Today we did an alternative Halloween event in our village. It was so simple: we gave an invitation to families to bring some food for the local foodbank and to take a free Halloween gift. Drop off. Pick up.

Also on offer were simple gifts for children to take and small bags of coffee for people to make a brew at home from our amazing Lighthouse freshly ground beans. We sought to be hospitable and Covid secure and safe as much as possible! This meant not doing anything that would cause people to ‘linger’ but being available for people if they needed to talk if they wanted to.

In the bag was a simple craft to do at home which included a jam jar, a round sticker, a dozen sticky stars, a pen and a candle. To accompany this we had these instructions:

We wanted to remind people of something positive and good, rather than tell them how bad Halloween is, or what they shouldn’t do! As I explained what we were doing to one lady she said that she felt like crying as it was such a good thing to encourage people to do!

This is the small craft for children to take away with them which each had a bible verse such as ‘be still and know that I am God…’

It was such a simple thing to do which seemed to bring people together, albeit outside and in small groups. Throughout the day despite the bad weather we had a steady trickle of people calling in and gentle reminders of some good news.