December 2020

Hello once again to you all. I cannot believe that we are halfway through December. With Christmas just around the corner and the prospect that for many Christmas will look and feel different this year, we hope that you are all able to keep your spirits up during this strange time.

As I sit here to write this, we are in the midst of packing ‘Christmas in a bag’, so surrounding me is enough stuff to pack somewhere in the region of 800 bags. My table and floor is covered with all sorts of stuff from Bible society books, Christmas biscuits, stickers, and various bits for craft ideas! The bags will be distributed later this week to various places across the Circuit to members who will use them within their communities. We may not be able to meet for the traditional Nativity services or carol concerts, but our hope is that the bags will allow people to experience the wonder and joy of the season in a different way.

In addition to the plethora of stuff for the bags is an array of knitted and sewn hearts plus several hosts of wonderful angels! We have been utterly overwhelmed by the response that we had to our request last month for angels and hearts. We want to thank everyone who has knitted or created hearts and angels, we are so touched by your generosity! Your kindness means that we can distribute these across our communities to many more people than we thought would be possible. The message of love will be spread across the Circuit this Christmas so thank you, thank you, thank you!

We have also managed to be present in the Galleries once again, although lurking outside the shop unit due to the current restrictions. We felt that it was important to be a visible presence at this very odd time just to say hello to people and to be on hand if anyone needs a chat. We are there two days a week, just for a couple of hours but we have already seen some of our regulars. In the New Year, hopefully we will be able to increase the time that we spend there. We are so blessed to be able to be in this space and see what will unfold. Our thanks to all those who support us in any way – we really appreciate it.

So, I will close now and get back to putting angels into bags whilst humming to Christmas songs! We trust that your Christmas will be peaceful and that you will be able to share time with your loved ones either in person or via the wonders of the internet. Our thoughts and good wishes are with you all.

Warm wishes from
Jenny, Heidi, and Alex.