SERVING OUR COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Christians have always been at the forefront of serving our communities at times of crisis. Many of our regular ministries cannot run at the moment but we can be good neighbours in so many ways.
We are organising our service around three areas which are basic to life:
PRAYER: Praying for our community and the wider world. See Worship & Prayer page for details of how to join in.
FOOD: Through our Make Lunch project delivering food bags to families and through our support of Rugby Food Bank. We are linked with the local council who are putting vulnerable people who can’t go shopping our way. If you are well and can help with that, please contact Anna Naish here to volunteer.
WATER: Through supporting a Christian Aid Project supplying safe water and hygiene kits to families in the developing world so that they can wash their hands safely. See below.
Make Lunch normally provides meals for families ‘to fill the holiday hunger gap’. At Easter, we delivered bags with food and activities to 30 families From Make Lunch and Messy Church. Since then, the Make Lunch volunteers have checked in with all those families by text or phone call each week and supported some of them with food bags when needed. We are now planning to deliver bags containing recipes and ingredients to make two family meals, together with activities for families to do together, on alternate weeks through the summer holiday.
Below are some thank you cards sent by familes who have received food bags from our Make Lunch project over recent weeks.
WATER KIT PROJECT
TOTAL SO FAR £2,170
Safe Water and Hygiene Kits.
£30 given to Christian Aid provides a Hygiene Kit and Safe Water to one family in the developing world to protect them from the virus. Imagine facing this virus without access to soap and water.
Text WATERKIT to 70085 to donate £10. Texts cost £10 plus one standard rate message.
BACS transfer to “m2o PCC” Sort Code: 40-39-11 A/C: 91478176. Please add reference WATER so we know what you intend it for.
Or send a cheque made out to ‘St Matthew & St Oswald’s PCC’ to Di Doyle, 23 Alfred Street, Rugby, CV21 2EL, and write “WATER” on the back.
How many families could we, as a church, keep safe?
UNIFORMED ORGANISATIONS
Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers
Beavers, Cubs, Scouts
Are all suspended at the moment.
But 8th Rugby Brownies latest project is this NHS montage. Thank you, girls!
Many of our community ministries are run in conjunction with other churches in Rugby through a church network called Revive. Projects include:
- Hope4 Nightshelter and day centre for the homeless. (meets in St Matthew & St Oswald’s on Thursday nights, Nov-March)
- Rugby Foodbank
- Street Pastors
- CAP Christians against Poverty