Hope On The Streets

Story: Seraphin Nyirenda

Burngreave churches came together on 7th June alongside 200 Christians from across the city, as part of the nationwide ‘HOPE08’ initiative that is encouraging Christians to get out of their churches and clean up their local community.

The Messenger’s Seraphin Nyirenda spoke to The Rock Christian Centre’s Pastor Jon Watts about the day:

How many churches were there in the Hope 08 event?

We organised the day with representatives of the Rock Christian Centre, Christ Church Pitsmoor, St Peter’s Ellesmere and St Thomas Philadelphia (who work as the Red Team in Pitsmoor). I think in total there were about 25 or 30 churches from Sheffield represented on the day.

Can you tell us where in Burngreave you were working?

We had 28 different teams working in the area. We had a major focus around the Ellesmere area where we had a free bouncy castle for children and free arts-and-crafts tables. We also had a team conducting football with younger people and other sports and different games like parachutes.

There was a team working on the Carwood estate, clearing garden spaces with help from Green City Action, who also gave away free hanging baskets. We also worked as a team with Green City Action clearing some steps, just off Catherine Road.

We offered a free window-cleaning for the shops on Spital Hill. One team was giving away free cakes and others items near the Wicker Pharmacy. There was another team providing sport for the young people in Nottingham Cliff park. We also filled two big skips from litter-picking and collecting dumped rubbish.

Many people think that the church is a place where people meet on Sunday. Why do you think it’s important for Christians to do this work in the community?

First of all, church is nothing to do with the building. “Church”, to my mind, should always focus around people. Jesus didn’t locate himself in a building. He went out among the people. We believe the command to the church is not to stay in a building but to go out and transform people’s lives.

Hope 08 continues throughout the year across the country and further clean-up days are in the planning stages for next year.