Sunday morning and I’m on the streets. I’ve got a great team with lots of creative giveaways: cakes, bottles of water and juice, chocolate bars and a fair amount of booklets too of the life of Jesus. We’re meeting people and having fun!

As all this happens I’m painting with whoever who would like to join in. I call it the Peterborough Cross, but the idea originally came from a graduate of The Light Projects training, a gifted lady called Cat Hubbard. Here’s the process of painting it:   

        Towards the end of painting the picture a little girl stands by us and the painting and says: ‘I love your picture.’ And then runs off and plays in the fountains. Her comment landed on my heart and I felt God whisper to me that I should go and speak to her mum and offer the painting to her little girl. I wandered over to them and explained what I was doing and that, if she was in agreement, I would like to give the painting to her daughter. It turned out to be a difficult thing to explain as the little girls mum couldn’t speak much English. However, the girl did a great job at explaining my offer and in the midst of translating pleaded with her mum asking her to have the painting!  

The little girls mum kept on asking how much it would cost. She couldn’t get her head around the fact that it was for free! Once she agreed I walked back to the other end of the Cathedral Square to fetch it for the family. I wrote a simple message on the back: ‘May you always know God is with you and that he gave the gift of Jesus for you…’ Before I read the blessing out over the child she stood there and simply said: ‘my dad’s dead.’ A Heartbreakingly painful statement. She then spoke a little about her Dad and how she felt. 

The gift of this painting was without a shadow of a doubt for her. 
It was one of those mornings where God surprised me more than usual by leading me to a little girl and her family to bring a small gift of hope to those who needed it most. 

What humbled me the most was in the morning I decided not to do the painting idea as I was feeling a bit tired. Instead I would do something that had a bit less hassle and faff. But then I felt God say that I needed to do that which I had originally planned.

I am so pleased that I did.