connection
STORIES
Making
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How do we make sure we aren’t like the ‘religious’ people of Jesus’ time, alienating rather than loving the community we are part of? Do we make it easy for people to cross our thresholds, irrespective of background, status, lifestyle and even faith? Ian King shares some stories of welcoming people in
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t Restore Community Church we believe that God has called us to ‘restore lives, restore relationships and restore communities’ and so in recent years we have tried to develop ways to interact with and love the community around us. At the same time, we have also worked at providing a welcoming environment for those who do manage to make the journey across our threshold – irrespective of history or belief. Though this is still very much a work in progress for us, here are some of the stories from our journey.
Helping with practical needs Danielle is a single parent whose husband died suddenly just before
the birth of their sixth child, leading to her having a breakdown and being hospitalised. During that time, her mother looked after the children and several of them started to attend a Kidz Club that Restore helps to run with another local church. Knowing the situation, Sally, a member of Restore and a local primary school teacher, took some initiative to build relationship with the children and started helping the family by taking them out for trips to the park and other fun activities. She also offered to bring the children along to church on Sunday. “I was really surprised and didn’t know what to make of it at first”, says Danielle.
Restore has a group of volunteers who offer one Saturday morning a month to assist with a local community need we are aware of. “There was a fire at my mum’s house and the whole family had to move into temporary accommodation, and the church provided a team of people to help with the move, and then helped her move back once the damage was repaired. The church that runs Kidz Club then bought new beds for the kids”, explains Danielle. “I really appreciated them being there to help my mum when I wasn’t there.” Since Danielle has been out of hospital she has come along to Restore both on a Sunday and midweek. “I have found coming along interesting – sometimes a bit strange – but it has got me thinking. I can see that people there really believe. I would like to believe, but I don’t know what I believe. One thing, though, is it’s a good place to be, a nice place to belong – the community spirit is amazing.”
Finding common goals
One of our most exciting opportunities to interact with a wider community has been in Africa. Having worked with Oasis Esteem to provide lessons in local secondary schools on HIV/AIDS, sex and relationships, we felt that we should support a HIV/AIDS project in Africa. Through some connections, we became a supporter of Beautiful Gate Community School in Kitwe, Zambia. Subsequently, at a New Wine Leadership Conference, someone told me about a local BMW garage owner, Ben Collins, a Christian who had also made connections to support a school in Kitwe. I met Ben and we had so much in common that we decided to pool resources to set up a school building and child sponsorship programme in Zambia. We partner with churches in Zambia with a desire to impact their local community by building and running schools. We are planning on building our fourth school this year.