Church Planting Report from Southall
Today, members of Grace Church Southall spent the afternoon working in and around the church building on Hortus Road, Kingston Road and Osterley Park Road, Southall. As we are in the Christmas season and preparing for Christmas services to be held this December, the church members got together to work. Here’s a brief report of what happened:
Time of prayer
The day began with a short time of prayer, asking the Lord to help us and those in the local neighbourhood. We read the following verses from the Bible together:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Most of those who attended today were between the ages of 25-30. I think it would be safe to say “youth”. The Scriptures remind us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. Therefore, it was a great joy for us to come together, in the prime of our youth to work.
Cleaning the building
The building in which the church meets is not small and it’s not big; it’s average sized. As with any building, it needs housekeeping on the inside as well as on the outside. The yard outside at the front usually collects and gathers a lot of rubbish from the street. Sometimes the wind blows it in and sometimes, we even find people deliberately dumping their rubbish for whatever reason. The back yard of the church is usually clean, apart from dead winter leaves and the toilets which need to be kept clean too.
Two of our members volunteered to help clean inside and outside the building in which the church meets. I must admit, they did a very good job too. It looked clean, smelled great and felt fresh. I’m looking forward to having our Christmas services. We thank the Lord for the building He has so graciously given to the church to meet in. We hope it reflects a good testimony in our neighbourhood.
Homeless man
On Tuesday night, when I arrived for Bible study, I noticed someone had used the entrance area of the church to make a temporary shelter to sleep in. They had used an old bed and mattress to protect them from the cold and an old carpet on the cold concrete floor to keep them warm. As predicted, it was a homeless person’s make-shift shelter, but they themselves were not there.
So we moved it aside and continued with our usual Bible study, until he walked into the church building. He told us he was an asylum seeker who had come to this country, looking for work and to make a better life for himself and his family. When his plans had failed, he was left with no choice but to sleep on the streets. It was sad for us to see this.
We invited him to keep warm using our gas lit heater, sit and listen to the Bible study, but he didn’t feel comfortable. He said he would meet us later but we never saw him again. Today, his shelter was still there. We cleaned it up and moved it aside again. We hope and pray to help him and see him again.
It is a timely reminder that there are desperate people in desperate situations even on our door-step in Southall. We need to do more to help.
Door-to-door Christmas invitations
On Sunday 23rd December at 11am, Grace Church Southall is holding a special Christmas service. Our desire is to invite all the locals on Hortus Road, Kingston Road and Osterley Park Road to come and hear the Bible’s Christmas message.
Whilst some members stayed behind and cleaned the building for the church to meet in, other members went knocking door-to-door each house on Hortus Road, Kingston Road and Osterley Park Road, inviting each person to our Christmas services. Praise God for the good weather, this certainly made it easier. Myself and a dear brother volunteered to knock on every door on Osterley Park Road and invite the locals. We met some very interesting people: some excited; some rejected; some not at home; some interested and some not interested.
For more information about the church planting work in Southall, click here.