Dear St Joes,

Wow. This Sunday was pretty epic. Firstly, thanks to all who came and joined in with our Streets of Light workshop (even if just to have a coffee and hang out!) - I've seen some of the designs now up in windows around and about the place and they're looking so beautiful. Thank you for going with us on this. I know the Halloween stuff splits the room in terms of appeal, but our goal is to shine a light, however small, into the darkness in the world around us - and amongst the genuine good in some of the stuff that goes on at Halloween, there's an awful lot of darkness to shine into too.

My hope and prayer is that our own Streets of Light decorations will shine brighter and bring more joy and hope than all the other decorations down our street combined. If you've managed to put something up for Streets of Light, then my prayer is the same for you too. Go shine a light!

But let me also tell you about Sunday afternoon!

We had fifty-five children come and join us, alongside at least the same number of adults, for our annual Light Party and it was such a wonderful, beautiful atmosphere. So many of these kids have never been part of the church before and thanks to so many of you, we were able to give them a proper celebration of all things light. Thank you. We've even had someone get in touch about Christenings and a number of enquiries about coming along on a more regular basis. How amazing is that?!

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Boom.

Read on for news of the next few weeks, but in the meantime hear this once again: you are seen; you are known; you are loved. He's with you. Even when it gets dark.

Love ya!

Ben