them connecting with other families and getting the kids involved. We also put out some random question cards to help prompt conversation whether it was a funny “would you rather question” or a question about why people pray.
There was a moment about 10 minutes from the end, which was really touching- it made me a little teary! One of the children started crying and when I asked why, it was because she didn’t want it to end!
A survey for the Community Gardens was given out to people who came and all the comments on these surveys were really encouraging, we plan to continue with these sort of afternoons and build on these relationships!
Thank you so much to all the people that helped on the day or with planning. Having the opportunity to spend time with the children and chatting with the families was so fun and I am really excited to see what God does here!
Roxy
Well done Roxy. Having worked in Hawbush I know how much this event would mean to these families. God bless you all for your hard work.
It was a great afternoon, and a brilliant opportunity to share Christ in a gentle and loving way.