Our Eden team in Ragworth (Stockton) and their youth recently ran a week of mission on the Ragworth and Primrose Hill estates to share the love of Jesus with the community.
Getting stuck in, one of the teams headed to a local community allotment to show the area some love. Over three days, they cleared the garden of weeds and rubbish – completely filling three skips – and totally transformed the area. As the teams were working in the garden, they grabbed every opportunity to chat to passers-by about what they were doing and why. It was a great way to share about Jesus, the work of Eden and to invite people along to church.
One lady the young people got chatting to was Jackie, whose house backs onto the allotment they were making over. Each day, Jackie chatted to the team through her window as they worked and at the end of the week, she thanked the team for transforming the allotment into a community space saying, ‘It’s amazing to see young people doing something so positive for the area.’
Some of the youth wanted to find more ways to be a blessing to the local area so went out litter picking and prayer walking. Some even bought plants so that they could write personalised labels on them and deliver them to the houses where they’d been connecting with people – people like Joe, who had been struggling with depression since his wife passed away and who’d found it really hard to leave the house. Joe was so touched by how the young people wanted to get to know him and were loving the local area, that he gave them some seeds to plant in the allotment. The team also invited him along to the community garden and he now hopes to come to church too.
Throughout the week, it was amazing to see the young people stepping out showing Jesus’ love in word and action in the community and grow in boldness in sharing about him.
Find out how you can get involved with Love Where U Live at message.org.uk/love-where-u-live
