Some of you may have read my April article and been intrigued by the idea that as a Church we carried out a community survey on St. Johns estate to find out the needs of local residents. Alternatively you may have been horrified at the thought of knocking on people’s doors and making conversation. Whatever your response, we are now inviting you to join in the next community survey on Vicarage Fields area. On the week beginning 17th May the Church will be around Vicarage Fields making contact with residents for the whole week.

The aim of the community survey as outlined before is really to meet with local people, who we may never meet usually. Through the survey we can be the face of the Church and take the love and concern of Jesus out into the local area. We can listen to our neighbours and hear about what bothers them. We can share our stories with them. We can let people know that as a Church we want to hear from them, we want them to know that we are friendly and accessible.

The volunteers who helped at the last community survey week were amazed at how much they learnt about a local community just by being there and having conversations with people. One of the exciting things for me is God shows up, He always shows up.

We need volunteers to make it happen, we need people to come and work in teams and see what a Church without walls can look like. You are not expected to evangelise, you are not expected to invite people to come to Sunday Services, you are asked to have a concern for people and a listening ear.

Please begin to pray about this important time and event for our Church and ask God if He wants you to be part of this week and what He wants you to do. There will be more information about what will happen and times for visiting the area. If you interested and want to know more at this stage, please call Sister Sheila on 01932 224991 or e-mail on sheila@waltonparish.org.uk

Sister Sheila Samuels