We love sharing what God’s doing through Eden as teams pour Jesus’ love into their communities. But what does a day on Eden look like? We asked Paul Connor, team leader at Eden Ragworth, to take us along with him for a day so we could see what happens behind the scenes.
‘Ragworth’s always been my home and I love that I get to serve my community. No two days are ever the same, and this year as a team we’ve been involved in everything from running parenting courses to putting on Christmas dinners, not to mention Bible studies, running our allotment and praying for our neighbours.
‘Friday is one of my favourite days and it’s great that I’m getting to share it with you.’
8am – Every week we put on a community breakfast, so Jennie and I head to The Shack early to start preparing a full English breakfast.
8:45am – The rest of the team arrive to help set up, and chat to people as they arrive.
9am – As we open the doors, everyone is greeted with a smile and a brew. What I love is that it feels like a huge family breakfast. You have people there catching up, and others telling our team about what they’re facing and us getting to offer them support and advice. Everyone just comes as they are and we build real, deep friendships. This week, it’s breakfast for 23 but some weeks it can be as many as 60!
10:30am – As people leave, the team and I all pitch in to tidy up before we have our weekly meeting. We love this time together and it’s often filled with laughter and brilliant chaos. We chat about what’s been happening, what’s coming up and, most importantly, pray together for our community and each other.
12pm – The paperwork begins. This is definitely not my favourite part but as you can imagine it’s needed to keep all our projects running.
1:30pm – Our doors are always open and people drop in all week to chat or for some support. We’re still blown away by the number who come. It can be anything from ‘Can you help me fill out this form?’ to ‘I just got a call to say my girlfriend died so I came straight here.’ It’s in these moments that we can share Jesus again and pray for them. Today, a guy we know needs someone to talk to and we were where he headed.
2:45pm – Food and fuel costs are a real struggle for many people in Ragworth so as well as running a Community Grocery, we’ve set up a Warm Space too. This week, we heard we’d been awarded a grant towards this, so I grab a few minutes to go and buy the items this funding will cover. Many people never get to meet those who benefit from services like the Community Grocery, but I do every day and, believe me when I say, they’re blown away. It’s all making a huge difference in their lives.
4pm – Every Friday we run a youth group for years 5–7. So, the team get together again to set up and pray for the young people.
5pm – The young people start to arrive. Tonight, there’s games going on, but other weeks you’ll find cooking, crafts and other activities taking place. Once a month, we take them to The Oakwood Centre for worship. Seeing them grow in their love for Jesus is precious. As they head into year 8, we encourage them to go to the weekly youth group at The Oakwood Centre, and love hearing about how loads of them go there.
7pm – It’s time to head home and put my feet up, but my neighbours know my door’s always open for them day or night.
‘If you came back tomorrow, or visited another Eden team, it would look totally different but we’re here to serve the people of Ragworth however we can and be the hands and feet of Jesus.’
