Got something you want to get red of but don't want to throw away? Do you like browsing charity shops and car boot sales for a bargain? Saturday Swap Shop's could be for you!
Swap Shops are an opportunity for people to swap unwanted items. You simply bring along something and swap it for something that someone else has brought along. Churches in the South West of Bath are organising a series of Swap Shop events, as part of Hope08, over the coming year:
Each Swap Shop takes place between 10.30am and 12 noon. Note: These dates have been added to the diary on the front page!
Each part of Bath has a 'Churches Together' group - a group of
leaders and representatives who meet regularly to see how they can work
together as a united church. There is one group for each 'Zone' of the
city. From a time of corporate prayer, listening and sharing together,
the following idea emerged among the leaders and representatives of the
churches that make up the 'South West Zone (Twerton, Whiteway, Oldfield
Park, Southdown):
The idea is that over the next year Christians from the South West Zone,
under the Hope08 banner, would join together with others to lay on a whole
number of red carpet events marked by celebration, joy and hope and which draw
people to Jesus.
Although variable in scale, location, and cost, each ‘red carpet event’ would
have three components:
Transformation – painting walls, cleaning
pathways, cutting back hedges, providing skips for local people, taking away
rubbish and litter, lightning up dark spaces, cleaning play areas, cutting
grass, killing off the weeds, injecting hope, including anyone who wants to
join in, raising self esteem, telling people that their worth it, making a
difference to the environment…
Celebration – meals, barbeques, street parties,
music, open homes, balloons, giving something away…we want them to be marked by
joy – a real party atmosphere…
Prayer – praying around the areas that we
are working on, blessing the people who live there, praying against the
enemy, praying for protection and wholeness, praying for individuals we meet
along the way, asking God to bring his healing, asking God for the Kingdom
to come on earth as it is in heaven…
The impetus for such action comes from two related thoughts that God reminded
us of:
That the church is called to love our neighbours
with the same love that we have for Him.
That the church is called to represent and witness to
the reign of God coming into the world.
