Churches across Redditch are working together offer Easter blessings to families in the town. From 26 – 28 March, they will be taking over a shop front in the Kingfisher shopping centre to run crafts and games, gifting families Easter eggs and age-appropriate bibles.
For the past six years, churches across the Redditch Mission Area have opened a pop-up shop to offer free Christmas gifts to disadvantaged families, this year helping over 1500 local children. This is the first year that they’ve re-opened the shop to run activities for Easter.
Elaine Whitfield is one of the co-ordinators of the appeal. She said:
“Historically, our work in the town centre has been about meeting a very real material need. But this year during our Christmas shop, the conversation changed. We encountered a spiritual hunger that took us by surprise. Families weren't just looking for gifts; they were asking us for bibles, filling our prayer tree with prayers and asking volunteers to pray for them.”
Eggs are currently being collected from churches across Redditch alongside donations to purchase bibles, and the project has also been given a grant from the diocesan Kingdom People Fund. Across the three days, children’s activities will be led by a collaborative group of children’s workers drawn from across the different parishes, including an egg and spoon obstacle course and a ‘great egg drop’ experiment - testing if a wrapped egg can survive a fall!
Elaine continued:
“We’ve had a brilliant response to our request for volunteers and each of our twelve churches will be represented during the three days. We will be working as one Church, coming together to meet the spiritual needs of our town. We’re trying something different and it’s a real step out in faith – please do pray for us as we work together to share God’s love with local people.”
The Easter Blessings shop front will be open from 26 – 28 March from 10am – 4pm in 6 New Walk, Kingfisher Centre (next to Vision Express and TG Jones).
