by Helen Ward

STREETS OF LIGHT

Sign up by Wednesday 5 October

by Helen Ward

Family and Children's Team Leader, STC Sheffield

Streets of Light returns to Sheffield from Monday 24th – Monday 31st October 2022.

Since it began in 2017, this simple idea to decorate windows with messages of Light, Love and Hope, as an alternative to Halloween, has spread across the city. Last year more than 20 churches got involved, there were 520 windows decorated and 10,000 trail booklets were distributed to 12 Sheffield schools, as well as at a variety of other groups and locations, such as the Hallamshire Hospital, Foodbanks, Messy Church gatherings, toddler groups, and via local businesses and shops. “It has been genuinely humbling and amazing in equal measure to see how God has used Streets of Light to bless people around our city. My prayer is that for one week in October, Sheffield would become a place where messages of light, love and hope are displayed from 1000s and 1000s of windows, into each and every community and neighbourhood. Imagine if people could walk down every street in the city and see a display that tells them that they are loved; that in the darkness – there is light; and that in this time of great difficultly and challenge for so many – there is always hope. These are the simple truths that Jesus asks every Christian to share with those around them, and Streets of Light is an easy, accessible, low bar way of doing this.”

In 2022, these are some of the things that we are faithfully hoping and praying to see happen with Streets of Light: • Last year we had trail maps for 19 different suburbs of the city, covering 15 postcode areas. This year, we would love to have

Streets of Light locations in every Sheffield postcode and at least 25 trail maps.

It is simple to join in……just sign-up via the website: www.streetsoflight.co.uk.

Louise Luck is a teacher at Westbourne School in Broomhill. This is her experience of Streets of Light:

“Last year, we had a team of 6 students at Westbourne who created the design for our windows on the theme of peace and love. The school was delighted to be involved, and the students liked the window display so much that it has been left up all year! It was also fantastic to receive the free trail booklets – we were able to hand these out to every child in both the primary and the senior school, so they could head out with their families over half term and see other window displays around the city. We are looking forward to being involved again this year – there are a group of Year 10s ready to get started on this year’s design when we get back in September.”

The deadline to sign-up is Wednesday 5 October, so that the booklets can be printed and distributed before half-term.

Bex Oldham, from Walkley, has found Streets of Light to be a simple way to connect with neighbours. She says:

“Over the last five years, my husband and I have joined in with the fabulous Streets of Light trail initiative. Initially, it was something that we did as a household to spread the message of love, light and hope, but God challenged us to invite our neighbours into it, and so we did. Over the last couple of years, our neighbours have joined in by creating their own window display (often significantly more creative than ours!), making displays with us in our home, and we even made a whole street display which made the song lyric ‘Lover of the Light’ when read all together. Streets of Light is a really easy way to connect with your neighbours, and talk to them about the love, light and hope that we find in Jesus. We’re excited to declare those messages on our windows again this Autumn, and we also know that it is going to be a great opportunity to spend time with people on our street.” • We would love to double the number of schools that we distribute booklets to, going from 12 in 2021 to 25 in 2022. If you are a teacher or parent, do ask your school if they would be willing to send booklets home with every child.

Completing the Streets of Light trails is a fun, free activity for families to do over half term! If you would like booklets for your school, please email us – contact details are on the website.

• Streets of Light is a great way to connect with neighbours and build relationships. It would be great to have whole streets decorated – a bit like at

Christmas, when people tour various roads. We may even introduce a prize for the street with the most decorated windows!

Do help to spread the word about Streets of Light by following us on Facebook and sharing with others: www.facebook.com/ streetsoflight

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