St Mary’s Church, Mildenhall, used their growth fund to purchase books to give out to families over the Christmas period and other various crafts and activities and later into the new year.
“Anytime, Any place , Any prayer” books were given out to families at the Christmas Eve service and other services into the new year and were very well received. Continuing on the generosity from Christmas, the church ensured informal Fun and Faith all – age afternoons with practical activities carried on throughout the new year, some of which included planting a tree as part of prayer, and making a prayer tree.
There has been notable enthusiasm to take part in praying- for example, at a recent outdoors prayer session, time was taken to look at the creation around everyone and give thanks for three things you can see, two things you can hear and something you can smell. It led to a variety of conversations about faith and living it out every day.
The activities have also been brought back to the all-age morning services – with young people being encouraged to talk and reflect about what they’ve been doing. The congregation have been encouraged to pray every day- with a variety of seasonal reminders being given out – cards, bookmarks, stones and wooden hearts to name a few.
It is hoped there will be further involvement with the local school – there has already been discussion about possible prayer stations being set up. As well as this, it is also hoped that the church will be able to follow up with a new devotional book for the younger members and devotional books for teenagers as a Christmas/New year gift this year.
